A fascinating introduction to the world of Trash cinema.
This April, the BFI is home to a brand new season ‘Trash! The Wildest Films You’ve Ever Seen’. Archivist William Fowler and BFI programmer Justin Johnson have curated a
wonderfully varied roster showcasing the campest, sexiest and trashiest of 20th century cinema. The season will begin with Paul Morrissey’s ‘Trash’ (1970) showing on Thursday 9th April and will close with two shorts ‘I Was A Teenage Serial Killer’ by Sarah Jacobson and ‘A Family Finds Entertainment’ by Ryan Trecartin showing on the 24th and 27th of April. On the 1st of April, the collection was kicked off with an introduction by its curators along with
three prevalent film scholars, critics and writers: Elena Gorfinkel, Helen de Witt and Dominic Johnson.
We began with the question ‘how do we define Trash cinema?’ The panel discussed genre, with films spanning horror, comedy, melodrama, pornography and queerness. The defining elements of Trash though, have much more to do with circumstance. The Trash-ness of a film is in its low budget, home-video style reality. These films are made by individuals, groups of friends, transgressives, punks in their own homes and cities, using what they have and revelling in its strangeness. They reclaim their ‘Trash’ label in their camp, bizarre
commitment to the filmmaking cause. A big takeaway of this discussion: ‘No one sets out to make a bad movie’. These filmmakers knew their budget and their resources, and they knew their films wouldn’t ever be consumed in the mainstream; therein lies the joy. They are
starkly aware of their ‘Trash’ and they love it. They are often a harshly real depiction of
marginalised identities, non-normative desires, unglamorised sex, drugs and vulgarity. As Fowler noted ‘The audience is confronted with more than just the maker’s intention’. We lose the layers of production, construction and merchandising and are left with what 1960’s ‘tastes’ would label ‘Trash’.
Justin Johnson showed a clip of John Waters’ ‘Pink Flamingos’ starring Edith Massey and Divine. Although known for its increasingly ‘revolting’ scenes and taglined ‘An exercise in poor taste’, we saw a charmingly strange scene between Edie and The Egg Man. Johnson noted the fascination in the everyday, taking it to surreal lengths through melodramatic script and peculiar performances. De Witt’s clip was from George Kuchar’s short ‘I, An Actress’ in which the filmmaker directs his student in a screen test, hijacking it and making for a hilariously hysterical short film. De Witt noted how the actor’s pleasure and excess in performance produces pleasure for the audience, another trademark of the ‘Trash’ genre. Gorfinkel chose a scene from better known ‘Trash’ by Paul Morrissey, starring Warhol
superstars Joe Delissandro and pioneering trans actress Holly Woodlawn, who George
Cukar suggested should have been nominated for an Oscar. It’s funny, eccentric and starkly confrontational of social conditions and the life of the ‘outcast’. Dominic Johnson showed ‘Super 8 1/2’ by Bruce LaBruce, a mockumentary style film about himself. LaBruce called the film a ‘Bruce-ploitation movie’, and through it blurred the lines between arthouse film and pornography. Johnson noted how LaBruce was often labeled ‘too arty for porn’ and yet ‘too pornographic’ to be widely successful in film. The clips were all captivating, and the panel’s analysis was thoroughly engaging and thought-provoking.
The evening was an eye-opening and intriguing introduction into the world of Trash cinema and I would strongly recommend a visit to the BFI during the season to take in some yourself. I certainly will be.
Trash! The Wildest Films You’ve Ever Seen runs at BFI Southbank until 30th April. Tickets here.