BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:icalendar-ruby
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
X-WR-CALNAME:Ganja & Hess - Spooky Cinema
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Mountain Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260810T141302Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_44562515349889
DTSTART:20231029T200000Z
DTEND:20231029T210000Z
DESCRIPTION:Part of Spooky Cinema Week! - Special intro by Skinner Myers!\n
 \n The story of Ganja & Hess is just as compelling a tale as the film itse
 lf. Written and directed by Bill Gunn\, and released in New York on 20 Apr
 il\, 1973\, the black vampire movie has lost none of its power over the pa
 st 50 years. It artfully depicts a wealthy anthropologist Dr Hess Green (D
 uane Jones)\, who is stabbed by his assistant George (Gunn) with an ancien
 t African ceremonial dagger before George kills himself. The dagger turns 
 Hess into a vampire\, and further complications ensue when George's widow 
 Ganja (Marlene Clark) comes to Hess' home looking for her husband\, and th
 e two fall hopelessly in love.\n\nThe film defies easy classification with
  its hallucinatory visuals\, rich metaphors for addiction\, raw sexuality 
 and lyrical dialogue that offers a wholly unique treatise on African-Ameri
 can identity. For the film critic and programmer Kelli Weston\, who recent
 ly co-programmed the In Dreams are Monsters season at London's British Fil
 m Institute\, which screened Ganja & Hess\, "the story has a quite classic
  structure for a horror film" and is founded on "the core premise of horro
 r cinema\, that what is repressed must always return". "But Ganja & Hess i
 s enlivened by these black characters and the tension between spirituality
 \, addiction and the predatory nature of empire\," she adds. "Hess faces a
  curse from another place that he's sort of tied to – there's a rupture 
 between black Americans and Africa\, but a sense of feeling always bound o
 r even haunted by it."\n\nWatching Ganja & Hess is like listening to an ex
 pertly conducted orchestra. Gunn pulls from the distinct talents of each m
 ember of his ensemble and across arthouse\, horror\, blaxploitation and be
 yond to create a unique sensibility that is heart-stoppingly gorgeous. Fro
 m the moment when Ganja and Hess marry\, their union juxtaposed with symbo
 ls of Christianity and African spirituality\, to the scene when Hess lovin
 gly curses her with the same vampiric affliction that has transformed him\
 , each frame radiates with meaning and is carefully composed like a Baroqu
 e oil painting. Amid the haziness of the 16mm cinematography\, black skin 
 lightly shimmers and crimson blood is preternaturally vivid. It's sexy\, c
 onfounding and deeply moving\, and watching it\, it seems to enter your bl
 oodstream\, moving gently through you and leaving you indelibly marked by 
 all the beauty and despair Gunn sees in the world.\n\n— Leila Latif\, BB
 C
LOCATION:Muenzinger Auditorium\, E050
SUMMARY:Ganja & Hess - Spooky Cinema
URL;VALUE=URI:https://calendar.colorado.edu/event/ganja_hess_-_spooky_cinem
 a
CATEGORIES:Film
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR