7–9pm: Music set by special guest Henry Rollins
Screening of Underground Forces starts at 9pm

Years before the birth of MTV, artist Joe Rees and his organization Target Video began taping and editing what would become some of the first conceptually and aesthetically driven music videos. In conjunction with the J. Paul Getty Museum’s exhibition California Video, MOCA presents a special outdoor screening of a two–hour Target Video program Underground Forces, featuring rare footage of west coast punk and New Wave bands, their east coast and European counterparts, and a healthy sampling of the artists, musicians, and fans that populated California’s underground scene in the late-1970s and early ‘80s. The show includes Target Video’s creative montages and performances by the Avengers, Bad Brains, Bauhaus, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, The Cramps, Dead Kennedys, Devo, The Dils, Flipper, The Germs, The Gun Club, Johanna Went, the Mutants, Negative Trend, the Plugz, the Ramones, the Screamers, SRL, X, and the Weirdos, among others.

Lawrence Weiner began in the 1960s to create works that were central to the ongoing debate regarding the nature and meaning of art. He has defined art as “the relationship of human beings to objects and objects to objects in relation to human beings,” and that premise remains at the core of his work. Weiner’s oeuvre of film and video works broadens his ongoing interest in the relationship between object and viewer by adding the semantics of cinema to provide another facet to his investigation. PASSAGE TO THE NORTH and PLOWMANS LUNCH (shot in Amsterdam) are two companion pieces that explore what happens when objects, and people, are moved from one place to another. HEARTS AND HELICOPTERS—THE TRILOGY continues the themes of role and game-playing, and the use of language.

PASSAGE TO THE NORTH (1981, 16 min., 16mm film, color, sound); PLOWMANS LUNCH (1982, 28 min., 16mm film, color, sound); HEARTS AND HELICOPTERS—THE TRILOGY (1999, 51 min., video, color, sound)

Selected by Edgar Arceneaux

Los Angeles–based artist Edgar Arceneaux’s work often involves complex explorations of cultural legacies and the traces that they leave behind. For this evening’s viewing, Arceneaux has created a mash-up of two closely related films in collaboration with DJ and musician Nattu Coleman. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (Michel Gondry, 2005, rated R) is a festive celebration of music, comedy, history, and community, taking place in Brooklyn and featuring top acts like Kanye West, Mos Def, Jill Scott, and the Fugees, among others. Wattstax, (Mel Stuart, 1973) which partially inspired Block Party, is a film documenting the 1972 Watts Summer Festival, a sold-out, day-long concert that took place seven years after the historic Watts riots. The festival featured important artists of the period—such as Isaac Hayes, Rufus Thomas, the Bar Kays, and the Staple Singers—and included commentary by African Americans on the state of the Watts community. Both films show the power of comedy to deal with the politics of its time—comedian Dave Chappelle is the catalyst for Block Party, while comedian Richard Pryor plays a key role in Wattstax. (Total running time: approx. 120 min.)

Selected by Edward Ruscha

In a well-known photograph, Edward Ruscha and Joe Goode are seen riding horses in Western gear. Ruscha has said that the image is a spoof of the two artists’ own roots in Nebraska and Oklahoma; while both grew up in those places, neither actually learned to ride horses while he was there. The Ox-Bow Incident (William Wellman, 1943, 75 min.) is a critically acclaimed Western drama, based on an actual incident that happened in Montana in the 1880s. Henry Fonda and Harry Morgan star as two drifters who wander into town just after a farmer has been murdered and his cattle stolen. They join a posse to catch the perpetrators, and a gripping tale of vigilante justice and mob mentality unfolds.

Selected by Larry Clark

Widely regarded as one of the most important and influential American photographers of his generation, Larry Clark is known for both his raw and contentious photographs and his controversial films focusing on teen sexuality, violence, and drug use. Clark burst into public consciousness with his landmark book Tulsa in 1971, and directed the groundbreaking film Kids in 1995. Los Muertos (Lisandro Alonso, 2004, 82 min.) is a haunting film from Argentina in which a 54-year-old man, freshly out of jail, goes on a long journey through deep swamp and jungle territory in order to find his now-adult daughter. Highly atmospheric, the film has an unexpected ending that leaves viewers with more questions than answers.

Selected by Amy Adler

Amy Adler’s work explores the interplay between a life lived on and off screen. She has worked directly with such well-known figures as Leonardo DiCaprio and Joni Mitchell to create bodies of work that question both the origin and the power of media-generated imagery and its effect on the creation of personal identity. Brother Sun, Sister Moon (Franco Zeffirelli, 1972, 121 min.) is a fictional biopic covering key events in the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Returning ill from war, the wealthy Francesco Bernardone undergoes a spiritual epiphany, renouncing his materialistic ways in favor of a contemplative life.