What some call trash cinema exists along the mocking margins of mainstream culture, indifferent to convention, attracting more ire than admiration. Often these films are marked by wretched acting, inconceivable concepts, perforated plotlines, and rude craft. But trash cinema is also a source of great pleasure, thriving on a need to entertain, to bemuse, arouse, or horrify. However these films are defined ("trash," "cult," "exploitation"), there is no doubt they have led us down strange pathways, some darkly lit, some blood-splattered.
-Steve Seid
Born to Be Bad is offered in conjunction with a two-day international conference honoring trash films and their exhibition, promotion, and collection. Held on the UC Berkeley campus, the conference will feature presentations on sexploitation, New York underground trash, sleazy riders, Italian nunsploitation, and countless other sub–genres. Special guests include Eric Schaefer, Stephanie Rothman, Xavier Mendik, and Linda Williams.
The conference takes place Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19 in the Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall. For information, please contact conference organizer Tamao Nakahara at: tamao@socrates.berkeley.edu
A complete conference schedule will be posted at: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~tamao/Trash.htmOrganized by the Graduate Film Working Group, the conference is made possible with generous contributions from the Film Studies Program, ASUC, Consortium for the Arts, and the Italian Studies Department.
Each film program will be accompanied by trashy trailers from the collection of Joel Shepard, Film/Video Curator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and certified sexologist.
