Sinema Club: sex-pos & LGBTQ+ film club: Arabian Nights (1974)

House of Scorpio

presents

Sinema Club: Arabian Nights (1974)

Wed Jan 15*, 7-11:30pm, 21+ (25+ suggested)

Main space: movie night, $0-$10 dep on membership level

Bar & lounge: HoS Clubhouse, $FREE***

Gemini & Scorpio Loft, 267 Douglass St, 3rd fl (ADA accessible)

Official info & house rules: http://www.houseofscorpio.com/events.html

Memberships & tix: http://www.houseofscorpio.com/membership.html (log in to buy)

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/973443141369438

FL: https://fetlife.com/events/1679265

PL: https://plra.io/m/sinema-club-sex-pos-and-lgbtq-film-club-arabian-n

Socials: @houseof_scorpio [producer] @gemini_scorpio [venue] #houseofscorpio

The body's largest sex organ is the brain. Sinema Club stimulates yours with films that are explicitly erotic, homo-romantic, or gender-exploring -- and always thought-provoking. A rousing discussion follows; drinking is encouraged throughout, and mingling happens before, during and after: the bar lounge remains open for socializing, while the film plays in the main space. Plus: free popcorn from our vintage cart. Order in from the many restaurants around, and make it dinner and a movie.

This month: Arabian Nights (1974)

Already internationally distinguished as a poet, novelist, and outspoken social critic by the time he turned to filmmaking around 1960, Pier Paolo Pasolini juxtaposed socio-political polemics with a graphic and critical examination of taboo sexual matters in the prolific 15-year span that ended abruptly with his unsolved abduction & murder in 1975. ARABIAN NIGHTS (1974) is the final part of his Trilogy of Life series, following THE DECAMERON (1971) and THE CANTERBURY TALES (1972). The locations - Yemen, Ethiopia, Iran and Nepal - form a luscious backdrop to tales of slaves, kings, potions, betrayals, demons and, most of all, love and lovemaking. Engrossing, mysterious, profound and liberating, this is an exquisitely dreamlike, sensuous and adult interpretation of the original folk tales -- but also a surprisingly modern and egalitarian one, reiterating in its various threads that noone’s body is anyone else’s property, and that is represents a secular sacredness in conflict with venal hypocrisy of the religious state and man-made social controls: a natural sexual innocence essential to the true nature of free humanity. The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or and won Grand Prize of the Jury at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.

The films in the trilogy were Pasolini's greatest commercial achievements, ironically spawning mindless sensualist copies that amounted to a commoditization of the body he had tried to deny in the first place. We will watch some scenes from one of these knock-offs, UBALDA ALL NAKED AND WARM (1972), allowing his philosphy and aesthetics to stand out all the more clearly.

Sinema Club is curated and hosted by Phil Guie-Ng (@thatphilguymovies): an inquisitive, ardent longtime film critic who is dying to tell you about movies you haven't heard of yet. As a reviewer at the website Film-Forward, his self-appointed mission was covering documentaries and features about subjects who challenged conventional attitudes about gender, masculinity, and more. When Phil isn't writing about movies, you can find him in Brooklyn taking part in protests on behalf of basic human rights.

*Sinema Club happens on the third Wednesday of every month

***Plus: House of Scorpio Clubhouse. Whatever your membership level, you are invited to use our space as your own for the night...as your clubhouse. While the ticketed activities will take place on the stage side of the room, the bar and lounge will remain open 7pm-11pm (12am if enough people are lounging). Just like with regular events, if you're Friend level and above, you can bring up to two friends with you. Order in dinner, have a few drinks, run a friendly board game, or just read a book on the comfy couch. This is not a mixer -- just us opening our doors for our members. It's up to you how much you socialize, if at all, and with whom.

COVID safety: HoS requires proof of vaccination on file; masks encouraged; two hospital grade UV air purifiers will cycle the air.