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<strong><em>Sex Jack</em> (1970) + <em>Man Eater Mountain</em> (2008)</strong>
<strong>Plus discussion with Julian Ross, Jasper Sharp</strong>

7pm (films at 7.30pm), Tuesday 15 November 2011
<a href="http://www.thehorsehospital.com/now/electric-sheep-strange-attractor-sex-jack/" target="_blank">The Horse Hospital</a>, 1 Colonnade, London WC1N 1JD
Tickets £6/£4 / <em><a href="http://www.wegottickets.com/event/139969" target="_blank">WeGotTickets</a></em>

<em>Electric Sheep</em> and Strange Attractor present a screening of <strong><em>Sex Jack</em></strong> (1970, 69 mins), directed by yakuza-turned-filmmaker Kôji Wakamatsu and written by his politically engaged acolyte Masao Adachi. Set against the background of the 60s Japanese student movement, it follows a group of young revolutionaries who take refuge in the flat of a stranger. Screened at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at the 1971 Cannes festival, it remains one of Wakamatsu’s most striking works.

Wakamatsu and Adachi chose to work in the pink film (soft porn) industry as a way of ensuring financial independence and artistic freedom, and <em>Sex Jack</em> offers a typically radical mix of sex and politics. Denouncing both government repression and the apathy of the revolutionary movement, the film paints a disillusioned picture of collective action, ultimately suggesting that liberation from all shackles can only come from individual action. <em>With thanks to the French-based international label Dissidenz, which has recently released three Kôji Wakamatsu DVD box-sets.</em>

<em>Sex Jack</em> will be preceded by the black and white animated tale <strong><em>Man-Eater Mountain</em></strong> (dir Naoyuki Niiya, 2008, 28 mins), which uses paper theatre to tell a gruesome folk tale. A couple of police inspectors and their guide take a serial killer to the mountains to find the bodies of his victims, but soon they face the demons that reside there. Both beautifully atmospheric and hellishly nightmarish, it has Bosch-like visions of blood-sucking trees, impaled animals, bodies torn apart or eaten by demons. <em>Man-Eater Mountain is presented by Zipangu Fest, the first UK-wide festival devoted to Japanese film, which runs from 18 to 24 November.</em>

The films will be followed by a talk with <strong>Jasper Sharp</strong>, author of <em>Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema</em>, director of Zipangu Fest and co-editor of the Japanese cinema website Midnight Eye, and <strong>Julian Ross</strong>, commissioning editor at <em>Vertigo Magazine</em> and programme coordinator for the Theatre Scorpio season at Close-Up Film Centre and the Art Theatre Guild season at the BFI Southbank in July-August 2011. The talk will be hosted by <em>Electric Sheep</em> editor Virginie Sélavy.

<strong><em>
Doors at 7pm, film at 7:30pm, talk at 9:30pm.\
</em></strong><strong><em>Full details on the <a href="http://www.thehorsehospital.com/now/electric-sheep-strange-attractor-sex-jack/" target="_blank">Horse Hospital website</a>.
</em></strong><strong><em>Buy tickets from <a href="http://www.wegottickets.com/event/139969" target="_blank">WeGotTickets</a>.</em></strong>