Bad Night

This Thursday we invite you to a screening of a debut film that became a classic of independent cinema. “Mala Noche”(1985) by Gus Van Sant, based on the autobiographical novella by poet Walt Curtis. The film became one of the early milestones of American queer cinema of the 1980s.

The story unfolds in Portland. The protagonist, Walt, a young clerk in a small shop, is obsessively in love with a Mexican teenage migrant named Johnny, who barely speaks English and does not return his feelings. This is not a story about romantic love, but about obsession, projection, and the impossibility of being heard.

Shot on 16mm film in an almost documentary style, its black-and-white aesthetics emphasize the sense of marginality, poverty, and inner isolation of the characters.

The film marked an important step in the emergence of Gus Van Sant as a director and foreshadowed his later interest in marginal characters and vulnerable communities — themes that would reappear in My Own Private Idaho.

Join us for a screening and discussion of the film, which won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Independent Film.

The series of screenings and discussions of famous directors’ debuts is hosted by Nikita Kulikov @coolikovnick — journalist, filmmaker, and MFA graduate in Film and Television.