Événement

Unstoppable Feat: The Dances of Ed Mock

Dirty Looks On Location is thrilled to premiere the debut feature film by prolific artist, choreographer, punk musician, writer and filmmaker Brontez Purnell. UNSTOPPABLE FEAT surveys the life of Ed Mock, a Black, queer dancer, teacher and choreographer from San Francisco who died of AIDS in 1986. Director Brontez Purnell states, I believe Ed Mock is the missing choreographic link between Alvin Ailey, Anna Halprin, and Bill T. Jones. He is my direct predecessor, creatively. We artists, black queers, Bay Area dancers, gay men - have to extract our collective past and create the historical record. Through newly re-created choreographies, archival research, interviews and film, UNSTOPPABLE FEAT resurfaces hidden performance art histories that intersect with the Radical Black movement and the AIDS crisis.

Brontez Purnell is an Oakland-based black gay filmmaker, musician, dancer, and writer. He is the author of the cult zine Fag School, frontman for the band the Younger Lovers, and the founder and choreographer of the Brontez Purnell Dance Company. He is also the author of the seminal zine FAG SCHOOL, JOHNNY WOULD YOU LOVE ME IF MY DICK WERE BIGGER, SINCE I LAID MY BURDEN DOWN and the forthcoming 100 BOYFRIENDS.

Downtown Independent opened as the Linda Lae Theater in 1945. Today it is a one-screen movie house that primarily shows independent films.