Terminal USA / Mysterious Skin
- This is a past program
Presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series A Film Series for You: Celebrating Giant Robot’s 30th Anniversary. Learn more at cinema.ucla.edu.
In-person: Q&A with Giant Robot founder Eric Nakamura and filmmaker Jon Moritsugu.
Terminal USA (1993)
Ultra-indie master Jon Moritsugu holds a prominent place in Giant Robot’s 1994 debut issue with a lengthy interview alongside a profile of the Japanese noise rock band Boredoms and an essay by Lynn Padlla on the politics of being asked “What are you?” Moritsugu directs his up-from-the-underground cinematic assaults (Der Elvis, Mod Fuck Explosion, Fame Whore) across wide swaths of brain dead American culture but this juxtaposition in GR #1 is particularly appropriate for his third feature Terminal USA about a deliriously dysfunctional Japanese American family that demolishes “model minority” stereotypes in their pursuit of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll.
DCP, color, 60 min. Director: Jon Moritsugu. Screenwriter: Jon Moritsugu. With: Jon Moritsugu, Amy Davis, Jenny Woo.
Mysterious Skin (2004)
Writer-director Gregg Araki and his young cast never take a wrong step in this powerful, sensitive and deeply moving story of sexual abuse and its long aftermath. Based on the novel by Scott Heim, the film follows two suburban boys, Neil and Brady, from childhood into young adulthood whose different responses to the predations of their little league coach set them on divergent paths until the need to remember and heal brings them back together. From its almost languorous pacing to its caressing close-ups and close attention to period details, the whole film feels like an act of care.
35mm, color, 105 min. Director: Gregg Araki. Screenwriter: Gregg Araki. With: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, Michelle Trachtenberg.
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