Coming Soon
TRIBULATION 99 + THE MCPHERSON TAPE
1991/1989
Director
Craig Baldwin
Dean Alioto
Starring
Runtime
114 minutes
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Select Showtimes
TRIBULATION 99 (1991, 48 minutes, 16mm)
The propagandist’s art consists of a kernel of truth stirred into a stew of lies. Bay Area found footage maestro Craig Baldwin exposes and critiques the aesthetics of misinformation by messing with the ratios, seasoning heavy helpings of historical facts with a little pure crazy. Drawing on a wealth of fiction and nonfiction images spanning a spectrum from the professionally reputable to the cheapest grindhouse, TRIBULATION 99 weaves an alternate history of the Cold War and neocolonialism featuring all the usual players — the CIA, United Fruit Company, Howard Hunt, Ronald Reagan, Augusto Pinochet, et al. — working in cahoots with or under the control of a lesser-known villain: refugee space aliens living in Earth’s hollow center. The vast cosmic conspiracy is laid out by a gravelly voiced narrator over a montage moving at a velocity designed to overwhelm reason. Between real and unreal, Baldwin elevates a messianic, apocalyptic through line driving history gratefully toward an ultimate doom.
THE MCPHERSON TAPE (1989, 63 minutes, digital)
A decade before THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT redefined the horror landscape, there was THE MCPHERSON TAPE. On October 8th, 1983, the McPherson family gathered together to celebrate the 5th birthday of Michelle, the littlest member of their household. Everything was captured on VHS by Michael McPherson and his new camcorder. Including the alien invasion. Shot for $6000 by first-time filmmaker Dean Alioto in 1989, this movie blends the production design of a Jaycees haunted house with a dead serious tone to forge a fun, hypnotic nightmare that upends the concept of reality. Due to a warehouse fire at the original distribution company, THE MCPHERSON TAPE was never legitimately released. But AGFA and Bleeding Skull! have rescued this important milestone from the flames.
The propagandist’s art consists of a kernel of truth stirred into a stew of lies. Bay Area found footage maestro Craig Baldwin exposes and critiques the aesthetics of misinformation by messing with the ratios, seasoning heavy helpings of historical facts with a little pure crazy. Drawing on a wealth of fiction and nonfiction images spanning a spectrum from the professionally reputable to the cheapest grindhouse, TRIBULATION 99 weaves an alternate history of the Cold War and neocolonialism featuring all the usual players — the CIA, United Fruit Company, Howard Hunt, Ronald Reagan, Augusto Pinochet, et al. — working in cahoots with or under the control of a lesser-known villain: refugee space aliens living in Earth’s hollow center. The vast cosmic conspiracy is laid out by a gravelly voiced narrator over a montage moving at a velocity designed to overwhelm reason. Between real and unreal, Baldwin elevates a messianic, apocalyptic through line driving history gratefully toward an ultimate doom.
THE MCPHERSON TAPE (1989, 63 minutes, digital)
A decade before THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT redefined the horror landscape, there was THE MCPHERSON TAPE. On October 8th, 1983, the McPherson family gathered together to celebrate the 5th birthday of Michelle, the littlest member of their household. Everything was captured on VHS by Michael McPherson and his new camcorder. Including the alien invasion. Shot for $6000 by first-time filmmaker Dean Alioto in 1989, this movie blends the production design of a Jaycees haunted house with a dead serious tone to forge a fun, hypnotic nightmare that upends the concept of reality. Due to a warehouse fire at the original distribution company, THE MCPHERSON TAPE was never legitimately released. But AGFA and Bleeding Skull! have rescued this important milestone from the flames.