Directed by Gus Van Sant • 1985 • United States
Starring Tim Streeter, Doug Cooeyate, Ray Monge
With its low budget and lush black-and-white imagery, Gus Van Sant’s debut feature MALA NOCHE heralded an idiosyncratic, provocative new voice in American independent film. Set in Van Sant’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, the film evokes a world of transient workers, dead-end day-shifters, and bars and seedy apartments bathed in a profound nighttime, as it follows a romantic deadbeat with a wayward crush on a handsome Mexican immigrant. MALA NOCHE was an important prelude to the New Queer Cinema of the nineties and is a fascinating capsule from a time and place that continues to haunt its director’s work.
Up Next in Microbudget Movies
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Border Radio
Directed by Allison Anders, Dean Lent, and Kurt Voss • 1987 • United States
Starring Chris D., Luanna Anders, John DoeBefore carving out a niche as one of the most distinct voices in nineties American cinema, Allison Anders made her debut, alongside codirectors and fellow UCLA film school stude...
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Slacker
Directed by Richard Linklater • 1991 • United States
Starring Richard Linklater, Kathy McCarty, Rudy BasquezSLACKER, directed by Richard Linklater, presents a day in the life of a loose-knit Austin, Texas, subculture populated by eccentric and overeducated young people. Shooting on 16 mm for a ...
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Man Bites Dog
Directed by Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, and Benoit Poelvoorde • 1992 • France
Starring Benoit Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux, André BonzelDocumentary filmmakers André and Rémy have found an ideal subject in Ben. He is witty, sophisticated, intelligent, well liked—and a serial killer. As André and Rém...
