American feminist film-maker ANNA BILLER is a true auteur. Writer, producer, director, actor, musician and art director. When we showed her sexploitation feature, VIVA, earlier in the year, it was one of our most controversial nights. Tonight we show Anna's short films, and she joins us in conversation from Hollywood (via the miracle of Skype).

ANNA BILLER

Anna Biller is an artist and filmmaker living in Los Angeles. She has completed a number of short films, including the acclaimed horror-western short "A Visit from the Incubus," as well as several full-length stage musicals. Her work has shown at numerous film festivals and art spaces around the world. and has been reviewed in many presitgious publications. She is known for her use of film genres, humor, the burlesque, and visual excess to talk about female roles within culture, and for her colorful stylized sets and costumes, which she creates herself.

SHORT FILMS

Tonight we'll be showing three of Anna's short films:

Lucy, (Anna Biller) a young Victorian woman in the Old West, is being tormented by nightly visits from an incubus (a horrible demon who has sexual intercourse with sleeping women). Her friend Madeleine tries to console her, but is unable to help. A fallen woman, Lucy gets a job singing at the local saloon. However, the Incubus has followed her there; and things take an unexpected turn as Lucy and the Incubus, amidst the rowdy cowboys and saucy can-can girls, have their final showdown. With beautiful period costumes and sets by director Anna Biller that are borrowed from 1950's Technicolor films, plus big hairdos, weird musical numbers, and plenty of great character actors, this Horror-Western-Musical has all of the elements of a cult classic.

This short film is adapted from Madame d'Aulnoy's clasic fairy tale, The White Cat. The White Cat was originally planned as a feature film musical which Anna Biller worked on over a period of a couple of years, creating an original soundtrack, over a hundred costumes, many props, and a children's book. Eventually, realizing it was a bit unconventional and expensive to raise the proper funding for, she instead adapted it for the stage with a cast of eight performers, and called the new version The Lady Cat. This play was staged at a few underground theaters in Los Angeles, and later Fairy Ballet, a scene from the film, was filmed as a test for the motion picture. The White Cat was an ambitious project, in the style of symbolist-decadent poetry and plays, adding in influences from the American music hall and vaudeville.