Abel Ferrara has long made a career of making indie films set in worlds he knew and interested him: dark, gritty stories filled with deranged, low-life characters that engaged in bad, dangerous behavior. The American Cinematheque will honor this maverick director with a week-long screening of seventeen of his highly provocative films from June 9th to 15th at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica and Los Feliz 3 in Los Angeles. This event will feature Ferrara in person for a discussion as well a concert performed by the seventy-one year old filmmaker and his band Flyz.
Much like his fellow New York filmmaker, Martin Scorsese, Ferrara's work would be heavily influenced by his Catholic upbringing. He studied at the San Francisco Art Institute with one of his teachers was avant-garde director Rosa von Praunheim. Ferrara scraped together funds to make several short films before making his first feature, a porno called "9 Lives of a Wet Pussy" under the name, "Jimmy Boy L" and starred his then-girlfriend in 1976. The resourceful filmmaker followed that up with a couple of low-budget yet artful slasher films, "The Driller Killer" and "Ms .45".
Ferrara's breakthrough was in 1984 with the neo-noir, erotic thriller, "Fear City" that featured Tom Berenger, Melanie Griffith and Billy Dee Williams. This lead to him connecting with Michael Mann and directing the pilot of the now-cult television series, "Crime Story" and a couple of episodes of "Miami Vice".
In 1990, Ferrara directed the crime drama, "King of New York" with Christopher Walken, Laurence Fishburne and Wesley Snipes which earned him critical praise and the film would become a cult classic. He followed this with "Bad Lieutenant" which starred Harvey Keitel as a NYPD lieutenant who becomes entwined with the criminal element he's supposed to be trying to stop. Ferrara went on to receive award recognition and another controversial film (originally rated NC-17) that later achieved cult status.
Hollywood courted him but he only managed to make two studio films; "Body Snatchers", a 1993 remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "Dangerous Game", a Hollywood-set drama with Keitel and Madonna.
Other film highlights that will be screened include "The Addiction", "New Rose Hotel", "Mary", "Go Go Tales", "4:44 Last Day on Earth", "Welcome to New York", "Tommaso", "Siberia", "Zeros and Ones" and Ferrara's latest, "Padre Pio" from 2022 which is currently in theatrical release in the US.
Please click below for the complete list of films, to purchase tickets and additional information:
American Cinematheque: Abel Ferrara Retrospective
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