With Mark Ellinger.
Ainslie Pryor in two miniature dramas, utilizing wind sound effects, canned laughter and "I Love Lucy" lighting.
16mm, b&w/so, 13m, $35
Thanks to Mark Ellinger.
An hour-long saga of Mick Terrific, rock 'n' roll star, and the cast of 50 he encounters on his search for "Mr. Wonderful."
"PEED INTO THE WIND smears across the screen like one of those dirty underground comic books. It's loaded with a lot of big scenes and unusual looking people that make this epic resemble a clogged toilet. Unfortunately, since several of the performers were not as loyal as Ainslie Pryor and John Thomas, the plot is difficult to follow but in no way hinders the sewer-like sequences. It's quite enjoyable and possesses the releasing power of an enema." - George Kuchar
"A real gut-punch. It'll have you puking in the aisles." - Mike Kuchar
My life story.
16mm, b&w/so, 60m, $135
Starring the tasteless trio: Ainslie Pryor, John Thomas and Curt McDowell.
"A wonderful example of his interest in Motion Picture plots that grip you, but go nowhere, and end seemingly at random." - George Kuchar
Exhibition: Museum of Modern Art, NY.
16mm, b&w/so, 16m, $45
Muffled, inaudible sound and no image to speak of make this one a real crowd pleaser.
16mm, b&w/so, 4m, $20
Ted Davis is everyone's favorite Master of Ceremonies for the following performances: Peckernose Act; The Cooking and the Washing Act; Spin Your Little Clothes Off Act; Tea Break; The Spinning Nuns; Balancing Prick Act; The Dirty Hummers; Spanish Dancer Act; The Whora; Picking a Winner; The Poop Chute Act; Waiting and Worrying Nude Act; The Tapping Tennies; The Disappearing Milk and Sandwich Act; The Flower Magician; Fart Chorus; The Whirlwinds; The Paper Bags on the Heads Act; The Belly Dance; Cheek to Cheek; Head Job Act; Tweeting Prick Act; Fanny Dancer; Back Words Act; Betsy the Cussing Doll; And ... The Singing Twat.
"PORNOGRAFOLLIES is a musical of sorts, a bisexual scatological revue full of bad jokes, good humor, and a general content that I could not begin to describe here. PORNOGRAFOLLIES achieves a kind of slapdash surrealism." - The New York Times
1970, 16mm, b&w/so, 30m, $90
"... it is not only very funny, but perfectly designed to satirize the Midwestern life style. The film may be no more than a sound track, but even if you listen with your eyes closed, you should enjoy it." - LA Free Press
"A powerful, controversial film for discussion in senior high school language arts and social studies classes and college courses in sociology and psychology. Also for public library film programs and loan to groups interested in films heavy with social comment. Ages 16 to adult." - The Booklist, American Library Association
1970, 16mm, color/so, 10m, $30
"Just as outrageous is Curt McDowell's CONFESSIONS. McDowell, a graduate student at San Francisco Art Institute, opens his film with a confession to his mother and father, listing in exhausting detail his sins of the flesh."
1971, 16mm, b&w/so, 16m, $45
Starring Mark Ellinger, Curt McDowell and Janey Sneed Ellinger as "the nun."
A little talent show.
1972, 16mm, b&w/so, 6m, $20
A vehicle for the talented Mrs. Kathleen Hohalek, as the tenant of the Pyramid Penthouse, with George Kuchar and Bob Hohalek as the burglars, "Slug," and "Boom Boom," John Thomas as "the Cooper" and Ainslie Pryor as "the maid."
"Mrs. Hohalek is obviously tone-deaf." - Anonymous
1973, 16mm, color/so, 10m, $30
(A Musical for the Whole Family) by McDowell and Ellinger.
A rural operetta starring Ainslie Pryor and George Kuchar, told through song and rhyme.
"I was glad to see Curt McDowell's BOGGY DEPOT win an award, since it was the funniest film in the festival, an off-key musical parody of West Side Story ...." - Michigan Daily
"In BOGGY DEPOT, Curt McDowell and Mark Ellinger, aided by lampooned ballads and broad, properly hammy acting, mercilessly rib the romantic musical genre." - The New York Times
1974, 16mm, b&w/so, 17m, $50
"... WORDS was a Curt McDowell work covering the gamut of cinematic profanity."
1974, 16mm, b&w/so, 3m, $20
The film that caused Sheri Milbradt to lose 40 pounds. "... a psychological comedy - a bizarre satire on works like Polanski's Repulsion." - Michigan Daily
1974, 16mm, b&w/so, 4m, $20
A real and favorite dream of mine, preserved on film to be relived over and over.
Awards: Third Place, Ann Arbor Film Festival, 1974
1974, 16mm, b&w/so, 17m, $50
Ainslie Pryor and Curt McDowell as Starlet and director.
"The ubiquitous Curt McDowell was represented once again by a humorous little ditty called FLY ME TO THE MOON. McDowell satirizes just how far people will go to accommodate 'artistic inspiration.' A true comedic gem." - Michigan Daily
1975, 16mm, b&w/so, 7m, $25
"Curt McDowell's NUDES (A SKETCHBOOK) is a paean to the filmmaker's closest friends: a series of portraits (beginning with one of George Kuchar) based on stylized, often graphically sexual interpretations of his or her personality. My favorites are 'Barbara,' a pre-Raphaelite vision of woman and 'Ainslie,' a musical spoof on glamour. The filmmaker's point of view ranges from compulsively erotic to light-hearted and self-debunking. A broad reading of the term 'romantic' would probably best describe the spectrum of extreme, even outrageous, possibilities which Curt embraces in this sketchbook/film." - Karen Cooper, Film Forum
"What is interesting about the film is how each vignette constitutes a small, coherent narrative and thrusts a certain psychological characterization on the figure it examines .... McDowell's irony is submerged and gentle, and NUDES constitutes a highly ambiguous (and fundamentally male) catalogue of sexual probabilities." - Lucy Fischer, The Soho Weeky News
"I was very proud of him - he's finally made a film - NUDES - it's the first film of his with any real feeling for his subject. That's the one - it's the most personal, the one I'd like to see again." - James Broughton
1975, 16mm, b&w/so, 30m, $90
"San Francisco-based Curt McDowell has always been a pioneer in sexual frankness, but his new film, LOADS, goes far beyond his earlier all-out efforts and puts such big-time dabblers in eroticism as Bernardo Bertolucci and Nagisa Oshima decidedly in the shade." - David Ehrenstein, Los Angeles Herald Examiner
1980, 16mm, b&w/so, 22m, $65