Director Coke Sams – 1999 USA 94 min – IndieFest 2000 program note:
The future: Jesse Helms and Bob Dornan are revered as gods, morality is state-mandated, and creativity is repressed. And a rag tag band of art revolutionaries, led by performance artist Existo, wage a guerrilla war for perversity, expression, drugs, and the American Way.
Existo (Bruce Arntson): performer, entertainer, propagandist, “most dangerous man in America,”and the chosen one who can lead his people to the promised land of chaos and revolution–with his face in the soup and a song in his heart.
Revolutionary headquarters: “The Sewer”–an undergound nightclub. Existo’s apostles are artists, queers, club kids, and leftists–the disenfranchised, the eccentric, and the somewhat insane.
Their weapon against repression: Art.
Existo’s nemesis: Dr. Armand Glasscock (Mike Montgomery), his rise to supreme power through televangelism brings ever closer the elimination of America’s “art menace.” His only stumbling block is Existo–whose perverse sense of rhythm, politics, and performance art have engaged a growing segment of the population.
The good doctor’s conclusion: Existo must be stopped.
EXISTO: A subversive musical comedy about love, art, and anarchy. –Kathleen P. Skillicorn, SF IndieFest
ABOUT INDIEFEST Year Two
Dates: January 6-14, 2000
Venues: Victoria, Lumiere, Fine Arts Cinema
Features: 19 Shorts: 18 Parties: 7 Bands: 3 Total Films: 37 Total Films To Date: 55.
With: Jeff Ross, Kathy Skillicorn, Eric Singer, Jon Blaustein, Dan Rodenburg, Alicia Perre-Dowd, Ninfa Dawson, Jason Sanders, Tod Booth, Kara Knafelc, Marlene Friis, Lynn Coakley, Trina Ross
Sponsors: Bay Guardian, Tower Records, Cineric, Landmark Theaters, Hotel Bijou, Dema, Lost Weekend Video, Foreign Cinema, Rainbow Grocery, Insound, Bagdad Cafe, Academy of Art College, IFILM, sfstation.com, Sierra Nevada
NOTES: Opening Night Party at Foreign Cinema. Added animated shorts before each feature. Added East Bay venue. First party at Jezebel’s Joint.