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Still from "Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore" (1998) Dir. Sarah Jacobson
Screenings

I Was a Teenage Serial Killer / Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore / Limbo

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The UCLA Film & Television Archive presents classic film and contemporary cinema each weekend in the Hammer's Billy Wilder Theater. Archive tickets are $9 general admission and free for UCLA students.

This trio of 1990s DIY films is part of the series Catch a Thrill! Celebrating 10 Years of the American Genre Film Archive

I Was a Teenage Serial Killer

Inspired by underground cinema, record labels and 'zine culture, director and screenwriter Sarah Jacobson was a one-woman 1990s DIY powerhouse. Taking on every major function from production through distribution, Jacobson’s brash, can-do attitude shone through her on-screen work and beyond. In her short life, Jacobson found fans among other female culture-shifting titans Allison Anders, Tamra Davis and Kim Gordon. These films stand as a testament to her vision, grit, determination, and raw talent.

I Was a Teenage Serial Killer was produced with the encouragement of filmmaker George Kuchar (Hold Me While I’m Naked, 1966), who was Jacobson’s instructor at San Francisco Institute of the Arts. Like Slacker meets Valerie Solanas, the film depicts a 19-year-old woman who responds to catcalls, condescension and bad sex the only way she knows how—with murder. (1993, dir. Sarah Jacobson, DCP, black and white, 27 min.)

Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore

Sarah Jacobson's only feature film is a vibrant and vital antidote to every phony Hollywood teen picture. It brings lo-fi realness to the coming-of-age genre, and it mostly takes place in a repertory movie theater. First job, first time, crushes, friendships, fitting in, and figuring it out all are handled with utter honesty. (1998, dir. Sarah Jacobson, DCP, color, 98 min.)

Limbo

After starring in 100 movies in just two decades, Tina Krause established herself as an unstoppable warrior from the DIY fringes. Limbo is the first—and to this day, only—movie written and directed by Krause. And it’s truly invigorating. Limbo presents three days in the life of Elizabeth as she deals with identity issues, sexist mouth-breathers, supernatural manifestations, and a possible trip to hell. Combining video collage experiments with a dreamy horror mood, Limbo is what might happen if David Lynch and Nine Inch Nails collaborated on a shot-on-video horror movie. Previously only available via VHS, the American Genre Film Archive and Bleeding Skull! here present a new transfer of Limbo from the original S-VHS master tapes. (1999, dir. Tina Krause, DCP, color, 54 min.)