Mike Henderson: The Blues and The Abstract Truth

Co-presented with Mississippi Records

Dec. 18 - 7:30 pm

Curator in Attendance

The Hollywood Theatre
4122 NE Sandy Blvd

"Dufus" by Mike Henderson. Image courtesy Academy Film Archive.

Work Stills:

About This Screening

Mike Henderson, acclaimed painter and legend of the Bay Area blues scene, is far too little known for his remarkable body of 16mm film work, which includes more than two dozen films from the 1960s to the 1980s. They are radically inventive, often hilariously funny, and very rarely shown. Reflecting an unusual synthesis of his music and painting backgrounds, the films span audiovisual compositional experiments, absurdist musings on creativity, and blues-driven performative pieces about Black identity, all rendered in a powerful and unadorned DIY directness. This program, curated and presented by archivist Mark Toscano, will include several restored prints from the Academy Film Archive. Cinema Project is excited to co-present this program with our friends, Mississippi Records. All films will be presented as 16mm prints courtesy of Mike Henderson and the Academy Film Archive.

Program Details

December 18th

The Last Supper
by Mike Henderson
1970/73, 16mm, b&w, sound, 7 min.
Dufus
by Mike Henderson
1970/73, 16mm, b&w, sound, 7 min.
King David
by Mike Henderson; made with Robert Nelson
1970/2003, 16mm, color, sound, 7.5 min.
Too Late to Stop Down Now
by Mike Henderson
1982, 16mm, b&w, sound, 4.5 min.
The Shape of Things
by Mike Henderson
1981, 16mm, color, sound, 8 min.
Just Another Notion
by Mike Henderson
1983, 16mm, color, sound, 3.5 min.
How to Beat a Dead Horse
by Mike Henderson
1983, 16mm, b&w and color, sound, 7.5 min.
Down Hear
by Mike Henderson
1972, 16mm, b&w, sound, 12 min.
Pitchfork And The Devil
by Mike Henderson
1979, 16mm, b&w and color, sound, 15 min.
Money
by Mike Henderson
1970, 16mm, b&w, sound, 2 min.