IFC Screening of “The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen” / “The Girl with the Black Balloons”

Our friend, longtime Coilhouse contributor Jeff Wengrofsky, has just informed us that The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen, his latest Syndicate of Human Image Traffickers film, will be screened at the Independent Film Center (IFC) in New York on Tuesday, January 31st at 8pm, as part of the “Stranger Than Fiction” film series. “Come early,” says he. “It will be the first film shown, thus kicking off the STF 2012 Spring Season.” It will be followed by The Girl with the Black Balloons, a film about a reclusive artist in the Chelsea Hotel.

Both films sound fascinating; here’s a bit of background from the Syndicate on the Taylor Mead feature:

After reading Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Taylor Mead, the scion of Michigan’s Democratic Party political boss Harry Mead, left his Grosse Point home and Merrill Lynch sinecure to hitchhike across the United States. Upon arriving in San Francisco, his ability to write and perform clever, bawdy, homoerotic poems made Taylor an instant hit with the Beatnik scene. He soon came to personify the Beatnik ethic in Ron Rice’s classic film, THE FLOWER THIEF, in 1960. Deciding to move to the Lower East Side of New York, then the Beat capital of the world, Taylor was soon a fixture of the downtown poetry scene and a Warhol Superstar, most famously appearing in “Tarzan and Jane Revisited…Sort of,” and most notoriously, as the star of ‘Taylor Mead’s Ass” in 1964.  Taylor has since appeared scores of films, has acted for the stage, and has published books of poetry.

Fifty-odd years after trading in upper-crust luxury for bohemian art stardom, THE PARTY IN TAYLOR MEAD’S KITCHEN finds Taylor still living a life of poetry, painting, partying, acting, homo-eroticism, modest living, and indifference to bourgeois notions of hygiene. We visit the octogenarian in his Lower East Side grotto, finding him still brilliant, boyishly innocent, abundantly cute, and wanting to party at noon. The film depicts the romantic beauty and squalid dereliction of the bohemian life while dishing the dirt on Andy Warhol, Jack Kerouac, Ron Rice, Woody Allen, and Tallulah Bankhead.

4 Responses to “IFC Screening of “The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen” / “The Girl with the Black Balloons””

  1. Jeffrey Wengrofsky Says:

    Thanks so much !!

  2. AdRock1 Says:

    Wish I could be there! Great film!

  3. Jeffrey Wengrofsky Says:

    For those not in NYC, and thus unable to attend this screening, The Syndicate of Human Image Traffickers also has four films on its site that are FREE and without commercials: http://www.humansyndicate.com

    Venue info: http://stfdocs.com/films/the_girl_with_black_balloons/

    Ticket info:
    https://www.movietickets.com/purchase/perf_id/669952599/movieid/96156

    “The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen” will also be shown on February 10, 2012 at Churner & Churner (22nd Street at 10th Avenue, NYC ) and at Microscope Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC in March. Date is TBA.

    See you in the cinema !!

    Jeffrey Wengrofsky

  4. agentdoubleohno Says:

    The Independent Film Center’s largest theater was SOLD OUT. They turned latecomers away for a lack of space.

    Thanks to Coilhouse’s Meredith Yayanos for helping to get the word out about the Syndicate of Human Image Traffickers. It is muchly appreciated.

    For details on future screenings, see http://www.humansyndicate.com

    Best,

    J.W.