the Syndicate of Human Image Traffickers
SCREENINGS
Guest Curatorship at the Babylon Kino (Berlin)
The Babylon Theater in Berlin invited Syndicate director Jeffrey Wengrofsky to present four consecutive film programs on May 2, 2020: Secrets of Outer Space, Secrets of Inner Space, Secrets of the Deep-Dreams on Film, and an unprecedented screening of nine Syndicate shorts. Owing to plague, this blessed event has been postponed until sometime in the mysterious future when civilization and cinema return to homo sapiens. Stay pruned for details, dear friends !
SCREENINGS
Chicago Underground Film Festival
Here to Eternity with The Godz was an Official Selection of the 2020 Chicago Underground Film Festival. The festival will be held online this year. Details forthcoming.
SCREENINGS
Secrets of Inner Space Film Festival
Secrets of Inner Space, the eighth in a series of thematic film festivals dedicated to insight through cinema, explored mind, body, blood, and spirit. Featured directors included: Lynn Bianchi (NYC), Carey Burrt (NYC), Rafael Camara (Brazil), Martha Colburn (Amsterdam and California), Julia Del Medico (California), Alexander Frasse (NYC), Frumma and Simcha Gottlieb (Florida), Daniel Hishikawa (Japan), Tosh Leykum (Germany), George Petros and Robert Lund (NYC), Brian Ratigan (NYC), Tate Steinsiek (Oklahoma and Albania), Mathilde Veine (France), and Joe Whitney (England), as well as the Syndicate’s Jeffrey Wengrofsky, who also curated the affair.
Secrets of Inner Space had an ENCORE SCREENING at Film Noir Cinema in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on Thursday, February 27, 2020, 7:30pm, $15. (21+ w/ID only).
SCREENINGS
Secrets of Inner Space Film Festival
Secrets of Inner Space, the eighth in a series of thematic film festivals dedicated to insight through cinema, explored mind, body, blood, and spirit. Featured directors included: Lynn Bianchi (NYC), Carey Burrt (NYC), Rafael Camara (Brazil), Martha Colburn (Amsterdam and California), Julia Del Medico (California), Alexander Frasse (NYC), Frumma and Simcha Gottlieb (Florida), Daniel Hishikawa (Japan), Tosh Leykum (Germany), George Petros and Robert Lund (NYC), Brian Ratigan (NYC), Tate Steinsiek (Oklahoma and Albania), Mathilde Veine (France), and Joe Whitney (England), as well as the Syndicate’s Jeffrey Wengrofsky, who also curated the affair.
Secrets of Inner Space PREMIERED to a SOLD OUT audience at Film Noir Cinema in Brooklyn on February 1, 2020, 9pm, $15 with choice of beverage. (21+ w/ID only). These directors were available to field your many recriminations: Lynn Bianchi, Carey Burrt, Alexander Frasse, Tosh Leykum, George Petros, Robert Lund, and Jeffrey Wengrofsky.
SCREENINGS
Here to Eternity with The Godz is an Official Selection of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival. This public exhibition took place around November 15, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia.
SCREENINGS
Secrets of the Dead Film Festival at Film Noir on Halloween weekend!
One of the great mysteries of our existence is the nature of death. It thus looms as both a certainty and a profound unknown, framing our every deed. Unfortunately, the scientific community, such as it is, has not (yet?) developed a technique for effectively exploring this terrain. Fortunately for us seekers-of-the-Truth there is CINEMA, which dares traverse dangerous and otherwise unchartable realms. Secrets of the Dead was our portal beyond the veil. Hidden knowledge was revealed at Cinema Film Noir (122 Meserole Avenue, Brooklyn) a converted funeral parlor, on Saturday, November 2, 2019. Official Selections include works by: London May, Rachel Amodeo, Lena Marquise, George Petros & Robert Lund, Brian Ratigan, Chris Roe, Theo Sarafis, and Larry Wessel. Proceedings included a mystical musical interlude with Jason O’Toole and Alec K. Redfearn.
SCREENINGS
Secrets of Outer Space – including Here to Eternity with The Godz – is an Official Selection of the 2019 Berkeley Video and Film Festival. The date of the screening was Saturday, October 26, 2019 and it happened at the East Bay Media Center in downtown Berkeley, CA.
SCREENINGS
Here to Eternity with The Godz was screened in conjunction with Secrets of Outer Space at the Ark Theater (5708 Lankershim, North Hollywood) in Los Angeles on Sunday, October 20, 7-9pm and Wednesday, October 23th, 8-10pm. Tickets were only $10 !
SCREENINGS
Secrets of Outer Space – including Here to Eternity with The Godz – screened at the Chelsea (NYC) townhouse of Rip Torn and Geraldine Page in conjunction with Speakeasy Cinema on February 20, 2019.
SCREENINGS
Here to Eternity with The Godz is an Official Selection of the 2019 Sydney Underground Film Festival. It screened on September 15, 2019.
SCREENINGS
Premiere: The Forgiveness of Judith Malina premiered at Anthology Film Archives in New York City in a Special Session of New Filmmakers New York on July 7, 2019. The film considers the ethics of forgiveness in the context of the Holocaust. In her final screen appearance, actor and director Judith Malina (1926–2015) recalls an encounter she had with fascist poet Ezra Pound in Italy after the Second World War. Original musical score by James Sclavunos (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, The Cramps, Sonic Youth) and Peter Mavrogeorgis.
SCREENINGS
Secrets of Outer Space: Into the Great Beyond, an international short film festival exploring the cosmos and alternative dimensions, will premiere on January 29, 2019 at the Gene Frankel Theatre (24 Bond Street, NYC) and will subsequently screen at Film Noir Cinema (122 Meserole Avenue, Brooklyn) on February 9 and at the Berkeley Video and Film Festival in fall 2019. The Syndicate of Human Image Traffickers’ new film, Here to Eternity with The Godz, is included in this program alongside films by: John Celona, Zev Deans, Katia Ganfield, Robert Lund & George Petros, Till Nowak, Alexandra LaVasseur, Bjorn Melhus, Shura Skaya, Liz Tabish, and Joe Whitney. Secrets film festivals are curated by the Syndicate’s Jeffrey Wengrofsky.
SCREENINGS
Jeffrey Wengrofsky, director and producer of The Syndicate of Human Image Traffickers, curated the Berkeley Video & Film Festival at the Bay Area Media Center (1939 Addison St, Berkeley) on Sunday, November 4th from 6 to 9pm with Secrets of the Deep: Dreams on Film. It received the award for Best Experimental Film Program and the Secrets series is now an official qualifying festival for Berkeley.
SCREENINGS
The Syndicate has a four-part residency at Film Noir Cinema (122 Meserole Ave, Brooklyn, NY): October 20, 2018, “The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen,” screened with live musical performances by 1960s psych-noise legends The Godz and theremin virtuouso Rob Schwimmer; Saturday, December 8, 2018, Secrets of the Deep: Dreams in Film ($15/w one free beer); Saturday, February 9, 2019, Secrets of Outer Space ($15/w one free beer); and Thursday, February 14, 2019, Secrets of the Heart ($15/w one free beer).
SCREENINGS
As the telescopes of Galileo and Edwin Hubble enlarged our sense of the universe and Antony van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope revealed life hitherto invisible to the naked eye, Secrets of Outer Space will deploy a visual device – cinema – to plumb the mysteries of that which lay outside unassisted sensory knowledge. Secrets of Outer Space: Into the Great Beyond is seeking your 5-10 minute film on space travel, time travel, extra-terrestrial life, and/or alternative dimensions throughout 2018. Secrets of Outer Space will premiere with a screening on January 29, 2019 at the Gene Frankel Theatre in downtown NYC, to be followed by screenings on February 9, 2019 at Film Noir Cinema in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and at the Berkeley Video and Film Festival in Oct-Nov 2019.
SCREENINGS
The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen was screened in conjunction with the 13th Boog City Festival of the Arts on September 25, 2018 at Sidewalk Cafe on Avenue A in the City of New York.
SCREENINGS
Secrets of the Deep: Dreams on Film, a festival of eleven films selected from 415 international submissions will screen on Friday, May 18, 2018 at 8:00 at Reverb at 2112 North Charles Street in Baltimore, Maryland This program includes the Syndicate’s Marti Domination in the Life of Dreams, a surreal documentary about Marti Domination, the chanteuse, member of the Black Lips Performance Cult, and star of Mathew Barney’s Cremaster I.
SCREENINGS
Syndicate director Jeffrey Wengrofsky curated and hosted Secrets of the Deep: Dreams on Film, a festival of eleven films selected from 415 international submissions and representing five genres: narrative, documentary, experimental, and music video. The affair took place at the historic Gene Frankel Theatre on Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 8:00. Among the films on exhibit was the Syndicate’s Marti Domination in the Life of Dreams, a surreal documentary about the chanteuse, member of the Black Lips Performance Cult, and star of Matthew Barney’s Cremaster I. Other directors whose work was screened include Douglas Hart (Jesus and Mary Chain), British musician She Rocola, Joe Whitney (Flaming Stars), Kirstie Allison (Cold Lips Magazine, UK), Scottish rocker Gil de Ray (Vagrant Lovers), thrice Emmy Award nominated actor Emily O’Brien (Young and the Restless), Stephen Rutterford (Brooklyn Brothers), Liz Tabish (Austin, Texas), Olga Guse (Berlin), Gordon Raphael (Berlin), and Vinicius Santos (Sao Paulo, Brazil).
SCREENINGS
Marti Domination in the Life of Dreams was a semi-finalist at the Southeastern International Film Festival in Nashville.
SCREENINGS
Syndicate director Jeffrey Wengrofsky was been invited by the Lexington Film League to screen Secrets of the Heart at the 21c Museum Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky on Sunday, October 8th, 2017.
UPDATE
Syndicate director Jeffrey Wengrofsky was interviewed by Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Sonic Youth, The Cramps, Tav Falco, etc.) for his radio show on London’s SOHO Radio on August 14, 2017: https://www.mixcloud.com/sohoradio/jim-sclavunos-14082017/
SCREENINGS
Syndicate director Jeffrey Wengrofsky was invited to screen four short Syndicate films along with a preview sample of The Song of Hiawatha, his feature film on the American counterculture, at the Framestore Preview Theatre in London on August 14, 2017.
SCREENINGS
In Vino Veritas: Secrets of the Intoxicated Life, These directors had films selected for SECRETS of the INTOXICATED LIFE 2017: NikaDrandrova, Leslie Hodgkins, Matthew Kohn, Keith Nelson, TruusdeGroot, Lena Marquise, Joe Whitney (starring Billy Childish!), Noora Albright, and Bradley Eros. This blessed event occurred on Saturday, May 20th, 8-11pm, at the Sunview Luncheonette (221 Nassau Ave, Brooklyn). Complimentary whiskey- and vodka-based beverages will be served before and between films to those who dare. $10 w/21+ ID. The affair was written up by Bedford and Bowery, the blog of New York Magazine.
SCREENINGS
The Syndicate is delighted to announce that we will be screening the Secrets of the Heart Film Festival at the Gene Frankel Theatre on Valentine’s Day – February 14, 2017. This screening is sponsored by 24 Bond Street Arts, which also is the address of the theater. $15 will get you 10 films and enough wine to extinguish your heartburn.
UPDATE
Syndicate director Jeffrey Wengrofsky acted in The Knickerbocker Avenue Strange Science and Terror Radio Program on October 1, 2016. The production included a three-piece orchestra, six dancers, six actors, smoke billowing from third story windows, giant puppets, and evil creatures. It was part of this year’s Bushwick Open Studios. The production was a pick of Hyperallergic and ArtLink deemed it a “must see.”
SCREENINGS
The Secrets of the Heart Film Festival screened at Baltimore’s Reverb on September 13, 2016. The bill also featured 60s psychedelic rock legends The Godz and chanteuse Jasmin “Jazzo” Walters.
UPDATE
On June 7, 2016, The Song of Hiawatha, the first feature film by Syndciate director Jeffrey Wengrofsky, became Indiewire’s Project of the Day.
SCREENINGS
Eye From the Lower East Side at Howl
Eye from the Lower East Side, a three-part residency at Howl! Happening featuring the Syndicate’s films continued on April 9, 2016, with Jo Boobs Teaches the Va-VA-Voom and the Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen, along with a film by Human Features Film – The Song of Hiawatha. The final date of the residency is April 29 and it will feature the Syndicate’s film, Marti Domination in the Life of Dreams, along with a performance by psychedelic pioneers, The Godz, and projections by Adam Alexander.
Photograph by Dan Efram
SCREENINGS
Eye From the Lower East Side at Howl
On March 19, 2016, Howl! Happening (6 East First Street, NYC) Syndicate director Jeffrey Wengrofsky hosted Secrets of the Heart – Films Telling the Truth that Hurts, a mini-film festival dedicated to getting past the propaganda about that most sacred sentiment – love. This program included a special screening of the Syndicate’s film, Getting Out of Bed With Richard Foreman, a documentary about the downtown absurdist playwright. The other 9 films in the program were culled from 340 international submissions and included the work of these fine directors: Jennifer Bodes, Maria Chauvin, Bradley Eros, Leslie Hodgkins, Lena Marquise, Robin Queere, Christoph Rainer, Isabelle Vossart, and Mike Wilson. This blessed event was the first in a three-part series, Eye From the Lower East Side.
SCREENINGS
NEW Secrets of the Insect World Invades DC!
In this Darwinian, dog-eat-dog existence, humans have developed an innate fear and loathing of insects that is hardly matched among our species’ many phobias and hatreds. On February 26, 2016 at The Lookout in Washington DC eight all-too human directors pondered the Secrets ofthe Insect World and our place in it: MV Carbon, Alice Cohen, Bradley Eros, Art Jones, Irene Moon, Jeffrey Wengrofsky, and Mike Wilson.
SCREENINGS
In Vino Veritas: Secrets of the Intoxicated Life
In Vino Veritas: Secrets of the Intoxicated Life, a program of 9 short films revealing truths inaccessible to the sober, was screened on Saturday, November 21, 2015 from 8pm to midnight. In addition to cinematic pleasure, your eight dollars will grant you whiskey or vodka (while supplies last). All of this action will occur at the Sunview Luncheonette (221 Nassau Avenue, Greenpoint, NYC). The Syndicate will screen Jack Terricloth is Alive and Well in Gotham alongside films by: Alice Cohen, Bradley Eros, Leslie Hodgkins, Art Jones, The Mannone Brothers, Jack Wheeler, Mike Wilson…and Edwin S. Porter.
SCREENINGS
Secrets of the Insect World
In this Darwinian, dog-eat-dog existence, humans have developed an innate fear and loathing of insects that is hardly matched among our species’ many phobias and hatreds. On June 26, 2015 at the Gene Frankel Theatre (24 Bond Street, NYC), eight all-too human directors pondered the Secrets of the Insect World and our place in it: MV Carbon, Bradley Eros, Jeff Frumess, Art Jones, Irene Moon, Lary Seven, Jeffrey Wengrofsky, and Mike Wilson. The Syndicate screened The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen
RESIDENCY
UnionDocs Summer Intensive Program
Syndicate director Jeffrey Wengrofsky participated in the UnionDocs Summer Intensive Documentary Program in the summer of 2015.
UPDATE
On May 27, 2015, Syndicate director Jeffrey Wengrofsky hosted a fundraising concert for The Song of Hiawatha, his forthcoming feature film on the American counterculture, at The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, MI. This blessed event was written up in the Detroit Free Press.
SCREENINGS
Gift Horse: Inside New York Art
In March 2015, Syndicate director Jeffrey Wengrofsky and Leslie Hodgkins (Bellevue Literary Press) launched Gift Horse: Inside New York Art, a podcast series about the creative life in New York City broadcast out of Radio Initiativa in Lviv, Ukraine. The first season included interviews with: J.G. Thirlwell, Sarah Small, Laszlo Santha, Puma Perl, Bishakh Som, Angeliska Polacheck, Andrew K. Thompson, Chi Chi Valenti, Rafael Fuchs, Heidi Lee, Mike Wilson, M.V. Carbon, Stephen Ulrich, Elena Pakhoutova, Stefan Pokorny, Lea Bertucci, Mishka Shabuly, Katelan Foisy, and Steven Blush.
SCREENINGS
Secrets of the Deep: Dreams on Film
Directors Jeffrey Wengrofsky and Leslie Hodgkins guest curate the Sunview Luncheonette for an evening of surreal cinema from five all-too real directors: Alice Cohen, Bradley Eros, Leslie Hodgkins, Joel Schlemowitz, and Jeffrey Wengrofsky. Friday the 13th of June, 2014 at 9pm. $5. BYOB.
UPDATE
The Beat Down DJ Residency at Otto’s Shrunken Head
Otto’s Shrunken Head provided the venue for a three-week DJ residency for Jeffrey Wengrofsky (DJ Les Syndicat) and fellow director and vinyl vermin Jon Sadleir on January 3, 10, and 17, 2014.
UPDATE
Mini-Residency with Psychic TV at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar
Director Jeffrey Wengrofsky (DJ Les Syndicat) was the DJ for back-to-back Psychic TV performances at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar on December 27 and 28, 2013).
UPDATE
World/Inferno Hallowmas
Director Jeffrey Wengrofsky was the undertaker for the World/Inferno Friendship Society’s Hallowmas 2013 at The Warsaw.
SCREENINGS
Berkeley Video and Film Festival
The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen opened the Berkeley Video and Film Festival on Friday, October 25, 2013 at 8:00pm.
SCREENINGS
Official Selection of the Beacon Independent Film Festival
Marti Domination in the Life of Dreams was screened as an Official Selection of the Beacon Independent Film Festival on September 18, 2013.
UPDATE
Motor City Bar
Syndicate Director Jeffrey Wengrofsky completed a four-week DJ residency at New York City’s (now defunct) Motor City Bar from May to June 2013.
UPDATE
Speakeasy Dollhouse
In May 2013 Syndicate director Jeffrey Wengrofsky completed his second season in Speakeasy Dollhouse.
Left photo by Janelle Rominski.
Right photo by Arin Sangurai.
SCREENINGS
The Beahive in Beacon
On June 1, 2013, the Beahive in Beacon, New York screened The Gospel According to Reverend Billy.
SCREENINGS
The Norwood Club: Sound and Vision
On May 24, 2013, The Norwood Club’s Sound and Vision series screened three of the Syndicate’s films for its league of urban sophisticates: Jo Boobs Teaches the Va-Va-Voom, The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen, and Marti Domination in the Life of Dreams.
UPDATE
Ask Andrew Anything
Jeffrey Wengrofsky was interviewed for podcast by Andrew K. Thompson of the Fullerton Art Museum of U.C.-San Bernardino.
SCREENINGS
Occupy Sandy Benefit
JOn Tuesday, November 13, 2012, The Syndicate of Human Image Traffickers screened Jo Boobs Teaches the Va-Va-Voom and Marti Domination in the Life of Dreams and director Jeffrey Wengrofsky was DJ at a benefit for Occupy Sandy at The Delancey (168 Delancey Street, NYC).
SCREENINGS
Official Selection of the Brownfish Film Festival
The Syndicate’s new film, Marti Domination in the Life of Dreams, premiered as an Official Selection of the Brownfish Film Festival on November 3rd 2012 at Cinema Village (12th Street bw University and Fifth Avenue, New York City).
SCREENINGS
Official Selections of Reelfest Boston 2012
The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen, Jo Boobs Teaches the Va-Va-Voom, and Getting Out of Bed with Richard Foreman were Official Selections of Reelfest Boston 2012.
SCREENINGS
Official Selection of New Filmmakers New York
The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen was shown as an Official Selection of New Filmmakers New York at Anthology Film Archives in New York on July 25, 2012.
UPDATE
Speakeasy Dollhouse
In February 2012, Jeffrey Wengrofsky returned for a second season as Dr. Thomas Gonzales, the Chief Medical Examiner of New York, in Speakeasy Dollhouse.
Photograph by Margee Challa
Jeffrey Wengrofsky as Dr. Thomas Gonzales
Russell Farhang as the deceased Frank Spano
SCREENINGS
Official Selection of the Boston LGBT Film Festival
The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen made its New England premiere at the historic Brattle Theater in Cambridge on May 11, 2012 at 9:00pm as part of a double feature with Jobraith A.D., a film about the short-lived glam rocker. The Syndicate thanks Boston LGBT Film Festival and the Brattle Theater for their reckless programing.
SCREENINGS
Syndicate Screening at Microscope Gallery
Microscope Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn had an all-Syndicate program featuring: Jack Terricloth is Alive and Well in Gotham, Getting Out of Bed With Richard Foreman, Jo Boobs Teaches the Va-Va Voom, and The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen on Saturday, March 24 at 7:00.
S.H.I.T.06
Churner & Churner Screening
The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen was shown in conjunction with an exhibit of the paintings of Taylor Mead on February 10, 2012 in Chelsea at Churner & Churner.
churnerandchurner.com/events/february-10-the-party-in-taylor-meads-kitchen-2
S.H.I.T.06
Stranger Than Fiction Screening
On January 31, 2012, “The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen” was screened as part of the “Stranger Than Fiction” film series at the Independent Film Center (the IFC Theater) in New York City. Our film was chosen to kick off the Spring 2012 Stranger Than Fiction season. The ticketholders’ line snaked around the block.
Photograph by Heather Allen
S.H.I.T.06
The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen Premieres at DOC NYC
The Syndicate of Human Image Traffickers is delighted to announce that its latest film, “The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen,” was an Official Selection of DOC NYC 2011, the documentary film festival of the Independent Film Channel. “The Party in Taylor Mead’s Kitchen” premiered to 316 people on November 6th at New York University’s Kimmel Center, played again on November 7th in the large theater at the Independent Film Center, and screened a third time, on November 10th at the IFC.
UPDATE
Speakeasy Dollhouse In October 2011, Jeffrey Wengrofsky began his first season as Dr. Thomas Gonzales, the Chief Medical Examiner of New York, in Speakeasy Dollhouse. The play was written and directed by Cynthia von Buhler, and it took place in an actual former speakeasy in the Lower East Side of New York.
Photograph by Margee Challa
with Nicole Schiff as Nurse Bessie Stitch
Photograph by Margee Challa
with Edgar Oliver as Dominick Grimaldi
INTERVIEW
Rejects: Punk & Jewish History
As recently interviewed by National Magazine Award-winning Tablet magazine for their Long Story Short podcast about how punk relates to Jewish history: http://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/music/78206/rejects/
S.H.I.T.04
Getting Out of Bed
with Richard Foreman
“As you may well imagine, this is not easy art. It may leave the theatergoer uneasy – even queasy – amid buzzers, flashing lights, warped music, and the voice of un-reason.”
S.H.I.T.03
Jo Boobs Teaches the Va-Va-Voom
“Jo Boobs and I met at the basement headquarters of her school on the coldest evening in recent years to explore questions of gender, activism, and whether she and her ilk are gender traitors or gender busters.”
S.H.I.T.02
Jack terricloth
is Alive and at Large in Gotham
“He’s never had a “Plan B” of any kind whatsoever. He just jumped out his window and – wooosh! – he started flying.”
S.H.I.T.01
The Gospel
According to Reverend Billy
“…Armed with this identity, he enters churches of consumption – like the Disney store in Times Square – to project a powerful
message opposing corporate retail, a culture of consumerism, and the encroachment of our public spaces.”