Muscle presents a special evening with filmmaking, screening, performance, and cruising collective alterotics. Co-founded by Anaïs Alias and Avery Jaye in 2023, the group’s transgressive moving-image sex art—like the Stephen Sayadian-influenced Rat Trap—has quickly found a hungry audience both at international queer film festivals and especially in Chicago, where they have fostered a growing community centered around their monthly cruising parties. For this screening, we’ll present a survey of the group’s work over the past three years, including its latest short film, Character Syndrome. All four films are New York premieres. Rat Trap (2025, 15min) Angel is your typical rat girl: sneaking through grocery stores, shoplifting cheeses, scurrying. The world is her dumpster... until one night she falls into the clutches of pervert ratologist Dr. Fontina. Abducting the rat girl and taking her to a lab deep underground, Fontina and her lackeys use science to put Angel into a state of teledildonic trance. She can’t resist. Infused with orgasmic energy, her body becomes an experiment in rat-human transgenesis. A hybrid girl squeaking with lust. And to Dr. Fontina this creature becomes a plaything, a seductress, a variable out of control… You’ll never guess—or forget—what happens next. Don’t miss this genre-bending romp featuring an all trans cast, crew, and production team. Superlunacy Clinic (2023, 21min) Anais and Avery talk art, politics, and “the big O” in an exclusive interview with journalist Wendy Stroker. After seducing Stroker into a career-ending snafu, however, the two starlets are bound to face her wrath. Their fate: to be devoured by the spawning sturgeons of Lake Michigan. Marvel in lust as girls and fish get frisky under the radiance of a supermoon!!! The Naturists (2026, 21 min) alterotics culturati Avery Jaye and Anais Alias explore the perverse intimacies—and frictions—of the notoriously gay sand dunes on a drizzly day trip to the lake retreat town of Saugatuck, MI. Character Syndrome (2026, 35min) Yes, exactly: in Character Syndrome, therapy *itself* becomes a new digital neurosis. Seeking your undoing here genuinely makes sense. POV you’re Lisa Boston: relationship therapist, sex worker, gambling addict, and all-around dopamine burnout. Managing these scattered persona-streams is all you care about, overriding any concern for your clients’ wellbeing. You’re losing it, succumbing to every failure mode—until a background observer kindly pops in to help. alterotics is an arts collective devoted to activating public life for trans/queer people. Moving-image sex art, archival research, event hosting, and community building make up the broad strokes of their practice. It was co-founded and currently run by Anais Alias and Avery Jaye.

An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.

The improbable life of French poet Arthur Rimbaud unfolds with all the shock and playfulness of his poetry.

An ambitious young musician's life becomes entwined with that of his reclusive master in director Alain Corneau’s haunting portrait of composer Marin Marais and his teacher, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe. With a landmark score by Jordi Savall–whose viola da gamba recordings inspired novelist Pascal Quignard’s original story–Tous les Matins du Monde is a transporting meditation on artistic devotion, memory, and longing.

In the hope of a big score, two junkie couples team up to commit various drug robberies which go disastrously wrong, leading to dissent, violence, and murder.

Bird In Hand is a 2025 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Melody C. Roscher, in her directorial debut. It stars Alisha Wainwright, Christine Lahti, James Le Gros, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Jeffrey Nordling and K. Todd Freeman. It had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival on June 6, 2025.

Castration Movie Chapter iii. Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage Castration Movie is a multi-part postmodern epic by visionary auteur Louise Weard. In Chapter iii. Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift, Izzy (Avalon Fast) seeks out everything in her power to stop her partner (Henri Gillespi) from transitioning.

An armchair mystery in which the life of a reclusive academic collides with the story of a clandestine technology that can photograph the past.

City Dudes is the new monthly “blindfolded” screening series at the Roxy Cinema New York curated and hosted by the American cinematographer Sean Price Williams and the American writer Nick Pinkerton. Might could be they’ll have the occasional Exciting Guest on-hand as well.

In this kaleidoscopic portrait, a screenwriter, an actor, an urban shaman, and the director himself contend with the everyday annoyances that fill the life of an artist.

On the last day at the closing Royal Alamo Cinema, employees, outcasts and oddballs cross paths in interwoven stories of rejection, redemption, and fate.

After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims who use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife.

On their first summer back from college, best friends Curtis, Jimmy, and Abe embark on a fantastical 24-hour odyssey of drugs and alcohol on their way to a house party hosted by Curtis’s ex-girlfriend, Jane. When their pursuit of hedonism leads to Jane and Curtis reuniting prematurely, Curtis is unable to handle his emotions and loses touch with his relationships and reality.

A 19-year-old girl prepares to become a suicide bomber in Times Square. She speaks with a nondescript American accent, and it's impossible to pinpoint her ethnicity. We never learn why she made her decision -- she has made it already. We don't know whom she represents, what she believes in - we only know she believes it absolutely.

Roommates Lisa, Beth, and Tess are three young women who each share the same goal of hooking up with their respective male bosses. While their attempts at seduction get off to a rough start, their peeping tom neighbor Billy spends his days spying through keyholes and trying to get a piece of the action. Will these roommates finally make it with their managers? And what about Billy? Octogenarian filmmaker and “Queen of Sexploitation” Doris Wishman was working at a sex shop in Miami in the early 90s when she met experimental musician Tom Smith (To Live and Shave in L.A.), spurring a full-blown career revival that saw her honored at film festivals around the world and featured on HBO’s Real Sex and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Intended to be her comeback movie, Dildo Heaven premiered at the New York Underground Film Festival just months before her passing in 2002 and then was never officially widely released until now. A charming shot-on-video sex comedy that defies all description—and surely the only movie by a senior citizen to feature an original rap theme song—Dildo Heaven is a fitting swan song for one of the most beloved cult filmmakers of all time. New digital restoration by Muscle Distribution.

Dog Movie (2023, 56MIN) A passive-aggressive tenderqueer couple sends their household into a quiet tailspin when they adopt an elderly dog who shares the same name as the unemployed couch surfer they just can’t seem to confront in Bros Before filmmaker Henry Hanson's improvised microbudget debut feature, which he/they describe as “the trans Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Puppygirl (2026, 55MIN) A semi-delusional trans woman (Milo Talwani) embarks on a shocking, bizarre, and oddly touching personal odyssey to undo years of sexual repression by performing in puppygirl fetish porn in Henry Hanson's gonzo documentary. Also in this program: the world premiere of a new music video for Ravine Angel’s “RIP”, directed by Sadie Meadow. Ravine Angel is the musical moniker for Persona author and Castration Movie composer-star Aoife Josie Clements. This monochromatic 3D-animated fantasia, created entirely in the Unity game engine, begins with a dead girl in a shower and ends with a full-scale battle for the streets of Vancouver. The progression from A to B is a Rube Goldbergian machine of horrors and kinetic delights. “RIP” will play as a palate cleanser between DOG MOVIE and PUPPYGIRL.

Three black queer femmes in their mid 30s take a road trip across the Midwestern United States in search of their friend who has seemingly disappeared off the grid.

Early twenties Iris (Jillian Frank) and Palmer (Avalon Fast) never left their hometown. They work at the same restaurant, share the same bed, and both have a habit of drinking and driving. They run into Levi (Ethan Hawksworth), a guy they used to know. They spend time with him and his cousin, Phoenix (Henri Gillespi), in cars, backyards, and other people's bedrooms. When Levi shares a dream he had with Iris, things change between the four of them. The reality of the summer becomes faded, the parties die. The four end in a field of unified confusion.

Anaïs is twelve and bears the weight of the world on her shoulders. She watches her older sister, Elena, whom she both loves and hates. Elena is fifteen and devilishly beautiful. Neither more futile, nor more stupid than her younger sister, she cannot understand that she is merely an object of desire. And, as such, she can only be taken. Or had. Indeed, this is the subject: a girl's loss of virginity. And, that summer, it opens a door to tragedy. Directed by Catherine Breillat.

This film covers the early history of post World War II educational films, especially those involving traffic safety by the Highway Safety Foundation under direction of Richard Wayman. In the name of promoting safe driving in teenagers, these films became notorious for their gory depiction of accidents to shock their audiences to make their point. The film also covers the role of safety films of this era, their effect on North American teenage culture, the struggle between idealism and lurid exploitation and how they reflected the larger society concerns of the time that adults projected onto their youth.

When a mysterious mist engulfs a futuristic metropolis, unleashing a deadly and elusive entity, a troubled young woman searches for her father. Her quest collides with an American GI on a harrowing odyssey to rescue his daughter from Hell.

In a remote village, Nawojka grapples with dark urges she believes stem from an ancestral curse. Her world shifts when Sandra moves in next door, offering a glimpse of freedom from her family's rigid control.

When fresh-faced Elliot (Hoffman) lands an exciting job for renowned artist, icon and provocateur Erika Tracy (Wilde), his fantasies come true as Erika taps him to become her sexual muse. But Elliot soon finds himself out of his depth as Erika takes him on a journey more profound than he ever could have imagined, into a world of sex, obsession, power, betrayal and murder.

At a sexy, sizzling nightclub, pianist Percival lives life by the rules, while Rooster, the club's flashy lead performer, struts his stuff on the stage. But all changes when greed, fame and murder threaten to destroy them and the joint.

In the town of Martin, Tennessee, Chip Hines, a precocious six year old, has only known life with his two dads, Cody and Joey. And a good life it is. When Cody dies suddenly in a car accident, Joey and Chip struggle to find their footing again. Just as they begin to, Cody’s will reveals that he named his sister as Chip’s guardian. The years of Joey’s acceptance into the family unravel as Chip is taken away from him. In his now solitary home life, Joey searches for a solution. The law is not on his side, but friends are. Armed with their comfort and inspired by memories of Cody, Joey finds a path to peace with the family and closer to his son.

In the early 1930s, painter Leonora Carrington, a rebel against social expectations, joins the surrealist movement and its iconic figures like André Breton and Salvador Dalí in Paris. A whirlwind love affair with artist Max Ernst confronts her with her inner demons. During the war, Leonora flees to Mexico and finally empowers herself. Today Leonora Carrington is one of the highest selling female painters worldwide, next to Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keeffe.

Since 2006, Rick Prelinger has made 37 participatory urban history events that have played to large and vocal audiences in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Detroit and at festivals throughout the world. As films play, viewers are invited to comment, to ask questions and to interact with one another. This autumn the revised LOST LANDSCAPES project returns to New York for the first time since its premiere in 2017. LOST LANDSCAPES OF NEW YORK (2017-26, 83 min., HD video transferred from 35mm, 16mm and 8mm film) mixes home movies shot by New Yorkers, tourists and semi-professional cinematographers with outtakes from feature films and background "process plates" picturing granular details of New York's cityscape. The combination of intimate moments, neighborhood memories from many New York City communities and expansive perspectives forms a 21st-century city symphony whose soundtrack will be made by the audience. Spanning much of the 20th century (1920-1980), LOST LANDSCAPES recalls buried memories of daily life, work and celebration while asking audiences to reflect on possible futures for New York City. This screening adds newly found material to the original 2017 film.

San Francisco shines throughout this wide-ranging, unbounded panorama made from 128 years of San Francisco moving images with a soundtrack made fresh by the audience as the film plays. Celebrating the city as a center of creativity, style, resistance and freedom, LOST LANDSCAPES is drawn from some 300 newly-unearthed (and a few familiar) archival films plus "guest appearances" from San Francisco filmmakers. This 37th in a series of "urban history events" recreates the textures and activities of everyday life, labor and play, replaying known and unknown historical moments, daylighting lost and found infrastructures, revealing the scars of settlement and pointing to more hopeful futures. Highlights include transportation in the air, water and on the land; images of the City's rich and resilient communities; unfamiliar footage of familiar places; countercultures and counterdemonstrators; and unpredictable moments on the streets. As always, the audience makes the soundtrack. Please come prepared to raise your voices; identify places, people and events; and ask questions of others in the audience.

MADDIE’S SECRET is comedian, writer, and actor John Early’s critically acclaimed directorial debut starring himself as Maddie, a plucky dishwasher who leaps to viral superstardom at a trendy food content creation company. While her life seems picturesque — complete with an adoring husband (Eric Rahill), ride-or-die best friend (Kate Berlant) and a cupboard full of woman-owned ethically-sourced chili crisp to boot — mounting professional pressures threaten to reawaken a hidden secret from her troubled past. A pitch-perfect blend of satire, melodrama, daring tonal shifts and intimate performances, the film marks a bold new voice in contemporary cinema.

New York nightclub, The Matador, becomes the site of a high-profile murder that attracts the attention of an obsessive detective, a TV news reporter, and an elusive being living outside the realms of time and space. Their stories converge with that of a new-age cult operating at the command of an ultra-intelligent supercomputer named Bolero.

A sneak preview of a new 4K restoration of a little-seen should-be late 90s indie film by Matchbox Cine.

A group of friends in a punk rock band discover a hidden cemetery in the woods where they accidentally raise a group of undead Friars.

A Juilliard-trained violist navigates the New York City freelance classical musician scene, playing gigs that often draw her into the personal lives of strangers, all while living in her oddball family's NYC apartment.

A young girl whose father is an ex-convict and whose mother is a junkie finds it difficult to conform and tries to find comfort in a quirky combination of Elvis and the punk scene. New 4K restoration by Discovery Productions.

The 50 year journey of women at Rikers Jail and a painting that leads the way out.

Inspired by Bibbe Hansen's experiences in a juvenile detention center. Directed by Andy Warhol.

Nomi, a young drifter, arrives in Las Vegas to become a dancer and soon sets about clawing and pushing her way to become the top of the Vegas showgirls.

Three months after a painful breakup, a Los Angeles based photographer drifts through Silverlake’s creative chaos—dodging well-meaning friends, career pressures, and fleeting flings—until an unexpected connection forces him to confront what he truly wants from love, art, and himself.

The basis of Still Film is a fictional audio deposition of a “non-party witness” who testifies to the past forty years of cinematic exposure (a period aligned with my lifetime), with promises made and broken. The multi-generational characters include the witness, the lawyers, and the recordist. While no character is specifically me, all are performed in voiceover by me, addressing memories, biographical details, conspiracy theories, and ideas I’ve wrestled with for years. The script has been written as if an actual legal deposition. The visuals are 35mm publicity stills from Hollywood movie press kits: a “carousel” of 140 slides chosen from the hundreds I’ve collected since 2019 that hold some associative meaning, however arbitrary, in my memory. Publicity stills are distributed by film studios to promote upcoming releases. 35mm film transparency slides were the standard until the early 2000s, when digital press kits took over (a turning point that happens to align with my legal coming-of-age). As objects, each are unique photographic prints subject to the ravages of time and handling, now preserved through scanning into 4K digital cinema.

Two cops in the 1940s Los Angeles investigate the murder of a Hollywood starlet (Mia Kirshner), and one (Aaron Eckhart) puts his marriage in jeopardy by obsessing over the crime, while the other (Josh Hartnett) becomes involved with a woman (Hilary Swank) from a prominent family, who happens to have an unsavory tie to the victim.

To take down South Boston's Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the underworld, not realizing the syndicate has done likewise. While an undercover cop curries favor with the mob kingpin, a career criminal rises through the police ranks. But both sides soon discover there's a mole among them.

A middle-aged couple who are feeling stagnant in their relationship invite the younger and livelier couple from the apartment upstairs for a get-together that takes an unexpected turn.

A lonely doctor, who once occupied an unusual lakeside house, begins exchanging love letters with its former resident, a frustrated architect. They must try to unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary romance before it's too late.

A failed filmmaker turned carpenter is hired by his estranged college buddy, now a successful sculptor renovating the vacation home of his dreams.

A young couple is shaken by a seemingly fraudulent yet unprovable act that strikes to the core of their cultural pretensions.

A retired farmer and widower in his 70s, Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. Then he hits on the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual journey.

Against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, two brothers fight a guerrilla war against British forces.

TITANE: A metal highly resistant to heat and corrosion, with high tensile strength alloys, often used in medical prostheses due to its pronounced biocompatibility.

A 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain travels to Provincetown and stumbles into the chaotic world of a restaurant kitchen, setting off a summer that will shape the course of his life.

All musically gifted race-driver Lucky Jackson (Elvis Presley) wants in Las Vegas is to score enough money for a new car motor so he can win the Grand Prix. When he encounters sexy swimming instructor Rusty (Ann-Margret), he considers staying around longer. After Lucky loses his winnings in the hotel pool, he's forced to remain in Vegas long enough to win back his dough -- but now he also wants to win Rusty's heart. Unfortunately, so does his slick racing enemy, Elmo (Cesare Danova). Preceded by: Learning from Learning from Las Vegas (Sam Taffel & Gillian Waldo, 2025, 18 min.)

Flora leaves. Antonis gets left behind. Elit moves in. Benni and Caro can’t seem to move on. In the classrooms, cafes, bars and train stations of an unnamed German city, the lives of several young people intersect.

Caleb is a metal head loner who becomes obsessed with his new coworker, Krista. He begins invading every aspect of Krista's life. As his infatuation escalates from inappropriate to criminal, we're left asking who is really watching whom.

An angel tires of overseeing human activity and wishes to become human when he falls in love with a mortal.

Zola (Taylour Paige), a Detroit waitress, strikes up a new friendship with a customer, Stefani (Riley Keough), who seduces her to join a weekend of dancing and partying in Florida. What at first seems like a glamorous trip full of “hoeism” rapidly transforms into a 48-hour journey involving a nameless pimp, an idiot boyfriend, some Tampa gangsters and other unexpected adventures in this wild, see-it-to-believe-it tale.