upcoming

Sci-FI Pint & Pizza Night

What:

Science Fiction Pint and Pizza Night featuring European planetary exploration films with First Spaceship on Venus (1960), Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962) and other outer space psychotronic weirdness, trailers, short films and strange giveaways Wednesday, August 25, at Arcata Theatre Lounge, 1036 G St. in Arcata. Doors open from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., cost is free with $5 minimum purchase of food or beverage and is all ages. Sponsored by La Dolce Video, The Arcata Eye, Daisy Drygoods, Vintage Avenger, Tin Can Mailman, The Clothing Dock and more!

You are there… on man’s most incredible journey!

First Spaceship on Venus (1960) is an East German/Polish film directed by Kurt Maetzig and based on the novel The Astronauts by Stanisław Lem and was partially intended as an anti-nuclear tract. In 1985, a strange, extraterrestrial spool is discovered, leading to a manned expedition to Venus. The multinational, multi-racial crew, including American Brinkman (Gunther Simon), African Talua (Juliusz Ongewe), and Japanese Sumiko Ogimura (Yoko Tani) set out with their spaceship Kosmokrator to visit the “Silent Planet”, which is shrouded in clouds, and doesn’t respond to contact attempts. While the “Kosmokrator” is in flight, the extraterrestrial record is decoded and it turns out that the Venusians seemingly planned to invade Earth in 1908. Should the Kosmokrator still attempt to get in touch with the Aliens? And why are they silent now?

You’re in Space beyond Space.

Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962) is a Danish science fiction film. The seventh planet is, of course, Uranus, and a crew is being dispatched there by the United Nations on a mission of space exploration. During their journey an alien presence, a mysterious being briefly assumes control of the crew’s minds. They awaken safely but notice that an unexplained long period of time has passed by. Upon landing on Uranus, they find a forested land oddly like our own (rather than the cold, bleak world they were expecting.) This forest is surrounded by a mysterious barrier. One of the crew pushes his arm through the barrier, only to have it frozen. New features and forms begin to appear each time they are imagined by the crew. A bevy of pretty girls, the inevitable monster and world domination by mind control of a one-eyed brain living in a cave . The film’s ideas of astronauts exploring outer space only to confront their inner mindscapes and memories precede the similar-themed Solaris by a full decade (Although the novel Solaris precedes this film by a year). Made by the same people who gave the world Reptilicus (1961).

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