"After watching L.A. Plays Itself when it was screened in New York in the 1970s, Salvador Dalí is quoted as muttering “new information for me.” Need I say more? You might learn something new yourself."
--Megan Sallabedra, LA Weekly

We launch new strand GAY SEX TUESDAYS with a pair of films by legendary experimental porn auteur Fred Halsted.

Halsted once described his ethos thus: "I am not that interested in cum-shots or erections or sucking or fucking. I am more interested in what is going on in the psyche and not the action itself. I don't fuck to get my rocks off, I am interested in getting my head off." While it should be noted that Halsted's films most definitely do include sucking, fucking, and much besides, they really are unlike any porn films you've seen before, using trippy audio distortions and disjunctive editing to give new meaning to the term "headfuck". 

In those halcyon days of porno chic, the release of L.A. Plays Itself (51 mins) in 1972 was enough to make Halsted a minor celebrity amongst the chin-stroking intelligentsia of New York and LA (not to mention those stroking other parts). Starting with a bucolic hookup in the forests of Southern California, the film then abruptly shifts to the city, where a mutton-chopped dom (played by Halsted himself) has some extremely nasty sex with a fresh-off-the-bus Texan innocent (played by Halsted's lover Joseph Yale), ending with what Halsted claimed was the first time fisting was shown onscreen. The savagely beautiful L.A. Plays Itself is the film that Halsted is best remembered for today, earning a place in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art and lending its name to Thom Andersen's epic 2003 essay film Los Angeles Plays Itself (playing 11th May at 4pm).

Made directly after L.A. Plays Itself, the black-and-white Sex Garage (35 mins) is in many ways even more transgressive than its notorious predecessor. To a soundtrack that mixes Motown and Johann Sebastian Bach, a mechanic at the eponymous repair shop is getting his rocks off with his girl (yes, be warned - this film contains depictions of heterosexual intercourse) when a cute dude arrives to get his car looked at. The chick flees - so what choice does our hero have but to hook up with the guy instead? And when a leather daddy arrives on his bike, can he really be expected to politely leave the lads to their fun? The film reaches a (needless to say, literal) climax with a scene of auto-eroticism that beats Cronenberg by a quarter of a century. 

Long live Fred Halsted, you twisted fuck you!

GAY SEX TUESDAYS is an occasional screening series dedicated to reviving the lost art of watching hardcore gay intercourse as it was intended: on a large screen, with an audience, and on any day of the week we damn please. Along with landmarks from the golden age of porn, we'll be showing queer arthouse classics and avant-garde erotica - basically, anything beautiful and/or interesting that can offer a couple of hours' escape from the existential boringness of our jobs and our social media feeds.

GAY SEX TUESDAYS: because gay sex isn't just for the weekends. 

Doors open 30 minutes before advertised start time. All film screenings are ad-free and 18+ unless otherwise stated, and start with no more than a 10 min selection of trailers. 

The Cube is a membership venue, please remember to bring your card. You can join on the door for £1.