BANNED FROM BLOCKBUSTER - PART 2

ILSA, THE WICKED WARDEN
1977
dir. Jess Franco
color, imported
$19.95

Third in the Ilsa series -- she the former She Wolf of the SS and Harem Keeper of the Oil Shieks -- starring Dyane Thorne as the sadistic warden of a Latin American (where else?) prison for women. Legendary b-grade director Franco has included all of the usual elements of this kind of film (cat fights, long shower scenes) and - as one reviewer put it - "although it doesn't quite reach the threshold of violent sadism established by the other two entries, it's no Girl Scout picnic either."

Good clean fun.

THIS WAY COMES...

DREAMS
The Dark Erotic Photographic Visions of John Santerineross
hardcover, 2004
39.95

Disturbing, unique, dreamlike visuals from NY photographer Santerineross, a long overdue follow-up to his highly coveted (and long out of print) Fruit of the Secret God.

note: the author will be holding his first Los Angeles solo exhibition this coming October at Todd/Browning Gallery.

AFTER THE BALL IS OVER

PHOTOGRAPHIC ATLAS OF CIVIL WAR INJURIES
Julian E. Kuz, editor

hardcover, 1996
150.00

More than 400 rare photographs illustrating case histories of the battle wounds and surgical rehabilitation efforts undergone by Civil War veterans from 1865-81. Originally an eight volume study produced by the Army Medical Museum. Quite easily the best book on the subject (if not the only one). Out of print.

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY

GUN NATION
Zed Nelson
hardcover, 2001
$49.95.. ...

British photo-journalist Nelson had covered armed conflict in Afghanistan, Somalia, El Salvador and elsewhere, before taking on this sometimes graphic project photographing U.S. guns and gun owners, gun shows, gunshot victims, Columbine survivors and mourners, police, etc. Out of print.

The publisher, Westzone, lasted little more than a year and released only a handful of titles including Cock: Indian Firework Art and Andrew Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin's Trust -- some of the best produced, most interesting photography and pop culture books of the last 10 years.

AND IT GOES ON...

BEAT
Christopher Felver
hardcover, 2007
$29.95

The most comprehensive photography collection of the people, players, and friends of the Beat era in American literature, including Kathy Acker, David Amram, Karel Appel, Al Aronowitz, John Ashbery, Amiri Baraka, Ted Berrigan, Richard Brautigan, James Broughton, Joan Brown, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, John Cage, Ernesto Cardenal, Carolyn Cassady, Don Cherry, Francisco Clemente, Andrei Codrescu, Gregory Corso, The Dalai Lama, Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Diane di Prima, Robert Duncan, Lawrence Durrell, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Karen Finley, The Fugs, and many many more.
Seminal.

(photos below: Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kesey)

BANNED FROM BLOCKBUSTER

GOODBYE UNCLE TOM
(Addio Zio Tom)
1971
dirs, Gualtiero Jacopetti & Franco Prosperi
color, widescreen
$14.95

This little-seen Italian underground classic bills itself as a documentary on life in the anti-bellum South and an examination of the evils of slavery, with actors re-creating the everyday and dialogue courtesy of actual letters and documents.

It is, in fact, thanks to the creators of Mondo Cane, what Roger Ebert calls "the most disgusting, contemptuous insult to decency" and a "vomit-bag of racism and perversion-mongering."

A truly unbelievable, outrageously violent, one-of-a-kind oddity.