Event

In the Basement

Nov 27 - Dec 03

Ulrich Seidl, 2015, Austria

Friday, Nov 27 at 04:00PM
Friday, Nov 27 at 08:00PM
Saturday, Nov 28 at 04:00PM
Saturday, Nov 28 at 08:00PM
Sunday, Nov 29 at 08:00PM
Monday, Nov 30 at 03:00PM
Monday, Nov 30 at 08:00PM
Tuesday, Dec 01 at 08:00PM
Tuesday, Dec 01 at 08:00PM
Wednesday, Dec 02 at 08:00PM
Thursday, Dec 03 at 08:00PM

A documentary about people and their obsessions, and what they do in their basements in their free time.

Hold on to your lederhosen. The Austria that cranked out Uncle Adolf has a few more freaks up its sleeve. In the Basement is a subterranean descent through a menagerie of human depravities. It's a theme park ride through close quarter confessions from closet sociopaths. Luckily, all are relatively harmless, and the documentarian Ulrich Seidl (Dog Days, Import/Export) emerged from his subject's basements unharmed and unscarred.

Here you'll see what he survived: alcoholic oompa bands, Nazis and knot kinks, deviants and racists, all seeking solace in their freakish recreation of choice. (A lucky few cling with unbearable erotic tension to a single other fellow weirdo who shares their hideous impulses.) It's a tableau of depravity, kept desperately private.

And what does it tell us? It certainly tells us something about shame. These weirdos are choking back tears as they confess their love of Nazi paraphernalia. Or collecting dolls. Or practicing sadomasochism. So what else do humans hide? Why do we feel the urge to hide it? And why, in secret, do we scratch that secret itch until the skin is weird and inflamed, a disgraceful and hideous scar? Who knows. But it makes for a damn good viewing.