Jack Stevenson (born 14 September 1955) is an author and film showman, who lives in Copenhagen, Denmark.
His books illuminate aspects of cinema and history that have been largely neglected by mainstream media. Also, of value to future historians, are his published interviews of Underground figures that he did starting in the early eighties.
Stevenson's most recent book is The Haunted North (Horror Stories from Viking Country), a collection of ten horror stories drawn from the extremes of Scandinavian history and culture, and spans the period from the Dark Ages to World War II. The through line of the book is witchcraft.[The Haunted North (Horror Stories from Viking Country), Jack Stevenson, Park River Books, , 2020]
Stevenson's book Hotrod Billy & his Friends is his first work of fiction. About it, Robert Crumb wrote "Well written, unaffected and ringing with authenticity".[Hotrod Billy and Friends, Stevenson, ]
Since 2009, Stevenson operates Husets Biograf, a cinema in Copenhagen.
Author
Stevenson's earliest published writing was in his magazine
The Living Color, published in Los Angeles in 1982.
[The Living Color, Issue March - April 1982, Living Color Productions, Hollywood, California] The Living Color featured Stevenson's interviews, most notably of
John Waters, poems he received in the mail from
Charles Bukowski, his own short fiction, and works by Jim Morton and William Sikorsky.
A review didn't mention the Waters interview, barely mentioned Bukowski, but did say "Otherwise, there's good film coverage, especially on Godfather of Gore Herschell Gordon Lewis, a punchy sports column and a fascist advice page. A lot, really, for free."
In Boston Stevenson's more ambitious and bigger magazine,
Pandemonium, followed
The Living Color. The first issue came out in 1986. Leading up to it, Stevenson had exchanged letters with a wide range of underground and outlaw individuals.
Pandemonium # 1 featured articles, correspondence, and interviews with
Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs,
Al Goldstein, and
John Waters.
Pandemonium #2 was more ambitious with a slick cover, and articles about and/or interviews with, Divine,
Mary Woronov,
Cookie Mueller, Rosa von Praunheim and many others.
[ Pandemonium # 2, Copyright Living Color Productions, Cambridge, Mass, 1987] The third and final issue of
Pandemonium, a "Freaks, Magicians & Movie Stars Special Edition" was published in 1989. Again improved, the issue featured articles and interviews, including Mary Vivian Pearce,
Kenneth Anger,
George Kuchar, and
Johnny Eck.
Film Threat Magazine published his interview with George Kuchar in 1988.
["Interview: George Kuchar, by Pat Hollis & Jack Stevenson", Film Threat #17, 1988]
Stevenson's first book, Desperate Visions: Camp America (1996), focused on the films of John Waters and the Kuchar Brothers.[Publisher: Creation Books; 1st edition (May 1, 1996)Language: English , ] It had its launch party at the Lighthouse Cinema, in New York on June 12, 1996, kicking off the first ever major retrospective of the films of George Kuchar and Mike Kuchar. Stevenson flew in from Denmark for the event.
Stevenson followed that up with two books published in 2000, "Addicted: The Myth & Menace of Drugs in Film[Series: Creation Cinema Collection (Book 16) Publisher: Creation Books (2000) ] and "Fleshpot: Cinema's Myth Makers & Taboo Breakers."[Publisher: Critical Vision; 1st edition (2000)
] His book Dogme Uncut: Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, and the Gang That Took on Hollywood, was published in 2003. Reviews were consistently excellent. Publishers Weekly wrote “Stevenson presents an uncluttered and jargon-free assessment of an important movement in independent film, making this an excellent choice for foreign film buffs and aficionados.” [[Film Comment]] wrote “[Stevenson's] overview of Danish society and culture, as well as the country's important filmmakers, producers, cinematographers, and studios, is invaluable for those interested in Copenhagen's hotbed of creativity. On this account, Dogme Uncut provides terrific contextual background—including the controversial workings and economics of the Danish Film Institute—for understanding the emergence of Dogme . . . . Dogme Uncut accomplishes a worthwhile task in cataloguing almost every Dogme release and introducing the (often unknown) filmmakers behind them.”[Publisher: Santa Monica Press; First edition (September 1, 2003), Language: English, ,] Stevenson has authored 7 other books on subjects ranging from [[Tod Browning]]'s film Freaks, to one on the Scandinavian silent film Witchcraft Through the Ages.[[https://www.amazon.com/Jack-Stevenson/e/B001K7S4D2/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1 Jack Stevenson] retrieved December 27, 2018]
He has had dozens of stories published in a wide variety of places such as "Dusan Makavejev" in the magazine Chemical Imbalance and "Underground USA The Pike St. Cinema" in the magazine Divinity.[Chemical Imbalance Magazine, Vol. 2, # 2 (tenth issue, Michael McGonigal, Editor-Publisher, New York, Ny, 1992][Divinity, Volume 2, Number 4, Editor David Flint, Stockport, England, 1994] "Market Street - Movie Theater Graveyard USA" was published in the monthly tabloid dedicated to buying and selling films The Big Reel, and "Film Co-ops: Old Soldiers of the Sixties Still Standing" was published in the New York Independent Monitor.[The Big Reel, July 2000][New York Independent Monitor, Vol 5 #1, September 1999]
Stevenson has been a regular contributor to the Bright Lights Film Journal with long form essays including George Kuchar: A First-Person Life
Film showman
In Boston in 1986 Stevenson began showing films at the bar Chet's Last Call,
which was up a flight of stairs and across the street from the
Boston Garden. Most screenings were interspersed with live music by local bands. He brought
Roy Frumkes to Chet's for a screening of
Street Trash, Document of the Dead, and footage from The Last House on the Left. Among the feature films he screened were The Trip,
Female Trouble, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, and the Diane Linkletter Story. The Chet's gig ended when it went out of business on New Year's Eve 1987.
[Jack Stevenson Pushing Film Exhibition to the Limit Mail Interview, Galen Young, Essential Cinema Journal of Independent Film, Seattle, Vol 1 Number 1, Fall 1993] In 1988 he began a weekly series at the Primal Plunge in the Allston Mall. During the Primal plunge gig he began buying films and creating programs on themes.
[The High Priest of Schlock, Lawrence Levi, The SF Weekly, 2/5/92] In 1989 Stevenson did something that had never been done before. He threw 16mm films in a rucksack and flew to Europe; traveling from country to country arranging screenings.
Among the films he showed were Assembly line (1962)
and Ulcer at Work (1959).
[The Field Guide to Sponsored Films, Rick Prelinger, Publisher: NFPF (National Film Preservation)2006 Foundation)Ulcer at Work 1959, Sound, 26 Min, B&W] Road Showing goes back a hundred years with independent producers taking their outside of Hollywood productions from town to town by automobile. Collectively they became known as the "Forty Thieves".
What their films lacked in production values and fluid narrative, they made up with spectacle and the offer of forbidden images.
Where Stevenson differed from the Forty Thieves, who were producers exploiting their own product, or even road showing underground filmmakers, was by taking quality short films from a wide range of sources on the road. Stevenson, back in Boston, continued screenings at the Primal Plunge.
["Juke Box Movies" 8 Days a Week, Amy Finch, The Boston Phoenix, newspaper, 2/8/91] In 1991 he began midnight screenings at the Coolidge Corner Theatre of classic exploitation and underground films.
[John Waters' Multiple Maniacs, Divine is raped by a lobster, At the Coolidge Corner Theater March 15–16 22-12, Flier, 1991][Midnight Movies at the Coolidge Corner, Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill, Wild in the Streets, etc, Poster, January - February 1991] Stevenson also arranged film screenings for visiting Underground Film Makers.
[Trashfilm Roadshows, Johannes Shoenherr, Introduction, Jack Stevenson.Series: Headpress Paperback: 196 pages, Publisher: Critical Vision (June 1, 2002), ]
Stevenson drove cross country showing films in the summer/fall 1990. Among his stops were Detroit, Toronto, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco.
[1990 US American Cross-Country Summer-Fall Film Tour, Flier, no date][Misadventures in the Seattle Film Scene, The Belltown Messenger, issue # 77, March 2010] A highlight of the tour was an unauthorized urban Drive-in show in Seattle, projecting from a storefront rooftop across a parking lot to project on the wall of the opposite building. He showed Viva Las Vegas and Hell's Angels on Wheels. The police visited but left after members of the audience shouted "We're watching a movie".
[Jack Stevenson Interview by Galen Young, Essential Cinema: Journal of Independent Film, Volume One Number One, Fall, 1993] He again showed films in Europe in 1991. Later that year he moved to San Francisco. There he arranged film screenings at the ATA Gallery.
[Loony Tunes, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, 9/4/91] In 1992 he expanded his SF screenings to the Chameleon Club, the Epicenter, SF Art Institute, and
Roxie Theater.
[SF Weekly Night and Day September 4, 1991] In 1993 he moved to Denmark. Since then he has toured regularly in Europe and Scandinavia, with regular stops at the Werkstattkino in Munich, the Nova Cinema in Brussels, the Lichtspiel / Kiemathek in Bern, the Kino Komm in Nuremberg, and many other places.
[De vuilnisbelt van de cinematografie, Het Parool, Amsterdam, Vrijdag 1 April 1994][Berlingske Tidende, "Film om darlig smag" Newspaper, Onsdag 21, oktober 1992] He taught at the European Film College in
Ebeltoft, Denmark from 1995 to 1998.
[From the Bedroom to the Bijou, Jack Stevenson, The Film Quarterly, Volume 5, Number 1, Fall, 1997] He has been featured several times at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
[SF Weekly, Reel World Kitten With a Whip and Chasing Rainbows by SF Weekly Staff, San Francisco, California 10/13/1999] Stevenson currently operates Husets Biograf, a cinema in Copenhagen.
Books
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Desperate Visions: The Films of John Waters & the Kuchar Brothers (1996)
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Tod Brownings Freaks (1997)
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Fleshpot: Cinema's Sexual Myth Makers & Taboo Breakers (2000)
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Addicted: The Myth & Menace of Drugs in Film (2000)
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Lars von Trier (2002)
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Land of a Thousand Balconies: Discoveries and Confessions of A B-Movie Archaeologist (2003)
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Dogme Uncut: Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, and the Gang That Took on Hollywood (2003)
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Witchcraft Through The Ages: The Story Of Haxan, The World's Strangest Film, And The Man Who Made It (2007)
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Scandinavian Blue: The Erotic Cinema of Sweden and Denmark in the 1960s and 1970s (2010)
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Beneath Contempt & Happy to Be There: The Fighting Life of Porn King Al Goldstein (2011)
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The Haunted North (Horror Stories from Viking Country) (2020)
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Hotrod Billy & Friends (2021)
Magazine and other articles
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contributing editor to The Manson File (1989)
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Mary Vivian Pearce Article and Interview (1989)
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Miss Jean Hill Article and Interview (1989)
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Johnny Eck (1989)
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Inside the World's Wildest Rep Cinema: Werkstattkino Programming Without Limits (1991)
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Underground USA: The Pike St. Cinema (1992)
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Dusan Makavejev (1994)
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Before there was MTV There was Scopitone
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Lighthouse on the Rocks (1996)
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The Day They Turned the Lights Up (1996)
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Attack on Reason: Three Propaganda Films Examined (1996)
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Freaks: The Movie and the Myth Reconsidered (1996)
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Murray Glass: King of the Narrow Gauge Still Rules (1999)
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The Day the Bronx Invaded Earth: The Life and Cinema of the Kuchar Brothers (1999)
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Film Co-ops: Old Soldiers of the Sixties Still Standing (1999)
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Market Street: Movie Theater Graveyard USA (2000)
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The Wave Breaks: Star Danish Directors Fail to Translate (2003)
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Lars von Trier: Pornographer? (2004)
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No Stories to Tell: Danish Cinema Searches for a Subject (2004)
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Jesus Fucking Christ: Lars von Trier Anti-Christ (2009)
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Porno to the People: The Danish Revolution that Liberated America (2009)
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Haunted Cinema: Movie Theatres of the Dead (2010)
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George Kuchar: A First Person Life (2011)
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In A Garden of Tin Men: Marion Eaton Remembered (2012)
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Robert Cowan (1930 - 2011) Unsung Superstar of the Underground (2012)
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Soul Diva, John Waters Star Jean Hill Dies (2013)
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The Origins of Freaks (1932) in The Fenris Wolf, issue 12 (2024)
Interviews
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John Waters in The Living Color 1984
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Al Goldstein in Pandemonium 1 1985
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John Waters in Pandemonium 1 1985
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Divine in Pandemonium Two 1987
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John Waters in Pandemonium Two 1987
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Mink Stole in Pandemonium Two 1987
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Rosa von Praunheim in Pandemonium two 1987
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Kenneth Anger in Pandemonium Three (Interview by Dale Ashmun)1989
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George Stover in Pandemonium Three 1989
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Hubert Selby Jr. in Pandemonium Three (Interview by Pat Hollis) 1989
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Frederick Wiseman in Pandemonium Three 1989
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Mary Vivian Pearce in Pandemonium Three 1989
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Jean Hill
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George Kuchar in Pandemonium Three 1989
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Mike Kuchar in Pandemonium Three 1989
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Ondine in Pandemonium Three (Interview by Pat Hollis) 1989
External links
