Although Curt McDowell’s name does ring a bell in cineaste circles, he might still be misunderstood.
For instance, he is no known relation to Malcolm McDowell, who perhaps most famously played the milk-chugging and Beethoven-loving sociopath in Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, nor to the late Roddy McDowall, the most famous of the apes in Planet of the Apes, but it should be pointed out that outrageous sex and primates have indeed figured into his work.
In fact, Curt McDowell’s films have been called both experimental and explicit. But apparently, and most confusingly, they’ve also been said to have a great sense of humor. Evidence suggests a rare and perceptive openness, a kind of ribaldry that goes beyond mere camp because it seems less defensive.
“He really is a key figure in Bay Area film history,” says Yerba Buena Center for the Arts film and video curator Joel Shepard, who’s presenting a five-film selection of McDowell shorts — fondly described as “weird, anarchic, messy and often sex-driven” — tonight. “But his work has been neglected.”
True that. Here, in its entirety, is a prudish and half-grudging obituary from the June 6, 1987, edition of the New York Times: “Curt McDowell, a prominent underground filmmaker, died of AIDS Wednesday in his San Francisco home, according to The Associated Press. He was 42 years old. Mr. McDowell’s avant-garde films included ‘Sparkie’s Tavern,’ ‘Loads,’ ‘A Visit to Indiana,’ ‘Pornogra Follies,’ a musical described as a ‘bisexual scatological revue,’ and ‘Nudes,’ a collection of sexual sketches.”