AFI Silver's Mid-Atlantic Regional Showcase (MARS) celebrates noteworthy filmmaking from the mid-Atlantic region, featuring both locally made films and the work of filmmakers with local ties.

HEAVY METAL PICNIC
Invited Guests: Filmmakers Jeff Krulik and John Heyn, Full Moon Jamboree creator Billy Gordon, Rudy Childs and the Earth Dogs, Asylum featuring Ronnie Kalimon and Dale Flood, and Tito Cantero, Ken Guillette and Chris Lucid of "The Farm"

Produced and presented by the team behind cult hit HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT (Jeff Krulik and John Heyn), HEAVY METAL PICNIC is a celebration of mid-'80s Maryland rock and roll and heavy metal, by those who lived--and survived--it. The film focuses on the 1985 Full Moon Jamboree, a weekend field party bacchanal that took place at "The Farm," home to a cast of colorful characters who lived and partied alongside unamused neighbors in the McMansions of Potomac. The Full Moon Jamboree, an affair so raucous that it made the evening news, was the field party to end all field parties, and much of it was recorded using a home video camera and a stolen CBS News microphone swiped from the Reagan Inauguration earlier that year. Twenty-five years later, we revisit the scene and meet the people behind the party, as well as the musicians who performed there, including mid-Atlantic doom metal icons Asylum.

DIR/PROD Jeff Krulik; PROD Rudy Childs, Billy Gordon. US, 2010, color, 90 min. NOT RATED Presented on Digibeta

Friday, August 6, 9:30

AFI Member passes will be accepted at all screenings of HEAVY METAL PICNIC.

OF FLESH AND BLOOD
20th Anniversary Screening!

In Person: Director Jeff Mentges plus the entire cast and crew, including Al Breon, Dick Bangham, Steve Lorber, Joe Sasfy, Jeanne Keskinen, Jeff Sacks, Dave Nuttycombe, Al Ercolani, John and Maureen Simmons and Joe Lee of Joe's Record Paradise

In the late '80s, Jeff Mentges turned his attention from fronting infamous DC band No Trend to attending film school. Not content to graduate with a short film like the rest of his classmates, he decided to produce and direct a 16mm narrative feature film. The result: OF FLESH AND BLOOD, a black-and-white noir retelling of porn star John Holmes' sordid descent into drugs, mayhem and murder. Shot for just $15K and featuring his former co-workers and denizens from Joe's Record Paradise, as well as beloved school janitor Al Breon in the starring role, the film had its grand premiere on August 15, 1990, at the Biograph Theater in Washington, DC. This special anniversary screening is as much a celebration of low-budget 16mm independent filmmaking before digital video took over as it is a 20-year reunion for everyone who was involved in making it happen.

DIR/SCR/PROD Jeff Mentges. US, 1990, b&w, 90 min. NOT RATED

Friday, August 20, 9:30

AFI Member passes will be accepted at all screenings of OF FLESH AND BLOOD.

ALL ABOUT EVIL
In Person: Director Joshua Grannell, Peaches Christ and Mink Stole!

The directorial debut of Midnight Movie impresario (and Annapolis, MD, native) Joshua Grannell (better known as "Peaches Christ"), this film is a twisted black comedy with performances by Natasha Lyonne, Thomas Dekker, Noah Segan, cult icon Mink Stole and Cassandra Peterson (aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark). "ALL ABOUT EVIL pays tribute to '80s teen flicks and slasher films with tongue firmly in cheek and murderous instincts given free rein. Deborah Tennis (Lyonne) is a meek librarian under the domineering supervision of Evelyn (Mink Stole). She's also recently inherited the Victoria Theatre from her father and is trying to keep its doors open despite dwindling ticket sales. When a violent encounter with her wicked mother accidentally screens before an audience, Deborah's career as a filmmaker is born. She premieres a new work each week, upping the Grand Guignol quotient each time. As cinematic success begins to go to Deborah's head--'I'm not a concessionaire,' she shrieks at one unfortunate patron, 'I'm an actress!'--some in her audience begin to doubt she's just using stage blood to make her sanguinary shorts."--Rod Armstrong, San Francisco Film Festival

DIR/SCR/PROD Joshua Grannell; PROD Darren Stein, Brian Benson, Debbie Brubaker. US, 2010, color, 98 min. NOT RATED Presented on HDCam

Tickets $13/$10 AFI Members, Seniors, Students and Military with ID

Friday, August 27, 9:30