SATURDAY NIGHTS AT THE BATHS
David Buckley / United States / 1975 / 82 min
Saturday Night at the Baths will be introduced by writer, artist, and scholar, Greg Youmans. His essays about queer history and experimental cinema have appeared in Camera Obscura, e-flux, Millennium Film Journal, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among other journals, anthologies, and exhibition catalogs.
Newly restored in 4K, David Buckley’s landmark excursion into bisexuality, 70s relationship politics, and the historical importance of gay bathhouse culture is celebrated in his 1975 film Saturday Night at the Baths. When struggling pianist Michael (Robert Aberdeen) lands a job at the legendary Continental Baths in NYC, his wife Tracy (Ellen Sheppard) encourages him, even emphasizes how special this institution is. Michael however struggles with his own homophobia yet at the same time starts developing feelings for his confident and sexually free co-worker Scotti (Don Scotti). Shot on-location inside the famous Continental Baths and featuring an unforgettable 12-minute scene of the actual entertainment, both musical and sensual alike, Saturday Night at the Baths is a sublime example of the compelling and sensual queer cinema of one of the most groundbreaking periods in gay and bisexual film history.
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE BATHS / 8 pm – Nov 5 / Grand Illusion Cinema
