Cult film fest and Sam Fox
Besides establishing itself as a pivotal rock music venue here for visiting acts since its launch six years ago, the Gagarin club in Athens has also made a name for itself as a host for various unconventional events, particularly in film, that can be spicy, hilarious, absurd, even shameless. Just days after staging the Second Berlin Porn Film Festival in Athens, the club is continuing in a similar vein with a more seasoned event, one as old as the club itself, the 6th Greek Cult Film Festival. On until Sunday night with several films scheduled per day, the festival started yesterday afternoon with «G…olara,» a 1986 film which organizers, in their promotional material, described as «one of the worst hard-porn films ever shot on Greek territory.» The four-day festival’s local B-movie agenda offers mostly melodrama and horror porn. These low-budget productions never managed to cause even a ripple on the fringe, but an interested cult community does exist, as suggested by this event’s six-year life. Last year’s event was topped off by an appearance by Italian porn queen Cicciolina. The organizers then went hunting again and the catch for this year was Samantha Fox, the 80s pop singer who turned to music after proving to be a hit in the infamous British tabloid press as a Page 3 girl, where well-endowed young ladies bare their upper halves. She is scheduled to perform at midnight on Saturday. Fox made a few unsuccessful attempts to revive her singing career in the 90s, but has nevertheless managed to perform sporadically. Apart from music, she has also acted in a handful of films and appeared on reality TV shows. Fox, whose celebrity career was launched by her mother when she photographed her 16-year-old daughter in lingerie and sent the results to the tabloids, last raised a bit of a stir several years ago with a public statement about her sexuality, in which she declared being totally in love with her female manager. To Sunday, Gagarin Club, 205 Liosion, tel 210.854.7600.
