Shorts by Todd Haynes and Christine Vachon

Between Poison and Safe, Haynes made Dottie Gets Spanked, a stylized, bittersweet nod to his childhood fascination with I Love Lucy about a six-year-old boy obsessed with the star of a hit sitcom. And the same year that Christine Vachon was assistant editor on Parting Glances, she directed the charmingly perverse Way of the Wicked (made under the aegis of Apparatus Productions, founded by Vachon, Haynes, and Barry Ellsworth), about the terrible things that can happen when a young girl removes the Eucharist from her mouth.

NOTE: These two films screen with a special (and secret) surprise film!

“Anyone who has nursed a childhood obsession with a television program — and who hasn’t devoutly wished at one time to escape childhood growing pains by diving through the tube into a magical realm? — should find a haunting resonance in Todd Haynes’s half-hour film, Dottie Gets Spanked.”
— Stephen Holden, The New York Times

Film Details

Dottie Gets Spanked
Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 1994
Running time: 30 min
Format: DVD
Director: Todd Haynes
Screenwriter: Todd Haynes
Producers: Christine Vachon, Lauren Zalaznick
Cinematographer: Maryse Alberti
Editor: James Lyons
Source: Zeitgeist

The Way of the Wicked
Country: USA

Language: English

Year: 1986

Running time: 15 min

Format: DCP

Director: Christine Vachon

Screenwriter: Christine Vachon

Producer: Elizabeth Karlsen
Cinematographer: Maryce Best Alberti
Editors: Elizabeth Karlsen, Christine Vachon
Source: IndieCollect

Films and schedules may be subject to change.

Modern Cinema’s Founding Supporters are Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein. Support is provided by Nion T. McEvoy and the Susan Wildberg Morgenstein Fund. This season of Modern Cinema is generously supported by James C. Hormel and Michael P. Nguyen.