Tone Glow is excited to present "He Never Dies," a showcase of nine films from Kalil Haddad and Luther Price. Haddad is one of the most expressive and imaginative experimental filmmakers today, drawing on a wide variety of influences—1970s gay porn magazines, vaporwave aesthetics, Italian exploitation films—to explore queer life in raw, radical fashion. His short films blend the archival and personal to rework the visual language of gay desire, uncovering deep material truths about sex, labor, and class. This event will present five of the Canadian filmmaker's recent works, including his new film My Secret Boyfriend Died in a Mass Shooting. Invested in finding beauty in the viscerally ugly, Haddad has stated that his vision of cinema is one that is "unpolished, dirty, underground."
Haddad's films will be shown alongside four Super 8 films from the late American artist Luther Price (1962-2020). Initially invested in jewelry-making and sculpture, Price switched to filmmaking after suffering a gunshot wound that left him in chronic pain. He would spend his career handcrafting singular works that incorporated ink, paint, tape, dirt, and spit. His films, which could involve found footage or burying film in the ground, provided ways to explore the pains and ecstasies of life, with deep consideration for how the medium could excavate feelings about family, memory, cancer, and queerness. This screening will include his 1989 masterpiece Sodom, which juxtaposes hole-punched archival footage of gay porn with Gregorian chants. The film was rejected by the queer community upon release.
18+ only. Haddad will be present for a post-screening Q&A. One ticket is good for the whole event. Special thanks to Elastic Arts, Josh Mabe, Ben Creech, Canyon Cinema, Tony Nguyen, and Kalil Haddad.
Program 1: Kalil Haddad at 7PM (Digital)
1. The Taking of Jordan (All American Boy) (2022, color, sound, 7 mins)
2. His Smell (2023, color, sound, 14 mins)
3. The Boy Was Found Unharmed (2024, color, sound, 2 mins)
4. Victim of Circumstance (2024, color, sound, 21 mins)
5. My Secret Boyfriend Died in a Mass Shooting (2025, color, sound, 6 mins)
TRT = 50 mins
Program 2: Luther Price at 8:15PM (Super 8)
1. Red Rooster (1988, color, sound, 4 mins)
2. The Look of Love (1988, color, sound, 4 mins)
3. Erruption Errection (1994, color, sound, 10 mins)
4. Sodom (1989, color, sound, 16 mins)
TRT = 34 mins
