Dirty Pictures

In this “dishy…superbly reported” (Entertainment Weekly) New York Times bestseller, Peter Biskind chronicles the rise of independent filmmakers who reinvented Hollywood—most notably Sundance founder Robert Redford and Harvey Weinstein, who with his brother, Bob, made Miramax Films an indie powerhouse. As he did in his acclaimed Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Peter Biskind “takes on the movie industry of the 1990s and again gets the story” (The New York Times). Biskind charts in fascinating detail the meteoric rise of the controversial Harvey Weinstein, often described as the last mogul, who created an Oscar factory that became the envy of the studios, while leaving a trail of carnage in his wake. He follows Sundance as it grew from a regional film festival to the premier showcase of independent film, succeeding almost despite the mercurial Redford, whose visionary plans were nearly thwarted by his own quixotic personality. Likewise, the directors who emerged from the independent movement, such as Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, and David O. Russell, are now among the best-known directors in Hollywood. Not to mention the actors who emerged with them, like Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Ethan Hawke, and Uma Thurman. Candid, controversial, and “sensationally entertaining” (Los Angeles Times) Down and Dirty Pictures is a must-read for anyone interested in the film world.

A complete narrative history of the weird and wonderful world of Underground Comix! In the 1950s, comics meant POW! BAM! superheroes, family-friendly gags, and Sunday funnies, but in the 1960s, inspired by these strips and the satire of MAD magazine, a new generation of creators set out to subvert the medium, and with it, American culture. Their “comix,” spelled that way to distinguish the work from their dime-store contemporaries, presented tales of taboo sex, casual drug use, and a transgressive view of society. Embraced by hippies and legions of future creatives, this subgenre of comic books and strips often ran afoul of the law, but that would not stop them from casting cultural ripples for decades to come, eventually moving the entire comics form beyond the gutter and into fine-art galleries. Author Brian Doherty weaves together the stories of R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, Harvey Pekar, and Howard Cruse, among many others, detailing the complete narrative history of this movement. Through dozens of new interviews and archival research, Doherty chronicles the scenes that sprang up around the country in the 1960s and ’70s, beginning with the artists’ origin stories and following them through success and strife, and concluding with an examination of these creators’ legacies, Dirty Pictures is the essential exploration of a truly American art form that recontextualized the way people thought about war, race, sex, gender, and expression.

In the late 1980s a generation of filmmakers inspired by the directors of the 1970s began to flower outside the studio system. In the following decade, the independent movement bloomed. In this volume Biskind tells the story of these filmmakers and the independent distributors.

Boxing, porn, and the beginnings of movie censorship -- The rise of salacious cinema -- State regulations emerge -- Mutual and the capacity for evil -- War, nudity, and birth control -- Self-regulation reemerges -- Midnight movies and sanctioned cinema -- Sound enters the debate -- Tension increases between free speech and state censorship -- Threats from abroad and domestic disturbances -- Outlaws and miracles -- State censorship statutes on the defense -- Devil in the details : film and the Fourth and Fifth Amendments -- Dirty words : profanity and the patently offensive -- Filthy pictures : obscenity from nudie cuties to fetish films -- The porno chic : from Danish loops to Deep throat -- Just not here : content regulation through zoning -- Is censorship necessary? -- The politics of profanity

Paperback edition of this groundbreaking study of the art of Touko Laaksonen (1920-1991), better known as Tom of Finland, in which Micha Ramakers explores the incredible and defining impact he has had upon gay culture. A lively and entertaining work encompassing the rise of the gay movement, the world of fine art and the functioning of pornography, this is an ideal work for the millions of Tom's fans throughout the world and of interest to readers unfamiliar with his work. Illustrated in b/w throughout.

When New York art dealer Elizabeth Martel's mother falls ill, she returns to her hometown in the Midwest. After her mother's death she is seriously short of funds, and a friend suggests she take a job as art adviser to billionaire grain merchant, Preston Greylander. When Greylander is killed in a mysterious murder-suicide, Martel is left in possession of a Rembrandt that needs restoration. She takes the painting to Amsterdam where she deposits it with the prestigious firm of Van der Saar Fine Arts. The Van der Saar family has been in the art business since the seventeenth century and the current generation is represented by two brothers: Hendrik, suave and charismatic, is the perfect front man, while the deceptively low key Willem is a master of restoration. Hendrik and Martel enthusiastically resume an old love affair, and she discovers that the brothers' personal lives are in chaos, and the family is haunted by guilt and swathed in deception. As doubts arise about the authenticity of the Rembrandt, other actors arrive in Amsterdam determined to recover the picture. "Dirty Pictures" is narrated by a woman with a brash, irreverent point of view. Martel's voice is caustic, satirical, and darkly humorous. It gets into the readers head and stays there. Patricia Ketola borrows freely from the genres of the crime novel, the family saga and the love story and combines them into a unique vision of life in a world heading for disaster. This richly textured novel celebrates the profound, the beautiful, and the good, and there is a lot of deep knowledge backing up Martel's often outrageous statements. "Patricia Ketola's clever and sexy debut novel is an audacious genre mash-up, elevated and enlivened by the salty, up-from-the-heels voice of narrator Elizabeth Martel, a sort of lusty spin on Patricia Highsmith's magnetic sociopath Tom Ripley. "Dirty Pictures" heralds the arrival of a clever, gutsy new voice that fearlessly swings for the fences." -Craig McDonald, Edgar-Anthony Award Finalist

Dirty Picture is the story of two sisters whose liaisons create scandal in a small town. Leaving her husband's home in Bombay, Reena returns to Ajmer wearing the ring of a married CEO. She intends to rebuild her life even if it means stepping out of convention. Meanwhile, her teenage sister Bharti has stumbled into local politics. Although imbued with a reformatory zeal, she gets sucked into a veritable quagmire of sexual intrigue because of her naivety and inexperience. While Bharti's life begins to disintegrate, dragging all around her into a nightmare of exploitation, Reena struggles to keep her castle in the air from imminent collapse. Circumstances become inexorable as the moral brigade closes in on the hapless Bharti and Reena discovers that the CEO is more in love with his image on T.V. Anuradha Marwah writes feelingly about desire, abuse and small town society. Her searing third novel imaginatively explores the 'sex scandal' that shook Ajmer in the 1990s and raises deeply disturbing questions about love and consent. …she is erudite, has a way with words and compels attention. - Khushwant Singh

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