Promiscuous Programming

Chapter 1 delineates a shift in late 1960s programming practices in which exhibitors moved away from a model confined to “sophisticated” auteurist traditions. Most urban repertory and art houses in the years 1968 to 1989 unabashedly assembled for public consumption an eclectic blend of films that ranged greatly from Classic Hollywood to exploitation films to foreign or art films to experimental shorts to blockbusters. This is best captured by the concept of promiscuous programming, doubling in meaning to express the reshuffling of taste strata as well as the racy and salacious content that permeated this period’s film programs. A large portion of the chapter sketches a genealogy, linking the programmatic sensibilities of Iris Barry (of MoMA in the 1930s), Amos Vogel (of Cinema 16, 1947–63), Pauline Kael (of Cinema Guild, 195–60), and other programmers and exhibitors who revised conventional taste codes and laid the groundwork for a veritably multifarious curatorial attunement.