The Fantasy and Surreal Films of Relah Eckstein

Philosophical Research Society

3910 Los Feliz Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90027

Friday, November 8 · 7 - 8:30pm PST

Tickets Here

Fellini has Rome, John Waters has Baltimore, Kenneth Anger has heaven and hell, but Relah Eckstein has the San Fernando Valley. Using her home in the Valley and a studio at Los Angeles City College, Relah transformed her inner world on super 8mm and 16mm film. This series of short films exposes a love for film history but is filtered through Eckstein’s aesthetic, which combines low and high culture. The films are made within Relah’s world: her friends, her dog, her mother, and the combination of nightmares with dream-like beauty. Throughout her cinematic work, she collaborated with the GoGo’s Gina Schock as an actor and composer, Gary Friedlander. The artist can only make a unique approach, and seeing all her films in one show is like seeing a personal but edited journal of images and sound.

Relah will be there in person with Tosh Berman, an actor in her films, interviewing her with the others who worked with Relah, such as Kent Moorman (actor), Katrina Alexy (actor), Erik Deutschman (Cinematographer), Paul Sbrizzi (Cinematographer), and Lun*na Menoh (Costumes/Set Designer).

The films shown tonight are:

Ant Farm Super-8, 1987 (1 min and 30 seconds)

Light Mail 16mm, B&W, 1989 (3 min and 30 seconds)

Eggy Time 16mm, 1990 (3 min)

Mr. Bubblehead 16mm, 1990 (30 seconds)

Eye Creature 16mm, Color, 1991 (7 min)

The Room 16mm, B&W, 1992 (5 min and 30 seconds)

Oat-Meal 16mm, color, 1994 (8 min)

Lucy’s Dream 16mm, B&W, 1999 (12 min and 30 seconds)

French Toast 16mm, 2002-? (9 min) *Work-in-Progress

TICKETS: $10 (In-Person Event Only)

Please email events@prs.org or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.

vol.13 - Relah Eckstein (Who Is Lun*na Menoh?)

We talk about Relah Eckstein on our mini-documentary on the bigger documentary "Who Is Lun*na Menoh?" Relah is truly a cineamtic genius. Think of John Waters/Luis Bunuel/David Lynch if they lived and worked in the San Fernando Valley (Encino to be specific). Lun*na and I worked on her films which throughout the years, and why she is not better known is a mystery to me. Here you can see film stills from her work. Enjoy!

"My Life in the Theatre de la Huchette" by Tosh Berman (Paris)

Not too many people know this, but besides being a publisher (TamTam Books) and writer ("Sparks-Tastic, "The Plum in Mr. Blum's Pudding," and the upcoming memoir "Tosh"), I'm also a movie actor.  I did a cameo in Anna Biller's "Viva," in which I had a line, or to be more exact just one word "precious," and the role of 'Boy' in Andy Warhol's "Tarzan and Jane Regained Sort Of..."   Also, I had starring roles in various films by Relah Eckstein.   Now, due to financial issues, I have decided to become an actor for the stage, and not just any stage, but The Théâtre de la Huchette in the Latin Quarter in Paris. 

The theater is located at 23 rue de la Huchette, and since 1957 they have been presenting a double-bill of "The Lesson" and "The Bad Soprano" by Eugène Ionesco.   The playwright has the knack to convey the absurdity of life in such a manner that articulates my view of the world.  Therefore I went to the Huchette theater and told them I'm willing to work for nothing if they give me a role in the production.  They asked if I can speak French, and I said "NO."  I told them it would be faithful to the playwright's concern if I were an actor that couldn't express myself in another language.  But the rub is that Ionesco such an exact type of writer, that language, of course, is essential. But the fact that I couldn't deliver his lines in such a manner means that the director has to up his game by presenting me in such a production.  Every night I have to learn m lines in French and to remind you, dear readers, it's two plays I'm doing every night.   I do all my lines in French of course, but it has a California accent attached to it, that caused my director to winch whenever he hears me recite the lines. 

It's interesting to note that Ionesco is Romanian, and French is his second language, which is the language he wrote his plays in.  So in that sense, I feel we have something in common. I told that to the director, and he agreed that I was on to something.  "The Bald Soprano" in my mind is about language and communication.  Therefore since Ionesco wrote it in a second language, and I don't speak proper French makes this production the essential version of the play. 

I often have dreams where I'm either in a public space or at a party with friends, and I'm naked.   Everyone else is dressed, but for some reason, I either lost my clothes or forgot to put them on before leaving home.  The thing is no one says anything about my nakedness. Acting in these two one-act plays, I have that feeling, but I'm awake and aware of what is in front of me.   Which are embarrassment and shame.   My role model for acting is Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther films directed by Blake Edwards.   If I speak fast enough with a strong fake French accent, I may get away with the performance.  Hopefully, the audience, and especially the theater critics will see it as an absurd performance in a highly ridiculous pair of plays. 

Tonight is opening night, and as I walk from the 3rd arrondissement to the 5th I try not to think of the pain in my stomach, but also I realize that I forgot my lines.  My immediate reaction is to run away from the theater.  Still, as a professional, and as a representation of an American, with the 'go-for-it-spirit' I enter the backstage of the theater to face my fate. 

- Tosh Berman, Paris, September 17, 2018

February 1, 2014

Photo by Relah Eckstein from her film "The Room"

February 1, 2014

Checking my bank accounts, I can see clearly that I am going broke.  Not working for the past year and a half has been a fantastic time spent writing and thinking, but now it is high time to think about going back to the work force.  Checking my skills, the most logical occupation for me would be an actor in films.   Never mind the fact that the last film I was in “French Toast” hasn’t been finished yet.  Nevertheless my filmography is very impressive, being a child actor in Andy Warhol’s “Tarzan and Jane Regained... Sort Of” and turning down a role in Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider.” Plus being the star in Relah Eckstein’s films. I felt I had a better chance to get maybe a role in a situational TV show or even probably a commercial.  

I chose to avoid the middle-man, and I approached a movie studio, The Black Maria, to see if they were doing any hiring for film work.  I was realistic in knowing my chances to be a star in a film was pretty glum, but for sure I could get a second or third billing role in some film.  The only photograph of myself in a film was in Relah’s “The Room” which was made in the 80s, but I sent it with a resume.  Within a week, I received a letter from a producer at the studio by the name of William Taylor.  He asked if I could fly out to New Jersey (where the studio was located) for screen tests.  I said sure, and I was on my way.

When I showed up two days later at Mr. Taylor’s office, bright and early in the morning, he looked over the one image he has of me from “The Room.” he told me that I didn’t look anything like the photograph.   Which I replied “Well I’m an actor sir, and I really don’t have an identity.  I can melt into any character or role. That is my speciality.”  

He then commented that as far as he could tell, I have only worked on four Relah Eckstein films, plus an early Warhol, and a cameo in Anna Biller’s “Viva.” I told him that I was very choosey.

He looked at me and then laugh, and he said “you got the spirit man, and I like that in a male.” He asked me to take off my shirt.  I thought that was odd, since I was 59 years old, but on the other hand I have been known to make women swoon to this very day.   He did a series of photographs of me without the shirt on his I-Phone, which I thought to myself. “Wow technology is so fantastic. ”

After he finished taking the photos, he came to me, and put his hand on my knee and said “I think you got something.” He went back to his desk and threw me a script.  I was trying to catch it, but it landed in a gold fish bowl.    He just glanced at me with his eyes and made a movement with his hands that I should get it out of the fish bowl.  It was just a little script. In fact it was only five pages long.  I asked him “Is this the entire script?” He shook his head up and down.  

“It was written by the great S.J. Perelman for a Marx Brothers film, but Groucho didn’t want to play it.” He told me that the script was in his drawer for numerous years, till Takashi Murakami came to visit the studio and told him he just wanted to make his first American film.  By chance, Taylor showed Murakami the script, which he also threw at him, and he missed catching it, and again, it landed in the fish bowl.  Murakami loved the idea that the script was only five pages long, and basically silent, except for some sound effects.  

As an actor I was turned on to the fact that this was a silent film, and in reality I specialized in silent movie work.  Relah refused me to speak in her films because of my squeaky voice.  I told Taylor that I loved Murakami’s paintings, and was ready to work in this film.   Taylor just starred at me for a minute or so without saying a word then he said “we got a deal! ”

Buster Cornbread Halloween Hoot-e-Nanny

A very short film by Relah, Kent & Buster. And if you blink your eyes you may miss yours truly as well. Very scary.