William Rice

Coffee And Cigarettes is a collection of eleven films from cult director Jim Jarmusch. Each film hosts star studded cast of extremely unique individuals who all share the common activities of conversing while drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.

Not a documentary in the strictest sense of the word. Rather, it is a journey through the world of the artist Jonas Mekas - one of the exponents of independent U.S. movies; founder and director of the New York Anthology Film Archive.

A dystopian future in which bodily contact is taboo and all children are conceived artificially. As a result, allergies are out of control and flowers are considered poisonous. Amidst this chaos, one couple decides to have a baby the old fashioned way and it causes an uproar.

In an empty lot in Harlem, an elite group of New Yorkers prepares for a book-signing party given in honor of a writer who never shows up. Local residents, dealing with the practicality of life, look on as the guests obsess about identity, status, and success.

Indian sheriff Thunder is transferred to a small town in the desert. He learns that the corrupt deputy is paid by the drug mob. To protect himself, the deputy sets a trap for Thunder and gets him convicted as dealer. Thunder manages to break out of the brutal prison camp and takes bloody revenge. However he cannot sufficiently protect his pregnant wife.

A Vermont farmer searches New York City for his dream girl, with his gay neighbor as his guide.

A woman is hired to transcribe an ancient Chinese manuscript. She finds that little by little, the manuscript has powers that begin to take over her life.

A series of short films by Richard Kern: Stray Dogs, Woman At The Wheel, Thrust In Me, & I Hate You Now.

A fan tries to get an artist's attention by literally coming apart.

F.M. discovers that different sonic frequencies induce different patterns of behaviour in listeners, first in his own studio but later in the local "H-Burger" restaurant where the passive muzak appears to be wiping people's emotions.

“A witty send-up and a wise abstraction of the melodrama, combining elements of romantic mythology – songs, images, words and movements – to ask the question: where does myth end and life begin? Bill Rice ‘stars’ as a frustrated professor of romantic literature who reaches the end of his rope and resolves to be reunited with his deceased true love. When his attempt to hang himself fails, he finds renewed hope in the form of a nurse at his doctor’s office; newly married and still in love, she is nevertheless intrigued by his morbid romanticism. The action takes place on gigantic, expressionistic sets painted by artists Amy Sillman and Pamela Wilson; movements are exaggerated by being reduced to a minimum, and the dialogue, written by James Neu, calls up the romantic phraseology of the ages – from literature to TV – strung together into a musical refrain and set to Evan Lurie’s score.” –PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE

A film noirish atmosphere is created to show detective Lunch (a popular underground musician and poet) plow her way through the plans of a corporate businessman who seeks government defense contracts through real "corporate wars" and the manipulation of politicians.

A psychotic saxophone player lures victims to deserted spots with his music and then guns them down.

A Nietzschian parable on the fate of innocence, THE TRAP DOOR follows the mishaps of Jeremy (John Ahearn) as he is fired by his boss (Jenny Holzer), gets laughed out of court by Judge Gary Indiana, loses his girlfriend to sleazy Richard Prince, is hustled by prospective employer (Bill Rice) and mauled by predatory bird-women. Finally, he seeks the help of a shrink (the legendary Jack Smith) who turns out to be the most demented of all.

A punk savage satire about a kidnapping.

The almost lyrical Letters to Dad, is a meditation on authority that superimposes the spectre of Jonestown over the relatively fresh faces of the parapunk art world; the film takes on a musical form - like a 20th-century ballad composed of subliminal behavior cues, advertising testimonials, and the text of the National Enquirer

A fascinating drama-document on the punk period.

An exploration of social schizophrenia in which terrorists consult their mothers before planting bombs, and the head of the New York City bomb squad succumbs to his dominatrix.