Cartoon Girl: The Restored Films of Heather McAdams @ The Roxie, July 20, 2025
Posted July 10th, 2025 in Announcements, Co-Presentations, Events and Screenings, News / Events
Cartoon Girl: The Restored Films of Heather McAdams
Sunday, July 20 @ 3:45pm
The Roxie Theater, San Francisco
Co-presented by National Film Preservation Foundation & the Chicago Film Society and Canyon Cinema
Admission: $15 General / $12 Roxie & Friends of Canyon Members
Program info & tickets: roxie.com/film/cartoon-girl-the-restored-films-of-heather-mcadams/#showtimes
Heather McAdams is a cartoonist, performance artist, painter, sculptor, junk salesperson, film collector, and maker of some of the most charming and hilarious movies you’ll ever see. Working from a seemingly inexhaustible mountain of discarded and dismembered 16mm educational films, commercials, home movies, and musical clips, McAdams fashions pop culture x-rays and garage sale dispatches that uncover society’s most sordid secrets. McAdams often scratches and paints over the original footage, and synchronizes it anew with cartoon music, vintage sound effects, pyramid scheme pitches, and whatever else she can find lying around. Her films exist at the intersection of avant-garde cinema, underground comix, and gonzo documentary filmmaking.
Step right up and see The Scratchman, a businessman caught in an eternal loop of unwitting defacement. Meet…Bradley Harrison Picklesimer, the proprietor of Lexington’s finest drag bar, with the best records and the best decorations in town. Prepare to be dazzled by Holiday Magic, the revolutionary system that lets you stay young and healthy. All of these wonders and more will be on view in brand-new 16mm prints.
Followed by a conversion between Heather McAdams and Chicago Film Society’s Kyle Westphal.
Screening Line-Up:
The Scratchman (Heather McAdams, 1980, 3 minutes, color, 16mm)
Scratchman #2 (Heather McAdams, 1982, 3 minutes, color, 16mm)
You (Heather McAdams, 1983, 4 minutes, color, 16mm)
All Fucked Up (Heather McAdams, 1983, 8 minutes, b&w, 16mm)
Holiday Magic (Heather McAdams, 1985, 7 minutes, color, 16mm)
Meet . . . Bradly Harrison Picklesimer (Heather McAdams, 1988, 32 minutes, color, 16mm)
Fetal Pig Anatomy (Heather McAdams, 1989, 7 minutes, color, 16mm)
The Lester Film (Heather McAdams and Chris Ligon, 1995, 14 minutes, color, 16mm)
Total Running Time: 78 minutes
Meet . . . Bradley Harrison Picklesimer preserved by Chicago Film Society through the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Avant-Garde Masters program and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. All other films preserved by Chicago Film Society with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
