Director Elia Kazan’s powerful adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ classic play with Marlon Brando in a career-defining performance as Stanley Kowalski is paired with WHO AM I THIS TIME?, a 1982 production for TV’s “American Playhouse” series adapted from a Kurt Vonnegut story. Shy hardware store clerk Christopher Walken becomes a different person when performing in local theater; new arrival Susan Sarandon is cast opposite him in “A Streetcar Named Desire” without realizing that his Stanley Kowalski is just an act!

The most important filmic document from the entire mad Manson Family saga — unseen theatrically for decades, and screened from a rare 35mm print! Banned in the mid-’70s for being so incredibly awesome as to damage Squeaky Fromme’s right to a fair trial, this feature doc has the urgency of a breaking-news telecast, the emotional complexity of a sudsy soap opera, and the deep, dank evil of a classic chiller. The “Helter Skelter” murders shook the nation, ending the era’s Summer-of-Love vibe; this dynamic Pop Art portrait of the Family members’ head-spinning motives — told in their own words — is an incredible delineation of the facts for the uninitiated, and an unparalleled, fetishistic footage pile for the hardcore fans. The secret weapons: co-directors Robert Hendrickson and Laurence Merrick’s stockpile of guerilla 16mm evidence of goings-on at the Spahn Ranch, and the unprecedented intimacy they acquired with key players throughout the life of the Family. For the first time, you the viewer will immediately get why people become so obsessed with this entire sprawling mindfuck of a true-crime saga. Gutsy, beautiful work.

Dirs. Robert Hendrickson and Laurence Merrick, 1973, 35mm, 83 min.

The Flux Screening Series at the Hammer presents innovative short films, music videos, feature films, and filmmaker retrospectives.

Two Gene Autry films are screened on the fourth Saturday of every month in the Imagination Gallery’s Western Legacy Theater. Gene Autry’s Westerns are known for their music, comedy, and action. This month’s films each feature Gene Autry’s funny and talented sidekicks. Smiley Burnette brings his musical and physical humor to Sierra Sue, and comedian Sterling Holloway provides the comic relief in Saddle Pals.