X-Ray Visions:A Look Inside Portland’s Legendary X-Ray Cafe (USA, 2000) 68 min color DIR: Ben Ellis. (Microcosm Publishing)
One needn’t have lived in Portland, Oregon, to appreciate this hour-long documentary about the city’s own late, lamented X-Ray Café, a venue with independent music and artists, began by two creative individuals Ben Ellis (this film’s director) and Tres (pronounced “trace”), which became an oasis for any free-thinking iconoclast who fled from “white, conservative Portland”. In fact, the viewer would likely equate the goings-on (documented over the years in good old VHS camcorder) of the X-Ray to whatever independent venue fights to survive in their own urban centre. Those who support independent culture (that is, most of our readership) will instantly recognize the universal truths found within this memorial of the late X-Ray Café.
This is a great archive of an irretrievably lost piece of time and place, full of fascinating clips of “where are they now” performers: the all-kid band The Raspberries; the cool blues band The Gone Orchestra; the disco group G.F.P; Smega (a weird turntable exotica act); and the Stu Mulligan Project (tape loops and performance art). Also the fun interviews with customers and employees alike (shot on Hi-8) further give a sense of the X-Ray’s unique vibe, and the offbeat regulars who would populate it (they even had their own Elvis!).
Still, this place, decorated with kitschy velvet art and horror movie posters, created a sense of community among those who didn’t fit the Portland status quo, and was even a positive force to the neighbourhood, because when the weirdos moved in, the junkies got out. Their fate was however sealed when the X-Ray unwittingly became a focal point of a 1993 anarchist riot which precipitated the money cutoff. A disappointing Labour Day Telethon (“Hey, it worked for Jerry Lewis”) with a $5000 target, then $2000, didn’t help matters, yet somehow the place held out for almost a year until August 14, 1994, “the day the music died”. The space then became a punk record and clothing store, then a church.
Despite the sardonic humour that Ben and Tres exhibit on camera, at least Ben the filmmaker is honest enough to suggest that these two entrepreneurs are masters of their own misfortune, as one fan notes: “people who make these really complicated social forms of art are just not that good with money”. Once again the age old dichotomy of independent culture appears: you still have to manage it like a business to sustain it.
While no doubt an invaluable diary for those who went to the cafe, X-Ray Visions is still tremendous fun for the rest of us, who likely have our own X-Ray’s that need proper care. Check it out!
Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue #24.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.