Midnight Mass: Live Podcast Recording

Public Programs

Midnight Mass: Live Podcast Recording

Presented by YBCA |

Thursday, January 18, 2024, 7–9 PM

Experience a special live presentation of the acclaimed Midnight Mass podcast, as co-hosts Peaches Christ and Michael Varrati explore the Bay Area’s rich connection to the world of cult films. From the counterculture movement to the queer underground and beyond, the Bay Area has always been a landscape of boundary-pushing artistic expression. Featuring an in-depth, multimedia-enriched discussion, the duo will dig into a transgressive, nuanced world that includes Hitchcockian thrills, glamorous astronauts, femme fatale serial killers, and beyond.

Joining the conversation are award-winning filmmaker H.P. Mendoza (Colma: The Musical, Bitter Melon) and renowned graphic artist Skinner (Shrine of Abominations) to peel back the layers of the Bay Area’s diverse, provocative, and wild cinematic offerings that helped change the greater cinematic landscape forever.

Peaches Christ

Peaches Christ is a filmmaker and cult leader living in San Francisco, CA. Her infamous movie events regularly draw over 1,000 attendees to each new production before they tour. Past events have featured special guest stars John Waters, Cloris Leachman, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, Linda Blair, Bruce Campbell, Apollonia, Barry Bostwick, Pam Grier, and more. Additionally, in collaboration with renowned conductor Edwin Outwater, Peaches Christ hosts and curates holiday and horror-themed symphonic events which have been presented at such prestigious venues as the San Francisco Symphony and the Royal Albert Hall. Peaches Christ is the alter-ego of Joshua Grannell, the writer and director of the feature film All About Evil. The award-winning dark comedy gore film stars Natasha Lyonne, Thomas Dekker, Cassandra Peterson, Mink Stole, and Peaches Christ herself. Peaches Christ has been featured in the films Milk, I Am Divine, Diary Of A Teenage Girl, Mansfield 66/67, Tura!, Scream Queen: My Nightmare On Elm Street, You Don’t Nomi, and the TV show Behind the Monsters. Peaches Christ also co-hosts the multi-award nominated cult movie podcast, Midnight Mass.

Michael Varrati

Michael Varrati is a filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and host known for an array of multi-genre work across film and television. Some of his credits include the award-winning workplace thriller The Office is Mine, techno-horror Unusual Attachment, and a number of TV and movie projects for networks like Netflix, Lifetime, Disney Channel, Hallmark, France’s M6, and more, with such titles as Christmas With You (a Netflix Top 10 movie in 63 countries), Christmas in Vermont, and The Wrong Stepmother. More recent projects include writing/directing the forthcoming feature film There’s a Zombie Outside, as well as work on The Boulet Brothers’ Halfway to Halloween Special, Shudder’s Behind the Monsters, the holiday horror anthology film Deathcember, the thriller A Nurse to Die For, multiple seasons of The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, and contributions for two years running on the prestigious Fangoria Chainsaw Awards (2022: Writer; 2023: Writer/Director). Varrati was the creator and host of Dead for Filth, a podcast devoted to the intersection of queer identity and the horror genre, and most recently, Varrati created and co-hosts a popular podcast exploringcult cinema called Midnight Mass with his frequent collaborator, drag icon Peaches Christ. Varrati frequently speaks at events like San Diego Comic Con International, and his work has been covered by such publications as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, MTV News, Out, and more.

H.P. Mendoza

H.P. Mendoza is a Filipino American filmmaker and artist best known for his work as screenwriter, composer, and lyricist on Colma: The Musical (2007) now streaming on The Criterion Channel, as well as his art-house horror film, I Am a Ghost (2014). Along with his feature films, Mendoza is known for his installations, music composed for films, and albums, notably Nomad, re-released for its 10th anniversary in 2016.

Skinner

Oakland based artist Skinner creates psychedelic nightmare paintings, otherworldly animation, toys, murals, and more. Their work has been shown widely at galleries national and internationally. They have done extensive commercial work for Warner Bros., Adult Swim, Vans, Apple, Quentin Tarantino, Fender guitars, Juxtapoz, and more.

Gina Basso

Gina Basso is a San Francisco-based independent film programmer of experimental, artist-made, and non-fiction film and video works and thematic narrative film series. She has organized film programs for local cinemas including The Roxie Theater, The Castro Theater, and Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Theater. She has curated programs for McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, Design Within Reach, Hunter’s Point Shipyard and the Northwest Film Forum and is the former film curator for San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In her creative practice, she uses video to explore transitional or altered states of being. Through moving collage, handmade animation, and sound she draws on a rich tradition of experimentation with various forms, materials, and processes, combining found and original footage to harness the energy of poetic montage. Her video work has been presented at CROSSROADS Festival, Artist Television Access, HAXAN Film Festival, and Antimatter Experimental Film Festival.

Bay Area Now 9 is curated by Martin Strickland, Director of Curatorial Initiatives, and Fiona Ball, independent curator; under the artistic leadership of Amy Kisch, Head of Art + Public Programming; and developed with the inaugural YBCA Curatorial Counsel of curators, artists, activists, and cultural workers working across the Bay Area’s creative disciplines and communities: Erina Alejo, Gina Basso, Jason Bayani, Mina Girgis, Candace Huey, José Ome Navarrete Mazatl, Aay Preston Myint, and Lehua Taitano.

The BAN9 YBCA project team also includes Yoni Asega, Manager of Exhibition Design; David Tim, Head Preparator, Project Design; Bella Manfredi, Senior Preparator, Multimedia + Graphics; O Soo Vegh, Exhibition Project Manager + Registrar; Rea Lynn de Guzman, Manager of Public + Educational Programs; Flavia Mora, Public + Educational Programs Coordinator; and Cori Lucas, Community + Program Event Manager.

YBCA is grateful to the preparator team who made this exhibition possible: Isaiah Acosta, Amy Bergstein, Micha Dudgeonwood, Owen Goodwin, German Hoyle, Calvin Jones, Linden Julien-Lehr, Lauren Kenwood, Benjamin Leon, Maren Mouhanna, Éamon McGivern, Christian Neill, David Prigge, and Kelsey Westphal.

YBCA Programs are made possible in part by the City and County of San Francisco, MacKenzie Scott, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC), #StartSmall, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Marilyn Conrad Trust, New England Foundation for the Arts, California Arts Council, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, William G. Irwin Charity Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, The Sato Foundation, Gaia Fund, Office of Mayor London N. Breed, San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, Headlands Center for the Arts, ICA San Francisco, Bay Area Mind and Music Society, GitHub, Harvey and Leslie Wagner Foundation, McNabb Foundation, Raymond James Charitable, Savant Group Charitable Foundation, The Building Works, Fremont Group Foundation, and YBCA Members.

More at ybca

Calendar →

Public Programs

Downtown First Thursday: Nicky Nodjoumi & Nahid Hagigat

Presented by YBCA

Thursday, December 5, 2024, 5-8 PM

Exhibitions

Nicky Nodjoumi & Nahid Hagigat

Presented by YBCA

October 6, 2024–February 23, 2025

Public Art

SoMa Mahal Kita (SoMa I Love You)

Ciriaco Sayoc

2024-Ongoing

Public Art

What is Legacy Without Liberation?

Malaya Tuyay

2024–Ongoing