Mark Ellinger
Acting
Biography
Mark Ellinger is an American composer raised in Ohio. Ellinger met and became friends with filmmaker Curt McDowell while studying at the San Francisco Art Institute. Between 1971 and 1987, he taught classes at the Art Institute and the Academy of Art. He worked as a recording engineer, sound designer, electronics technician, composer and actor on various independent films. In 1982, he opened the 16-track recording studio Truth and Beauty.
Born: January 1, 1949
Known For
Thundercrack!
An eccentric and alcoholic widow hosts a motley assortment of travelers - four men, three women and one gorilla - who arrive one eventful night to get out of a torrential rainstorm.
The Devil's Cleavage
A shady motel manager becomes obsessed with a neglected wife.
Lunch
A San Francisco bohemian deadbeat sits around his apartment and fantasizes about women.
Confessions
"Just as outrageous is Curt McDowell's CONFESSIONS. McDowell, a graduate student at San Francisco Art Institute, opens his film with a confession to his mother and father, listing in exhausting detail his sins of the flesh."
Resurrection of Eve
Eve is stuck in an abusive relationship with her lover, Frank, but after attending a few swing parties, she begins to lose her inhibitions in more ways than one.
True Blue and Dreamy
A real and favorite dream of mine, preserved on film to be relived over and over.
Beaver Fever
Starring George Kuchar as "Hunk", Mrs. Ruby B. Davis as "Aunt Ruth", and introducing Melinda McDowell as the much-abused, sex bomb "Goldenrod".
Pornogra Follies
Ted Davis is everyone's favorte Master of Ceremonies for the following performances: Peckernose Act, The Cooking and the Washing Act, Spin Your Little Clothes Off Act, Tea Break, The Spinning Nuns, Balancing Prick Act, The Dirty Hummers, Spanish Dancer Act, The Whora, Picking a Winner, The Poop Chute Act, Waiting and Worrying Nude Act, The Tapping Tennis, The Disappearing Milk and Sandwich Act, The Flower Magician, Fart Chorus, The Whirlwinds, The Paper Bags on the Heads Act, The Belly Dance, Cheek to Cheek, Head Job Act, Tweeting Prick Act, Fanny Dancer, Back Words Act, Betsy the Cussing Doll, And… The Singing Twat
Nudes: A Sketchbook
"Curt McDowell's NUDES (A Sketchbook) is a paean to the filmmaker's closest friends: a series of portraits (beginning with one of George Kuchar) based on stylized, often graphically sexual interpretations of his or her personality. The portraits also, at times, represent Curt's own sexual interests as he projects them onto the lives of others. My favorites are 'Barbara', a Pre-Raphaelite vision of woman and 'Ainslie', a musical spoof on glamour. The filmmaker's point of view ranges from compulsively erotic to light-hearted and self-debunking. A broad reading of the term 'romantic' would probably best describe the spectrum of extreme, even outrageous, possibilities which Curt embraces in this sketchbook/film." - Karen Cooper, Film Forum
Dora Myrtle
Ainslie Pryor in two miniature dramas, utilizing wind sound effects, canned laughter, and "I Love Lucy" lighting.
Filmography
as Charlie Hammond
as Swinger
as Mean Brother
as Dave Powers