Two films on photography and more this week at MoPA

It’s always nice to welcome an old friend back to town, particularly one who is as bright and talented a filmmaker as Wolfgang Hastert.

After years spent studying and getting his graduate degree from Duke University (and picking up his American citizenship papers!), Wolfgang returns, triumphant and hoping to “fill the black box with excitement again.”

The excitement translates into an evening for cinema lovers, taking place this Friday at the Museum of Photographic Arts. The event is being hyped as “Two Films on Photography: Experimental Screening and Readings by Wolfgang Hastert,” but our host likes to refer to it as simply, “something old, something twisted, something new, and something experimental,” with “three actors supporting me with readings.”

The two short films up for discussion are The Queer Reveries of James Bidgood and Another Stranger With a Film Camera.

Bidgood is Hastert’s search for the titular artist who spent seven years filming the stunning softcore homoerotic fantasy Pink Narcissus in his New York apartment. Disappointed by his distributor’s mangling of his original vision, Bidgood removed his name from the film. For years people credited Andy Warhol as the film’s creator. Hastert was the first to set the record straight on film.

Stranger questions the process of documenting lives on film as Hastert follows photographer Shelby Adams on his trek through Appalachia in search of subjects. It’s 17 minutes of unbridled originality, a short that does a remarkable job of emulating its subject’s style while forging a creative vision all its own.

The show begins at 7 p.m. and tickets are $15. For more information, visit mopa.org.