A new documentary details how Santacon evolved from a clever SF culture prank to a widely despised black-out-and-vomit nuisance event, and that feature documentary is streaming this weekend for $15.
SFGate broke the news locally last week that there was a feature-length Santacon documentary coming out, exploring the event’s evolution from its mid-1990s roots as a beloved annual counterculture prank to the modern-day version that is a a puke-and-cry pub crawl that should be avoided like the plague. The documentary is from acclaimed director Seth Porges, the filmmaker behind Class Action Park and How to Rob a Bank.
But the Santacon documentary was only playing at the film festival DOC NYC, some 3,000 miles away in New York City. So we couldn’t watch it.
Image:SantaconDoc.com
Wait, it turns out we can watch it! The film festival DOC NYC is making a 48-hour rental of the Sanatacon documentary available for $15, so you can watch the SF origins of Santacon documentary from your Bay Area home, an entire continent away from NYC’s Village East theater where the film is actually screening.
From the looks of the trailer above, this film goes back to the 1994 San Francisco creation of what used to be called “Santarchy,” and was never originally intended as a pub crawl. It was a culture-jamming prank from a local group of jokers known as the Cacophony Society, who created flash mobs long before they were called “flash mobs.” One of these Santacon inventors, John Law, went on to co-found Burning Man, and it turns out that Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk was also a Santacon co-founder.
The film captures the infamous time when John Law hung himself with a modified noose while dressed as Santa from a pole on Market Street, plus other iconic SF Santacon moments from its original 1990s days. And somehow left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore shows up in this Santacon documentary too.
John Law and the original Santacon organizers disavowed the event and declared it dead in 2014, even staging a funeral for Santacon that year.
Image: Camille B via Yelp
The focus of the documentary seems to look (from the trailer, at least) like it then switches to other Santacon events in Portland, LA, and most notoriously, New York City. That NYC event has become known as “America’s Most Hated Christmas Party,” and has frequently been dogged in the national media, as John Oliver does in the excellent Santacon takedown segment below.
“Santacon came onto my radar the way it came on to so many New Yorkers’ radars. I made the mistake of going outside on that day.” the film’s director Seth Porges said on a recent episode of the Comedy History podcast. “Inevitably, that nightclub that was cool stops being cool when everybody goes there.”
Screenshot: DOC NYC
Buying the Santacon documentary streamer may be a little confusing if you are not familiar with film festival websites. On the Santacon DOC NYC page. You have to scroll down to the blue button that says “Stream.”
Screenshot: DOC NYC
They’ll make you register and create an account with their film festival, which is kind of a pain. But then you can rent the movie for $15, and you get it for a 48-hour period once you first hit the Play button.
The film does not become available for streaming until 12 am on Friday, November 14 — i.e. midnight tonight.
Our headline for this article describes a “rise and fall” of Santacon, and both the rise and the fall definitely did happen. But Santacon may be rising again, in San Francisco at least.
Image: Kevin Y via Yelp
Recent years’ iterations of SF Santacon have gone much better under new organizers Tom DiBell and Judi Henderson, who’ve emphasized the toy drive component and a Union Square dance party that draws thousands of Santas over the course of the day. The new leadership has stressed good behavior to the point that bars are welcoming Santacon back, which is quite the 180-degree turn from bars banning Santacon participants several years ago.
Yes, there is still some hooliganism at SF Santacon, and scammers are still trying to sell $20 wristbands to the free event, with some shameless cheesecake advertising. (Actually this year the wristbands are more like $25 with the service charge.)
As a reminder, Santacon is a free public event, and paid admission is not required.
Image: Kevin Y via Yelp
Will the Santacon documentary delve into the scammers selling tickets to this free event? Or the cleaned-up resurgence of SF Santacon? Or any of the alleged financial improprieties of the NYC Santacon organization?
We don’t know yet, because the Santacon documentary does not start streaming until Friday, November 14, at midnight. It remains available as a rental for the duration of the DOC NYC festival, which runs through November 30.
Santacon is playing at the DOC NYC festival, and is available for streaming for $15. You can rent it here.
Related: Brace Yourself: SantaCon Has Expanded to Three Consecutive Days This Weekend [SFist]
Image: DOC NYC