Friday, December 19, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles
"Join 7th House & El Cine for a screening of René Cardona's charmingly bonkers Mexican Christmas cult classic + support El Cine's toy drive! In celebration of the holiday season and support of Border Kindness, 7th House and El Cine are pleased to present mid-century Mexican filmmaker René Cardona’s see-it-to-believe-it, family-friendly cult Christmas oddity SANTA CLAUS aka SANTA CLAUS VS THE DEVIL (1959)! El Cine co-founder Gilbert Trejo will join us to introduce the screening and discuss Cardona's fascinating story, impact, and legacy. Before space travel was real, Mexico sent Santa to the cosmos. In SANTA CLAUS, the holiday myth collapses into a fever dream: Lucifer plots from below, a demon named Pitch whispers chaos into the ears of children, and Santa — stationed in his orbital, cloud-top space workshop — watches humanity through celestial surveillance. With the mischievous Pitch on the loose and deadset on corrupting children and sabotaging Christmas, it’s up to Santa, his trusty advisor Merlin the Wizard (?!) and a crew of international children to outwit Pitch’s schemes and guide a lonely, kindhearted girl toward hope. A candy colored mixture of holiday lore and science fiction that is part cosmic morality play, part Cold War hallucination, Cardona’s 1959 Mexican fantasy bends theology, technology, and innocence into something that feels more like a dream record than a Christmas film. As bizarre as it is endearing, Cardona (one of Mexican cinema’s most prolific directors of melodrama, adventure, and exploitation films) gifted the world with an unforgettable — and unintentionally hilarious — cult classic. Long before irony found it, Santa Claus was already a philosophical artifact — a reflection on good and evil wrapped in velvet absurdity and cosmic sincerity. Join us for this rare theatrical screening of Cardona’s original Spanish language version! At the event El Cine will be collecting gifts in support of Border Kindness, the non-profit that provides asylum-seekers, migrants, refugees, and the displaced with comprehensive services that include food, shelter, clothing, medical care, and legal services — gathering toys for migrant mothers and children impacted by the border crisis — because compassion, too, is an act of resistance. See image below for toy drive details. Dir. René Cardona, 94 mins, 1959, Mexico, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Suitable For All Ages, Digital."