The press release for The S.F. IndieFest's new DocFest gleefully announces that they found a weekend on the calendar that wasn't taken up by a film festival of some sort -- and programmed a film festival into it "before someone else did."

That's OK, because the DocFest is devoted exclusively to nonfiction films, which usually get shafted even in regular film festivals, not to mention multiplexes. The DocFest plays over four days, today through Monday, at the Academy of Art College's Post Street Theater.

If a theme emerges from this collection of 21 short and feature-length documentaries, it's music (which always goes so well with any kind of cinema). The extraordinary opening-night feature, "Plaster Caster," is about a musical groupie that makes Kate Hudson's "band aid" in "Almost Famous" look naive. Cynthia Plaster Caster has been making molds of rock stars' penises for over 30 years, beginning with the man himself, Jimi Hendrix (still the biggest, she says). Cynthia shares her stories of meeting and casting such luminaries as Dead Kennedys leader Jello Biafra and Wayne Kramer from the MC5, and casts two new young rock stars for the camera (though not much is shown). Unbelievable and unforgettable.

Most people would rather eat chalk than watch a documentary. The argument goes, if folks wanted to see the plain, everyday lives of normals they'd invite themselves over to their neighbors' houses. Viewers don't want to be reminded of their own bland milquetoastness during a movie -- they want to relish the lives of the exotic, outrageous, or at least spell-binding.

The San Francisco Documentary Film Festival, organized by the staff of the S.F. IndieFest, hopes to change those (mis)conceptions. The S.F. DocFest offers such vivid subjects as corn-mating rituals, freak-show retirement homes, and Brazilian horror icons, as well as six features devoted to music. (It takes place Friday through Monday, May 25-28, at the Academy of Art's Post Street Theater.)

The film "Plaster Caster" is bound to make the biggest splash. The movie, directed by Chicago-based music engineer Jessica Villines, focuses its wide-angle lens on Cynthia Plaster Caster, a Windy City denizen who shows her affection for her rock idols by molding their penises in cold goo. For the last 30 years Plaster Caster has been the second most famous groupie in rock history (behind "I'm With the Band" author Pamela Des Barres). Her most famous sculpture is of Jimi Hendrix, but she also corralled Hendrix's bandmate Noel Redding, two members of the MC5 (at the same time), Jon Langford of the Mekons, and S.F.'s own Jello Biafra. Scottish "tender pervert" Momus even sang about his casting and subsequent inclusion in an art exhibit in "The Penis Song": "So many people saw my penis in a glass case/ They recognize my penis now before my face."

You certainly won't mistake "Plaster Caster" for some boring treatise on landfills. Any film with an excited Camille Paglia deconstructing member molding has got its heart -- or something else -- in the right place. And instead of mocking its star (as one might expect), the film paints Plaster Caster as a slightly batty but rather endearing accidental artist who turned her lust (she lost her virginity to Starcast No. 1, Mark Lindsey of Paul Revere & the Raiders) into a vocation.

Still, there's a vein of sadness running through the film. It's hard not to feel uncomfortable as an aging Plaster Caster hesitantly approaches the marginally talented 5ive Style guitarist Bill Dolan and Demolition Doll Rods axeman Danny Doll Rod for casts. But there's also something inspiring about seeing her strut around her apartment in a lace camisole and no pants, as if to say, "I'm just as sexy now as I was in the '60s."

The whole idea cracks me up. A girl who wants to have sex with rock stars concocts an idea to combine her art class with her obsession. It seems harmless enough, even though I never really understood the idea of the groupie. Someone who loves rock stars so much that he or she wants to sleep with them. For me it would have been, I love rock stars so much that I went out and became one. Cool by association just doesn’t cut it for me. I have to admit, though, that at least Cynthia Albritton, a.k.a. Cynthia Plaster Caster, was creative with her groupie pursuits.

"Plaster Caster" is a look at Cynthia’s work. She casts in plaster her favorite rock stars' dicks. The story is told from the present, where Cynthia is fairly well known and still doing her thing. The most fascinating part is that she casts two penises for the camera. One is the outgoing Danny Dollrod of The Demolition Dollrods, and the other is the very shy Bill Dolan of 5ive Style. Director Jessica Villines has fun with the subject and Cynthia Plaster Caster has fun with her work. As a result it is a very fun film to watch. I kept talking about it for hours after seeing it.

Cynthia was a Chicago art student when she began her quest for rock stars. Her art teacher had given her an assignment to make a cast of something hard that would keep its shape. She immediately thought of a penis even though she had never seen one. She combined her assignment with her love of rock music and set off to test her theories. She and a friend made business cards to introduce themselves as the Plaster Casters of Chicago and were easily admitted to the star’s hotel rooms.

The first rocker she attempted to cast was Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Things didn’t work out with the cast, but she ended up losing her virginity to him. She then went on to cast images and other ‘60s luminaries. She met up with Frank Zappa (never cast), who found her work fascinating. He wanted to help her out by funding her projects. After her apartment was burglarized (though none of her casts were taken) she allowed Zappa’s manager Herb Cohen to keep them for her in his vault. He wouldn’t give them back. After twenty years of legal battles with Herb Cohen, she finally won back possession of her "babies" -- her way of addressing her casts.

Cynthia is a very open and honest person. She talks very frankly about being a groupie. She doesn’t have any objection to being called one. That’s what she is. Even now, with her notoriety, she still has a hard time approaching rockers she wants to cast. The camera follows her through a crowded club as she approaches Bill Dolan to ask if he would be interested. She is shy and a bit embarrassed to be asking. She acts like a teenager. He is shy too, but he agrees to have it done.

Later, at her apartment, we get a rundown on what will happen. She uses alginates, a dental material she gets from her dentist, to make the mold. Alginates are difficult to use. They harden very quickly, so the subject has to be ready to go when Cynthia has the mixture ready. That’s why there is usually another girl present, called a plater. The plater gets the subject hard. When she started, there were two Plaster Casters -- now she prefers to use the subject’s wife or girlfriend, although she sometimes performs the plater role as well. Cynthia has a routine. She wears, for an apron, a pant leg that used to belong to Keith Moon. He gave it to her when she needed an apron to cast him and she has used it ever since.

I really enjoy the comparisons between Bill Dolan and Danny Dollrod’s casting session. Bill is very shy and won’t let the camera film him naked. The first attempt doesn’t work, so they set up another appointment. The next time he brings his girlfriend to help out. It works. Everyone seems pleased. Cynthia brings his cast to the bar where he is working. He is very embarrassed and doesn’t want to touch it. They guys sitting at the bar have no such qualms. They examine it and pass it along to the next guy. A girl at the end of the bar doesn’t want to hold it.

Danny Dollrod is extroverted. He allows the whole thing to be filmed. They arrange to do the casting in the exact hotel room where Cynthia cast Jimi Hendrix. She describes everything that happened that night, recollecting that Jimi was very into it. His pubic hair even got stuffed in the cast and had to be picked out one by one. He didn’t care. He just kept fucking the cast until the girls had him free. Danny gets very turned on by the idea of reenacting the scenario. He has no problem with his cast. It’s fascinating, but also very creepy to watch.

Between these castings, Cynthia is preparing for her first gallery exhibit of her work. Three very stereotypical art gallery people show up at her apartment to discuss the exhibit. Cynthia is very serious about her pieces and knows exactly how she would like them displayed. She is very professional and business-like when dealing with these people as well as with the factory that is helping her recast some of her more famous pieces. Even when the factory workers start jerking her around and you think she might lose it, she manages to stay together.

As a girl, I think the best aspect of "Plaster Caster" is the way the guys react to their casts. It is funny to see these rock stars suddenly getting very defensive and even humbled by the way their portrait turns out. Momus starts getting all intellectual about why his is so small, rambling on about it being a statement about post-modern Englishmen and then catches himself when he realizes that he is just trying to make an excuse. Others try to justify why they didn’t want their cocks cast. Cynthia explains repeatedly that she is not a size queen and finds them all wonderful. That’s nice, but I had to know who was the biggest. It looked like Jimi Hendrix to me, but others have said it is Jon Langford or Ronnie Barnett. After doing some research, I came across an interview with Nardwaur where Cynthia admits that Jimi Hendrix is the widest, but Clint Poppy of Pop Will Eat Itself is the longest. Glad to clear that up.

Boldly going where no woman has gone before, L7 guitarist Suzi Gardner agreed to a little sitdown -- to name but one possible position -- with noted groupie/artist Cynthia Plaster Caster, best-known for crafting molds of three generations worth of rock star phalluses. To spare you a mind-boggling array of mental picture-taking, we'll reveal that Gardner dipped her breasts into Ms. Caster's plaster at a Chicago show last week in order to inaugurate a new "tit wing" for the artist's collection. For those of you mumbling that you never get to see anything that cool in your neck of the woods, take heart: The entire process was filmed for inclusion in a new documentary on Cynthia's ground-breaking art, which will be released next year . . .

Cynthia Plaster Caster is the spectacular subject of Jessica Villines' "Plaster Caster," a fantastic film currently screening as part of the Revelation Perth International Film Festival (June 20 -- July 3, revelationfilmfest.org).

Cynthia changed her surname legally to 'Plaster Caster', a testament to the commitment she has to her art practice. She is a sculptor of international repute and for the best part of thirty years she has made plaster casts of her favourite rock stars' genitalia, and has recently begun to use female "models", to add to her swelling body of work.

Plaster Caster is a warm, honest and intelligent documentary about an equally warm, intelligent, honest and generous person. While there is plenty of humour throughout, "Plaster Caster" never makes light of Cynthia's artwork.

So read on, an interview with the divine (and very entertaining) Cynthia Plaster Caster awaits...

Megan Spencer: Plaster casting the "hardware" of rock stars isn't an occupation listed in the career manual at high school. How did you first get involved?

Cynthia Plaster Caster: I was a shy, goofy, horny wanna-be groupie -- as well as a virgin -- who wanted to be invaded by the Boys of the British Invasion. I'd never had any kind of sex before, and believed that it was only good for reproduction. Then the Beatles and so on came along, and I totally changed my tune. I started wearing make-up and mini skirts. I wanted to get laid! My best friend Pest and I tried to figure out a way to get close to all these cute British musicians that suddenly everybody else in the world also wanted to get close to. She and I needed a schtick to grab their attention, and in our case, something that would make both us and the objects of our obsession have a good laugh. Something to break the ice. And get the pants down. When my art teacher told me to make a plaster cast as a weekend homework assignment, I knew right away how I was going to chat up Paul Revere and the Raiders -- "Help me with my homework, please?" As a result of just bringing up the concept of dicks and plaster, well, I lost my virginity that weekend to one of the Raiders. Pest and I had found our new calling in life: the Plaster Casters of Chicago.

MS: People may not realize just the amount of work involved in your sculptures. What exactly is involved in the process of making one of your sculptures? Is it a difficult thing to talk people into?

CPC: The process normally involves 3 people: me, the subject and the person who gets the subject hard (at this point, it's always been a girl, although I'd love to work with a guy). I call this person the "plater," which is cockney rhyming slang for blow-job-giver, although the mode of stimulation for casting can get as deep and down as is mutually agreed upon. While the plater is busy making the subject big and beefy in my living room, I'm in the kitchen busy pre-measuring the dental mold and water, with a closed door separating us. When the subject has an erection he thinks he can maintain for a couple of minutes, he comes into the kitchen with plater in tow, plunges his dick into the mold I've just mixed up and thinks hard for about a minute or so, along with the help of the plater. The mold gets hard, his dick gets soft and falls out of this fabulous negative impression he's just made. I pour plaster into this hole, clean up the mess, then he and the plater go off their merry ways, usually for some more of the same merriment as previous. Nowadays I don't usually ask people to pose for me unless I've had a chance to talk to them, and let them get to know me, and me them. I suss them out to see if they might have violent tendencies, be married or un-castable in general. I don't really try to pressure anyone into posing for me--if they want to do it, fine; if not, fine. At this point, I have all the casts I need in my collection, and pretty much do it just for fun.

MS: Do your sculptures and art pieces get taken seriously as works of art in their own right? Where have you shown them, and do you sell them to members of the public? How would someone be able to buy your work?

CPC: My sweet babies have had the pleasure of being exhibited at Threadwaxing Space in New York, the summer of 2000. I hope to have more exhibits! I'm also currently setting up a not-for-profit, called the Cynthia P. Caster Foundation, through which I'm going to sell limited editions of casts, old drawings I did in the 60's, new drawings, memorabilia and T-shirts. Proceeds will go to artists and musicians who need money to fund their creative projects.

MS: What was it like being the subject of a documentary? What was your reaction to the film when you finally saw it?

CPC: My life has taken a lot of strange twists and turns since the mid 60's, when the Plaster Casters first started up. Not the least of them is being the subject of a documentary. I've got a tendency to blather on to anyone will listen, so it was no problem to get me to talk to the camera. The main problem was trying to sit down with a microphone hitched to my ass, but my normal bad posture made it fairly easy to adapt to. I loved the cockumentary when I first saw it! Kind of watching that old 50's TV show, "This is your Life." My life and times coming full circle on the silver screen! I thought that the collaboration of director Jessica Villines, editor Brian Johnson and cinematographer Jeff Economy was a potent one, and that they did a superb job! I just love to sing (scream) along to the Danny Doll Rod casting scene!

MS: In Plaster Caster we only see you casting the genitalia of male performers and musicians. Have you ever cast female rock stars, and is that a different experience compared to the guys? (eg, are women more open to the idea? What areas of the body on women do you cast?)

CPC: I have been doing tits lately--and it's about time! So many of my fave musicians are women. I just do tits, not clits--I know someone who got a nasty yeast infection from doing her own pussy. I like to collect cute, cuddly, bouncy, goofy sex body parts. Which dicks also are. Casting tits? A slightly different molding process. I use the same dental mold, but instead of dipping them the way I do dicks, I plop bowls of mold over each tit. Since tits are so undemanding, no stimulators are necessary, and to date, have assisted me. Tits look damn pretty on their own, but if a girl wanted to bring along someone, she's perfectly welcome. She deserves it!

MS: Plaster casting has been part of your life for so long - could you ever imagine yourself ever doing anything else? If you weren't a plaster caster, what do you imagine you might be doing?

CPC: It's very hard to picture not being an obsessed-music-fan/groupie-living-vicariously-through-musicians--Plaster Caster, but if I wasn't... I'd be a detective. I love to analyze handwriting and solve mysteries. I'd love to be recruited to hunt down Osama "Little Bitty" Bin Laden. The first place I'd look for him is, in hospitals in Pakistan that do penis transplants.

MS: Which pieces (and which "models") have been your favourite people to cast? What's the funniest or strangest casting experience you've had so far?

CPC: I love all of my casts. I am their Mama and they are my sweet babies, so I don't play favorites. Funny or strange casting? Well, casting's always fun and non-boring. I don't know what strange is anymore. I do remember that according to castee Jon Langford (of the Mekons and Waco Brothers), the mode of stimulation was his then-girlfriend, Sally Timms simulating the sound of sesame seeds frying up in a wok. Is that strange?

MS: Who are some of your favourite artists? Do you take inspiration from anyone in particular?

CPC: One of my favorite all-time artists is Andy Warhol, who totally inspired me. The way he used celebrities as subject matter; depicted objects in multiples...yeah, I owe a LOT to Andy! I'm also a big fan of outsider art. The 'outsider' collage artist, Henry Darger lived just a couple of blocks away from me until he died in the 70's. I would love to have casted scary Henry, but from a distance. He would have had to slide his dick through my mail slot. I don't want to know who he would've wanted to be the plater.

MS: Has being in the film assisted your career as an artist? What kind of reactions have you had from people who have seen the film?

CPC: Being in the film has gotten me some wonderful exposure at film festivals around the world, like in Perth, where I don't know how much is known about me and what I do. I get very favorable reactions from people who've seen Plaster Caster, who tell me it's funny, human and sympathetic to me as a person. When I got my passport photo taken recently, the photographer recognized me from the film and freaked out. The photo came out all right, though.

MS: Who would you most like to cast and perhaps haven't yet, as a future Cynthia Plaster Caster model?

CPC: My Hit List? Jarvis Cocker from Pulp is always welcome. My Tit Hit List? Sandra Bernhard.