Fans will appreciate this loving probe into the determinedly anonymous history of S.F.’s superstar art weirdos, now closing in on 50 years of seemingly bottomless inspiration.

We’re given just enough of a back story from key members of the Cryptic Corporation (there’s four of them, hmmm…), created to handle the business side of the Residents’ ongoing tumult of creativity. Equally, director Don Hardy stops just short of putting faces to anyone in the film’s trove of behind-the-scenes footage.

The never-finished Vileness Fats movie was a rare instance of the group’s naive ingenuity ending in failure, and colour production stills reveal the prosaic (but fun) reality behind the eyeball masks, even if the film eventually asks us to seriously ponder the very existence of the Residents themselves.

Among others, comments come from Les Claypool, Dean Ween, and old collaborator Penn Jillette (who even uses this venue to spout his tiresome libertarian bullshit).

Cinematheque, May 4 (8:15 p.m.)