a highly-opinionated selection of things happening around town, and sometimes out of town. this month's page here.

sat. aug. 1

apocalypse now @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
apocalypse now @ aero
mike watt & the secondmen, qui FREE @ bigfoot lodge east
de la soul FREE (RSVP) @ annenberg space for photography
allah-las @ teragram ballroom
return of the living dead, night of the creeps @ egyptian
the good the bad and the ugly @ new beverly
the diary of a teenage girl FREE 2 PM @ silent movie theater
elevator to the gallows 5:15 PM @ pulp my daisy @ silent movie theater
songs from the second floor 7:45 PM @ silent movie theater
you the living 10 PM @ silent movie theater
wet hot american summer MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
atanarjuat: the fast runner FREE (RSVP) @ lacma
romance apocalypse and moon landings: the twilight worlds of kate mccabe 8 PM @ epfc
working girls, sarah and son @ ucla film archive


sun. aug. 2

call me lucky @ aero
songs from the second floor 4:30 PM @ silent movie theater
sir doug and the genuine texas cosmic groove @ silent movie theater
you the living 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
statues hardly ever smile 7 PM, the black g.i., inside bedford-stuyvesant @ ucla film archive
the royal road @ filmforum @ spielberg @ egyptian
triptides, levitation room @ non plus ultra
they live FREE 7 PM @ reel grit @ afi
for a few dollars more, day of anger @ new beverly
the man who knew too much 5 PM @ crest


mon. aug. 3

call me lucky @ silent movie theater
a pigeon sat on a branch reflecting on existence 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
spokenest, susan @ pehrspace
for a few dollars more, day of anger @ new beverly


tue. aug. 4

she lost it at the movies: a tribute to pauline kael 8 PM @ silent movie theater
a pigeon sat on a branch reflecting on existence 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
variations vii: john cage experiments in art and technology FREE 7 PM @ lacma art + technology lab
delirious FREE @ hammer
for a few dollars more, the squeeze @ new beverly
fahrenheit 451 FREE 6 PM @ santa monica library ocean park branch


wed. aug. 5

cosmonauts, tomorrow's tulips @ mrs fish
i build the tower @ aero
ornette: made in america 8 PM @ silent movie theater
straight outta compton FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc sinatra
for a few dollars more, the bravados @ new beverly
i am chris farley 8 PM @ crest


thu. aug. 6

tame impala @ hollywood forever
special effects, the ambulance @ egyptian
paper moon, what's up doc? @ aero
korla 7:30 10:00 PM @ don't knock the rock @ silent movie theater
for a few dollars more, the bravados @ new beverly
something wild 6:30 PM @ laemmle noho 7


fri. aug. 7

tame impala @ hollywood forever
the blob (1988), the thing (1982) @ egyptian
the last picture show (w/ q&a), nickelodeon @ aero
for a few dollars more 7 PM, death rides a horse @ new beverly
the films of roy andersson: commercials & short films @ silent movie theater


sat. aug. 8

it happened one night @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
they all laughed, saint jack @ aero
mickey one 4:30 PM @ pulp my daisy @ silent movie theater
she's gotta have it, joe's bed-stuy barbershop: we cut heads @ ucla film archive
the clock (10am sat. - 10am sun.) @ lacma art of the americas
drinking flowers, the copperheads @ non plus ultra
for a few dollars more 7 PM, death rides a horse @ new beverly
we are the best! @ silent movie theater
psycho beach party MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
spokenest @ redwood


sun. aug. 9

nightmare city, burial ground @ egyptian
she's funny that way, one day since yesterday @ aero
first comes courage 7 PM @ ucla film archive
run of the arrow 5:30 9:25 PM, the naked spur 7:30 PM @ new beverly
to live and die in l.a. FREE 7 PM @ pehrspace
the watts rebellion: 50 years later (panel) FREE 2 PM @ hammer
brent weinbach @ satellite
sixteen candles 5 PM @ crest


mon. aug. 10

the goonies FREE (RSVP) 8 PM @ dive in theatre @ skybar @ mondrian
the naked spur, run of the arrow @ new beverly
a pigeon sat on a branch reflecting on existence 10:15 PM @ silent movie theater
sunset blvd 7:45 PM (RSVP) @ starlight studio


tue. aug. 11

cool ghouls @ echoplex
count dracula and his vampire bride, scream and scream again @ new beverly
tomorrow's another day @ silent movie theater
running on empty FREE 1:30 PM @ skirball
the maltese falcon @ arclight sherman oaks


wed. aug. 12

the venetian affair, sol madrid @ new beverly
you the living @ silent movie theater
a pigeon sat on a branch reflecting on existence 10:15 PM @ silent movie theater
youth of the beast FREE 7 PM @ jfla
union pacific 7:45 PM (RSVP) @ starlight studio
digging for fire FREE (RSVP) 7:15 PM @ indie focus @ sundance sunset
touch of evil @ arclight hollywood


thu. aug. 13

phantom surfers FREE @ viva cantina
sister nancy FREE @ santa monica pier
tyondai braxton, tim hecker @ teragram ballroom
the howling (w/ q&a) @ egyptian
doomed: the untold story of roger corman's the fantastic four @ aero
the long night, the new-ark, a place in time @ ucla film archive
leading light: a revival 8 PM @ hearkenings @ epfc
wimps @ non plus ultra
the venetian affair, sol madrid @ new beverly
bell gardens @ satellite
the sapphires FREE 7 PM @ santa monica library main branch
vertigo @ crest


fri. aug. 14

royal headache (7:00) FREE @ echo park rising @ origami
globelamp (7:30), lucas fitzsimons (3:45), etc FREE @ echo park rising @ spacedust
man or astro-man? (7:45) FREE @ echo park rising @ liberty main stage (taix parking lot)
the blank tapes (9:30) FREE @ echo park rising @ lost knight taproom main stage
thee oh sees, destruction unit, etc @ berserktown @ the observatory (santa ana)
phantom surfers, bombon @ alex's bar (long beach)
2001: a space odyssey MIDNIGHT @ nuart
the savages (1967) 8 PM, lost angels (2010) FREE @ epfc filmmobile
three amigos 8:30 PM @ eat see hear @ autry
the spy with my face, one spy too many @ new beverly
true romance MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
a swedish love story @ silent movie theater


sat. aug. 15

globelamp (2:15), trabants (3:00), triptides (4:30), the squids (6:00), etc FREE @ echo park rising @ lolipop
winter (2:20) FREE @ echo park rising @ the echo
triptides (2:50), bombon (3:40) FREE @ echo park rising @ little joy
winter (4:00), la sera (5:00) FREE @ echo park rising @ american apparel
hannibal buress (4:20) FREE @ echo park rising @ liberty main stage (taix parking lot)
survive (5:10) FREE @ echo park rising @ echoplex
smiles (6:00), downtown boys (3:00), etc FREE @ echo park rising @ origami
black sea (7:15), etc FREE @ echo park rising @ spacedust
l.a. witch (7:30) FREE @ echo park rising @ blue collar working dog
qui (10:45) FREE @ echo park rising @ lot 1 cafe
can't hardly wait, scream, cruel intentions @ movies all night @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
bart davenport (10:45) @ pehrspace
america latina showcase 5 PM @ epfc
this is spinal tap @ egyptian
frankenstein (2015), candyman, paperhouse @ aero
one spy too many 5:20 9:25 PM, the spy with my face 7:30 PM @ new beverly
the karate killers MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
a swedish love story 5:30 PM @ silent movie theater
real genius 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
craig's wife, christopher strong @ ucla film archive
watery love (6:30) FREE @ permanent
eskimo @ mush! to the movies @ velaslavasy panorama
lost world (1925) @ silent & classic movie night @ heritage square
the breakfast club 8:30 PM @ eat see hear @ autry


sun. aug. 16

the molochs (2:45), corners (9:30), adult books (5:45), etc FREE @ echo park rising @ the echo
post life (2:10), etc FREE @ echo park rising @ taix champagne room
sex stains FREE @ soul clap @ echo park rising @ echoplex
royal trux, dead moon, etc @ berserktown @ the observatory
chopping mall, night of the comet @ egyptian
selected shorts 7 PM @ tell it like it is: black independents in new york 1968-1986 @ ucla film archive
ivans xtc 5 PM, the kreutzer sonata, boxing day @ aero
the three musketeers 6:30 PM, the four musketeers @ new beverly
casque d'or @ silent movie theater
let the right one in 10 PM @ silent movie theater
lady windermere's fan (1925) @ silents under the stars @ paramount ranch
the breakfast club 5 PM @ crest


mon. aug. 17

indiana jones and the temple of doom FREE (RSVP) 8 PM @ dive in theatre @ skybar @ mondrian
the three musketeers, the four musketeers @ new beverly
we come as friends FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc stark
beltracchi: the art of forgery FREE 7 PM @ goethe-institut
chinatown 7:45 PM @ arclight sherman oaks


tue. aug. 18

2001: a space odyssey (w/ live accompaniment) @ hollywood bowl
the oblong box @ new beverly
a swedish love story @ silent movie theater
behind the groove: from soul power & the black arts movement to post hip-hop aesthetics (lecture) FREE @ hammer
big trouble in little china @ arclight pasadena


wed. aug. 19

digging for fire @ egyptian
the curse of frankenstein, dracula prince of darkness @ new beverly
madness: take it or leave it, dance craze @ silent movie theater


thu. aug. 20

galaxy driver: an improvideologue by mitchell brown and kio griffith 8 PM @ epfc
levitation room @ la cita
lady sings the blues @ aero
the curse of frankenstein, dracula prince of darkness @ new beverly
from the mouthpiece on back FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc stark
the motorcycle diaries FREE 7 PM @ silver lake picture show
dirty harry 7 PM @ arclight culver city
the terminator FREE @ vidiots
la femme nikita 6:30 PM @ laemmle noho 7


fri. aug. 21

subversive women @ spielberg @ egyptian
will, personal problems @ ucla film archive
man in the dark 3-D FREE 8 PM @ epfc filmmobile
the road warrior, mad max @ new beverly
gueros @ silent movie theater
mateo 8:50 PM @ arena cinema
one & two 10:30 PM @ arena cinema
paul clipson screening/performance @ coaxial
wet hot american summer MIDNIGHT @ nuart
charles owens quintet (6:00) FREE @ lacma


sat. aug. 22

pee wee's big adventure @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
nasa space universe @ los globos
the connection 2 PM @ pulp my daisy @ silent movie theater
gueros @ silent movie theater
over the edge MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
new works salon xxviii 8 PM @ epfc
cross-dressing silent shorts @ spielberg @ egyptian
anatomy of a murder, odds against tomorrow @ aero
mad max 5:20 9:30 PM, the road warrior 7:30 PM @ new beverly
nana @ ucla film archive
mateo 1:30 5:45 PM @ arena cinema
one & two 3:00 10:10 PM @ arena cinema
20,000 leagues under the sea (1916) @ silent & classic movie night @ heritage square
the shining @ street food cinema @ will rogers park
sunrise, a trip to the moon FREE @ secret cinema saturday @ old focals optical south pasadena


sun. aug. 23

i remember harlem 7 PM @ ucla film archive
manhunter FREE 7 PM @ pehrspace
the circus 5:45 9:20 PM, modern times 7:30 PM @ new beverly
gueros @ silent movie theater
mateo 2:00 5:45 PM @ arena cinema
one & two 9:05 PM @ arena cinema
weird science 5 PM @ crest
juggernaut FREE 7 PM @ reel grit @ afi


mon. aug. 24

bouquet (9:30) @ pehrspace
lost grrrls: riot grrrl in los angeles @ pieter
modern times, the circus @ new beverly
gueros @ silent movie theater
mateo @ arena cinema
one & two 9 PM @ arena cinema
jaws FREE 5:30 PM @ la library edendale branch
dr. strangelove 7 PM @ arclight culver city


tue. aug. 25

stone, dark age @ new beverly
gueros @ silent movie theater
one & two 8:50 PM @ arena cinema
mateo 10:25 PM @ arena cinema
a pigeon sat on a branch reflecting on existence 10:15 PM @ silent movie theater


wed. aug. 26

swept away, love & anarchy @ new beverly
gueros 10 PM @ silent movie theater
mateo 8:40 PM @ arena cinema
one & two 10 PM @ arena cinema
scientist @ dub club @ echoplex
why don't you play in hell? FREE 7 PM @ jfla
the films of saul levine i: tunes of sound and silence @ chinspush


thu. aug. 27

clicks inside my dreams: short films by margaret rorison 8 PM @ epfc
swept away, love & anarchy @ new beverly
gueros 4:30 PM @ silent movie theater
magician: the astonishing life and work of orson welles FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
one & two @ arena cinema
mateo 10:20 PM @ arena cinema
gal pals @ smell
ben-hur @ arclight sherman oaks
the films of saul levine ii: driven (boston after dark) @ veggiecloud


fri. aug. 28

six organs of admittance @ bootleg
jon brion @ largo
the black ryder @ roxy
below dreams, cover me @ ucla film archive
blade runner 8 PM @ rooftop film club @ montalban
suspicion, notorious @ new beverly
enchantment of the glass armonica (lecture & demonstration) 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama
the look of silence (w/ q&a) @ silent movie theater
raiders of the lost ark MIDNIGHT @ nuart
a swedish love story 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
amps for christ @ human resources
true romance MIDNIGHT @ new beverly


sat. aug. 29

the virgin suicides @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
levitation room, l.a. witch, corners, pangea, tomorrow's tulips, etc @ way strange fest @ imagine that! (upland)
nick waterhouse @ teragram ballroom
blast of silence 2 PM @ pulp my daisy @ silent movie theater
notorious 5:15 9:30 PM, suspicion 7:30 PM @ new beverly
ben chasny explains the hexadic composition system (lecture) FREE 7 PM @ the last book store
enchantment of the glass armonica (lecture & demonstration) 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama
the scarlet pimpernel (1935) 7:45 PM (RSVP) @ starlight studio
reservoir dogs 8:30 PM @ eat see hear @ autry
musician's friend FREE (RSVP) @ temporary space
hands on a hard body MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
fish tank (w/ q&a) 6 PM @ silent movie theater
super tight 9:30 PM @ silent movie theater
little man what now?, no greater glory @ ucla film archive
chinatown FREE 8 PM @ echo park lake


sun. aug. 30

the autobiography of karl krogstad FREE 7 PM @ 7 dudley cinema @ beyond baroque
susan FREE @ ham & eggs
a fistful of dollars, minnesota clay @ new beverly
the red kimona 7 PM, old ironsides @ ucla film archive
neil hamburger @ satellite
uncle buck 5 PM @ crest
3 women 8 PM @ silent movie theater
the look of silence 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
the man who shot liberty valance FREE 7 PM @ reel grit @ afi


mon. aug. 31

touki bouki @ pieter
a fistful of dollars, minnesota clay @ new beverly
raiders of the lost ark 7:30 10:30 PM @ cinerama dome
the look of silence 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater


tue. sep. 1

casablanca 8 PM @ rooftop film club @ montalban
triptides @ harvard & stone
a fistful of dollars, cry of a prostitute @ new beverly
on the waterfront FREE 6 PM @ santa monica library ocean park branch
the look of silence 7:30 10:00 PM @ silent movie theater
the war of the worlds 1 PM @ lacma


wed. sep. 2

a fistful of dollars @ new beverly
the look of silence @ silent movie theater
lee 'scratch' perry (performs "super ape") @ dub club @ echoplex
o canada! 10:30 PM @ lost & found film club @ silent movie theater


thu. sep. 3

winter @ roxy
a fistful of dollars @ new beverly
citizen kane FREE 7 PM @ csun armer


fri. sep. 4

the quay brothers in 35mm @ silent movie theater
clue MIDNIGHT @ nuart
blind husbands 4:30 PM @ cinecon @ egyptian
dead men don't wear plaid, notorious @ aero
a fistful of dollars, yojimbo @ new beverly


sat. sep. 5

cat power, susan, the rosalyns, the fly traps, glitterburst, julie ruin, bleached, bombon, etc @ burger-a-go-go 2 @ observatory (OC)
psycho @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
the lost weekend 7:45 PM, smash-up (RSVP) @ starlight studio
fight club 8:30 PM @ eat see hear @ autry
true romance @ street food cinema @ poinsettia park west hollywood
the quay brothers in 35mm @ silent movie theater
qui (12:00) @ el cid
casablanca, gaslight @ aero
a fistful of dollars, yojimbo @ new beverly
the bank dick 2 PM @ silent movie theater


sun. sep. 6

ferris bueller's day off @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
bleached @ the white lodge
the champion 2:30 PM, limehouse blues 3:15 PM, keaton/arbuckle shorts 4:30 PM, the kid brother 8:30 PM, pier 13 10:20 PM @ cinecon @ egyptian
los angeles plays itself (w/ q&a) @ aero


tue. sep. 8

the quay brothers in 35mm 10 PM @ silent movie theater
the day the earth stood still 1 PM @ lacma


wed. sep. 9

history is made at night, desire @ ucla film archive
house of the long shadows, schizo @ egyptian


thu. sep. 10

the magnificent ambersons FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
the black panthers: vanguard of the revolution FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc stark
when worlds collide, destination moon @ egyptian
journey to italy, stromboli @ aero


fri. sep. 11

fateful findings MIDNIGHT @ nuart
the war of the worlds (1953), the time machine (1960) @ egyptian
spellbound, anastasia @ aero


sat. sep. 12

fight club @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
vrem 8 PM @ epfc
santa fe trail 1:30 PM @ autry
the princess bride 8:30 PM @ eat see hear @ centennial square pasadena
jaws @ electric dusk drive-in
the puppetoon movie 3 PM @ egyptian
the fantasy film worlds of george pal, 7 faces of dr. lao @ egyptian


sun. sep. 13

peace officer FREE (RSVP) 2 PM @ usc stark
the wonderful world of the brothers grimm, tom thumb @ egyptian
top secret! @ aero


mon. sep. 14

clueless FREE (RSVP) 8 PM @ dive in theatre @ skybar @ mondrian


tue. sep. 15

forbidden planet 1 PM @ lacma


thu. sep. 17

the stranger FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
fear and loathing in las vegas FREE 7 PM @ silver lake picture show
electric boogaloo: the wild untold story of cannon films (w/ q&a) 7 PM @ landmark
northern soul 8:30 PM @ arena cinema
strike one FREE (RSVP) @ egyptian
the hour of the wolf @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater


fri. sep. 18

the warriors MIDNIGHT @ nuart
nashville @ aero


sat. sep. 19

carrie @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
mike watt & the secondmen, bombon @ pehrspace
budos band, meg baird, etc @ la psych fest @ regent theater
double indemnity FREE 2 PM @ la library los feliz branch
the goonies @ street food cinema @ will rogers park
miller's crossing (w/ q&a) @ aero


sun. sep. 20

i've always loved you, moonrise @ ucla film archive
moon duo, earthless, tomorrow's tulips, etc @ la psych fest @ echo/echoplex
end of the century 8 PM @ arclight hollywood
coast of death 5:30 PM, the plague 9 PM @ egyptian
the outlaw josey wales, dirty harry @ egyptian


mon. sep. 21

american hardcore 8 PM @ arclight hollywood


tue. sep. 22

laetitia sadier @ the echo
a story of people in war and peace FREE @ hammer
the incredible shrinking man 1 PM @ lacma


thu. sep. 24

stars of the lid @ regent
the lady from shanghai FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
the blues brothers, stripes @ aero
the final girls @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater


fri. sep. 25

jon brion @ largo
dead meadow (7:10), drinking flowers (8:00) @ desert stars @ pappy & harriet's
the last valley, the night of the generals @ egyptian


sat. sep. 26

all the instruments agree (noon to 10 PM) FREE @ hammer
some kind of wonderful, fast times at ridgemont high @ street food cinema @ exposition park
back to the future, back to the future part ii @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
lawrence of arabia (70mm) @ egyptian
the lesson, they have escaped @ aero


sun. sep. 27

all the instruments agree (noon to 10 PM) FREE @ hammer
neil hamburger @ satellite
an evening with pablo frasconi FREE 8:30 PM @ 7 dudley cinema @ beyond baroque


tue. sep. 29

troublemakers: the story of land art (w/ q&a) 8 PM @ ace hotel theater
drunk stoned brilliant dead: the story of the national lampoon FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc stark
invasion of the body snatchers 1 PM @ lacma


wed. sep. 30

kings of nowhere FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc stark


thu. oct. 1

macbeth (1948) FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
kingdom of shadows FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc stark


fri. oct. 2

animal house MIDNIGHT @ nuart


sat. oct. 3

eagle rock music festival
triptides @ roxy
spokenest @ pehrspace


sun. oct. 4

habit @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater


thu. oct. 8

othello (1952) FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
sun choke 10 PM @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater


sat. oct. 10

kids in the hall, etc @ festival supreme @ shrine
glory 1:30 PM @ autry
scarface @ street food cinema @ exposition park


mon. oct. 12

avant garde jazz films FREE @ documental @ unurban


wed. oct. 14

heron oblivion @ fonda


thu. oct. 15

mr. arkadin FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
love & peace @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater
the visit 10:30 PM spectrefest @ silent movie theater


sat. oct. 17

back to the future, back to the future part ii @ street food cinema @ victory park pasadena
quindar FREE @ on edge fest @ goodland hotel (santa barbara)


mon. oct. 19

ghostbusters FREE (RSVP) 8 PM @ dive in theatre @ skybar @ mondrian


tue. oct. 20

fuzz, mudhoney @ regent


thu. oct. 22

orson welles tv FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
nasty baby FREE (RSVP) @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater
aaaaaaaah! 10:45 PM @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater


sat. oct. 24

luna @ teragram ballroom
zombies @ saban theatre
rosemary's baby @ electric dusk drive-in
dusk-to-dawn horrorthon (titles TBA) @ aero


sun. oct. 25

luna @ teragram ballroom
casa de mi padre FREE 2 PM @ hammer
neil hamburger @ satellite
the amityville horror @ electric dusk drive-in


mon. oct. 26

the shining FREE (RSVP) 8 PM @ dive in theatre @ skybar @ mondrian
straight from bertha 8:30 PM @ redcat


wed. oct. 28

wand @ echo
king khan & bbq show @ teragram ballroom
age of panic, tonnerre @ aero
begotten @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater


thu. oct. 29

touch of evil FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
son of frankenstein (1939) @ alex theatre
tikkun @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater


fri. oct. 30

the ex @ the roxy
jon brion @ largo


sat. oct. 31

dracula (1931) (w/ philip glass & the kronos quartet live accompaniment) 4 PM @ ace hotel
shaun of the dead @ street food cinema @ exposition park
dr. jekyll and mr. hyde (w/ live organ accompaniment) 8 PM @ disney hall


sun. nov. 1

windhand @ roxy


mon. nov. 2

small-gauge l.a. 8:30 PM @ redcat


wed. nov. 4

ian svenonius (lecture) FREE @ hammer


thu. nov. 5

afi fest
drinks @ the echo
the trial FREE 7 PM @ csun armer


fri. nov. 6

afi fest
deerhoof @ echoplex


sat. nov. 7

afi fest
red krayola @ redcat


sun. nov. 8

afi fest


mon. nov. 9

afi fest


tue. nov. 10

afi fest
joanna gruesome @ the echo


wed. nov. 11

afi fest


thu. nov. 12

afi fest
chimes at midnight FREE 7 PM @ csun armer


sat. nov. 14

the outlaw josey wales 1:30 PM @ autry


mon. nov. 16

low @ troubadour
rick prelinger: lost landscapes of los angeles 8:30 PM @ redcat


wed. nov. 18

ucla game arts festival @ hammer


thu. nov. 19

the immortal story FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
vodka lemon FREE @ hammer


sat. nov. 21

antibalas @ regent


mon. nov. 23

songs from the north 8:30 PM @ redcat


tue. nov. 24

la source FREE @ hammer


tue. dec. 1

freeway: crack in the system FREE @ hammer


thu. dec. 3

f for fake FREE 7 PM @ csun armer


mon. dec. 14

mike kelley: single channel videos 8:30 PM @ redcat


tue. dec. 15

the color of pomegranates FREE @ hammer


mon. jan. 11

and when i die i won't stay dead 8:30 PM @ redcat





WHAT IT IS:


ALL THE INSTRUMENTS AGREE
ALL THE INSTRUMENTS AGREE: an exhibition or a concert is a two-day program of back-to-back live performances by over 25 local, national, and international sound artists, music collectives, art bands, and visual artists whose practices extend into the production of sound. Conceived as an exhibition in the form of a concert, the continuous program of performances will alternate between two outdoor stages in the Hammer courtyard from noon to 10 p.m. each day. Spanning a range of influences, genres, and styles, participating artists include industrial music pioneer Genesis Breyer P-Orridge; Cairo-based artist Hassan Khan, whose live-mixed multi-track work Taraban will be performed for the first time in the U.S.; and GLITTERBUST, a new project by Kim Gordon and Alex Knost. ALL THE INSTRUMENTS AGREE brings together a variety of disparate approaches to underscore the unruliness, temporality, and communal nature of musical and sonic performance as an art form that is inherently at odds with the conventions of exhibition and display while remaining essential to the production and social sphere of contemporary art.  


THE AMBULANCE
1990, Park Circus/MGM, 91 min, USA, Dir: Larry Cohen
When a medical crisis strikes and paramedics show up, they’re usually there to help, but this taut (and sometimes hilarious) thriller from writer-director Larry Cohen turns that notion on its head. Comic book artist Eric Roberts is chatting up Janine Turner on the streets of New York when she collapses and is whisked off in an ambulance - but she never makes it to any of the local hospitals. As Roberts tries to unravel the mystery, snappy reporter Red Buttons and cynical cop James Earl Jones help and hinder him, respectively. Discussion between films with writer-director Larry Cohen, moderated by David Del Valle.


Below Dreams  (2014)
Adapted from interviews she conducted with passengers she met on a Greyhound bus travelling from New York to New Orleans, director Garrett Bradley’s impressive feature debut follows three 20-somethings—an unemployed father, a single mom and a new arrival from New York—as they grapple with the challenges of adulthood as presented by their varied circumstances.  Fusing the documentary and the subjective, Bradley deftly binds their complex inner lives to the life of a city itself in transition.
Producer: David Stekert, Andrew Vogelman.  Director: Garrett Bradley.  Screenplay: Garrett Bradley.  Cinematographer: Milena Pastreich, Brian C. Miller Richard.  Editor: Garrett Bradley, Joe Murphy.  With: Elliott Ehlers, Jamaine Johnson, Rebecca Matalon, Leanne Miller.  HDCam, color, 82 min. In-person: Garrett Bradley.


Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery
Dir. Arne Birkenstock, Screenplay: Arne Birkenstock, Germany, 2013, 90 min., digital proj., Cast: Wolfgang & Helene Beltracchi. German, English and French with English subtitles
This mesmerizing, thought-provoking, and amusing documentary focuses on the life and times of Wolfgang Beltracchi and his wife Helene, who for nearly four decades, fooled the international art world and were responsible for the biggest art forgery scandal of the postwar era.
An expert in art history, theory and painting techniques, Beltracchi created original works in the style of such masters as Max Ernst, Heinrich Campendonk, and Max Pechstein, to not only fill in the gaps in the oeuvres of these great artists, but the gaps within the art market itself. Curators and art dealers alike were fooled by these “lost masterpieces” until a simple mistake lead to the Beltracchis’ arrest and the exposure of his forgeries. As Beltracchi and his wife recount their extraordinary story with humor and candor, some profound questions arise: What makes a piece of art an original? And what makes a person an expert?
“A highly enjoyable look at a career spent duping the art world. Offers plenty of behind-the-scenes secrets.
Walks us through the tricks of his trade, in this case buying a genuine but worthless old painting at a flea market and using the signs of authenticity on the canvas to bolster his illusion. This process is fascinating.” – John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter


The Black G.I.  (1971)
Filmmaker Kent Garrett’s documentary, produced for the historic newsmagazine Black Journal, examines the irony of the soldier who defends national values that he does not enjoy at home.
Producer: Kent Garrett.  Director: Kent Garrett.  Cinematographer: Leroy Lucas.  16mm, b/w, 54 min.


BLAST OF SILENCE
BLAST OF SILENCE is Allen Baron’s primal noir running from the shadows of Robert Rossen and lit in the natural dinge of Cassavettes. Soulless, lonely, misogynist, racist Cleveland hitman Frankie Bono (played by Baron) is contracted to extract a NY mob boss, but the Christmas season preys on his conscience and propels him into a ferocious internal battle to become “human.” It’s a losing battle. Hailed as the “new Orson Welles” at the ‘61 Cannes festival, Baron has since become a prolific director of iconic 1960’s and ‘70’s TV sitcoms and cop shows, but it’s the stripped-down, raw-nerved and impossibly bleak BLAST OF SILENCE he will forever be remembered for. With classic oddball beat characters (like Larry Tucker’s grotesque “Big Ralph”), a churning atonal jazz score by Meyer Kupferman and a black-hearted internal monologue voiced by an uncredited Lionel Stander, BLAST OF SILENCE is one of the boldest independent thrillers of the post-WW2 era and an obvious template for future mainstream classics like Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER. Dir. Allen Baron, 1961, 35mm, 77 min.


BOXING DAY
2012, 94 min, UK, Dir: Bernard Rose
Real estate speculator Basil (Danny Huston) has a chance to make a killing on some property near Denver and goes to inspect it, accompanied by his driver Nick (Matthew Jacobs). Over hours of travel, these two very different men reach a rapport, but that’s threatened when the snowy terrain grows dangerous. Based on Leo Tolstoy’s “Master and Man.”


THE BRAVADOS
Brooding Gregory Peck arrives in a small western town to witness the hanging of the men whom he holds responsible for the murder of his wife (they've been arrested for an unrelated crime). Through the help of a duplicitous executioner, the gang escapes--taking Kathleen Gallant as hostage... The Bravados is as grim and compelling as the earlier Henry King/Gregory Peck western The Gunfighter. 1958, 98 min. Directed by Henry King. Starring Gregory Peck, Joan Collins, Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi, Henry Silva, Kathleen Gallant, Barry Coe, George Voskovec, Herbert Rudley and Lee Van Cleef


CALL ME LUCKY
2015, MPI Media Group, 106 min, USA, Dir: Bobcat Goldthwait
Director Bobcat Goldthwait’s triumphant and wickedly funny documentary profiles Barry Crimmins, whose Boston club fostered the careers of countless comedians, Goldthwait among them. In the 1980s, Crimmins was known as a political satirist; spurred by a horrific personal history, he became an equally fierce crusader offstage. Celebrated comedians including Steven Wright, David Cross, Margaret Cho and Tom Kenny weigh in on the man’s inspiring transformation from standup to advocacy in this remarkable portrait. “A terrifically engaging surprise.” - Dennis Harvey, Variety.  Discussion following with director Bobcat Goldthwait.


CASQUE D'OR
The title means “golden helmet,” referring to a truly fierce hairdo – a crown of platinum locks with icicle bangs, while black jewels hang from her neck like daggers. Marie rocks it like armor against the extra-dapper mobsters who buy her love on the smoky dancefloors of lavish, lascivious belle époque Paris. She’s Simone Signoret, whose movie star chemistry with co-lead Serge Reggiani reaffirms the existence of a deeper celebrity mystery. Serge’s gentle swagger as Manda the ex-con loverboy makes him like an irresistible puppy that sometimes kills other dogs, and Simone wreaks abiding destruction on every man she catches with her strangely sardonic “come hither” stare. French master Jacques Becker undermines all the wistfulness and nostalgia with too-real portrayals of modern people succumbing to their least-desirable instincts, and directs his cast with an unadorned maturity that would win praises from a young François Truffaut and his co-conspirators. The film is really damn pretty, and a crucial French classic. Bring your dates to this one, but forgive them for staring. Dir. Jacques Becker, 1952, 35mm, 96 min.


Chimes at Midnight (1965), 119 mins.
Welles's lifelong fascination with the relationship between Prince Hal and William Shakespeare’s recurring fictional character Sir John Falstaff, played by Welles himself, made it to the big screen in a production Welles cited as his favorite and most personal film. Initially dismissed by critics, Chimes at Midnight (also known as Falstaff) is now regarded as one of Welles’s greatest cinematic achievements.


CLICKS INSIDE MY DREAMS: SHORT FILMS BY MARGARET RORISON
A writer, curator and filmmaker from Baltimore, Maryland. Rorison’s work often develops from explorations through rural and urban landscapes, combining language, sound and imagery to create installations and short films. Her films are explorations of materiality. They are impressionistic and poetic, taking form as investigations into personal memories and experience. She has worked in the past with documentary filmmakers, Stanley Nelson and Thomas Allen Harris, learning about the power of the image as a form of storytelling and investigation. Rorison studied creative writing and Spanish languages & literature at The University of Maryland and received an MFA at The Maryland Institute College of Art in 2012. She has shown her work at Anthology Film Archives (NY), Microscope Gallery (NY), as well as Ann Arbor, Images, Crossroads, Mono No Aware and Edinburgh International Film Festivals. She is the co-founder and curator for the Baltimore film series, Sight Unseen. Tonight’s screening includes a peek at Rorison’s new film created during her time as EPFC’s Summer Artist In Residence as well as a selection of past work. FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!


Cover Me  (2015)
Part of joint project with artist Tameka Norris, Cover Me emerged from footage co-written and conceived by Garrett Bradley and Norris but subsequently deployed in different ways by each: Bradley as a feature film, Norris as a video installation.  In Cover Me, Bradley layers a rich soundscape over episodic scenes from the daily life of an aspiring singer (Norris), alternating between long, wide takes and intense close-ups to craft a powerful, personal account of an artist in the city.
Producer: Wes Rossi.  Director: Garrett Bradley.  Screenplay: Garrett Bradley, Tameka Norris.  Cinematographer: Zac Manuel, Jason Foster.  Editor: Garrett Bradley.  Art Director: Nick Living.  Music: Brian Bo.  With: Tameka Norris.  DCP, color, 60 min. In-person: Garrett Bradley.


Day of Anger
This blood drenched spaghetti western finds Scott (Giuliano Gemma) as an aspiring gunslinger who hooks up with Frank (Lee Van Cleef), the stoic, cold blooded killer with an itchy trigger finger. After the two take over a small town, Frank begins to kill everyone. The student and the teacher face each other is a final showdown of cold steel and hot lead. 1967, 95 min., 16mm I.B. Tech Print. Directed by Tonino Valerii. Starring Lee Van Cleef, Giuliano Gemma, Walter Rilla and Christa Linder


DEATH RIDES A HORSE
Bill (John Phillip Law) grows up to seek revenge on the gang that killed his parents. He meets up with Ryan (Lee Van Cleef), a veteran gunslinger seeking his own revenge for the ones who put him in prison. The two proceed to shoot everything that moves in this violent spaghetti western... 1966, 114 min. Directed by Giulio Petroni. Starring Lee Van Cleef, John Phillip Law, Mario Brega, Luigi Pistilli and Anthony Dawson


DELIRIOUS
Mark Bradford cites Eddie Murphy's 1983 film Delirious as an influence for his multimedia installation Spiderman, a component of the exhibition Mark Bradford: Scorched Earth. In the film, a 22-year-old Eddie Murphy performs live, outrageous stand-up comedy that includes childhood memories of the ice cream man alongside virulent homophobic rants. (1983, Dir. B. Gowers, 80 min.) A Q&A with UCLA Professor Uri McMillan follows the screening.
With the multimedia installation Spiderman, Bradford reimagines Murphy’s searing commentary on sexuality in the controversial stand-up comedy film. Bradford’s early identification as an artist emerging in the mid-1980s was informed by queer and feminist politics during the developing AIDS crisis. With this work, he explores the deep cultural fears and misrepresentations that misconceive black identity and gender as one-dimensional, and providing critique of pervasive cultural racism and homophobia in society as a whole.


DIGGING FOR FIRE
2015, The Orchard, 85 min, USA, Dir: Joe Swanberg
Tim (Jake Johnson) and Lee (Rosemarie DeWitt) are housesitting when Tim unearths a gun and a bone in the backyard, a discovery that sends the husband and wife in separate directions. This droll and insightful marital drama features a great cast including Sam Rockwell, Orlando Bloom and Brie Larson. “Joe Swanberg's starriest picture is a lovely slice of everything and nothing disguised as a murder mystery.” - Ben Kenigsberg, Variety  


DOOMED: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ROGER CORMAN’S THE FANTASTIC FOUR
2015, 85 min, USA, Dir: Marty Langford
How many movies did Roger Corman make that never got released? One – a 1994 film featuring Marvel Comics superheroes The Fantastic Four. Through exclusive interviews with cast and crew, this documentary provides an inside look into the secrets, stories and legal shenanigans that have kept the Four’s first big screen adventure on the shelf. Discussion following with actors Joseph Culp, Alex Hyde-White, Rebecca Staab, Carl Ciarfalio, special effects makeup artist John Vulich and executive producer Mark Sikes.


ESKIMO
Mush to the Movies concludes with the stunning 1933 melodrama Eskimo, the first fictional feature film to be shot in a Native American language (Inupiat) and the first to be shot in Alaska.  It also received the first Academy Award ever for Film Editing.  Not yet on DVD, the film merges tragedy, a love story, a police drama, documentary passages of Inuit activity, and humorous hunting sequences shot on Hollywood soundstages.  Unquestionably dated in its representation of the Inuit, it still retains its sympathy for the lead character, the “Eskimo” Mala. We’ve paired this wonderful film with a 3-D short showing the Northern Lights! Co-presented by 3-D SPACE and the LA 3-D Club. Members of the family of Ray Mala, star of Eskimo, will attend!


AN EVENING WITH PABLO FRASCONI
Since 1969, Pablo Frasconi has made films about the U.S. bicentennial, gentrification, childhood literacy, public art, creativity, civil liberties and poetry, including, Towards the Memory of a Revolution ('76, 53m), The Woodcuts of Antonio Frasconi ('87, 25m), Survival of a Small City ('86, 57m), broadcast nationally on PBS, and, The Longing ('08,15m).
THE LIGHT AT WALDEN ('14, 39m) is a meditation shot at Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts, interweaving pieces of Henry David Thoreau’s texts and a war resister’s personal journey on a wilderness island in Canada. The filmmaker, as a young man during the U.S. / Vietnam War, attempts to follow Thoreau’s principles: building a cabin and living sustainably in the woods, “to front only the essential facts of
life.” This is one story among the nearly 125,000 war resisters in Canada. Music composed by John Luther Adams, John Cage, Lou Harrison, Charles Ives, Arvo Part, Karen Tanaka and others. With two shorts by Frasconi: THE SONG OF THE SOUL ('99, 6m), an adaptation of Walt Whitman's Children of Adam: From Pent-up Aching Rivers, and, LOOK OUT ('06, 8m), an adaptation of Wendell Berry's poem.


First Comes Courage  (1943)
Director Dorothy Arzner's final film (finished by Charles Vidor when she fell ill) veers from melodrama into WWII geopolitics, but featured a strong female lead.  In Nazi-occupied Norway, Nicole Larsen (Merle Oberon) is branded a traitor for keeping company with a Nazi officer, while she is in fact a spy.  Her readiness to die, and her renunciation of love to the cause, are worthy notes in Arzner’s swan song.
Columbia Pictures Corp.  Producer: Harry Joe Brown.  Director: Dorothy Arzner.  Screenwriter: Lewis Meltzer, Melvyn Levy.  Cinematographer: Joseph Walker.  Editor: Viola Lawrence.  With: Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, Carl Esmond, Isobel Elsom, Fritz Leiber.  35mm, b/w, 88 min.


FRANKENSTEIN (2015)
2015, Alchemy, 90 min, USA/Germany, Dir: Bernard Rose
This arresting contemporary take on Mary Shelley’s horror classic is set in Los Angeles, where husband-and-wife scientists Victor and Elizabeth Frankenstein (Danny Huston and Carrie-Anne Moss) give life to an imperfect being (Xavier Samuel) who must fend for himself when cast off by his creators. As told from the monster’s point of view, human cruelty becomes as terrifying as the violence he cannot escape. Discussion following film with writer-director Bernard Rose and actor Tony Todd.


Freeway: Crack in the System
The real story behind America's drug war, complete with drug dealers, dirty cops, and government complicity, this film was selected by the artist Frances Stark. At the center of it all is the rise, fall, and redemption of “Freeway” Rick Ross—a street hustler who became the king of crack. Followed by a Q&A with “Freeway” Rick Ross and others. (2015, Dir. Mark Levin, 103 min.)


From the Mouthpiece On Back
From the Mouthpiece On Back is a feature-length documentary about 'To Be Continued' Brass Band’s courageous return to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and a tribute to their unique blend of jazz and hip-hop that is carrying the torch for Brass Band Music.
In the summer of 2005, To Be Continued Brass Band, the youngest jazz band in New Orleans — and one of the last best hopes for survival of New Orleans’ legendary jazz traditions — is on the verge of going from The Big Easy to The Big Time. Acclaimed music group The Roots takes an active interest in helping TBC try to make it off the corner of Bourbon and Canal Street where they busk nightly and onto their dreams of recording an album and playing for a national audience.
But then Hurricane Katrina drowned everything they had — except their spirit. The band members rely on that spirit to persevere in their struggle to reunite and preserve the continuity of New Orleans and its one-of-a-kind music traditions. Even TBC’s name is a metaphor describing its quest to help the Crescent City carry on in the face of an epic calamity threatening not only the city’s survival but also survival of the city’s singular musical heritage. Running time: 56 minutes.


GUEROS
A months-long student strike at the National University throws roommates Sombra and Santos into a droll sort of limbo in their shabby apartment in Mexico City, whiling away the hours pining for the girl from the pirate radio show and tricking their neighbor’s daughter into helping them steal electricity. Their idiosyncratic routine is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Sombra’s teenage brother, Tomás, who has been exiled from his home by their mother following an incident involving a baby and a water balloon. The trio sets out on a road trip in search of Tomás’s hero, fabled folk-rock star Epigmenio Cruz, traversing across the city through perilous slums and the rebellious halls of the university to the ritzy nightlife downtown. Director Alonso Ruizpalacios arrives as a bold new voice in Mexican cinema with his energetic and imaginative feature debut—a cool, retro, black-and-white portrait of Mexico City and of three restless young men searching for a purpose and identity in a city of millions.—Tribeca Film Festival. Dir. Alonso Ruiz Palacios, 2014, DCP, 106 min.


History is Made at Night  (1937)
A swooning mash-up of comedy, melodrama, farce and tragedy, History is Made At Night defies narrative logic in favor of love’s more unpredictable ways.  After an unhappily married American woman (Jean Arthur) meets a debonair Parisian maitre d’ (Charles Boyer), not her murderously jealous husband, a bad bouillabaisse, or an iceberg in the Atlantic, could keep them apart. Production: Walter Wanger Productions, Inc.  Distribution: United Artists Corp.  Producer: Frank Borzage.  Director: Frank Borzage.  Screenwriter: Gene Towne, Graham Baker.  Cinematographer: Gregg Toland.  Art Director: Alexander Toluboff.  Editor: Margaret Clancey.  Music: Alfred Newman.  With: Charles Boyer, Jean Arthur, Leo Carrillo, Colin Clive, Ivan Lebedeff.  35mm, b/w, 97 min.


I BUILD THE TOWER
In the center of Watts sits the enigmatic art project of Italian immigrant Sabato Rodia, whose monumental mosaic-covered spires are now seen as an architectural and sculptural masterpiece. This compelling film, cited by Nonfics.com as one of the 20 best documentaries about Los Angeles, paints a rich portrait of the Watts Towers, their struggle for survival from demolition by the city and the lone man who created them over a 30-year period. Made with exclusive access to Rodia’s family and the cooperation of the Watts community, the film also details the growth of the conditions that led to the violence of 1965… and to Watts embracing the Towers as a symbol of freedom and initiative. “…the film is wonderful: lyrical, well-made and edited, and compelling…” - Ken Burns
Los Angeles’ recognition of the 50th anniversary of the Watts Uprising gives us a unique opportunity to better understand the recent violence underscoring our continuing practices of inequality in our country. Join us for a screening of I BUILD THE TOWER, Edward Landler and Brad Byer’s definitive feature documentary on the Watts Towers and their creator, Sabato Rodia. Made with exclusive access to Rodia’s family and the cooperation of the Watts community, the film follows Rodia’s life through the creation of his monumental mosaic-covered spires and their recognition as an architectural and sculptural masterpiece.
I BUILD THE TOWER also tells the story of Watts. Showing this story as Rodia saw it over the 30 years of his work on the towers, the film details the growth of the conditions that led to the violence of 1965 - and to Watts embracing the Watts Towers as a symbol of freedom and initiative.
Following the screening, panelists with perspectives drawn from long-term experience with Watts and the Watts Towers - for some going back to before 1965 - will address the issues raised in the film about our local history that are still influencing our society today.


The Immortal Story
To make the tall tale of the title come true, an aging European merchant played by Welles hires a sailor to sleep with his wife, but the elaborate set-up soon starts to take on a life of its own. Based on a short story by the Danish writer Isak Dinesen, The Immortal Story is the shortest of Welles’s feature films and first aired on French television. Together with excerpts from Welles’s great unfinished film project, Don Quixote. The Immortal Story (1968), 60 mins., and Don Quixote (1955-1985), 60 mins.


Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant  (1968-1971)
Originally aired on New York’s WNEW and hosted by Roxie Roker and Jim Lowry, this weekly show was conceived to counter images of Black neighborhoods as presented in the mainstream news.  It is considered the first African American–produced television series in the U.S.  This program will feature varied program excerpts, featuring an unscripted dialogue with Bedford-Stuyvesant residents and a powerful public forum with Harry Belafonte.
Producer: Charles Hobson.  Digital video, b/w, 60 min.


I Remember Harlem  (1981)
William Miles, acclaimed visual historian of Harlem, lovingly renders an epic telling of the community's 350-year history as the cultural hub of African American life.  Extending from the late 17th century to the early 1980s, the film registers the socioeconomic shifts and challenges of the late 20th century, also chronicling the momentous experiences of Civil Rights activism and the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance.
Producer: William Miles.  Directed by William Miles.  Screenwriter: Clayton Riley.  Cinematographer: Richard Adams.  Editor: Jonathan Weld, Richard Adams, John Zieman, John Godfrey.  With: Adolph Caesar (narrator).   16mm, color, 240 min.


IVANS XTC
2000, 93 min, UK/USA, Dir: Bernard Rose
Director Bernard Rose’s adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich centers on a towering performance by Danny Huston as movie agent Ivan Beckman, whose greatest career triumph coincides with a diagnosis of terminal cancer. The self-serving girlfriend, director and star (a wonderful Peter Weller) who surround Ivan but remain oblivious to his situation make this a stinging indictment of Hollywood at first glance, but by the final frame, this HD-shot drama emerges as something much deeper. Nominated for 4 Spirit Awards, including Best Director and Best Male Lead.  Discussion following film with writer-director Bernard Rose, KREUTZER SONATA actress Elisabeth Rohm and BOXING DAY actor Matthew Jacobs.


I've Always Loved You  (1946)
As a post-war journeyman director, Frank Borzage came to Republic, which produced this uncharacteristically lavish Technicolor romance about an egotistical concert pianist (Philip Dorn) who takes on young prodigy Catherine McLeod as his pupil.  The student develops amorous feelings for her mentor, but when her talent threatens to outshine his, he brutally severs their relationship in what may be Borzage’s most unrestrained melodrama.
Production: Republic Pictures Corp.  Distribution: Republic Pictures Corp.  Producer: Frank Borzage.  Director: Frank Borzage.  Based on the story "Concerto" by Borden Chase.  Screenwriter: Borden Chase.  Cinematographer: Tony Gaudio.  Production Design: Ernst Fegté.  Editor: Richard L. Van Enger.  Music: Walter Scharf.  With: Philip Dorn, Catherine McLeod, William Carter, Mme. Maria Ouspenskaya, Felix Bressart.  35mm, color, 117 min.


Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads  (1983)
Spike Lee’s thesis film for his master’s degree at NYU went on to win a student Academy Award.  The new owner of a barbershop is frustrated in his attempt to run a legitimate, traditional business by a scarcity of customers and the incursions of a gangster who wants to use the shop as a front for a numbers racket. 
Producer: Spike Lee.  Director: Spike Lee.  Screenwriter: Spike Lee.  Cinematographer: Ernest Dickerson.  Editor: Spike Lee.  With: Monty Ross, Donna Bailey, Stuart Smith, Tommie Hicks, Horace Long.  16mm, b/w, 60 min.


KINGDOM OF SHADOWS
In Kingdom of Shadows, Bernardo Ruiz takes an unflinching look at the hard choices and destructive consequences of the U.S.-Mexico “drug war,” weaving together the stories of a U.S. drug enforcement agent on the border, an activist nun in violence-scarred Monterrey, Mexico, and a former Texas smuggler, to reveal the human side of an often misunderstood conflict that has resulted in a growing human-rights crisis that only recently has made international headlines. Running time: 74 minutes. In Spanish and English, with English subtitles. Directed by Bernardo Ruiz. Preceded by a short doc, Sael Kuxlejal (10 min.) Followed by a Q&A with Bernardo Ruiz


KINGS OF NOWHERE
Three families live in a village partially submerged by water in Northwestern Mexico: Pani and Paula do not want to close their tortilleria and spend their spare time rescuing the town from ruins; Miro and his parents dream of leaving but can’t; Yoya and Jaimito live in fear but have everything they need. Provided courtesy of Venado Films and Ruta 66 Ciné. Not rated. Running time: 90 minutes. In Spanish, with English subtitles. Written and Directed by Betzabé García. Preceded by a short doc, Papa Machete (11 min.) Followed by a Q&A with Betzabé García


KORLA
Organist Korla Pandit was an alluring enigma, a television pioneer and the godfather of exotica music. He never spoke a word on 900 episodes of his groundbreaking 1950s TV program but captured the hearts of countless Los Angeles housewives with his soulful, hypnotic gaze and theatrical performance of popular tunes and East Indian compositions on the newly developed Hammond B3 organ. In the 90s he resurfaced as a cult figure with the tiki/lounge music aficionados and ended up immortalized in the film Ed Wood. Often pegged as a “man of mystery,” Korla lived up to that billing when he took an amazing secret with him to his grave in 1998—one that is finally revealed in Korla. Dir. John Turner 2015, DCP, 78 min.  With Director John Turner in person.


THE KREUTZER SONATA
2008, 99 min, USA, Dir: Bernard Rose
Inspired by a Leo Tolstoy short story (which was itself inspired by the Beethoven composition of the title), this sexually explicit drama measures the toll that unbridled jealousy takes on a marriage. Edgar (Danny Huston) and Abigail (Elisabeth Röhm) have been together four years and have two children, though at the expense of her career as a pianist; when she begins rehearsing a duet with a violinist (Matthew Yang King), Edgar becomes convinced that the two are having an affair.


LA SOURCE
As Los Angeles dips into a time of water scarcity, the Hammer screens this documentary about a village in Haiti where obtaining safe drinking water has never been easy. Josue Lajeunesse, the Princeton University custodian who is the compelling narrative’s core, returns to Haiti to channel a consistent, clean water source to his village. Determination drives what the Washington Post dubs an “artfully shot documentary.” Narrated by Don Cheadle. (2012, Dir. Patrick Shen, 71 min.)


LEADING LIGHT: A REVIVAL
This program reprises seven films that have screened at various local venues in recent years whose images and sounds (or silences) have not ceased reverberating in the bodies of those who saw them. Like a haunting ghost, each of these films is calling to return. Featuring: Leading Light (John Smith, 1975, 11min), The Wonder Ring (Stan Brakhage, 1955, 6min), Les Tournesols (Rose Lowder, 1983, 3min), Valentin de las Sierras (Bruce Baillie, 1968, 10min), Path of Cessation (Robert E. Fulton, 1974, 15min), Anselmo (Chick Strand, 1967, 3min), — ——- (a.k.a. The Rock and Roll Film, Thom Andersen and Malcolm Brodwick, 1967, 11min). CURATOR SEAN BATTON IN ATTENDANCE!


The Long Night  (1976)
Steely Brown, a young boy living in Harlem, wanders the streets of the city one night, reflecting on what led to the disappearance of his father.  Meeting the denizens of his neighborhood, he engages in conversations that begin to sketch the outlines of the enigma, invoking Vietnam, marital discord, paternal relationships, substance abuse, schooling and unemployment—in short, the life of an American family.
Producer: Ed Pitt.  Director: Woodie King, Jr.  Screenwriter: Julian Mayfield, Woodie King, Jr.  Cinematographer: James Malloy.  Editor: Joe Staton.  With: Dick Anthony Williams, Peggy Kirkpatrick, W. Geoffrey King, Shauneille Perry, Woodie King, Jr.  35mm, color/sepia, 85 min.


MAN IN THE DARK 3-D
Filmed in 3D, Man in the Dark stars Edmond O'Brien as Steve Rawley, a man with a past. Thing of it is, Rawley knows nothing about that past: a former gangster, he underwent an operation that not only altered his appearance, but also wiped out all criminal tendencies--not to mention all memory of his past misdeeds. Rawley is kidnapped by his former mob cohorts, who demand that he cough up the $130,000 that he salted away during his gangster days. Audrey Totter co-stars as Peg Benedict, who loves Rawley for what he is, not what he was. Man in the Dark is a remake of the 1936 Ralph Bellamy vehicle The Man who Lived Twice. with special guest Eric Kurland of the LA 3D Club. Locations are announced 24-hours prior to show time.


MATEO
Mateo follows America’s most notorious gringo mariachi singer on his misadventures in Cuba.  Matthew Stoneman dreamed of pop stardom. Instead, he went to jail, learned Spanish, and emerged as “Mateo,” America’s first white mariachi singer. Mateo is on the brink of completing an album of original songs in Havana. But his estrangement from friends and family, his criminal past, and his love for Cuban women could derail him on his quest for fame. Directed by Aaron I. Naar


MICKEY ONE
“In the real world, you have to be realistic. You have to make compromises.” Such is spoken to Mickey One, a rising young nightclub comedian running from the mob for reasons he’s never told. This simple premise is the launchpad for Warren Beatty and Arthur Penn’s complex, scabrous metaphor for trying to survive in the film industry—based, not on your talent or what your ambitions can offer, but how well you bend and obey the powers that be. Given dreamlike structure by avant garde editor Aram Avakian (future director of END OF THE ROAD) and a free-wheeling Eddie Sauter jazz score (with sax improvs by Stan Getz), MICKEY ONE is at once a celebration of the possibilities offered American mainstream cinema by the new British film and French New Wave—it appears a cross between Richard Lester’s THE RUNNING, JUMPING AND STANDING FILM and Welles’ THE TRIAL while predicting films like Roeg and Cammell’s similar PERFORMANCE. Dir. Arthur Penn, 1965, 35mm, 93 min.


Minnesota Clay
In this western, a captured gunslinger is sentenced to swing, but before his execution day, manages to escape from prison. He then seeks out the one man who can prove his innocence. Because he is slowly going blind, he must use his enhanced sense of hearing. 1965, 90 min. Directed by Sergio Corbucci. Starring Cameron Mitchell, Fernando Sancho, Ethel Rojo, Georges Rivière and Diana Martin


Mr. Arkadin (1955), 106 mins.
Welles’s Mr. Arkadin (a.k.a. Confidential Report) tells the story of an elusive billionaire who hires an American smuggler to investigate his past, leading to a memorable procession of grotesques and a dizzying descent into a cold-war European landscape. While several different versions of the film exist, we will be screening the “Comprehensive Version,” compiled and edited by the Munich Film Museum in 2006.


Moonrise  (1948)
Director Frank Borzage suffuses a noir idiom with this own brand of unadulterated romanticism in his last great film.  Dane Clark stars as an alienated young man haunted by his father’s crimes who finds himself hunted by the law after killing a local bully in a fight.  Wracked by guilt, he nevertheless seems poised for redemption when he falls for his victim’s fiancée (Gail Russell).
Production: Chas. K. Feldman Group Productions, Inc.; Marshall Grant Pictures.  Distribution: Republic Pictures Corp.  Producer: Charles Haas.  Director: Frank Borzage.  Based on the novel Moonrise by Theodore Strauss.  Screenwriter: Charles Haas.  Cinematographer: John L. Russell.  Production Design: Lionel Banks.  Editor: Harry Keller.  Music: William Lava.  With: Dane Clark, Gail Russell, Ethel Barrymore, Allyn Joslyn, Rex Ingram.  35mm, b/w, 90 min.


THE NAKED SPUR
The powerhouse combination of star James Stewart and director Anthony Mann score another cinematic bullseye in The Naked Spur. Stewart plays a taciturn frontiersman who loses his home while he's off fighting the Civil War. To raise enough money for a new grubstake, Stewart becomes a bounty hunter in Colorado territory. His first quarry is fugitive, killer Robert Ryan. Stewart's efforts to bring in Ryan and collect the reward are compromised by the presence of Ryan's loyal girl friend Janet Leigh and Stewart's two disreputable sidekicks, wily prospector Millard Mitchell and disgraced Union-officer Ralph Meeker. 1953, 91 min. Directed by Anthony Mann. Starring James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan and Ralph Meeker 


The New-Ark  (1968)
Director Leroi Jones (a.k.a Amiri Baraka) makes a rare, onscreen appearance in this recently re-discovered film, a portrait of “Spirit House,” a Black nationalist community center in Newark, New Jersey, where urban theater and political consciousness-raising further the aims of Black education.
Director: Leroi Jones.  Screenwriter: Leroi Jones.  Cinematographer: James Hinton.  Digital video, color, 25 min.


New Works Salon XXVIII
The New Works Salons series is a casual forum for the presentation and discussion of new works in film, video, sound, and performance, with local and visiting artists in-person to introduce their work. This program will feature Section A, the first part of Paul Pescador’s third feature film titled Crushes. Anna Wittenberg will show two recent video works: KJMP Presents Der Sandmann, in which KJMP—an a cappella quartet from the Inland Empire Chorus in Riverside California—performs The Chordettes’ 1954 hit Mr. Sandman 30 percent slower than originally written. Her work Olga Digs a Hole features a woman digging a hole in a nondescript outdoor setting, alongside imagery from the inside of a windsock and various landscape shots. Alee Peoples will show her new 16mm film Non-stop Beautiful Ladies, a Los Angeles street film starring empty signs, radio from passing cars and human sign spinners, some with a pulse and some without. Charlotte Pryce will show her new 16mm film Prima Materia: “Delicate threads of energy spiral and transform into mysterious microscopic cells of golden dust: these are the luminous particles of the alchemist’s dream. San Francisco-based filmmaker Paul Clipson will show his recent 16mm film The Liquid Casket / Wilderness of Mirrors, with music by Lawrence English, Sepand Shahab will share a recent composition and Mike Stoltz will present a new performance work incorporating 16mm film and sound. FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE!


THE OBLONG BOX
When Sir Edward Markham (Alastair Williamson) is horribly disfigured by African natives, he is kept chained and out of sight by his brother Julian (Vincent Price). When Sir Edward escapes, he goes on a killing spree in a desperate attempt to get even with the society that has made him a monstrous outcast. Julian enlists the help of African witch doctor N'Galo (Harry Baird) for medicine to make Sir Edward appear dead so he can be evicted from the house. Dr. Neuhardt (Christopher Lee) attempts to help the hideous human. There are plenty of female corpses around to drip rivers of fresh, hot blood in this feature, the 13th Edgar Allan Poe story in which Price has appeared. 1969, 91 min. Directed by Gordon Hessler. Starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Rupert Davies, Uta Levka and Sally Geeson


Old Ironsides  (1926)
Dorothy Arzner's early association with director James Cruze led to opportunities that partly facilitated her extraordinary rise to director status.  Here, she co-wrote, was script supervisor of, and edited a rollicking 18th-century sea adventure of naval confrontations with pirates, featuring a shipboard romance of such ardor it literally rocks the boat. Paramount Famous-Lasky Corp.  Producer: B.P. Schulberg.  Director: James Cruze.  Screenwriter: Dorothy Arzner, Walter Woods, Harry Carr.  Cinematographer: Alfred Gilks.  With: Esther Ralston, Wallace Beery, Charles Farrell, George Bancroft, Johnny Walker.  35mm, b/w, silent, 111 min.


ONE & TWO
Siblings Eva (Mad Men's Kiernan Shipka) and Zac (Homeland's Timothée Chalamet) live cut off from society in a remote farmhouse, their insular world bounded by an enormous wall. But as the pair begins exploring their extraordinary, potentially dangerous supernatural abilities, a mystery arises: is their father trying to keep the world out, or to keep his children in? This stunningly original science-fiction mind-bender is a surprising, thought-provoking look at the bonds that tie families together and the secrets that drive them apart.  Elizabeth Reaser (Twilight) and Grant Bowler (Defiance) co-star.


ONE DAY SINCE YESTERDAY: PETER BOGDANOVICH AND THE LOST AMERICAN FILM
2014, 120 min, USA, Dir: Bill Teck
When Peter Bogdanovich’s highly personal THEY ALL LAUGHED got short shrift from its studio, the director bought the film back to distribute himself; while not a box office hit, the romantic comedy’s reputation has risen steadily over the years. This new documentary, re-edited since its Venice Film Festival premiere, takes an affectionate look at an underseen gem and illuminates its place in Bogdanovich’s filmography. Discussion between films with director Peter Bogdanovich.


One Spy Too Many
The valiant secret agents of U.N.C.L.E. set out to defeat a megalomaniacal scientist who has developed a "will gas" that he believes will allow him to take over the world. This feature-length espionage adventure consists of re-edited footage from two episodes of the television series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. 1966, 102 min. Directed by Joseph Sargent. Starring Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Rip Torn, Dorothy Provine, Leo G. Carroll and Yvonne Craig


Orson Welles TV
Sketch Book, Around the World, The Fountain of Youth (1955-58), 120 mins.
An evening of Welles television rarities, including episodes of his two series made for British television, Orson Welles’ Sketchbook and Around the World with Orson Welles. Also included will be his rare landmark TV pilot Fountain of Youth, excerpts from his starring roles in The Man Who Came to Dinner and King Lear; a compilation of classic television interviews, and even an episode of I Love Lucy.


PAPERHOUSE
1988, Lionsgate, 92 min, UK, Dir: Bernard Rose
Fever-plagued 13-year-old Anna (Charlotte Burke in her sole screen appearance) sketches a picture of an isolated house with a boy sitting at the window; in her dreams, she’s transported to the building, which changes whenever she revises her drawing. This stark and visually inventive British fantasy costars Glenne Headly, Gemma Jones and Ben Cross. “It's moody and unnerving in a hard-to-specify way, like a piece of music set in an enthralling but wholly unfamiliar key.” - Hal Hinson, The Washington Post.


PEACE OFFICER
A former sheriff will stop at nothing to confront the SWAT team he founded.
Peace Officer is a feature documentary about the increasingly militarized state of American police as told through the story of William “Dub” Lawrence, a former sheriff who established and trained his rural state’s first SWAT team only to see that same unit kill his son-in-law in a controversial standoff 30 years later. Driven by an obsessed sense of mission, Dub uses his own investigative skills to uncover the truth in this and other recent officer-involved shootings in his community while tackling larger questions about the changing face of peace officers nationwide. Running time: 105 minutes. Directed and Cinematography by Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber. Followed by a Q&A with USC Alum Brad Barber


Personal Problems  (1980)
Acclaimed writer Ishmael Reed, in collaboration with director Bill Gunn, reworks the soap opera genre to illuminate under-represented African American realities and critique the reductive banalities of television—soaps in particular.  The saga of Johnnie Mae Brown, a professional nurse’s aid, leads us through the stresses of her professional and personal life, rendered with a penetrating irony.
Producer: Walter Cotton.  Director: Bill Gunn.  Screenwriter: Ishmael Reed, Walter Cotton.  Cinematographer: Roberto Polidori.  Editor: Bill Gunn.  With: Verta Mae Grosvenor, Walter Cotton, Stacey Harris, Jim Wright, Thommie Blackwell.  Digital video, color, 70 min.


A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence
The most distinctive Swedish filmmaker since Ingmar Bergman, Roy Andersson concludes the trilogy he began with the acclaimed Songs from the Second Floor and You, the Living with this astonishing mixture of the absurd, the hilarious, the shocking, and the horrifying. Presented as a series of darkly comic vignettes, Pigeon shifts between two loose narrative strands: in one, two hapless novelty salesmen wander around town trying to sell their inventory of vampire fangs and rubber masks; in the other, Charles XII, Sweden’s most bellicose king, reappears in modern times to carry on his series of disastrous defeats. Shifting between nightmare, fantasy, reverie, and even an impromptu musical number, Pigeon is a dazzling, provocative, and very disturbing critique of our times. —TIFF. Dir. Roy Andersson, 2014, DCP, 101 min.


A Place in Time  (1977)
A New York artist witnesses a crime and resolves to redeem his earlier inaction.  A silent film in pantomime, this early work by director Charles Lane brings a unique deftness and grace to its social realist narrative. 
Producer: Charles Lane.  Director: Charles Lane.  Screenwriter: Charles Lane.  Cinematographer: Ron Fortunato.  Editor: Charles Lane.  With: Francine Piggot, George Riddick, Joseph Robinson, Ina Mayhew, Joseph Reid, Charles Lane.  16mm, b/w, 34 min.


THE QUAY BROTHERS IN 35mm
Two of the world’s most original filmmakers, identical twins Stephen and Timothy Quay have been making their unique blend of puppetry and stop-motion animation for over 30 years and have spawned an enormous cult following. The Quays display a passion for detail, a breathtaking command of color and texture, and an uncanny use of focus and camera movement that make their films unique and instantly recognizable.
Best known for their classic 1986 film Street of Crocodiles, which filmmaker Terry Gilliam selected as one of the ten best animated films of all time, they are masters of miniaturization and on their tiny sets have created an unforgettable world, suggestive of a landscape of long-repressed childhood dreams. Curated by Christopher Nolan. ALL NEW 35MM PRINTS
Including (in order):
-In Absentia
Stephen & Timothy Quay, 2000, 35mm, 20 min
-Quay, Nolan’s new short film revealing the inner workings of the Brothers’ studio.
Christopher Nolan, 2015, 35mm, 8.5 min.
-The Comb
Stephen & Timothy Quay, 1991, 35mm, 18 min.
-Street of Crocodiles
Stephen & Timothy Quay, 1986, 35mm, 20 min.
With Christopher Nolan in person (9/4 screening only)


The Red Kimona  (1925)
Director Dorothy Arzner's screenplay adaptation of Adela Rogers St. John's sensational story emphasizes women's extreme and often impossible dilemmas.  Young Gabrielle Darley has been lured into prostitution by a man who trifled with her emotions…and whom she ultimately murders.  Becoming the ward of a self-aggrandizing socialite, Gabrielle sees another dead end and only wishes to better herself, but she faces many trials in transcending her status as a symbol. Mrs. Wallace Reid Productions.  Producer: Dorothy Davenport.  Director: Walter Lang.  Screenwriter: Dorothy Arzner.  Based on a story by Adela Rogers St. John.  With: Priscilla Bonner, Thodore von Eltz, Tyrone Power, Carl Miller, Emily Fitzroy.  35mm, b/w, silent, 77 min.


ROMANCE, APOCALYPSE AND MOON LANDINGS: THE TWILIGHT WORLDS OF KATE MCCABE
“Kate McCabe’s works are funny and sweet personal observations of our twilight worlds. Worlds where portraits of places and emotions are the kinetic sublime- where we as viewers are transported betwixt and between, hovering – our feet grounded on earth, our heads in the clouds. The everyday scene, a moving lyrical event functioning as a tribute to beauty and our lucid spirit. These short films are like private conversations sharing a secret and a dream.” Join filmmaker and founder of Joshua Tree’s Kidnap Yourself art collective Kate McCabe for the special premiere of her new 16mm film “You and I Remain”, a lovely apocalyptic lullaby about the Anthropocene with music and sound design by Jason Payne (Nitzer Ebb) plus a selection of other short films. FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!


The Royal Road
“A breathtaking cinematic essay…a masterpiece.”— Sam Fragoso, Roger Ebert.com
“A beguiling meditation….serenely accomplished.” — Dennis Harvey, Variety
From acclaimed filmmaker Jenni Olson, THE ROYAL ROAD is a stunning feature-length cinematic essay that offers up a primer on the Spanish colonization of California and the Mexican American War alongside intimate reflections on nostalgia, butch identity, the quest for unattainable women, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo—all against a contemplative backdrop of 16mm urban California landscapes, and featuring a voiceover cameo by Tony Kushner. Filmmaker Jenni Olson in person!


RUN OF THE ARROW
Rod Steiger plays an Irish immigrant and Confederate soldier who, refusing to surrender to the North, hides out with a Sioux Indian tribe and takes on the U.S. Cavalry. Fuller's penchant for heroes with identity crises finds its apotheosis in Steiger's deeply complex, eccentric, and fascinating portrayal. 1957, 86 min. Written and Directed by Samuel Fuller. Starring Rod Steiger, Sarita Montiel, Brian Keith, Ralph Meeker, Jay C. Flippen and Charles Bronson


SAINT JACK
1979, Concorde-New Horizon, 112 min, USA, Dir: Peter Bogdanovich
One of director Peter Bogdanovich’s best and most underrated films is adapted from the Paul Theroux novel and features Ben Gazzara as an easygoing, expatriate American pimp in Vietnam-era Singapore. Exceptionally authentic location atmosphere highlights this fascinating character study. With Denholm Elliott, Joss Ackland and George Lazenby.


Santa Fe Trail (1940)
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ronald Reagan
Empire and Liberty: The Civil War and the West shows how the institution of slavery and the notion of liberty were intricately tied to westward expansion. Many of the issues raised in the exhibition are also addressed onscreen. Santa Fe Trail is the first movie in the Civil War block.
In the days leading up to the Civil War, West Point classmates Jeb Stuart (Flynn) and George Custer (Reagan) are stationed at Fort Leavenworth in the Kansas Territory. The two men work together to put down uprisings led by anti-slavery fanatics, but they find themselves at odds when they both fall in love with the same girl (de Havilland).


SELECTED SHORTS
* Teach Our Children  (1972)
Documenting the 1971 Attica prison rebellion with footage of the calamity and subsequent interviews with guards and prisoners, this penetrating documentary also critiques the systemic subjugation of people of color in America, and gives voice to those at Attica who organized to secure their rights under abject conditions. Director: Christine Choy, Susan Robeson.  Digital video, b/w, in English and Spanish with English subtitles, 35 min.
* Free, White & 21  (1980)
Howardena Pindell delivers a stark direct-camera monologue recounting incidents in which she was discriminated against for being an African American woman.  A blonde white woman (Pindell in disguise) injects a cynical rebuttal, claiming Pindell is just being paranoid. Director: Howardena Pindell.  Digital video, color, 12 min. 
* I Am Somebody  (1970)
This inspiring documentary chronicles the struggles of underpaid female hospital workers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1969, seeking to unionize as they heroically face down the National Guard and public opinion.  Producer: Madeline Anderson.  Director: Madeline Anderson.  Cinematographer: Don Hunstein, Roland Mitchell.  Editor: Madeline Anderson.  16mm, color, 30 min.
* A Dream is What You Wake Up From  (1978)
An intimate portrait of members of three contemporary Black families, giving insight to the societal, economic, gendered and sometimes elusive forces that insidiously circumscribe and condition their everyday lives.  Director: Larry Bullard, Carolyn Johnson.  Cinematographer: Larry Bullard.  Editor: Allan Siegel.  With: Lauren Craig, Kym Fleming, Damian Hayes, Cheryl Daniels, Onaje Frank Ruffin.  16mm, color, 50 min.


SHE’S FUNNY THAT WAY
2014, Lionsgate, 93 min, USA, Dir: Peter Bogdanovich
Director Peter Bogdanovich’s first feature in more than a decade kicks into gear when Broadway director Owen Wilson takes a fancy to call girl-turned-actress Imogen Poots and casts her in his latest play – along with his wife (Kathryn Hahn) and her ex (Rhys Ifans). Jennifer Aniston, Will Forte and a host of cameos too good to spoil here add to the romantic chaos in this effervescent comedy. “It’s a hysterical screwball fantasia that openly steals from Lubitsch, Hawks, Capra and Sturges and wants to be caught with its fingers in the till. The result is a highly sexed Jenga-pile of silliness, to which Bogdanovich can’t resist adding block after teetering block.” - Robbie Collin, The Telegraph. Discussion between films with director Peter Bogdanovich.


SOL MADRID
Sol Madrid isn't a western, as might be gathered, but a drug-ring melodrama. David McCallum shows up early in the film as a spaced-out junkie. But Man From UNCLE fans need not worry: McCallum is actually an undercover agent, looking for the source of heroin being trafficked by the Mafia.  Based on Robert Wilder's novel Fruit of the Poppy, this went out to British moviehouses under the title The Heroin Gang. 1968, 90 min., Projected in 16mm. Directed by Brian G. Hutton. Starring David McCallum, Stella Stevens, Ricardo Montalban, Rip Torn, Pat Hingle, Paul Lukas and Michael Ansara


Songs From the Second Floor
Songs From the Second Floor, which shared the Special Jury Prize at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, is an indescribably surrealistic examination of the pointlessness of modern life in a nameless city full of directionless people. Throughout a series of unrelated vignettes, all marked by absurd black humor, the film's characters stand witness to an utterly motionless traffic jam, the pathetic firing of a 30-year employee, a magic trick gone horribly wrong, and the failed business ventures of a crucifix salesman. Dialogue is largely absent from the film, and even where present, it usually only confounds what little expository quality there is in the narrative. The tone of Swedish director Roy Anderssen's highly original and challenging project recalls such bleak visionaries as Samuel Beckett and Luis Buñuel, and though it certainly perplexed audiences, it also left them laughing uncontrollably. Directed By: Roy Andersson. Running Time: 1 hr. 37 min. 


SPECIAL EFFECTS
1984, Park Circus/MGM, 106 min, USA, Dir: Larry Cohen
Past-his-prime director Chris Neville (a very effective Eric Bogosian) kills an actress at his home while cameras roll; turning the footage into a movie, he casts the woman’s boyfriend in a role in order to frame him for the deed. Zoë Lund (MS. 45) shines in a dual role that looks at Hollywood with both allure and dread. Discussion between films with writer-director Larry Cohen, moderated by David Del Valle.


The Spy with My Face
In this episode from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. series, the two good-guy spies journey to Switzerland to prevent the agents from their nemesis organization T.H.R.U.S.H. from stealing the plans for a new nuclear weapon. To get it, the wicked agents try to divert Napoleon Solo with a lovely dame while they replace him with an exact double. 1965, 88 min. Directed by John Newland. Starring Robert Vaughn, Senta Berger, David McCallum, Leo G. Carroll and Michael Evans


THE SQUEEZE
A fortune in diamonds is the quarry here when a thieving bunch try to pull the caper of capers. They enlist the services of a crack safecracker who concocts his own plan to make a get-away with the ill-gotten loot. 1978, 99 min. Directed by Antonio Margheriti. Starring Lee Van Cleef, Karen Black, Edward Albert, Lionel Stander and Robert Alda. Introduction by director Bill Lustig (MANIAC), who served as production manager on the film!


Statues Hardly Ever Smile  (1971)
A group of African American children on a tour of the Brooklyn Museum interact with Egyptian art objects through acting and performance exercises led by a storyteller.
Producer: Kent Garrett.  Director: Stan Lathan. Cinematographer: Leroy Lucas, St. Clair Bourne. Editor: Kathleen Collins.  Digital video, color, 21 min.


Stone
An undercover cop named Stone (Ken Shorter) infiltrates an outlaw biker gang called the Grave Diggers, only to discover that he has more in common with the two-wheeled warriors than he previously thought after a professional assassin attempts to set them up for a big fall. A prominent environmental activist has just been assassinated, and the police suspect that the Grave Diggers are withholding crucial information relating to the killing. Realizing that the Grave Diggers will never speak to regular policemen, the cops recruit Stone to ride with the gang and find out what they know. Accepted into the fold after saving the life of a grateful Grave Digger, Stone begins to respect the Undertaker (Sandy Harbutt) and his crew due to the fact that they operate by their own unique code of ethics. Later, as the Grave Diggers prepare to strike back against a rival motorcycle club, Stone suspects a set-up and attempts to convince them not to fall for it... Directed by Sandy Harbutt, 1974, 103 min. Starring Ken Shorter, Sandy Harbutt, Deryck Barnes, Hugh Keays-Byrne and Roger Ward


A Story of People in War and Peace
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, we dedicate 2015 to an exploration of multiple facets of Armenian culture, history, and landscape through film in our series I Am Armenian. 
Over the course of five days in 1994, the filmmaker Vardan Hovhannisyan documented a close-range battle of the Karabakh War, in which half the soldiers were wounded and a full third killed. Twelve years later he finds survivors, men with whom he shared a terrifying trench. His intimate conversations with these veterans demonstrate the cost of war and what it is to survive the peace. (2007, Dir. Vardan Hovha)


Subversive Women: A Low-Key Night of New Underground Films Made by Women
Join us for the first-ever Women Underground event and watch awesome films that are way too wacky, gory, sick, crazy, strange, weird, twisted, odd or insane to show at mainstream film festivals. Women Underground is a shorts showcase of some of the strangest animated, surreal, experimental, violent and wildly entertaining movies of 2015, that all happen to be directed by women.
120 min.


THEY ALL LAUGHED
1981, HBO Films, 115 min, USA, Dir: Peter Bogdanovich
Director Peter Bogdanovich uses the private-eye genre as a vehicle to deliver deeply romantic insights about love, marriage and regret. John Ritter and Ben Gazzara work for the Odyssey Detective Agency, a firm where the investigators are more concerned with their own complicated love lives than with solving any cases. Audrey Hepburn and Dorothy Stratten co-star in this hilarious ensemble dramedy, a film that Quentin Tarantino declared one of the 10 greatest ever made.


Variations VII: John Cage Experiments in Art and Technology
Directed by Barbro Shultz Lundestam and produced by Billy Klüver and Julie Martin for Experiments in Art and Technology.
Documenting the work of artist John Cage for 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering, this film shows the series of innovative dance, music, and theatre performances held at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City in October of 1966. 9 Evenings was the result of collaborations between artists and engineers from Bell Telephone Laboratories. Cage’s performance, Variations VII, was the next to last in the artist’s series of indeterminate works, which used electronic equipment and systems.


The Venetian Affair
In this spy thriller, Robert Vaughn, then starring on TV's The Man from U.N.C.L.E., plays Bill Fenner, an ex-CIA agent who is called upon by his former boss, Frank Rosenfeld (Ed Asner), to investigate an apparent murder-suicide in Venice: an American diplomat exploded a bomb at a peace conference, killing himself and all the attendees.  The story was based on a novel by Helen MacInnes. 1966, 89 min. Directed by Jerry Thorpe. Starring Robert Vaughn, Elke Sommer, Felicia Farr, Karl Boehm, Luciana Paluzzi and Boris Karloff


VODKA LEMON
The central character in this comedy set amid a snowy Yazidi Kurdish village in post-Soviet Armenia is Hamo, a widower with three worthless sons. Hamo is so poor that he’s about to sell off his treasured military uniform when he meets Nina, a lovely widow who works at the village’s sparsely attended bar, Vodka Lemon, which is about to close. Selected to play at the Toronto Film Festival and in MoMA’s New Directors / New Films Festival. (2003, Dir. Hiner Saleem, 88 min.) 


VREM
Echo Park Film Center graduate James Noel presents the premiere of his third feature, the surreal, experimental science fiction epic VREM, starring Janet Housden (DESPERATE TEENAGE LOVEDOLLS), Teddy Quinn (THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN), and legendary autobiographical cartoonist Carrie McNinch. James wrote, directed, photographed, and edited the film, as well as composing the original score; Kurt Comstock created several 16mm sequences; Marc Myers and Buzzsaw provided additional music.


WE COME AS FRIENDS
Academy Award nominated director Hubert Sauper’s We Come As Friends is a modern odyssey, a dizzying, science fiction-like journey into the heart of Africa. At the moment when the Sudan, the continent’s biggest country, is being divided into two nations, an old “civilizing” pathology re-emerges – that of colonialism, the clash of empires, and new episodes of bloody (and holy) wars over land and resources. The director of Darwin's Nightmare takes us on this voyage in his tiny, self-made, tin and canvas flying machine. He leads us into most improbable locations and into people’s thoughts and dreams, in both stunning and heartbreaking ways. Chinese oil workers, UN peacekeepers, Sudanese warlords, and American evangelists ironically weave common ground in this documentary, a complex, profound and humorous cinematic endeavor. Running time: 110 minutes. Followed by a Q&A with Hubert Sauper


Why Don't You Play in Hell?
130 MIN, 2014
Directed by Sion Sono
Based on a screenplay master filmmaker Sion Sono wrote nearly fifteen years ago, Why Don't You Play In Hell? is among his very best work, as his trademark excess and outrageousness is infused with an affection for the previous century of Japanese cinema. This is Sion Sono with his talent and unique vision completely unleashed.
There's a war going on, but that won't stop the inexperienced but eager wannabe film crew The Fxxx Bombers from following their dreams of making the ultimate action epic. Ten years ago, yakuza mid-boss Ikegami led an assault against rival don Muto. Now, on the eve of his revenge, all Muto wants to do is complete his masterpiece, a feature film with his daughter in the starring role, before his wife is released from prison. And The Fxxx Bombers are standing by with the chance of a lifetime: to film a real, live yakuza battle to the death... on 35mm! Endlessly irreverent and wildly, hilariously visceral, this film is a Tarantinoesque ode to the yakuza films of yore, and features an over-the-top, blood-soaked finale for the ages. In Japanese with English subtitles


Will  (1981)
Considered the first feature film directed by an African American woman, trailblazer Jessie Maple's first feature tells the story of a girls’ basketball coach and former athlete, battling heroin addiction as he and his spouse bring up a 12-year-old street kid, “Little Brother,” that they’ve taken in.  Maple’s unblinking but compassionate telling of their story renders a Harlem not without its troubles, but brimming with humanity. 
Producer: Jessie Maple, Leroy Patton.  Director: Jessie Maple.  Screenwriter: Anthony Wisdom, Jessie Maple.  Based on an original story by Jessie Maple.  Cinematographer: Leroy Patton.  Editor: Willette Coleman.  With: Obaka Adedunyo, Loretta Devine, Robert Dean, Audrey Maple, Ellwoodson Williams.  16mm, color, 70 min.


You, The Living
Filmmaker Roy Andersson draws the viewer into the world of a woman whose most uplifting moments are always balanced by tragedy, and whose joy is constantly offset by sorrow. In laughing along at the good times and shedding a tear at the bad, the comic tragedy of life manifests itself in a manner that all can surely relate to. Directed By: Roy Andersson. Running Time: 1 hr. 32 min.


Youth of the Beast
(92 MIN, 1963)
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
When a mysterious stranger muscles into two rival yakuza gangs, Tokyo’s underworld explodes with violence. Youth of the Beast (Yaju no Seishun) was a breakthrough for director Seijun Suzuki, introducing the flamboyant colors, hallucinatory images, and striking compositions that would become his trademark. This film revitalized the yakuza genre and helped define the inimitable style of a legendary cinematic renegade. In Japanese with English subtitles