a highly-opinionated selection of things happening around town, and sometimes out of town. this month's page here.
wed. aug. 1 beggars of life @ silent movie theatre black thorns in the black box FREE @ hammer fear is the key, man in the wilderness @ new beverly klovn 5:00 10:15 PM @ silent movie theatre bananas!* at any cost?, big boys gone bananas!* 7 PM FREE @ usc ray stark tremellow (11:00) @ los globos thu. aug. 2 sarah & geoff seelinger films FREE 7 PM @ 7 dudley cinema @ beyond baroque from the dole to the pole or professor huhtamo's daring adventures illuminated with a magic lantern 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama fear is the key, man in the wilderness @ new beverly china 9 liberty 37, the shooting @ egyptian klovn 5:00 11:00 PM @ silent movie theatre music man murray, apocalypse @ silent movie theatre gibbons and the sluts @ the smell fri. aug. 3 north by northwest (gates at 6:30, film at sunset) @ oscars outdoors the shining @ aero look here, patterns @ ucla film archive drive MIDNIGHT @ nuart from the dole to the pole or professor huhtamo's daring adventures illuminated with a magic lantern 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama the getaway, mccabe & mrs miller @ new beverly a fistful of dollars, for a few dollars more @ egyptian here come the kops FREE 8 PM @ salute to sennett @ epfc filmmobile joysticks MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theatre you me & us @ pehrspace tremellow @ the smell sat. aug. 4 steamboat bill jr. (gates at 6:30, film at sunset) @ oscars outdoors horse feathers @ heritage square once upon a time in the west @ aero cosmonauts, dirt dress, plateaus @ the smell mccabe & mrs miller 4:40 9:25 PM, the getaway 7 PM @ new beverly kiss the girls and watch them die MIDNIGHT @ new beverly tiki volume 1: paradise lost @ tiki night @ egyptian sunset blvd @ cinespia @ hollywood forever white magic (11 PM), tom brosseau (5:15), kera & the lesbians (3:15) @ l.a. folk festival @ zorthian ranch heller keller (MIDNIGHT) @ p3hr prom @ pehrspace a.k. FREE 8 PM @ machine live soundtracks to the olympics FREE (MIDNIGHT to 3am) @ home room sun. aug. 5 danger: knife in the dark 7 PM, playhouse 90: the comedian @ ucla film archive for heaven's sake @ silents under the stars @ paramount ranch mad max FREE 8 PM @ biker movie night @ satellite river of no return @ egyptian the great silence, a bullet for the general @ aero steve roden: sequences and scores @ filmforum @ egyptian the road warrior, conan the barbarian @ new beverly mon. aug. 6 2001: a space odyssey (70mm) 7 PM @ the last 70mm film festival @ ampas samuel goldwyn the killer is loose, the rise and fall of legs diamond @ ucla film archive baraka (70mm) @ egyptian the maltese falcon (1941) @ aero black lips, king tuff, audacity, pangea, cosmonauts @ the observatory the road warrior, conan the barbarian @ new beverly wed. aug. 8 woods, peaking lights @ echo tepapa, yankee @ egyptian dead men don't wear plaid, night shift @ new beverly thee cormans @ redwood thu. aug. 9 bell gardens, cosmonauts @ alex's bar the ruthless four, requiescant @ egyptian the life and death of colonel blimp @ aero robert nelson tribute screening #2: seven from sixty-seven 8 PM @ epfc jobriath a.d. @ silent movie theatre white magic (10:00) @ satellite dead men don't wear plaid, night shift @ new beverly brent weinbach (8:00) @ ucb giant leaps for mankind and the future of the past 8 PM @ machine fri. aug. 10 young frankenstein (gates at 6:30, film at sunset) @ oscars outdoors companeros, the price of power @ egyptian breathless, band of outsiders @ aero tillie's punctured romance FREE 8 PM @ salute to sennett @ epfc filmmobile aliens from spaceship earth 8 PM @ silent movie theatre cosmonauts, gap dream @ the smell my best girl, sparrows @ new beverly sat. aug. 11 back to the future (gates at 6:30, film at sunset) @ oscars outdoors friday 8:30 PM @ eat see hear outdoor movie festival @ hollywood recreation center sunrise (w/ live score) 10 PM @ hm157 the tennors @ alexandria hotel thee cormans @ redwood django, the grand duel @ egyptian before sunrise, before sunset @ aero olympia 3:45 PM @ silent movie theatre split image 11:15 PM @ silent movie theatre the terminator @ cinespia @ hollywood forever dunes (5:40), lucky dragons (4:30) FREE @ moca grand ave sunn0))) @ echoplex my best girl 3:50 7:30 PM, sparrows 5:30 9:10 PM @ new beverly ezra buchla @ home room cool moms @ tribal cafe (afternoon show) cool moms @ rok 'n rol knife glove the raid: redemption MIDNIGHT @ new beverly sun. aug. 12 escape in the fog, behind locked doors @ ucla film archive django kill... if you live shoot!, hellbenders @ egyptian a face in the crowd @ aero exploding flowers @ echo casablanca FREE 8 PM @ beverly canon gardens the quiet earth FREE 7 PM @ reel grit @ afi the thing (1982) 9:45 PM @ new beverly mon. aug. 13 grandaddy @ fonda hippie revolution films FREE 6 PM @ documental @ unurban spartacus (70mm) 7 PM @ the last 70mm film festival @ ampas samuel goldwyn rear window @ aero the awakening FREE 7 PM @ usc ray stark the thing (1982) 9:45 PM @ new beverly tue. aug. 14 primary FREE @ hammer antibalas @ echoplex cosmopolis FREE 7 PM @ usc ray stark the thing (1982) 9:45 PM @ new beverly wed. aug. 15 lavender diamond @ bootleg kimya dawson @ the smell poltergeist, rocky iii @ new beverly thu. aug. 16 bell gardens FREE 9 PM @ pershing square johnny guitar, the badlanders @ egyptian malcolm, the big steal @ aero tonewheel/film reel: personal film work of douglas katelus 8 PM @ epfc bad brains: band in d.c. @ silent movie theatre poltergeist, rocky iii @ new beverly wl (7:30), cold showers (8:15) @ los globos fri. aug. 17 austrian experimental cinema: 1. action! @ ucla film archive gummo MIDNIGHT @ nuart emperor of the north pole, the vikings @ egyptian thee cormans @ blue star kids and dogs FREE 8 PM @ salute to sennett @ epfc filmmobile road house MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theatre the ambassador FREE 7 PM @ usc ray stark the lions, the expanders @ the mint sat. aug. 18 ghostbusters 8:30 PM @ eat see hear outdoor movie festival @ la cienega park (beverly hills) sixteen candles, valley girl @ street food cinema @ exposition park austrian experimental cinema: 2. daily business @ ucla film archive the wild bunch, the dirty dozen @ egyptian a place on earth 8 PM @ epfc compliance FREE 7 PM @ usc ray stark wet hot american summer, sleepaway camp, little darlings, etc @ films from dusk til dawn @ cinespia @ hollywood forever thee cormans, nobunny @ alex's bar carnival of souls (w/ live accompaniment) 8 PM @ house on the hill sun. aug. 19 let us continue 7 PM, seven days in may @ ucla film archive seapony @ echo nobunny, shannon & the clams FREE (RSVP) @ down & out a woman of the world @ silents under the stars @ paramount ranch just imagine 5:30 PM @ aero lee fields & the expressions @ echoplex seapony @ echo headhunters 3:20 7:30 PM, trollhunter 5:20 9:30 PM @ new beverly mon. aug. 20 the last of sheila @ aero headhunters, trollhunter @ new beverly tue. aug. 21 gasland @ aero grindhouse film fest (films TBA) @ new beverly wed. aug. 22 grand illusion @ egyptian something wicked this way comes, fahrenheit 451 @ aero driftwood singers @ satellite the incredible shrinking man, innerspace @ new beverly the four horsemen of the apocalypse 7 PM @ trepany house thu. aug. 23 the war room FREE @ hammer new works salon v 8 PM @ epfc thee tee pees @ redwood the incredible shrinking man, innerspace @ new beverly fri. aug. 24 julia holter @ echo the public menace, adventure in manhattan @ ucla film archive weekend at bernie's MIDNIGHT @ nuart total recall (70mm) @ egyptian shock corridor, forty guns @ aero beauties FREE 8 PM @ salute to sennett @ epfc filmmobile miami connection MIDNIGHT @ everything is festival @ silent movie theatre bell gardens (MIDNIGHT) FREE @ house of blues sunset beats rhymes & life: the travels of a tribe called quest FREE 8 PM @ pershing square the apartment @ new beverly sat. aug. 25 weird science @ street food cinema @ exposition park austrian experimental cinema: 3. concrete forms @ ucla film archive videodrome, existenz @ egyptian pickup on south street, underworld u.s.a. @ aero everything is terrible presents the rise and fall of god 9:45 PM @ silent movie theatre the birds @ cinespia @ hollywood forever audacity, driftwood singers, the abigails, lavender diamond, etc FREE @ echo park rising the apartment 3:35 8:50 PM @ new beverly sun. aug. 26 hallmark hall of fame: a storm in summer 7 PM, we two @ ucla film archive neil hamburger @ satellite the naked kiss, the steel helmet @ aero whirr @ echo up in smoke, harold & kumar go to white castle @ new beverly mon. aug. 27 the big heat, the woman in the window @ aero tremellow @ pehrspace up in smoke, harold & kumar go to white castle @ new beverly tremellow, dunes @ los globos tue. aug. 28 spin FREE @ hammer mike watt & the missing men @ bootleg wed. aug. 29 the great gatsby, the gangster @ aero animal house, knocked up @ new beverly thu. aug. 30 cave of forgotten dreams (3D) @ aero circle jerks: my career as a jerk @ silent movie theatre don't expect too much 7 PM, we can't go home again FREE @ usc ray stark beavis and butt-head do america, ghost world @ new beverly fri. aug. 31 jon brion @ largo the little tramp FREE 8 PM @ salute to sennett @ epfc filmmobile fast times at ridgemont high @ new beverly sat. sept. 1 fast times at ridgemont high 3:40 7:30 PM @ new beverly the big lebowski MIDNIGHT @ new beverly los angeles plays itself @ aero lightning bolt @ the smell sun. sept. 2 easy rider FREE 8 PM @ biker movie night @ satellite scarface @ cinespia @ hollywood forever los angeles plays itself @ aero mon. sept. 3 pangea @ pehrspace tue. sept. 4 in cold blood (1967) 1 PM @ lacma wed. sept. 5 the graduate FREE 8 PM @ silver lake picture show @ silver lake polka dot plaza thu. sept. 6 negativland @ echo portrait of the poet as experimental filmmaker FREE 7 PM @ 7 dudley cinema @ beyond baroque austrian experimental cinema: 4. from a to z and back @ ucla film archive fri. sept. 7 austrian experimental cinema: 5. cinema revisited @ ucla film archive 1990: the bronx warriors MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theatre sat. sept. 8 l.a. anarchist bookfair @ barnsdall park the twilight zone: the shelter, the new people, night gallery: class of '99 @ ucla film archive pee wee's big adventure @ devil's night drive-in dead meadow @ echoplex sun. sept. 9 planet of the apes (1968) 7 PM, suspense: nightmare at ground zero @ ucla film archive thee oh sees, sic alps @ el rey mon. sept. 10 cinema abstractions & avant garde films FREE 6 PM @ documental @ unurban tue. sept. 11 the mark of zorro 6 PM @ inside the vaults @ ampas linwood dunn thu. sept. 13 driftwood singers @ echo fri. sept. 14 the yellow canary, assault on a queen @ ucla film archive eternal summers @ bootleg john and faith hubley @ ampas samuel goldwyn sat. sept. 15 austrian experimental cinema: 6. passing time @ ucla film archive dum dum girls @ lobster fest @ ports o’call village sun. sept. 16 conan o'brien & jeff garlin @ largo catwalk, ringo deathstarr @ echo wed. sept. 19 playhouse 90: requiem for a heavyweight, westinghouse desilu playhouse: the man in the funny suit @ ucla film archive thu. sept. 20 black cat white cat FREE 8 PM @ center for the arts eagle rock lilys @ bootleg fri. sept. 21 austrian experimental cinema: 7. visiting our neighbors @ ucla film archive sat. sept. 22 the clock (noon saturday through noon sunday) FREE @ lacma austrian experimental cinema: 8. whose reality? @ ucla film archive ken boothe @ los globos sun. sept. 23 only angels have wings 7 PM @ ucla film archive tue. sept. 25 beach house, dustin wong @ wiltern wed. sept. 26 beach house, dustin wong @ wiltern monsters of found footage 5 PM @ everything is festival @ silent movie theatre fri. sept. 28 army of darkness MIDNIGHT @ nuart jon brion @ largo 2001: a space odyssey 11 PM @ cinerama anniversary @ arclight cinerama dome sun. sept. 30 it's a mad mad mad mad world 4:30 PM @ cinerama anniversary @ arclight cinerama dome willoughby @ bootleg neil hamburger @ satellite tue. oct. 2 2001: a space odyssey 8:15 PM @ cinerama anniversary @ arclight cinerama dome deerhoof @ echoplex thu. oct. 4 mark cantor's jazz films FREE 7 PM @ 7 dudley cinema @ beyond baroque how the west was won 7 PM @ cinerama anniversary @ arclight cinerama dome sat. oct. 6 eagle rock music festival luckman jazz orchestra: tribute to kenny dorham @ luckman theatre sun. oct. 7 the motorcycle diaries FREE 8 PM @ biker movie night @ satellite wed. oct. 24 melvins @ masonic lodge @ hollywood forever fri. oct. 26 jon brion @ largo sat. oct. 27 frankenstein meets the wolfman 2:00 8:00 PM @ alex theatre wed. oct. 31 the cat and the canary (w/ live organ accompaniment) 8 PM @ disney hall thu. nov. 1 derailroaded FREE 7 PM @ larry "wild man" fischer nite @ 7 dudley cinema @ beyond baroque sun. nov. 4 the girl on a motorcycle FREE 8 PM @ biker movie night @ satellite sat. nov. 10 the sea and cake @ bootleg fri. nov. 16 jon brion @ largo sat. nov. 24 three stooges big screen event 2:00 8:00 PM @ alex theatre thu. nov. 29 charles bradley & the menahan street band @ ucla royce hall sun. dec. 2 the wild ride FREE 8 PM @ biker movie night @ satellite WHAT IT IS: Adventure in Manhattan (1936) Directed by Edward Ludwig A hotshot reporter (McRae), adept at predicting big crimes, is foiled by the schemes of a master criminal and by an unwitting actress, Claire Peyton (Arthur), whose play the evil mastermind is producing as part of an elaborate heist plot. Arthur acquits herself handsomely, deftly embodying the shifting moods of this elaborately-plotted, comedic crime drama. Columbia Pictures Corp. Producer: Everett Riskin. Screenwriter: Sidney Buchman, Harry Sauber, Jack Kirkland. Cinematographer: Henry Freulich. Editor: Otto Meyer. Cast: Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Reginald Owen, Thomas Mitchell, Victor Kilian. 35mm, b/w, 73 min. A.K. (from IMDB) Chris Marker's elliptical, oblique documentary on the making of Akira Kurosawa's "Ran" is an uneasy blend of hagiography (usual Cahiers du Cinema stuff) and Marker's trademark meditations on the mediating role of technology in memory and the human experience, plus probably aging, and etc., etc., etc. These Gallicisms seem out-of-place; but the philosophies are easily discarded. What makes the film a pleasure are the glimpses we see of Kurosawa's work processes, in addition to all the detail and work that goes into the making of a true epic. ALIENS FROM SPACESHIP EARTH Take a wild and woolly magic carpet ride through the post-psychedelic alternative spirituality explosion of the ‘60s and ‘70s with Don Como’s Aliens From Spaceship Earth! Featuring on-screen narration and a soundtrack by Donovan, the film features rare footage of the most popular and controversial cosmic leaders of the time, including Sai Baba, Yogi Bhahan, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Guru Maharaj Ji, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Ram Dass and Father Yod, along with jaw-dropping footage of thousands of white, middle-class young people walking barefoot across coals, being kidnapped by “deprogrammers,” engaging in tantric sex, and devoting themselves wholly to the radical, transformational practices and teachings of their “alien” spiritual teachers. Plus, it also has celebs Cybil Shepard, Martin Landau, “Chicago 7” activist Rennie Davis, Leigh Taylor Young, Linda Day George, and Raymond Burr all getting ecstatic about their gurus and God. One of the only films of its era to counteract the mass media’s anti-cult backlash that demonized a generation of seekers, AFSE provides potent insight into a ‘70s subculture still vastly misunderstood today. After the screening (only its third public showing in 30 years), join Process Media’s Jodi Willie in a live conversation with director Don Como! Dir. Don Como, 1977, DigiBeta, 70 min. THE AMBASSADOR This darkly comic, genre-bending piece of gonzo journalism from international provocateur Mads Brügger (filmmaker of Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Red Chapel) rips the corroded lid off the global scheme of political corruption and exploitation happening in one of the most dangerous places on the planet: the Central African Republic. Armed with a phalanx of hidden cameras, black-market diplomatic credentials and a bleeding-edge wit, Brügger transforms himself into an outlandish caricature of a European-African consul. As he immerses himself in the life-threatening underworld of nefarious bureaucrats, Brügger encounters blood diamond smuggling, bribery, and even murder -- while somehow managing to crack amazing razor-sharp barbs at every step along the way. APOCALYPSE World Premiere screening! For the past 25 years, under both the Smog moniker and under his own name, Bill Callahan has cultivated an indelible legacy as both a pioneer in the lo-fi movement, and a songwriting talent that’s developed into simply one of our country’s greatest. Offering voyeuristic glimpses into a meticulously constructed universe of disaffection and disorder, his “painfully intimate songs ping-ponging wildly through a scrapbook of childhood recollections, failed relationships, bizarre fetishes, and dashed hopes.” (AMG) Shot on the U.S. leg of his 2011 tour, Apocalypse: A Bill Callahan Tour Film is an impressionistic collection of live performances and scenes from the road. Filmmaker Hanly Banks explores the changing landscape through the windows of Bill’s tour van through California, the midwest, and back to the Big Apple, in a psychedelic tapestry of footage from one of the most talked-about traveling acts of last summer. Bill Callahan will be here at the Cinefamily in person for a live set after the film — and director Hanly Banks will also be here for a Q&A! Assault on a Queen (1966) Directed by Jack Donohue In this Ocean’s Eleven-style caper (with a Duke Ellington score), Frank Sinatra stars as a former submarine officer leading small band of misfit adventurers. When the gang’s attempt to locate lost treasure leads them to a sunken World War II German U-Boat, they recover and refurbish the vessel with an eye to high-jacking the Queen Mary on the open sea. Paramount Pictures. Producer: William Goetz. Screenwriter: Rod Serling. Based on the novel by Jack Finney. Cinematographer: William H. Daniels. Editor: Archie Marshek. Cast: Frank Sinatra, Virna Lisi, Tony Franciosa, Richard Conte, Alf Kjellin. 35mm, color, 106 min. AUSTRIAN EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA: 1. ACTION! The camera's rolling and we’ve boarded a rollercoaster of visual and sound voyages. This opening program combines an excitingly eclectic range of artistic modes and represents both an introduction to what have become the hallmarks of Austrian experimental cinema and the perfect place to begin 10 adventures into cinema and its history. Whether reconstructing found footage, using sophisticated multiple points of view, restaging documentaries or undertaking structural explorations, these techniques all become rhythmic tools for our aural and visual pleasure. Total running time: 73 min. Film ist. 1: Movement and Time (2002). Directed by Gustav Deutsch. 16mm, b/w, 15 min. Schönberg (1990). Directed by Gerhard Ertl. 16mm, b/w, 3 min. Yes? Oui? Ya? (2002). Directed by Thomas Draschan. 16mm, color, 4 min. Mirror Mechanics (2005). Directed by Siegfried A. Fruhauf. 35mm, b/w, 7 min. Subrosa (2004). Directed by Karoe Goldt. Digital video, color, 3 min. Arnulf Rainer (1960). Directed by Peter Kubelka. 35mm, b/w, 6 min. Die Geburt der Venus (Birth of Venus) (1970-1972). Directed by Moucle Blackout. 35mm, b/w, 5 min. Sunset Boulevard (1991). Directed by Thomas Korschil. 16mm, color, silent, 8 min. Wisla (1996). Directed by Josef Dabernig. 16mm, b/w, 8 min. Body Politics (1974). Directed by VALIE EXPORT. Digital video, b/w, silent, 3 min. Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine (2005). Directed by Peter Tscherkassky. 35mm, b/w, 17 min. AUSTRIAN EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA: 2. DAILY BUSINESS Observations of everyday events and life are transposed with irony and humor through choreographic touches, performative actions or documentary real time. Static scenes become mini cinematographic voyages: a kiss enhanced through repetition and recreation, bicycles loaded into an elevator or being repaired, workers finishing their day, or bodybuilding as an artistic performance in itself. The ordinary is subtly tweaked to create wry visual motifs for our undisguised pleasure. Total running time: 68 min. Hernals (1967). Directed by Hans Scheugl. 16mm, color, 11 min. Byketrouble (1998). Directed by Carola Dertnig. Video, color, 5 min Pièce Touchée (1989). Directed by Martin Arnold. 16mm, b/w, 16 min. Nach "Pièce Touchée" (1998). Directed by Albert Sackl. 16mm, b/w, silent, 9 min. Hotel Roccalba (2008). Directed by Josef Dabernig. 35mm, b/w, 10 min Bodybuilding (1965-1966). Directed by Ernst Schmidt Jr. 16mm, color, 9 min. Livingroom (1991). Directed by Sabine Hiebler, Gerhard Ertl. 16mm, color, 5 min. Danke, es hat mich sehr gefreut (1987). Directed by Mara Mattuschka. 16mm, b/w, 2 min. AUSTRIAN EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA: 3. CONCRETE FORMS Though the title doesn’t mention architecture explicitly, this discipline is omnipresent in all its diversity in both the objectification of structures and descriptions of space. From the Adriatic coast to California, utopian concrete masses take on a form of their own, or even as humorous vehicles to sell shoes. Sound-driven works, from a younger generation of collaborative audiovisual artists in particular, accompany abstract and animated forms with vigor and intelligence. Total running time: 90 min. Quadro (2002). Directed by Lotte Schreiber. Digital video, b/w, 10 min. Besenbahn (2001). Directed by Dietmar Offenhuber. Digital video, color, 10 min. Humanic Spot-Würfel 1 (Humanic Spot Cubes 1) (1971). Directed by Axel Corti. Digital video, color, 1 min. John Lautner—The Desert Hot Springs Motel (2007). Directed by Sasha Pirker. Digital video, color, 10 min. Void.seqz 5 (2009). Directed by n:ja (Anna Rautgasser). Digital video, color, 5 min. Humanic Spot-Würfel 2 (Humanic Spot-Cubes 2) (1971). Directed by Axel Corti. Digital video, color, 1 min. Hyperbulie (1973). Directed by VALIE EXPORT. Video, b/w, 7 min. Random (1963). Directed by Marc Adrian. 35mm, b/w, 5 min. Chronomops (2004). Directed by Tina Frank. Digital video, color, 2 min. Humanic Spot-Und immer weiderdie Würfel (Humanic Spot-Cubes Again) (1973). Directed by Axel Corti. Digital video, color, 1 min. The_future_of_human_containment (2002). Directed by Michaela Schwenter. 35mm, b/w, 5 min. Sea Concrete Human (Malfunctions #1) (2001). Directed by Michael Palm. 35mm, b/w and color, 29 min. Machination 84 (2010). Directed by lia. Digital video, color, 5 min. AUSTRIAN EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA: 4. FROM A TO Z AND BACK Inspired by the first film images ever shot in La Ciotat to sophisticated references to Hitchcock, this program questions media, the passage of time and different technologies used to create moving images. From the horizontal to the vertical and at differing speeds, intensities or fluctuations, various modes of cinematographic dislocation are explored. And in doing so nearly every possible manner of moving from one place to another is employed, whether traditional or virtual. Total running time: 71 min. L'Arrivée (1997-1998). Directed by Peter Tscherkassky. 35mm, b/w, 2 min. Luukkaankangas–Updated, Revisited (2005). Directed by Dariusz Kowalski. Digital video, color, 7 min. Mir Mig Men (2002). Directed by Karoe Goldt. Digital video, color, 5 min. Perfekt 2 (1982). Directed by Dietmar Brehm. 16mm, b/w, 12 min. Film–An Exercise in illusions II (1983). Directed by Lisl Ponger. 35mm, color, silent, 4 min. Adjungierte Dislokationen (Adjunct Dislocations) (1973). Directed by VALIE EXPORT. Digital video, b/w, 10 min. 5/67 TV (1967). Directed by Kurt Kren. 16mm, b/w, silent, 4 min. Alpine Passage (2006). Directed by Michaela Schwentner. Digital video, color, 8 min. Vertigo Rush (2007). Directed by Johann Lurf. 35mm, color, 19 min. AUSTRIAN EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA: 5. CINEMA REVISITED Revisiting classical cinema in order to reinvent and create entirely new artistic visions is an attribute of Austrian avant-garde audiovisual production over the past twenty-five years, and it also represents a source of fascination for today’s curious filmgoers. Here, images of Barbara Stanwyck are reappropriated, Anna Magnani’s voice accompanies scenes of Italian suburbia, Mickey Rooney and July Garland are vivisectioned, Barbara Hershey is attacked by the apparatus, and the poetry of early cinema is resurrected in all its beauty in Film Is. All this, in addition to material taken from hundreds of other sources, contributes to the creation of unique cinematographic languages. Total running time: 81 min. Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy (1998). Directed by Martin Arnold. 16mm, b/w, 15 min. Borgate (2008). Directed by Lotte Schreiber. Digital video, color, b/w, 15 min. Outer Space (1999). Directed by Peter Tscherkassky. 35mm, b/w,10 min. Film Is. 7–Comic (2002). Directed by Gustav Deutsch. 35mm, color, b/w, 19 min. Mosaik Mècanique (Notes on Film 03) (2008). Directed by Norbert Pfaffenbichler. 35mm, b/w, 9 min. Picture Again (2003). Directed by Linda Christanell. 16mm, color, silent, 10 min. Zwölf Boxkämpfer jagen Viktor quer über den großen Sylter Deich 140 9 (2009). Directed by Johann Lurf. 35mm, color, 3 min. The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog (2009). Directed by Johann Lurf. 35mm, color, 3 min. AUSTRIAN EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA: 6. PASSING TIME The passage of time and a certain amount of distance were probably necessary before visual artists began questioning the reality and aftermath of Nazism. This program introduces several rarely screened works that directly confront recent Austrian history, and they had obvious and radical social, political and artistic repercussions for the Viennese Actionists and the student protests of May ’68. Time has passed over dark horizons to become permeated with transforming cities or history in neighbouring countries through the use of judiciously chosen found footage. Total running time: 79 min. NS Trilogie Part II: Feeling Kazet (1997). Directed by Linda Christanell. 16mm on digital video, color, 14 min. Nightstill (2007). Directed by Elke Groen. 35mm, color, 9 min. Kunst & Revolutionary Art & Revolution (1968). Directed by Ernst Schmidt Jr. 16mm, b/w, color, silent, 2 min. 55/95 (1994). Directed by Gustav Deutsch. 16mm, b/w, 1 min. Ein drittes Reich (A Third Reich) (1975). Directed by Alfred Kaiser. 16mm, b/w, 29 min. Tito-Material (1998). Directed by Elke Groen. 16mm, color, 5 min. Cityscapes (2007). Directed by Michaela Grill, Martin Stiewert. 35mm, b/w, 16 min. 20/68 Schatzi (1968). Directed by Kurt Kren. 16mm, b/w, silent, 3 min. AUSTRIAN EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA: 7. VISITING OUR NEIGHBORS Small or isolated countries have always had a disproportionate interest in the world surrounding them. The key issue in these works is analyzing the observation of “exotic” images, editing and re-editing material of the past and present. Fictional and documentary approaches and reconstructed found footage question social interactions within a 1950s farming community, moral and visual colonialism, the view of foreignness and a collective experience with migrants and refugees. Formally, they function by transposing sounds and images, and aesthetically through the displacement of communities and individuals. Total running time: 100 min. An diesen Abenden (On Those Evenings) (1952). Directed by Herbert Vesely. 35mm, b/w, 23 min. Pool (1990). Directed by Dietmar Brehm. 16mm, color, silent, 4 min. Sonne halt! Sun Stop! (1959-1960). Directed by Ferry Radax. 35mm, b/w, 25 min. Key West (2002). Directed by Thomas Aigelsreiter. Digital video, b/w, 5 min. Film Ist. 9–Eroberung Film Is. 9–Conquest (2002). Directed by Gustav Deutsch. 35mm, b/w, 18 min. Passagen (Passages) (1996). Directed by Lisl Ponger. 35mm, color, 11 min. Unsere Afrikareise (Our Trip to Africa) (1961-1966). Directed by Peter Kubelka. 16mm, color, 13 min. AUSTRIAN EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA: 8. WHOSE REALITY? These four “choreographed” documentaries play out in the interstices between inside and outside, public and private, visible and invisible, being in control and out of control, and they explore different aspects of the political arena. From a performance to an essay on the status of refugees and illegal immigrants in Fortress Europe, surveillance, public spaces and hyper-real public housing are questioned and traditional family models are undermined. Total running time: 73 min. 6/64 Mama und Papa (1964). Directed by Kurt Kren. 16mm, color, silent, 4 min. Body Trail (2008). Directed by Michael Palm, Willi Dorner. Digital video, b/w, 8 min. Forst (2005). Directed by Ascan Breuer, Ursula Hansbauer and Wolfgang Konrad. Digital video, color, 50 min. Somewhere, Late Afternoon (2007). Directed by Ella Raidel and Hongjohn Lin. Digital video, color, 11 min. THE AWAKENING Set in 1921, in a post-war England where many of the bereaved seek solace in spiritualism. Haunted by the death of her fiance, Florence Cathcart (REBECCA HALL) is committed to debunking supernatural claims, using methodical and rational explanations. When she is asked to visit a boarding school in the countryside called Rookwood - to investigate the alleged sightings of a ghostly young boy - she feels compelled to take the job. Once at Rookwood, she sets to work, laying traps and gathering scientific evidence. Gradually secrets begin to unravel and the mystery surrounding the ghost appears nothing more than a schoolboy prank. As Florence is set to leave, however, she experiences a chilling encounter that defies all reason. One of the schoolmasters, Robert Mallory (DOMINIC WEST), worries about Florence’s disposition in the aftermath. The incident leaves her scared and confused, but she is determined to get to the bottom of it and decides to stay on while the rest of the children go home for Christmas. She is not alone, however, as three others stay on with her: Maud (IMELDA STAUNTON), the matron, whose initial request had brought Florence to the school; Tom (ISAAC HEMPSTEAD-WRIGHT), a young boy whose parents cannot care for him over the break; and Mallory, who, having recently fought in the Great War, is plagued by visions of the past. Over the coming days the blurred image of a child-like ghost haunts Florence and she begins to doubt her resolve, increasingly unable to provide any logical explanation for the bizarre goings-on. As her bond with Mallory deepens, they are drawn to one another by their shared sense of loneliness and together they ready themselves to face their demons. BAD BRAINS: BAND IN D.C. “As Henry Rollins states early on in Bad Brains: Band in DC, a definitive documentary on the legendary hardcore band is long overdue. ‘Legendary’ is even understating it a bit, as Bad Brains helped to invent what we know as American hardcore, taking inspiration from the Sex Pistols and The Damned, melding it with their own funk- and soul-inspired musicality, a “positive attitude message”, and an electric performance style to birth a beast all their own, influencing everyone from Rollins to Minor Threat to the Beastie Boys to the Cro-Mags and more. The new documentary directed by Mandy Stein and Ben Logan attempts to capture and commemorate the history of this band while also dealing with the serious issues they have faced, mostly thanks to wonderfully (and destructively) unhinged lead singer H.R. As a history of Bad Brains and an archive of their incredible performances in the early ‘80s, this film is a treasure chest of gems. The film is kinetic, frenetic (how could it not be, with video of H.R. performing in his heyday; the man is the definition of electrically charged), and well-paced with lots to love for any Bad Brains, punk or music fans. Their tribute is long overdue and we should be thankful that a film recognizing their musical genius, originality and influence exists at all.” — Katie Walsh, Indiewire THE BADLANDERS 1958, Warner Bros., 85 min, USA, Dir: Delmer Daves Ernest Borgnine gives one of the most intense performances of his career as John McBain, a hardened criminal who collaborates with fellow ex-con Alan Ladd on a daring gold robbery. This Western remake of THE ASPHALT JUNGLE is a riveting heist film and a visually sumptuous period piece. BANANAS!* AT ANY COST? Bananas!* is a suspenseful court room drama that examines the intricacies and injustices of the global politics of food. Focusing on a landmark and highly controversial legal case pitting a dozen Nicaraguan banana plantation workers against Dole Food Corporation, Bananas!* uncovers the alleged usage of a banned pesticide and its probable link to generations of sterilized workers. Central to both the film and case is Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez, a Los Angeles-based personal injury attorney who, although iconic within the Latino community for his ubiquitous billboard ads, is unquestionably facing the biggest case and challenge of his career. At stake in the classic David vs. Goliath story are the futures of generations of workers and their families, as well as the culture of global, multinational business. If successful, the case could rock the economic foundations of Dole, and would open the US courts to other global victims, representing a new day in international justice. BEGGARS OF LIFE There’s a reason the name Louise Brooks elicits sighs every time it’s mentioned at the Cinefamily. Her ferocious charisma and otherworldly beauty cemented her status as an icon of 1920s silent cinema well before she retired too early from the silver screen, at the age of 32. As an actress capable of endless nuance and versatility, Brooks deeply understood the impact both her inner and outer beauty could bring to the screen — and in Beggars of Life, William Wellman’s early Depression-era portrait of transient life, she he gave one of her absolute strongest performances during her brief stint within the Hollywood system. Brooks plays Nancy, who must go on the run with her friend Jim after killing her sleazy stepfather in self-defense — and, after disguising herself as a boy, engages in train-hopping, hobo-fighting and car-stealing, all while on the lam. A daring story with an outstanding supporting cast, Beggars of Life echoes the dark atmospherics of Brooks’ other films, but it stands out for its markedly American narrative. A rare, perfect blend of melodrama and naturalism. Dir. William Wellman, 1928, 35mm, 100 min. (Archival 35mm print courtesy of the George Eastman House. Preservation funded by The Film Foundation.) Behind Locked Doors (1948) Directed by Budd Boetticher Returning from the navy where he produced documentaries, Boetticher signed on with Poverty Row champ Eagle-Lion Productions. His second outing for the company, this gripping little thriller presages Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor (1962) with a detective (Carlson) working undercover as a patient at an insane asylum to root out a corrupt judge in hiding. Boetticher turns its B budget to his advantage building claustrophobic tension as inmates wail in the night. Eagle-Lion Films. Producer: Eugene Ling. Screenwriter: Malvin Wald. Cinematographer: Guy Roe. Editor: Norman Colbert. Cast: Lucille Bremer, Richard Carlson, Douglas Fowley, Ralf Harolde, Tom Brown Henry. 16mm, b/w, 62 min. BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!* What is a big corporation capable of in order to protect its brand? Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten's experienced this recently. His previous film BANANAS!* (2009) recounts the lawsuit that 12 Nicaraguan plantation workers brought against the fruit giant Dole Food Company. The film was selected for competition by the Los Angeles Film Festival. Nothing wrong so far, right? But then Gertten gets a strange message: the festival removes BANANAS!* from competition. Then a scathing article appears in the Los Angeles Business Journal about the film, and Gertten subsequently receives a letter from Dole's attorney threatening him with legal action. What follows is an unparalleled thriller that has Gertten capturing the entire process - from DOLE attacking the producers with a defamation lawsuit, bullying scaretactics, to media-control and PR-spin. This personal film reveals precisely how a multinational will stop at nothing to get its way - freedom of speech is at stake. As Dole's PR company puts it, "It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than a bad reputation". BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!* has been called a classic David Vs Goliath story - but this is more about defending the right to freedom of speech and what happens to a documentary filmmaker when he goes up against a large corporation like Dole Foods and how far Dole will go to shift the focus off of them and onto the filmmaker even after their own CEO has admitted wrong doing in a court of law. THE BIG STEAL 1990, Cascade Films, 99 min, Australia, Dir: Nadia Tass Young Danny (Ben Mendelsohn of ANIMAL KINGDOM) tries to impress the girl of his dreams with the promise of a ride in his new Jag; unfortunately, Danny drives his family’s old Nissan Cedric. But there’s a spiffy Jaguar XJ6 in a local used-car lot, and the salesman (Steve Bisley) is offering him the deal of a lifetime - what could possibly go wrong? This delightful caper comedy took home three AFI awards including one for David Parker’s screenplay. BLACK CAT, WHITE CAT This month, we will be showing the Yugoslavian comedy, Black Cat, White Cat. Even though it's a narrative film and not a documentary, by using non-actors and actual Roma settings, Emir Kusturica gives a raucous but sincere portrayal of gypsy life. Although it was filmed in 1998, so many of the issues and situations presented feel relevant still, as Roma struggle to keep a place for their traditional nomadic lifestyle in the post-Soviet landscape of the Eastern Bloc. "Mr. Kusturica so evidently adores all of the film's other characters that Black Cat, White Cat becomes a wild, warts-and-all celebration of their lives and like Fellini, Kusturica finds true grace where it's least expected and makes films utterly, uncompromisingly his own". -- Janet Maslin, New York Times Black Thorns in the Black Box Organized according to the branches of Medieval concepts of music—musica mundana, musica humana, and musica instrumentalis—this film and video program explores how the mystic obscurity of Black Metal music has permeated all known spheres of creation. Curated by Amelia Ishmael and Bryan Wendorf. Films by Annie Feldmeier Adams, Gast Bouschet & Nadine Hilbert, Una Hamilton Helle, Devin Horan, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, Ruth Jarman & Joe Gerhardt of Semiconductor, Chris Kennedy, Marianna Milhorat, Jimmy Joe Roche, Shazzula for Cultus Sabbati, and Michaël Sellam. A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL (EL CHUNCHO, QUIEN SABE?) 1966, 135 min, Italy, Dir: Damiano Damiani After a spectacular train robbery, Gian Maria Volonte (A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS) finds he’s got a new partner – dapper, arrogant gringo Lou Castel for running guns to legendary General Jaime Fernandez. With Klaus Kinski as bandito “El Santo.” In English. THE CAT AND THE CANARY The will of wealthy Cyrus West is read to his relatives, who spend the night in his mansion and are stalked by “The Cat,” a mysterious escapee from the local asylum, who claws his victims like canaries. Directed by German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni, this 1927 classic silent film is accompanied by Clark Wilson on Walt Disney Concert Hall’s incredible organ. CHINA 9 LIBERTY 37 (AMORE, PIOMBO E FURORE) 1978, 102 min, Italy, Dir: Monte Hellman Easy choice for gunslinger Fabio Testi: the noose or a contract on ex-gunman Warren Oates (in his final Western), who just won’t sell out to the railroad. Only trouble is, Testi’s tired of killing, he and Oates hit it off, and Oates’ wife Jenny Agutter (WALKABOUT), is lonely. With a Sam Peckinpah cameo. In English. CINEMA ABSTRACTIONS & AVANT GARDE FILMS - Rare films that evoke this quote: "Early in life I experimented with peyote, LSD and so on. But in many ways my films are ahead of my own experience. The new art and other forms of expression reveal the influence of mind-expansion. And finally we reach the point where there virtually is no separation between science, observation and philosophy." - Jordan Belson. Many of the filmmakers have been featured in the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Bryan Konefsky's Experiments In Cinema. CIRCLE JERKS: MY CAREER AS A JERK Traverses some 30 years of history of the legendary, on again / off again Los Angeles punk band Circle Jerks as shared by Keith Morris, Greg Hetson, Lucky Lehrer, Earl Liberty & Zander Schloss, with scads of shredding live performances (including footage David Markey shot in the early 1980s). Features live performances with Roger Rogerson, Chuck Biscuits, & Flea, with insight from Henry Rollins, J Mascis, & Brian Baker, Greg Graffin, Lisa Fancher and more! Dir. Dave Markey, 2012, HD presentation, 96 min. THE CLOCK LACMA presents another special twenty-four-hour screening of Christian Marclay's The Clock beginning Saturday, September 22, at noon and ending at noon on Sunday, September 23. The Clock is a twenty-four-hour single-channel montage constructed from thousands of moments of cinema and television history depicting the passage of time. Marclay has excerpted each of these moments from their original contexts and edited them together to create a functioning timepiece synchronized to local time wherever it is viewed—marking the exact time in real time for the viewer for twenty-four consecutive hours. The sampled clips come from films of all genres, time periods, and cultures, some lasting only seconds, others minutes, and have been culled from hundreds of films, famous and obscure, into a seamless whole. The result, a melding of video and reality, unfolds with a seemingly endless cast of cameos. By making the film available in its entirety, this free screening will allow The Clock to be viewed in the way Marclay intended. COMPANEROS (VAMOS A MATAR, COMPANEROS) 1970, 118 min, Italy, Dir: Sergio Corbucci Electrifying showdown between greats Franco Nero and Tomas Milian begins, but so does the flashback: Swedish gunrunner Nero has a trainload of arms, with his payoff locked in a safe that only pacifist rebel leader rival Fernando Rey can open. But joint-puffing Jack Palance and his flesh-loving falcon bear a grudge. In Italian with English subtitles. COMPLIANCE When a police officer tells you to do something, you do it. Right? Based on true events, Compliance tells the chilling story of just how far one might go to obey a figure of authority. On a particularly busy day at a suburban Ohio fast food joint, high-strung manager Sandra (Ann Dowd, Garden State) receives a phone call from a police officer saying that an employee, a pretty young blonde named Becky (Dreama Walker, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23) has stolen money from a customer. Convinced she's only doing what's right, Sandra commences the investigation, following step-by-step instructions from the officer at the other end of the line, no matter how invasive they become. As we watch, we ask ourselves two questions: “Why don’t they just say no?” and the more troubling, "Am I certain I wouldn't do the same?" The second feature from director Craig Zobel (the man behind the 2007 Sundance hit Great World of Sound), Compliance recounts this riveting nightmare in which the line between legality and reason is hauntingly blurred. The cast delivers startlingly authentic performances that make the appalling events unfolding onscreen all the more difficult to watch – but impossible to turn away from. Delving into the complex psychology of this real-life story, Compliance proves that sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction. Followed by a Q&A with Craig Zobel and actor Pat Healy COSMOPOLIS From director David Cronenberg and based on the prophetic novel by Don DeLillo, comes Cosmopolis, a contemporary thriller that turns into a wild, hypnotic odyssey through our new millennium’s obsessions with power, money, control, information, technology, violence, sex, mortality, revolution, destruction and ultimately, redemption. Unfolding in a single cataclysmic day, the story follows Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) – a 28-year old financial whiz kid and billionaire asset manager – as he heads out in his tricked-out stretch limo to get a haircut from his father’s old barber, while remotely wagering his company’s massive fortune on a bet against the Chinese Yuan. Packer’s luxe trip across the city quickly becomes dizzyingly hellish as he encounters explosive city riots, a parade of provocative visitors, and is thrust into a myriad of intimate encounters. Having started the day with everything, believing he is the future, Packer’s perfectly ordered, doubt-free world is about to implode. Produced by Paulo Branco and Martin Katz, Cosmopolis also stars Juliette Binoche, Sarah Gadon, Mathieu Amalric, Jay Baruchel, Kevin Durand, K’Naan, Emily Hampshire with Samantha Morton and Paul Giamatti. Danger: Knife in the Dark (CBS, 12/7/54) Directed by John Frankenheimer In this claustrophobic live television drama, Paul Newman stars as a tormented convict who must take a stand against the violent inmate who murdered his best friend. Screenwriter: Rod Serling. Cast: Paul Newman, Walter Burke, John Connell. Beta SP, b/w, 30 min. DERAILROADED: INSIDE THE MIND OF LARRY "WILD MAN" FISCHER 2nd Annual LARRY "WILD MAN" FISCHER NITE - Celebrate a sympathetic and touching journey through the thunderstorms of the mind of paranoid-schizophrenic Larry "Wild Man" Fischer and his discordant encounters in the music business live readings, performances and rare film clips. Fischer wandered the mean streets of L.A. singing his totally unique brand of songs for 10¢ to passersby. He was discovered by Frank Zappa, with whom he cut his first record album, including the enduring dada rock classic "Merry Go Round." A precursor to punk, Fischer became an underground club and concert favorite. Over the course of 40 years, he appeared on national television (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in) and the Top 50 music charts in England, was the subject of his own comic book, was the first artist to be recorded on Rhino Records, and sang a duet with Rosemary Clooney. Hear testimonies in DERAILROADED: INSIDE THE MIND OF LARRY "WILD MAN" FISCHER, Josh Rubin & Jeremy Lubin's acclaimed 2006 documentary, with Frank & Gail Zappa, Weird Al Yankovic, Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh, Solomon Burke, Dr. Demento, and Billy Mumy (Barnes & Barnes). "The troubled life & distorted times of LA's 'Godfather of Outsider Music'...equal parts hilarity & heartbreak" -MOJO. DJANGO 1966, 87 min, Italy, Dir: Sergio Corbucci Horseless, dark-clad, blazingly blue-eyed Franco Nero enters dragging a coffin through the inches-thick mud of a crummy town fought over by red-hooded clansmen and a flock of banditos. Original of at least 30 official and unofficial sequels. In Italian with English subtitles. DJANGO KILL… IF YOU LIVE, SHOOT! (SE SEI VIVO SPARA) 1967, 100 min, Italy, Dir: Giulio Questi After climbing out of his grave, Tomas Milian finds things getting really weird: men clawing for the golden bullets in a still-breathing victim; torture by bats and lizards; death by molten metal... you name it. Prestigious documentarist Questi’s only Western. In English, with previously censored scenes in Italian with English subtitles. DON'T EXPECT TOO MUCH Did Nick Ray leave Hollywood, or did Hollywood leave him? What was he up to when he returned to the States after a decade in Europe? What was his intention with WE CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN, that experimental film he made with a bunch of college students? What was he doing with so many images on the screen all at once? How did he do it? Why was the film never finished? Did he lose his way, his talent, his sanity, his common sense? DON'T EXPECT TOO MUCH, a full-length documentary helmed by Ray’s wife Susan, investigates these questions and the relationship forged by Ray between his life and his art. Drawing on the director’s archive of never-before-seen film, video, and stills, Susan finds answers to our questions about Nick Ray in Nick Ray’s own words and images. And we learn from interviews with members of the original crew of WE CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN, directors Jim Jarmusch and Victor Erice, and others, how this man lived, saw, learned, and taught, how he fought and danced with his demons, how he loved. EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE 1973, 20th Century Fox, 118 min, Dir: Robert Aldrich Ernest Borgnine reunites with his "Dirty Dozen" co-star Lee Marvin and director Robert Aldrich for this Depression-era drama. Borgnine is a sadistic railroad conductor determined to keep hobos off of his train; Marvin is an outcast who strives to become a legend by battling and besting Borgnine. Highlighted by a young Keith Carradine as the rascal Cigaret, and a taut script by Christopher Knopf (A COLD NIGHT’S DEATH). Discussion between films with actor Keith Carradine (schedule permitting). Escape in the Fog (1945) Directed by Budd Boetticher Boetticher was never too sentimental about the programmers he churned out at Columbia when he was starting out: “They were nothing pictures. But they gave me a chance to work with some great people: Nina Foch, Otto Krueger, people like that.” Here, Boetticher works with both Foch and Krueger in a tight war-time programmer about a San Francisco spy ring with a supernatural twist. Columbia Pictures. Producer: Wallace MacDonald. Screenwriter: Aubrey Wisberg. Cinematographer: George Meehan. Editor: Jerome Thoms. Cast: Otto Kruger, Nina Foch, William Wright, Konstantin Shayne, Ivan Triesault. 35mm, color, 65 min. EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE PRESENTS THE RISE AND FALL OF GOD or “Religion’s Greatest Shits!” or “God Is Alive And Well And Living in Branson” Since ‘07, the found-footage collective Everything Is Terrible! has not only amassed so much gooey analog gold that even sifting through it as a viewer proves to be a problem — but also a few “cease and desist” letters that have forced the gang to bury some of their weirdest and most outrageous stuff. Well, fuck that! For one very special show, EiT! is proud to present the greatest thing to ever happen to VHS: organized religion! Whether you’re a God-fearing lunatic or an annoying atheist blowhard, let’s put our differences aside and laugh in the face of our Lord while demanding he proves his existence once and for all! A FACE IN THE CROWD 1957, Warner Bros., 125 min, USA, Dir: Elia Kazan Andy Griffith is mesmerizing as Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a wild Arkansas vagrant-turned-television sensation in Kazan’s provocative and poignant masterpiece about fame, fraud and the transition from radio to television. Equally captivating is Patricia Neal as Marcia Jeffries, the naive Sarah Lawrence college student who is the first to fall under Larry’s fraudulent spell. "Brilliantly cinematic melodrama…paints a luridly entertaining picture of modern show business." - Leslie Halliwell FEAR IS THE KEY In this thriller based on a novel by Alistair MacLean, Barry Newman plays John Talbot, an underwater salvage expert who witnesses the murder of his wife and child. After working with the police, Talbot hatches his own scheme to bring the killers to justice; posing as a criminal, he stages the phony murder of a police officer and kidnaps Sarah Ruthven (Suzy Kendall), the heiress to a petroleum fortune. Talbot's false daring attracts the attention of a criminal mastermind who wants to recover the valuables aboard a plane that recently crash-landed in the water; however, Talbot knows that the same man was responsible for his family's death, and he intends to see that he never returns from their exploratory search of the wrecked plane. Watch for Ben Kingsley in a small role, it was his first film, prior to Gandhi in 1982. Dir. Michael Tuchner, 1973, 103 min. For Heaven's Sake (1926) Directed by Sam Taylor Starring Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston Harold stars as a debonair young millionaire who donates money toward a downtown mission in an effort to win the evangelist's daughter. Gasland Directed by Josh Fox. Produced by Trish Adlesic, Fox, Molly Gandour When Josh Fox is approached by a company wishing to drill for natural gas on his property, he begins a disturbing investigation into the environmental repercussions of the process. In region after region across the country, he documents evidence of serious pollution and contamination caused by drilling methods that have been exempted from the standards required by the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. Digital. 107 mins. Academy Award nominee: Documentary Feature. “Giant Leaps For Mankind” and the Future of the Past Justin St. P. Walsh will give a talk on his work with archaeological explorations in outer space. In recent years, scholars such as Walsh have begun developing studies for preserving sites and objects across the universe. Join us for a discussion on recent developments in the space industry and future plans for archaeology beyond our planet. THE GRAND DUEL (IL GRANDE DUELLO) 1973, Blue Underground, 98 min, Italy, Dir: Giancarlo Santi Bloodthirsty bounty hunters are bunching up around the Gila Bend hideout of convicted murderer - or is he? - Peter O’Brien, but ex-lawman Lee Van Cleef has another candidate for the Patriarch’s killer. Former Antonioni/Leone assistant director Santi riffs on the style of the Maestro. In English. THE GREAT GATSBY (1949) 1949, Universal, 91 min, USA, Dir: Elliott Nugent Resurrected at last is this Golden Age version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, unseen for decades. Thanks to our friends at Universal Pictures, Alan Ladd’s noir-tinged take on the timeless tale of shady success and lost love can be seen again, in a brand-new print made exclusively for Noir City! Screenplay by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum, based on the novel and a play by Owen Davis. Directed by Elliott Nugent. An intriguing take on an American classic. NOT ON DVD THE GREAT SILENCE (IL GRANDE SILENZIO) 1968, 105 min, Italy, Dir: Sergio Corbucci Amid mountainous Utah snowdrifts, oppressed Mormons hide out from psycho - even by his standards - Klaus Kinski’s bounty hunters, while mute Jean-Louis Trintignant’s Silence signs on to avenge Vonetta McGee’s husband. With chilling Dolomites locations. Music by Ennio Morricone. In English. Hallmark Hall of Fame: A Storm in Summer (NBC, 2/6/70) Directed by Buzz Kulik Serling’s teleplay for "Hallmark Hall of Fame" poignantly examines prejudice through the eyes of an elderly Jewish delicatessen owner who reluctantly becomes summer host to an underprivileged African American youth from Harlem, leading to a deep and lasting bond following a tragic turn in the boy’s life. Garnering numerous awards, the teleplay marked Serling’s successful return to the incisive character dramas that distinguished his early work in television. Producer: Alan Landsburg, Maurice Rifkin. Screenwriter: Rod Serling. Cast: Peter Ustinov, N’gai Dixon, Peter Bonerz, Anne Collings, John Evans. Beta SP, color, 90 min. HELLBENDERS (I CRUDELI) 1967, Rialto Pictures, 90 min, Italy, Dir: Sergio Corbucci Confederate officer Joseph Cotten and his three sons escort a hero’s coffin home despite Union patrols, banditos, vengeful Indians, a stalking posse, and a buttinsky reverend - only trouble is, the coffin’s packed with stolen greenbacks intended to rejuvenate the cause. In English. HIPPIE REVOLUTION FILMS – Rare films on music, politics and communes. The hippies were heirs to a long line of bohemians that includes William Blake, Walt Whitman, Emerson, Thoreau, Hesse, Rimbaud, Oscar Wilde, Huxley and utopian movements like the Rosicrucians and the Theosophists, and most direcly the Beats. JOBRIATH A.D. “The American Bowie” — “The True Fairy of Rock & Roll” — and “Hype of the Year.” Known as the first openly gay rock star in the mid-1970s, Jobriath’s legacy has proven to be deeper than the labels and epithets once hung upon him. His reign in the spotlight was unfortunately brief — spanning only two years and two albums. Sabotaged by a publicity machine run amok, shunned by the gay community and dismissed too easily by critics, Jobriath was excommunicated from the music business just as quickly as he had been ushered in, and became an early casualty of AIDS in 1983. Through interviews, archival material, animation new musical performances, and interviews with Marc Almond, Jayne County, Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters and more, Jobriath A.D. allows you to experience the heartbreaking, unbelievable story of the one, the only — Jobriath. Director Kieran Turner will be here in person for a Q&A after the film! Dir. Kieran Turner, 2011, digital presentation, 102 min. JOHN AND FAITH HUBLEY An Academy Salute to John and Faith Hubley Hosted by John Canemaker The husband-and-wife team of John and Faith Hubley brought a humanistic perspective and a distinctly modern style to postwar American animation. The films they made together, and independently, influenced a generation of animators worldwide and earned many honors, including three Academy Awards. At the time of their marriage in 1955, John Hubley had been in the industry for 20 years, first at Disney, then Columbia/Screen Gems, and later as creative director and production chief at UPA. Faith Elliott had worked in Hollywood since the early 1940s as a music and film editor and script supervisor at Columbia and Republic Pictures. After their careers in Hollywood were derailed by the blacklist, they relocated to New York and embarked on a personal and professional partnership that revolutionized independent animation. The Hubleys resolutely maintained their artistic freedom, taking on commercial projects in order to fund their personal films. They tackled controversial themes such as environmental pollution, race relations, war and overpopulation, as well as celebrating the joy of children at play and young people in love. Following John’s death in 1977, Faith continued making films until her death in 2001. Academy Award-winning animator and renowned animation historian John Canemaker hosts an in-depth look at these two iconoclastic artists. The program showcases four of John Hubley's UPA shorts and a selection of TV commercials; Faith's favorite of her solo shorts; and six shorts produced by John and Faith Hubley together, including an exciting surprise: newly discovered footage of a never-completed animated version of Façade, by Edith Sitwell and William Walton. JOHNNY GUITAR 1954, Republic (Paramount), 110 min, USA, Dir: Nicholas Ray Joan Crawford is headstrong Vienna, a saloon owner waiting for the railroad to reach her town. Her friendship with charming outlaw the Dancing Kid (Scott Brady) jeopardizes her standing in the local community. Uptight landowners led by jealous Emma (a frightening Mercedes McCambridge) will do anything to repress her yen for the Kid, even if it means lynching half the town to do it. Enter Vienna’s old flame, Johnny (Sterling Hayden), a quick-draw who’s given up guns for a guitar. Only director Nicholas Ray could pull off this color-coded, violent, romantic tall tale rife with allegorical references to the rabid right wing of 1950s America. Victor Young did the lush score, with Peggy Lee singing the torrid theme song. Co-starring Ward Bond, Ernest Borgnine, John Carradine. JOYSTICKS “This is lowbrow entertainment in its highest form: an ideally balanced comedic laserchainsaw of bodily function gags and highly advanced insanity — every frame is drive-in outrageousness incarnate, and Jon Gries’ performance as King Vidiot is nothing short of spastic genius.” — Zack Carlson, Destroy All Movies Legendary exploitation filmmaker Greydon Clark (Without Warning, Black Shampoo, Satan’s Cheerleaders) distills everything great about the 1980s (punks, nerds, valley girls, wild fashion, and Pac-Man) into one video game-fueled, late-night partyblast! Will a local businessman (Joe Don Baker) succeed in shutting down this “den of juvenile delinquency” or will saner heads, faster fingers and shiny quarters prevail? Will leather-clad King Vidiot (Jon Gries) and his troupe of high-tech video addicts ever be satiated? Featuring extensive use of classic machines like Galaxian, Pole Position, Super Pac-Man and Satan’s Hollow — in addition to an all-time-great theme song and an epic battle against parental disapproval — this is a film for people totally into the neverending pursuit of brain-shattering FUUUUUNNNNNNNNN!!!! Dir. Greydon Clark, 1983, 35mm, 88 min. JUST IMAGINE 1930, 20th Century Fox, 109 min, USA, Dir: David Butler In this highly original sci-fi musical, long-dead El Brendel is revived 50 years in the future - 1980! - and finds it impossible to adapt to the way times have changed. Maureen O'Sullivan and John Garrick costar in this stunning collection of then-futuristic set pieces. The Killer is Loose (1956) Directed by Budd Boetticher This gritty noir inverts and interrogates the essential set up of Boetticher’s Ranown Westerns. Here, the solitary figure seeking vengeance is a straight psychopath, a veteran-turned-bank-thief whose wife was killed in a raid lead by Joseph Cotten’s detective. Cotten’s hand-wringing persona underscores the film’s post-war gender anxieties while Boetticher’s camera punches through the facade of suburban California to expose the simmering resentment and violence underneath. United Artists. Producer: Robert L. Jacks. Screenwriter: Harold Medford. Based on the novelette by John and Ward Hawkins. Cinematographer: Lucien Ballard. Editor: George Gittens. Cast: Joseph Cotten, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey, Alan Hale, Michael Pate. 35mm, b/w, 73 min. KLOVN In a giddy Scandinavian NC-17-flavored take on “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, Klown (based upon the popular long-running TV show of the same name) follows two wildly inappropriate friends (internationaly celebrated comedians Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen) as they run amok through the Danish countryside, plowing through social taboos and unspeakable debaucheries. Our odd-couple pals have opposing agendas for their upcoming camping trip: Frank kidnaps his nephew in a thick-headed attempt to prove his fatherhood potential, while Casper is determined to visit a mysterious world-renowned brothel as the final stop on his “Tour de Pussy.” As these confrontational, consistently unpredictable Dogme-95-meets-the-Farrelly-Brothers plotlines collide, Klown will leave you hurting from nonstop laugh fits, and genuinely shocked by several denouements you’ll never have seen coming. When we had a special one-off screening of Klown a few months ago, it received some of the most prolonged, intense outbursts of audience laughter we’ve EVER clocked; come be a historic part of this genially depraved comedy phenomenon! Dir. Mikkel Norgaard, 2010, HD presentation, 89 mins. THE LAST OF SHEILA 1973, Warner Bros., 120 min, USA, Dir: Herbert Ross Herbert Ross directs the ultimate puzzle movie! Producer James Coburn throws a party on his yacht for his friends and enemies: a struggling screenwriter (Richard Benjamin) and his rich wife (Joan Hackett), a down-at-his-heels former A-list director (James Mason), a fading starlet (Raquel Welch), her gigolo boyfriend (Ian McShane) and an acid-tongued agent (Dyan Cannon). But murder is afoot. Let Us Continue (1964) The United States Information Agency commissioned this short, produced by Hearst Metrotone, in the wake of the Kennedy assassination in order to introduce allies to Lyndon B. Johnson’s positions on major issues. Controversy surrounded the production when it was leaked that the agency requested the deletion of the image of a rabbi in the film in order to avoid possible objections from Arab countries. Screenplay: Rod Serling. Cast: E.G. Marshall. Beta SP , b/w, 26 min. Look Here (NBC, 3/16/58) In this special television interview, journalist Martin Agronsky captures Serling in the back yard of his luxurious Pacific Palisades home where he candidly reflects on the limitations faced by a television writer and the compromises of working in the Hollywood system. Beta SP, b/w, 30 min. THE MAKIOKA SISTERS The Makioka Sisters chronicles the life and affairs of four sisters in late '30s Japan. An older, conservative sister tries to continue family traditions and pretensions to status, while the younger sisters discover the new freedoms becoming available to them. "This Kon Ichikawa film has a triumphant simplicity about it. You don't just watch the film--you coast on its rhythms and glide past the precipitous spots" (Pauline Kael, The New Yorker). The cast includes Juzo Itami, who would later emerge as a prominent director with The Funeral, Tampopo and A Taxing Woman. In Japanese with English subtitles. 1983, Japan, 35mm, 140 minutes. 35mm print made in 2011! directed by Kon Ichikawa; starring Keiko Kishi, Yoshiko Sakuma, Sayuri Yoshinaga, Yûko Kotegawa; in Japanese with English subtitles. MALCOLM 1986, Cascade Films, 90 min, Australia, Dir: Nadia Tass Socially awkward but a mechanical genius, Malcolm (a character inspired by the director’s late brother) loses his job as a Melbourne tram operator and takes in a couple of boarders to make ends meet. When he learns the pair are petty criminals, Malcolm uses his knack for gadgetry to help them pull off a series of dazzling robberies. Both warm and hilarious, Nadia Tass’ debut feature won eight Australian Film Institute Awards, including Best Film. Internationally, it won more than 20 awards. MARK CANTOR's JAZZ FILMS Screening and discussing sonic cinema, seminal historian CANTOR pulls from his stellar collection of over 4,000 separate titles to feature rarities in jazz, blues, Swing, Western Swing, pop, rhythm and blues, country-western, vernacular dance & vaudeville with Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Stan Getz, Sarah Vaughan, Benny Goodman, Ernie Andrews, Art Blakey, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Buddy Collette, Erroll Garner, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Louis Armstrong, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, Dinah Washington and many more. "Mark Cantor has one of the very best collections of jazz films in the world. He was an invaluable asset to our Jazz series whose generous advice helped us unearth some extraordinary footage. Mark is an essential resource to anyone making a film about jazz." - Ken Burns. Film archivist and historian Mark Cantor has been active as a researcher and preservationist in the area of music on film for the past thirty years. During that time he has assembled one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of popular music on film existing in the United States.....more than four thousand titles in total. Along with the public exhibitions of jazz and blues films, Mr. Cantor has served as a consultant in the production of a large number of documentaries and feature film presentations. As a well-known authority on the subject of music on film, Mr. Cantor is contacted on a regular basis by filmmakers, television producers, newspersons and writers for information relating to jazz music and its documentation on film. He regularly publishes articles on jazz film in the Journal of the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors. THE MARK OF ZORRO A 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Academy's Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study This evening will feature behind-the-scenes building tours of the Academy’s Pickford Center, and a film program featuring a rare Mary Pickford short and the Los Angeles premiere of the Academy Film Archive’s new print of “The Mark of Zorro” (1920), starring Douglas Fairbanks. During the ten years since the Academy acquired the former Don Lee Mutual Television Studios (and Cadillac showroom) on the corner of Vine and Fountain, the building has been extensively renovated. The former TV soundstages have been converted into the popular Linwood Dunn Theater and numerous amazing spaces that the public has rarely been allowed to see – until now. Between 6 and 7:30 p.m., the Academy’s world-renowned preservation, research and technical staff will conduct tours that showcase the collections and preservation and research work of the Academy Film Archive, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Margaret Herrick Library and the Academy’s Science and Technology Council. Included in these one-of-a-kind tours will be the climate-controlled storage vaults for rare film materials, library holdings and motion picture artifacts; film preservation and restoration facilities; exhibition prep and object conservation areas; and studio and laboratory facilities for advancing state-of-the-art motion picture technology. Following the tours, at 8 p.m., the audience will be treated to a program of Academy Film Archive restoration projects starring two of the Academy’s founders: the Center’s namesake, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, for whom the Academy’s library building in Beverly Hills was named. Come and celebrate our anniversary with us! MIAMI CONNECTION THE most entertaining film you will see. Ever. Directed by 9th-degree black belt philosopher/author/inspirational speaker Grandmaster Y.K. Kim, Miami Connection tells the story of fearless synth rock band Dragon Sound, as they embark on a roundhouse wreck-wave of crime-crushing justice in the streets of Orlando, FL. “‘Miami Connection’ has repeatedly destroyed our audience in a more powerful way than anything else in the 15 years of our theater’s existence.” – Zack Carlson, Alamo Drafthouse Y.K. Kim will be here at the Cinefamily for a Q&A after the film — can you believe it?!?! Dir. Y.K. Kim, 1987, 35mm, 90 min. MONSTERS OF FOUND FOOTAGE A panel of found footage masters, including TV Carnage, Animal Charm, and Craig Baldwin! MUSIC MAN MURRAY The evening kicks off with the amazing short doc Music Man Murray (w/ score by Van Dyke Parks), a portrait of 88-year-old Murray Gershenz — obsessive collector of over 300,000 LPs — and his struggles to sell them all through his store in historic West Adams. Director Richard Parks will be here for a Q&A after the film! MY BEST GIRL Mary Pickford stars with her future husband, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, in this heartwarming romance about a stockroom girl who falls for the son of the millionaire who owns the five-and-dime store where she works. Charles Rosher's excellent cinematography was nominated for an Academy Award. "Pickford's finest romantic comedy" (Village Voice). Silent with music score. 1927, USA, 35mm, 80 minutes. directed by Sam Taylor; produced by Mary Pickford; written by Kathleen Norris (story), Hope Loring (adaptation), Allen McNeil (screenplay) and Tim Whelan (screenplay); starring Mary Pickford, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Sunshine Hart, Lucien Littlefield. Shot at "The Lot" (at Formosa and Santa Monica). The New People (pilot) (ABC, 9/22/69) Directed by George McCowan In this precursor to "Lost," a group of American exchange students is marooned on a Pacific island. Pocked with abandoned buildings for a canceled atomic test, the unsettling locale becomes home for the young survivors, who are forced to confront their prejudices as they form a new society. Screenwriter: Rod Serling. Cast: Tiffany Bolling, Nancy DeCarl, Richard Kiley. 16mm, color, 51 min. NEW WORKS SALON V Several local and visiting artists will present new in-progress or recently completed works. Artists include Reza Monahan, Ursula Brookbank, Rick Bahto, and more. Night Gallery: Class of '99 (NBC, 9/22/71) Directed by Jeannot Szwarc In a future society, a domineering professor (Price) serves as proctor over a diverse group of college students for a final exam where bigotry is encouraged and evaluated—with an unexpected twist. Screenwriter: Rod Serling. Cast: Vincent Price, Brandon de Wilde, Randolph Mantooth. Beta SP, color, 25 min. 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS Welcome to the future: in a catastrophic uprising, where the Bronx is declared a high-risk district and the cops have officially washed their hands of the whole enchilada, the dregs of society inhabiting a colorful post-Escape From New York/post-The Warriors urban wasteland have violently rebelled. Armed with spikes, blades and skull-adorned choppers, “Trash” and his Riders engage in a nonstop war against cannibals and other sentient crud — and the results are killer! Marauding manimals, sci-fi thug weaponry, cutthroat gangs (bikers! hockey players! pimps! tap dancers!), flamethrower-wielding police on horseback, and all-time performances by Fred “The Hammer” Williamson and teenaged Marco di Gregorio (Thunder Warrior aka Italian Rambo) make this vicious “re-imagining” of the John Carpenter and Walter Hill classics a high point in the Enzo G. Castellari (The Inglorious Bastards, Keoma) canon. Delivering everything you want from an early ‘80s post-nuke adventure, this unforgettable descent into the futuristic inferno screens from an insanely rare original 35mm print! Dir. Enzo Castellari, 1982, 35mm, 86 min. ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS Directed by Howard Hawks Jean Arthur and her character, Bonnie Lee, hold their own superbly in this thrilling story of masculine honor. As recently-arrived showgirl, Annie falls for Geoff Carter (Grant), the cynical director of an air courier operation in the Andes. Arthur’s Bonnie reveals an emotional maturation that rivals the film’s aeronautic exploits and its face-offs between the men whose emotional baggage leads to danger and even tragedy. Columbia Pictures Corp. Producer: Howard Hawks. Screenwriter: James Furthman. Based on a story by Howard Hawks. Cinematographer: Joseph Walker, Elmer Dyer. Editor: Viola Lawrence. Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell. 35mm, b/w, 121 min. PATTERNS Directed by Fielder Cook Newly hired to a corporate position, Fred Staples (Heflin) is horrified to find he’s part of his boss’s plot to sideline and destroy an honorable but ineffectual co-worker. Weighing decency and ambition, Fred tries to walk a humane line, but learns some surprising lessons about being part of a machine. Among the most gripping and incisive workplace dramas, the film puts Serling’s characteristically verbal dramaturgy on brilliant display. United Artists Corp. Producer: Michael Myerberg, Jed Harris. Screenwriter: Rod Serling. Cinematographer: Boris Kaufman. Editor: David Kummins, Carl Lerner. Cast: Van Heflin, Everett Sloane, Ed Begley, Beatrice Straight, Elizabeth Wilson. 16mm, b/w, 83 min. A PLACE ON EARTH With an introduction by filmmaker and restorationist Ross Lipman (schedule permitting) A Place On Earth is a fiction film made with the participation of a real commune in Moscow, one in which the director himself lived. As with Palms, Aristakisyan's previous work, A Place on Earth is not just a film; it is an encounter, and it leaves one unsettled by its radical ethical demands. Says Aristakisyan: "The film does not leave room to maneuver and avoid change... It precludes the very possibility for indulgence in collective delusions after having seen it... It also precludes the possibility for neatly sweeping its contents under the intellectual rug...This is not a socially conscious film. There is no society... It is not a philosophical film either. There are no authorial points of view or ideas. It has to be admitted—this film is dangerous. Truly dangerous." Dir. Artur Aristakisyan, 2001, 120min, projected from DVD Playhouse 90: Requiem for a Heavyweight (CBS, 10/11/56) Directed by Ralph Nelson Serling’s virtuosity depicting men under pressure reached its zenith with this live teleplay, later adapted as a feature film. The drama seethes with pathos in its portrait of the indignity that befalls a small-time boxer, used up and discarded by his exploitative handlers. The intense scenario offeredwrenching parts to its leading cast, and coaxed a heartbreaking turn from Jack Palance as a man cruelly left with seemingly no future. Producer: David J. Eagle, Martin Manulis, Alvin Rakoff. Screenwriter: Rod Serling. Cinematographer: Albert Kurland. Cast: Jack Palance, Keenan Wynn, Kim Hunter, Ed Wynn, Max Baer. 35mm, b/w, 85 min. Playhouse 90: The Comedian (CBS, 2/14/57) Directed by John Frankenheimer In this high-intensity live television drama, Mickey Rooney stars as comic Sammy Hogarth—beloved by audiences; a terror to his handlers and intimates. Stopping at nothing to bolster his popularity, Sammy regularly savages his brother and whipping-boy, Lester (Tormé), in scathing onstage monologues—until an emotional dam breaks. Serling crafts a gripping portrait of the raw egoism so readily applauded in modern life. Screenwriter: Rod Serling. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Edmond O'Brien, Mel Tormé. Beta SP, b/w, 72 min. PORTRAIT OF THE POET AS EXPERIMENTAL FILMMAKER - Historian/Lit Critter Gerry Fialka screens films and discusses the interconnections between film and poetry. These artforms expand our notions of reality both inner and outer. How is the interior dialogue (consciousness) the essence of the human condition? How does it inform content vs. form issues? Explore Poe, the Symbolists, Hollis Frampton, Walt Whitman, William Farley, Jack Kerouac, Charles Olson, Henry Ferrini, Robert Creeley, and Beat films up to contemporary New Media makers. Drawing on witty and insightful analysis of poet/experimental filmmakers Jean Cocteau, James Broughton, Maya Deren, Marie Menken, Abigail Child, Bob Branaman, Jack Smith, Yoko Ono and Stan Brakhage, Fialka reviews first-person lyrical visions. This multi-media event includes rare film clips of Diane DiPrima, Amiri Baraka, Bukowski, Beckett, Burroughs and Gary Snyder, as well as live readings accompanied by film projections that stir up new metaphors via self-reflexive synthesis. Come into deeper awareness of synesthesia and the non-physical via spoken word and moving image art. "All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling." - Oscar Wilde. Radically change the paradigms of sense ratio shifting. Turn the eye into an ear ala McLuhan's percepts. Fialka's observations provoke the rascality retrieval of Man (Cine-poem) Ray and Curtis Harrington, who transformed Poe into cinema. "Poets understand texts better than most information technologists." - Jerome McGann. "You don't have to be a communist to be anti-capitalist. It is enough to be a poet." - Jonas Mekas, seminal experimental filmmaker. THE PRICE OF POWER (IL PREZZO DEL POTERE) 1969, 108 min, Italy, Dir: Tonino Valerii In Dallas, as a liberal, anti-racist president cavalcades through the town, violence breaks out, with an alleged assassin shot down during a prison transfer. 1963? JFK? No, it’s 1881 and Van Johnson’s President Garfield, with Fernando Rey leading the conspirators. In Italian with English subtitles. Not available on DVD. PRIMARY Focusing on the 1960 Democratic Party presidential primary, Primary is a groundbreaking documentary that follows John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey as they crisscross Wisconsin, each trying to convince voters that he is the one who can beat Richard Nixon. (1960, Dir. R. Drew, 60 min.) The Public Menace (1935) Directed by Erie C. Kenton The title of this film ostensibly refers to a gangster who escapes police custody and causes mayhem, but it applies just as well to Jean Arthur’s “Cassie,” a cruise-ship manicurist who lost her US Citizenship on a fluke and regains it by marrying ace reporter George Murphy. Handing the reporter hot tips about the criminal (who escapes custody while on shipboard), Cassie charmingly creates chaos, inevitably leading to romance. Columbia Pictures Corp. Screenwriter: Ethel Hill, Lionel Houser. Cinematographer: Henry Freulich. Editor: Gene Milford. Cast: Jean Arthur, George Murphy, Douglass Dumbrille, George McKay, Robert Middlemass. 35mm, b/w, 73 min. REQUIESCANT 1967, Compass Film, 92 min, Italy, Dir: Carlo Lizzani Lou Castel’s Requiescant stops to pray after a kill, while man of religion Pier Paolo Pasolini (yes, the Pasolini) shows up to collect the weapons. Stylish spaghetti from neorealist Carlo Lizzani, highlighted by Mark Damon’s misogynist, racist duel by candlelight and double-noosed showdown. In Italian with English subtitles. The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960) Directed by Budd Boetticher Boetticher’s last film before beginning production on the fateful Arruza finds him working in broader registers than his previous films. The rise of Prohibition-era mobster Legs Diamond plays like a spoof of gangster cool: Diamond woos a woman, wins a dance contest and pulls a jewel heist all on a single day. It’s a narcissistic come on that makes this smooth operator’s crash all the more shocking, a ruthless individualist left twisting in the wind. Warner Bros. Producer: Milton Sperling. Screenwriter: Joseph Landon. Cinematographer: Lucien Ballard. Editor: Folmar Blangsted. Cast: Ray Danton, Karen Steele, Elaine Stewart, Jesse White, Simon Oakland. 16mm, b/w, 103 min. RIVER OF NO RETURN 1954, 20th Century Fox, 91 min, USA, Dir: Otto Preminger Director Otto Preminger’s lusty Cinemascope Western stars Robert Mitchum as an ex-convict battling raging waters, rampaging Indians - and saloon singer Marilyn Monroe! Spectacular outdoor photography (courtesy of DP Joseph LaShelle) and the can’t-miss pairing of Monroe and Mitchum make this one great, guilty pleasure. With Rory Calhoun, Tommy Rettig. Introduction by producer Stanley Rubin. ROBERT NELSON TRIBUTE SCREENING #2: SEVEN FROM SIXTY-SEVEN A second in a series of tribute screenings to the late, great Robert Nelson. 1967 was a particularly prolific year for Nelson, marking not only the completion and premiere of his epic classic The Great Blondino, but additionally the release of no less than TEN additional films, several of which will be shown in this program. More well-known shorts like The Awful Backlash, Hot Leatherette, and Grateful Dead will share the bill with the little-seen duo Penny Bright and Jimmy Witherspoon and Half-Open and Lumpy. If you haven’t seen a Nelson film, this is a great program to start with, full of his characteristic unpredictable humor and formal invention. HOT LEATHERETTE (1967, 16mm, b/w, sound, 4min.) THE OFF-HANDED JAPE (w/ William T. Wiley, 1967, 16mm, color, sound, 8min.) HALF-OPEN AND LUMPY (1967, 16mm, b/w & color, sound, 3min.) PENNY BRIGHT AND JIMMY WITHERSPOON (1967, 16mm, color, sound, 3min.) THE AWFUL BACKLASH (w/ William Allan, 1967, 16mm, b/w, sound, 14min.) GRATEFUL DEAD (1967, 16mm, color, sound, 9min.) THE GREAT BLONDINO (w/ William T. Wiley, 1967, 16mm, b/w & color, sound, 43min.) THE RUTHLESS FOUR (OGNUNO PER SE) 1968, 96 min, Italy, Dir: Giorgio Capitani Crawling back into town after blowing up his mine and his double-crossing partner, Van Heflin badly needs help he can trust. But adopted son George Hilton has turned into a lying cardsharp, complete with clerically garbed “protector” Klaus Kinski. In Italian with English subtitles. SARAH & GEOFF SEELINGER FILMS Venice artists screen & discuss their experimental films which illuminate the space with found happenings, the driftwood of consciousness and contemplation of family life. Sarah's works are meditations of discovery both external and internal. She works with moments, rhythms and sounds of early morning walks along the shore of Venice beach. Her videos offer contemplative space with found happenings, collective consciousness, observation and profundity in footsteps. Often her videos harken to "actualities", simple events happening before the camera that evoke wonder of the ordinary, and illuminate the visual and auditory spectacle often missed in the midst of experienced phenomena. Geoff's works play with moments close to home. From a patio above the garage, neighborhood and kids spaces, he explores the margins between documented fragments, perception and imaginary realms. Everyday family moments, as well as mundane events resonate through abstractions that loosen the hold of cinematic reality. Much of his work, explores the possibilities of the PXL2000 toy camera with grainy black and white half resolution image captures which magnify interpretive possibilities. Like a slinky, animated forms suggest fluidity between planes, as coils of time expand, contract and knot, toward contemplation of family life, personal delights, ominous threats and complexities of the narrow physical place that we occupy in daily life. Seven Days in May (1964) Directed by John Frankenheimer In this tense Cold War thriller, the President of the United States (March) is targeted by a powerful Air Force general (Lancaster) after signing a controversial nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union. With a covert military coup imminent, only the suspicions of a lone colonel (Douglas) stand in the way of the catastrophic overthrow of the U.S. government. Paramount Pictures. Producer: Edward Lewis. Screenwriter: Rod Serling. Cinematographer: Ellsworth Fredricks. Editor: Ferris Webster. Cast: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien. 35mm, b/w, 120 min. THE SHOOTING 1966, 82 min, USA, Dir: Monte Hellman A western like no other, Monte Hellman’s existential masterpiece follows a wary bounty hunter (Warren Oates) hired to escort a snarling little vixen (Millie Perkins) across the desert - searching for what? Along the way, they’re shadowed by demonic gunfighter Jack Nicholson (pure malevolence) as they all ride closer to some hellish reckoning. With former TV Western star Will Hutchins. "Bizarre, hallucinatory and absolutely hypnotic." - Tom Milne. SPARROWS Considered to be Mary Pickford's best feature, Sparrows is an expert blend of thrilling spectacle and hissable villainy. The story concerns a group of orphan children held in virtual slavery on a southern farm surrounded by a treacherous swamp. In the climax, Mollie (Pickford) leads the children to safety after a hair-raising chase through a wilderness filled with alligators and quicksand. "Sparrows is beautifully mounted, richly Dickensian" (John Hartl, Seattle Times). 1926, USA, 35mm, 84 minutes. directed by William Beaudine, Tom McNamara (uncredited); produced by Mary Pickford; written by Winifred Dunn (story), George Marion Jr. (titles), C. Gardner Sullivan (adaptation); starring Mary Pickford, Roy Stewart, Mary Louise Miller, Gustav von Seyffertitz. Shot at "The Lot" (at Formosa and Santa Monica). SPIN Using unauthorized satellite footage, filmmaker Brian Springer’s Spin captures alarming behind-the-scenes maneuverings of politicians and newscasters—who presume they’re off camera—during the 1992 presidential election. (1995, Dir. B. Springer, 57 min.) SPLIT IMAGE Have you ever been to the Cinefamily and seen our pre-show “Join Us” bumper, featuring a white-robed throng of followers, and a charismatic cult leader indoctrinating an ecstatic young man (“Danny’s dead — I am Joshua, a warrior for your cause”?) This is that movie — AND IT’S TRULY AWESOME!!!! The big mama of the brainwashing genre, Split Image is Hollywood’s definitive big-budget examination of the cult phenomena. This searing melodrama, directed by Ted Kotcheff (of First Blood fame) hits all the right beats: the seductive space cadet (a fetching Karen Allen), the utopian commune (“Homeland”), said cult leader (a stunt-casted Peter Fonda), and best of all, an extensive deprogramming by a mustachioed James Woods at his absolute sleaziest. Kotcheff pulls absolutely no punches, as this cathartic and visually stunning work pulls you into its emotionally gnarly universe in the most frightening realistic way possible. As an introduction to the world of cults, Split Image is the ultimate — educational, scary, and a total blast. Dir. Ted Kotcheff, 1982, 35mm, 110 min. Steve Roden: Sequences and Scores Steve Roden in person performing live scores to his early films! Some Los Angeles premieres! Los Angeles Filmforum and LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition) invite you to join us for a rare screening of early film works by Los Angeles artist Steve Roden, presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Shells, Bells, Steps and Silences, currently on view at LACE. This screening includes Roden’s first film, “the dreams of ophelia”, from 1989, as well as many never before screened super 8mm projects from early 1990’s - some of which will be accompanied by improvised sound scores performed live by the artist. The evening will also include Roden’s 2011 16mm film, Striations, inspired by Dennis Oppenheim's early films, Gary Beydler's Hand Held Day, and the work of Jess. Roden's working process uses various forms of specific notation (words, musical scores, maps, etc.) and translates them through self-invented systems into scores; which then influence the process of creating the work. These scores, rigid in terms of their parameters and rules, are also full of holes for intuitive decisions and left turns. The inspirational source material becomes a kind of formal skeleton for the finished abstract works. In his visual works, translations of information such as text and maps become rules and systems for generating visual actions such as color choices, number of elements, and image building. SUNRISE The Cabeza de Vaca Orchestra will be performing a newly composed site-specific score to Muranu’s classic silent film Sunrise. Featuring songs by Nora Keyes, micro Arcestras, pyramids and HM157 itself, the Cabeza de Vaca Orchestra will turn one of the most beautiful silent films of all time into a lovely dance between musician and film. Suspense: Nightmare at Ground Zero (CBS, 8/18/53) Directed by Robert Mulligan In this eerily atmospheric live television drama directed by Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird), a henpecked artist hired by the U.S. Army to supply mannequins for an atomic test plots a horrific solution to dispose of his nagging wife. Screenwriter: Rod Serling. Cast: O.Z. Whitehead, Louise Larabee, Calvin Thomas. Beta SP, b/w, 30 min. TEPEPA 1969, 136 min, Italy, Dir: Giulio Petroni Brit doctor John Steiner saves revolutionary hero Tomas Milian from Colonel Orson Welles’ post-revolutionary firing squad - so he can kill Milian for himself! The betrayals mount up en route to two climactic shocks. Co-written by Franco Solinas (BATTLE OF ALGIERS). In Italian with English subtitles. Not available on Region 1 DVD. TIKI VOLUME 1: PARADISE LOST 2012, Armchair Traveling, 95 min, USA, Dir: Jochen Hirschfeld Capturing the true South Seas and pop culture of tiki mania from around the world, this fascinating documentary offers insight into the work of veteran and present-day tiki artists: writers, musicians, painters, carvers, illustrators and, of course, bartenders! Meet Sven Kirsten, and see Edgar Leeteg's house in Moorea as well as interviews with Martin Denny, Eric Askew, The Millionaire, Combustible Edison, Shag, Otto Von Stroheim, Tiki Tony, Jeff Beachbum Berry, with locations from New Zealand and Fiji to Germany and Easter Island. Narrated by King Kukulele. Discussion following the film with director Jochen Hirschfeld and guests from the film (TBA). TONEWHEEL/FILM REEL: Personal film work of DOUGLAS KATELUS Tonewheel / Film Reel is a program of 16mm film and video work by Douglas Katelus, a San Francisco based filmmaker and organist. These movies are derived from observation while occasionally searching for what sits below those endless layers of asphalt, concrete and gasoline. The evening’s program will be in two parts. First a never-ending road trip followed by an homage to dead technology and lost landscape. Numerous works will be screened produced between 2004–2012. The most recent of which are set to a live musical performance on the Hammond Organ. The Twilight Zone: The Shelter (CBS, 9/29/61) Directed by Lamont Johnson Best neighbors become worst nightmares when an imminent nuclear attack sends one family scurrying to their fallout shelter—as their friends howl for mercy, then for blood, outside the implacably sealed door. Screenwriter: Rod Serling. Cast: Larry Gates, Joseph Bernard, Jack Albertson. 16mm, b/w, 25 min. THE WAR ROOM James Carville, George Stephanopoulos, and Bill Clinton strategize how to beat George H.W. Bush in the 1992 presidential election despite numerous setbacks. (1993, Dirs. C. Hegedus, D. A. Pennebaker, 96 min.) WE CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN The most complete, newly restored version of Nicholas Ray’s experimental masterpiece, made with his students at the State University of New York at Binghamton, WE CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN embodies Ray’s approach to filmmaking as a communal way of life. The film records Ray’s groundbreaking use of multiple image as a way of telling more than one story simultaneously, and of colorization as a way to heighten emotional expression. He called it a “journalistic” film, one that shares the anthropologists’ aim of recording the “history, progress, manners, morals, and mores of everyday life,” at a critical moment in American history. Ray plays himself in the film, serving as mentor, friend, and reference point around whom the students’ stories constellate. Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse: The Man in the Funny Suit (CBS, 4/15/60) Directed by Ralph Nelson Comedian Ed Wynn, his son, actor, Keenan Wynn, and Rod Serling appear as themselves in this backstage docudrama about the making of "Playhouse 90: Requiem for a Heavyweight.” As rehearsals for the live "Requiem" falter, production concerns mount when it appears that comedian Ed Wynn (best known as “The Perfect Fool”) might be miscast in his first dramatic role. Screenwriter: Raph Nelson. Cast: Keenan Wynn, Ed Wynn, Desi Arnaz. 16mm, b/w, 60 min. We Two (pilot) (1972) Directed by Carl Reiner Frustrated over a diminishing degree of control on the "Night Gallery" television series, Serling developed this pilot for CBS based on "A Storm In Summer," with a deli owner taking temporary custody of a ghetto youth, leading to complications when the boy is accused of assault. Serling reportedly balked at network desires to impose a laugh track, and the unsold, unaired pilot has only rarely been seen. Producer: Herbert Hirschman. Screenwriter: Rod Serling. Cast: Herschel Bernardi, Damon Ketchens, Archie Hahn, Jim Backus, Jeff Corey. Betacam SP, color, 30 min. A Woman of the World (1925) Directed by Malcolm St. Clair Starring Pola Negri and Charles Emmet Mack Countess Elnora (Pola Negri) finds her reputation questioned when she leaves her European home to visit her cousin in a small Midwestern town. YANKEE 1966, 92 min, Italy, Dir: Tinto Brass A stranger (Philippe Leroy) rides into a lawless New Mexico town run by "Grand Cougar" Adolfo Celi and it doesn't take long for the two men to butt heads in a series of double-crosses. This typically violent, archetypal Western from Italian stylist Tinto Brass draws inspiration from Sergio Leone's "Man With No Name" as well as Brass' interest in comic books. In Italian with English subtitles. Not available on Region 1 DVD. The Yellow Canary (1963) Directed by Buzz Kulik Director Buzz Kulik and Serling collaborated on numerous classic "Twilight Zone" episodes and the 1972 dramatic TV special "A Storm in Summer." Here, they create high drama around a profligate rock musician (Boone) on a mission to find his kidnapped son. Estranged from his wife (Eden) and most of his friends, the self-centered philanderer must martial his manhood to solve the crime, put his life in order and save his child. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. Producer: Maury Dexter. Screenwriter: Rod Serling, from the novel by Whit Masterson. Cinematographer: Floyd Crosby. Editor: Jodie Copelan. Cast: Pat Boone, Barbara Eden, Steve Forrest, Jack Klugman, Jesse White. 35mm, b/w, 93 min.