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

fri. aug. 1

journeys from berlin/1971 11:30 AM 2:30 PM @ getty research institute
lives of performers 5:20 PM @ getty research institute
under the skin, only lovers left alive @ new beverly
hell drivers, impulse @ ucla film archive
casino @ egyptian
royal cousins at war @ spielberg @ egyptian
the buddy holly story FREE 8 PM @ friday night flicks @ pershing square


sat. aug. 2

dazed & confused @ street food cinema @ exposition park
the goonies @ street food cinema @ glendale central park
blazing saddles @ eat see hear @ autry
the man who envied women 11:30 AM 5 PM @ getty research institute
casablanca @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
under the skin 2:00 7:00 PM, only lovers left alive 4:10 9:10 PM @ new beverly
hell's angels (1930) 4 PM @ the silent treatment @ silent movie theater
susan @ the smell
the forgetting of objects 8 PM, tides @ epfc
impact (1947) @ heritage square
churchill's first world war @ spielberg @ egyptian
sex stains, bleached, colleen green, the fly traps, l.a. witch, tashaki miyaki, bombon, etc @ burger a-go-go @ observatory (santa ana)
flash gordon MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater


sun. aug. 3

centro historico @ filmforum @ spielberg @ egyptian
37 days 5 PM @ egyptian


mon. aug. 4

the intimate stranger, stranger on the prowl @ ucla film archive


tue. aug. 5

lives of performers 11:30 AM 2:00 PM @ getty research institute
news from a personal war 7 PM, justice, socorro nobre @ ucla film archive
the last picture show FREE 6 PM @ santa monica library ocean park branch
the good the bad and the ugly @ arclight pasadena


wed. aug. 6

film about a woman who... 11:30 AM 2:10 PM @ getty research institute
medea benjamin & haskell wexler @ hammer


thu. aug. 7

terminator 2 FREE @ silver lake picture show @ sunset triangle plaza
boyce & hart: the guys who wrote 'em @ don't knock the rock @ silent movie theater
the black cat, the raven @ egyptian
kind hearts and coronets, the lavender hill mob @ aero
moebius 10:10 PM @ silent movie theater


fri. aug. 8

journeys from berlin/1971 11:30 AM 2:30 PM @ getty research institute
lives of performers 5:20 PM @ getty research institute
dead men don't wear plaid @ ucla film archive
mikael jorgensen FREE 6 PM @ friday flights @ getty
the blues brothers FREE 8 PM @ friday night flicks @ pershing square
dracula (1931), phantom of the opera (1943), the wolf man (1941) @ egyptian
the ladykillers (1955), the man in the white suit @ aero
the dog, dog day afternoon @ silent movie theater
motel hell MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
baby doll, the lineup @ new beverly
robocop MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
rank/xerox, vial @ the smell
race and space redux @ epfc filmmobile @ 626 lookout drive


sat. aug. 9

the man who envied women 11:30 AM 5 PM @ getty research institute
these are the damned 3 PM, escapade @ ucla film archive
crocodiles @ los globos
the murder of hi good 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama
sixteen candles @ eat see hear @ paul revere
bound for glory 1:30 PM @ autry
frankenstein, bride of frankenstein, son of frankenstein @ egyptian
lawrence of arabia (70mm) @ aero
the dog 7:30 9:45 PM @ silent movie theater
kumiko the treasure hunter 1 PM @ ace hotel
baby doll 3:00 7:30 PM, the lineup 5:15 9:45 PM @ new beverly
robocop MIDNIGHT @ new beverly


sun. aug. 10

lordville @ filmforum @ spielberg @ egyptian
spartacus 7 PM @ film: masters series @ egyptian
e.t. @ aero
the dog 9 PM @ silent movie theater
the rover 2:55 7:30 PM, animal kingdom 5:00 9:35 PM @ new beverly
angels of aumsphere @ sound sanctuary @ top40 @ mr t's bowl


mon. aug. 11

king kong (1933) 7:15 PM @ arclight hollywood
courtney barnett FREE 6 PM @ origami
the dog @ silent movie theater
the rover, animal kingdom @ new beverly


tue. aug. 12

lives of performers 11:30 AM 2:00 PM @ getty research institute
fka twigs @ el rey
the dog 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
the shadow of the moon 9 PM @ mack sennett studios
snake in the eagle's shadow, the longest nite @ grindhouse film fest @ new beverly
susan, wimps @ ham & eggs


wed. aug. 13

pardon my french, headlines of destruction @ ucla film archive
full metal village FREE 7 PM @ goethe institut
the scapegoat, father brown @ aero
zany miscellany ii 10:45 PM @ lost & found film club @ silent movie theater
the mirror, nostalghia @ new beverly


thu. aug. 14

the savage eye @ my atlas @ clockshop
led zeppelin played here @ don't knock the rock @ silent movie theater
urban fruit FREE 7 PM @ conscientious projector @ the armory (pasadena)
north by northwest 7:45 PM @ arclight sherman oaks
the t.a.m.i. show @ egyptian
last holiday, the card @ aero
the dog 10:20 PM @ silent movie theater
the mirror, nostalghia @ new beverly


fri. aug. 15

journeys from berlin/1971 11:30 AM 2:30 PM @ getty research institute
lives of performers 5:20 PM @ getty research institute
tropicalia, a night in 67 @ ucla film archive
indiana jones and the last crusade FREE 8:30 PM @ cinema on the street @ third street promenade
the bridge on the river kwai, damn the defiant! @ aero
boy meets girl 7:45 PM, mr. x @ silent movie theater
sullivan's travels, the miracle of morgan's creek @ new beverly
destruction unit (12:15 AM), chrome (1:00 AM), the weirdos (11:30), etc @ berserktown festival @ los globos big room
corners (4:30), cherry glazerr (7:10), woods (8:00), allah-las (9:00) FREE @ taix main stage @ echo park rising
dream boys (6:30), colleen green (7:20) FREE @ the echo @ echo park rising


sat. aug. 16

the man who envied women 11:30 AM 5 PM @ getty research institute
the never ending story, (more features TBA) @ movies from dusk to dawn (9 PM-6 AM) @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
the victors 3 PM @ ucla film archive
the lady eve @ ucla film archive
wholetrain FREE 7 PM @ goethe institut
wayne's world @ electric dusk drive-in
pushin' too hard @ egyptian
oliver twist, great expectations @ aero
boy meets girl 7:45 PM, mr. x @ silent movie theater
sullivan's travels 3:20 7:30 PM, the miracle of morgan's creek 5:10 9:20 PM @ new beverly
m. geddes gengras, etc @ tonalism @ sonos studio
rock 'n' roll high school MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
dirt dress (12:20 PM), meatbodies (2:00), sex stains (5:20) FREE @ taix main stage @ echo park rising
thee rain cats (5:20), audacity (6:10), together pangea (7:55) FREE @ echoplex @ echo park rising
tashaki miyaki (4:20), bouquet (6:00) FREE @ origami @ echo park rising
drinking flowers (4:30), adult books (6:20), the blank tapes (8:20) FREE @ little joy @ echo park rising
creeps (4:30) FREE @ lot 1 @ echo park rising


sun. aug. 17

eve 7 PM, time without pity @ ucla film archive
doctor zhivago @ aero
boy meets girl 5 PM @ silent movie theater
froth (8:40) FREE @ part time punks @ the echo @ echo park rising
susan (6:00), devon williams (9:00), bouquet (9:45) FREE @ little joy @ echo park rising
m. geddes gengras (6:00) FREE @ origami vinyl @ echo park rising


mon. aug. 18

boy meets girl 10:45 PM @ silent movie theater
the dog 6:15 PM @ arena cinema
the jungle book 1 PM @ lacma
cheatin' 5:30 7:30 PM @ downtown independent
level five 9 PM @ downtown independent


tue. aug. 19

lives of performers 11:30 AM 2:00 PM @ getty research institute
spartacus @ arclight sherman oaks
the dog 6:15 PM @ arena cinema
cheatin' 4:00 7:30 PM @ downtown independent
level five 5:30 PM @ downtown independent


wed. aug. 20

the strange colour of your body's tears @ aero
boy meets girl 10:45 PM @ silent movie theater
we are the best!, school of rock @ new beverly
the dog 6:15 PM @ arena cinema
cheatin' 4:00 7:30 PM @ downtown independent
level five 5:30 PM @ downtown independent


thu. aug. 21

city lights FREE @ silver lake picture show @ sunset triangle plaza
the zombies, mystic braves FREE @ santa monica pier
our man in havana, tunes of glory @ aero
boy meets girl 10 PM @ silent movie theater
un chien andalou, l'age d'or @ silent movie theater
28 days later MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
we are the best!, school of rock @ new beverly
the dog 6:15 PM @ arena cinema
cheatin' 4:00 7:30 PM @ downtown independent
level five 5:30 PM @ downtown independent


fri. aug. 22

journeys from berlin/1971 11:30 AM 2:30 PM @ getty research institute
lives of performers 5:20 PM @ getty research institute
vagabond @ my atlas @ clockshop
double indemnity, pitfall @ ucla film archive
joanna gruesome @ the smell
built to spill @ roxy
slint @ el rey
pickup on south street, white dog @ egyptian
the magnificent seven @ aero
los angeles plays itself 8 PM @ silent movie theater
a hard day's night, we are the best! @ new beverly
gap dream, sea lions @ thee men's warehouse


sat. aug. 23

the count backwurds, the scouse gits, the unclaimed, thee tee pees FREE @ viva cantina
the man who envied women 11:30 AM 5 PM @ getty research institute
high wall, the scarf @ ucla film archive
clueless @ street food cinema @ glendale park
the princess bride @ eat see hear @ la cienega park
the good the bad and the ugly @ aero
los angeles plays itself 6:15 PM @ silent movie theater
un chien andalou 10 PM, l'age d'or @ silent movie theater
fist of legend MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
a hard day's night 3:10 7:30 PM, we are the best! 5:00 9:20 PM @ new beverly
drinking flowers @ lolipop records


sun. aug. 24

roman holiday 7 PM, to catch a thief @ ucla film archive
the gaucho 5:30 PM @ egyptian
avant-garde rock films FREE 7 PM @ 7 dudley cinema @ beyond baroque
baby doll, the misfits @ aero
los angeles plays itself 7:15 PM @ silent movie theater
un chien andalou 10:45 PM, l'age d'or @ silent movie theater
husbands, love streams @ new beverly


mon. aug. 25

thunderball, the untouchables @ aero
husbands, love streams @ new beverly
gap dream @ los globos


tue. aug. 26

lives of performers 11:30 AM 2:00 PM @ getty research institute
un chien andalou 10:45 PM, l'age d'or @ silent movie theater
los angeles plays itself 7:20 10:50 PM @ silent movie theater
wand FREE (6:30) @ permanent records


wed. aug. 27

close encounters of the third kind @ arclight hollywood
el mariachi, once upon a time in mexico @ egyptian
los angeles plays itself 7:20 10:50 PM @ silent movie theater
un chien andalou 10:50 PM, l'age d'or @ silent movie theater
deadly hero, macgruber @ new beverly
lee "scratch" perry @ echoplex


thu. aug. 28

mission of burma @ roxy
lee "scratch" perry, mexico 68 FREE @ santa monica pier
ty segall, meatbodies @ echo
cinecon 50 (films TBA) 7 PM - MIDNIGHT @ cinecon @ egyptian
the memory hole FREE @ everything is festival @ silent movie theater
deadly hero, macgruber @ new beverly


fri. aug. 29

journeys from berlin/1971 11:30 AM 2:30 PM @ getty research institute
lives of performers 5:20 PM @ getty research institute
ty segall, wand, endless bummer @ echo
jon brion @ largo
cinecon 50 (films TBA) 9 AM - MIDNIGHT @ cinecon @ egyptian
the kid, modern times @ aero
alphaville, band of outsiders @ new beverly
roco jet, ezra buchla, etc @ human resources
the strange color of your body's tears (times TBA) @ arena cinema
being there FREE 8 PM @ epfc filmmobile @ pasadena museum of history


sat. aug. 30

sleep @ pappy & harriets (pioneertown)
the man who envied women 11:30 AM 5 PM @ getty research institute
clockwork orange @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
ty segall, shark toys, vial @ echo
django unchained @ eat see hear @ autry
casablanca @ street food cinema @ brookside park (pasadena)
scratch zine fair 10 AM - 5 PM @ esmoa
cinecon 50 (films TBA) 9 AM - MIDNIGHT @ cinecon @ egyptian
alphaville 3:15 7:30 PM, band of outsiders 5:15 9:30 PM @ new beverly
show & tell with dr. demento 4:45 PM @ everything is festival @ silent movie theater
the strange color of your body's tears (times TBA) @ arena cinema


sun. aug. 31

sleep @ troubadour
ty segall @ echo
colleen green, the blank tapes, adult books, etc @ los globos
pretty in pink @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
cinecon 50 (films TBA) 9 AM - 6 PM @ cinecon @ egyptian
los angeles plays itself 5 PM @ aero
the strange color of your body's tears (times TBA) @ arena cinema


mon. sep. 1

cinecon 50 (films TBA) 9 AM - 5 PM @ cinecon @ egyptian
the strange color of your body's tears (times TBA) @ arena cinema


tue. sep. 2

lives of performers 11:30 AM 2:00 PM @ getty research institute
the strange color of your body's tears (times TBA) @ arena cinema


wed. sep. 3

the strange color of your body's tears (times TBA) @ arena cinema


thu. sep. 4

allah-las FREE (RSVP) @ santa monica pier
the strange color of your body's tears (times TBA) @ arena cinema


fri. sep. 5

journeys from berlin/1971 11:30 AM 2:30 PM @ getty research institute


sat. sep. 6

the man who envied women 11:30 AM 5 PM @ getty research institute
ferris bueller's day off @ street food cinema @ marriott golf course (manhattan beach)
purple rain @ cinespia @ hollywood forever


mon. sep. 8

experimental films FREE 6 PM @ documental @ unurban


tue. sep. 9

lives of performers 11:30 AM 2:00 PM @ getty research institute


thu. sep. 11

charles bradley FREE @ santa monica pier
earth @ hollywood forever


fri. sep. 12

journeys from berlin/1971 11:30 AM 2:30 PM @ getty research institute
sunset blvd. @ ucla film archive


sat. sep. 13

the man who envied women 11:30 AM 5 PM @ getty research institute
whirlpool, the blue gardenia @ ucla film archive
the princess bride @ street food cinema @ marriott golf course (manhattan beach)
the goonies @ eat see hear @ pasadena city hall


mon. sep. 15

caught, the locket @ ucla film archive


tue. sep. 16

lives of performers 11:30 AM 2:00 PM @ getty research institute


thu. sep. 18

neutral milk hotel @ hollywood bowl


fri. sep. 19

journeys from berlin/1971 11:30 AM 2:30 PM @ getty research institute
the dark mirror, jealousy @ ucla film archive
benny & joon FREE 8 PM @ friday night flicks @ pershing square


sat. sep. 20

the man who envied women 11:30 AM 5 PM @ getty research institute
aliens @ street food cinema @ exposition park
alterego FREE 7 PM @ goethe institut
fast times at ridgemont high @ electric dusk drive-in
rosemary's baby @ cinespia @ hollywood forever


sun. sep. 21

the wild parrots of telegraph hill FREE 11 AM @ ucla film archive
a new kind of love 7 PM, artists and models @ ucla film archive


mon. sep. 22

chicago calling, sorry wrong number @ ucla film archive


tue. sep. 23

lives of performers 11:30 AM 2:00 PM @ getty research institute
berlin boxhagener platz FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ goethe institut


thu. sep. 25

temples @ fonda


fri. sep. 26

journeys from berlin/1971 11:30 AM 2:30 PM @ getty research institute
sleep my love, bluebeard @ ucla film archive
jon brion @ largo
sixteen candles FREE 8 PM @ friday night flicks @ pershing square


sat. sep. 27

the man who envied women 11:30 AM 5 PM @ getty research institute
anthony braxton trio @ angel city jazz fest @ zipper hall


sun. sep. 28

city that never sleeps 7 PM, hollow triumph @ ucla film archive


tue. sep. 30

lives of performers 11:30 AM 2:00 PM @ getty research institute
wand @ echo


fri. oct. 3

journeys from berlin/1971 11:30 AM 2:30 PM @ getty research institute


sat. oct. 4

the man who envied women 11:30 AM 5 PM @ getty research institute


tue. oct. 7

lives of performers 11:30 AM 2:00 PM @ getty research institute
the king khan & bbq show @ el rey


fri. oct. 10

journeys from berlin/1971 11:30 AM 2:30 PM @ getty research institute


sat. oct. 11

the man who envied women 11:30 AM 5 PM @ getty research institute
broken arrow 1:30 PM @ autry


mon. oct. 13

avant-garde jazz films FREE 6 PM @ documental @ unurban


tue. oct. 14

moon duo @ the observatory (santa ana)


wed. oct. 15

moon duo @ mayan


thu. oct. 16

julie byrne @ echo


fri. oct. 24

exposed: songs for unseen warhol films @ ucla royce hall
jon brion @ largo


sat. oct. 25

rosemary's baby @ electric dusk drive-in


tue. oct. 28

tim hecker @ los globos


thu. nov. 6

king tuff @ el rey


sat. nov. 8

low @ ace theatre


sun. nov. 9

low @ ace theatre



WHAT IT IS:


Acts of Politics and Becoming
Art historians Rhea Anastas and Huey Copeland, artist and writer Malik Gaines, and poet and critic Fred Moten present their ideas on individual works of art by artists featured in Take It or Leave It. A dialogue moderated by Anastas, director, MA Art and Curatorial Practices in the Public Sphere, Roski School of Art and Design, University of Southern California, will follow the presentations.  


ALTMAN (2014)
Directed by Ron Mann.
In this EPIX original documentary, celebrated director Ron Mann explores the legacy of Robert Altman, the maverick filmmaker whose decades-long career helped re-shape American moviemaking. This uniquely-styled documentary, featuring exclusive footage and the participation of numerous Altman collaborators, is an insider’s look at the makeup of a filmmaking genius, and a glimpse into the risks and breakthroughs that defined his remarkable career. Sphinx Productions/EPIX. Producer: Ron Mann. Screenwriter: Len Blum. Cinematographer: Simon Ennis. Editor: Robert Kennedy. Appearances by: Paul Thomas Anderson, James Caan, Keith Carradine, Elliott Gould, Philip Baker Hall, Sally Kellerman, Lyle Lovett, Julianne Moore, Michael Murphy, Lily Tomlin, Robin Williams, Bruce Willis. Digital video, color, approx. 90 min. Advance Screening!


ALTMAN AND TELEVISION
Robert Altman was a prolific director of series television before achieving fame as a feature filmmaker.
SCREENING:
* Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Together"
Directed by Robert Altman.
Joseph Cotten stars as a philandering villain with a perfect plan that goes awry. Screenwriter: Robert C. Dennis. Cast: Joseph Cotten, Christine White, Sam Buffington. 16mm, b/w, approx. 30 min. CBS, 1/12/58
* Route 66: "Some of the People, Some of the Time"
Directed by Robert Altman.
Series protagonists Tod (Martin Milner) and Buzz (George Maharis), driving through rural Pennsylvania, contend with the double-dealing of a small town beauty contest promoter.  Producer: Leonard Freeman.  Screenwriter: Stirling Silliphant.  Cinematographer: Irving Lippman.  Editor: Jack Gleason.  Cast: Martin Milner, George Maharis, Keenan Wynn, Lois Nettleton, Shirl Conway. Digibeta, b/w, 60 min. ABC, 12/1/61


ANIMATION BREAKDOWN: TECHNICOLOR TOONS
With the total marginalization of film just on the horizon, there’s never been a better time to celebrate the greatest film stock of all: Technicolor, the cream-of-the-crop chemical film process requiring three separate negatives to create its vivid images. And, unlike other film stocks, Tech’s colors never faded. We’ve dug up a whole program of diverse classic cartoons with only one thing in common — each is a vintage film print struck in the original three-strip Tech process. Join animation historian (and longtime Cinefamily friend) Jerry Beck for an entire buffet of 35mm Technicolor cartoons from the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s. Sadly, Technicolor’s dye-transfer process, used during the golden age of Hollywood, stopped due to costs in 1974. Luckily, prints still exist — but they’re getting scarce. This is going to be one helluva show, with Color Rhapsodies, Terrytoons and Noveltoons galore.


ANNE CHARLOTTE ROBERTSON
Influenced by filmmakers as diverse as Ed Pincus and Carolee Schneemann, Anne Charlotte Robertson (1949–2012) was a Boston area Super 8 filmmaker who examined and shared her life through her work—a mix of essay, performance and stop-motion animation. Anne completed her graduate degree at Massachusetts College of Art in the 1980s—honing her filmmaking skills under the tutelage of Saul Levine. Diagnosed with various and changing mental disorders, Anne faced several breakdowns and mental hospitals—experiences she documented and exorcised thoroughly through her films—particularly within the annals of Five Year Diary (1981–1997), a project spanning nearly two decades. Though relentlessly intense and emotional, her films are not entirely bleak, for her bracing self-awareness and humor energize and bring a rare effulgence to the depths of her darkest moments. Anne boldly exposed her most intimate and obsessive inner dialogues—from illness, breakdowns and longing for love to diets, cats and the minutia of existence.  She also considered the filmmaking experience therapeutic and cited the process as helping cure her depression. Anne died of cancer September 15, 2012 leaving behind an archive of a life passionately examined, primarily through the rough warmth of Super 8. Most of her work was created on Super 8 sound film featuring a soundtrack on the film, with additional audio on cassette and narrated live by Anne, creating many layers of sound and story. The original materials have been digitally transferred. Program: Reel 1: The Beginning, Thanksgiving; Reel 22: A Short Affair (and) Going Crazy (1982); Apologies (1983–1990); My Cat My Garden and 9/11 (2011).


THE ARRIVAL
Psychedelic viewing for many a late-night cable fan, Unarius’ greatest filmic achievement — the outsider interstellar fantasia, The Arrival (1978), comes to Cinefamily for its very first theatrical screening ever — plus other movie bonuses and Q&A with Unarius members! Artists working within the Unarian worldview certainly know how to dream big, for one of the brotherhood’s core aims is to form a cosmic confederation with benevolent “Space Brothers.” And of all the DIY films made by American alternative cultures over the decades, none are as epicly ambitious and as earnestly effective as The Arrival. Both a “documentary” of a Unariun’s channeled past-life incarnation and a riveting homemade space opera (complete with ingenious hyper-colored analog SFX that evoke James Whitney on planet Xanadu), the film follows an aborigine, who, after being contacted by an immense Rubik’s Cube full of advanced telepathic beings, overcomes his psychic amnesia, working through his past life as a genocidal spaceship commander. This impassioned and meticulously designed origin story, the largest-scale production of Unarius’ oeuvre, has a spiritual agenda to match Jodorowsky’s, with a startling visual aesthetic halfway between Lynch and an ABBA music video.


AVERAGEMAN
(2012, 78 minutes) Rush Riddle's (in person) fun feature film captures the spirit of underground Los Angeles flipping into the over ground. Directed by Steve Hanft. Starring Richard Edson with Gwen Casella, Dick Rude, Zander Schloss, Carole Citrone, Eddy Ruscha, and Paloma Parfrey. Space aliens have come to earth to save the human genome, which they fear is doomed to a pending nuclear holocaust. Their “ORB” tells them to look for George Clooney, then after it breaks and is repaired says to look for Greg Classen. Greg is a sad-sack, continually mugged in inner city L.A.  There is deja vu and people reappearing as if in a Vonnegut karass.


A Wedding (1978)
Directed by Robert Altman.
Two families join at a country estate for the wedding of new money scion “Dino” to old money heiress “Muffin.” A bungled ceremony by a doddering priest and the rueful sighs of aging matriarch Lillian Gish portend trouble, as indeed, wedding guests stay discreetly away, and family quirks and secrets come out of the woodwork like termites.  Delightful character turns abound in this dissection of the discomfiting rituals of class pretension.
Lion’s Gate Films/Twentieth Century Fox.  Producer: Robert Altman.  Screenwriters: Robert Altman, John Considine, Allan Nicholls, Patricia Resnick, based on a story by R. Altman and J. Considine.  Cinematographer: Charles Rosher Jr.  Editor: Tony Lombardo.  Cast: Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, Amy Stryker, Mia Farrow, Dennis Christopher, Lillian Gish, Desi Arnaz, Jr. 35mm, color, 125 min.


BALLAD OF ANNABEL LEE
The incredible, multifaceted mosaic of Unarius’ video outreach epitomizes what Cinefamily loves most about cable-TV public access, with dramatic stagings, pageantry, surreal talk shows and mesmerising video “psychodramas.” As interest in public access TV exploded, Unarius were pioneers on the ground-level, beaming their messages of love and space brotherhood to all corners of the country — and in the process, snagging a cult following of hardcore videoheads alongside the true believers. These small-screen efforts will snag you too, for they are huge on heart, unfettered creative expression and heaping handfuls of high weirdness. Tonight, see Unarius’ public access greatest hits, an onstage Q&A with Unarius members, and a full screening of Unarius’ most controversial video work: the banned, pre-Civil War-era yarn Ballad of Annabel Lee!


BEFORE NANOOK: The Frozen Zone in Early Silent Film
We welcome celebrated scholars Professor Russell A. Potter and Kenn Harper, here to present an evening of arctic novelty including scenes from never-before seen silent films, movie stills, and other rarities (many of which were filmed in Southern California between 1909 and 1921 by the Selig Polyscope, Vitagraph, and Essanay Studios), illustrated by means of the phenomenal Phenatascopic Projector. The evening also marks the debut of the exhibition NOVA TUSKHUT complete with polar artifacts, including snow-shoes worn on Peary's 1898 polar expedition, maps, the flying goggles of an arctic bush pilot, and mementos and portraits of Nancy Columbia, Inuit silent film star. 


Black Cross (Krzyzacy)
1960, 173 minutes, color, DCP
Written by Leon Kruczkowski, based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz; directed by Aleksander Ford; with Urszula Modrzynska, Grazyna Staniszewska, Andrzej Szalawski, Henryk Borowski, Aleksander Fogiel, Mieczyslaw Kalenik, Emil Karewicz, Tadeusz Kosudarski
The most-viewed Polish film of all time, this medieval epic about the heroic campaign against the invading Knights of the Teutonic Order features mounted battles, political maneuverings, and a tragic romance.


BLIND CHANCE
One moment, one event — three completely different outcomes. From esteemed director Krzysztof Kieslowski comes a film examining the effects of even the smallest of choices. A young medical student’s life is forever changed by three subtle variations of the same innocuous episode: he does or does not catch a Warsaw-bound train, and subsequently, he either becomes a leading and progressively disenchanted Communist Party functionary, is arrested and sent to a labor camp where his anti-Party ire is stoked, or returns to his life in Lodz and becomes a family man. A poetic fable that touches on the elusive ambiguities of chance and fate, Blind Chance was heavily censored by the communist regime, due to its anti-Party messages, and was withheld for release for six years. The now-restored version of the film includes scenes never before shown to the public. 1987, 123 minutes, color, DCP. Written and directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski; with Boguslaw Linda, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Boguslawa Pawelec, Marzena Trybala. 


CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
Welles gave himself one of his finest roles as Shakespeare’s immortal fool Falstaff in this moving historical drama that combines material from several of the Bard’s plays in what is considered one of the greatest Shakespeare films ever made, with battle scenes that are still inspiring filmmakers today.  Welles surrounded himself with an impeccable cast, including Keith Baxter as Prince Hal, Jeanne Moreau as Doll Tearsheet, Margaret Rutherford as Hostess Quickly, Fernando Rey as Worcester and John Gielgud as King Henry IV. Critics have long been in agreement over the movie’s glories, with Roger Ebert calling it “a film to treasure” and Dave Kehr terming it “the one Welles film that deserves to be called lovely.” Pauline Kael, not exactly a knee-jerk defender of Welles, rhapsodized over the Battle of Shrewsbury sequence as “unlike anything he has ever done, indeed unlike any battle ever done on the screen before. It ranks with the best of Griffith, John Ford, Eisenstein, Kurosawa — that is, with the best ever done.” 1966, 115 minutes, black and white, 35mm | Written by Orson Welles, based on the plays by William Shakespeare; directed by Orson Welles; with Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, John Gielgud, Keith Baxter.


The Dance of Reality
After a 23-year hiatus, The Dance of Reality marks the triumphant return of Alejandro Jodorowsky, the visionary Chilean filmmaker behind cult classics El Topo and The Holy Mountain. In the radiantly visceral autobiographical film, a young Jodorowsky is confronted by a collection of compelling characters that contributed to his burgeoning surreal consciousness. The legendary filmmaker was born in 1929 in Tocopilla, a coastal town on the edge of the Chilean desert, where the film was shot. Blending his personal history with metaphor, mythology, and poetry, The Dance of Reality reflects Jodorowsky’s philosophy that reality is not objective but rather a “dance” created by our own imaginations. Running time: 130 minutes. In Spanish, with English subtitles.


DANTE’S INFERNO (1935)
A film noteworthy for one of the most baffling sequences in the history of Hollywood design - a journey into hell that appears to have been shot on location! Wrapped around the descent is a melodrama starring Spencer Tracy (in one his least favorite roles) portraying the life of an amoral hustler. The film is also noteworthy for a scorching dance number, in which a 16-year-old Rita Hayworth makes her screen debut - billed under her birth name, Rita Cansino.
The film chronicles the rise of Tracy's character, from laboring in the bowels of a steamship, to carnival con man, to proprietor of an unsafe amusement park, to boss of a gambling ship that catches fire - his callous attitude causing each disaster. The art direction - from amusement park to deco steamship - exemplifies the highly developed studio product of the 1930s. An hour into the picture, however, after a carnival "thrill" show collapses, killing its patrons - Tracy's character looks into a book on Dante and finds himself on a one-reel trip to hell - a trip that dwarfs everything else in the picture in both design and production value. As a boatload of lost souls drifts down the River Styx, enormous smoky caverns are illuminated by rivers of fire and brimstone. Hundreds of naked figures push boulders up mountainsides, struggle to escape from their graves, or simply writhe in the torment of the inferno. The remarkable images are clearly accomplished by a combination of enormous sets, enhanced and extended by masterfully designed, built, and shot miniatures. Peopled with hundreds of remarkably expressive extras, the scenes are masterfully composed, lit, and photographed. So the question must be asked: how did such super-production come to be part of this relatively modest studio programmer?
Some contemporary news stories breathlessly report 14,000 workers involved, including 5,000 technicians "working out the details" over 13 months. Other accounts differ. While the director, Harry Lachman, and his two credited art directors, Duncan Cramer and David S. Hall, should have supervised the work, the name of nearly every prominent effects technician of the day is rumored to have been involved. But the larger question remains - how did such manpower and budget come to be expended on a B-picture?
There has been speculation that the footage was borrowed from another picture; Fox’s 1924 version of DANTE'S INFERNO is often cited. That film, recently restored by the Museum of Modern Art, does indeed have a sequence set in hell - but those scenes in no way match the design, scale, of cinematography of the version we will screen.
No one seems to know the answer to the mystery, but after this screening of the film, a panel including director and film scholar Joe Dante (THE HOWLING, GREMLINS, MASTERS OF HORROR) and VSFX supervisor Bill Taylor (BLADERUNNER, THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, PUBLIC ENEMIES) will discuss the possibilities - inviting speculation from the audience - moderated by Production Designer John Muto.


DEAD OF NIGHT
Best remembered for its comedies such as KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949) and THE LADYKILLERS (1955), British production company Ealing Studios only ever produced one horror movie, an anthology made by four directors: Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden & Robert Hamer. DEAD OF NIGHT (1945) begins as a man arrives at a country house and immediately recognizes its guests from a terrible recurring nightmare. Each recounts their own experience with the supernatural and, through distinctly different vignettes, memorably that of the ghost of a lustful golfer, a haunted antique, and a ventriloquist power struggle, DEAD OF NIGHT beautifully frames the nineteen-forties fascination with Freudian psychoanalysis and the pitting of science against mysticism. Running Time 77min. 16mm.
“A package of those curious and uncanny yarns designed to raise secret goose pimples and cause the mind to make a fast check on itself.” - Bosley Crowther, The New York Times (1946)
“The film sets up a classic horror genre opposition between science and the supernatural, and makes it clear from the outset which side it is on.” - Mark Duguid, BFI Screen Online


THE DECLINE AND DESTRUCTION OF THE ORION EMPIRE: PART FOUR
The incredible, multifaceted mosaic of Unarius’ video outreach epitomizes what Cinefamily loves most about cable-TV public access, with dramatic stagings, pageantry, surreal talk shows and mesmerising video “psychodramas.” As interest in public access TV exploded, Unarius were pioneers on the ground-level, beaming their messages of love and space brotherhood to all corners of the country — and in the process, snagging a cult following of hardcore videoheads alongside the true believers. These small-screen efforts will snag you too, for they are huge on heart, unfettered creative expression and heaping handfuls of high weirdness. Tonight, see Unarius’ public access greatest hits, an onstage Q&A with Unarius members, and a full screening of one of their most unusual gestalt TV works: The Decline and Destruction of the Orion Empire: Part 4.


THE DEVILS
1971, Warner Bros., 108 min, UK, Dir: Ken Russell
Director Ken Russell’s adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun remains one of the most disturbingly memorable films of the early 1970s. In 17th-century France, Cardinal Richelieu’s minions use the womanizing of activist priest Urban Grandier (Oliver Reed) as an excuse to investigate his "diabolic possession" of the local nuns, including the demented, hunchbacked Mother Superior Sister Jeanne (an unforgettable Vanessa Redgrave).


ELENA
Elena, a young Brazilian woman, moved to New York with the same dream her mother had: to become a film actress. She left behind a childhood spent in hiding during the years of the military dictatorship. She also left Petra, her beloved seven-year-old sister. Over time, Elena's calls and letters home trailed off, until one day they stopped entirely. Years later, Petra also becomes an actress and heads to New York in search of her destiny, but also in search of her troubled sister. She remembers and imagines Elena through home movies, letters, a diary, and dreamlike sequences full of longing. As she tries to unravel the mystery of her sister, their stories overlap and begin to blur, challenging us to discover truths about forgiveness, loss, catharsis, and love.  Dir. Petra Costa, 82 mins, 2014.  Q&A to follow with director Petra Costa and executive producer Tim Robbins. Moderated by Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times writer.


EL GRAN CALAVERA
(The Great Madcap)
Luis Buñuel's second and rarely screened 1949 Mexican film is a hilarious "comedy of errors," a critique of the Mexican nouveau riche on the eve of the postwar petroleum boom. When a wealthy and hedonistic patriarch (Fernando Soler) learns of his family's desire to teach him a lesson by pretending his fortune has been lost, he decides to go a step further, launching a wild rollercoaster ride of mistaken identity, sham marriages and misfired suicides. Subversive Buñuelian touches are apparent everywhere, especially in the constant fetishization of soiled feet that cuts against the requisite glamour of the Mexican studio system. This film is Buñuel at his best! 1949, Ultramar Films (Mexico), 35mm, Black and White, 92 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles


ERICKA BECKMAN: NIGHT ONE
Los Angeles Filmforum is proud to present two screenings with the genre-defying, highly original filmmaker Ericka Beckman. Described as a key figure of the Pictures Generation, Beckman often uses games as structuring devices in films and videos that combine minimalist and punk aesthetics. As Amy Taubin writes: “Milking the Surrealist roots of Pop, Beckman creates brightly colored, psychologically threatening, sexually charged worlds in which her avatars are hurled to and fro, trapped inside a game plan whose rules they desperately try to discern.”
Coinciding with the exhibition Mike Kelley, Ericka Beckman will present three of her works, The Broken Rule (1979) and Cinderella (1986), in which Mike Kelley stars; and Switch Center (2003). Bennett Simpson, MOCA curator, will introduce the program.
“Like primitive cartoons, Beckman’s enigmatic allegories are filled with nervous activity and comic violence, sexual imagery and syncopated energy, perceptual game-playing and ingenious homemade optical effects.” --J. Hoberman, Artforum
Ericka Beckman: Over her three-decade career, Ericka Beckman’s playful yet formally demanding films challenge traditional aesthetic, and cultural values, that mix games with fairytales to create hybrids with new rules. Beckman uses play in every sense to shape her message.    “The result is a ‘satisfying, even delightful slipperiness of meaning, a mental vertigo induced by the changefulness of contexts and rules in regard to a given word or object.”-- Sally Banes, Millenium Film Journal, 1984


ERICKA BECKMAN: OUT OF HAND
Tonight, Beckman’s second Los Angeles screening presents a further selection of films and a new digital video from her important and highly original oeuvre, including Out of Hand (1980); You the Better (1983), which nearly caused a riot at its premiere at The New York Film Festival; as well her more recent work Hiatus (1999); and Tension Building, a work in progress.


Eroica
1958, 85 minutes, black and white, DCP
Written by Jerzy Stefan; directed by Andrzej Munk; With Edward Dziewonski, Barbara Polomska, Leon Niemczyk, Ignacy Machowski, and Kazimierz Opalinski
Directed by Andrezj Munk, this black comedy, subtitled A Heroic Symphony in Two Parts, follows two victims of war: a cowardly bon vivant who bumbles his way through the doomed Warsaw Uprising, and a POW who wants to escape his fellow inmates as much as he does his German captors.


AN EVENING WITH TATSUYA NAKADAI
The world over, there’s simply no equivalent to Japanese screen giant Tatsuya Nakadai, a truly versatile performer capable of both extreme stylization and off-the-cuff naturalism, and a deep collaborator with some of his country’s all-time greatest filmmakers (Kurosawa, Kobayashi, Ichikawa, Naruse, Teshigahara and many more.) Here in the U.S., Nakadai unjustly never became a symbol or an icon, for his screen persona was always too diverse. Whether the format was a samurai sword-and-sandal epic, an emotionally raw, novelistic tragedy or a lurid horror/suspense romp, the genius of Nakadai instantly shone through — and what makes these films timeless partly stems from his perfect marriage of craft, discipline, risk, adventure and expression. Through a rare confluence of events, Tatsuya will be in Los Angeles to join us for a special evening of remembrances, reflections on his craft, and a big-screen show of Ran: Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 jidaigeki battleship, in which Tatsuya grabs the King Lear reins for the stylized performance of a lifetime. Tatsuya may never get to visit Los Angeles again, so come visit with the master for this extraordinary Q&A appearance!


FATA MORGANA
In 1969, Werner Herzog journeyed to the Sahara to film mirages — and in the process, came home with some wonderously trippy footage, and layered it with narration from charming film critic Lotte Eisner (a recitation of the Mayan “Popol Vuh” creation myth) to create this dense lasagna of a nature doc. One of Herzog’s earliest features, Fata Morgana begins with a audacious zoned-out opening, and immediately hits transcendent marks straight off, before getting even stranger as its chimerical imaginary civilization passes from Golden Age to Decline. As well, Herzog films like a tourist to a different planet — one where the presence of life is largely manifest through detritus and death: a car turns endlessly in circles, a bearded man in welding goggles flourishes a monitor lizard at the camera. Here, the onscreen subjects are frequently enhanced by the mythic, mirrored properties of the heat haze, and an eclectic soundtrack that switches from Handel organ music to Leonard Cohen, and onto a weird local drum/piano duo. An absolutely stunning Herzog head film! Dir. Werner Herzog, 1971, DCP, 79 min.  WERNER HERZOG IN PERSON (5/23 show only)


GIRLFRIENDS
One of the first fictional efforts by former documentary maker Claudia Weill, Girlfriends focuses on a pair of roommates, Susan Weinblatt and Anne Munroe, played by Melanie Mayron and Anita Skinner. Anne gets married, leaving the insecure Susan alone for virtually the first time in her life. A mild flirtation with a rabbi leads to a whole new life for Susan when she becomes a portrait photographer for Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs. Claudia Weill wrote the (presumed) autobiographical screenplay with Vicki Polon. Filmed in New Jersey, Girlfriends was an expansion of a short subject subsidized by the American Film Institute. Dir. Claudia Weill, 1978, 86 mins.


HASKELL WEXLER DOCUMENTARIES
WHO NEEDS SLEEP? - In 1997, after a 19-hour day on the set, assistant cameraman Brent Hershman fell asleep behind the wheel, crashed his car, and died. Deeply disturbed by Hershman's preventable death, filmmaker and multiple-Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler shows how sleep deprivation and long work hours are a lethal combination. WHO NEEDS SLEEP? is a commentary on our quality of life.
FOUR DAYS IN CHICAGO - Academy Award-winning filmmaker and lifelong activist Haskell Wexler takes a personal look at Chicago (and its Occupy movement) over four days in May 2012 -- four days filled with politics, protest and police.
HASKELL WEXLER IN PERSON!


THE HOURGLASS SANITORIUM
Wojciech Jerzy Has’s surrealist The Hourglass Sanatorium is a visionary reflection on the nature of time and the irreversibility of death. A young man embarks on a journey to see his dying father and succumbs to a procession of hallucinatory encounters on the grounds of a mystical, dilapidated hospice. The film’s screenplay draws from more than 20 stories by Jewish author Bruno Schulz, one of the most renowned Polish prose stylists of the 20th century. The resulting film is a tour-de-force of atmospherics and otherworldly set design. Reading Schulz’s works through the prism of his death during World War II, Has adds reflections on the Holocaust. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, The Hourglass Sanatorium was described by England’s The Quietus magazine as “an adult Alice in Wonderland…an exploration of waking and dreaming, without the relief of an objective eye to distance the trip.” 1973, 125 minutes, color, DCP | Written by Wojciech Jerzy Has, based on stories by Bruno Schulz; directed by Wojciech Jerzy Has; with Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Irena Orska, Halina Kowalska, Gustaw Holoubek, Mieczyslaw Voit, Bozena Adamek.


Images (1972)
Directed by Robert Altman.
A quiet but volcanic study of a woman’s troubled inner life, this unlikely tale sees children’s author Cathryn (Susannah York) vacationing at an Irish cottage with her husband (Auberjonois), where delirious visions of her past loves, and suggestions of extreme violence, take hold of her consciousness. Externalizing psychological states through cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound design and performance, director Robert Altman refashions standard narration from its usual linear function to a vertiginous spiral. Producer: Tommy Thompson. Screenwriter: Robert Altman. Cinematographer: Vilmos Zsigmond. Editor: Graeme Clifford. Cast: Rene Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi, Hugh Millais, Cathryn Harrison, Susannah York. 35mm, color, 101 min.


INNOCENT SORCERERS
The French New Wave meets postwar Warsaw in this freewheeling boy-meets-girl comedy about a bohemian doctor-cum-jazz-drummer and his long, crazy night with a gamine beauty (Krystyna Stypulkowska in her screen debut). An early Andrzej Wajda gem, Innocent Sorcerers boasts an all-star cast of Polish cinematic luminaries, including Roman Polanski as a squeaky-voiced jazz band leader, Jerzy Skolimowski (also the film’s co-screenwriter) as a disgruntled boxer, Zbigniew Cybulski as an irascible taxi driver, and composer Krzysztof Komeda as, well, himself. A subtle ode to the modern world, with its electric razors, motorscooters and casual sex, Innocent Sorcerers is a fascinating time capsule of a generation.  1960, 88 minutes, black and white, DCP | Written by Jerzy Andrzejewski, Jerzy Skolimowski; directed by Andrzej Wajda; with Tadeusz Lomnicki, Krystyna Stypulkowska, Wanda Koczeska, Kalina Jedrusik, Teresa Szmigielówna, Roman Polanski. 


THE JAIL
Alcoa Premiere: "The Jail"
Directed by Norman Lloyd.
Justice in the not-so-distance future seems like a cruel joke to John Gavin’s disbelieving business man when he’s tried and wrongly convicted of a crime by a bank of computers. But his nightmare doesn’t really begin until he hears the sentence...  Screenwriter: Ray Bradbury.  Cast: John Gavin, Bettye Ackerman, James Barton.  16mm, b/w, 60 min. ABC, 2/6/62


THE JAR
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: "The Jar"
Directed by Norman Lloyd.
Enthralled by its mysterious contents, farmer Charlie Hill buys a strange jar from a carnival sideshow to impress his family and friends back home. The object soon casts its hallucinatory spell over the entire town until some want to make it their own. Screenwriter: James Bridges. Cast: Pat Buttram, Collin Wilcox Paxton, William Marshall. 16mm, b/w, 48 min. CBS, 2/14/64


JOE
1970, Park Circus/MGM, 107 min, USA, Dir: John G. Avildsen
A low-budget indie film shot over a month and a half in the winter of 1970, JOE traces the adversarial relationship between a white-collar father (Dennis Patrick) and his hippie daughter (a debuting Susan Sarandon). After a confrontation with her grungy partner (Patrick McDermott), the traumatized patriarch winds up at a bar, where he befriends working-class Joe (Peter Boyle), who is a fount of caustic barbs against the counterculture. The pair bond and set out on an odyssey that concludes in nightmarish carnage at a rural commune. Re-editing the film around Boyle's performance and even releasing a soundtrack album devoted to his diatribes, original distributor Cannon not only made JOE box-office gold, but turned Boyle himself into a star.


Jump
1965, 105 minutes, black and white, DCP
Written by Tadeusz Konwicki; directed by Tadeusz Konwicki; with Zbigniew Cybulski, Gustaw Holoubek, Marta Lipinska, Irena Laskowska, and Wojciech Siemion
In this Kafkaesque tale, a mysterious stranger, played by popular Polish actor Zbigniew Cybulski, leaps off a moving train and finds himself marooned in an eerie, largely abandoned hamlet that seems to exist between dreams and reality.


LA AIR: HARUKO TANAKA
LA AIR is an artist-in-residence program that invites Los Angeles filmmakers to utilize EPFC resources in creating a new work over a four-week period. Haruko Tanaka’s project The Soroban and the Presentis part soroban (aka abacus) tutorial, part historical account, part freeway numerology, and part dare devil bell ringing adventure with field recordings. It is all love for the city of Los Angeles which, according to the Pythagorean system of numerology, is a “1”—the primal force and number of creation and the most difficult of all lovers. The project explores unseen forces that possibly inform a love/hate/confused relationship to our land and displaced acts of good will and pride, all the while trying to be a more self reliant and sustaining force of analog embodiment.


LA BRUNE ET MOI
Cut Chemist: one of the greatest mixmasters on the planet, a world-class scratch artist, and collaborator with Jurassic 5, Edan, Blackalicious and DJ Shadow. It goes without saying he’s also a LP collector assassin too; amongst the genres through which he loves to crosscut, a big love of Cut’s is crunchy electronic post-punk — so much so that he’s now issued the compilation “Funk Off”, highlighting French minimal synthheads Vox Populi! and Pacific 231 with tracks that originally appeared on their rare ‘80s cassette and vinyl releases. Tonight’s show is a live performance that encompasses all forms of media (vinyl, cassettes and video), along with live delay and loop effects. Here, Cut reunites with longtime collaborator and Cinefamily’s own Tom Fitzgerald, who’ll perform a dense blanket of live visuals along with the music. After the break, it’s La Brune Et Moi: a “lost” film recently re-discovered, and a whizz-bang tour through the Parisian punk underground (circa 1980), starring The Conformist’s Pierre Clementi and featuring energetic Gallic bands like Metal Urbain, the Go-Go Pigalles and Astroflash! Dir. Phillipe Puicouyoul, 1980, digital presentation, 50 min.


Land Without Bread
1933, Buñuel Institute, 30 min.
Originally banned by the Spanish government, Buñuel’s profile of the remote border region of Las Hurdes looks at lives so arduous they border on the absurd. Documentary or mockumentary? See this new director’s cut and judge for yourself. In French with English subtitles. Discussion following "Land Without Bread" with restoration producers.


The Life of Emile Zola
This fictionalized biography of French author and activist Émile Zola (Paul Muni) depicts his friendship with painter Paul Cézanne, his rise to fame with the publication of Nana, and his paramount defense of Alfred Dreyfus—a Jewish officer in the French army unjustly accused of treason.  Directed by William Dieterle. (1937, 116 min. No MPAA rating.)


THE LIFE WORK OF JUAN DIAZ
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: "The Life Work of Juan Diaz"
Directed by Norman Lloyd.
After a dishonest gravedigger exhumes the body of a penniless man, his widow steals his mummified corpses and puts him back to work providing for his family. Screenwriter: Ray Bradbury. Cast: Alejandro Rey, Frank Silvera, Pina Pellicer. 16mm, b/w, 48 min. NBC, 10/16/64


The Lineup
Spun off the 1954-1960 TV cop show of the same title but playing more like Elmore Leonard than Joe Friday, Don Siegel’s 1958 “The Lineup” is vintage film noir enlivened by a dazzling performance by Eli Wallach.  In only his second film performance after an assured debut in “Baby Doll” two years earlier, Wallach plays Dancer, a dapper hitman whose neat appearance masks a loose-cannon temperament that puts the mission — locating a lost dope shipment — in jeopardy.  Robert Keith, one of the unsung character actors of the ’50s (and father of Brian Keith), plays Julian, the brains of the outfit, and Richard Jaeckel, always a valuable supporting player, co-star as their driver.  But this is really Siegel’s show all the way — along with “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “Riot in Cell Block 11,” his finest work of the ’50s and a worthy companion piece to such later genre masterworks as “Madigan,” “The Killers,” “Dirty Harry” and “Charley Varrick.”


Madame Curie
Nominated for seven Academy Awards, Madame Curie follows the famed scientist and her husband down their path towards the discovery of radium. Although their journey is fraught with adversity and skepticism from the scientific community, the scientists are buoyed by their love for one another. But after winning the Nobel Prize, tragedy threatens the progression of their life’s work. Directed by Mervyn Leroy. (1943, 124 min. No MPAA rating.)


Man of Iron
1981, 154 minutes, color, DCP
Written by Aleksander Scibor-Rylski; directed by Andrzej Walda; with Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Krystyna Janda, Marian Opania, Irena Byrska, Boguslaw Linda, Wieslawa Kosmalska, and Franciszek Trzeciak
Andrzej Wajda, Foreign Language Film nominee and winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, examines a shipyard-workers’ strike, which is set during the formative years of Poland’s Solidarity movement. The film includes a brief appearance by future Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa.


Man On A Swing
Fresh off an Oscar win for Cabaret, Joel Grey gives a terrifying, hilarious and inscrutable turn in Man On A Swing, a jewel in the crown of paranoid ‘70s conspiracy thrillers. Odds are good that David Fincher had this gripping film with occult overtones in mind when he made Zodiac, for this true-crime tale is brisk, efficient and all-too-real. When a young woman is discovered smothered to death inside her car at a supermarket parking lot, police chief Cliff Robertson withholds key facts from the press to sift out false leads — and then gets a phone call from Grey, a factory worker who claims to be clairvoyant and who knows an awful lot about the case’s hidden particulars. Grey’s a real wonder to watch here as a sort of jittery, slightly domesticated version of Cabaret’s Emcee. Man On A Swing marked another quirky success for Frank Perry (The Swimmer, Last Summer, Play It As It Lays), one of his era’s most undervalued directors. And, this one may sport a PG rating, but remember — that’s a Seventies PG, which means this is still really creepy, intense stuff. Frank Perry, 1974, digital presentation, 110 min.


MONSIEUR VERDOUX
1947, The Film Desk, 124 min, USA, Dir: Charles Chaplin
This black comedy from writer-director-star Charles Chaplin (based on a premise from Orson Welles) is inspired by the true-life story of bigamist wife-killer Henri Desire Landru, who married wealthy women for their money and then methodically bumped them off. Martha Raye is unforgettable as the woman Verdoux just can’t seem to kill. It was the first time that Chaplin worked with John Gabriel Beckman, who is noted for his extensive career as a set designer, art director, production designer and muralist as well as a World War I fighter pilot. Join us as we celebrate the film legacy of John Gabriel Beckman and examine some of his finest murals created for movie palaces such as Grauman’s Chinese Theater and the Avalon Ballroom in Catalina. Program moderated by production designer Thomas A. Walsh.


MORE THAN THE RAINBOW
After three decades turning his lens on New York City, taxi driver turned street photographer Matt Weber has seen it all. MORE THAN THE RAINBOW not only chronicles the life and times of Weber, but becomes a vibrant conversation about the photographic medium, artistic expression, and New York City. There is no telling how many stories Weber has attempted to capture since he first started taking pictures out of the window of the cab he used to drive. But his quarter century-plus devotion to candidly depicting the lives of his fellow New Yorkers, many of them from the fringes of society, has yielded a remarkable document of a New York that most of us will never experience.
Shot partially in gorgeous 35mm and largely scored to the music of Thelonious Monk, MORE THAN THE RAINBOW interweaves verité, still photography and revealing interviews with Weber and fellow photographers like Ralph Gibson, Zoe Strauss, and Eric Kroll, as well as designer Todd Oldham to create an evocative documentary that is a poetic celebration of New York City and the individuals who walk its streets.


Mother Joan of the Angels
A virtuous, young priest is sent to a remote convent to investigate an outbreak of demonic possession — “a devil among the maidens”— that has left his predecessor burnt at the stake. A chamber drama worthy of Dreyer or Bergman,  Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s spellbinding film  traces the struggle between the calmly righteous exorcist and his slippery target, Mother Joan (Night Train’s Lucyna Winnicka), who claims to have eight demons raging within her. As the priest embarks on a struggle against the forces of darkness, he is faced with the choice of sacrificing his own purity and saving the convent from evil. This conflict is given a visual analogue in the elegant contrasts of black and white by cinematographer Jerzy Wójcik (Ashes and Diamonds). Drawing from the same 17th-century records that inspired Aldous Huxley’s book The Devils of Loudun and subsequently Ken Russell’s film The Devils, Mother Joan of the Angels is an ethereal study of faith, sin and redemption. 1961, 111 minutes, black and white, DCP | Written by Tadeusz Konwicki, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, based on the novel by Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz; directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz; with Lucyna Winnicka, Mieczyslaw Voit, Anna Ciepielewska, Maria Chwalibog, Kazimierz Fabisiak, Stanislaw Jasiukiewicz.


Nadro
Nadro is a full-length documentary film about the late Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, an artist/writer/sage of the Bété tribe from the Ivory Coast. Bruly Bouabré was discovered twenty-five years ago by the Georges Pompidou Center and has since exhibited all over the world. Now famous for his postcard-size drawings, Bruly Bouabré was not only an artist; he was a mystic, poet, storyteller, ethnologist, scholar, political commentator and humanist.
Perhaps Bouabré’s most important achievement was his creation of an astonishing new African alphabet, a rebellious political gesture. This alphabet has become famous outside of Ivory Coast, but his mission met resistance in this former French colony, where only French is taught in the schools and the Ministry of French Culture still exerts a dominating influence. Running time: 78 minutes. In French, with English subtitles. Written and Directed by Ivana Massetti. Produced by Ivana Massetti and Jon Sperry. Followed by a Q&A with Ivana Massetti and Jon Sperry.


NEW WORKS SALON
The New Works Salons series is a casual forum for the presentation and discussion of new works in film and video, with local and visiting artists in-person to introduce their work. William E. Jones will show his brand new standard definition video Psychic Driving (2014, 14 minutes, video), about CIA mind control experiments. Edgar Jorge will show his Instructions for Staring at the Mirror (2014, 24 minutes, 16mm). Rigid ways of understanding home, identity and place are destabilized into temporary forms to reshape Southern California as a stage where childhood memories from my home country, Venezuela, resurface. And Mike Stoltz will show a brand new 16mm film.


NIGHT MOVES
"A disquietingly beautiful, deeply intelligent thriller about radical activism and its consequences - both material and moral - in 21st century America." —Jon Frosch, The Atlantic
NIGHT MOVES, the fifth feature film from acclaimed filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, is the story of three radical environmentalists coming together to execute the most intense protest of their lives: the explosion of a hydroelectric dam—the very source and symbol of the energy-sucking, resource-devouring industrial culture they despise.
Harmon is a former Marine, radicalized by tours of duty overseas. His life in the military is behind him, but at heart he remains the same reckless alpha male he always was, eager for adventure, excited by the prospect of mayhem and destruction.
Dena is a high society dropout, sickened by the consumer economy into which she was born. She’s moved west and cut ties with her family, edging ever deeper into radical politics.
And Josh, their leader, is a self-made militant, devoted to the protection of the Earth by any means necessary. A son of the middle class who works on an organic farm, he’s an intensely private person by nature and may have the deepest convictions of them all.
NIGHT MOVES is a tale of suspense and a meditation on the consequences of political extremism. When do legitimate convictions truly demand illegal behaviors? What happens to a person’s idealism when they find their back against the wall? —Cinedigm
112 MIN / USA / COLOR / 2013 / DIGITAL PROJECTION / ENGLISH / CINEDIGM


NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE
As mysterious, beautiful and otherworldly as she was in Zulawski’s Possession, Isabelle Adjani stars with Klaus Kinski as the galvanizing pair in this masterful re-invention of Murnau’s 1922 silent. It’s hard to remember a time when Werner Herzog didn’t belong to the whole world, but rather was merely an unofficial spearhead of the “New German Cinema”, along with Wenders and Fassbinder. That time officially ended in 1979, as the sweepingly beautiful, archly expressionistic Nosferatu The Vampyre became Herzog’s first film Hollywood backing and an international cast. Here, he re-invents many of Murnau’s signature moments, but with an emphasis on the stretching of time to a bizarre, hallucinatory stroll, as if we are inside Dracula’s syrupy, centuries-old field of vision. Amongst this heightened setting, Kinski is pitch-perfect as the rat-like, pale demon — and Adjani is electric, adding an extra hypnotic/iconic dimension to an already mythic re-telling of the Bram Stoker tale. Come breathe in a brand-new 35mm print of the film’s German-language version (produced simultaneously with the English version, and unseen theatrically on these shores!) Dir. Werner Herzog, 1979, 35mm, 107 min. WERNER HERZOG IN PERSON (5/16 screening only).


OMADOX
Echo Park Film Center graduate James Noel presents the premiere of his second feature, the experimental mystery Omadox, filmed in glorious black and white. The Omadox Helium Corporation is facing a schism. Filmmaker Thomas Spoon, documenting the looming dissolution of the hallowed company, uncovers ever more baffling secrets and lies. Also, fish. The cast includes Edward Bolman, Jerry Sims, Cat Noel, John Fleck (True Blood, Weeds, Howard the Duck, Waterworld), 1960s child actor, and director of Radio Free Joshua Tree, Teddy Quinn (General Hospital, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken), Steve Moramarco (The Abe Lincoln Story), and Janet Housden (Redd Kross drummer, and star of Desperate Teenage Love Dolls). James wrote, directed, photographed, and edited the film, as well as executing the original paintings, and composing and performing the multitracked keyboard and saxophone score. Theme song by Buzzsaw and the Shavings.


THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY
(LE FANTÔME DE LA LIBERTÉ)
1974, Rialto Pictures, 104 min, France/Italy, Dir: Luis Buñuel
Surreal even by Buñuel standards, this loosely connected series of Monty Pythonesque sketches thumbs its nose at the conventions of storytelling as well as those of bourgeois society. Buñuel and co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière dream up dirty pictures of French architecture, poker-playing monks, celebrity snipers, fox-hunting tanks and more, setting the table for a banquet of free-wheeling satire. In French with English subtitles.


Pharaoh
1966, 153 minutes, color, DCP
Written by Tadeusz Konwicki, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, based on the novel by Boleslaw Prus; directed by Jerzy Kawelrowicz; with Jerzy Zelnik, Wieslawa Mazurkiewicz, Barbara Brylska, Krystyna Mikolajewska, Ewa Krzyzewska, and Piotr Pawlowski
Filmed extensively on location in Uzbekistan and Egypt with a cast of thousands, Pharaoh, a Foreign Language Film nominee, delves into the brief and tumultuous reign of Ramses XIII during the 12th-century B.C.


Precious Blood (1982)
Directed by Robert Altman.
Filmmaker Robert Altman renewed an early-career commitment to live theater in the mid-1980s, directing plays for the Los Angeles stage, and adapting some works (including Precious Blood) into features or for broadcast.  This intense, two-character play, with subtle uses of lighting, camera and music, concerns a white man and a black woman whose lives never intersected, except perhaps around one traumatic story that each one relates separately.  Screenwriter: Frank South. Cast: Guy Boyd, Alfre Woodard. Digital video, color, 60 min.


THE PRIEST’S CHILDREN
(SVECENIKOVA DJECA)
2013, InterFilm, 93 min, Croatia, Dir: Vinko Bresan
Catholic priest Don Fabijan (Kresimir Mikic) is distressed to see his island parish shrinking in population, so he enlists a condom vendor (Niksa Butijer) and a pharmacist (Drazen Kuhn) to sabotage birth control methods - a plan that produces quite a few unintended complications. Working with frequent collaborators including writer-composer Mate Matisic, director Vinko Bresan handles a touchy subject with humor that shifts from whimsical to sardonic, making this comedic cautionary tale one of the year’s biggest box office hits in Croatia. In Croatian with English subtitles. Discussion following with actor Niksa Butijer. Evening concludes with dessert reception for all ticket holders. 


The Promised Land
In turn-of-the-century Lodz, three friends — a Polish nobleman, Karol Borowiecki; a German, Max Baum; and a Jew, Moritz Welt — shrink from nothing, including treachery and fraud, to build an industrial empire. In the footsteps of Dickens, writer-director Andrzej Wajda paints a bleak, sprawling picture of a chaotic city littered with dangerous factories and a maelstrom of conflicting cultures and classes. Based on the novel by Nobel Laureate Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont, Wajda’s lavish production masterfully melds the luxurious and the brutal. As his ruthless business tactics and an ill-fated affair leave Borowiecki with a fateful choice — either change his ways or sacrifice all compassion in order to protect his financial capital — Wajda’s film joins the ranks of darkly grand masterworks by Visconti and Ophüls. The Promised Land was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won numerous prizes including the Grand Prix Golden Lion from the Polish Film Festival. 1975, 170 minutes, color, DCP. Written by Andrzej Wajda, based on the novel by Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont; directed by Andrzej Wajda; with Daniel Olbrychski, Wojciech Pszoniak, Andrzej Seweryn, Anna Nehrebecka, Tadeusz Bialoszczynski, Bozena Dykiel. 


PXL THIS 23
PXL THIS celebrates its 23rd year of creative filmmaking by everyone from kids to professionals, and the 50th anniversary of the audio cassette. One of the most unique film festivals ever, PXL THIS has been attended by Oliver Stone, Daryl Hannah, Kim Fowley among many more. Pixelvision has even made it onto the big screen via Richard Linklater (Slacker), Michael Almereyda (Nadja, produced by David Lynch) and Craig Baldwin (Sonic Outlaws). The irresistible irony of the PXL 2000 is that the camera's ease-of-use and affordability, which entirely democratizes movie-making, has inspired the creation of some of the most visionary, avant and luminous film of our time. This edition of the festival features work by Ruby Qi Tondelli, Andy Bustin, L. M. Sabo, Clint Enns, Chester Burnett, Kalynn Campbell, Will Erokan, Marc Bascougnano, Rey Wolf, Joe Nucci, Marvin Choi, The Here & Now (Paolo Davanzo & Lisa Marr), Clifford Novey, Gerry Fialka, Bruce Atchison, Paul Orso, Shirley Vernales, Jonathan Menchin, Ralph Loynachan, Wrasslin’ Poodles, Joseph Weidinger, Denny Moynahan, Phil Marion, Doug Ing, Rex Butters & Paulie Dee, Tad Dery, Sunny War, Nick Newlin, Julien Mangogna, Chris Westhoff, Geoff Seelinger, and tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE. PXL THIS curator Gerry Fialka in person! “PXL THIS never fails to stimulate its audience into a churning state of passionate intellectual arousal, and while it's gained an international flair, at its core the festival is genuine California culture at its marvelous best.” –Jonny Whiteside, LA Weekly.


THE RETRIEVAL
1864: as war ravages the nation, on the outskirts of the Civil War business as usual continues for slave-owners and traders. The Retrieval follows Will, a fatherless 13 year-old boy, who survives by working with a white bounty hunter gang who sends him to earn the trust of runaway slaves and wanted freed men in order to lure them back to the South. On a dangerous mission into the free North to find Nate, a fugitive freedman, things go wrong, and Will and Nate find themselves alone and on the run. As the bond between them unexpectedly grows, Will becomes consumed by conflicting emotions as he faces a gut-wrenching final decision: to betray the father figure he’s finally found, or risk being killed by his gang. Thrilling, but grounded in historical research,The Retrieval serves as an insight into the little-told story of the grey area between slavery and emancipation,and the horrific moral dilemma that comes with being forced to betray your fellow man. SXSW Winner: Special Jury Prize for Acting


Robert Altman's Jazz '34 (1997)
Directed by Robert Altman.
A group of top-flight musicians re-create the sounds of Kansas City’s heady jazz scene of the 1930s, including a historic recreation of the “battle of the saxes” between Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young.  Screenwriter: Robert Altman. Cast: James Carter, Craig Handy, David Murray, Russell Malone, Harry Belafonte (narrator). 35mm, color, 72 min. 


THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN
1958, 20th Century Fox, 121 min, USA, Dir: John Huston
The endangered African elephant is the “root of Heaven” in this prescient look at an idealist (Trevor Howard) trying to save a species from extinction. Romain Gary’s nuanced script, adapted from his novel, has a field day with the varied characters who hope to use the crusading conservationist to advance their own agendas. Errol Flynn, Eddie Albert and Orson Welles are among the star-studded cast (who battled withering heat during the film’s location shoot). Screening format: 35mm


THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT
“I saw the film three times, which, in my case, is absolutely exceptional.” — Luis Buñuel
Coppola, Scorsese, von Trier and Lynch have all publicly proclaimed their love for this sprawling meditation on the very essence of storytelling — and it’s easy to see why, for The Saragossa Manuscript is truly a “filmmaker’s film.” It’s a joyful Polish version of a Russian doll, an interlocking dose of meta-meta-narrative: during the Napoleonic Wars, two enemy soldiers stumble across a captivating book that tells of an earlier soldier’s trip down a magical realism rabbit hole. Inside that story, another flashback is told and so on, until the viewer is on an intertwining helix of absurd and whimsical proportions. Director Wojciech Has revels in the grounded Gothic iconography at hand (supernatural gypsies, potions drunk from skulls, mysterious lynchings, Satanic panic) while emotionally lifting the viewer one more layer off the ground with each passing step through this mystic, mythic and miraculous Möbius strip. Dir. Wojciech Jerzy Has, 1965, DCP, 185 min.


SAVE THE TIGER
1973, Paramount, 100 min, USA, Dir: John G. Avildsen
Los Angeles garment businessman Jack Lemmon suffers a devastating intersection of midlife crisis and disillusionment with what he sees as moral decline in changing times. His deepening trauma pushes him to the edge as he considers desperate and illegal measures to salvage his tanking fashion enterprise. Lemmon won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. Co-starring Jack Gilford, Patricia Smith. “…a virtuoso piece of movie acting. Jack Lemmon holds the movie together by the sheer force of his performance as Harry; he makes this character so convincing that we're fascinated…” - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times.


Secret Honor (1984)
Director Robert Altman brilliantly adapted this cyclonic, one-man play after having seen it performed live by Philip Baker Hall, who ferociously depicts ex-President Nixon narrating a defense of his presidency to a tape recorder.  Theorizing a deeper stratum of evil than a Watergate-obsessed press and public ever suspected, the fictional Nixon builds a case for his “secret” honor, and expresses disdain for the suckers who elected him in the first place. Sandcastle 5 Productions. Producer: Robert Altman. Screenwriter: Donald Freed, Arnold M. Stone. Based on the play by Donald Freed, Arnold M. Stone. Cinematographer: Pierre Mignot. Editor: Juliet Weber. Cast: Philip Baker Hall. 35mm, color, 90 min.


A Short Film About Killing
On a grey March day, the paths of three men cross in the same cafe as idealistic lawyer Piotr celebrates passing his bar exam while 20-year-old Jacek prepares to murder cabbie Marian. Krzysztof Kieslowski’s unflinching film is a psychological and ethical study of murder, both by individuals and by the State. “A horror film in which the killer is human nature itself,” per critic Rob Nelson, A Short Film about Killing employs Slawomir Idziak’s meticulous, heavily filtered cinematography to accentuate its grim ambience. A dual prize winner at Cannes, A Short Film about Killing expanded on a chapter of Kieslowski’s acclaimed Decalogue series and opened the door to an international career for the director that included works such as The Double Life of Veronique and the Three Colors trilogy. 1988, 86 minutes, color, DCP. Written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz , Krzysztof Kieslowski; directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski; with Miroslaw Baka, Krzysztof Globisz, Jan Tesarz, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Barbara Dziekan, Aleksander Bednarz.


Silent Comedy Revue
Presented by Retro Format Films on 8mm
We take a break from our ongoing D.W. Griffith retrospective to present a night of all-star silent comedy shorts, featuring Harry Langdon, Larry Semon, Gloria Swanson, Bobby Vernon and many more, including episodes from THE WOMAN IN GREY (1919) and an ultra-rare screening of Mickey Rooney in “Mickey's Movies” from 1926! With live piano accompaniment by Cliff Retallick. 120 min.


SPACEDISCO ONE
2007, 58 min, USA, Dir: Damon Packard
In this sequel of sorts to both LOGAN’S RUN and 1984, George Orwell's Winston Smith runs into the daughters of Logan 5 and Francis 7 as they're busy running amok in a park, shooting laser beams at one another. A roller-skating rink in space, “Battlestar Galactica” references and a Ministry of Truth (also known as Universal CityWalk) are all part of this psychedelic sci-fi odyssey.


Still Lives and Gradual Speed
Filmmaker Julie Murray (last hosted at Filmforum in 2010) was invited by us to curate a show for Filmforum, and here it is!  Featuring the Los Angeles premiere of Els van Riel’s Gradual Speed, combined with some classic works by Chris Marker and Bruce Baillie that we hope will provoke a conversation.
Julie Murray is an Irish born artist and filmmaker making experimental films and videos in the US. Currently an adjunct professor at Cal Arts, her films include CONSCIOUS (1993), MICROMOTH. (2000), ORCHARD (2003), DETROIT PARK (2004), DELIQUIUM (2004), ELEMENTS (2008), YSBRYD (2008), and DISTANCE (2010).


The Story of Alexander Graham Bell
When Alexander Graham Bell’s new invention—the telephone—garners the attention of Queen Victoria, he is assured success. But not without some resistance from a competing company backed by Western Union. Starring Don Ameche, Henry Fonda, and Charles Coburn. Directed by Irving Cummings. (1939, 98 min. No MPAA rating.)


SUSPICION
1941, Warner Bros., 99 min, USA, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock’s technique takes a huge leap forward with this extremely unsettling piece of "escapist" entertainment. Young wife Joan Fontaine suspects that husband Cary Grant is trying to kill her, and the question of whether she’s prescient or paranoid dominates the film. Throughout the movie Hitchcock toys with our assumptions, a conceit that works thanks to Grant’s astonishing performance (one of the best of his career). Without resorting to gimmicks or dishonesty, Grant convincingly plays the husband in a manner that makes both his guilt and his innocence equally valid possibilities, and Hitchcock adds to the overall sense of menace with subtle visual devices (he rarely shows Grant actually walking into a shot, for example - he always seems to magically appear like a ghost). The studio-imposed finale has divided Hitchcock fans on SUSPICION’s merits, but Grant’s consummate professionalism allows Hitch to pull off the last-minute reversal.


SWEET BLUES: A Film About Mike Bloomfield
Filmmaker Bob Sarles (in person) together with his longtime partner Christina Keating, through their production company Ravin’ Films, have produced documentary and concert films about artists including Jefferson Airplane, John Lee Hooker, Dr. John, Phil Lesh, Otis Redding, Buddy Guy, Stax Records and the psychedelic music era for clients including The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Stax Museum of American Soul Music, VH1, Columbia Records, Time Life and PBS.  They are currently in production on a documentary film about American satirist and counter culture hero Paul Krassner.  We will be presenting their latest film about the late great blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield as well as some choice nuggets from their extensive body of music related films.


That Cold Day in the Park (1969)
Directed by Robert Altman.
Robert Altman’s second theatrical feature was the first to suggest his original, iconoclastic wit. The study of a lonesome woman (a haunting Sandy Dennis) and the young man (Michael Burns) she literally brings in from the cold, the film hints at the sexlessness and soullessness of the bourgeoisie, before going on to make the same point quite directly in a shocking finale.  Factor-Altman-Mirell Films. Producer: Donald Factor, Leon Mirell. Screenwriter: Gillian Freeman. Cinematographer: Laszlo Kovacs. Editor: Danford B. Greene. Cast: Sandy Dennis, Michael Burns, Susanne Benton. 35mm, color, 112 min.


TOPAZ
1969, Universal, 143 min, US, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Director Alfred Hitchcock delves deeper into the world of Cold War espionage he’d plumbed in TORN CURTAIN, adapting this thriller from Leon Uris’ fact-based novel about the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. When a defector reveals the Soviet plan to install nuclear missiles in Cuba, the CIA turns to French spy André Devereaux (Frederick Stafford) to gather intelligence. Complicating his work is a cadre of French double-agents codenamed “Topaz.” With Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret.


The Traveler
(Mossafer)
Many of the qualities of director Abbas Kiarostami’s mature work were powerfully present at the beginning of his career, as well.  Case in point, his second feature, The Traveler, a bittersweet, deeply humanist story about a young boy from the countryside determined to see his favorite soccer team play in Tehran.  Screenwriter: Abbas Kiarostami. Cinematographer: Firooz Malekzadeh. Cast: Hassan Darabi, Masud Zandbegleh. 35mm, b/w, in Persian with English subtitles, 83 min. (Iran, 1974)


TRISTANA
1970, Cohen Film, 95 min, Spain, Dir: Luis Buñuel
Catherine Deneuve is at her best as the title character, an orphan left in the care of libertine aristocrat Don Lope (Fernando Rey), who seduces the woman, setting her on a path to bitterness and manipulation. Playing upon a reversal of audience sympathy, TRISTANA is among the most powerful portraits of lost innocence, one of Buñuel’s favorite themes (the film also makes striking use of a favorite Buñuel technique, the dream sequence). In Spanish with English subtitles.


WELCOME, SPACE BROTHERS: AN INTRO TO UNARIUS
The Unarius Brotherhood were on a radical mission from the late-‘70s to the mid-‘80s: to spread their “interdimensional science of life” and the principles of reincarnation to the masses via some of most wildly inventive, waaaaay outside-the-box public access TV programming in America. Their cosmic leader, the exuberant septuagenarian Ruth Norman (aka Archangel Uriel), an advanced clairvoyant with a fondness for glittery dresses, rainbow capes and benevolent aliens, permanently altered the minds of tens of thousands across the country — from late-night stoners to seekers leaving behind their lives in order to move to El Cajon, CA, and join the cause.
As part of their outreach, the Unarians created elaborate psychodramatic “documentaries” for the purpose of spiritual healing: films of Uriel and the students channeling and re-enacting their previous lives together on Earth and other planets, no matter how debauched or outlandish — for spiritual healing. Utilizing otherworldly costumes and makeup, guerilla location-filming techniques, elaborate sets and ingenious no-budget special effects, this ambitious collective produced a legacy of some of the most mind-shattering, oddly uplifting gems of American outsider cinema. Bootlegged and coveted by collectors for decades, these films have never before been presented as works on the large screen — until now.
The key to the fourth dimension…is in San Diego. Jodi Wille (director of the recent documentary The Source Family, and curator of the forthcoming American Visionary Art Museum exhibition “The Visionary State”) joins Cinefamily for a sweeping overview of The Unarius Academy of Science: the long-running cosmic collective dedicated to the recovery of past lives, connection with space brethren and the advancement of inter-dimensional awareness. As the far-out favorites of fans of cable-TV public access (the main medium through which Unarius has spread its message), tonight we celebrate the Academy and the legacy of its extraordinary visionary leader Archangel Uriel (aka Ruth Norman), with a massive multimedia presentation via rare photos, video, Unariun artwork, and personal testimonials. And, we’ll also view in its entirety the 1977 Unarian Super-8 opus A Visit To The Underground Cities of Mars, made before NASA’s Viking spacecraft touched down on the Red Planet. Featuring live Q&A appearance by Unarius members — plus, stick around for our back patio afterparty, with a Unarius costume display, vintage artwork, a Tesla coil demonstration and more!