Lunched in 2009 by the organizers of the much missed Silverlake Film Festival (2000-2007 R.I.P.) The Downtown Film Festival celebrates its Los Angeles location, bringing an independent spirit to the burgeoning downtown cultural scenes. Its home base is the historic Downtown Independent Theatre, on the site of the former revue, burley and vaudeville houses The Arrow, The Aztec (presenting the greatest Mexican stage and film stars of the 40’s) and the Linda Lea Theater at 251 South Main Street. The beautiful stadium seating auditorium and roof garden are operated by Downtown Independent.“Downtown Film Festival L.A. reflects the independent side of…
Author: Robin Menken
Robin Menken
Robin Menken Robin Menken lives in Los Angeles. She was the Artistic Director of the Second City Workshops, taught at UC Berkeley, USC, Barcelona\'s Ateneu and the Esalin Institute. She was Roberto Rossellini\'s assistant, and worked with Yevgeny Vevteshenku, Glauber Rocha and Eugene Ionesco. She sold numerous screenplays and wrote the OBIE winning The FTA SHow (touring with Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and Ben Vereen.) She was a programming consultant and Special Events co-ordinator for numerous film festivals, including the SF, Rio, Havana and N.Y Film Festivals. Her first news outlet was the historic East Village Other.
Director Daisy von Scherler Mayer, the granddaughter of Golden Age screenwriter Edwin Justus Mayer (author of such screwball fancies as Leisen’s “Midnight” and both versions of “To be Or Not To Be”) directed “party Girls” and “The Guru” as well as countless TV episodes. Here she gives nuance to the many female characters in :Neil LaBute’s play turned film.La Bute is a dramatist who specializes in misogyny. I haven’t followed his later works, but this script seems like it’s coasting on his early revelatory style: as if he’s codified his world weary disgust into some over-practiced lexicon.In Some Girls, a…
I’ve never seen a bad Melville picture. Even this last feature, saddled with several unfortunate exterior sets and a train heist shot in miniatures that hasn’t aged well, has one of the most beautiful set piece’s Melville ever conceived.Melville transformed the American Crime Film into a uniquely stylish series of existential crime and police procedurals. Every iconic American cliché is retooled as a stylized signifier. And plenty of Americans borrowed back. I’m guessing Michael Mann’s “Heat” is a version of “Un Flic” (Filmed in 1972, it was finally released in the U.S as “Dirty Money” in 1979.) Walter Hill, Scorcese…
Brazilian Nites Productions, presenters of the top Brazilian musical talent since 1989, introduces The Brazilian Nites Summer Series, a collection of concerts featuring some of the most celebrated Brazilian artists of the decade, including Latin Grammy Nominees, a classically trained Jazz master, a world renowned Sambista and scintillating Samba Dancers. This unique concert is A MUST SEE for lovers of Brazilian Cinema and Brazilian Popular Music. The Brazilian Nites Summer Series begins with the acclaimed Pop music artist Ana Carolina on June 30 at The Montalban Theatre, as part of Carolina’s “Greatest Hits” US Tour. This platinum selling artist has recorded…
In December 2008, President George W. Bush was winding down his presidency. An illegal, last minute Bureau of Land Management auction of Oil and Gas leases on land parcels in Utah was underway.University of Utah economics student and climate-change activist Tim DeChristopher was participating in a peaceful protest against the fossil fuel industry. He was handed a paddle (Bidder 70). In a spontaneous inspired act of civil disobedience DeChristopher bid $1.7 million, winning 12 parcels- 22,000 acres of land in southern Utah. He saved acres of pristine Utah wilderness surrounding Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. He had no intention of…
In “Abigail Harm”, Korean-American Lee Isaac Chung (“Munyurangabo”) has adapted a Korean fairy tale “The Woodcutter, the Deer and the Nymph,” as a minimalist Manhatten meditation on urban loneliness. Shy, isolated Abigail Harm (Amanda Plummer) reads to the blind. Apparently that’s the extent of intimacy love-blocked Abigail can handle. She’s unable to make eye contact, nor can she visit her dying father. With her poignant face, softly weathered like an old sheet, Plummer inhabits all the crevices of the character, seemingly written for her nuanced performance.Chung’s fable begins with our heroine reading Alice In Wonderland to a blind man. She…
The Hola Mexico Festival (formerly the “Hola Mexico Film Festival”), which has moved to a new home at LA LIVE, will host three separate but complimentary components: The Hola Mexico Film Festival presented by DishLATINO; the Hola Mexico Food Festival, which will feature a live cooking extravaganza with five renowned chefs from Mexico; and at the intersection of film and music, the Hola Mexico Music Festival will showcase music themed documentary films featuring the alternative rock ban Molotov and Cumbia music leading man Celso Piña. Live concerts by Celso Piña, La Misa Negra, Fernanda Ulibarri, Chicano Batman and Raul y…
The 9th Annual Japan Film Festival returns to the Southland, with venues and events In Los Angeles, Torrance El Segundo and Santa Ana. The Japan Film Festival – Los Angeles originally started out in 2003 as the Chanoma Film Festival, and has been a vanguard event dedicated to strengthening the general understanding of Japanese culture by providing American and Japanese audiences in Los Angeles cutting‐edge, original films depicting authentic representations of contemporary Japan.This festival was originally based on the theme of “Chanoma” – a family gathering place in the living room, and showcased heart warming films that portray the everyday…
THE PAW PROJECT, by filmmaker Dr. Jennifer Conrad, is an important film; where one woman is taking a stand, facing legislature and politics in order to protect those who do not have a voice. This inspiring documentary follows the ‘David and ‘Goliath story of a grassroots movement to protect felines, both large and small, from the cruelty of declawing and how the movement has prevailed, despite the efforts of well-funded professional veterinary associations.THE PAW PROJECT takes us inside the issue. Sharing testimony from industry professionals and pet-owners alike, THE PAW PROJECT examines the emotional and physical cost that a cat…
Visual Communications (VC), the nation’s premier Asian Pacific American media arts center, announced its program of outstanding films for the upcoming 29th edition of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) beginning May 2, 2013 at the Director’s Guild of America (DGA), CGV Cinemas located in Koreatown, the Tateuchi Democracy Forum at NCPD in Little Tokyo, and the historic Art Theatre of Long Beach. Southern California’s Largest Asian Pacific Film Festival Runs May 2 – 12, 2013. Presenting the best films from over 20 countries featuring World Premieres, Sneak Previews; Showcasing Documentaries and Narratives focusing on the voices of…