Last night I saw one of the fabulous double bills in the Academy’s series This Is Widescreen.Director of programming Bernardo Brondeau continues to throw down amusing, amazing film events (as he did at LACMA). What fun he has, and provides to us, roaming though the history of film.Be advised the pre-show programming is worth the price of admission. Don’t come late!This is Widescreen Shoot the Piano PlayerShoot the Piano Player / LolaLinwood Dunn TheaterPickford Center, 1313 Vine StreetHollywood, CA 90028Get DirectionsShare TwitterFacebookTHIS IS WIDESCREEN Shoot the Piano PlayerThursday, May 21 | 7:30 P.M.Writer-director François Truffaut second film ‘Tirez sur le pianist”…
Author: Robin Menken
The First Hollywood Festival Of the Best Of Ukrainian Films opens Friday May 8 and runs through Thursday, May 14 at the Laemmle Music Hall.Anatoly Fradis, Los Angeles- based Ukrainian producer and long-time promoter of Eastern European cinema conceived of this historic festival; the first local survey of classic Ukrainian films from the Soviet era thorough the present. It’s a page torn from World headlines; as Ukrainians face a Frankenstein annexation of the Crimea. Putin’s neo-colonialist imperialist designs backed separatist rebellions in two of Ukraine’s easternmost provinces, Lugansk and Donetsk. Putin’s wars of expansion continue despite ceasefires and Western governments…
LAAPFF, California’s premiere festival featuring films of the Asian Pacific region and diaspora returns, celebrating it’s 31’st year! Visual Communications (VC), the nation’s most influential Asian Pacific American media arts center, announced its program of outstanding films for the upcoming 31st edition of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) running April 23-30, 2015. This annual film celebration will be presented across Los Angeles from Little Tokyo to the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles to Koreatown and to West Hollywood featuring 134 films from over 20 countries. VC proudly celebrates 31 years as Southern California’s largest and most…
The 13th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) returns to ArcLight Hollywood in Los Angeles, the festival’s home since its inception. IFFLA is widely recognized as the premiere showcase for groundbreaking Indian cinema globally.Celebrating its 13th year, the fest opens on April 8 with Red Carpet Gala and the world premiere of HARAAMKHOR, written and directed by Shlok Sharma and starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Nagesh Kukunoor’s award-winning DHANAK (RAINBOW) will close the festival with its US premiere. Sharma and Kukunoor will be in attendance along with the star and producer of HARAAMKHOR – Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Guneet Monga.Nagesh Kukunoor’s…
MHz Home Entertainment new release of “Unit One: Series 1, 2 & 3” brings American lovers of Nordic Noir the first three (and best) seasons of “Unit One:” (Rejseholdet), the ground-breaking Danish crime thriller that won an International Emmy Award for Best Drama Series in 2002 and rocketed Danish television into the international spotlight.Unit One follows an elite police force (a flying squad) sent around Denmark to help local police forces with various cases, brutal crimes drawn from the headlinesMany of the episodes were inspired by real events. Sordid cases include child abuse, pornography and pedophilia, murders, cross-border sex traffic,…
Scandinavian films have never been better. Denmark’s product has thrilled festival goers for over a decade, i.e.: Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Hunt”, Nikolaj Arcel’s “A Royal Affair”, Tobias Lindholm’s “A Hijacking” (all 2012), Henrik Ruben Genz’s mordant “Terribly Happy” (2008) and Susan Bier’s “After The Wedding” (2006). One by one these directors have begun making English language films, often migrating to Hollywood.Danish television, however is in a Golden Age of genre thrillers like “The Killing”, “The Bridge/Bron” and “Those Who Kill”. Now MHz Home Entertainment has released “Borgen: The Complete Series” and “Unit One: Series 1, 2 & 3” both riveting…
Gregory J. Markopoulos was one of the most original filmmakers to emerge in post-war American cinema. His films, which often translated literary or mythological sources to a contemporary context, are celebrated for their extraordinary creativity, the sensuous use of color and innovations in cinematic form. A contemporary of Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger and Jonas Mekas, Markopoulos was amongst those at the forefront of a generation that liberated cinema by developing new modes of expression. Having made his first 16mm film (Psyche) in 1947, he went on to produce several key works of the avant-garde such as Twice a Man (1963)…
AMPAS: The Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts And Sciences will highlight the work of groundbreaking documentarians in their upcoming Film Scholars Lecture. Hear Academy Film Scholar Scott MacDonald talk about his book American Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary: The Cambridge Turn which examines the influential work of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based documentary filmmakers like John Marshall, Robert Gardner, Timothy Asch, Ed Pincus, Alfred Guzzetti, Ross McElwee, Steve Ascher and Jeanne Jordan, and Robb Moss. Academy Film Scholar Scott MacDonald will give a presentation on his book American Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary: The Cambridge Turn, examining a half-century of pioneering work by…
‘”The Day Shall Declare It”. Call me spoiled, but in my day theatre was about big ideas, philosophical, political and ethical ideas, and in the hands of the best playwrights, it offered poetic language, For the last few decades, theatre seems to veer between sitcoms scripts and pretentious post modern mash-ups. My problem with many dramaturge driven postmodern pieces is the lack of context; now more than ever we need history lessons and social context. Taken out of context, ideas lose their bite, actions loose their consequences, dramas lose their ability to move us through identification, and theatre loses its…
Jayme Monjardim’s “Olga” kicks off the Skirball’s annual film series Mantener la Fe (Keep the Faith). This series of Latin Jewish films from four different countries explores the resilience of the human spirit and the conviction to stand by one’s beliefs, even in the most adverse circumstances.Olga, Wednesday, March 11, 8:00 p.m.Jayme Monjardim’s Olga is based on the life of German Jewish activist Olga Benário Prestes, wife of revolutionary leader Luís Carlos Prestes.Persecuted in Germany for her Communist affiliations, Olga went on to become a security escort for Prestes during his attempt to lead a Communist coup in Brazil in…