Lee Ranaldo, Ulrich Krieger & Alan Licht score the films of Stan Brakhage live @ CINEFAMILY on Wednesday, March 10th.

Blast Phemy! 2:

Text Of Light feat. Lee Ranaldo

Join Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo, collaborating live with saxophonist Ulrich Krieger and guitarist Alan Licht, as he goes to the blasphemous extreme with live scores to the films of Stan Brakhage and other mid-century American cinema avant-gardists. According to Licht, Text of Light "does not perform soundtracks to the films of Stan Brakhage. Rather, it uses the films as a further element for improvisation, almost as [another] performer. While Brakhage intended for these films to be screened silently as films...[here] they are juxtaposed with the music, in a kind of real-time performance, mixed-media collage." But the evening doesn't stop there! The night also includes a screening of Parallel, an animation tour-de-force by mediamaker Huckleberry Lain, featuring music by Argentinean-born, L.A.-based electronic duo Languis.

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Maurice Sendak Tribute @ CINEFAMILY Tomorrow Night

In 1963, with just 10 short sentences, a dark and dreamy emotional landscape of hairy monsters and tropical jungles, and one wannabe feral child, Maurice Sendak created one of the most critically acclaimed and popular childrens' books of all time "Where the Wild Things Are". In this loving tribute to everyone's first favorite author, the Cinefamily will show original animated adaptations (on 16mm) of "Where the Wild Things Are" and "In the Night Kitchen", along with new short films made by Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze while the new live action adaptation of "Wild Things..." was in production.

Spike Jonze had been friends with Maurice Sendak for more than five years before he began working on his feature film, and these new short films capture a sometimes melancholy but always wickedly funny Sendak as he reflects on his Depression-era childhood in the Brooklyn shtetl, a joyous day at the World’s Fair, the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, his books "In The Night Kitchen" and "Higgledy Piggledy Pop!", his two beloved Hermans (Melville, and his German shepherd namesake), and a long-buried secret. Lance Bangs, co-director of Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak will be in attendance.

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MIKE JUDGE @ THE AERO THEATER TONIGHT!

It's hard to believe it's been 17 years since Mike Judge's cultural icons Beavis and Butt-head played their first game of frog baseball on MTV's Liquid Television, spreading their message of nachos and fire. The Beavis and Butt-head decade culminating in a big screen movie was followed by television's second longest running animated show, "King of the Hill," an innovative Emmy-award- winning cartoon that does not stray far from real life. Judge, the Austin, Texas-based creator, writer and director, also supplied his unique vocal talents to both shows, bringing to life everyone from champion father Hank Hill and the clarity-impaired Boomhauer to teenage metal heads Beavis and Butt-head as well as the liberal community college administrating dad in his latest show "The Goode Family." A true champion of animation, Judge, along with fellow animator Don Hertzfeldt, run a very successful touring animation festival called "The Animation Show," which screens shorts including the works of many independent filmmakers. Not new to live action, Judge's 1999 cult comedy, OFFICE SPACE, has become one of film history's most quotable movies, a sharp satire needling the numbing existence of office life. The hilarious and bold satire of the future of the American dream, IDIOCRACY, was unfortunately given a limited release but has become an underground hit based on it's own merit.

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Tomorrow Night @ Cinefamily - Jerry Beck presents: Frank Tashlin Cartoons

"Some people say I'm crazy, some say that I'm insane, please pass the ketchup, I think it's going to rain..." Back in the 1980's I had a brain-melting night at the Nuart when Jerry Beck gave a talk and projected some of his favorite rare and unusual cartoons from the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies productions. I had always loved those cartoons and thought they were bursting with the wittiest wisecracks and the most suave sight gags I had ever seen and here was Jerry Beck showing me the historical context behind the mayhem. I bought his encyclopedic guide book The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons (now out of print) and thought he had the coolest job in the whole world.

This week he will be appearing at the Cinefamily to celebrate a master of cartoons: Frank Tashlin. Over his career Frank directed and wrote some of the craziest and most original cartoons ever created and also worked with people like Tex Avery, Walt Disney, the Marx Brothers, Lucille Ball, Chuck Jones, Phyllis Diller, Bob Hope, and Jerry Lewis. Mr. Beck is just the expert to guide us through a screening of Tashlin's best and rarest work.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 8:00 P.M.
The Cinefamily
611 N.Fairfax Ave.
Los Angeles, CA
90036
(323) 655-2510
$13