20th Anniversary Screening of '1991:The Year Punk Broke' @ CINEFAMILY 7.23.

Don’t Knock The Rock celebrates the 20th anniversary of this classic indie rock document! In August of ‘91, Sonic Youth invited Los Angeles filmmaker Dave Markey along on a two week summer festival tour of Europe. The band was excited about their opening act: a little known band from the Pacific Northwest called Nirvana. Along the way they would cross paths with Dinosaur Jr., Babes In Toyland, Gumball, and The Ramones. Thurston Moore was the MC. Dave Grohl was the new drummer. Kim Gordon kept up on the gossip. Kurt Cobain played Kevin Costner. J. Mascis wondered about the possibility of having a Japanese love child. Courtney Love crashed a backstage interview. Lee Ranaldo snapped photographs. Krist Novoselic was really tall. Steve Shelley was in the pocket. Mudhoney was hanging out backstage. Bob Mould too — and Joey Ramone. Motley Crue covered “Anarchy In The UK” (but not in this movie), thus the title was born, tongue-in-cheek — and a feature documentary emerged that will rock you to the ground!

Director Dave Markey will be @ The Cinefamily for a Q&A after the film — and after the break, stick around for (This Is Known As) The Blues Scale, the 40-minute The Year Punk Broke postscript featuring previously unseen mind-blowing Sonic Youth & Nirvana performances, plus Dave’s 1988 Redd Kross film Macaroni And Me! As well, DJ Howie Pyro will be here to spin tunes throughout the show!

Dir. Dave Markey, 1992, digital presentation, 99 min

More Here...

1991 The Year Punk Broke from joshALESTE on Vimeo.

FILM - The Visual Language of Herbert Matter will be screening for FREE @ LACMA on 1.8.11

Herbert Matter was a man who seemingly fit many lives into one by excelling in the creative disciplines of design, photography and film. The documentary The Visual Language of Herbert Matter profiles his extraordinary life and seminal work.

With the help of historical footage, vintage photographs, never-before-seen film excerpts (some shot by Matter himself) and a broad overview of his extensive body of work, the feature length documentary helps in bringing the picture of an almost forgotten creative genius back into focus.

Interwoven with interviews from a who's who list of legendary artists, designer and photographers, the film sheds light on a remarkable career and its impact on the evolving language of design during the short 20th century both in the USA and Europe.

For the first time in an encompassing and comprehensive way, the film touches on the innovative expressions of his free experimental work, his fashion and advertising photography and his portraiture. His amazing talent of combining bold combination's of words, images and space is shown in his iconic Swiss travel posters, pavilion designs for the New York World's Fair 1939, photographs for Condé Nast publications; corporate image programs for Knoll furniture, the New Haven Railroad, exhibition- and numerous catalog designs for the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum; Matter's photography was instrumental in disseminating the designs of Charles and Ray Eames, covers for the legendary Arts & Architecture magazine and his lesser known work in film, the prime example being a film on the works of Alexander Calder.

The documentary is produced by independent Swiss production company PiXiU films, directed by award-winning filmmaker Reto Caduff (who will be on hand to discuss the film) and presented with a unique approach of visual storytelling: beginning with Matter’s childhood in the Swiss alps, to his training in Paris with legends such as A.M. Cassandre, Fernand Léger, and Le Corbusier, leading back to Zurich and the groundbreaking photomontage in his legendary Swiss travel posters - followed by his subsequent move to the United States.

FREE - Bing Theater | No Reservations
Saturday, Jan 8, 2p

More Here...

Matter Teaser from Herbert Matter on Vimeo.

At The DOWNTOWN INDEPENDENT TONIGHT - Died Young, Stayed Pretty

DIED YOUNG, STAYED PRETTY

Official Selection of the 2009 South By Southwest Film Festival and 2008 Montreal World Film Festival, DIED YOUNG, STAYED PRETTY is a candid look at the underground indie-rock poster subculture in North America that was reborn, post-Punk, with the launch of groupie Clayton Hayes' website Gigposters.com. The documentary reveals a new breed of subculturists who've set out to destroy the mainstream through their controversial and intensely visceral design work.

Under the guise of advertising for rock shows, these unheralded masters of the silkscreen and Xerox machine carry on public discourses that range from hot button political issues to lewd, inside jokes. Stealing pieces from America's disposable culture, these graphic artists pervert classic references into beautiful obscenities that they slap in the face of polite society while safely treading under the radar.

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Call for Submissions | California Documentary Project

The California Documentary Project (CDP) is a competitive grant program of the California Council for the Humanities in partnership with the Skirball Foundation. CDP supports film, radio and new media projects that document the California experience and explore issues of significance to Californians.

For application information, click here.

Hammer Screening TONIGHT!

FREE!

Sundance Work in Progress: Out in the Silence

Out In The Silence is a documentary film that captures the remarkable chain of events that unfold when the announcement of filmmaker Joe Wilson’s wedding to another man ignites a firestorm of controversy in the small Pennsylvania hometown he left long ago. Out In The Silence is a Sundance Works in Progress screening, which provides an opportunity for filmmakers and viewers to explore the creative process and examine the issues addressed in the film. Out In The Silence has received creative and financial support from the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, a core program of Sundance Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer.

-2009, 56 min., Dirs. Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson-

more here...

@ REDCAT

February 12, 2009 - 8:30pm

Charlie Haden: Rambling Boy
A documentary by Reto Caduff

Charlie Haden has long been well respected among the all-time great jazz bassists. Charlie has gone on to make essential contributions to a wide spectrum of genres: avant-garde, small ensemble, big band, world music, folk and gospel. This new documentary from award-winning Swiss-born filmmaker Reto Caduff offers an absorbing chronicle of Haden's life and work--as instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, educator, political activist and family man.

A member of Ornette Coleman's incomparable quartet in the 1960s, Haden has since led his own Quartet West and the larger Liberation Music Orchestra, collaborating along the way with jazz giants Carla Bley, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny and many others.

The most recent album from the CalArts Jazz Program founder is the Grammy-nominated Rambling Boy, a collection that harkens back to Haden's early days playing Americana and bluegrass on his parents' radio show. Charlie will be in attendance w/ Filmmaker Reto Caduff.

Tickets available here.