REDCAT International Children’s Film Festival this weekend.

The 6th annual REDCAT International Children’s Film Festival rolls out the red carpet for a mind-expanding collection of short film programs, each crafted with care to appeal to the next generation of movie-lovers. Inspiring, magical works made by acclaimed filmmakers and up-and-coming auteurs alike take you on a celluloid ride around the globe, with enchanting programs for tiny tots, chills and thrills for adventurous older viewers, and films sure to inspire the whole family.

This year’s festival highlights include a special selection of new animation from China curated by acclaimed animator Joe Chang, a program showcasing the emerging talents of indigenous filmmakers from throughout the world, and the always popular Nick Family Fun Day.

FESTIVAL SCREENING SCHEDULE 2011

Saturday, March 26

12:00 pm Tally Ho: Films that Fly High

1:30 pm Legends Come Alive

3:00 pm Family Matters

Sunday, March 27 | Nick Family Fun Day

12:00 pm Nick Jr.

3:00 pm Nickelodeon

Saturday, April 2

12:00 pm All Creatures Great and Small

1:30 pm Indigenous Showcase

3:00 pm Round the World and Home Again

Sunday, April 3

12:00 pm Into the Woods and Under the Sea

1:30 pm Once Upon an Adventure

3:00 pm Goosebumps Galore

Saturday, April 9

12:00 pm Joe Chang and Friends

Sunday, April 10

12:00 pm Tally Ho: Films that Fly High

1:30 pm Indigenous Showcase

Saturday, April 16

12:00 pm Into the Woods and Under the Sea

1:30 pm Round the World and Home Again

3:00 pm Joe Chang and Friends

Sunday, April 17

12:00 pm All Creatures Great and Small

1:30 pm Legends Come Alive

3:00 pm Family Matters

$5 each screening

Funded in part with generous support from the George and Marylou Boone Fund for artistic advancement and Nickelodeon.

More Here...

Lost and Found Trailer from Dallas Maurer 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.

Los Angeles Irish Film Festival October 1-3 at the Aero Theatre

LAIFF celebrates the Irish passion for storytelling, a tradition that started around the hearth of every Irish household and has found its way onto the world stage through the medium of film. Coupled with the treasures of Ireland’s moviemaking past, LAIFF presents modern works as diverse as they are unique, creating a cinematic barometer for the cultural climate of Ireland in 2010.

Kicking off the festival is a double feature of the Los Angeles premieres of MY BROTHERS and SWANSONG: STORY OF OCCI BYRNE, both powerful coming-of-age dramas portraying the complexities of family ties. Also in store is A SHINE OF RAINBOWS, a delightful, family-friendly tale of a young orphan’s voyage to an enchanting island; CUP CAKE, a quirky comedy about an introverted 20-something inheriting his family’s cupcake shop; and THE YELLOW BITTERN, a fascinating documentary about Irish folk-singer Liam Clancy. Closing the festival is Jim Sheridan's THE FIELD, starring the illustrious Richard Harris as a willful, rough-edged farmer who refuses to auction off his family’s land to a wealthy American bidder.

Come muse, explore, celebrate and be entertained with the LAIFF... and bring an umbrella just in case! Some programs for this festival are not at the Aero Theatre. It kicks off September 30 at the Motion Picture Academy's Linwood Dunn Theatre. There will be an industry seminar on Friday, October 1st in the afternoon.

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National Lampoon's 40th Anniversary w/ Matty Simmons @ CINEFAMILY 6.25.

One of the ultimate brand names in comedy, National Lampoon has helped to define the sensibilities of the Boomer Generation, Generation(s) X, Y, and now Z, as its legacy is still felt today across the cultural landscape. National Lampoon's magazines, stage shows, and films launched the careers of the most esteemed groups of entertainment alumni ever come to from one place -- writers, actors and directors of virtually every '80s comedy smash (Caddyshack, Vacation, Ghostbusters, Ferris Bueller's Day Off) seemed to get their start there. A vast swath of your favorite things to laugh along with ("Saturday Night Live", "South Park", The Hangover and the like) might never happened without National Lampoon's groundbreaking mixture of savage satire, wicked spoofs and all manner of shocking, brash, game-changing humor -- and tonight, we we pay our respects to this venerable institution with a 40th anniversary tribute featuring rare and underseen Nat Lamp nuggets, including: Lemmings, a document of the seminal early '70s Woodstock parody featuring soon-to-be megastars Chevy Chase, John Belushi and Christopher Guest; Disco Beaver From Outer Space, the rude, crude and crazy '78 HBO special that blows apart the piccadillos of the Carter era; and, Class of '86, the yuppie-skewering off-Broadway stage show. Capping off the evening is a 35mm show of Animal House, still the defining "slob comedy", and still funnier than ever. FOOD FIGHT!!!! National Lampoon guru Matty Simmons will be at the Cinefamily in person for a Q&A after the show, along with other special National Lampoon guests.

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Frederick Wiseman's 'MEAT' @ RedCat this Thursday 4.8

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman has created a body of work that offers a grand panorama of American life, studying human and institutional behavior in all their contradictory and unpredictable manifestations. In Meat (1976), Wiseman tracks the workings of a highly automated packing plant, illustrating important points and problems in the production, transportation, logistics, equipment design and labor management that turns cattle and sheep into consumer goods.The evening will be introduced by Josh Siegel, The Museum of Modern Art's Associate Curator in the Department of Film. Siegel has organized more then eighty exhibitions, including The Lodz Film School of Poland: 50 Years; To Save and Project: The MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation; and retrospectives devoted to artists/filmmakers including Jeanne Moreau, Nicholas Ray, Oskar Fischinger, Ken Jacobs, John Frankenheimer, Errol Morris, and the current, 2010 focus on the films of Frederick Wiseman.

Bonnie Prince Billy to Curate a Night of Films for CINEFAMILY this Thursday 1.7.10

Folk troubador Bonnie 'Prince' Billy will be @ the Cinefamily to present a hand-picked double feature of films that explore the wonder and the mystery of the fairer sex. Even diehard music fans out there might not be aware of Billy's intense love of cinema, and Cinefamily more than welcomes the opportunity to let the man give them his favorites!

The evening opens with Nicholas Ray's soapy noir A Woman's Secret (1949), starring the ravishing Maureen O'Hara as a singing teacher blamed for the shooting of her smarmy protégé (Gloria Grahame), "a trollop-minded chirp she has coached into the bigtime." (Variety) Scripted by Herman J. Mankiewicz (Citizen Kane), the film is a chance for Ray to take what could have been an average "woman's picture" and tweak it to suit his slightly perverse sensibilities. Next, Wim Wenders' Alice In The Cities (1974). This German New Wave gem finds a roving reporter who reluctantly takes on the guardianship of Alice, a little girl who needs to be delivered to her grandmother -- a woman whose name and address she doesn't remember, and whose house can only be identified by a single photo of an unmarked front door. Yella Röttlander's stellar performance as the young girl whose journey's end is always one more step away is framed terrifically by Robby Mueller's B&W cinematography, and a moody score by Irmin Schmidt and Michael Karoli (half of Krautrock legends Can).

A Woman's Secret Dir. Nicholas Ray, 1949, 35mm, 84 min.
Alice In The Cities Dir. Wim Wenders, 1974, digital presentation, 110 min.

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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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CINEFAMILY & DUBLAB PRESENT: Bollyweird Films on HALLOWEEN

Cinefamily Bollyween Party & Fundraiser

This Hallow's Eve, The Cinefamily joins forces with Dublab to throw the best Halloween party ever, Bollywood-style! One thing they really understand in India: every movie's better with song-and-dance numbers -- even horror movies! In that spirit, the Cinefamily premieres Bollyweird: The Movie -- our very own feature-length video mashup celebrating the most horrifying, fantastic, costume-crazed and outlandish moments of vintage Indian musical madness ever. This isn't just Bollywood, it's Bollyweeeeeird. Then, once the movie’s over, we’re gonna clear the couches, light the incense, make a dance floor, start doing the electric vindaloo, and have a real monster mashala!

+ Drinks and dosas (provided by The Dosa Truck)!

+ Ghoulish giveaways!

+ Costume prizes!

+ DJ sets from the dublab "Bloodsucking" Sound System and Dr. Who Witchcraft Coven!

+ Live performances by freaks like:
12am - Bobb Bruno
1am - Private Beach + the pschedelic horror film Snake Mountain Colada!
2am - Golden Hits

+ The Phantom Photo Booth!

+ Franken Stand's vegan hot dogs!

+ Terrifying tarot readings!

+ The best Halloween ever! It's better than Halloween...its Bollyween!

The Ghoulish Debauchery Starts @ 8pm

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Sunday Oct, 25th @ CINEFAMILY - PLAN 9 from Outer Space

For the uninitiated, Mr. Wood was a filmmaker who pooled all his resources to make movies in the '50s and '60s; the thing is, the films aren’t very good. In fact, they're legendarily "bad", at least by any conventional definition -- glued together with the no-budget, eager showmanship that later gave him the unfair title of "Worst Director Ever" and a fervent cult following from Glenn Danzig to Tim Burton. But let’s destroy the “so-bad-it's-good” term. Ed Wood made lovable movies with strong atmosphere, awkward dialogue, implausible plots and a static style that is as strange and seductive as it is hilarious. It's been 50 years since he made his magnum opus, Plan 9 from Outer Space -- with an all-star cast of Tor Johnson, Vampira, Criswell, Bela Legosi -- and we're here to celebrate with a rare 35mm screening! After the intermission, stick around for Tim Burton's genius love letter to Wood, in the form of Johnny Depp in the starring role of Ed Wood!

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at the Downtown Independent Friday night : MOCHILLA Presents: STILL BILL- The Story of Bill Withers

Still Bill
Directed by Damani Baker and Alex Vlack, Still Bill tells the story of Bill Withers, an unexpected superstar. "Ain't No Sunshine", "Lean on Me", 'Grandma's Hands"Use Me" and "Just the Two of Us" are only part of a complex and fascinating character: an icon who left the industry behind but never gave up his soul. You know his songs. Now meet the man.

Featuring a tribute concert, a soundtrack with previously unreleased tracks, and rare live performance.

**Everyone is welcome and encouraged to bring a Bill Withers record to play!

DJ's + Special Guests TBA*

Friday at 3p 5p and 930p

More Here...

Additional Still Bill screenings:
September 26th at 3pm, 5pm and 7pm and
September 27th at 2:30pm and 4:30pm

STILL BILL Trailer

TONIGHT at CINEFAMILY - Bob Odenkirk Presents "Real Life"

SERIES: Comedy Death Ray
Albert Brooks in - Real Life

presented by Bob Odenkirk

Thirty years before the stealthy steadycams of reality TV infested the livingrooms of America like so many brain-sucking termites, this note-perfect satire of self-serious documentaries (specifically the hit television show "An American Family") prophesied the exact extent to which the genre would derange both the subjects of faux verite schlock and the audiences that hung on every artificial (re)enactment. We were more than a little excited when we found out that tonight's presenter, Bob Odenkirk, chose to screen Albert Brooks' 1979 directorial debut for this series. Odenkirk writes: "Real Life is one of the first ultra-smart, dry-as-a-bone comedies that I ever saw in my life, and it's still one of the funniest and most perceptive. It's a great, hilarious movie, but sadly, no one farts in it or is brazenly un-PC to a woman. Still, it's genius!" Those who need more convincing should refer to depressive Charles Grodin, at his most Grodiny, facing off against manic Brooks in the bi-polar comedy Jew-Off of the century. There's also the demented visuals, including cameramen who, in an effort to be less invasive, wear beach-ball sized cameras that cover their whole heads, and which make them appear, in the words of reviewer Eric Shulte, "like hydrocephalic stormtroopers."

Dir. Albert Brooks, 1979, 35mm, 99 min.

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LACMA's French Crime Wave Series Continues w/ Jean Pierre Melville's 'Le Cercle Rouge'

Le cercle rouge
Friday, June 12 | 7:30 pm @ LACMA

Melville's last great gangster film is a masterpiece and a summation of his themes of honor, loyalty, and tragic destiny. Corey (Delon) is a cool, aristocratic thief, released from prison on the same day that Vogel (Volontè), a wild-eyed terrorist and murderer, escapes from police custody. With the help of a third man—an alcoholic ex-cop named Jansen (Montand)—they plan a daring heist from a jewelry store on the chic Place Vendôme. Combining silence, immaculate camerawork and precise editing rhythms, Melville delivers one of the greatest heist sequences on film while drawing brilliant performances from his three iconic actors. "Jean-Pierre Melville was the coolest, most stylish auteur of his time… He's had a great influence on my work… I learned how to hold a gun, and subsequently taught my actors, by watching Alain Delon in the films of Melville."—John Woo.

French Crime Wave
1970/color/150 min. | Scr/dir: Jean-Pierre Melville; w/ Alain Delon, Yves Montand, Gian-Maria Volonté.

TONIGHT @ CINEFAMILY SARAH SILVERMAN PRESENTS: Where's Poppa?

Comedy Death Ray Series:
Where's Poppa?

presented by Sarah Silverman

According to tonight's host, Sarah Silverman, "I chose Where's Poppa? because I saw it once, and it blew my mind." We can vouch for the virtues of Carl Reiner's 1970 jet black comedy, which is an absolute classic of crass, loud, tush-baring tastelessness. George Segal stars as a schlamazel dying to throw his nutty, senile mom (Ruth Gordon, perfect as always) off a proverbial train. Matters are complicated when he meets the woman of his dreams, played to WASPy perfection by Trish Van Devere. Says Sarah: "It's so hardcore and silly, and funny in a way that I think is emerging now. I was surprised it existed then. Also, I only saw it once, and to be honest I fell asleep at the end. It wasn't the movie's fault, it just happens when I watch movies in bed. So it will be nice to know how one of my favorite movies ends." Come find out how it ends (and begins) tonight-- you haven't lived until you've seen Ruth Gordon wack a gorilla-suited George Segal in his hairy, hairy balls.
Dir. Carl Reiner, 1970, 35mm, 82 min.

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QUEER GAZING

EXPLORING GAY FILM AESTHETICS

Co-presented with Outfest [Spielberg Theatre] QUEER GAZING:

Whether it’s "lavender," "pink," gay or queer in visual and narrative design, homosexuality’s influence in cinema is now pretty much mainstream. But is there an actual "gay film aesthetic"? How have "homo-revisionist" readings of classic films added creative depth to gay cinema's foundation? Take a wild ride through everything from homoeroticism to the establishment of the queer POV called "The Gay Gaze" and rediscover queer cinema in more of its flamboyant glory. Thomas Ethan Harris instructs. Film clips will be used to inspire an open dialogue with the audience.

Click for more information about the Cinematheque's Seminar Series.

At Norton Simon Tonight

A Model for Matisse

Tonight at 7p - This documentary explores the little-known relationship between the legendary 20th-century artist Henri Matisse and French Dominican nun Sister Jacques-Marie, who inspired him to create his final masterpiece, the Chapelle du Rosaire (Chapel of the Rosary) in Vence, France. Directed by Barbara Freed, Professor of French and Applied Linguistics at Carnegie Mellon. (67 minutes)

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Tonight at the Egyptian Theater - William Friedkin's THE FRENCH CONNECTION

Wednesday, May 20 – 7:30p

THE FRENCH CONNECTION

Arguably the greatest American crime film ever made: Gene Hackman stars as Detective Popeye Doyle, muscling minor hoods in NYC (the "You ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?" scene is still a classic) when he catches the trail of a huge shipment of French heroin. With partner Roy Scheider, Hackman dogs drug kingpin Fernando Rey through the concrete jungle -- highlighted by a brainjangling car chase that still hasn’t been topped (except perhaps in Friedkin’s own TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.) Discussion following with film critic Kevin Thomas and cinematographer Owen Roizman.

1971, 20th Century Fox, 104 min.

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...

at REDCAT - Cheryl Dunye The Watermelon Woman

Jack H. Skirball Series
Cheryl Dunye
The Watermelon Woman
Los Angeles theatrical revival
1996, 85 min., screened in Beta SP

Cheryl Dunye's "saucy, daring, insidiously smart debut" (The Boston Phoenix) stands as the first-ever theatrical feature directed by an African American lesbian. The Watermelon Woman tells the story of Cheryl, played engagingly by Dunye herself, who develops a fascination with 1930s actress Fae Richards--a fictional character confined to playing "Mammy" roles in movies by a Dorothy Azner-type director. As part of the production, New York photographer Zoe Leonard shot cleverly constructed still images of Fae Richards and in the process (re)invented a history running counter to the invisibility of black women in early Hollywood and black lesbians in general. The winner of the Teddy (the Berlinale) and Outstanding Narrative Feature (Outfest) awards, The Watermelon Woman also managed to raise the hackles of unreconstructed reactionary Jesse Helms, who called the work "flotsam floating down a sewer."

REDCAT

At LACMA Tonight - Nagisa Oshima's Boy (Shonen)

Boy (Shonen)
Friday, May 8 - 730p

In the Realm of Oshima

Based on a true story that shocked Japan, this film is a double portrait of a desperate family and the grasping society in which they live. A ten-year-old child fakes being hit by cars so his parents can collect damages from the shaken drivers. With rigorous empathy, Oshima portrays the father, who was a soldier in the war and whose wounds are both real and symbolic, the hard-nosed stepmother, and their two children, the unblinking boy and his mercifully uncomprehending baby brother. Oshima called his film "a prayer."

1969.New 35mm print color.105 min.Scope. Scr: Tsutomu Tamura; dir: Nagisa Oshima; w/ Tetsuo Abe, Fumio Watanabe, Akiko Koyama.

Read Derek Malcom's Guardian essay on the film here.

Preview Screening at LACMA

May 5 - 7:30p

Summer Hours (L'Heure d'été)

When we pass on, what becomes of the objects we have cherished during our lives? In this Chekhovian drama about loss and change, Olivier Assayas subtly explores the fractious relationship among three adult siblings when they return to their childhood home to dispose of their mother's collection of nineteenth-century paintings and furniture. One of four films commissioned by the Musée d'Orsay in honor of its twentieth anniversary.

Watch the Trailer here...

Screening courtesy of IFC Films.