All In Viaggio screenings at the Monica Film Center will be followed by a pre-recorded conversation featuring a panel of experts and faith leaders discussing Pope Francis, his mission and methods, and issues raised in the documentary. The panel will run between 15-20 minutes. The participants are: Ricardo da Silva, S.J. (Jesuit priest, assoc. editor America Media, Columbia Journalism School); Christiana Zenner (Theology/Ethics/Ecology Professor); Natalia Imperatori-Lee (Theologian at Manhattan College); Joshua McElwee (editor, National Catholic Reporter); Moderator: David Gibson – (award-winning religion journalist and director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University).
Upcoming Reel Talk with Stephen Farber screenings: ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET; IT AIN’T OVER; BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER; YOU HURT MY FEELINGS..
Veteran film critic Stephen Farber’s popular Reel Talk screening series is now based at our Royal Theatre, where you can see a variety of outstanding films from the U.S. and around the world, including many top awards contenders, and then meet the filmmakers for provocative and revealing discussions led by Stephen. Recent guests and titles have included Paul Weitz and Andrew Miano, writer-director and producer of Moving On; John Scheinfeld and Bobby Colomby, director and lead band member from What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?; Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern, screenwriters of 80 for Brady; and Jerzy Skolimowski and Ewa Piaskowska, director/co-writer and co-writer/producer of the Oscar-nominated film EO. Next up:
April 24: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; May 1: It Ain’t Over; May 3: Book Club: The Next Chapter; May 15: You Hurt My Feelings.
A-WOP-BOP-A-LOO-BOP! The untold story of the larger-than-life legend who changed music, LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING in theaters April 11.
There are just a few giants that belong on a Mount Rushmore of rock ‘n’ roll, the people who created a genre of music that electrified the world. One certainty is Chuck Berry. The other is Little Richard. Director Lisa Cortés’ new documentary Little Richard: I am Everything tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock ‘n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance footage that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon’s life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. In interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film reveals how Richard created an art form for ultimate self-expression, yet what he gave to the world he was never able to give to himself. Throughout his life, Richard careened like a shiny cracked pinball between God, sex and rock ‘n’ roll. The world tried to put him in a box, but Richard was an omni-being who contained multitudes – he was unabashedly everything.
We’re thrilled to screen Little Richard: I am Everything for one night only at our Claremont, Encino, North Hollywood, Glendale and Newhall theaters. Come experience the movie the Hollywood Reporter called “wildly entertaining;” the Chicago Reader called “exhilarating;” Essence called “profound;” Variety called “exhilarating;” the Toronto Star called “the definitive documentary on a complicated icon;” and Film Threat said “brilliantly connects the past, present and future.”
“Quirky, touching, and well-played fun,” THE INNOCENT opens April 7 at the Royal.
Part crime thriller, part family farce, Louis Garrel’s The Innocent shows with panache and pathos the dangerous lengths two men go for the women they love. Garrel stars as Abel, a museum educator and widower whose mother, Sylvie (Anouk Grinberg), marries Michel (Roschdy Zem), one of her drama pupils in the local penitentiary. Once on parole Michel tries to start a legitimate life for Sylvie’s sake but soon reverts to his old ways, with the suspicious Abel continually — and ineptly — spying on his stepfather until roped into one of the ex-con’s schemes. Noémie Merlant, wonderful as always, co-stars. We open the film April 7 at the Royal.
“Few caper comedies have this much heart, and few romantic dramas offer such an appealingly nutty plot.” ~ Kyle Smith, Wall Street Journal
“A humanistic story wrapped in a fun, punchy exterior, much like the French synth-pop music throughout its soundtrack.” ~ Claire Shaffer, New York Times
“The Innocent is the first movie of Cannes 2022 to give me that belly aching, knee slapping laughter that I desperately needed.” ~ Valerie Complex, Deadline Hollywood Daily
THE INNOCENT – JANUS TRAILER from Janus Films on Vimeo.
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS? opens March 31.
A fascinating documentary/political thriller with a classic rock band at the heart of the action, What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? involves the U.S. State Department, the Nixon White House, the governments of Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland and documentary footage that has been suppressed for over 50 years by one or all of the above. We open the film March 31 at the Monica Film Center with special one-night screenings and Q&As April 3 at the NoHo, April 4 at the Claremont and April 5 at the Glendale. The full Q&A schedule is here.
Director’s statement:
In early 2020, just prior to the worldwide explosion of COVID 19, Bobby Colomby, an acquaintance and founding member of Blood, Sweat & Tears, called me for a friendly check in. As a fan of the band in its heyday, I innocently asked him, “What the hell happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?”
Bobby proceeded to tell me the story of the events surrounding the Iron Curtain Tour. He mentioned that a documentary film crew had accompanied the band to shoot material for what was intended to be a theatrical documentary. That film was never released and Bobby had no idea what became of it.
I loved the mystery and intrigue behind this story, but would we be able to find that documentary footage or enough audio/visual material to tell the story effectively? I also love a good treasure hunt. So, as the pandemic was shutting the country down, my team and I began a search. Soon enough, we found references to National General Television Productions as having been the company behind the documentary and that their crew had shot 65 hours of footage during the Iron Curtain Tour.
We cast a wide net around the world to locate this footage, contacting anyone and everyone who had a connection to National General or the film crew, as well as private archives, independent storage facilities and film labs. It was one dead end after another. It appeared that the footage and related elements had completely vanished.
And then, finally, success. While searching for the raw footage, we stumbled upon a pristine print of a 53-minute version of the documentary that had been edited for television syndication. This was an unexpected find as no such version was ever broadcast. A new high-definition transfer was made from this print and watching it provided a fascinating time capsule of our nation, the world, and this group of nine young men on an unprecedented adventure from 50 years earlier. I knew then we had the makings of a fantastic documentary and, indeed, 40 minutes of the “lost” Blood, Sweat & Tears documentary is the backbone of our film.
Some additional heavy digging led us to the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where we ultimately uncovered five raw audio tapes that were recorded live during concerts on the Iron Curtain Tour. The band had a mobile 8-track machine on the tour and we later determined that their engineer had recorded a total of 18 tapes, but only these five were found.
Our search into the private collections of band members and others who were on the Iron Curtain Tour yielded hundreds of never-before-seen photographs and memorabilia. I never gave up hope of finding the 65 hours of original footage. However, after two full years of chasing down every lead and digging deep into vaults across the country as well as government storage facilities in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, we came up empty. The mystery of what became of that material remains.
This film sheds light on history through a fascinating lens. It’s not a biography of the band, nor is it just for music lovers or fans of Blood, Sweat & Tears. It’s a compelling story that explores a unique moment in time and has surprisingly powerful resonance and parallels to what’s going on in the world today. ~ John Scheinfeld
The 2023 Laemmle Oscar Contest results are in.
It’s the day after Pi Day, but check out these cool pie charts to see who won our Umpteenth Annual Oscar Contest (the winner got 21 correct; the final question about the running time proved to be a tiebreaker between the second and third place winners, who both got 19 correct) and confirm that Laemmle moviegoers are crazy savvy about predicting how the Academy will vote. Of the 23 categories, the Laemmle hive mind accurately guessed all but four categories:
Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis/Everyone Everywhere All at Once bested Angela Bassett/Black Panther: Wakanda Forever);
Best Makeup & Hairstyling (The Whale swallowed Elvis);
Best Score (All Quiet on the Western Front defeated Babylon);
Farewell, Chaim Topol.
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS? Q&A schedule.
What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? Q&A schedule:
Friday, March 31st at 7:10pm & Saturday, April 1st at 7:10pm @ Laemmle Monica Film Center; five-time Grammy winner Jimmy Jam will moderate.
Monday, April 3rd at 7:00pm @ Laemmle Noho
Tuesday, April 4th @ Laemmle Claremont CANCELLED
Wednesday, April 5th at 7:00pm @ Laemmle Town Center; Steve Edwards, TV personality and three-time Honorary Mayor of Encino, will moderate
Thursday, April 6th @ 7:00pm @ Laemmle at Glendale
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- …
- 135
- Next Page »