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Ahrya Fine Arts

LAEMMLE LIVE presents Dyad in Santa Monica June 2

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LAEMMLE LIVE proudly presents Dyad, an innovative violin and bassoon duo on a quest to explore uncharted territory. After meeting at Juilliard, Niv Ashkenazi and Leah Kohn were inspired to create a new kind of chamber music. Unwilling to let a lack of repertoire stand in their way, they thrive on reimagining classic works as well as premiering new pieces. Through engaging, personal performances, they create connections between audience, performers, and music. Sunday’s performance will include pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Gernot Wolfgang, and Niccolo Paganini. Since their first performance in May 2015, they have given concerts for the Wednesdays@Noon series at the Encinitas Library, the Classical Music Series at the Peninsula Center Library, the Cultural Arts Society of La Verne, Newport Beach’s Sunday Musicales, and other performances in Southern California, in venues ranging from the Skirball Center to art galleries and private homes. Dyad has collaborated with Lineage Dance and TranscenDanceGroup on performances which relate stories through dance, music, and other mediums. They have also appeared as guest artists and speakers at exclusive business networking events sharing their music and passion for innovation with a wider community. Dyad has given several world premieres of works written for and commissioned by them. In May 2017, they gave several performances in New Jersey, including at the Axelrod PerformingArts Center and the Kessler Foundation.

Sharing their music with audiences outside a traditional concert setting is a vital part of Dyad’s mission. They perform as an ensemble for Street Symphony, an organization founded by former Los Angeles Philharmonic member Vijay Gupta, which brings inclusive concerts to people experiencing incarceration and homelessness.

This is a Free Event
RSVP via Eventbrite
Sunday, June 2, 2019
Monica Film Center
1332 2nd Street
Santa Monica
11am – 12 pm

 

 

MERATA Filmmaker Hepi Mita with Taika Waititi and Guests at the Ahrya Fine Arts.

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MERATA filmmaker Hepi Mita and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok and Boy) will be joined by Chelsea Winstanley and executive producer Cliff Curtis (Whale Rider, “Fear the Walking Dead”) for a Q&A following the 5pm show on Sunday, 5/12 at the Ahrya Fine Arts.

 

https://youtu.be/RRtlMYzIf_o

THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR Q&A with Filmmaker at the Ahrya Fine Arts.

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THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR director Ry Russo-Young will participate in a Q&A moderated by Alex Ben Block following the 7:30 pm show on Thursday, 5/16.

 

https://youtu.be/3On0BXzGnuI

LAEMMLE LIVE presents Mostly Kosher May 19 in Santa Monica

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This is a Free Event!
RSVP via Eventbrite

LAEMMLE LIVE presents acclaimed klezmer gypsy-rock band Mostly Kosher, reconstructing Judaic and American cultural music through ravenous klezmer beats and arresting Yiddish refrains. Mostly Kosher is a musical feast that “explodes into a global food-fight of Jazz, Latin, Rock, and Folk.”

In response to the poetry and folk music of Judaic roots, their original voice resounds with themes of social justice, human dignity and mutual understanding. Led by frontman Leeav Sofer, one of Jewish Journal’s “30 under 30” most accomplished professionals in the Los Angeles Jewish diaspora, Mostly Kosher is comprised of some of the highest regarded Los Angeles musicians: violinist Janice Mautner Markham, drummer Eric Hagstrom, bassist Adam Levy, and on guitar, Will Brahm. Guest artists include Aníbal Seminario, Gee Rabe, Taylor Covey and Lorry Aaron Black on xylophone.

Mostly Kosher is a fixture at renowned Southern California stages such as the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, Skirball Cultural Center and The Torrance Center for Performing Arts. They have also graced the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for a live television broadcast to over half a million viewers in 2015 and once again in 2017. The ensemble has headlined multiple summer festivals such as Silicon Valley Jewish Music Festival, Claremont Folk Festival and more. Mostly Kosher had the honor of being the first Jewish music ensemble at the Disney parks and with 2018/2019 marking their third season performing during the 2-month long Festival of Holidays. Mostly Kosher was credited for “stealing the Festival of Holidays Show” by the acclaimed Fresh Baked Disney podcast. For the 2017/2018 holiday season, Mostly Kosher added Epcot Center in Florida to their list of holiday performance venues, becoming Disney’s first Jewish cultural music performed on both coasts.

Staying true to giving back to the community, Mostly Kosher is proud to be teaching artists for Urban Voices Project, performing and educating in underserved areas in and around Southern California including prisons, community clinics and shelters serving men and women suffering from homelessness. Mostly Kosher is also mentor ensemble to the Jewish Youth Orchestra, a project of the Jewish Federation of San Gabriel Valley,  offering performance opportunities and ongoing workshops for the middle school and high school musicians.   

The band’s self-titled debut album has won international acclaim by World Music Network, Songlines Magazine, and BBC radio. The first track, Ikh Hob Dikh Tsufil Lib (I Love You Much Too Much), was recognized as one of World Music Network’s Top 6 Songs of 2014. Mostly Kosher’s music videos have been garnering accolades on the film festival circuit, receiving two nominations at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema and Best Music Video at the Glendale International Film Festival. This year Mostly Kosher is touring nationally and internationally through 2020 to support new original music and videos culminating in a full album release. Learn more: mostlykosher.com @mostlykosher

This is a Free Event!
RSVP via Eventbrite

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Monica Film Center
1332 2nd Street
Santa Monica
11am – 12 pm

 

 

THE TERMINATOR 35th Anniversary Screening with Co-star Michael Biehn In Person.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 35th anniversary screening of one of the most popular sci-fi films of all-time, THE TERMINATOR, the movie that spawned one of the screen’s most profitable film franchises.

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in his most iconic role, Linda Hamilton, and our special guest, Michael Biehn, THE TERMINATOR screens on Saturday, May 11th at 7:30pm at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills. Click here for tickets.

Writer-director James Cameron and Producer Gale Ann Hurd had both apprenticed at Roger Corman’s low-budget factory, New World Pictures, in the late 1970s and early 1980s when they joined forces to create THE TERMINATOR.

Their original screenplay (with co-writer William Wisher, inspired by works of Harlan Ellison) chronicles the battle for the survival of the human race against Skynet, a synthetic intelligent machine network of the future. In 2029, an automaton killer (Schwarzenegger) is dispatched through time to assassinate an unsuspecting waitress (Linda Hamilton) in 1984, who turns out to be the future mother of the 21st–century human Resistance leader, John Connor. To protect her, Connor sends guerrilla fighter Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn). The ensuing chase through the streets of Los Angeles, with the seemingly unstoppable and leather-clad Schwarzenegger, is a model of low-budget efficiency and resourcefulness.

Contemporary critics embraced the sci-fi suspense thriller, with Kirk Ellis of The Hollywood Reporter calling it “a genuine steel metal trap of a movie.” Dave Kerr of Chicago Reader characterized its “almost graceful violence…(has) the air of a demented ballet,” and Janet Maslin in The New York Times cited it as a “B-movie with flair.”

The film was a genuine sleeper hit, and its success led to several sequels, a television series and video games. The latest incarnation of the series, TERMINATOR: DARK FATE, with Cameron returning to a creative role, is set to open theatrically later this year. The film that started it all, THE TERMINATOR, was added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 2008.

Cameron, of course, became one of the most sought-after filmmakers in Hollywood, staying in the sci-fi world for several landmark films (Aliens, The Abyss, Avatar) and winning Oscars for a venture into the past, Titanic, the biggest box-office hit of the twentieth century.

Schwarzenegger went on to movie superstardom and political success. His terse line reading in the film, “I’ll be back,” is ranked 37th of AFI’S all-time movie quotes, and his character Terminator is ranked as the 22nd greatest movie villain.

Gale Ann Hurd emerged as one of the most successful female producers of the era, with Aliens, Alien Nation, and Armageddon among her hits.

Our special guest, Michael Biehn, has enjoyed a long career, primarily in action roles (Aliens, The Abyss, Tombstone, The Rock, The Art of War) into the 21st century.

Saturday, May 11th at 7:30pm at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills. Click here for tickets.

Format: DCP

HESBURGH Q&A’s with Filmmakers Opening Weekend at the Fine Arts and Playhouse 7.

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HESBURGH Q&A’s with director Patrick Creadon following the 4:30 pm and 7:00 pm shows on Saturday, 5/4 at the Fine Arts. Producer Christine O’MAlley will Q&A after the 7:20 pm show on Friday, 5/3 at the Playhouse 7.

 

https://youtu.be/PFSqf0GUwtg

Marcel Pagnol’s Classic French Comedy THE BAKER’S WIFE, Restored and Back in Theaters April 26-May 2.

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The warmth and wit of celebrated playwright turned auteur Marcel Pagnol (The Marseille Trilogy) shines through in the enchanting slice-of-life comedy The Baker’s Wife (1938). Returning once again to the Provençal countryside he knew intimately, Pagnol draws a vivid portrait of a close-knit village where the marital woes of a sweetly deluded baker (the inimitable Raimu, heralded by no less than Orson Welles as “the greatest actor who ever lived”) snowball into a scandal that engulfs the entire town. Marrying the director’s abiding concern for the experiences of ordinary people with an understated but superbly judged visual style, The Baker’s Wife is at once wonderfully droll and piercingly perceptive in its nuanced treatment of the complexities of human relationships.

https://vimeo.com/303765477

Here’s are some fun facts about the movie:

—The story is taken from the novel Blue Boy (Jean le bleu) by Jean Giono. It was Marcel Pagnol’s fourth and final Giono adaptation, after Jofroi (1934), Angèle (1934), and Harvest (1937).
—Pagnol’s initial choice for the role of the baker was Marcel Maupi, whose frail constitution was more in keeping with Giono’s physical description of the character in Blue Boy. But the part eventually went to the burly Raimu. (Maupi plays Barnabé in the film.)
Criterion art catalog
—Pagnol wrote the part of Aurélie for Joan Crawford, using minimal dialogue since she didn’t speak French. After she declined, Raimu convinced Pagnol to cast Ginette Leclerc, who would go on to star in such films as Le Corbeau (1943) and Tropic of Cancer (1970).
—Raimu refused to play his dialogue scenes outdoors. Therefore, much of the film was shot in a studio, giving many scenes a look that’s a combination of location and studio photography.
Criterion art catalog
—The film’s exteriors were shot in the medieval village of Le Castellet, roughly thirty miles southeast of Marseille. Today, the area is famous for its wine production and Formula 1 racetrack.
—The film was a major critical and box office hit in France when it was released in 1938. In 1940, the film also had a successful run in the U.S., where it won best foreign film honors from both the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle.
Criterion art catalog
—In the mid-forties, after the war, Orson Welles visited Pagnol and told him that he had seen The Baker’s Wife and would like to meet its star, Raimu, whose acting Welles revered. Pagnol informed Welles that Raimu had recently passed away, and Welles burst into tears.
—Pagnol adapted his script for The Baker’s Wife into a theatrical production but only staged one performance. In 1976, a musical adaptation of the same name, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Joseph Stein, embarked on a six-month tour of small venues in the U.S., undergoing major retooling along the way. The musical finally premiered in the West End in 1989. Although the reviews and audience reaction were positive, the show lasted here for only fifty-six performances. It has not been produced on Broadway.

 

—In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, despite his own distaste for movies, mentions that his younger sister, Phoebe, likes them and knows the difference between good and bad films. He says that he took her to see The Baker’s Wife and she found it hysterical.

 

We will screen The Baker’s Wife daily at the Ahrya Fine Arts April 26-28 and April 29 at the Laemmle Glendale, April 30 at the Playhouse 7, May 1 at the Town Center and Claremont, and May 2 at the Royal.

I AM CUBA Introduction by John Bailey Opening Night at the Ahrya Fine Arts.

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John Bailey, the great cinematographer and the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will introduce the 7:30 pm show of I AM CUBA on Friday, 4/12.

 

https://youtu.be/BwEabZrGFfI