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Greg Laemmle on deactivating Laemmle Theatres’ Twitter accounts.

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From Laemmle Theatres President Greg Laemmle:

My wife’s uncle Bert has been guiding a Sunday morning family Zoom that started up during the early days of the pandemic.  While listening in, I have often heard him repeat a guiding principle for the group discussion.  Before speaking, ask yourself these questions:

1.) Is it true?
2.) Is it kind?
3.) Is it necessary?

A quick online search provides a number of different attributions.  This could come to us from Socrates (via Plato).  Another version is attributed to the great Sufi mystic, Rumi.  Or maybe it comes from radio host Bernard Meltzer …who may have picked it up from any number of Buddhist sources.  Whatever the origin, the point is that across multiple cultures and philosophic traditions, we are urged to think before we speak.

And then there’s the platform formerly known as Twitter.

While Twitter has always had a confrontational side, adequate content moderation kept rancid contributors in check, allowing it to better serve more positive activities like fostering community, encouraging democracy, providing a space for underserved voices, and allowing for a bit of irreverent fun. However, since its sale last year, Twitter is increasingly a bullhorn for hate and harassment, and the unfettered dissemination of conspiracy theories, disinformation, and outright lies. The new owner, who has loudly proclaimed himself a “free speech absolutist,” recently crossed a dangerous line into fascist hypocrisy by suing journalists for using their free speech rights to point out how corporations’ ads are appearing next to neo-Nazi content.  He regularly amplifies hateful posts and memes to his 164 million followers and for his latest provocation he has re-platformed the ghoulish torturer of Sandy Hook families, Alex Jones.

Twitter is not the only problematic platform.  Social media in general has encouraged disinhibition, contributing to a coarsening of public discourse. But whatever their faults (and crimes), at least these other platforms are working to improve so that they can have a greater positive influence.  Twitter has crossed into territory where the bad most definitely outweighs the good.  And from what we can see, they are aiming to go even lower.

At Laemmle Theatres, we have a high degree of tolerance for diverse and provocative voices.  But this chorus is offered in the hope that our community will be enriched by open discourse.  It is the exact opposite of the negative and hateful commentary that has become the bread and butter of Twitter.

At this time, we are deactivating our accounts on Twitter.  We hope to return, but only after serious efforts have been undertaken to provide greater content moderation and to root out hate speech.  This is not a First Amendment issue.  The Constitution limits the government’s ability to restrict speech.  But as a private platform, Twitter has the right (and responsibility) to restrict the most extreme and hateful speech.  They just don’t want to.

To connect with us on other platforms, visit laemmle.com/connect.

And for the New Year, let’s all make a resolution to better follow Uncle Bert’s maxim.  Whether in person or online, always remember the three rules when communicating.  Be truthful and kind, and always try to only say what is necessary for a listener to hear.

Greg Laemmle

ONLY IN THEATERS wins award from Film Threat. DVDs now on sale at all venues.

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Only in Theaters, the documentary about the history and future of Laemmle Theatres that includes interviews with Allison Anders, Cameron Crowe, Ava DuVernay, Nicole Holofcener, James Ivory, Kenneth Turan, Leonard Maltin and more, just won the Film Threat’s Award This! award in the Film About Movies or Filmmaking category. The ceremony was last Sunday at The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana. In his acceptance speech, which you can watch below, director Raphael Sbarge spoke about the century-long story he sought to tell and said “there’s been a Laemmle in the movie business since there’s been a movie business.”

The just-released Only in Theaters DVD is now available for sale at all seven of our theaters. In his recent Film Factual review of the release, Brent Simon described the film as “a rich and fortifying watch, and it thankfully isn’t fanciful enough to peddle easy solutions, or clear skies on the horizon. It’s funny and sad and at times emotionally piercing, but most of all it’s honest — a quality we should all want more of in movies, big and small.”

Documentary classic THE WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL 20th Anniversary Release with the Filmmaker in Person for Q&As.

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An uncommon bond between man and nature is the focus of Judy Irving’s wonderful and informative documentary, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. The film follows Mark Bittner, an unemployed aging hippie, who lives off the kindness of strangers in the titular San Francisco neighborhood. His life takes on new meaning when he starts feeding a flock of wild Conures, a breed of parrot noted for its green body and cherry-red head. Native to Argentina, the birds soon feel comfortable enough to feed while perched all over Mr. Bittner. Being outcasts who yearn to remain free, a mutual respect is born between them. Daily routine soon leads to growing crowds of curious passersby, as Bittner becomes something of a local celebrity. Based on his up-close observations, Bittner gains some keen insight into the behavior of individual birds, giving them names. The resulting portraits of Connor, Mingus, Olive, Pushkin, Picasso, Sophie, and Tupelo prove that these amazing creatures deserve star credit in their own right.

Wild Parrots features some incredible close-ups, rare in-depth glimpses into the unique and often amusing habits and activities of one flock of parrots, and also a surprise ending.

 

We’re screening the film tonight at the NoHo, tomorrow at the Royal, and December 1-7 in Glendale. Irving will participate in Q&As tonight at the NoHo, tomorrow at the Royal, and after the December 2 & 3 screenings at the Glendale. Joe Lindner, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Preservation Officer, will moderate the Q&As on Nov. 29th and 30th. Screenwriter Elliott DiGuiseppi will moderate the Q&As on Dec. 2 and 3.

Irving recently wrote a piece about her film for Talkhouse. A key passage about her method:

“When I go out to shoot a place or a person or an animal, I think of it as a “rendezvous with destiny” – I do not control what will happen. The real world dictates what to shoot, how to shoot, whether I get to shoot at all. I like stories that keep unfolding in the present, not historical topics that have already closed their doors to time.”

Todd Haynes’ MAY DECEMBER and the 35th Anniversary of the Mighty Zeitgeist Films.

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 After a couple disappointing features, it was great to see Todd Haynes, one of our finest filmmakers, return to his indie roots with the 2021 documentary The Velvet Underground.  And now with May December — which we open May 17 at the Glendale, Monica Film Center, NoHo and Town Center — we have another feature that can stand alongside his masterpieces like Safe, Far from Heaven, I’m Not There and Carol.  This is also a moment to remember his first feature, Poison, and the use this as an opportunity to honor New York-based boutique distributor Zeitgeist Films (the distributor of Poison) on their 35th anniversary. Long and successful careers require talent, to be sure.  But the role of early supporters is also key. And from Todd Haynes to Atom Egoyan and Francois Ozo to Christopher Nolan, Zeitgeist has championed so many amazing talents.  ~ Greg Laemmle
Stephen Saito of The Movable Fest recently spoke with Zeitgeist founders Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo about their company, the ingenuity and drive it took to make it a success, their favorite films, and much more. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the changing world of independent film distribution from two experts. Saito introducers the interview like this:

For much of cinema history, the sight of a big Z slashing across the screen promised the fictional adventures of a sword-wielding caped crusader, but starting in 1988, that big red Z started to stand for something else amongst discerning cinephiles, as real life heroes Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo believed there was a better way forward for the films they loved. Starting Zeitgeist Films out of a small West Village apartment after working a variety of jobs in film distribution, the two have played an outsized role in shaping film culture in the decades since, taking a quality over quantity approach to making room in a crowded American theatrical marketplace for some of the most daring work from around the world. Limiting their acquisitions to a manageable slate of four to five releases a year where each one would receive their undivided attention, a necessity when championing artists such as Bruce Weber (“Let’s Get Lost”), Peter Greenaway (“The Draughtman’s Contract”), Derek Jarman (“Blue”) and Guy Maddin (“Cowards Bend at the Knee”) without deep pockets, the duo has not only had the foresight to see the enduring nature of the films themselves that they release, but the value of time in how much they put into each film and how it has afforded them the sustainability to keep going.

“We noticed that there were companies that started that spent a lot of money on films and would acquire a lot and those companies went out of business extremely quickly,” Gerstman said recently on the occasion of the company’s 35th anniversary. “And we wanted to stay in business and we were able to.”

Their latest milestone has led the Metrograph in New York to pay Zeitgeist a much-deserved month-long tribute with an in-theater 13-film retrospective, kicking off this Friday with Gerstman and Russo introducing a newly spiffed up 4K restoration of “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days,” Marc Rohemund’s unfortunately all-too-relevant WWII tale of the Munich University student who stood up against the infiltration of Nazi thought at school, and an additional 20 films being made available on the theater’s streaming service Metrograph-At-Home, tilting towards the visionary meta-fiction works from Yvonne Rainer, Atom Egoyan and Jennifer Baichwal that the distributor pushed long before such playful documentaries were in fashion. Guests of the series such as Raoul Peck (“Lumumba”), Christine Vachon (“Poison”) and Astra Taylor (“Examined Life”) reflect the range of Gerstman and Russo’s belief in taking advantage of the big screen’s ability to hold a variety of perspectives, yielding a catalog deep with films where the ordinary becomes extraordinary simply by telling stories that have been overlooked, particularly when it comes to the hidden histories of women and gay life in the 20th century.

With the machinery they’ve built over the years, Gerstman and Russo have celebrated the careers of free-thinking artists and activists as a home to documentary profiles of filmmakers such as Maya Deren (“In the Mirror of Maya Deren”) and Alice Guy Blache (“Be Natural”), photographers Cecil Beaton (“Love Cecil”) and Bill Cunningham (“Bill Cunningham: New York”) and intellectuals Noam Chomsky (“Manufacturing Consent”), Hannah Arendt (“Vita Activa”) and Slavoj Zizek (“The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology”) while helping launch so many others, picking up on the early promise in the work of Todd Haynes (“Dottie Got Spanked”), Laura Poitras (“The Oath”), Chaitanya Tamhane (“Court”), Talya Lavie (“Zero Motivation”), and Andrey Zvyagintsev (“Elena”). (Only they could arrange for a documentary to be made about the stop-motion animation maestros the Brothers Quay made by Christopher Nolan, whose first film “Following” they shepherded to theaters.)

As Gerstman and Russo readily acknowledge, the work has only gotten more difficult as time has gone on, but leaning on good taste and institutional knowledge, they have beaten the odds to become a pillar of arthouse cinema and in having such a hand in bringing important voices into those sacred spaces, it was truly an honor to get to speak to them on the eve of their retrospective at the Metrograph, which may be a short distance from their offices, but involves a journey that cuts across multiple countries and decades as they’ve brought global cinema to the city and beyond.

Click here to read the interview.

HAYSEED Q&A schedule.

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11/7 – Laemmle Royal: Please join the filmmakers and cast members for a special Q&A after the screening! Moderated by Billy Raftery. Featuring: Jack Falahee, Caitlin Carver and Writer/Director Travis Burgess.
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11/8 Laemmle NoHo: Please join the filmmakers and cast members for a special Q&A after the screening! Moderated by Liz Manashil, Featuring: Kathryn Morris, Mart Piekarz, and Writer/Director Travis Burgess.
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As recipients of the SAG interim agreement, promotion for Hayseed has been approved by SAG.

ONLY IN THEATERS Nominated for a Film Threat Award and Now Available in Theaters on DVD.

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Only in Theaters, the documentary about the history and future of Laemmle Theatres and includes interviews with Allison Anders, Cameron Crowe, Ava DuVernay, Nicole Holofcener, James Ivory, Kenneth Turan, Leonard Maltin and more, is now a Film Threat’s Award This! nominee in the Film About Movies or Filmmaking category. The ceremony is December 10th at The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana. “Hollywood often shows us that they can re-make anything, but indie filmmakers continue to show us that there are no limits in cinema,” said Film Threat publisher and Award This! producer Chris Gore. “Award This! and Film Threat are here to champion voices that color outside the lines. Independent cinema rises like a phoenix away from the studio cutting room floor. Join us as we cheer on the rebel artists on December 10th. And it’s always fun to party with a group of amazing and eclectic filmmakers.”

Also notable, the Only in Theaters DVD is now available for sale at all seven of our theaters. In his recent Film Factual review of the release, Brent Simon described the film as “a rich and fortifying watch, and it thankfully isn’t fanciful enough to peddle easy solutions, or clear skies on the horizon. It’s funny and sad and at times emotionally piercing, but most of all it’s honest — a quality we should all want more of in movies, big and small.”

Reviews of the film’s theatrical release include:

“The narrative about the theaters’ present-day fight for survival is undeniably compelling.” ~ Glenn Kenny, New York Times

“A fascinating and poignant look at the Laemmle family.” Claudia Puig, FilmWeek (KPCC – NPR Los Angeles)

“Like a knotty, poignant family business saga you might see on one of their screens, the story here is beautiful and complicated, one in which the twin weights of legacy and calling bear down on the need to survive in changing times.” Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

“It’s not a film about how important theatrical exhibition is for filmmakers (though that is nice too). Rather, it’s an intimate portrait of a man burdened by legacy, navigating uncharted waters, not even sure that he wants to.” ~ Katie Walsh, TheWrap
“It’s essential viewing for any film fan and should — yes — be seen on the big screen.” ~ Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News

John Le Carré shares stories from his life with Errol Morris in the “enthralling” new documentary THE PIGEON TUNNEL, opening Friday at the NoHo.

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Academy Award-winning documentarian Errol Morris pulls back the curtain on the storied life and career of former British spy David Cornwell — better known as John le Carré — in The Pigeon Tunnel, opening Friday at the NoHo.
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“It’s a treat to learn that, before he died in 2020, the great novelist David Cornwell, aka John le Carré, provided Mr. Morris with an in-depth discussion of his deceit-steeped life and works. I was enthralled by every minute of it.” ~ Kyle Smith, Wall Street Journal
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“It’s much richer than a mere biographical documentary, fascinating even to those who haven’t read Cornwall’s work.” ~ Alissa Wilkinson, Vox
 

“In Errol Morris’s documentary, the sense of getting nowhere in particular proves to be crucial toward grasping John le Carré in all his impish glory.” ~ Keith Uhlich, Slant Magazine

“Through it all is the tension of whether one can truly know le Carré, a man who first made a living hiding his true self, and then another living as a writer delving into it. Morris captures that paradox… quite perfectly.” ~ David Sims, The Atlantic

“An interrogation of art and artist, The Pigeon Tunnel is an enthralling documentary both for fans of le Carré and those who’ve never read a page of his work.” ~ Barry Levitt, Empire Magazine

“Errol Morris’s biographical documentaries have got to the heart of figures ranging from Stephen Hawking to Donald Rumsfeld, but in John le Carré he has found a subject as unknowable as he is eloquent.” ~ Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph

“The result is a wide-ranging dialogue that manages to be both philosophical and playful, a personal portrait that goes exactly as deep as Cornwell wants it to go but never feels as if the author is getting away with obfuscation.” ~ Steve Pond, TheWrap

“He’s a grand chronicler of his own biography, and expertly goaded on by Morris, whose queries challenge present and past statements and compel further elaboration and contemplation.” ~ Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

CAT PERSON Opens Friday; Director Susanna Fogel in Person for Conversations with Monica Lewinsky & Alex Winter October 12 & 13.

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“Margot met Robert on a Wednesday night toward the end of her fall semester. She was working behind the concession stand at the artsy movie theatre downtown when he came in and bought a large popcorn and a box of Red Vines.”

So begins Kristen Roupenian’s short story Cat Person. When The New Yorker published it in 2017, it struck a nerve with readers and was the first work of short fiction to ever go viral, spurring conversations around the world about the modern dating scene, seduction, and consent. After the film adaptation’s buzzy premiere at Sundance in January, Cat Person is finally where it belongs, at “artsy movie theatre[s],” opening this weekend at the Royal, Town Center and Glendale and October 13 at the Monica Film Center and NoHo. We’re also pleased to host two special screenings at the NoHo with the filmmaker Susanna Fogel in person for conversations with social activist and writer Monica Lewinsky on October 12 and  with actor-writer-director Alex Winter on October 13.

Director Susanna Fogel stated “Like the short story that stirred so much controversy, Cat Person will call upon you to reflect on romantic encounters you’ve had in the past, and to question the role (or multiple roles) you may have played. We’ve all been the victim in some narratives and the villain in others, and I hope you’ll walk out of this film with a strong opinion, ready to debate.”

Susanna Fogel. Credit: Roger Kisby/Getty Images for Disney
Monica Lewinsky. Credit: Greg Gorman
Alex Winter

“A film that’s funny in places, horrifying in others and all but destined to be a reference point in future discussions about courtship.” ~ Peter Debruge, Variety

“The relief…is in the filmmakers’ approach to these tense scenes: Fogel and Ashford loosen their grip, at last trusting us to sit in our discomfort, draw our own conclusions and sharpen our tools for the discourse.” — The Hollywood Reporter