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Featuring a haunting, stunning lead performance, HIGH TIDE opens October 25.

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High Tide begins with Lourenço, a Brazilian immigrant whose visa is about to expire. He finds himself heartbroken and adrift when his American boyfriend unexpectedly leaves him alone in Provincetown with fleeting promises of his return. Enveloped by the beauty and magic of the seaside community, he grows distressed by the day as his once-hopeful future has dimmed into an emotional and physical state of limbo. When he meets Maurice, they form an unexpected connection. Together, they begin to find acceptance while they struggle to reconcile their uncertain futures. Marco Pigossi plays Lourenço, James Bland plays Maurice, and Mya Taylor, Marisa Tomei and Bill Irwin co-star. Tomei also served as an executive producer. We open High Tide on October 25 at the Royal and NoHo.
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The 7:10 PM screenings of High Tide at the NoHo on October 25 and 26 and the 4 PM screening at the Royal on October 27 will feature in-person Q&A’s with the stars and filmmakers. Details here.
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“A haunting lead performance from Marco Pigossi, steeped in melancholy and raw pain but also in moments of openness, optimism and even joy, helps make High Tide an affecting portrait of untethered gay men seeking meaningful connections.” ~ David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
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“Pigossi delivers a stunning performance that practically heat-welds together the film’s disparate parts, making it feel whole despite the flaws in its construction.” ~ Siddhant Adlakha, Variety

“High Tide is a movie that dares you not to be obsessed with — and attracted to — its leading man.” ~ Ryan Lattanzio, indieWire

“A soulful study of a person who fears he’s become a permanent guest in someone else’s home.” ~ Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest

“The film is a sexy reminder that even when we believe our circumstances can’t improve, someone can always come along to change our perspective on what we value and hold close to our hearts. Pigossi and Bland’s chemistry is worth the watch.” ~ Matthew Creith, Edge Media Network

“Just as importantly, it finds an understated resonance in every small detail, from shots of a face shifting in emotion to a figure being left behind in the distance.” ~ Chase Hutchinson, The Stranger

HIGH TIDE Q&A schedule.

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Q&A’s for HIGH TIDE:
10/25 – In-Person Q&A at the NoHo with Actor/Executive Producer Marco Pigossi and Actor James Bland of HIGH TIDE following the 7:10 pm performance.
 
10/26- In-Person Q&A at the NoHo with Writer/Director/Producer Marco Calvani, and Actor/Executive Producer Marco Pigossi of HIGH TIDE following the 7:10 pm performance.
 
10/27- In-Person Q&A at the Royal with Writer/Director/Producer Marco Calvani, and Actor/Executive Producer Marco Pigossi of HIGH TIDE following the 4:00 pm performance.

UNION Q&A schedule.

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Union Q&A schedule:

Royal 10/23: co-director Brett Story, producer Samantha Curley, and subject Chris Smalls;

Monica Film Center 10/25, 7:20 PM show: co-directors Steve Maing and Brett Story, producer Samantha Curley, and subject Chris Smalls with Adam Conover moderating;

Monica Film Center 10/26, 4:20 PM show: co-director Steve Maing, producer Samantha Curley, subject Chris Smalls, and UTLA president Cecily Myart-Cruz;

Glendale 10/26, 7:20 PM show: co-director Steve Maing, producer Samantha Curley, and subject Chris Smalls;

Glendale 10/27 noon show: co-director Steve Maing, producer Samantha Curley, and subject Chris Smalls.

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH 60th Anniversary October 30 at the Royal.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, the seventh and penultimate picture of Roger Corman’s film adaptations of the works of American literary titan Edgar Allan Poe. The film stars horror icon Vincent Price, Corman’s “muse of the macabre,” who top-lined seven of the eight Poe films. The film is widely regarded as the best installment in the series and Corman’s personal favorite of all his films. We present ‘The Masque of the Red Death‘ on one night only, Halloween Eve, Wednesday, October 30 at 7:00 PM at the historic Royal Theatre (celebrating its centennial year) in West Los Angeles.

Producer-director Roger Corman, who died earlier this year, was one of the most prolific independent filmmakers in movie history. He specialized in low-budget cinema and was the self-appointed “king of the B movie,” producing a steady stream of exploitation titles that spanned six decades and multiple genres. In 1960 he turned to the works of an author he admired, Edgar Allan Poe, the nineteenth-century master of gothic poetry, detective fiction, mystery, and the macabre. He began with a stylish if frugal version of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” which found critical and commercial success, with Price in the lead, and launched a well-received and popular Poe franchise. In 1964 Corman ventured to the U.K. for the last two films of the series, commencing with ‘The Masque of the Red Death.’ Britain was an appropriate set for Poe’s tale of plague-ravaged 14th century Europe, which was devastated by the Black Death.

Price plays Prince Prospero, a malevolent overlord who terrorizes his peasantry amidst the Red Death. After his domain is depopulated, he retreats behind his castle walls with “light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court” (Poe) to wait out the plague. Trapped with him there are his devil-worshiping mistress (Hazel Court), an abducted young couple from the local village (David Weston and Jane Asher), and a particularly debauched guest (Patrick Magee). Using leftover sets from ‘Becket,’ Corman’s principal production designer for all his Poe films, Daniel Haller, and cinematographer (and future auteur) Nicholas Roeg crafted a sumptuous, “colorful symphony of the macabre.” Citing Roeg’s contribution, Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian called the film “an expressionist horror ballet, extravagantly shot.”

Corman employed frequent screenwriter-collaborator Charles Beaumont (‘The Intruder,’ ‘The Premature Burial,’ ‘The Twilight Zone’) and R. Wayne Campbell to meld two Poe stories, “The Masque of the Red Death” and “Hop Frog” with the final product. It would later b praised by TV Guide as “the most intelligent and literate of the Poe series.” The New York Times called it “astonishingly good,” and The Times U.K. gave this assessment: “High camp meets high art in this cheeky Roger Corman flesh-feast that aspires to lofty ideals. However, monologues about the nature of God and terror, as well as psychedelic dream sequences, give the film an unexpected weight. A marvel.” Indeed, other critics have cited the film as echoing the works of Ingmar Bergman and Luis Buñuel, two directors Corman greatly admired.

Price received his best notices of the Poe series, with Variety citing him as “the best interpreter of the Poe character, and he succeeds in creating an aura of terror.” Poe, the most famous American author of the 19th century, remains renowned in the 21st century for his pioneering detective fiction, horror tales, and haunting verse. As Bradshaw pointed out in his Guardian review, “Corman’s formal artistry and conviction on a limited budget…with his iconic Poe adaptations did more than anyone in academe to establish the author’s position in the literary canon.”

STOLEN TIME Q&A schedule.

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Stolen Time Q&A schedule:
(1) Thursday 10/17, Royal, 7:20pm
(2) Friday 10/18, Glendale, 7:30pm
  • Moderator: Laura Nix
  • Panelists: Melissa & filmmaker Helene Klodawsky
(3) Saturday 10/19, Glendale, 7:30pm
  • Moderator: Lydia Storie (Caring Across Generations)
  • Panelists: Astrid Zuniga from (United Domestic Workers), Melissa & Helene
(4) Sunday 10/20, Glendale, 12:45pm
  • Moderator: Astrid Zuniga (United Domestic Workers)
  • Panelists: Rachel Tate (Vice President, Ombudsman Services at WISE & Healthy Aging), & Melissa

RULE OF TWO WALLS Q&A schedule.

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Rule of Two Walls filmmaker David Gutnik will participate in Q&A’s after the October 22 and 25-27 screenings at the Laemmle Royal and the October 23 screening at the Laemmle Glendale. The moderators:
Tuesday, October 22 ~ Sharon Stone
Wednesday, October 23 ~ Marina Mazepa
Friday, October 25 ~ Yan Gordienko

Saturday, October 26 ~ Vlad Klimchuk

Sunday, October 27 ~ Amman Abbasi

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New Inside the Arthouse Episode Today: STRIPPED FOR PARTS: AMERICAN JOURNALISM ON THE BRINK.

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Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink documents a crisis: Hedge fund Alden Global Capital is quietly gobbling up newspapers across the country and gutting them. No one knows why, until journalist Julie Reynolds begins to investigate. Her in-depth reporting, over several years, triggers rebellions across the country by journalists working at Alden-owned newspapers. Backed by the NewsGuild union, the newsmen and women go toe-to-toe with their “vulture capitalist” owners in a battle to save and rebuild local journalism in America. Who will control the future of America’s news ecosystem: Wall Street billionaires concerned only with profit OR those who see journalism as an essential public service and the lifeblood of our democracy?

We open Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink this Friday at the Royal. Filmmaker Rick Goldsmith will participate in Q&As following the 4:10 and 7:10 PM screenings on Saturday, October 5.

The latest episode of Inside the Arthouse, hosted by Laemmle Theatres President Greg Laemmle and Emmy award-winning director-actor Raphael Sbarge, is all about Stripped for Parts. You can hear it wherever you get your podcasts or right here on YouTube. (Also, watch for an Inside the Arthouse episode with The Outrun filmmaker Nora Fingscheidt this Friday!)

FOOD AND COUNTRY Director Laura Gabbert: “Ruth [Reichl] and I set out to follow the unfolding stories of innovators in every corner of America experimenting to transcend a broken food system.”

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Ruth Reichl—trailblazing New York Times food critic, groundbreaking Gourmet Magazine editor, best-selling memoirist, and, for decades, one of the most influential figures shaping American food culture—grows concerned about the fate of small farmers, ranchers, and chefs as they wrestle with both immediate and systemic challenges as the pandemic takes hold.

In Food and Country, Reichl reaches across political and social divides to discover innovators who are risking it all to survive on the front lines. As one person leads her to the next, she follows the unfolding stories of ranchers in Kansas and Georgia; farmers in Nebraska, Ohio, and the Bronx; a New England fisherman; and maverick chefs on both coasts. As she witnesses them navigate intractable circumstances, Reichl shares pieces of her own life, and, in doing so, begins to take stock of the path she has traveled and the ideals she left behind. Through her eyes, we get to know the humanity and struggle behind the food we eat. As Reichl says: “How we grow and make our food shows us our values– as a nation and as human beings.

Food and Country filmmaker Laura Gabbert will participate in Q&As after the 10/9 and 10/10 screenings at the Laemmle Monica Film Center and Glendale. The regular engagement at the Royal begins on October 11.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

“What drives me as a filmmaker is finding ways to put us inside, to humanize someone else’s experience; in short to connect us. My own instincts lead me back to food stories again and again because they’re a rich prism through which to understand culture and our relationships to each other. Food is a conduit, a vehicle that connects people to people, and people to culture.

“My 2015 documentary, City of Gold, is about the late Jonathan Gold, the first food writer to win a Pulitzer Prize for criticism. Jonathan’s writing gave me a way to understand and love Los Angeles. He wrote about restaurants and food as the gateway to connection and empathy across perceived boundaries in a city bursting with multiple cultures and ethnicities. In my next culinary film, Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles, decadent cakes became an expression and critique of contemporary excess, and laid bare our longing for community in a world of inequity and exclusion. Food and Country, my third food foray, was prompted by Covid, but it’s not actually about Covid; it’s about the people behind our food. Transcending blue state/red state politics, their resilience and ingenuity are the heart of this film.

“In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, I saw that independent restaurants were the canary in the coalmine and began to worry about the restaurant owners, chefs, and workers with whom I had grown close while making City of Gold. Knowing so many people in the food world with urgent, compelling stories that needed to be told, I felt I had to document their plight. How they would adapt to survive. I wondered how the potential loss of these businesses would change the fabric of our communities and cities.

“Just as I was preparing to film struggling Los Angeles restaurants, storied food writer Ruth Reichl reached out to me and said, “I hear we’re working on something similar. Let’s talk.” Ruth was taking a bigger picture approach to the crisis — grasping right away the devastating impact the pandemic could have on the entire food chain. Ruth and I quickly decided to join forces and began reaching out to pivotal players in food through video calls. Ruth’s stellar reputation as chronicler and voice of American food culture for the last four decades opened doors, but everywhere we turned, it was Ruth’s authenticity, curiosity, and warmth that inspired trust and elicited truth telling. People across the front lines of the food chain and political divides — from the most celebrated chefs, to food equity activists, to farmers and ranchers— wanted to talk with her. And, we would soon learn, they also wanted to open up and confide in her, and even seek solace. But the connection between Ruth and our characters is a two-way street. Just as they rely on Ruth, so too does Ruth lean on them for insight and closeness.

“Ruth and I set out to follow the unfolding stories of innovators in every corner of America experimenting to transcend a broken food system. Collectively their story is the story of all independent businesses fighting to survive an ever-consolidating industry. Their stories also hold up a mirror. How we make and grow our food tells us who we are as a country, who we are as human beings.” — Laura Gabbert