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“Filmmaking allows me to recreate memories that tend to substitute for the reality that inspired them.” Mia Hansen-Løve on BERGMAN ISLAND, opening October 15.

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French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve’s latest, BERGMAN ISLAND, follows a couple of American filmmakers, Chris (Vicky Krieps) and Tony (Tim Roth), who retreat to the mythical Fårö island for the summer. In this wild, breathtaking landscape where Bergman lived and shot his most celebrated pieces, they hope to find inspiration for their upcoming films. As days spent separately pass by, the fascination for the island operates on Chris and memories of her first love resurface. Lines between reality and fiction progressively blur and strain the couple.

We open the film October 15 at the Claremont, Playhouse and Town Center, October 22 at the Glendale and Newhall, and October 29 at the Monica Film Center.

“I felt a new reverence for Hansen-Løve’s talent — she sweeps you up and brings the movie to a slow boil.” (Variety)

“Among other things, BERGMAN ISLAND is an ode to a female artist’s freedom to derive creative inspiration and sustenance where she chooses.” (Hollywood Reporter)

“A beautifully shot portrait of Bergman’s beloved island of Faro, the film is also a self-reflexive jeu d’esprit about gender, desire, creativity and the magic of cinema.” (Screen Daily)

Interview with writer-director Mia Hansen-Løve:

Do you believe in the power of landscapes?

I do – and that’s one of the things that drew me to Fårö. Oddly enough, these Swedish landscapes remind me those of Haute-Loire that I shot in Goodbye First Love. The happiness I felt in Fårö brings to mind childhood and teenage memories, although these are very different landscapes – the Baltic Sea on the one hand, Ardèche and the Loire River source on the other. But what they have in common is a wild, pristine quality, a silent atmosphere that invites you to a kind of meditation and that left an impression on my imagination.

Mia Hansen-Løve.

Is nature an inspiration to you?

It always has been. The pleasure, the emotion you feel when watching nature can easily go hand in hand with a character’s journey and inspire fiction in me. A landscape may trigger my writing – especially when I feel it’s haunted. That’s what happened with BERGMAN ISLAND. I felt drawn to this physical place, which is also a mental, inner place, naturally.

Vicky Krieps as ‘Chris’ in Mia Hansen-Løve’s BERGMAN ISLAND. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films Release.

The film is two-fold – it’s a film about love for cinema, and Bergman particularly, but also about a double love story. Why did you build the film like this?

I didn’t go about it theoretically – it just came to me as an obvious choice. BERGMAN ISLAND is probably my first film that somehow got written “all by itself”, without the pain I usually feel during the writing process. I felt like doors that had been locked so far were opening and that the island made it possible. For the first time, I felt I had the freedom to move playfully between different dimensions – past, present, reality within fiction or fiction within reality… The construction comes from the subject matter that could come down to two interconnected questions – that of couples and that of inspiration. When you deal with a filmmakers couple, how much of their dynamic is based on loneliness and how much on camaraderie? Where does fiction come from? How does it find its way into a script? I’d been wanting to make a film about this but it’s only when I thought of bringing these two filmmakers to Fårö and of using landscapes and Bergman’s world as a backdrop that the project came together. And as I decided to work from there, moving in one of Bergman’s houses and somehow experimenting the film I was writing, I found the structure – in other words, the two parts, a glimpse into the heroine’s film-in-the-making, a painful first love experience without closure inspiring filmmaker Amy’s writing, the subsequent episodes that you can’t tell which part of the narrative they belong to – past or future, reality or fantasy… This confusion echoes my own writing process. I sometimes feel like filmmaking allows me to recreate memories that tend to substitute for the reality that inspired them.

Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth in Mia Hansen-Løve’s BERGMAN ISLAND.

Why did you pick Fårö?

On account of Bergman, naturally. Some ten years ago, I began developing a passionate relationship with his work, his life… I began feeling magnetically drawn to the island. Bergman directed some of his most famous films there and spent the last years of his life there. Remotely located in the middle of the Baltic Sea, the island embodies an ideal both terrifying and attractive, austere and exciting – it’s the ultimate place of absolute artistic integrity that I associate Bergman with. After he died in 2007, a book was published for the auction sale of his properties and all that they contained – it was Bergman’s will, considering it was impossible to divide his properties among his nine children. I held this book in my hands. The pictures of his paintings, of the rooms of his houses, of his objects echoing his everyday life didn’t make his work any less fascinating – all these things, whether highly personal or trivial, only added to the aura and the mystery of an island haunted by his work and his presence. And increased my desire to venture there… Luckily, Bergman’s legacy hasn’t been scattered. All of it was bought out at the last minute by a Norwegian businessman. He brought back all the objects into the houses, putting them each back where they belonged. He then started a Foundation with Linn Ullmann (Bergman’s and Liv Ullmann’s daughter) allowing artists and researchers from all walks of life, just as Bergman wished, to stay in one of the latter’s houses and work on a project that doesn’t necessarily have to be connected to his work. As far as I know, I’m the only one who worked on a script that is directly related to Bergman.

You said that you enjoyed the writing and the shooting as never before. Can you be more specific?

BERGMAN ISLAND is actually a film that, despite a few incidents, brought me unprecedented joy. Fårö was, and still is, a magical place. I’ve been there every year since 2015 to write, prep, and shoot, without ever tiring of it. I’d never been so elated as I prepped for a movie. First, I absolutely relate to the island’s timeless landscapes, stone walls, wildflowers, black sheep, countless birds. To the island’s harshness and silence. And I didn’t feel like Bergman’s presence was overwhelming, but it turned out to be both soothing and stimulating instead. Does it have to do with the fact that I’m not a genius able to make sixty films and have nine children? In no way have I ever felt in competition with Bergman. Although my film touches on the passion of filmmakers for his work, I’ve never tried to imitate it. I’ve always sought to do my own thinking, to find my own voice, and let myself be immersed in the films that I grew up with.

Mia Wasikowska.

Although the film is not about Bergman, the latter’s presence is palpable through the film’s mood, which raises very interesting issues, including the working of our imagination – it’s clear that our perspective on certain landscapes or places may be entirely shaped by how a filmmaker like Bergman has influenced it. Does our imagination belong to us or is it also shaped by films?

That’s what the film’s about – how a fantasy leaves such a mark on a place that it shapes our perspective on it. As the lady guide explains, Bergman’s Fårö Island existed before the actual Fårö. Bergman fell in love with the place because it echoed a landscape that had been on his mind for some time. But his Fårö is a rougher place than the one I discovered as I got to the island. Most importantly, he explores faces, and with him, you hardly see the actual places, the horizon or the sky, which have such an intense presence on the island. Bergman’s Fårö is a mental construct that tells about his obsessions and inner demons. So, when you’re there, this Fårö is both everywhere and nowhere…

Characters/Actors: Mia Wasikowska and Anders Danielsen Lie.

It’s actually what the film addresses – the Bergman diehards featured in the film are desperately seeking for a Bergmanian place that, by nature, is nowhere to be found.

It’s an impossible quest. But that’s also how I made the place my own, without being a prisoner of it. In this respect, going for the scope format, which Bergman had never used, was key. I’d only shot in this way for Eden as I don’t usually trust the format. In the end, what convinced us, Denis Lenoir, my cinematographer, and me, was that we could have a different perspective on the island. This format best did justice to what impressed me the most – the endless sea and sky, the very small number of houses, people, trees even – in essence, the void. Actually, the scope format came as an obvious choice at some point, but I experienced this option as a liberation. And really, the film’s about this liberation. BERGMAN ISLAND is an emancipation story. It’s about emancipation from our masters, but also about a woman’s emancipation from a man. It’s what the Chris character, who considers herself as vulnerable and dependent, finds out about her own creative force.

However, Chris must also free herself from the man she lives with in order to find her freedom…

If they must break up, then it should happen once the film is over. As a rule, I need to feel an off-screen space to be able to believe in my characters’ lives. If the film ends with closure, I don’t believe in their existence as much as if a sequel remained to be written… You may think the journey of this couple is bound to end, but what I was interested in was to show that there’s still some understanding between them. How can they journey on together, in spite of what drives them apart, of a gap widening because of their respective fictions? It all hangs by a thread, but it’s still there…

Chris seems to come to terms with Tony’s sometimes unpleasant attitude…

You can tell this couple’s connectedness and intellectual camaraderie are strong – they have an experience together. Besides, they have a child. But it’s not easy for an artist couple to find the right balance between dialogue and sharing that are desirable, on the one hand, and necessary loneliness, on the other. You need to accept to stay outside the mental space that only belongs to your partner. Some intimate things can only be entrusted to fiction – some confessions can only be made through it. Which may cause some pain – how can you figure out what is said, what is left unsaid? This echoes a more universal question – how well do you know the person you live with? When Chris lays claim to the mill, next to the main house, as her office, it points to her ambivalent relationship with Tony’s filmmaker self. It’s far enough for her to have a chance to forget about him and take hold of the place, and close enough to be able to sense him and watch him through the window… His own relationship to writing doesn’t seem to be as complicated, and he doesn’t seem to have to confide his doubts. But you can wonder if Tony’s resilience isn’t only shallow and if, deep down, his imperviousness isn’t a smokescreen for even greater vulnerability. Regardless, I don’t judge either of my two characters – I just bear witness to what they experience, to what happy and unhappy moments come out of it, and to what my heroine must do to come out on top. The film is about how something unlocks in Chris, how she embraces fiction, imagines a film – a film in the making that’s originally called The White Dress but that could also be named Bergman Island in the end…

“Coming out on top,” that’s just what happens throughout the film. You could think the film also portrays the awakening of self-confidence, of a calling you must pursue…

I’m obsessed with callings, and most of my films deal with them. But BERGMAN ISLAND goes about it in the most straightforward way – for the first time, it’s about a woman filmmaker. And even two, actually – Amy, Chris’s double in the fiction, does the same job. It’s a way for Chris to own up to the fact that in film, her life can inspire fiction, and that fiction can reflect life, like a ping-pong game, or two parallel mirrors reflecting the same story endlessly. This has always been my writing process and I thought it was exciting to try and portray it. To me, BERGMAN ISLAND is the culmination of a thinking process I began in my first film.

Can you tell us about the cast?

For a long time, Greta Gerwig was attached to the role of Chris. At the time, she hadn’t directed her first film yet. But reality surpassed fiction as Greta became a filmmaker in the meantime. Because of her commitment to Little Women, she had to say ‘no’ to my film as our shooting schedules overlapped. When Greta left the project, we were two months away from the shoot, in May 2018. She suggested I wait for her for a year, but if I delayed the shoot, I might lose Mia Wasikowska and Anders Danielson Lie, two actors I just love and without whom I couldn’t possibly consider doing the film! With my producer Charles Gillibert, we made a risky decision – especially for him – but which, I think, was the right one: we’d shoot half the film during summer of 2018 with Mia and Anders, and the second half the following summer. Luckily it didn’t take me too long to come up with a new idea for Chris. I’d just discovered Vicky Krieps in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, and I’d found her wonderful. Although she was unknown at the time, she stole the show from Daniel Day-Lewis. Her being half-German, half-Luxembourgish could give a European flair to the character, which I found interesting. In less than twenty-four hours, her name came as an obvious choice. Fortunately, she was available and, a few weeks later, Vicky was shooting her first scenes with us… Tim Roth joined the cast only the following year. Finding the right actor for this role was much more challenging. In the beginning, I could only consider an American actor for the role. And then I thought of Tim Roth. Not so much for his famous performances, his manly image, but rather for what eludes him, something almost feminine about his presence, far from the tough guys he likes to portray. There’s something both dark and fragile, something complex, about him that I like. Besides, Tim made The War Zone, a painful, challenging film – he has it in him and I think it shows. Shooting the film over two periods of time was a unique experience, we’ve tried to look at the whole thing with humor, to play with it, as in a balancing act…

Do you intend to go back to Fårö one day?

I’ll go back to present the film anyway when we can travel again. I owe a lot to some islanders and keepers of Bergman’s legacy that I can’t wait to meet again. But then again, it’s definitely a place that invites to dream, and I’d like to stay there again, to come across ghosts, to get lost there… and maybe to write there again. Probably not to write a sequel, but something different, why not?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrlVHVid-20

THE LOST LEONARDO, the Whole Story of the Most Talked About Painting of the Century.

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THE LOST LEONARDO is the inside story behind the Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million. From the moment the painting is bought for $1175 at a shady New Orleans auction house, and the restorer discovers masterful Renaissance brush strokes under the heavy varnish of its cheap restoration, the Salvator Mundi’s fate is determined by an insatiable quest for fame, money and power. As its price soars, so do questions about its authenticity: is this painting really by Leonardo da Vinci?

Unravelling the hidden agendas of the richest men and most powerful art institutions in the world, THE LOST LEONARDO reveals how vested interests in the Salvator Mundi are of such tremendous power that truth becomes secondary.

Now playing at our Encino and Pasadena theaters, this Friday we are expanding this fabulous documentary to our Claremont, Glendale, Santa Monica, Newhall, and North Hollywood venues as well.

DIRECTOR’S NOTES by Andreas Koefoed:

This is a film about the incredible journey of a painting, the Salvator Mundi, the Saviour of the World, possibly by Leonardo da Vinci. It is a true story, yet a fairytale worthy of H.C. Andersen: A damaged painting, neglected for centuries, is fortuitously rediscovered and soon after praised as a long-lost masterpiece of divine beauty. At its peak in the spotlight, it is decried as a fake, but what is revealed most of all is that the world around it is fake, driven by cynical powers and money.

The story lays bare the mechanisms of the human psyche, our longing for the divine, and our post-factual capitalist societies in which money and power override the truth. The painting becomes a prism through which we can understand ourselves and the world we live in. To this day there is no conclusive proof that the painting is – or is not – a da Vinci and as long as there is a doubt, people, institutions, and states can use it for the purpose that serves them the most.

Making this film has been a huge team effort. The producers, writers, editor, and DOP have worked side-by-side and devoted so much of themselves to the project. For that I am deeply grateful. It has been a fantastic voyage into secret worlds that are otherwise entirely inaccessible. Worlds in which anything can be bought and sold, where prestige, power, and money play out beneath the beautiful surface of the art world.

The main character is the painting. Brooding over it is its restorer, Dianne Modestini, who began working on it just after losing her husband, Mario, a world-famous restorer himself. For Modestini the restoration becomes a symbiotic process of mourning in which the painting and Mario at times become one. After she lets go of the painting, it is locked away in a freeport somewhere, leaving Dianne feeling alone, and criticized for her work. Did her restoration go as far as to transform a damaged painting into a Leonardo? She is forced to defend herself and her integrity, and seek closure on the painting and her grief.

What fascinates — and disillusions — me is that art is being used for economic speculation and as a token in political games. Art is a beautiful manifestation of human feelings and expressions throughout history. In my view, art belongs to humanity. Instead of being publicly accessible, it is hidden away in freeports and used for cynical and speculative purposes.

None of the prominent institutions involved in the story – The National Gallery, Christie’s, the Louvre, or states of France and Saudi Arabia – wanted to talk, perhaps unsurprisingly. The supposedly independent scientific and scholarly approach to the painting is under enormous political pressure. In the end, not only the painting is lost, but also the truth itself. The painting, a product of the very Renaissance that valued freedom of science and art, ultimately becomes a victim of vested interests and power games. As Jerry Saltz says in the film, the story is “a telling fable of our time.”

I hope the film will engage, surprise and intrigue the viewers who themselves become detectives in the story, leaving them with a question: What do I believe to be the truth?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS4NJgdPITk

UNAPOLOGETIC Follows Black Abolitionist Organizers as they Challenge a Complicit Chicago Administration After Two Police Killings.

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The new documentary UNAPOLOGETIC, opening September 3 at the Monica Film Center and on the Laemmle Virtual Platform, captures a tense and polarizing moment in Chicago’s fight for the livelihood of its Black residents. The film follows Janaé and Bella, two young abolitionist organizers, as they work within the Movement for Black Lives to seek justice for Rekia Boyd and Laquan McDonald, two young Black people killed by Chicago police. They aim to elevate a progressive platform for criminal justice to a police board led by Lori Lightfoot and a complicit city administration, while also elevating leadership by women and femmes. Laemmle Theatres opens UNAPOLOGETIC Friday, September 3 at the Monica Film Center and on the Laemmle Virtual platform.

UNAPOLOGETIC subject Bella Bahhs and director Ashley O’Shay will participate in Q&As at the Monica Film Center after the 7:40 screening on Friday, September 3 and after the 1 and 7:40 PM screenings on Saturday, September 4.

What follows is Ms. O’Shay’s artistic statement:

“In the winter of 2012, Rekia Boyd was just getting started in life. Her friends describe her as someone prone to smiles and laughter. She dotted her i’s with hearts, was a big Drake fan, and expressed herself freely on Facebook while trying to figure out her relationship status. In the winter of 2012, I was also just getting started. I was in my first year at Northwestern University’s film program and was one of less than ten Black people in my class. A slew of racist campus events caused me to feel further isolated and pushed me to begin speaking out about how racism affected my everyday. Slowly but surely, I began integrating these realizations into my art.

“If we don’t get it, shut it down!” Janae takes command at a downtown rally credit: Christine Irvine. 

“In March of that same year, Rekia was hanging out with her friends near her home when she was killed by a stray bullet. It took three years for the police officer who shot her to be brought to court, and after years of waiting for justice, it was deemed a mistrial. It seemed that he would walk away without being held accountable.

“Three years later, people of all ages from neighborhoods throughout Chicago came together to organize around their frustration. With nothing but a borrowed camera and monopod in hand, I joined the hundreds descending upon Chicago Police Headquarters to demand justice. The energy was electrifying. Black women on bullhorns stood in front of crowds leading the space. For the first time, I experienced a different narrative unfolding in the enduring struggle for Black freedom – one led by Black feminist voices. I couldn’t help but see myself in them.

Janae fights to be heard at Chicago Police Board meeting. Credit: Ashley O’Shay

“Shortly after, I began to document two of these voices: Janaé Bonsu, a 24-year-old pursuing her PhD in social work while also rising the ranks of a national activist organization; and Bella Bahhs, a 22-year-old “rap-tivist” from the Westside of Chicago whose artistry and activism seek to heal women harmed by intergenerational effects of incarceration – women like herself. Over the course of two and a half years, we watch as these women grapple not only with what it means to lead a mass movement, but also to enter early adulthood as Black, queer women.

Comrades get in formation to shut down a Chicago highway. Credit: Ashley O’Shay

“I have been a filmmaker for nine years now; Unapologetic is my feature film directorial debut. Five years after beginning production, we have completed the film. While this documentation was certainly important at the time of filming, it proves even more essential now, especially in light of the recent killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020. As Lori Lightfoot has become the first Black, openly-queer mayor of Chicago, mainstream media has championed her as a symbol of progressive growth. However, the current reality in the city counters that. After years of intentional work, organizers are working to educate the community around abolishing and divesting from policing, despite a new mayor bolstered by representative politics. Unapologetic intentionally centers the narratives of the Black queer feminist organizers who brought forth the progressive platform that set the stage for Chicago’s historic shift in leadership.

Janae’s mom speaks her truth. Credit: Ashley O’Shay

“I have always known and felt the presence of Black resistance in my life. However, the strong feminine leadership in the Chicago movement caused me to question where my history had been placed. How might my world have been different if I saw a young PhD student or a rapper that looked like me organizing a mass movement? Unapologetic has given me an opportunity to discover more about myself through this legacy of resistance, and take a more active role in it.

Bella and her auntie hit a Chicago step at the Black Soul Nation picnic. Credit: Ashley O’Shay

“What does one usually require of a Black movement leader? Certainly not femme. Certainly not queer. Certainly not flawed, or quick to anger, or overly opinionated. By focusing on this refreshing counter narrative within the Movement for Black Lives, I wanted to recognize this heroic and thankless work, catalyzing empathy, understanding, and hope in all viewers at such a critical time for Black lives.” — Ashley O’Shay

UNAPOLOGETIC director Ashley O’Shay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUPVLvL9Rsk

Movie Review Roundup: SEARCHING FOR MR. RUGOFF, THE MEANING OF HITLER, THE MACALUSO SISTERS, EMA.

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Our fine local daily could not cover some excellent recent films so we are mandating a quick recap of film critics’ assessments in other outlets to get these titles get a booster shot of attention:

SEARCHING FOR MR. RUGOFF: Owen Gleiberman of Variety called the film “an enthralling documentary that movie buffs everywhere will want to see… as essential as any chapter of “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.” Dean of American film critics Leonard Maltin wrote, “It’s rare that a documentary affects me on a personal level but this evoked a flood of memories. The film captures a time and place when movies really mattered to a whole generation. I’m not saying it was better or worse than it is today–just different.” Nicolas Rapold of the New York Times admitted he “got the warm-and-fuzzies from seeing the love here for moviegoing and exhibition, which [Rugoff] goosed with gonzo showmanship.”

THE MEANING OF HITLER: Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote, “we go into THE MEANING OF HITLER craving that millimeter of insight, of intrigue and revelation. And the film provides it. It ruminates on Hitler and the Third Reich in ways that churn up your platitudes.” “Myth-busting at its most vital,” wrote Sheri Linden of the Hollywood Reporter. Eric Kohn of Indiewire was forceful: “The movie isn’t just another cautionary tale; it’s a jagged intellectual wake-up call that cuts deep, and America can’t hear it enough.”
THE MACALUSO SISTERS: As of this writing, the new Italian film The Macaluso Sisters still boasts a rare “100% Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with praise such as: “Haunting and powerful.” (New York Times); “In just her second feature after the taut street-stand-off drama A Street In Palermo seven years ago, Dante sets a firm seal upon her cross-disciplinary emergence as a director of unusually vivid empathy.” (Variety); “Dante’s film, beautifully done, is never more resonant than when reminding us of the lingering impact of childhood drama and the devastating nature of childhood trauma.” (Times [U.K.]).

The L.A. Times did review the combustible new Chilean film EMA. Katie Walsh called Pablo Larraín’s (Jackie, Neruda) latest “a darkly sensual fable of motherhood and the modern family.” Hannah Strong of Hyperallergic wrote, “In an age of sanitized mainstream cinema, it’s thrilling to watch a film that revels in carnal pleasures.” Writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, Paul Byrnes called the film “mesmerising,” adding, “With a pulsing, angular reggaeton soundtrack from Chilean-American composer Nicolas Jaar, the film throbs and leaps rather than walks.” Check out EMA‘s red band trailer.

“My film is meant to be a tribute not only to one particular person, but all those who are fighting to keep theatrical cinema alive.” Ira Deutchman on his new documentary SEARCHING FOR MR. RUGOFF.

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We are proud to open Ira Deutchman’s excellent new movie about the American art film exhibition business, Searching for Mr.Rugoff, on Friday, August 13 at the Monica Film Center. In The New Yorker, Anthony Lane wrote, “Searching for Mr.Rugoff is an entertaining and instructive jaunt, and it bristles with small shocks.” In Owen Gleiberman’s Variety review, he described it as “an enthralling documentary that movie buffs everywhere will want to see…as essential as any chapter of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Ira wrote the following for us:

Searching for Mr. Rugoff, the documentary film that I made and that is opening around the country in August, is the story of a colorful and difficult person who personified the kind of characters who helped to create the art film business as we know it today. In focusing on this particular person, I in no way meant to imply that he was alone in these pursuits. In fact, the project originated as what I thought was going to be an oral history of the art film business as it matured in the 1960’s and 70’s. I ended up focusing on Rugoff because, as a former employee, it was a story that I thought I could tell, but I also interviewed a number of other key figures from that period including Dan Talbot, Meyer Ackerman, Randy Finley and Bob Laemmle.

The thing these folks all had in common was a love of movies and a keen awareness of the tastes and appetites of their own audiences. The business at that time was very much a local enterprise. The success of a particular cinema was a function of location, carving out a specific identity and having the creative energy to make people aware of what was playing. While the distributors would provide a menu of films and the materials to market them, it was up to the local exhibitors to engage directly with the audience. The best exhibitors were the ones who were the most creative in that endeavor. We refer to this now as “old fashioned showmanship,” but it was hardly old-fashioned at the time. It was a critical part of the business. This was even true for major studio films.

This all changed in 1975, when Jaws was released nationally and became a phenomenon. Distributors realized that a wide release, supported by national advertising, was more efficient and had more blockbuster potential than the slower local rollouts that had been the norm up until then. This effectively shifted the marketing responsibility from exhibitors to distributors and is the way most films are generally released to this day.

Independent Film Producer, Distributor, Marketer, Columbia University Professor and Cubs Fan Ira Deutchman.

The exceptions to this were and are the art houses, who never lost their energy or ability to market directly to a local audiences. Those of you who are patrons of Laemmle Theaters can see this firsthand, even if you were not aware of how rare this has become. The fact that you reading this right now is an indication that you have a direct relationship with the folks who are running these theaters. This doesn’t happen by accident.

My film is meant to be a tribute not only to one particular person, but all those who are fighting to keep theatrical cinema alive in the face of many obstacles and much negativity. That’s why I’ve made it available to the art houses as a benefit for their post-pandemic reopening. One hundred percent of your ticket dollars will go directly to support Laemmle Theaters. So come on out and lend your support and I hope you’ll find the film to be an inspirational and fun experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggphmtQSFBo

Documentarian Morgan Neville on Transforming 10,000 Hours of Very Raw Footage into ROADRUNNER: A FILM ABOUT ANTHONY BOURDAIN.

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ROADRUNNER is the latest from Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?). It’s unflinching look at chef, writer, adventurer, and provocateur Anthony Bourdain and it reverberates with his presence because it’s culled from 10,000 hours of raw footage from his TV shows. It’s “raw” in that most of it is from outtakes, but also in the sense that Bourdain’s technique to help his interview subjects open up was to get very personal with them first.

From Eric Kohn’s recent interview with Neville in Indiewire:

Q: How much footage do you estimate you went through?

A: There was anything from 60 – 100 hours of footage per episode. There were 96 episodes of “Parts Unknown.” That’s just “Parts Unknown.” Then there was “No Reservations” and “Cook’s Tour.” Not all the raw footage exists for those episodes, but it does for certain seasons. Of course, we didn’t go through all the footage, that would’ve taken years and years. We probably went through 10,000 hours. We had six of us all looking at footage, sometimes double-timed, because there was so much to go through. I love archive docs, and this was a unique one because the camera was always there and running. It becomes its own weird, interesting verite thing. It has a behind-the-scenes quality that feels raw, which I wanted to carry over into the telling of it.

Q: How did you narrow down the process?

A: We were going through footage for at least a year. Anytime there was an episode that he talked about or a crew member mentioned, we’d go through those episodes. There were definitely a number of episodes that were easy wins. A lot of the domestic ones. Or whenever Tony was on a beach. You can see that he’s in a different gear in those episodes. It’s pretty easy to tell early in a scene where Tony is phoning it in or actually wants to learn about a person. Those scenes floated to the top pretty quickly.

Q: Given how much of his shows were infused with his personality, what surprised you about the way he came across in this additional footage?

A: One of the biggest challenges early on was not to make the film feel like the show. Among the things that really surprised me was that he was fundamentally a shy person. Once you hear that, it makes sense — you can see that in him — but I don’t think it’s otherwise obvious. He overcame it in a big way, but there was always a part of him that was a little walled off.

When I was first talking to people who worked on the show, they would say, “Tony had this technique, and we didn’t know it was his technique.” When he was shooting a scene with someone he didn’t know, he would open up about himself in a really raw way. The crew would be sitting there wondering when he’d get to the point of speaking about the subject. Eventually he would, but by speaking about himself, he would get other people comfortable talking about themselves.

Of course, they cut all that stuff out of the show. But the raw footage has a lot of Tony revealing a lot about himself to people — knowing it was never intended for broadcast. It was part of who he was. I remember talking to David Simon about Tony and he said the first time he met Tony, the first thing he said was, “Oh, you’re from Baltimore. I tried to score heroin once there and couldn’t.” To which Simon replied, “Then you must have been a terrible junkie.”

Read Kohn’s full piece here.

This behind-the-scenes look at how an anonymous chef became a world-renowned cultural icon is enjoying universal acclaim:

“It feels like an essential document, created in the radical no-reservations spirit in which he lived.” ~ Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
“An intimate and fascinating portrait of the beloved celebrity chef and television globe-trotter. It is also, inevitably, a spiritual investigation into why his life ended.” ~ Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“It does what Bourdain’s work did: ROADRUNNER makes you want to jump on a plane, discover a new place, a new culture, eat a great meal, and make a new friend. What could be more valuable?” ~ Jason Bailey, The Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmtJFKMFU1c

The Soul Lift We Need: Joyous Music Documentary SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED) Opens July 2.

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In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary: part music film, part historical record, created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was never seen and largely forgotten–until now. SUMMER OF SOUL shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. The feature includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach and more. SUMMER OF SOUL won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for Feature Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Laemmle Theatres opens in July 2 at the Claremont, Glendale, Monica Film Center, Newhall, NoHo and Playhouse theaters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slFiJpAxZyQ&t=3s

Reviews have been rapturous:

“A joyous piece of filmmaking, something that I could have watched for literal hours, and contains quite simply some of the best concert footage ever put on film.” ~ Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

“SUMMER OF SOUL is as thoughtful as it is rousing, a welcome shot of adrenaline to kick off not just a film festival but a new year.” ~ Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter

Sly Stone performs at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, featured in the documentary SUMMER OF SOUL. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2021 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved

“You can come for the music and stay for the politics, or vice versa; either way, it’s a vibrant document of an inspiring event that never loses sight of what that event meant for a community, a city and a culture.” ~ Steve Pond, TheWrap

Nina Simone performs at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, featured in the documentary SUMMER OF SOUL. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2021 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved

“SUMMER OF SOUL stirringly captures the moment when a sea of people in Harlem heard a grand series of voices and said, Yes.” ~ Owen Gleiberman, Variety)

Mavis Staples and Mahalia Jackson performing at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, featured in the documentary SUMMER OF SOUL. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2021 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved

“Seething through the entire documentary, against the backdrop of a racially turbulent 1960s, is an insistence on a new kind of racial pride and unity across the diaspora, which infuses “Summer” with an honesty and realism.” ~ Tambay Obenson, indieWire

Gladys Knight & the Pips perform at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, featured in the documentary SUMMER OF SOUL. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2021 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved

“The lack of awareness of this event is another tragic example of black history being ignored. Only this time the record survived, and now we all get to share in it.” ~ Jordan Hoffman, Guardian)

Hugh Masekela performs at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, featured in the documentary SUMMER OF SOUL. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2021 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved

Masking at the Movies.

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Now that Laemmle Theatres is fully reopened — all eight theaters at 50% capacity — now is a good time for a reminder that masks are still required in our lobbies and auditoriums by all managers, staff, and customers. The CDC issues recommendations but the state and county have jurisdiction and both the California and L.A. County health departments continue to require that masks be worn indoors regardless of vaccination status. The only exception for moviegoers: when seated in an auditorium while eating or drinking. We are doing our best to supervise with signage and polite verbal reminders when necessary, and fortunately most of our patrons are being very conscientious.

On an individual level, the vaccines are superbly effective and epidemiologists are saying that people who are fully vaccinated should feel really safe and confident being out in public.

On a community level, however, we still haven’t vaccinated a large enough percentage of the population. And that’s not just about the vaccine hesitant. There are also 12-16 year olds who only recently became eligible.

So for the sake of our community, and to really squelch the transmission of the virus, please stay masked up for the time being.

Hopefully, it will be just a few more weeks.