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Filmmaker Q&A’s for New Nutria Doc RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE.

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RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE filmmakers Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer plus animator Mike Glum will participate in a Q&A at the Monica Film Center after the 8 PM screening on Friday, September 14. Costello and Springer will return for a Q&A after the Saturday, September 15 8 PM show.

https://vimeo.com/237653627

A HAPPENING OF MONUMENTAL PROPORTIONS Director Judy Greer in Person for Q&A’s.

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A HAPPENING OF MONUMENTAL PROPORTIONS director Judy Greer will participate in Q&A’s after the 7 PM screenings at the Fine Arts and the 8 PM screenings at the Monica Film Center on Friday and Saturday, September 21 and 22.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1MmpxUbY4k&t=2s

LAEMMLE LIVE presents: Street Symphony’s Las Colibrí September 23

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RSVP ON EVENTBRITE
This is a Free Event

Please join us for a very special event as LAEMMLE LIVE presents Las Colibrí, Street Symphony’s Mariachi Ensemble-in-Residence, Sunday, September 23, 2018.  The program will be hosted by Benjamin Shirley, Street Symphony’s first Composer Fellow. Featured songs will include Sones En Tacones, Cancion Mexicana, Sabor a Mi, La Madrugada, Lena de Pirul, Si nos Dejan, Jesusita en Chihuahua, Popurri Linda Rondstadt, Volver Volve and Guantanamera/La Bamba.

Street Symphony places social justice at the heart of music making by creating authentic, powerful engagements between professional and emerging artists and communities disenfranchised by homelessness and incarceration in Los Angeles County. Street Symphony operates with the core principle that all people deserve access to a creative and expressive life. Founded in 2011, Street Symphony has presented nearly 400 free, world-class musical engagements for severely disenfranchised communities affected by homelessness and incarceration in Los Angeles County. Comprised of a grassroots community of over 70 world class musicians, Street Symphony ensembles present regular monthly programs at Skid Row shelters and county jails. Since 2015, Street Symphony has presented a yearly performance of The Messiah Project, a nationally acclaimed community performance of excerpts of Handel’s Messiah at The Midnight Mission in Skid Row, featuring stories and performances from people affected by and recovering from homelessness in LA County.

In 2017, supported by a generous grant from the S. Mark Taper Foundation, Street Symphony launched the Daniel Chaney Teaching Artist program, pairing professional artists with members of the homeless community in an effort to amplify the voices and artistry of the Skid Row community.

Street Symphony
Vijay Gupta: Founder and Artistic Director/Violin
Jazmín Morales: Coordinator, Street Symphony Mariachi Ensemble/Violin

RSVP USING EVENTBRITE
This is a Free Event
Sunday, September 23, 2018
11:00 AM
Monica Film Center

Keanu Reeves & Winona Ryder’s DESTINATION WEDDING Opens at the Monica Film Center August 31.

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Director’s Statement, Destination Wedding:

I have always loved grumpy people — the less self-edited the better. They seem  fearless; they make you laugh and they make you think. And if you ask enough questions, you find that sometimes there are excellent reasons for their grumpiness. Life, after all, does hand out its injuries.

None of which is to say that grumpiness makes for a good long-term plan. Without  at least a little hope and optimism, life gets pointless in a hurry. And so grumpy people present a question, in real life and, sometimes, in stories: can they heal? Do they still care to try? The struggle of hope versus experience is high-risk and valiant. It can be funny and even joyful. I root for these people. Sometimes, I’m sure I’m one of them.

Take two really grumpy strangers, then — smart ones with very painful pasts, whose idealism has been beaten into a thin paste. Throw them together in such a situation that their grumpiness makes them instant pariahs, as for instance a destination wedding — a weekend-long, unrelenting proclamation of other people’s happiness. They cannot participate in this joy-fest anymore than they can participate in life itself, which is always going on over there somewhere, just out of reach. They hate each other and they hate themselves. They hate the bride, they hate the groom, and they have horrible histories with both. And with others in the wedding party. They have come only because they had to; they were invited only because they had to be. Nobody wants them there, least of all them, and as a result they are seated together at every event in what is, for them, 72-hour marathon of pain. Make them tresspassers in paradise, fish who have been taken out of water and plunged into some other awful, toxic liquid. Stretch their tolerance beyond its limits, watch them thrash about, let them air all their grievances.

And then, see them recognize a spark in each other, and feel one within themselves.What will they do with it, if anything? Embrace it or turn away? Are they just too far gone to try? Is it wiser, and safer, and calmer, and better, to stay hopeless?

Maybe we’re all battlers at our core. Maybe we know that capitulation equals a  kind of death. Maybe the struggle is worth it. Maybe not. There are no easy answers. But, as always, it’s the question that matters.

I’m deeply indebted to Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder, who mastered a mountain of material, threw their big hearts and big talents into it, and shot a feature film in nine and a half summer days. And I’m so grateful to Gail Lyon, Elizabeth Dell, Giorgio Scali, Callie Andreadis, William Ross, Matt Maddox and so many other wonderful artists working behind the cameras and behind the scenes. Independent films defy the odds by virtue of their very existence, and no one gets to the theater without wonderful creative partners like them.

Thank you for coming to see Destination Wedding. I hope you enjoy it.

–Victor Levin, Writer-Director, August 2018

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

ART IN THE ARTHOUSE presents: ISABELLA KELLY-RAMIREZ: WHO IS SHE? in Santa Monica

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Laemmle’s Art in the Arthouse presents ISABELLA KELLY-RAMIREZ: WHO IS SHE? Explore the bold, dynamic works of Kelly-Ramirez on Wednesday, September 5 in our intimate theatre setting. Our special event features a slideshow on the big screen, artist talk, and refreshments. Meet Isabella and stay for the wine, cheese, and conversation Art in the Arthouse is known for. A portion of the sales benefit the Laemmle Foundation and its support of humanitarian and environmental causes in Los Angeles.

About the Exhibit

Isabella Kelly-Ramirez creates paintings and collages that introduce a host of fascinating females. Modern-day saints and superheroes, champions of the avant-garde, and fashionable figures to be reckoned with; these are icons of a new mythology from the imagination of the artist. Her arresting collages are playful acts of defiance. Kelly-Ramirez coopts images from fashion and art magazines, repurposing them to create surreal urban legends and ironic emblems of commercialism.

The works address the unattainable standards of beauty in fashion and life by reconstituting mainstream imagery into something quirkier and more humane. Kelly-Ramirez’s visual world continues in the striking paintings framed in soft sculpture. Bright, colorful portraits of humanoid figures appear in whimsical, unearthly settings. Somehow this creative, alternative place is more human, more generous, and more authentic than our curated “reality.”

Isabella Kelly-Ramirez lives and works in Los Angeles. Born in Santa Barbara, she has been involved in the art and theatre communities since she was a child. She received her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2008 and works primarily in painting, collage, soft sculpture, and assemblage—with a pop surrealist flair.

– Stacey Ravel Abarbanel, Curator

Artist Reception

RSVP HERE

MONICA FILM CENTER
Wednesday, September 5, 7-9pm
1332 2nd Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Refreshments will be provided

 

 

LAEMMLE LIVE presents: McCabe’s Guitar Shop Sunday, August 5

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RSVP ON EVENTBRITE
This is a Free Event

We are SOLD OUT
Email [email protected]
For wait list information

They’re back! Our good friends from McCabe’s grace us once again with their musical gifts on Sunday, August 5. LAEMMLE LIVE presents McCabe’s Guitar Shop for a free pop-up celebration of all things guitar and other choice instruments. McCabe’s renowned teachers and students share their wit and wisdom with lively performances and demos. Hosted by Head of Music School Denny Croy at the Monica Film Center.

It began in 1958. Furniture designer Gerald McCabe repaired guitars for his folk-singer wife’s musician friends who had no local music store. Gerald and his friend Ed Kahn decided to open a small music shop on Pico Blvd in Santa Monica. They began repairing instruments, selling folk music books and records, carrying Mexican guitars and old banjos. Word spread and local musicians began hanging out, relishing one of the only guitar shops in the Southern California area. One of those young musicians was Bob Riskin. Bob started as an employee in 1960. In the early 60’s lessons and classes were added. In 1969 McCabe’s began presenting live concerts. Bob Riskin became sole owner in 1986. Bob and his wife Espie are still running McCabe’s today! Over the years, musicians from all aspects of the musical spectrum, from gifted amateurs to seasoned professionals, have come to appreciate McCabe’s friendly, knowledgeable sales staff, expert repair shop and world class teaching staff.  Join us for memorable music from a local treasure!

EVENT DETAILS
Sunday, August 5, 2018
11:00 AM
Monica Film Center

RSVP USING EVENTBRITE
This is a Free Event

B-Movie Titan KING COHEN in Person for Q&A’s!

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KING COHEN subject-star Larry Cohen and director Steve Mitchell will participate in Q&A’s at the Fine Arts screenings on Friday and Saturday, July 20 and 21, at the NoHo screening on Monday, July 23, and at the Monica Film Center screening on Thursday, July 26. Actor-interviewee Laurene Landon will join them for the Friday screening. Filmmaker-interviewee Mick Garris and screenwriter-interviewee David J. Schow will join them for the Monday screening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPblr7nKaYw

ART IN THE ARTHOUSE presents: KIRK MANN: GAIA’S BLESSING at the Royal

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Check out ART IN THE ARTHOUSE‘s latest exhibit at the Royal, KIRK MANN: GAIA’S BLESSING. These exquisite photographs are for sale and on display till September, 2018. Stop by our gallery at the theatre, no need to buy a movie ticket to view our art.

About the exhibit
With awe and a reverence for nature, photographer KIRK MANN presents a unique artistic convergence. He envisions beauty, balance, birth, growth, decay, and dissolution as Gaia’s Blessing – where living organisms interact with their natural surroundings to form life-sustaining synergies. At age 19, Mann began to empathize with living beings in a whole new way. His insight enabled him to recognize the kinship of all life: mineral, plant, and animal. With camera in hand, he sought beauty in the early morning light. Determined to capture nature’s essence, his photography became his meditation on creation. Drawn to the spirituality and philosophy of the East, Mann has practiced acupuncture and Chinese medicine for over 20 years.

Additionally, he is a student of yoga, Asian Art, and has studied Chinese Art, and has studied Chinese calligraphy, brush painting, and Sumi-e with Tomi Ito Levin. Mann is also a singer and songwriter who has written and produced five albums, often integrating his photography and videography with his music. Based in Ventura, CA, the artist has exhibited in Ventura, Carpinteria, and Ojai. It’s not uncommon to feel an instant connection, as I did, with the photography of Kirk Mann. His intimate view of nature reminds us of our first explorations of the outdoors, when we appraised the world with fresh eyes and childhood wonder. Gaia’s Blessing invites us to take that journey once again.
-Tish Laemmle, CURATOR

Laemmle Royal
11523 Santa Monica Blvd.
West L.A., CA