The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

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The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

ROSENWALD Filmmaker Aviva Kempner in the Forward: “To me, Julius Rosenwald is the best antidote to Donald Trump.”

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Aviva Kempner’s Rosenwald, which we open at the Royal, Playhouse and Town Center on August 28th and the Claremont on September 5th, is the incredible story of Julius Rosenwald, who never finished high school but rose to become the president of Sears. Influenced by the writings of the educator Booker T. Washington, this Jewish philanthropist joined forces with African American communities during the Jim Crow South to build over 5,300 schools during the early part of the 20th century. The film sheds light on this silent partner of the pre-Civil Rights Movement. Rosenwald awarded fellowship grants to a who’s who of African American intellectuals and artists including: Marian Anderson, James Baldwin, the father and uncle of civil rights leader Julian Bond, Ralph Bunche, W. E. B. DuBois, Katherine Dunham, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Gordon Parks, Jacob Lawrence and Augusta Savage along with Woody Guthrie. Inspired by the Jewish ideals of tzedakah (charity) and tikkunolam (repairing the world) and a deep concern over racial inequality in America, Julius Rosenwald used his wealth to become one of America’s most effective philanthropists. Because of his modesty, Rosenwald’s philanthropy and social activism are not well known today. He gave away $62 million in his lifetime.

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

In a Forward article titled “Is Julius Rosenwald Our Greatest Philanthropist,?” Ms. Kempner (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg) recently spoke about his latest film, saying “to me, Julius Rosenwald is the best antidote to Donald Trump. You see how pompous rich people can be, but Rosenwald is quite the contrary; he is one of the greatest examples for American Jews of tzedakah, tikkun olam , and repairing the world without fanfare — doing it just because he wants to make a difference.”

New York Times: “In WE COME AS FRIENDS, Hubert Sauper Takes Flight to Survey the Pain Below in Sudan.”

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Academy Award® nominated director Hubert Sauper’s WE COME AS FRIENDS, which we are proud to open at the Royal, Playhouse and Town Center on Friday, August 21, is a modern odyssey, a dizzying, science fiction-like journey into the heart of Africa. At the moment when the Sudan, the continent’s biggest country, is being divided into two nations, an old “civilizing” pathology re-emerges – that of colonialism, the clash of empires, and new episodes of bloody (and holy) wars over land and resources. The director of DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE takes us on this voyage in his tiny, self-made, tin and canvas flying machine. He leads us into improbable locations and into people’s thoughts and dreams, in both stunning and heartbreaking ways. Chinese oil workers, U.N. peacekeepers, Sudanese warlords, and American evangelists ironically weave common ground in this documentary, a complex, profound and bitterly humorous cinematic endeavor.

On July 31, the New York Times published Nicolas Rapold’s fascinating piece about the film in their Sunday Arts & Leisure section. Here’s how it starts:

There’s no shortage of jaw-dropping moments in Hubert Sauper’s new film, “We Come as Friends,” an illustrated essay on contemporary colonialism. But the most haunting may be a lightning-streaked nighttime visit to a South Sudanese tribal leader. Mr. Sauper brandishes a copy of a contract to confirm a terrible truth, and the leader’s moistening eyes and dejected bearing say everything. The old man has signed away hundreds of thousands of acres of land to a Texas firm.

“This was history unfolding in its best and most sarcastic form in front of my camera. And then the storm came,” Mr. Sauper said in a Skype interview from Paris. “As a filmmaker, it’s too good to be true. And it’s terrifying.”

It’s one example of how Mr. Sauper, the Austrian-born director of “WeCome as Friends,” portrays complicated contemporary realities through vivid and industrious reportage. Ten years ago his Academy Award-nominated documentary, “Darwin’s Nightmare,” sifted through the wreckage of globalization by way of the fishing export industry in Lake Victoria, the impact on local Tanzanians, and a fast-and-loose subculture of Russian cargo-plane pilots.

Read the rest of the piece here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0MgQLk2OCQ

Anniversary Classics + Tribute Screening: DOCTOR ZHIVAGO in Honor of Omar Sharif

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As a tribute to Omar Sharif, who passed away last month, we present a 50th anniversary screening of DOCTOR ZHIVAGO at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, August 19th at the Royal. Los Angeles Film Critics Association President Stephen Farber will introduce the film.

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This lush romance directed by David Lean (a two-time Oscar winner) was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 1965 and won five — best adapted screenplay (by Robert Bolt), cinematography, art direction, costume design, and music (by Maurice Jarre). Nobel Prize-winning author Boris Pasternak wrote the international best-selling novel and, when receipts are adjusted for inflation, the film version is one of the top grossing films of all time. In addition, when the American Film Institute named the 100 greatest romantic films in history, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO finished in the top ten.

Set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution, Sharif plays the title character, a physician and poet who, although married to someone else, falls in love with another man’s wife and experiences hardship during the First World War and then the October Revolution. The film features an all-star cast headed by Julie Christie, Rod Steiger, Geraldine Chaplin, Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson, Tom Courtenay, and Rita Tushingham, in addition to Sharif, who had been introduced to Western audiences in Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia three years earlier.

Sharif went on to star in Funny Girl, The Tamarind Seed, Juggernaut, Monsieur Ibrahim, and many other films. Take advantage of a rare opportunity to see this sweeping romantic epic on the big screen!

Click here to purchase tickets.

TOP SPIN: Ping Pong Exhibition and Table Giveaway!

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ts-posterAn inside look at the offbeat sport of ping pong, the new documentary TOP SPIN turns one of America’s favorite pastimes on its head and reveals a coming-of-age story where success and failure come down to mere millimeters.

Laemmle Theatres and First Run Features are planning special events for our TOP SPIN screenings, including:
– Raffle to Win an Olympic Quality Ping Pong Table!
– Live Ping Pong Exhibitions by Elite Players
– Lots of Q&A’s

Click here to buy tickets to see TOP SPIN!
 

RAFFLE

Everyone who attends ANY screening of TOP SPIN at Laemmle will be given a FREE RAFFLE TICKET to win a top-of-the-line JOOLA Ping Pong Table! This is a  tournament-tested refurbished Olympic-quality table that has been used by the pros.  JOOLA lists this item at approx. $1400.  We will have a sample table at the Playhouse from August 19 to 23.

Grand prize:
JOOLA 3000SC Table Tennis Table, the Official Table of USATT. The JOOLA 3000SC is an ITTF approved high quality centerfold table. It has four heavy-duty durable wheels serving the undercarriage, which is made of powder-coated metal and contains a 50 mm metal frame under its Olympic-quality 22 mm fast playing surface. The 3000SC also boasts adjustable, solid rubber levelers underneath each corner leg and includes a professional quality WM net.

JOOLA will ship the table directly to the winner anywhere in the continental United States.

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Runner up prizes:

Joola Hit Set Table Tennis Set: Four JOOLA Hit rackets with eight balls.

Joola Falcon Set: High end recreational racket with a protective racket case.

For official Raffle Rules, click here.
 

PING PONG EXHIBITONS

Elite ping-pong players will be at the Playhouse 7 for Q&A’s and LIVE PING PONG EXHIBITIONS at select Top Spin screenings:

Fri. 8/21: 6:30pm – 7:00pm and 9:15pm to 9:30PM* (at the Paseo next to the box office)
Sat. 8/22: 6:30pm – 7:00pm and 9:15pm to 9:30PM* (at the Paseo next to the box office)
Sun. 8/23 – 6:30pm – 7:00pm and 9:15pm to 9:30PM* (location TBD)

* Before and after the 7:30pm screening of Top Spin

Players include 2012 Teenage Olympian ERICA WU and U.S. National Team member, GRANT LI, as well as professionals KIM GILBERT and ADAM BOBROW.

 

Clockwise, from top-left: Erica Wu, 2012 U.S. Olympian; Grant Li, 2015 U.S. National Team Member; Adam Bobrow, Professional Ping Pong Player and Actor; Kim Gilbert, Professional Ping Pong Player
Clockwise, from top-left: Erica Wu, 2012 U.S. Olympian; Grant Li, 2015 U.S. National Team Member; Adam Bobrow, Professional Ping Pong Player and Actor; Kim Gilbert, Professional Ping Pong Player

 

Q&A’S

Playhouse 7 Q&A’s: 

Wed 8/19: Filmmakers Mina T. Son & Sara Newens + Teenage Olympian Erica Wu in Person

Fri 8/21: Filmmakers Mina T. Son & Sara Newens + Teenage Olympian Erica Wu in Person

Sat 8/22: Filmmaker Mina T. Son & Teenage Olympian Erica Wu in Person

Sun 8/23: Filmmaker Mina T. Son & Teenage Olympian Erica Wu in Person

Weekday Q&A’s: 

Mon 8/24 (NOHO 7) : Filmmaker Mina T. Son in Person

Tues 8/25 (ROYAL): Filmmaker Mina T. Son in Person

Wed 8/26 (CLAREMONT 5): Filmmaker Mina T. Son in Person

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=539TOEBuPqM

Acclaimed New Indian Film COURT, Opening August 14th, Featured in the New Yorker: “The Endless Indian Trial.”

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Winner of top prizes at the Venice and Mumbai film festivals, Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court is a quietly devastating, absurdist portrait of injustice, caste prejudice, and venal politics in contemporary India. An elderly folk singer and grassroots organizer, dubbed the “people’s poet,” is arrested on a trumped-up charge of inciting a sewage worker to commit suicide. His trial is a ridiculous and harrowing display of institutional incompetence, with endless procedural delays, coached witnesses for the prosecution, and obsessive privileging of arcane colonial law over reason and mercy. What truly distinguishes Court, however, is Tamhane’s brilliant ensemble cast of professional and nonprofessional actors; his affecting mixture of comedy and tragedy; and his naturalist approach to his characters and to Indian society as a whole, rich with complexity and contradiction. —New Directors/New Films

court

The New Yorker recently published this excellent appraisal of the film with background information about the scandal of India’s infamously slow justice system. It’s not required reading before seeing Court, but it’s informative — and shocking — nonetheless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0I6jtTXVco

CicLAvia! Culver City Meets Venice this Sunday 9 to 4!

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Our favorite civic event, CicLAvia, returns this Sunday, this time with a route that connects two great places: Venice Beach and Culver City. Bicycle, walk, run, dance, scoot or engage in some novel combination of these without looking over your shoulder for two-ton rolling exoskeletons (AKA cars). The weather forecast looks lovely and it’s a great opportunity to get some pleasant exercise and explore another unique part of our city at a human pace.

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BRIDGING THE DIVIDE: TOM BRADLEY AND THE POLITICS OF RACE Screenings Next Week with Q&A’s

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tombradleyBRIDGING THE DIVIDE: TOM BRADLEY AND THE POLITICS OF RACE tells the story of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, the first African American mayor elected in a major American city with an overwhelmingly white majority. His extraordinary multi-racial coalition redefined Los Angeles, transformed the national dialogue on race and set the foundation for elections of minority candidates nationwide, including President Barack Obama.

We will be hosting two screenings of this documentary about this key figure in our city’s history, two of which featuring Q&A’s:

Q&A participants in Pasadena, August 11 at 7:30pm:

  • Lyn Goldfarb, Producer, Director, Writer
  • Alison Sotomayor, Producer, Research Director, Writer
  • Robert Farrell, City Councilmember, 8th district from 1974-1991; Deputy to Councilmember Billy Mills (who represented South L.A.) during the Watts Riot.
  • Lorraine Bradley, Tom Bradley’s eldest daughter
  • Christopher Jimenez y West, Film Advisor, Assistant Professor, History, Pasadena City College

Q&A participants at the Town Center 5 in Encino, August 13 at 7:30pm:

  • Lyn Goldfarb, Producer, Director, Writer
  • Alison Sotomayor, Producer, Research Director, Writer
  • Robert Farrell, City Councilmember, 8th district from 1974-1991; Deputy to Councilmember Billy Mills, who represented South L.A., during the Watts Riot.
  • Lorraine Bradley, Tom Bradley’s eldest daughter

 
Click here to purchase tickets

The Trust for Public Land Opens a New Public Park This Weekend in Echo Park. Join Greg Laemmle at the Grand Opening.

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Since 1972, The Trust for Public Land has protected more than 3 million acres and completed more than 5,200 park and conservation projects. This Saturday our friends at TPL will open a new pocket park in Echo Park.

ca-patton-street-park-plan-2014The Patton Street Park and Community Garden is a .4-acre site adjacent to a City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Community Center. Local families with small children had to look elsewhere for places to play, but this park will meet the huge demand for outdoor play areas in the neighborhood. Amenities include a playground, fitness equipment, and small picnic area and community garden. The fenced park will be open from sunrise to sunset and will be operated by the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.

The grand opening is Saturday, August 1st at 10:30am. Greg Laemmle will be in attendance representing the Laemmle Charitable Foundation, a long-time TPL supporter. We hope to see you there.

Patton Street Park and Community Garden
317 Patton Street
Los Angeles, CA 90026