May 5, 2013

Get thee to A CLOSE LOOK AT ORPHAN FILMS, 10 & 11 de mayo

Cinco de mayo 2013

OMG! It's nearly time for the third iteration of what some Angelinos call "Orphans West." As happened in May 2009 at the Silent Movie Theater with The Cinefamily and Los Angeles Filmforum, and in May 2011 at the UCLA Film & Television Archive's Billy Wilder Theater, this year the Academy is teaming with the NYU Orphan Film Symposium to bring a variety lineup of orphan films to Los Angeles. They call it The Real Indies: A Close Look at Orphan Films.

May 10, 8pm PORTRAIT OF JASON (1967) new restoration by the Academy Film Archive and Milestone Films. With guest speakers Robert Fiore (one of the very few crew members present for Shirley Clarke's all-night shoot with Jason), Oscar-winning documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, and critic Elvis Mitchell.


Simply a great film.

May 11, 10:30 am til 11pmish -- More than 25 films and excerpts + lunch for a mere $15!
Reviving neglected works ranging from Penelope Spheeris's unseen student short (SHIT, 1969) to Jim Hoberman's experimental political essay film MISSION TO MONGO (1978 -- did you know the great critic J. Hoberman made films?) and Jon Boorstin introducing his beautiful EXPLORATORIUM (1974). Plus steam punk-archivist Dino Everett demonstrating a rare but functioning 16mm sound-on-disk projector from 1929. Plus the golden-tongued  Rick Prelinger talks about his new production NO MORE ROAD TRIPS? Plus trailer, snipes, home movies, re-creations of home movies, small-gauge and 70mm films, the debuts of several new preservation projects, and brands few have heard of, like Auroratone and Bristolphone.


Newly added to the lineup:  a tribute to Les Blank, with his first film RUNNING AROUND LIKE A CHICKEN WITH ITS HEAD CUT OFF (1960, made at the University of Southern California), print courtesy of Flower Films, and an excerpt from David Silberberg's documentary OH MY GOD! IT'S HARROD BLANK (2008).  (Last-minute thanks to Harrod and David for their timely help.)


So SoCal friends: Buy tickets now, please!  The evening screenings will be especially hot tickets, it seems.


Linwood Dunn Theater -- 1313 Vine Street --  Hollywood

a co-presentation 
of 
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 
and 
New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and Department of Cinema Studies



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