Acropolis Cinema screens *Falling Leaves* (Otar Iosseliani, 1968), in a new 4K restoration presented by Alexandre Koberidze.

Saturdays's event will feature an introduction and post-screening Q&A with *Dry Leaf* director Alexandre Koberidze and composer Giorgi Koberidze.

∆

First screened at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, *Falling Leaves* tells the story of Nico, a technician starting out at a state-run wine collective. While his friend Otar adapts seamlessly, Nico refuses to pretend that bad wine can be bottled. He also falls for Otar’s girl. Iosseliani offers up poignant observations about the clash of generations, factory life, and romance in this witty and moral tale of an individual’s resistance to oppression.

~

Otar Iosseliani is one of Georgia’s most admired filmmakers who died two months before his 90th birthday in December 2023. His unconventional storytelling, anarchic style and underlying anti-authoritarianism did not suit the Soviet authorities and by 1982 Iosseliani had moved to Paris. His self-described “abstract comedies” explore human absurdity, observing behaviour rather than following a cohesive narrative. He didn’t like "intrusive" close-ups and his unique shooting style with complex movement of people, animals and objects led Ronald Bergan, writing in the Guardian, to describe him as the “true heir to Renoir, Tati and Buñuel.” (Institut français du Royaume-Uni)

TRT: 91 min

In person: Alexandre and Giorgi Koberidze

Alexandre Koberidze presents Falling Leaves (Otar Iosseliani, 1968)

2220 Arts + Archives

### **ABOUT THE FILMS:**

**THE GODFATHER, 1972, Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 175 Mins., Paramount, USA**

Francis Ford Coppola’s epic masterpiece features Marlon Brando in his Oscar-winning role as the patriarch of the Corleone family. Director Coppola paints a chilling portrait of the Sicilian clan’s rise and near fall from power in America, masterfully balancing the story between the Corleone’s family life and the ugly crime business in which they are engaged. Based on Mario Puxo’s best-selling novel and featuring career-making performances by Al Pacino, James Cann and Robert Duvall, this searing and brilliant film garnered ten Academy Award nominations, and won three including Best Picture of 1972.

FORMAT: 35mm

**THE GODFATHER PART II, 1974, Francis Ford Coppola, 200 Mins., Paramount, USA**

This brilliant companion piece to the original THE GODFATHER continues the saga of two generations of successive power within the Corleone family. Coppola tells two stories in Part II: the roots and rise of a young Don Vito, played with uncanny ability by Robert De Niro, and the ascension of Michael (Al Pacino) as the new Don. Reassembling many of the talents who helped make THE GODFATHER, Coppola has produced a movie of staggering magnitude and vision, and undeniably the best sequel ever made. Robert De Niro won an Oscar; the film received six Academy Awards, including Best Picture of 1974.

FORMAT: 35mm

THE GODFATHER / THE GODFATHER PART II

Aero Theatre

A double feature celebrating 1990s Shot-On-Video surreal horror, pairing Charles Pinion’s cult Cinema of Transgression landmark *Red Spirit Lake* with *Vick & Tarstar’s Scarecrow Factory*, a meta mumblegore nightmare from Brewce Longo of Blood Sick Productions. Both directors will be in attendance, followed by a Q&A hosted by Annie Rose Malamet of Girls, Guts, & Giallo.

### Red Spirit Lake (1993)

*Run Time:* 69 minutes

After a vengeful sorceress is tortured and killed by a corrupt industrialist seeking to harness the spectral powers of Red Spirit Lake, her niece arrives in snow-covered Angel Falls to settle her aunt’s estate.

A warped meditation on *The Old Dark House*, *Red Spirit Lake* erupts into a delirious storm of UFO abductions, witchcraft, frank nudity, castration, fatal fistings, slaughterous saunas, and psychotic surrealism. A cacophony of subversive hyper-violence and salacious sexual chaos unfolds against picturesque winter vistas, featuring performances by Cinema of Transgression icons Richard Kern, Holly Adams, Kembra Pfahler, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, and Tommy Turner, alongside an insurgent soundtrack with music by Cop Shoot Cop, Lydia Lunch, Clint Ruin, and The Lunachicks.

[TRAILER](https://youtu.be/1BCnVc3-Rt4)

### Vick & Tarstar’s Scarecrow Factory (2025)

*Run Time:* 91 minutes

Vick and Tarstar are shooting their latest trash-horror epic, *Scarecrowed*, with a cast and crew of punks, drug addicts, fetish models, and dumpster divers. As extra-hairy relationship drama, homelessness, vanishing funds, and quitting collaborators threaten to derail the production, the duo remains committed to telling their story.

Set within a deranged consumer fantasy, *Scarecrow Factory* asks a simple question: with the right bucket, can you too buy your own hair-cutting scarecrow made by the animatronic Goo Guys? A Blood Sick mumblegore nightmare by Brewce Longo and Kasper Meltedhair, the film features Erin Caywood, Nicole Elyse, Janice.Click, and SOV legends Hugh Gallagher and Tina Krause.

Charles Pinion and Brewce Longo are currently in preproduction on an upcoming collaborative feature, *Thousand Eyes*. Directed by Pinion and produced by Longo, the film will shoot in Philadelphia in May 2026 and will feature a mix of regular Blood Sick players alongside classic SOV figures.

Red Spirit Lake + Vick & Tarstar’s Scarecrow Factory

Brain Dead Studios

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

What if that date you thought would never end didn’t? When an uptown New Yorker innocently meets a downtown girl, he’s uncontrollably drawn into a vortex of wild, malevolent and paranoid adventures After Hours. Paul Hackett’s (Griffin Dunne) terrible night happens in the SoHo area of downtown Manhattan when he goes to keep a date with Marcy (Rosanna Arquette). Nothing in his humdrum life as a word processor has prepared him for his surreal encounters with Marcy; her far-out artist roommate Kiki (Linda Fiorentino); cocktail waitress Julie (Teri Garr); ice cream vendor Gail (Catherine O’Hara); and June (Verna Bloom), who lives in the basement of a nightclub. Now, Paul longs only for the safety of his upper-East Side apartment … but will he ever make it home?

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Park Circus

COUNTRY: USA

AFTER HOURS

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

The American Cinematheque is thrilled to celebrate the 5th anniversary of THE SPARKS BROTHERS with a special screening featuring filmmaker Edgar Wright and musicians Ron and Russell Mael in-person. Join us as we pay tribute to the duo’s remarkable 50-year career and the singular creative legacy they’ve built together cementing their status as pop-rock icons.

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

How can one rock band be successful, underrated, hugely influential and criminally overlooked all at the same time? Take a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers Ron and Russell Mael, celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks: your favorite band’s favorite band.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures

COUNTRY: UK/USA

Q&A with filmmaker Edgar Wright and Sparks (musicians Ron Mael and Russell Mael) 5th Anniversary

THE SPARKS BROTHERS

Egyptian Theatre

Gardena Cinema is the oldest and only vintage single-screen stand-alone movie cinema in Southwest Los Angeles.

Double Feature presentation of DRAG ME TO HELL (2009) and DARKMAN (1990).

DRAG ME TO HELL (2009)(PG-13)(Sat. 3/28)7:00pm & DARKMAN (1990) 9:00pm

Gardena Cinema

*Light Years Expanding* is a further elaboration of *Light Years*, Gunvor Nelson’s journey into the Swedish landscape in which she blends animation with live-action. Whereas movement was one of the prime characteristics of *Light Years*, *Light Years Expanding* revolves more around the image-work, foreshadowing her last and most complicated collage film *Natural Features*.—*Professor* *John Sundholm, Stockholm University*

Director: Gunvor Nelson.

“I was enormously impressed and bowled over by the beauty and artistry. It is one of the few films that I have ever seen that gave me the same feeling that I get when I see painting that I really respond to on a gut/heart level. The images are very powerful. The poetry and the subtlety of the content too. The editing/rhythms all seemed perfect. The sound track kept disappearing from consciousness (exactly right), but never stopped working with the pictures. Masterpiece.”—*filmmaker* *Robert Nelson*

Director: Gunvor Nelson.

*Field Study #2 *develops further Nelson’s painterly animation aesthetics. This time the imagery is not created by a recording camera after which they are reworked, but instead the images and sounds appear out of their own world. The soundtrack consists of animal sounds and a serious male voice reciting names of animals in Latin. It is a hilarious work that makes fun of the educational film and our expectations upon the film screen to constitute a window to an outer world.* Field Study #2* urges one to look and listen while emphasizing the comic and absurd, the latter a trait that runs through so much of Gunvor Nelson’s filmmaking and which was the impetus for her to start filming with Dorothy Wiley in the ’60s. The film ends with a thank you to Dorothy Wiley.—*Professor John Sundholm, Stockholm University*

Director: Gunvor Nelson.

“In *Natural Features*, Gunvor Nelson mingles hundreds of still images with 3-D objects and ‘real’ images photographed through glass layerings into a free-associative and playfully bizarre form of animation. Perhaps no film has more successfully blended an evident passion for painting with a sensitivity to filmmaking such as lush pigments alternate with and punctuate the different photographic layerings.”—*curator* *Steve Anker*

Director: Gunvor Nelson.

Gunvor Nelson Tribute III: Light Years Expanding

Hammer Museum

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Japanese with English subtitles.*

Based on the life and career of Fumiko Hayashi, the novelist whose work Naruse adapted to the screen several times, A WANDERER’S NOTEBOOK traces her bitter struggle for literary recognition in the first half of the twentieth century – her affairs with feckless men, the jobs she took to survive (peddler, waitress, bar maid) and her arduous, often humiliating attempts to get published in a male-dominated culture.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Toho

COUNTRY: Japan

35mm print courtesy of National Film Archive of Japan Series co-presented by The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles and The Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities ‘Mikio Naruse: An American Cinematheque Retrospective’

A WANDERER'S NOTEBOOK

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Georgian with English subtitles.*

An enchanting love story suffused with magic, this amiably ambling fable is fit-to-burst with hope and wonder. Alexandre Koberidze’s generous ode to romance wanders the sun-dappled streets of Georgia’s ancient Kutaisi with open arms, inviting its inhabitants—and their mysteries—into a warm embrace.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: MUBI

COUNTRY: Georgia/Germany

Q&A with filmmaker Alexandre Koberidze and composer Giorgi Koberidze. Moderated by Carlos Aguilar. ’Alexandre Koberidze: An American Cinematheque Tribute’

WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SKY?

### **ABOUT THE FILM: **

*In Georgian with English subtitles.*

A young man comes to the city from a village to audition for a dance company. He takes part in illegal, Underground street fights for money. He sleeps with men for money. He falls in love with a man. He starts to dance in a company. The man he loves goes to the war; the young man goes back to his village. The Film is interested in this story, but not less (if not more) in things happening around.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin

COUNTRY: Germany/Georgia

Introduction by filmmaker Alexandre Koberidze ‘Alexandre Koberidze: An American Cinematheque Tribute’

LET THE SUMMER NEVER COME AGAIN

Los Feliz Theatre

The Hot Box / Terminal Island

Behind the Green Door

New Beverly Cinema

The Brick is pleased to present two nights of Pope.L video works in partnership with Now Instant.

*Program to be announced.*

*Please note: seating is limited. Doors open thirty minutes prior to the listed showtime. Your RSVP does not guarantee you a seat. Seating is first-come, first-served.*

The Videos William Pope.L

Now Instant Image Hall

The world premiere of an original program that explores Henson's formally inventive and philosophically probing early works!

JIM HENSON: EXPERIMENTS IN VISUAL THINKING feat. THE CUBE — World Premiere!

Philosophical Research Society

The acclaimed collaborative artist duo Gibson + Recoder present the Los Angeles premiere of their most recent expanded cinema project, *The Changeover System: A Projection Performance Installation (2023–2025). *An ambitious live multi-projection based on Gibson + Recoder’s 20 years of experimentation with the projection of 35mm celluloid, *The Changeover System* repurposes film projectors from within the concealed projection booth in a practice they refer to as “prepared projection,” calling attention to the creative agency of the screening room itself.

*The Changeover System* was developed in close collaboration with sound artist Richard Garet. Whereas Gibson + Recoder disappear into the projection booth, Garet performs within the theater, amidst the audience, using amplified EMF emissions, modified audiocassettes, malfunctioning tape players, interactive circuit boards, sonification of light, and computer processing.

There will be a post-screening conversation with artists Gibson, Recoder, Garet and film programmer Jheanelle Brown.

*Please note: This program contains strobe and flashing lights.*

The Changeover System: A Projection Performance Installation

REDCAT

**Screenwriters**: Tom Patchett, Jay Tarses, Frank Oz

**Producers**: David Lazer

The gang is headed to Broadway in this toe-tapping installment of everyone&#8217;s favorite bunch of puppets. After they graduate college Kermie, Fozzie, Piggie and the rest of the gang want to take their musical review all the way to the Great White Way. Kermit heads out to find a producer and ends up slinging hash in a diner before a head injury and amnesia that lead him to big frog business. Will Kermit remember his friends in time for the show or end up a Wall Street Big Wig? Jam-packed with humor, thrills, puppets, toe-tapping tunes, and a slew of celebrity cameos from Gregory Hines to Joan Rivers, Elliot Gould, Brook Shields, and Liza Minelli, this is one Muppet adventure with Big Apple appeal!

**Picks from the Video Store**

Want more Jim Henson magic? We&#8217;ve got a section jam packed with every *Fraggle*, every *Muppet*, tons of *Sesame Street* and these deep cuts:

*The Storyteller, Mirrormask, Emmett Otter&#8217;s Jugband Christmas*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

The Muppets Take Manhattan

**Screenwriter**: Sooni Taraporevala

**Producer**: Mira Nair

A kaleidoscopic portrait of Bombay’s teeming street life, Mira Nair’s first narrative feature, *Salaam Bombay!, *combines a documentary-like sense of place with a poignant exploration of everyday resilience. After the young Krishna (Shafiq Syed) is cast out by his family, he makes his way to the city, where he encounters love, friendship, and tragedy in the face of extreme poverty. Drawing compellingly naturalistic performances from a cast consisting largely of children she met on the streets, Nair creates an intimate human drama that is by turns heartbreaking and life-affirming, an ode to childhood that overflows with colorful urban chaos and a deep compassion for those who live on society’s margins.

**Picks from the Video Store**

Take home more Mira Nair tonight &#8211; she&#8217;s got her own director&#8217;s section!

*Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding, Hysterical Blindness*

**Accessibility Options**: Open Captions, Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Salaam Bombay!

**Screenwriter**: Cate Shortland

**Producer**: Anthony Anderson

Following a reckless encounter with her mother’s boyfriend, teenage Heidi is forced to flee home and restart her life, finding refuge at a motel in the icy ski town of Jindabyne. There, she lands a job at a petrol station, befriends her warm co-worker Bianca, and meets Joe, a young man grappling with his own emotional baggage. As Heidi and Joe pursue a shaky relationship and search for normalcy against a bleak winter backdrop, they must confront their vices, feelings of isolation, and need for love and belonging. Cate Shortland’s stunning feature debut is a “frank and visceral film that at the same time exudes an unexpected innocence” (Los Angeles Times). Featuring early performances from Abbie Cornish and Sam Worthington, sheds light on the complexity of growing up and the quiet ache of loneliness.

*Somersault* has been restored by Piccolo Films from the original 35mm master negative and final mix master audio components. Restoration by Ray Argall in consultation with Anthony Anderson, Robert Humphreys, Sam Patty and Cate Shortland.

Somersault

**Screenwriter**: Jason Reitman from the novel by Christopher Buckley

**Producer**: David Sacks

Vidiots is thrilled to welcome writer/director **Jason Reitman** for a special 20th Anniversary screening of his addictive satire *Thank You for Smoking*, followed by a conversation with Reitman!

Based on Christopher Buckley&#8217;s acclaimed 1994 novel of the same title and adapted for the screen by Jason Reitman, *Thank You for Smoking* is a fiercely satirical look at today&#8217;s culture of spin! Aaron Eckhart stars as Nick Naylor, a sexy, charismatic spin-doctor for Big Tobacco who&#8217;ll fight to protect America&#8217;s right to smoke &#8211; even if it kills him. When he incurs the wrath of a senator (William H. Macy) bent on snuffing out cigarettes, Nick&#8217;s powers of &#8220;filtering the truth&#8221; will be put to the test. With a smokin&#8217; all-star cast that includes Rob Lowe, Maria Bello, Katie Holmes, Adam Brody and Robert Duvall, this hilarious comedy will prove seriously addictive!

**Picks from the Video Store**

Bring home more of Jason Reitman&#8217;s films on glorious physical media tonight!

*Up in the Air, Saturday Night, Tully* and more!

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Thank You for Smoking on 35mm

**Screenwriter**: Harry Lighton

**Producers**: Lee Groombridge,  Ed Guiney,  Andrew Lowe,  Emma Norton

Come for Alexander Skarsgård as a leather daddy, stay for the romance, laughter, and humanism of Harry Lighton&#8217;s sweet and kinky dom com! Colin, a timid man is swept off his feet when Ray, an enigmatic, impossibly handsome biker takes him on as his submissive. It&#8217;s got all the biker orgies and back alley b.j.s you would hope for, but it&#8217;s also truly a wonderfully universal triumph of warmth and humor for anyone &#8211; not just those in the kink community.

Pillion

**Screenwriter**: Harmony Korine

**Producers**: Charles-Marie Anthonioz,  Jordan Gertner,  Chris Hanley,  David Zander

*Spriiiiing Breeeeak Forevaaaah!* Cinema provocateur Harmony Korine mixes exploitation, experimental film, and comedy to create one of the most exquisite blends of high and low brow art in cinema history and a film that influenced the cinematography and style of the last dozen years of filmmaking. Korine &#8211; one of America&#8217;s most singular auteurs &#8211; has spent the bulk of his career creating obtuse and difficult works of cinema art &#8211; and then came *Spring Breakers*. His highest budget with the most A-list talent, this girl gang goes on holiday candy-colored dreamscape is the most easily accessible of his films to date, while still experimenting with linear structure and pushing the limits of cinema (and good taste). With stunning visuals, a perfect soundtrack, and the best use of a Britney Spears song ever, this is more than just a spring break crime spree &#8211; it&#8217;s the best Art Trash film ever made!

**Picks from the Video Store**:

Harmony Korine is hard to come by streaming, but luckily we&#8217;ve got these gems (and more) on physical media!

*Gummo, Julien Donkey Boy, Beach Bum*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Spring Breakers

**Screenwriters**: Matt Johnson,  Jay McCarrol

**Producers**: Matt Greyson,  Matthew Miller

The microcinema is heading back to the year 2008 for the funniest Canadian lo-fi indie buddy time travel comedy of the year! When their plan to book a show at the Rivoli goes horribly wrong, Matt and Jay accidentally travel back to the year 2008. Laugh out loud funny, inventive, and magnificently DIY, you&#8217;ll never stop thanking the Canadian government for supporting independent film!

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

Vidiots

Who Done It?

Project Hail Mary 70mm

Wizards/The Time Masters

Super Fly

Vista Theatre

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Frank and Eleanor Perry’s brilliant 1969 film LAST SUMMER has long been considered a lost classic – never released on DVD or Blu-ray and unseen in its controversial original form for over forty years. A boundary pushing teen film briefly slapped with an X rating, it opened to ecstatic reviews and garnered an Oscar nomination for actress Catherine Burns. Last seen at the Cinematheque in a cobbled together censored 16mm print, the new restoration is a revelation. Based on Evan Hunter’s bestselling novel staring Richard Thomas and Bruce Davison as teenage boys aimlessly spending the summer at the beach on Fire Island, N.Y. They fall under the spell of Barbara Hershey’s beautiful Sandy and the trio push each other into acts of cruelty against wallflower Cathy Burns. LAST SUMMER received four stars from critic Roger Ebert and this is a screening not to be missed.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros.

COUNTRY: USA

Q&A with actors Barbara Hershey and Bruce Davison. Moderated by Larry Karaszewski. World Premiere of New Restoration of Theatrical Version

LAST SUMMER

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Jean Arthur, James Stewart and Claude Rains star in Frank Capra’s MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, the award-winning 1939 classic about an idealistic, small town senator who heads to Washington and suddenly finds himself single-handedly battling ruthless politicians out to destroy him. Receiving a total of eleven 1939 Oscar nominations (including Best Picture and Best Director), and winning one (Best Motion Picture Story), MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON is considered one of Capra’s, Stewart’s and Columbia’s finest films.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Pictures Repertory

COUNTRY: USA

New 4K Restoration ‘Sunday “Rest”orations’

MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

Free screening! First come first serve.

When Seth Brundle makes a huge scientific and technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.

The Fly

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Japanese with English subtitles.*

It is a tradition for all young witches to leave their families on the night of a full moon and fly off into the wide world to learn their craft. When that night comes for Kiki, she embarks on her new journey with her sarcastic black cat, Jiji, landing the next morning in a seaside town, where her unique skills make her an instant sensation.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: GKIDS

COUNTRY: Japan

KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Swedish and Latin with English subtitles.*

Disillusioned and exhausted after a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight (Max von Sydow) encounters Death on a desolate beach and challenges him to a fateful game of chess. Much studied, imitated, even parodied, but never outdone, Bergman’s stunning allegory of man’s search for meaning, THE SEVENTH SEAL was one of the benchmark foreign imports of America’s 1950s art-house heyday, pushing cinema’s boundaries and ushering in a new era of moviegoing.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: Sweden

THE SEVENTH SEAL

***Special thanks to our community partners**: [Black Film Allegiance](https://www.bfallegiance.com/), [Black Film Space](https://www.blackfilmspace.com/), [Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center](https://bherc.org/), [In the Cut](https://inthecutla.org/), [Platform UCLA](https://www.instagram.com/platformucla/), [UCLA Alumni Association](https://alumni.ucla.edu/), [UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television](https://www.tft.ucla.edu/)*

When a Black middle-class family in South Los Angeles is visited by a mysterious old friend from the South (Danny Glover), his presence casts a spell over the previously calm household. As the inscrutable Harry, Glover flickers between menace and charm, using his commanding presence to dominate the frame. A singular work that explores how Southern folkloric traditions traveled north during the Great Migration, this intimate drama subtly announces director Charles Burnett’s mastery of his craft. In 2017, the film was named to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, and in 2026 was named one of the [best 101 films about L.A.](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/list/best-los-angeles-movies#p=to-sleep-with-anger-1990) by the *Los Angeles Times*.*—author Ashley Clark and Public Programmer Beandrea July *

Director/Screenwriter: Charles Burnett. With: Danny Glover, Paul Butler, Mary Alice, Carl Lumbly, Vonetta McGee, Richard Brooks, Sheryl Lee Ralph.

To Sleep With Anger

### **ABOUT THE FILM: **

*In Korean with English subtitles.*

A film director who no longer makes films, Seongjun, arrives in Seoul to meet a close friend. When the friend doesn’t show up, Seongjun wanders the city aimlessly. He runs into an actress he used to know, shares a drink with some film students and against his better judgment, heads to his ex-girlfriend’s apartment. The next day goes very much like the last; Seongjun meets the actress, has drinks with friends, and falls for woman who looks remarkably like his ex-girlfriend. Each new day plays out like a flimsy copy of the previous one, but only Seongjun knows why.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: The Cinema Guild

COUNTRY: South Korea

Introduction by filmmaker Alexandre Koberidze ‘Alexandre Koberidze: An American Cinematheque Tribute’ and ‘Sunday Print Edition’

Alexandre Koberidze Presents THE DAY HE ARRIVES

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

His new assignment seems routine: protecting a star witness for an important trial. But before the night is out, the witness lies dying and cool, and no-nonsense Detective Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) won’t rest until the shooters and the kingpin pulling their strings are nailed. From opening shot to closing shoot-out, BULLITT crackles with authenticity: San Francisco locations, crisp dialogue and to-the-letter police, hospital and morgue procedures. An Oscar winner for Best Film Editing, this razor-edged 1968 thriller features one of cinema history’s most memorable car chases. Buckle up and brace for unbeatable action.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros.

COUNTRY: USA

Program begins with a live recording of the Greg Proops Film Club podcast. Feature starts at 4:30pm ‘The Greg Proops Film Club’

The Greg Proops Film Club Presents BULLITT

### **ABOUT THE FILM: **

*In Hebrew with English subtitles.*

A celebrated Israeli filmmaker named Y arrives in a remote desert village to present one of his films at a local library. Struggling to cope with the recent news of his mother’s terminal illness, he is pushed into a spiral of rage when the host of the screening, a government employee, asks him to sign a form placing restrictions on what he can say at the film’s Q&A. Told over the course of one day, the film depicts Y as he battles against the loss of freedom in his country and the fear of losing his mother. Nadav Lapid wrote the film soon after the death of his own mother, who worked as an editor on many of his works. It offers a sharp critique of the censorship, hypocrisy, and violence instigated by Israel and repressive governments everywhere. The fact that it was produced, largely funded, and highly acclaimed in its home country highlights the complexities of a national cinema that refuses to be muzzled, born of the divisions of society itself.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Kino Lorber

COUNTRY: Israel/France/Germany

Q&A with filmmaker Nadav Lapid ‘Nadav Lapid: An American Cinematheque Retrospective’

AHED'S KNEE

### **ABOUT THE FILM: **

*In French and Hebrew with English subtitles.*

Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlinale, the latest from Nadav Lapid features a dynamic lead performance from newcomer Tom Mercier, whose feral intensity practically bursts out of the frame. Mercier plays Yoav, a disaffected young Israeli who flees Tel Aviv for Paris to start a new life. Desperate to erase his origins, Yoav sees becoming French as his only hope for salvation. Step one is to replace his language. From now on, he will not utter a single word of Hebrew and his dictionary becomes his constant companion. His work at the Israeli embassy is a burden, but studying for his naturalization test also has its pitfalls. And the young French couple he befriends has some rather strange ideas about how to help him. Based on writer-director Nadav Lapid’s own experiences, SYNONYMS explores the challenges of putting down roots in a new place. Yoav’s attempts to find himself awaken past demons and open up an existential abyss in this tragicomic puzzle that wisely knows how to keep its secrets.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Kino Lorber

COUNTRY: France/Israel/Germany

Introduction by filmmaker Nadav Lapid ‘Nadav Lapid: An American Cinematheque Retrospective’

SYNONYMS

Suzuki's mesmeric, elegiac, and lyrical meditation on art, longing, and the restless currents of desire!

Seijun Suzuki's TAISHŌ TRILOGY:  YUMEJI (1991)

**Screenwriters**: Roald Dahl, Ken Hughes from the novel by Ian Fleming

**Producer**: Albert R. Broccoli

We&#8217;re soaring away in a flying car, and we saved you and your little ones the shotgun seat! The always magical Dick Van Dyke stars as a pie-in-the-sky inventor in this delightful musical romp. When he finally invents something useful &#8211; a flying car &#8211; he&#8217;s got to contend with an evil dictator who wants to steal the car for his own nefarious needs. Now his two kids and a lovely young woman are setting off for vehicular adventures in the sky! With a script from beloved children&#8217;s author Roald Dahl based on a book from *James Bond*&#8216;s Ian Fleming, and featuring lively songs, incredible set pieces, and a nostalgic joy throughout &#8211; this is one high-flying musical adventure that still bangs!

The screening will feature a 15 minute intermission.

**Picks from the Video Store**

We&#8217;ve got more great Roald Dahl classics to share with your littles on physical media tonight!

*The BFG, Matilda, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

**Writer + Producer**: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

A beautifully human film from German master Rainer Werner Fassbinder, *Ali: Fear Eats the Soul* explores loneliness, prejudice, and human connection through the unlikely romance between an elderly cleaning woman and a younger Moroccan immigrant. Inspired by Douglas Sirk&#8217;s *All That Heaven Allows*, Fassbinder expertly wields the emotional power of classic Hollywood melodrama to expose the racial tensions underlying contemporary German culture. Profound, funny, and rapturously human, now is your chance to watch this masterpiece of world cinema on the big screen in glorious celluloid!

**Picks from the Video Store**

Our Fassbinder director&#8217;s section is stocked with dozens of his extraordinary films!

*Fox and his Friends, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, In a Year with 13 Moons*

**Accessibility Options**: Open Captions, Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul on 35mm

**Screenwriter**: Mary Agnes Donoghue

**Producers**: Margaret South,  Bette Midler,  Bonnie Bruckheimer

Break out the tissues, we&#8217;re heading for a storm of feelings with Garry Marshall&#8217;s beloved tale of friendship, music, and heartache starring The Divine Miss M herself! A tearjerker about the bonds of friendship throughout life&#8217;s ups and downs, no one is leaving this theater with dry eyes. The kind of movie that critics dismissed as schmaltz while nearly 40 years of audiences beg to differ, this is cinematic comfort food at its best! Bring your lifelong bestie and let them know they&#8217;re *the wind beneath your wings*!

**Picks from the Video Store**

You know you want more Midler! Take home these gems (and more) tonight!

*Big Business, Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Beaches

When Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano) hires tight-lipped bounty hunter Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) to locate a mob accountant named "The Duke" (Charles Grodin) and bring him to L.A., Eddie tells Jack that the job will be simple, or a "midnight run." But when Jack finds The Duke, the FBI and the mob are anxious to get their hands on him. In a cross-country chase, Jack must evade the authorities, hide from the mob and prevent The Duke's erratic personality from driving him mad.

Midnight Run


Despite having solid field training, CIA analyst Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) has spent her entire career as a desk jockey, working hand-in-hand with dashing agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law). Using high-tech equipment and a hidden earpiece, Susan is the guardian angel who helps Bradley avoid danger. However, when Bradley is assassinated by Bulgarian arms dealer Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne), Susan wrangles her way into her first undercover assignment to help capture Boyanov and avenge Bradley.

### **ABOUT THE EPISODES:**

**Season 2, Episode 8, “****Drive With A Dead Girl,” Dir. Caleb Deschanel, 47 Mins**

The One-Armed Man escapes custody.

FORMAT: DCP

**Season 2, Episode 9, “Arbitrary Law,” Dir. Tim Hunter, 46 Mins**

Cooper tricks the killer into revealing himself.

FORMAT: DCP

### **ABOUT THE SERIES:**

**TWIN PEAKS, 1990, Paramount, USA**

A crime drama mixed with healthy doses of the surreal, this series is about FBI Agent Dale Cooper, who travels to the small logging town of Twin Peaks to solve the murder of seemingly innocent high schooler Laura Palmer. Almost nothing is as it seems, however, and the show’s sometimes eerie visuals, oddball characters and wild dream sequences drive the point home.

“Drive With A Dead Girl” and “Arbitrary Law” ‘TWIN PEAKS: The Complete Series’

TWIN PEAKS: Season 2, Ep. 8 & 9

### **ABOUT THE FILM: **

Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell confront the ogre of faceless corporate tyranny and have fun doing it in this comedy for young people. Ed (Mitchell) is a teenager who lives for his job at Good Burger, a small but friendly neighborhood hamburger stand, while his buddy Dexter (Thompson) also works there, but lack Ed’s single-minded devotion to his job — he’s there because he accidentally destroyed the car of his teacher Mr. Wheat (Sinbad) and has to raise money to pay the damages. When Mondo Burger, a mammoth fast-foot chain, opens across the street, it looks like Good Burger is history, until Ed formulates a secret sauce that brings hundreds of new customers to their door.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures

COUNTRY: USA

GOOD BURGER

**Writer/Producer**: Julie Dash

Join us for Julie Dash&#8217;s rapturous masterpiece, *Daughters of the Dust*.  As the 20th century dawns, a multi-generational Gullah family from the Sea Islands off of the South Carolina coast struggle to maintain their deep-rooted heritage and folklore while considering relocating to the mainland. The first widely released feature from a Black female director, the film was met with ecstatic critical acclaim and phenomenal audience response when it initially opened in 1991. *Daughters of the Dust* has cast a resounding legacy including references to the film in Beyonce’s video album *“Lemonade.”* Restored (in conjunction with UCLA) for the first time with proper color grading overseen by cinematographer AJ Jafa, audiences will finally see the film exactly as Julie Dash intended.

**Picks from the Video Store**

Take home more gems from the groundbreaking Julie Dash on DVD and Blu-Ray tonight!

*Subway Stories, Illusions, The Rosa Parks Story*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Daughters of the Dust

The Drama

We Watch Wrestling Presents

A special screening of Beyond The Mat with Q+A by WWW&#8217;s Matt and Vince and Director Barry Blaustein live at Brain Dead Studios.

Synopsis:

&#8220;Beyond the Mat,&#8221; Barry Blaustein&#8217;s honest, intimate, revealing, highly entertaining, and critically acclaimed behind-the-scenes look at wrestling, takes viewers beyond the ring and into the lives of the men and women who inhabit this colorful, competitive, and surprisingly complex world.

Beyond the Mat

On the occasion of the release of Melissa Anderson’s latest collection of essays and reviews, *The Hunger: Film Writing 2012–2024* from The Film Desk, Anderson will join Now Instant for a special presentation of *The Bigamist*, followed by a conversation with writer Kate Wolf on all things cinema and criticism.

Copies of *The Hunger* will be available for purchase in-store, courtesy of The Film Desk.

The Bigamist

**Writer/Producer**: Julie Dash

Join us for Julie Dash&#8217;s rapturous masterpiece, *Daughters of the Dust*.  As the 20th century dawns, a multi-generational Gullah family from the Sea Islands off of the South Carolina coast struggle to maintain their deep-rooted heritage and folklore while considering relocating to the mainland. The first widely released feature from a Black female director, the film was met with ecstatic critical acclaim and phenomenal audience response when it initially opened in 1991. *Daughters of the Dust* has cast a resounding legacy including references to the film in Beyonce’s video album *“Lemonade.”* Restored (in conjunction with UCLA) for the first time with proper color grading overseen by cinematographer AJ Jafa, audiences will finally see the film exactly as Julie Dash intended.

**Screenwriter**: Christian Petzold

**Producers**: Florian Koerner von Gustorf,  Michael Weber,  Anton Kaiser

Join us in the microcinema for Christian Petzold&#8217;s latest low-key charmer. During a weekend trip to the countryside, Laura, a young piano student from Berlin, miraculously survives a shocking car crash. Awakening in a nearby house, Laura finds herself in the care of a local woman, who tends to her with motherly devotion. As she recuperates, Laura begins to integrate herself into the lives of the woman and her initially reluctant husband and son. By turns haunted and hopeful, Laura and her adopted family reawaken to the world and come to find a strange harmony together. However, they cannot outrun the ghosts of the past, which begin to stir, as acclaimed director Christian Petzold (*PHOENIX, TRANSIT*) spins a modern gothic fairytale about the lies we tell ourselves and the strange ways that grief, connection, and humanity bind and sustain us. Sweet, funny, and soul-stirring, this small but mighty film is charming from start to finish!

Miroirs No. 3

### **ABOUT THE FILMS: **

**REPAST, 1951, Dir. Mikio Naruse, 93 Mins, Janus Films, Japan**

*In Japanese with English subtitles.*

Michiyo lives in the small place Osaka and is not happy with her marriage; all she does is cook and clean for her husband.

FORMAT: 35mm

**LIGHTNING, 1952, Dir. Mikio Naruse, 87 Mins, Kadokawa, Japan**

*In Japanese with English subtitles.*

Facing pressures to marry and having witnessed her two sisters’ own marital struggles, sightseeing bus guide Kiyoko (Hideko Takamine) strives for her own solitary independence, resisting suitors and openly expressing a disdain for men. Through a family of four siblings, each from different fathers, Naruse explores the suffocating family life of Kiyoko’s *shitamachi* household and its surroundings. LIGHTNING is a buildup of vignettes, events and occurrences, as Kiyo experiences the world around her—misfortune, family tragedy, interpersonal quarrels and the vulgarities of men—trying to make sense of a modern existence where the promise of happiness still comes second for women.

FORMAT: 35mm

35mm prints courtesy of The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles Series co-presented by The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles and The Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities ‘Mikio Naruse: An American Cinematheque Retrospective’

REPAST / LIGHTNING

PHANTASMAGORIA presents Sky Hopinka’s short experimental film FAINTING SPELLS (2018) alongside Colombian feature film EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (2015).

Myth, knowledge, and sacred indigenous plants are at the center of these two films. In each film, the landscape and its flora is at once sublime and fragile. For his dreamlike abstract short FAINTING SPELLS, filmmaker Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) creates an origin myth poem for the medicinal flowering plant Xąwįska, also known as the Indian pipe plant or the ghost flower, traditionally used to revive those who have fainted. In Ciro Guerra’s feature film EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT, Amazonian shaman Karamakate encounters two different Western scientists (at two different stages of his life), each seeking the sacred hallucinogenic Yakruna plant. Through poetic storytelling and hypnotic imagery, both films examine themes of cultural identity, loss, and reconnection to the spiritual world in the face of colonialism and destruction.

### EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

At once blistering and poetic, the ravages of colonialism cast a dark shadow over the South American landscape in EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT, the third feature by Ciro Guerra. Filmed in stunning black-and-white, SERPENT centers on Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and the two scientists who, over the course of 40 years, build a friendship with him. The film was inspired by the real-life journals of two explorers (Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes) who traveled through the Colombian Amazon during the last century in search of the sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant.

### FAINTING SPELLS

*Director:* Sky Hopinka

*Run Time:* 11 mins

*Format:* DCP

*Release Year:* 2018

Told through recollections of youth, learning, lore, and departure, this is an imagined myth for the Xąwįska, or the Indian Pipe Plant &#8211; used by the Ho-Chunk to revive those who have fainted.

EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT + FAINTING SPELLS


Meet Jack Foley, the most successful bank robber in the country. On the day he busts out of jail, he finds himself stealing something far more precious than money ... Karen Sisco's heart. She's smart. She's sexy, and unfortunately for Jack, she's a Federal Marshal. Now, they're willing to risk it all to find out if there's more between them than just the law.

Out of Sight

In this seven-time Oscar®-nominated film, things go terribly awry when small-time Minnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) hires two thugs (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife so he can collect the ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. Once people start dying, the very chipper and very pregnant Police Chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand, who won an Oscar® for her performance) takes the case. Is she up for this challenge? You betcha.

Fargo

**Writer**: John Early

**Producers**: Harris Mayersohn, Luca Intili, John Early**
Los Angeles Premiere! Q+A with **Kate Berlant, Vanessa Bayer, Pat Regan, Claudia O&#8217;Doherty**, and more TBD

The prodigiously talented comedian and actor John Early deftly balances all-out satire and tender melodrama in his feature directorial debut, with an infectious love of film artifice that owes as much to Douglas Sirk as *But I’m A Cheerleader. *Early embodies Maddie, a bright-eyed dishwasher at a trendy culinary company who is unexpectedly promoted as one of their content creators. But the flashy new role comes at a cost, pulling her long suppressed eating disorder back to the center of her life. Moving with the spirit of a campy made-for-TV movie, the film pairs sharp parody with genuine feeling, allowing moments of real sincerity to emerge beneath its bold, stylized surface. -AB

**[Los Angeles Festival of Movies](https://lafestivalofmovies.org)**

Los Angeles Festival of Movies (LAFM) presented by **[Kino Film Collection](https://kinofilmcollection.com/)** and [**Mezzanine**](https://www.mezzaninefilm.com/) is a curated annual film festival in Los Angeles, showcasing new independent and restoration premieres to a local audience.

Now in its third year, the festival redefines Los Angeles as a destination for independent film. LAFM has curated a selection of high profile narrative and documentary film premieres; talks with local artists, luminaries, and thought leaders; and parties each night, across four east side LA venues.

LAFM Opening Night – Maddie’s Secret

**Screenwriters**: Aidan Zamiri, Bertie Brandes from an original idea by Charli xcx

**Producers**: David Hinojosa,  Charli xcx

The microcinema is getting pumped for a Brat Spring with Charli xcx&#8217;s self-parodying mockumentary *The Moment*. A rising pop sensation navigates fame and industry pressures while preparing for her arena tour debut, revealing the transformation of underground culture into mainstream success.

The Moment

LA Festival of Movies presents *With Hasan in Gaza*, by director Kamal Aljafari. 108 minutes, Palestine, 2025.

Three MiniDV tapes of life in Gaza from 2001 were recently rediscovered. This footage is now a testament to a place and time that no longer exists.

LA Festival of Movies: With Hasan in Gaza

LA Festival of Movies presents *After Dreaming*, by director Christine Haroutounian. 105 minutes, Armenia/USA/Mexico, 2025.

North American Premiere. Co-presented by the Armenian Film Society. Q&A with writer/director Christine Haroutounian.

∆

*Armenia, before peace yet after war. A soldier is asked to take a girl on a road trip to keep her father's death a secret from her.*

The debut feature by Armenian-American filmmaker Christine Haroutounian is a marvel of transcendental style, a trance-inducing portrait of contemporary Armenia that evokes the the elliptical and hallucinatory films of Claire Denis and Carlos Reygadas (an executive producer) while defiantly creating its own grammar. In the aftermath of an unnamed war, a soldier (Davit Beybutyan) is sent by a family to take their daughter (Veronika Poghosyan) under his wing, while withholding the news that her father has been mistakenly killed. Traveling on the road, the couple are intimately drawn to each other as they drift through the war-torn landscape. Never resorting to easy metaphors, Haroutounian's film feels both intuitive and ritualistic in the depiction of a culture, culminating in a mesmerizing extended wedding sequence that is a work of pure cinema. -MG

In Armenian with English subtitles.

Prior Screenings: 2025 Berlin International Film Festival (Forum)

LA Festival of Movies: After Dreaming

The LA Festival of Movies arrives in its third year, with many screenigns and events across three days at 2220 Arts. Full lineup, festival pass details and ticket prices to be announced in early 2026.

LA Festival of Movies 2026

LA Festival of Movies presents *In the Glow of Darkness*, by director Tucker Bennett. 80 minutes, USA, 2025.

West Coast Premiere.

Intersecting stories unfold in the cyberpunk city of San Zokyo, where a young hacker takes on the corporation behind Meme, a drug that mines users' psyches to deliver personalized psychedelic trips and hyper-targeted ads.

LA Festival of Movies: In the Glow of Darkness

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

6:00pm | Doors open & Live musical performance by the Nick Rossi Trio

7:00pm | Live musical performance by singer Elizabeth Bougerol

7:05pm | Introduction by Eddie Muller and Elizabeth Bougerol

7:15pm | **THE MAN I LOVE**

8:51pm | Intermission

9:01pm | Introduction by Alan K. Rode

9:11pm | **NORA PRENTISS**

*Start times are approximate.*

### **ABOUT THE FILMS:**

**THE MAN I LOVE, 1947, Dir. Raoul Walsh, 96 Mins, Park Circus, USA**

Originally released January 11, 1947

As flinty chanteuse Petey Brown, Ida Lupino is at the apex of her big-screen glamour, offering a radiantly romantic vision of the post-WWII American woman—able to settle everyone’s hash but her own. A coast-to-coast road trip through a world of atmospheric nightclubs, tenements, and backlot streets, this majestic melodrama is part noir, part soap opera, and pure Hollywood magic. Reportedly, the film’s mix of music, romance, and noir inspired Martin Scorsese to make NEW YORK, NEW YORK. This was Lupino’s third film with director Walsh, and, despite the high heels and form-fitting lamé gowns, Ida is every bit as tough as she was in THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT and HIGH SIERRA, her first two films with Walsh. Featuring an array of classic songs, including “Why Was I Born?” and the Gershwin melody “The Man I Love,” Lupino’s singing voice for the film was dubbed by American contralto Peg La Centra, wife of actor Paul Stewart, a NOIR CITY favorite.

FORMAT: 35mm

**NORA PRENTISS, 1947, Dir. Vincent Sherman, 111 Mins, Warner Bros., USA**

Originally released February 21, 1947

San Francisco physician Richard Talbot (Kent Smith) falls hard for nightclub singer Nora Prentiss (Ann Sheridan), but she cuts off their budding romance when she learns the smitten sawbones is married. Not to be deterred, the doc devises an outlandishly noirish scheme to reunite with Nora under a new identity. Need we say that tragic consequences ensue? This pitch-black melodrama was tailored by Warner Bros. for oft-suspended star Sheridan, the studio’s “Oomph Girl,” who had turned down the lead role in 1945’s MILDRED PIERCE allowing Joan Crawford to snag an Oscar and a career comeback. Sold as a romantic “woman’s picture,” the film is really focused on the doctor’s terminal case of *amour fou*, which spirals into one of the darkest and most daring plot twists in the genre. Director Vincent Sherman elicits career-best performances from both Smith and Sheridan, while the quintessentially noir tone is supplied by legendary DP James Wong Howe. A neglected classic!

FORMAT: DCP

Live musical performance by singer Elizabeth Bougerol and the Nick Rossi Trio Introductions by Eddie Muller, Alan K. Rode and Elizabeth Bougerol ‘NOIR CITY: Hollywood 2026’

THE MAN I LOVE / NORA PRENTISS

Marking the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), Silvia Ribelles de la Vega, a scholar and historian at The Packard Humanities Institute, presents a program featuring seldom-seen views of the war, drawn from the Hearst Metrotone News collection.

The preservation of and access to the collection have been made possible only through the incredible efforts of The Packard Humanities Institute, in collaboration with the UCLA Film & Television Archive, to expand access to one of the most significant newsreel archives of the 20th century. This collection of 27 million feet of newsreels includes approximately 288 reels of film related to the Spanish Civil War.

At the time, newsreels — short-form, theatrically exhibited news stories — were often the only moving image records of unfolding events available to international audiences. Hearst cameramen covered the conflict extensively and, remarkably, filmed from both sides of the war. Ribelles’ presentation will move chronologically from 1936 to 1939 and feature not only edited newsreels but also selections from longer, previously unseen footage.

Describing the Hearst Metrotone News collection as “a gem for any researcher,” Ribelles highlights the opportunities this newly accessible material offers to scholars and history enthusiasts alike. Drawing on production records, maps and related archival documents, she will examine how the newsreels were filmed, edited and circulated, and how studying them today can surface overlooked histories and reshape our understanding of the Spanish Civil War.

90 years after a conflict that tore a nation apart, these newsreels stand as vital audiovisual evidence and as a testament to the enduring impact of making archival collections accessible to all.

The Archive is grateful to The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) for its role as the driving force in the project to share the Hearst Metrotone News Collection for research, study and public access. To explore more than 20,000 news stories preserved and made accessible by PHI, including unedited materials featured in this program, [visit newsreels.net](https://newsreels.net/).

The Hearst Metrotone News Collection and the Spanish Civil War

GAG! returns to Heavy Manners for another iteration of their screening series. GAG! Presents... VIDEO3. As a way to highlight video artists and blur the line between video art and cinema, GAG! brings together a select group of artists and filmmakers to screen pieces that are intended for the exhibition space. Simultaneously, VIDEO3 reimagines films intended for theaters within the context of video art. This screening allows audiences to approach these practices in a new light. Fine art [+](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gag-presents-video3-tickets-1985030046304?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true) film = VIDEO3 ◡̈

*GAG! is an interdisciplinary art collective based in Los Angeles. GAG! (Gallery Attendants&#x27; Gallery) seeks to make us play, disrupt, react, and respond to the contemporary art world.*

GAG! presents VIDEO3

Heavy Manners Library

**Screenwriters**: Walter Tevis,  Richard Price

**Producers**: Irving Axelrod,  Barbara De Fina

Scorsese, Newman, and Cruise hit the pool hall for this sequel to *The Hustler &#8211; *25 years on &#8211; with incredible cinematography from the legendary Michael Ballhaus and a killer soundtrack from Robbie Robertson of *The Band*. &#8220;Fast Eddie&#8221; Felson (Paul Newman reprising his Oscar-winning role) is back on the beat &#8211; after years of laying low, he&#8217;s ready to get back in the pool hall and start hustling again, this time with a young protegé Vincent Lauria (Tom Cruise). When the two part ways over Lauria&#8217;s flashy, showboating ways, they are destined to come face to face in a game of winner take all! So grab your pool cues and get ready to win with *The Hustler* all over again!

**Picks from the Video Store**

Bring home more Paul Newman tonight with these classics on physical media!

*The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Rachel, Rachel, Sometimes a Great Notion*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

The Color of Money

**Screenwriter:** Norio Osada

**Producer:** Kikumaru Okuda

Gory revenge is raised to the level of visual poetry in Toshiya Fujita’s stunning *Lady Snowblood.* A major inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s *Kill Bill* saga, this endlessly inventive film, set in late nineteenth-century Japan, charts the single-minded path of vengeance taken by a young woman (Meiko Kaji) whose parents were the unfortunate victims of a gang of brutal criminals. Fujita creates a wildly entertaining action film of remarkable craft, an effortless balancing act between beauty and violence.

**Picks from the Video Store**

Meiko Kaji is one of the most elegantly bad-ass ladies of cinema, check out her section in Martial Arts for more kick-ass gems!

*Delinquent Girl Boss, Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion, Blind Woman&#8217;s Curse*

**Accessibility Options**: Open Captions, Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Lady Snowblood

**Screenwriters**: Michael Almereyda,  Courtney Stephens

**Producers**: Taylor Hess,  Jesse Miller,  Michael Almereyda,  Courtney Stephens

Filmmaker **Courtney Stephens** in person Saturday &#8211; with a Q+A after the 4:30pm show and an introduction before the 7:30pm show!

The daring experimenter Dr. John C. Lilly dedicated his life to radical self-investigation and unlocking the mysteries of consciousness and communication. “My body is my laboratory” was the motto, and his research on the language of dolphins and whales – as well as psychedelics and sensory deprivation – assured his own cult status in 20th-century pop culture as the basis for Ken Russell’s *Altered States* and Mike Nichols’s *The Day of the Dolphin*. 

Directors Michael Almereyda and Courtney Stephens, along with narrator Chloë Sevigny, explore the life of a determined scientist and his experiments into the psychonautical unknown.

“An illuminating work of cultural archaeology”

&#8220;*Earth Coincidence* paints Lilly as a 20th-century polymath, a one-of-a-kind maverick&#8220;

—THE FILM STAGE

John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office

**Screenwriters**: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Pam Brady

**Producers**: Trey Parker, Matt Stone

In this feature film based on the hit animated series, the third-graders of South Park sneak into an R-rated film by ultra-vulgar Canadian television personalities Terrance (Matt Stone) and Phillip (Trey Parker), and emerge with expanded vocabularies that leave their parents and teachers scandalized. When outraged Americans try to censor the film, the controversy becomes a call to war with Canada, and Terrance and Phillip end up on death row &#8212; with only the kids left to save them.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

**Screenwriters**: Parker Bennett, Ed Solomon, Terry Runte

**Producers**: Jake Eberts,  Roland Joffé

Grab the controller for your Super Nintendo and get ready to get weird in this bizarro tale of two plumbers on a quest to save the world from projectile-throwing 8bit dinosaurs! It&#8217;s not a game anymore as Mario and Luigi, plumbers from Brooklyn, find themselves in an alternate universe where evolved dinosaurs live in hi-tech squalor. Now these mustached blue-collar heroes are the only hope to save our universe from invasion by the dino dictator, Koopa (Dennis m*therf$&ing Hopper!).

**Picks from the Video Store**

We&#8217;ve got a whole section devoted to video game adaptations! Take home these bangers tonight!

*Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tekken*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Super Mario Bros.

LA Festival of Movies presents *Shades of Silk (Ombres de soie)*, by director Mary Stephen. 62 minutes, France/Canada, 1978. West Coast Premiere of the new 4K restoration.

Preceded by *Dreams of Passion* by Aarin Burch. 4 min. USA, 1989/2026.

∆

*Ombres de soie (Shades of Silk)* is a film of mood and memory; two Chinese women, who had been friends in school, are caught between a longing for social stability and something much more fulfilling but frightening and vague in their relationship. A large part of the action takes place in the Shanghai of 1935 although the film was shot entirely on location in Paris.

*Dreams of Passion* is a sensual exploration of the essence of self and of the intimacy of desire between two Black women as communicated through movement, dance, and imagination.

LA Festival of Movies: Shades of Silk (Ombres de soie)

LA Festival of Movies presents *Isaiah’s Phone*, by director Frédéric Da. 70 minutes, USA, 2025.

Los Angeles Premiere. Q&A with director Frédéric Da, moderated by filmmaker Tyler Taormina.

∆

*A socially awkward high school student films himself as he blunders through attempts to make friends, spiraling into a dark place where his only close relationship is with his phone.*

An utterly contemporary L.A. high school movie, Frédéric Da's defiantly handcrafted sophomore feature—shot entirely on an iPhone—is a disarmingly authentic, slippery and devastating portrait of teenage angst. Made with an impressive array of nonprofessional actors and shot on location at a campus in Los Angeles, the film follows Isaiah (Isaiah Brody) who films himself on an iPhone as he experiences the daily indignities of being in high school. With the feel of a raw found-footage documentary, the rigor of its conceptual gambit makes it a mesmerizing experience, and a marvel of resourceful filmmaking. -MG

*Please note: this film contains disturbing images of teen violence. Viewer discretion is advised.*

LA Festival of Movies: Isaiah’s Phone

LA Festival of Movies presents *Selegna sol*, by director Anouk Moyaux. 50 minutes, France, 2025.

West Coast Premiere. Co-presented by El Cine.

∆

After several years' absence, Gibran, a 37-year-old Mexican-American, returns to Los Angeles with the goal of saving up to purchase land in Tecate, the village where he was born in Mexico. As he organizes his departure, he rediscovers the emotional and historical ties that bind him to the United States.

LA Festival of Movies: Selegna sol

LA Festival of Movies presents *Drinking and Driving*, by directors Avalon Fast and Jillian Frank. 106 minutes, Canada, 2026.

World Premiere!

∆

Early twenties Iris (Jillian Frank) and Palmer (Avalon Fast) never left their hometown. They work at the same restaurant, share the same bed, and both have a habit of drinking and driving. They run into Levi (Ethan Hawksworth), a guy they used to know. They spend time with him and his cousin, Phoenix (Henri Gillespi), in cars, backyards, and other people's bedrooms. When Levi shares a dream he had with Iris things change between the four of them. The reality of the summer becomes faded, the parties die. The four end in a field of unified confusion.

LA Festival of Movies: Drinking and Driving

For LAFM's first-ever L.A.-based filmmaker narrative shorts program, we’ve invited the fearless local screening series Presidium Overactive to present a series of adventurous premieres: films that take a variety of cockeyed perspectives on shattered dreams, seductive cults, and the nagging sensation of self-doubt.

Six short films, all Los Angeles, West Coast or World premieres.

∆

*Code Rouge* (dir. Alex Pabaricus, China/France/USA | 26m)

A Chinese bodybuilder's spiritual crisis takes a surreal turn when his imaginary best friend, Arnold Schwarzenegger, takes him on a journey toward self-acceptance. West Coast premiere.

~

*Going Sane* (dir. Joey Izzo, USA | 15m)

A 1970s Los Angeles therapy collective rises with utopian promise before devolving into a business-minded cult built on control and abuse. Los Angeles premiere.

~

*Hollis* (dir. Conor Scheinberg, USA | 12m)

After leaving New York City behind, Hollis checks into a quiet roadside motel where she meets Adam, a young male escort she's hired. As the night unfolds, Hollis guides Adam through an unsettling, intimate experiment that blurs emotional and psychological boundaries. But just as she returns to her routine, a sudden, senseless act of violence shatters the illusion of control she tried to reclaim. World premiere.

~

*Potato Potato* (dir. Josh Locy, USA | 14m)

When Cynthia writes a letter to the baby growing inside her about her hopes for their future, the baby writes back.. Los Angeles premiere.

~

*Shadow Daddy* (dir. Andrew Theodore Balasia, USA | 8m)

When a mysterious dream sparks an unexpected conversation, a boyfriend and girlfriend spiral into revealing the insecurities lurking beneath their relationship. World premiere.

~

*A Stable Marriage* (dir. Josephine Decker, USA | 8m)

A woman's sexual fantasy is fulfilled -- with surprising ramifications. Comment end. West Coast premiere.

LA Festival of Movies: PRESIDIUM OVERACTIVE (shorts program)

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

11:00am | Doors open & Live musical performance by pianist Chris Dawson

12:00pm | Introduction by actor Elliott Gould and Eddie Muller

12:10pm | **THE LONG GOODBYE**

2:02pm | Q&A with actor Elliott Gould. Moderated by Eddie Muller.

*Start times are approximate.*

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Originally released March 7, 1973

Philip Marlowe wakes up from a twenty-year nap to find that Los Angeles has only gotten screwier in his absence. The private detective gets a postmodern update with THE LONG GOODBYE, a rambling adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s 1953 novel. There are some crucial changes made by screenwriter Leigh Brackett, but to get hung up on the machinations of the plot is to miss the point entirely. Sure, Marlowe wants to solve the case, but there are stretches where he seems more interested in cat-food brands or making sure the goons tailing him don’t get lost. The film is so committed to its irreverent worldview that you become invested in these tangents, too. Elliott Gould redefines “cool” as Marlowe, and director Robert Altman has so much fun playing with noir clichés that he works in over a dozen versions of the hardboiled theme song.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Park Circus

COUNTRY: USA

Q&A with actor Elliott Gould. Moderated by Eddie Muller. Live musical performance by pianist Chris Dawson ‘NOIR CITY: Hollywood 2026’

THE LONG GOODBYE

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

3:00pm | Doors open & Live musical performance by pianist Chris Dawson

4:00pm | Introduction by Alan K. Rode

4:10pm | **SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS**

*Start times are approximate.*

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Originally released June 27, 1957

A box-office disaster upon original release, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS is now considered one of best films of the 1950s—as well as the definitive cinematic statement on the dangers of media corruption. Burt Lancaster seethes through a thinly-veiled portrait of powerful New York gossip columnist Walter Winchell as J.J. Hunsecker, and Tony Curtis gives perhaps his finest performance as the two-faced, sycophantic press agent Sidney Falco. Some of the most dyspeptic dialogue in screen history is spewed courtesy of writers Lehman and Odets, all complemented by James Wong Howe’s *cinéma vérité* camerawork and a brassy, propulsive score by Elmer Bernstein. Keep your eyes and ears open as put-upon jazz cat Martin Milner sits in with the legendary Chico Hamilton Quintet (Paul Horn, flute; Fred Katz, cello; John Pisano, guitar; Carson Smith, bass; Chico Hamilton, drums). Co-starring Susan Harrison, Emile Meyer, and Barbara Nichols (“What am I, a bowl of fruit? A tangerine that peels in a minute?”) J. J. Hunsecker said it best, “I love this dirty town!”

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Park Circus

COUNTRY: USA

Live musical performance by pianist Chris Dawson Introduction by Alan K. Rode ‘NOIR CITY: Hollywood 2026’

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

6:00pm | Doors open & Live musical performance by the Nick Rossi Trio

7:00pm | Live musical performance by singer Elizabeth Bougerol

7:05pm | Introduction by Eddie Muller

7:15pm |** KING CREOLE**

9:11pm | Intermission

9:21pm | Introduction by Alan K. Rode

9:31pm |** YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN**

*Start times are approximate.*

### **ABOUT THE FILMS:**

**KING CREOLE, 1958, Dir. Michael Curtiz, 116 Mins, Paramount Pictures, USA**

Originally released July 2, 1958

Elvis Presley is the headstrong teen who can sing. Walter Matthau is the crime boss who wants to own him. The dance between these two makes up the central conflict of KING CREOLE, Elvis’ last film before he joined the U.S. Army. Elvis gets plenty of opportunities to show his moves onscreen, but the real delight here comes from watching a seemingly generic Presley vehicle take all the wrong turns and wind up stranded in NOIR CITY. Management troubles would become all too real for Elvis by the 1960s, but even without this real-life parallel, the rock-and-roll star delivers the acting performance of his career. Featuring stylish direction by Michael Curtiz and a spirited turn by Carolyn Jones as the woman caught between the warring show-biz factions.

FORMAT: DCP

**YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN, 1950, Dir. Michael Curtiz, 112 Mins, Warner Bros., USA**

Originally released February 9, 1950

Dorothy Baker’s novel, inspired by the life of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, gets a full-blown Hollywood treatment veering far from the truth while telling an engrossing musical tale. Star-crossed jazzman Rick Martin (Kirk Douglas) lives for his music, but his arrogance (and alcohol) threaten to ruin him. Doris Day is the loyal singer whose love is unrequited, and Lauren Bacall is the woman he craves but can’t comprehend. (For 1950s Hollywood, Bacall’s character is as “out” as a lesbian could be.) Carl Foreman’s script takes a few daring turns for a musical drama of the era, bolstered by Michael Curtiz’ dazzling direction, stunning camerawork by Ted McCord, and especially Rick’s horn solos provided by musical advisor Harry James. Adding depth and soul are the fantastic supporting performances by Hoagy Carmichael (an actual compadre of Beiderbecke) and Juano Hernandez as Rick’s mentor.

FORMAT: DCP

Live musical performance by singer Elizabeth Bougerol and the Nick Rossi Trio Introductions by Eddie Muller and Alan K. Rode ‘NOIR CITY: Hollywood 2026’

KING CREOLE / YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN

Movie theater chain established in 1938 showcasing the latest independent, foreign & art films.

G/Approved 
 
RICAHRD FLEISCHER DOUBLE FEATURE  5 hr. 13 min.
 
Richard Fleischer was a versatile American film director known for helming nearly 50 films across many genres, including the sci-fi classics, the film noir and epics. The son of animation pioneer Max Fleischer, he began his career at RKO in the 1940s, and his work spanned from low-budget thrillers to big-budget spectacles, making him a popular and prolific director throughout Hollywood's Golden Age and the New Wave era. Today’s event will be 20,000 LEGUES UNDER RTHE SEA and COMPULSION. In person is Ricahrd’s granddaughter Claire and a Q&A moderated by Tim Williams of TV Guide.
 
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER HE SEA, The oceans during the late 1800s are no longer safe; many ships have been lost. Sailors have returned to port with stories of a vicious narwhal (a giant whale with a long horn) which sinks their ships. A naturalist, Professor (Pierre) Aronnax, his assistant, Conseil, and a professional whaler, Ned Land, join a US expedition which attempts to unravel the mystery.
 
COMPULSION, In 1924 Chicago, Artie Strauss and Judd Steiner are friends and fellow law students who both come from wealthy backgrounds. They have few true friends as they believe all their contemporaries are intellectually inferior. Within their relationship, Artie is the dominant and Judd the submissive who says he will do whatever Artie tells him. Although Judd acts intellectually arrogant to others, he also shows signs of weakness and reticence most evident to Artie. Part of their goal in life is to experience how it feels to do everything. As such, they plot to commit what they consider the perfect crime - a kidnapping and murder - not only so that they can experience the sense of killing for killing's sake, but also taunt the law with the knowledge of it and their superiority after the fact. They believe their crime is above the law. Their murder of young Paulie Kessler is not so perfect, with evidence at the scene uncovered by one of their law school colleagues, Sid Brooks, who also works for the Globe newspaper. As Artie and Judd try to manipulate their way out of how the evidence may implicate them, their manipulation ultimately backfires and they are charged with the murder. The most famed trial lawyer in town, Jonathan Wilk, is hired to defend the pair despite his atheism being against the families' sensibilities. Jonathan, renowned for his ability to manipulate juries, has to decide how best to defend his clients in the overwhelming face of evidence against them. The testimony of Ruth Evans, Sid's girlfriend, may have some impact on the trial's outcome.

RICHARD FLEISCHER DOUBLE FEATUR

Fine Arts Theatre

This program is a continuation of *Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: Multiracial Student Activism at UCLA**,* which celebrates the radical filmmaking legacy of UCLA’s affirmative action initiative, the Ethno-Communications Program (1969–1973). This iteration honors Ethno-Communications alumnus Robert A. Nakamura (1936–2025), who taught film at UCLA for over 30 years and was widely known as the “godfather of Asian American media.” A co-founder of the pioneering media organization Visual Communications, Nakamura co-directed a milestone feature-length film made by and about Asian Pacific Americans, *Hito Hata: Raise the Banner* (1980). Shaped by his internment at age six in the prison camp Manzanar during World War II, he transformed personal history into landmark films that helped change how Asian Americans are seen on-screen. 

*Series programmed by Associate Professor Josslyn Luckett, NYU Cinema Studies, and Public Programmer Beandrea July. Notes written by Beandrea July.**
*

***Special thanks to our community partners**: [Platform UCLA](https://www.instagram.com/platformucla/), [UCLA Alumni Association](https://alumni.ucla.edu/), [UCLA Asian American Studies Department](https://asianam.ucla.edu/), [UCLA Department of History](https://history.ucla.edu/), [UCLA Japanese Student Association](https://www.instagram.com/ucla.jsa/), [UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television](https://www.tft.ucla.edu/)*

Shot with a three-person crew of fellow UCLA Ethno-Communications student filmmakers, including Betty Chen, *Manzanar* is a lyrical, intimate documentary in which Robert A. Nakamura, a Nisei, reflects on his internment at age six and its enduring impact. Returning to the desolate site of Manzanar — one of 10 camps where Japanese Americans were unjustly imprisoned during World War II — Nakamura grapples with fragmented recollections of family, community and loss. As the film meditates on the lasting psychological impacts of internment, it also explores what it takes to face the unhealed wounds of the past and reclaim one’s identity.

Director: Robert A. Nakamura.

This short traces how the former Manzanar WWII concentration camp has been reclaimed by subsequent generations of Japanese Americans as a site of remembrance, resistance and intergenerational solidarity. Blending never-before-seen archival footage with a contemporary sensibility, the film follows the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage as it takes on renewed meaning in a post-9/11 world. Though produced by his parents, Karen L. Ishizuka and Robert A. Nakamura, director Tadashi Nakamura steps confidently out of their shadow through a hip-hop–inflected score and music by Yellow Pearl, whose fusion of folk, blues, soul and jazz energized a new generation of Asian American youth.

Director/Editor: Tadashi Nakamura.

A landmark documentary of Japanese American community memory and resilience, Robert A. Nakamura’s Ethno-Communications M.F.A. thesis film (UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television ’75) recounts the stories of three intertwined Issei lives — a fisherman, a gardener and a pioneering farm family. Weaving personal memory and collective history, Nakamura includes his own father, a gardener, who recalls bicycling to work with a lawnmower tied to his back. The short is also a foundational work of Visual Communications, the trailblazing Asian American media collective Nakamura co-founded in 1970 with Duane Kubo, Alan Ohashi and Eddie Wong.

Director: Robert Nakamura.

“How do you repay someone who has given you everything? This film became my answer.”—Tadashi Nakamura

Inspired by *Wataridori: Birds of Passage*, Tadashi Nakamura documents his father’s life and legacy in a profound act of love. As Parkinson’s disease shapes the elder Nakamura’s titular third act, the film confronts the psychic costs of Japanese internment and assimilation, and the ways imagemaking and familial togetherness became forms of resistance. Shot over seven years, the documentary premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Director: Tadashi Nakamura. With: Robert Nakamura, Karen L. Ishizuka.

Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: Celebrating the Legacy of Robert A. Nakamura

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Japanese with English subtitles.*

Sundays for Ryotaro and Fumiko have become routine: he reads the paper, she knits; he complains that his stomach hurts, she readies his medicine; she suggests things to do, he decides to stay home; he yawns, she yawns. They have no children and live in a suburb outside of Tokyo, surrounded by gossipy neighbors. One particular afternoon, the community gains two new residents, Nenkichi and his nonconformist wife Hinako. As the two couples come to know each other, upcoming layoffs in Ryotaro’s company trigger what could very well be the end of his marriage to Fumiko. He wishes to return to the country. She wishes to stay near Tokyo and find employment of her own. He opposes the idea of his wife working. Despite being married for some time, they still do not understand each other. Pretty soon, it becomes clear the possibility of separation is looming over them…

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Toho

COUNTRY: Japan

35mm print courtesy of The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles Series co-presented by The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles and The Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities ‘Mikio Naruse: An American Cinematheque Retrospective’

SUDDEN RAIN

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

After Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) die in a car accident, they find themselves stuck haunting their country residence, unable to leave the house. When the unbearable Deetzes (Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones) and teen daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) buy the home, the Maitlands attempt to scare them away without success. Their efforts attract Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), a rambunctious spirit whose “help” quickly becomes dangerous for the Maitlands and innocent Lydia.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Park Circus

COUNTRY: USA

BEETLEJUICE

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

First, I guess you need to know something about them—the beautiful ones. The flawless four. Everyone wanted to be them. You know ’em. They went to your school, too. First, there’s Courtney “Satan-in-heels” Shayne (Rose McGowan) and her pawn, the dense but dangerous Marcie Fox (Julie Benz), a legend in her own little mind. Then there’s angelic Julie Freedman (Rebecca Gayheart), doomed to be popular because of her pretty face, and lastly, the teen dream herself, Elizabeth Purr. When an ordinary kidnapping prank leaves the future prom queen dead (accidentally gagged with a jaw-breaker), a deadly sweet prank leads to cover-up makeover in this edgy and unpredictable comedy. But there will be no mercy as prom night arrives, bringing this spirited tale to its cruel tiara-dropping conclusion.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Pictures

COUNTRY: USA

JAWBREAKER

**Screenwriters**: Charles Brackett,  Billy Wilder,  Walter Reisch

**Producer**: Ernst Lubitsch

These comrades are ready to pawn the crown jewels and steal your heart in Ernst Lubitsch&#8217;s universally beloved comedy, featuring the legendary Greta Garbo&#8217;s only comedic role! The great Garbo plays a no-nonsense diplomat of the Soviet Union who arrives in Paris to ensure the sale of jewels seized during the Russian Revolution. Meanwhile, carefree bachelor Count Leon d&#8217;Algout (Melvyn Douglas) attempts to intercept the valuables on behalf of their former owner, the Grand Duchess Swana (Ina Claire). Despite their conflicting allegiances, the icy Ninotchka soon warms to Leon&#8217;s charms, reluctantly going against her better judgment. When diplomatic forces threaten to tear them apart, will the find a place in the world where their love can grow? An international charmer with the masterful hand of Ernst Lubitsch and the magnificent charisma of one of the greatest actresses of all time, it&#8217;s time to fall in love with this classic all over again!

**Picks from the Video Store**

Need more Garbo in your life? Take home these treasures on physical media tonight!

*Grand Hotel, The Saga of Gosta Berling, Mata Hari*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Ninotchka

**Screenwriters**: Avery Corman,  Robert Benton

**Producer**: Stanley R. Jaffe

This sensitive, heartrending drama is both one of the most popular films of the 1970s and arguably the definitive Hollywood movie about an era of skyrocketing divorce. Dustin Hoffman plays Ted Kramer, a workaholic ad man who’s shell-shocked when he comes home one day to find his wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) about to leave him and their seven-year-old son Billy (Justin Henry) in order to find herself. Ted slowly learns how to take care of household tasks and emotionally care for his son, but his world is turned upside down again when Joanna returns to claim custody of Billy, triggering a bitter court battle. Winner of five Oscars — including Best Picture, Best Actor for Hoffman, and Best Supporting Actress for Streep (the first wins for both performers) — *Kramer vs. Kramer* remains a deeply moving, achingly human look at divorce and its messy aftermath.

**Picks from the Video Store**

Looking for more movies about life after divorce? You won&#8217;t want to break up with these classics!

*War of the Roses, Irreconcilable Differences, An Unmarried Woman*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Kramer vs. Kramer

**Writer/Producer**: John Waters

Feeling down about the possibility that Santa won’t bring you Cha-Cha heels for Christmas this year? Never fear, delinquent Dawn Davenport (Divine) is here to live out the bizarre and beautiful life of crime you can only fantasize about. *Female Trouble* is yet another John Waters classic, a grotesque examination of the female condition and cycles of violence presented through the flashy and trashy lens of the Pope of Filth. There’s a reason Waters himself considers this his favorite of his early work, and why Mink Stole has named Taffy Davenport as her favorite role in Dreamland. *&#8220;Hey, spare me your morals!&#8221;* and give yourself over to violence and perversion.

Female Trouble

LA Festival of Movies presents *Chronovisor*, by directors Jack Auen and Kevin Walker. 100 minutes, USA, 2026. West Coast Premiere.

The life of a reclusive academic collides with the story of a clandestine technology that can photograph the past.

LA Festival of Movies: Chronovisor

LA Festival of Movies presents *Animation Today*, presented by Cartuna, with an introduction by guest curator Sean Buckelew.

Six animated shorts. Many US premieres!

Full lineup at: https://lafestivalofmovies.org/animation-today

∆

Animation is a special medium within the spectrum of filmmaking, an artistic avenue where truly anything is possible. It can be made collaboratively with big teams, and can adhere to traditional narrative filmmaking principles, or it can be made by a single person and truly eschew any rules. It can make manifest the imaginary while also showing its own handmade analogue craft in every frame.

The independently produced animated short is a special format within the medium. The films in this program exist outside of the boundaries of the commercial industry, and genuinely function as art for art’s sake. They come from a diverse range of artists from all over the world (including the United States, where, without much support for the arts, it is incredibly difficult to create animated shorts), featuring a wide variety of techniques, from tactile stop motion made by veterans of the craft to cutting-edge 3D by young mavericks that are giving the big studios a run for their money. And beyond the medium, they are just unique, compelling films made by radical filmmakers.

I'm incredibly excited to present these films to an LA audience. In a time when organic creative processes feel constantly challenged, it’s inspiring to remember what’s still possible.

—Sean Buckelew, guest curator

LA Festival of Movies: Animation Today (shorts program)

LA Festival of Movies presents the newly restored *Macho Dancer*, co-presented by A Bunch of Savages. Directed by Lino Brocka. 133 min, Philippines, 1988.

West Coast Premiere of the new 4K restoration. In Tagalog with English subtitles.

∆

Upon losing a reliable American client, 18-year-old gigolo Pol (Allan Paule) leaves the provinces to try his luck in the soapy gay clubs of Metro Manila.

Long out-of-print and beautifully restored, the late Filipino master Lino Brocka delivers one of his most enthralling films with this queer coming-of-age story set in Manila's bustling gay clubs, which demonstrates Brocka's flair for socially conscious melodrama with pulp provocation. The film follows ingenuous teenage sex worker Pol (Allan Paule) as he leaves his small town to go to the city, where he gets hired as an erotic dancer—meeting new friends, lovers, and potential enemies. Featuring extended, seductive dance sequences that pulse with sweat and longing, the film is at once salacious and wonderfully sincere, ever sensitive to the fragile dreams of youth. With his sharp eye for class-based exploitation, Brocka doesn't shy away from tragedy in this bold, highly entertaining depiction of the realities of sex work. -BR

*Prior Screenings: 2026 MoMA To Save and Project*

LA Festival of Movies: Macho Dancer

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

11:00am | Doors open & Live piano performance

12:00pm | Introduction by Alan K. Rode

12:10pm | **THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM**

*Start times are approximate.*

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Originally released December 15, 1955

Frank Sinatra is Frankie Machine, a hustler and recovering drug addict. Frankie decides to go straight and pursue his dream of becoming a musician, but the more time he spends on the outside the harder it becomes to resist the temptation of the needle. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM is the darkest noir gets, bolstered by Otto Preminger’s unflinching direction and Sam Leavitt’s cinematography, which renders every moment of Frankie’s sobriety a claustrophobic nightmare. The real highlight of the film, however, is Sinatra’s Oscar-nominated performance. He’s remarkable as the weak-willed drummer, utilizing his slight physique and baby-blue eyes to haunting effect. Featuring Eleanor Parker and Kim Novak as the devil and angel, respectively, on Frankie’s shoulders.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Reel Media International

COUNTRY: USA

Live piano performance Introduction by Eddie Muller Print from the collection of the Library of Congress ‘NOIR CITY: Hollywood 2026’

Alexandre Koberidze presents Falling Leaves (Otar Iosseliani, 1968)

1:00 PM

THE GODFATHER,

THE GODFATHER PART II,

3:00 PM

Red Spirit Lake + Vick & Tarstar’s Scarecrow Factory

7:00 PM

AFTER HOURS

3:00 PM

THE SPARKS BROTHERS

7:00 PM

DRAG ME TO HELL (2009)(PG-13)(Sat. 3/28)7:00pm & DARKMAN (1990) 9:00pm

Light Years Expanding

Old Digs

Field Study #2

Natural Features

7:30 PM

A WANDERER'S NOTEBOOK

1:00 PM

WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SKY?

3:30 PM

LET THE SUMMER NEVER COME AGAIN

7:00 PM

The Hot Box

Terminal Island

6:30 PM

Behind the Green Door

11:59 PM

The Videos William Pope.L

7:00 PM

JIM HENSON: EXPERIMENTS IN VISUAL THINKING feat. THE CUBE — World Premiere!

7:30 PM

The Changeover System: A Projection Performance Installation

8:00 PM

The Muppets Take Manhattan

1:00 PM

Salaam Bombay!

4:00 PM

Somersault

4:30 PM

Thank You for Smoking on 35mm

7:00 PM

Pillion

7:30 PM

Spring Breakers

9:45 PM

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

10:00 PM

Who Done It?

10:00 AM

Project Hail Mary 70mm

Wizards/The Time Masters

7:30 PM

Super Fly

11:59 PM