### **ABOUT THE FILMS:**

**MY JOY, 2010, Dir. Sergei Loznitsa, 128 Mins, Kino Lorber, Ukraine/Netherlands/Germany/France**

*In Russian with English subtitles.*

Truck driver Georgy (Viktor Nemets) sets out on a provincial Russian highway for a routine delivery, but after a series of chance encounters his journey spirals out of control. A roadside police check, a talkative war veteran, and a too-young prostitute lead him to a village from which there appears to be no way out where the locals struggle to survive a tough, elemental world, and the past holds a vise-like grip over their everyday lives. Caught in a merciless dead end, Georgy’s unexpected fate is the crux of Loznitsa’s unique and original feature debut.

FORMAT: DCP

**DONBASS, 2018, Dir. Sergei Loznitsa, 122 Mins, Film Movement, Ukraine**

*In Russian, Ukrainian and English with English subtitles.*

In the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine, mid-2010s: a hybrid war takes place, involving an open armed conflict alongside killings and robberies on a mass scale perpetrated by Russian-separatist gangs. In the Donbass, war is called peace, propaganda is uttered as truth, and hatred is declared to be love. Life is suffused with fear and suspicion. What is real and what is fake news?

FORMAT: DCP

Q&A with filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa ‘Sergei Loznitsa: An American Cinematheque Tribute’

MY JOY / DONBASS

Aero Theatre

Birmingham, 1940. Amidst the chaos of WWII, Tommy Shelby is driven back from a self-imposed exile to face his most destructive reckoning yet. With the future of the family and the country at stake, Tommy must face his own demons, and choose whether to confront his legacy, or burn it to the ground.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man

You are cordially invited to George and Martha's for an evening of fun and games... Elizabeth Taylor delivers an Academy Award-winning performance opposite Richard Burton in this adaptation of Edward Albee's groundbreaking Broadway play that rips the façade of civility off the dysfunctional marriage between an alcoholic college professor and his shrew of a wife during a dinner party the two host for a young couple. 

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Egyptian Theatre

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

When a group of college students get an opportunity to work at a major record label, they throw a house show in order to secure a job.

THE YARD (2026)(NR)(Wed 3/25) 8pm

Gardena Cinema

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

A cam girl navigates a toxic client relationship while reconnecting with her estranged, dying father, exploring complex relationships and family dynamics.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Utopia

COUNTRY: USA

Q&A with filmmaker and actor Katarina Zhu and producer and actor Rachel Sennott ‘Women Wednesday 2026’

BUNNYLOVR

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

Join us for a night of debut shorts from women directors! The Women Wednesday Night of Shorts features impressive debut short films from local up-and-coming filmmakers and a Q&A.

### **ABOUT THE FILMS:**

**“CASINO!,” 2026, Dir. Izzy Leung, 15 Min**

**“Bootstrapping for the Boobied,” 2025, Dir. Stella Chen, 12 Min**

**“Madonna Mia,” 2025, Dir. Valentina Garrett, 13 Min**

**“Leading Man,” 2024, Dir. Amanda Michaels & Whitney Houser, 17 Min**

**“Bittersweet,” 2024, Dir. Myrakel N. Baker, 6 Min**

Q&A with filmmakers ‘Women Wednesday 2026’

Women Wednesday Night of Shorts Part 2

Los Feliz Theatre

Henry & June

New Beverly Cinema

A.S. Hamrah joins fellow Writer and Film Critic Sandi Tan to discuss film criticism and Hamrah&#8217;s two new books *Algorithm of the Night* and *Last Week in End Times Cinema.*

Last Week in End Times Cinema, Algorithm of the Night

Now Instant Image Hall

**Starring: **Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, Eiza González, Keith David, Jimmy Tatro, Stephen Root, Lewis Tan, Ben Schwartz, Emily Hampshire, and Arturo Castro

**Screenwriter**: BenDavid Grabinski

**Producer: **Andrew Lazar

Vidiots and 20th Century Studios invite you to a special preview screening of ***Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice** *followed by a conversation with writer/director **BenDavid Grabinski**!

*Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice *is a hilarious, stylized, R-rated action-comedy about two gangsters and the woman they love trying to survive the most dangerous night of their lives. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s one wild ingredient added to the mix: a time machine. The film, which will premiere March 27, 2026, exclusively on Hulu, stars Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, Eiza González, Keith David, Jimmy Tatro, Stephen Root, Lewis Tan, Ben Schwartz, Emily Hampshire, and Arturo Castro, and is written and directed by BenDavid Grabinski, produced by Andrew Lazar, p.g.a., and executive produced by Richard Middleton and Vanessa Humphrey.

Doors will Open at 6:00pm, Screening will start at 7:00pm, with conversation to follow.

Please note that this screening is first-come-first-served, and your RSVP does not guarantee entry. As we are hoping to accommodate as many people as possible, all free screenings are overbooked to account for no-shows. We recommend an early to on-time arrival, we may not be able to accommodate late entries. Due to the limited number of seats available for this special event, RSVPs will be limited to four tickets per member. Please note that any RSVPs exceeding four tickets per member will not be honored at check in.

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice

**Screenwriter**: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke

**Producers**: Cattleya Paosrijeroen,  Soros Sukhum

Join us in the microcinema for Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke&#8217;s dark comedy fable of romance, melancholy, and consumerism. March is mourning his wife Nat who has recently passed away due to dust pollution. He discovers her spirit has returned by possessing a vacuum cleaner. Disturbed by a ghost that appeared after a worker’s death shut down their factory, his family reject their unconventional human-ghost relationship. Trying to convince them of their love, Nat offers to cleanse the factory. To become a useful ghost, she must first get rid of the useless ones.

**Accessibility Options**: Open Captions

A Useful Ghost

Vidiots

Project Hail Mary 70mm

The Caine Mutiny

Vista Theatre

FILM DIARY NYC is a biennial festival of experimental, autobiographical films that capture the personal history and daily experiences of the filmmaker. The 4th edition, *Go to the Mountains and Pray*,  features 170 new works by a diverse array of artists from across the world. The Los Angeles Satellite program at Whammy offers a one-night screening of 8 films that represent the range of the festival programming: from the formally experimental to the observational; from auto-fiction to home movie archives; from found footage and new media to 16mm and analogue film techniques.

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Films:

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Tourniquet

Marceline Chevako, USA, 8 Min

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I Would’ve Been Happy

Jordan Wong, USA, 9 Min

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Piñata Prayers

Daniel Larios, El Salvador / USA, 24 Min

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Looking For You Looking For Me

Wes Weisbaum, USA, 5 Min

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typhoon diary 风球日记

Helix Zhang, USA, 6 Min

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Magic Mountain

Valentina Rosset, Brazil, 7 Min

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Padre Nuestro

Emanuel Christopher Castro, USA, 15 Min

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Like a Tongue Knows the Mouth

Laura Ohio, USA / Canada, 24 Min

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“An organization unparalleled in our current moment within the New York film world.”

- Devon Narine-Singh, filmmaker, educator (CU Boulder)

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“A community of artists committed to cutting through the bullshit, excited to use any and all media to increase our understanding & create authentic connection.”

- Julie Perini, filmmaker, educator (Portland State University)

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“This festival is what real artistic community can look and feel like, and these filmmakers give me hope for the future of art on screen”

- Ife Olujobi, filmmaker, writer

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“Exciting ideas...Very much in the spirit of the kind of film community that my father helped to foster and support.”

- Sebastian Mekas

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## Total Runtime: 98 Min

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## Wednesday, 3/257:30 DOORS8:00 SCREENING

## Followed by a Q&A with filmmakers present, led by writer Chris Shields.

## ‍$10 general admission, $8 for Whammy! members

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*Whammy! is located in the REAR unit of 2514 Sunset Blvd, entrance access is via Rampart Blvd.*

FILM DIARY 4: GO TO THE MOUNTAINS AND PRAY

WHAMMY!

Lightstruck is elated to present two full evenings of rarely screened animated shorts from one of the most significant centers of experimental animation production and creativity in the history of the medium: Poland. Spanning the early 1960s to the late 1980s, these two programs (March 26 and April 16) will showcase an incredibly eclectic selection focusing on little-known masterworks and deep-cut revelations, all screening in recent restorations.

Poland has an extraordinary animation history marked by radical experimentation in technique and texture, investigating dark and complex themes inspired by social critique and surrealist visions alike. Spanning stop motion, cutout, cel, paint on glass, and hand-drawn approaches, these programs extend to include exceptional techniques such as Zbig Rybczyński’s hyper-complex optical printing, Piotr Dumała’s exquisite renderings on plaster slabs, and Julian Antonisz’s unhinged cameraless animation produced on ingenious, visionary devices of his own making. A morbid and uneasy humor often punctuates these works, which pulse with rich, emotional, and dramatic narratives and themes matched only by the exceptional imagination and talents of their authors.

We selected the films for these programs with an emphasis on shorts not generally available on home media, and spanning a particularly diverse array of styles, aesthetics, techniques, and sensibilities. Widely celebrated artists like Rybczyński, Antonisz, Ryszard Czekała, and Jerzy Kucia will be represented by lesser known (but magnificent) offerings, while deeply memorable obscurities from Jacek Kasprzycki, Zofia Oraczewska, Ryszard Antoniszczak, and Ewa Bibańska will further illuminate Poland’s incredible spectrum of animation genius.

Programs by Zena Grey and Mark Toscano. Notes by Mark Toscano. Films courtesy of Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych (+ thanks to Stanisław Bardadin) and Filmoteka Narodowa – Instytut Audiowizualny (+ thanks to Adrian Smykowski and Julia Bachman).

Polish Animation #1: Flames in Dark Places (1962-74)

2220 Arts + Archives

### **ABOUT THE FILMS:**

**SLING BLADE, 1996, Dir. Billy Bob Thornton, 136 Mins, USA**

Mentally disabled Karl Childers (Billy Bob Thornton) is released from the mental hospital where he has spent most of his life after murdering his mother and her lover. He soon forms a bond with Frank (Lucas Black), a boy whose father committed suicide. When Frank’s mother, Linda (Natalie Canerday), lets Karl stay at their house, her cruel boyfriend, Doyle (Dwight Yoakam), tries to get Karl removed. Determined to protect his friend, Karl devises a way to save Frank from years of Doyle’s abuse. Also starring J. T. Walsh, John Ritter and Robert Duvall.

FORMAT: 35mm

**TOMORROW, 1972, Dir. Joseph Anthony, 103 Mins, AGFA, USA**

In 1930s Mississippi, lonely Jackson Fentry (Robert Duvall) lives by himself as the sole caretaker of a sawmill. One day, close to the property, he discovers a young woman, Sarah Eubanks (Olga Bellin), who is three months pregnant. Since she was abandoned by both her husband and her family, Jackson takes her in. The two fall in love and get married just before her death. Jackson raises the child as his own, until the boy’s uncles arrive to demand he be returned to the family.

FORMAT: DCP

30th Anniversary of SLING BLADE SLING BLADE print courtesy of the George Eastman Museum ‘Starring Robert Duvall’

SLING BLADE / TOMORROW

Margit and her older sister Katla flee for safety after their mother is burned to death for witchcraft. Finding shelter with Johan and his resentful young son, Jonas, the sisters help form an impromptu family unit that’s soon strained by Katla’s burgeoning sorcery.

The Juniper Tree

Brain Dead Studios

Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.

Carrie

Young, rich, and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral.

@seeiton16mm PRESENTS HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971)(PG)(Thu 3/26) 7:30pm

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

A deceptively simple tale of a group of strangers trapped in a farmhouse who find themselves fending off a horde of flesh-eating ghouls newly arisen from their graves, Romero’s claustrophobic vision of a late-sixties America (literally) tearing itself apart rewrote the rules of the horror genre, combined gruesome gore with acute social commentary, and quietly broke ground by casting a black actor (Duane Jones) in the lead role.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: USA

Introduction by author Daniel Kraus Book signing with Daniel Kraus for his new book, Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World, prior to the screening at 6:30pm at the Los Feliz 3, in partnership with the Larry Edmunds Bookshop.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Filipino with English subtitles.*

A coming-of-age story of college student Joey, who’s lost all sense of direction. His only inspiration is music, but he has yet to finish writing a song. His life changes when he meets Ana and his world is suddenly turned upside-down.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: ABS-CBN Film Productions

COUNTRY: Philippines

MOMENTS IN A STOLEN DREAM

Lady Frankenstein / Slaughter Hotel

Amuck! /

The Los Angeles premiere of the restoration of Robert Bresson&#8217;s *The Devil, Probably* is presented with an introduction from Writer and Film Critic A.S. Hamrah.

The Devil, Probably

Join Titmouse for the **20th anniversary of 5 Second Day** at the LA premiere of their annual **5 Second Day… Night!!!** animation showcase, featuring a special introduction from studio co-founder **Chris Prynoski**.

This special anniversary edition will feature a unique, uncensored compilation of brand new short-form cartoons created by Titmouse animators and creative staff as part of the studio’s long-running *5 Second Day* tradition, alongside a curated selection of standout shorts from the past 20 years of the event, giving audiences a rare chance to revisit some of the weirdest, wildest, and most unforgettable cartoons from two decades of *5 Second Day*.

**About 5 Second Day: **

An annual tradition where Titmouse shuts down production for 24 hours across its Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver, and Paris studio locations, giving its artists a fully paid day to unleash their most quirky, beautiful, bizarre, and laugh-out-loud ideas. 

For more information, [https://5secondday.com](https://5secondday.com)

Titmouse Presents: 5 Second Day… Night!!!

The Snow Woman/The Haunted Castle

In celebration of their collaborative, two-venue run of Michael Almereyda and Courtney Stephens’ JOHN LILLY AND THE EARTH COINCIDENCE CONTROL OFFICE, 7th House and Brain Dead are thrilled to co-present Mike Nichols’s THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN (1973).&#8221;

*DAY OF THE DOLPHIN* imagines a world where the boundary between human and animal intelligence begins to dissolve. When a team of researchers successfully teaches dolphins to communicate in English, their breakthrough attracts the attention of powerful forces eager to weaponize the discovery.

The film draws direct inspiration from the pioneering work of Dr. John C. Lilly, whose real-life research into dolphin intelligence and communication captivated both the scientific community and the public imagination in the 1960s and ’70s. Lilly believed that dolphins possessed complex language and consciousness, and his experiments attempted to bridge the gap between species.

Released at the height of that cultural fascination, *DAY OF THE DOLPHIN* transforms Lilly’s radical ideas into a tense political thriller about the ethics of science, the limits of communication, and what might happen if we finally succeeded in speaking with another intelligent species. Presented alongside *JOHN LILLY AND THE EARTH COINCIDENCE CONTROL OFFICE*, the film offers a fascinating glimpse into how Lilly’s extraordinary research rippled into popular culture.

The Day of the Dolphin

Like a pod of dolphins leaping harmoniously through the waves, the SoCal tour of ***JOHN LILLY AND THE EARTH COINCIDENCE CONTROL OFFICE*** arrives April 2–5 through a collaboration between **Oscilloscope**, **Brain Dead Studios**, **7th House**, **Philosophical Research Society, **and **Ojai Playhouse****.**

Directed by **Michael Almereyda** and **Courtney Stephens**, this new documentary explores the life and work of the daring experimenter Dr. John C. Lilly, a scientist who dedicated his life to radical self-investigation and unlocking the mysteries of consciousness and communication. Lilly’s motto, “My body is my laboratory,” guided his pioneering and controversial research into the intelligence and language of dolphins and whales, as well as his explorations of psychedelics and sensory deprivation.

Alongside the documentary, 7th House and Brain Dead present two films shaped by his work: Mike Nichols’s DAY OF THE DOLPHIN (Saturday, 4/4 at Brain Dead Studios) and Ken Russell’s ALTERED STATES (Sunday, 4/5 at The Philosophical Research Society). Together, these films chart the strange and fascinating cultural wake of Lilly’s quest to understand the mind, the ocean, and the hidden systems that might connect them both.

John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

11:00am | Doors open & Live musical performance by pianist Chris Dawson. Book signing with Steven C. Smith for his new book, *Hitchcock & Herrmann: The Friendship & Film Scores That Changed Cinema*.

12:00pm | Introduction by Eddie Muller and author Steven C. Smith

12:10pm | **HANGOVER SQUARE**

*Start times are approximate.*

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Originally released February 7th, 1945

In this Edwardian noir, George Sanders is a Scotland Yard psychologist and Laird Cregar (in his final role) is a distinguished composer who moonlights as a serial killer. Linda Darnell steals the show as a conniving singer with a grisly sendoff. Bernard Herrmann’s “Concerto Macabre,” centerpiece of the film’s climax, is one of the most thrilling works composed for the cinema.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Disney

COUNTRY: USA

Live musical performance by pianist Chris Dawson Introduction by Eddie Muller and author Steven C. Smith Book signing with Steven C. Smith for his new book, Hitchcock & Herrmann: The Friendship & Film Scores That Changed Cinema, prior to the screening at 11:00am at the Egyptian Theatre, in partnership with the Larry Edmunds Bookshop. ‘NOIR CITY: Hollywood 2026’

HANGOVER SQUARE

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

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

4:00pm | Introduction by Alan K. Rode

4:10pm | **ANATOMY OF A MURDER**

*Start times are approximate.*

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Originally released July 1, 1959

One of the best courtroom movies ever made. James Stewart plays an Upper Peninsula of Michigan lawyer drawn out of retirement to represent an Army Lieutenant charged with murder. The Lieutenant admits to the crime despite having no memory of committing it, and Stewart’s character is given the unenviable task of mounting an “irresistible impulse” defense. The contrast between the scandal and the wholesome, small-town setting in which it’s discussed is perfectly realized by director Otto Preminger. The director constantly pushed the boundaries of what could be depicted onscreen, and ANATOMY OF A MURDER represents the platonic ideal in terms of blending entertainment with social commentary. Stewart earned a fifth and final Oscar nomination for his work here, but he’s given stiff competition from George C. Scott, Ben Gazzara and jazz luminary Duke Ellington, who also composed the score.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Pictures

COUNTRY: USA

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

ANATOMY OF A MURDER

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

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

7:00pm | Introduction by Eddie Muller and Nick Rossi

7:10pm | **THE YELLOW CANARY**

8:43pm | Q&A with actor Pat Boone. Moderated by Eddie Muller.

9:23pm | **THE CRIMSON CANARY**

*Start times are approximate.*

### **ABOUT THE FILMS:**

**THE YELLOW CANARY, 1963, Dir. Buzz Kulik, 93 Mins, USA**

Originally released May 15, 1963

Wait a minute—where’d this come from? A late-cycle film noir with a script by Rod Serling, from a novel by Whit (TOUCH OF EVIL) Masterson? Starring *Pat Boone* as an egomaniacal pop crooner whose only child is kidnapped for a king’s ransom? With Barbara Eden as his wife? And Jack Klugman the investigating cop? With a wall-to-wall jazz-pop score by Kenyon Hopkins? And a supporting cast that’s a Who’s Who of sixties favorites: Steve Forrest, Jesse White, Harold Gould, Milton Seltzer, Jeff Corey, Joe Turkel . . . Be here at the Egyptian Theatre as the Film Noir Foundation resurrects this pop culture obscurity in a brand-new digital restoration —**with star Pat Boone in person!** One of the first features on the résumé of veteran TV-director Buzz Kulik (PLAYHOUSE 90, TWILIGHT ZONE, WARNING SHOT, BRIAN’S SONG).

FORMAT: DCP

**THE CRIMSON CANARY, 1945, Dir. John Hoffman, 64 Mins, Universal Pictures, USA**

Originally released November 9, 1945

THE CRIMSON CANARY boasts two things that make B-movies so much fun: a great premise and a short runtime. A trumpet player gets locked up after the lead singer of his band gets whacked. The trumpeter’s fiancée sets out to find the real killer with help from a jazz-loving detective. The film’s Black-led musical numbers have little to do with its plot, which made them easier to cut for Southern censors, but they make up several of the film’s best moments. Coleman Hawkins rips through spirited renditions of “Rifftide” and “Hollywood Stampede,” while blues/folk legend Josh White brings down the house with his signature tune “One Meatball.” Featuring a memorably nasty performance by Claudia Drake (DETOUR) as the murdered singer.

FORMAT: 35mm

Q&A with actor Pat Boone. Moderated by Eddie Muller. Live musical performance by the Nick Rossi Trio Introduction by Eddie Muller and Nick Rossi THE YELLOW CANARY World Premiere of New Digital Restoration by Film Noir Foundation and Cinema Preservation Alliance ‘NOIR CITY: Hollywood 2026’

THE YELLOW CANARY / THE CRIMSON CANARY

Robert Townsend pens a soulful love letter to Black popular music in this film loosely inspired by Motown-era vocal groups. It follows a fictional quintet from 1960s chart success through industry exploitation, infighting and addiction.

Here Eddie Murphy stands at the center of the Black Pack as Prince Akeem, heir to the throne of Zamunda, who leaves royal luxury for Queens, New York, in search of love on his own terms. The most commercially successful Black comedy feature of its era, this blockbuster is also a case study in power and authorship, as Murphy gives a tour de force performance of multiple characters and earns a “story by” credit. Ultimately, the film shows how box office clout enabled Black cultural specificity while embedding sharp critiques of race, class and respectability within mainstream studio comedy.—*guest programmer Artel Great*

Director: John Landis. Screenwriter: David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein. With: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones.

The Cultural Politics of Eddie Murphy: Coming to America

Hammer Museum

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Japanese with English subtitles.*

A child is killed in a hit and run. The mother plots her revenge by posing as a maid in the house of the murderer.

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’

MOMENT OF TERROR

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Henry Hackett (Michael Keaton) is an editor at the New York Sun, a tabloid paper facing financial cuts. His pregnant wife, Martha (Marisa Tomei), pleads with him to get a more respectable job so he can spend more time with his family. Hackett is considering an offer from another paper, with fewer hours and higher pay, when he gets his hottest story in years. When this scoop leads to a burst of violence and a conflict with his new boss, Alicia (Glenn Close), he faces a startling moment of truth. Also starring Robert Duvall, Spalding Gray and Catherine O’Hara.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures

COUNTRY: USA

‘Starring Robert Duvall’ and ‘Starring Catherine O’Hara’

THE PAPER

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

Join us to celebrate the PROOF 2025 Award Winners in a showcase of their work. PROOF is a short film festival in Los Angeles dedicated to showcasing the best in proof-of-concepts. Providing a highly competitive and unique festival experience, as well as opening the door for fruitful future filmmaking opportunities, PROOF is a one-stop-shop for the newest emerging talent.

### **ABOUT THE FILMS:**

**“Thirstygirl,” Dir. Alex Qin, 10 Mins, USA **

*Grand Jury Award Winner!  *

Charlie and Nic are headed somewhere. We’re not sure where. All we know is Charlie can’t stop sending nudes and watching porn on her phone. As the sisters go along their journey, Charlie’s need for sex intensifies and she resorts to more and more depraved behaviors to get her fix. THIRSTYGIRL is an intimate film about sisterhood and addiction, following two Asian-American women traveling across the American South.

**“We Used to Take the Long Way Home,” Dir. An Nguyen, 14 Mins, Vietnam/USA **

*Gold Award Winner!  *

A young Mormon missionary at the start of his two years of service is shown the ropes by his well-meaning trainer, who comes to terms with his own failures.

FORMAT: DCP

**“Inner Demons,” Dir. Jasmine J. Johnson, 11 Mins,  **

*Silver Award Winner!  *

Mya’s world takes a harrowing twist when pills meant to alleviate depression unwittingly unleash a nightmarish entity that embodies her inner turmoil. Mya finds herself entangled in a relentless battle against her own psyche, fighting not just for her mental well-being but her very survival.

FORMAT: DCP

**“LOVE192,” Dir. Haydon Mayer, 20 Mins, USA**

*Bronze Award Winner! *

As an abandoned online roleplaying game nears its final days, Tyler and Jude, once inseparable, reconnect amongst a fading digital landscapes. Moving between liminal in-game space and distant memories, the two teens navigate unspoken feelings and shared history. With the clock ticking on the server, and their adolescence, the two hatch a cross-country plan to meet in person, confronting the schism between who they were online and who they are becoming.

FORMAT: DCP

**“Make Me a Pizza,” Dir. Talia Shea Levin, 12 Mins, USA**

*Kodak Excellence in Analog Film Award Winner; Jury Special Mention!*

BORED HOUSEWIFE seduces HOT PIZZA GUY for free pizza, but is desire worth $29.99?

FORMAT: DCP

**“My Kind of People,” Dir. Joe Picozzi, 14 Mins, USA **

*Audience Choice Award Winner!  *

After a DNA test uncovers his father’s adoption, a proud paesano from Providence, Rhode Island grapples with the revelation that he’s not actually Italian American, and never has been. With the foundation of his identity destroyed, and his familial bonds broken, he begins to spiral.

FORMAT: DCP

Q&A with filmmakers following the screening Join us to celebrate the PROOF 2025 Award Winners in a showcase of their work!

PROOF 2025 Award Winners Showcase

Opening Reception: April 11 at 6 PM [RSVP](https://www.redcat.org/form/opening-reception-harmony-26)

*Harmony Holiday: Spectacular Brooding *investigates the spectacles and secrets of black grief. Considering the tension between private ritual and public display within this tradition, the Los Angeles-based artist’s exhibition considers what she calls the “Black Backstage” as a zone of sacred privacy that makes the spectacularization of performance bearable. In contrast to commercial reproduction of music, dance, and film that distorts black artistry, Harmony positions the home and the studio as intimate spaces of black creative life. 

The exhibition divides the gallery into two spaces: the dance studio and the cutting room. In the studio, Holiday will rehearse live and record her preparatory process towards the performance of a solo dance, which marks a return to live dance performance for the first time in decades. Holiday’s choreography will consider iconic expressions of black grieving in choreography by Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison, Bill T. Jones, Katherine Dunham, and Robert Battle, as well as gestures of black performance and everyday life in digital culture. A mourner’s bench will provide a place of solitude and public memorial, inviting people to listen to oral histories and to engage with Holiday’s own writing. In the cutting room, Holiday will screen an excerpt of a new film that considers these themes through a documentary of a living artist.

Spectacular Brooding

REDCAT

**Screenwriter**: Georgi M. Unkovski

**Producers**: Ivan Unkovski,  Ivana Shekutkoska,  Katarina Prpic

Join us in the microcinema for Georgi M. Unkovski&#8217;s delightful coming-of-age triumph for the pink sheep in every family! 15-year-old Ahmet, from a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia, finds refuge in music while navigating his father’s expectations, a conservative community, and his first experience with love — a girl already promised to someone else. Winner of both an audience and jury award at Sundance, this international charmer (that features an actual pink sheep!) has a rhythm all its own.

DJ Ahmet

**Screenwriters**: Karey Kirkpatrick, Jonathan Roberts, Steve Bloom

**Producers**: Tim Burton, Denise Di Novi

From the same team that brought you *Nightmare Before Christmas* comes this imaginative mixture of dazzling and inventive stop-motion animation and live-action. This charming adaptation of Roald Dahl&#8217;s beloved children&#8217;s book follows the adventures of James (Paul Terry), a young British orphan. Forced to move in with his cruel aunts (Joanna Lumley, Miriam Margolyes), James finds a way out of his bleak existence when he accidentally conjures an enormous enchanted peach. After rolling into the sea inside the buoyant fruit, James, accompanied by a crew of friendly talking insects, sets sail for New York City.

**Picks from the Video Store**

Check out our Stop-Motion Animation section for a smorgasbord of delight!

*The Exquisite Short Films of Kihachiro Kawamoto, Gumby Essentials, Hamilton Mattress*

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

James and the Giant Peach

**Screenwriter**: Hideaki Anno

**Producers**: Yoshihiro Satô,  Masaya Shibusawa,  Taichi Ueda,  Kazutoshi Wadakura

If your Saturday afternoon is missing something big &#8211; we&#8217;ve got the biggest baddest kaiju of them all and one of the most beloved entries into the atomic monster&#8217;s canon on our monster-sized screen! Something has surfaced in Tokyo Bay. As the Prime Minister of Japan pleads with the public to remain calm, a horrific creature of tremendous size makes landfall in the city, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Then it evolves. The government assembles a motley task force to combat the monster when an envoy from the US Department of State delivers a folder of classified documents. On its cover is written: “GODZILLA.”

From Director Hideaki Anno and Co-Director Shinji Higuchi, *Shin Godzilla* offers a thrilling origin story to one of cinema’s greatest creations. Propelled by astounding visual effects and rapid fire dialogue, *Shin Godzilla* is equal parts pulse-pounding action film and venomous political satire, worthy of the franchise’s towering history.

**Picks from the Video Store**

Love your monsters BIG? Check out some of these big baddies on Blu-Ray and DVD tonight!

*Q: The Winged Serpent, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters*

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

Shin Godzilla

**Screenwriter**: J.F. Lawton

**Producers**: Nancy Gross,  Steven Reuther,  Arnon Milchan

*Big mistake! Huge!* If your Friday night could use a little unlikely romance, we&#8217;ve got the yuppie/sex-worker rom com that broke the mold and stole the hearts of America while catapulting Julia Roberts into the stratosphere! While on a business trip in Los Angeles, Edward Lewis, a millionaire entrepreneur who makes a living buying and breaking up companies, picks up a prostitute, Vivian, while asking for directions; after, Edward hires Vivian to stay with him for the weekend to accompany him to a few social events, and the two get closer only to discover there are significant hurdles to overcome as they try to bridge the gap between their very different worlds. Whether you&#8217;re in it for the love story, the makeover, or the underdog triumph, there&#8217;s a lot to love about Garry Marshall&#8217;s blockbuster classic!

**Picks from the Video Store**

Looking for entertaining and humanistic portraits of sex workers?

*Love & Anarchy, Angel, Streetwalkin&#8217;*

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

Pretty Woman

**Screenwriters**: Alice Maio Mackay,  Benjamin Pahl Robinson

**Producers**: Alice Maio Mackay, Louise Weard

Vidiots is excited to welcome prolific young filmmaker **Alice Maio Mackay** and editor **Vera Drew** to the microcinema for a special screening of *The Serpent&#8217;s Skin* &#8211; the Gothic trans horror fantasy of your teen dreams!

Twentysomething Anna (Alexandra McVicker, *October Crow*) finally leaves her small, transphobic hometown for good and quickly begins dating goth tattoo artist Gen (Avalon Fast, *Castration Movie*) after the two discover they share supernatural powers. But before Anna can call up the U-Haul, Gen inadvertently summons a demon through the sick neck tattoo she gives sensitive guitarist Danny (Jordan Dulieu). As Danny — or whatever’s inside of him — begins feeding off their friends, it’s up to Anna and Gen to figure out how to use their powers to save everyone before it’s too late.

The sixth-and-latest feature by 21-year-old filmmaking force of nature Alice Maio Mackay (*Carnage for Christmas*),* The Serpent&#8217;s Skin* like a trans take on *The Craft* or the YA horror paperback you wished you had in high school. Returning to the same premise as her early short *The Serpent’s Nest* (2021) and working with a group of trans film luminaries — including producer Louise Weard (*Castration Movie*), editor Vera Drew (*The People’s Joker*), and colorist Jessica Dunn Rovinelli (*So Pretty*), all remarkable filmmakers in their own right — *The Serpent’s Skin* sees the full blossoming of the bold neo-Araki aesthetic that has made Mackay one of the most exciting voices in this current wave of independent trans cinema. (Synopsis courtesy of Frameline.)

7:30pm Screening followed by a conversation with **Alice Maio Mackay** and **Vera Drew**, moderated by **Roz Hernandez**!

10:00pm Screening with an introduction by **Alice Maio Mackay**!

The Serpent’s Skin

**Screenwriters**: René Laloux,  Jean-Patrick Manchette,  Moebius

**Producers**: Jacques Dercourt,  Roland Gritti

Directed by visionary science-fiction animator René Laloux (*Fantastic Planet*) and designed by the legendary Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Mœbius) *The Time Masters *is a visually fantastic foray into existentialist space adventure. After his parents are killed on the dangerous planet Perdide, young Piel (voiced by Frédéric Legros) survives by maintaining radio contact with Jaffar (Jean Valmont), a pilot transporting the exiled Prince Matton (Yves-Marie Maurin) and Princess Belle (Monique Thierry) from their former kingdom. Jaffar seeks the help of Silbad (Michel Elias), a cheerful old-timer who knows how to circumvent Perdide’s hazards, including brain-devouring insects and watery graves. Along the way, Jaffar and company encounter a pair of impish homunculi stowaways, identity-less angels controlled by an amorphous hive mind, and the Masters of Time, mysterious beings who can bend reality and perhaps reveal to the heroes their secret origins and destinies.

*Restored in 4K in 2023 at the initiative of CITE FILMS in collaboration with the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and with the support of the CNC*

Time Masters

The Drama

Every school day, African-American teenagers William Gates and Arthur Agee travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominately white suburban school well-known for the excellence of its basketball program. Gates and Agee dream of NBA stardom, and with the support of their close-knit families, they battle the social and physical obstacles that stand in their way. This acclaimed documentary was shot over the course of five years.

Hoop Dreams

A basketball player&#8217;s father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter prison sentence.

He Got Game

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

11:00am | Doors open & Live piano performance

12:00pm | Introduction by Alan K. Rode

12:10pm | **TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT**

*Start times are approximate.*

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Originally released October 11, 1944

Humphrey Bogart is an aimless fisherman who gets drawn into the growing French Resistance in Martinique. Lauren Bacall is the American songbird who seduces him and subsequently reawakens his sense of purpose. Ernest Hemingway’s self-described “worst” novel is gleefully translated to the screen by director Howard Hawks, who ditches most of the plot to play up the nuclear chemistry between his two leads. Sure, there’s a lot borrowed from 1942’s CASABLANCA, but you’d be hard-pressed to hold back a smile whenever Bacall teases Bogie or tutors him on the importance of whistling. It’s a debut performance for the ages, bolstered by the memorable tunes that Bacall sings alongside co-star/songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. Featuring a Walter Brennan character that can best be described as a “Walter Brennan type.”

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Park Circus

COUNTRY: USA

Live piano performance Introduction by Alan K. Rode ‘NOIR CITY: Hollywood 2026’

TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

2:00pm | Doors open & Live piano performance

3:00pm | Introduction by Alan K. Rode

3:10pm | **LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME**

*Start times are approximate.*

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Originally released May 26, 1955

The tumultuous life of dancer-singer Ruth Etting (Doris Day, in a revelatory performance) gets a vivid retelling in this vivacious and vitriolic biopic that is equal parts lavish musical and noir-stained psychodrama. Daniel Fuchs (HOLLOW TRIUMPH, CRISS CROSS) won a “Best Writing, Motion Picture Story” Oscar for this tale of the 1920s singing and dancing sensation who makes a Faustian bargain for fame and glory—becoming a protégé to Chicago gangster Marty Snyder (Jimmy Cagney, in an Oscar-nominated performance). The role is such a scintillating showcase for Doris Day’s talents that it’s hard to believe Ava Gardner was the studio’s first choice for the starring role until Cagney convinced producer Joe Pasternak that Day, borrowed from Warner Bros., was the perfect choice. Many of Etting’s greatest hits are performed by Day, including “Ten Cents a Dance,” “You Made Me Love You,” “Stay on the Right Side, Sister” as well as “I’ll Never Stop Loving You,” a 1956 Oscar nominee for Best Original Song.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros.

COUNTRY: USA

LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME

### **ABOUT THE EVENT:**

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

7:00pm | Live musical performance by singer Laura Ellis

7:05pm | Introduction by Eddie Muller and Nick Rossi

7:15pm | **A MAN CALLED ADAM**

8:54pm | Intermission

9:04pm | Introduction by Eddie Muller and Nick Rossi

9:14pm | **ALL NIGHT LONG**

*Start times are approximate.*

### **ABOUT THE FILMS:**

**A MAN CALLED ADAM, 1966, Dir. Leo Penn, 99 Mins, Rialto Pictures, USA**

Originally released August 3, 1966

Sammy Davis, Jr. like you’ve never seen him before! Sammy plays Adam, the cornetist whose prodigious talent is dwarfed only by his penchant for self-destruction. He maps out a comeback with the help of a saxophonist turned Civil Rights activist and his granddaughter, but it doesn’t take long for the demons to come calling. One of the most unrelentingly bleak noir films of the 1960s, economically directed by Leo Penn (father of Oscar-winner Sean) and tailored to showcase musical luminaries George Rhodes and Louis Armstrong as they tear up real New York City nightclubs. Featuring memorably intense supporting turns by Davis’ Rat Pack cohort, Peter Lawford, and Rat Pack offspring, Frank Sinatra Jr.

FORMAT: DCP

**ALL NIGHT LONG, 1962, Dir. Basil Dearden, 91 Mins, AGFA, UK**

Originally released February 6, 1962

ALL NIGHT LONG redresses William Shakespeare’s *Othello* for pulp audiences. Patrick McGoohan is an ambitious drummer who tries to coax a famous singer out of retirement to front his band. The singer declines and the drummer becomes so obsessed with destroying her marriage that he risks his own relationship and career in the process. There’s a perverse delight in watching party gossip spread like wildfire, especially when you know the source will get burned, but ALL NIGHT LONG isn’t just a slick meditation on celebrity. The film captures musical icons Dave Brubeck, John Scott and Charles Mingus in their prime, making it an invaluable time capsule of the London jazz scene in the early 1960s. Featuring a heartbreaking turn by Betsy Blair.

FORMAT: DCP

Live musical performance by singer Laura Ellis and the Nick Rossi Trio Introductions by Eddie Muller and Nick Rossi ‘NOIR CITY: Hollywood 2026’

A MAN CALLED ADAM / ALL NIGHT LONG

A Depression era-set Southern Gothic thriller, *The Night of the Hunter* tells an adult story through the eyes of children. Actor-turned-director Charles Laughton described it as a “fairy tale of the Big Bad Wolf’s pursuit of the Little Pigs.” Robert Mitchum stars as the wolf in preacher’s clothing pursuing the two children of a widow (Shelley Winter) who know about a stash of ill-gotten loot. A dream-like work thanks in part to the unique cinematography by Stanley Cortez, it turns feverishly on dualities — heaven and hell, good versus evil, the sacred and profane — while paying homage to the silent era with Lillian Gish also starring.—*Theater Manager Lauren Brown*

Director: Charles Laughton. Screenwriters: James Agee, Charles Laughton. With: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish.

The Night of the Hunter

Loose Frames presents an evening of various funny, experimental, and evocative animated shorts. There will be a short Q&A with the filmmakers before the screening begins.

Loose Frames Freak Out!: Animated Shorts Screening

Heavy Manners Library

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Georgian with English subtitles.*

One of the great films from Georgia—and the Soviet Union as a whole—was featured at the 1975 London Film Festival (nearly a decade after it was made), where Brian Baxter noted: “Quite surely a masterpiece and one of the most strikingly original and beautiful films ever made. It is shot in the deepest blacks and almost blinding whites, tightly compressing its complex tale of love, hate, and revenge. The screenplay is taken from [two poems by Vaza Psavela] . . . Abuladze has managed to convey the ‘epic’ quality of the piece by superb use of the harsh landscapes and the integration of the characters within the surroundings.”

FORMAT: DCP

COUNTRY: Soviet Union

THE PLEA

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

When a writing assignment lands journalist Raoul Duke and sidekick Dr. Gonzo in Las Vegas, they make it the ultimate business trip. Fueled by a suitcase full of mind-bending pharmaceuticals, Duke and Gonzo set off on a ride through nonstop neon, surreal surroundings and a crew of the craziest characters ever, discovering that sometimes going too far is the only way to go.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures

COUNTRY: USA

FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS

Michael Almereyda & Courtney Stephens' fascinating experimental doc about the psychonautic scientist who tried to communicate with dolphins

JOHN LILLY & THE EARTH COINCIDENCE CONTROL OFFICE (2025)

Ken Russell’s mind-bending descent into the primordial depths of consciousness, inspired by the experiments of John C. Lilly!

Ken Russell's ALTERED STATES (1980) —  A Mind-Bending Psychonautic Classic!

Philosophical Research Society

**Screenwriters**: Bill Walsh, Don DaGradi

**Producer**: Walt Disney

Sing Along with everyone&#8217;s favorite magical flying nanny! The world&#8217;s most famous nanny takes flight on the winds of fancy and fantasy in this beloved magical musical no one can resist. Sent from the sky to keep the Banks children in line and show them a world of imagination, song, and wonderment &#8211; Mary Poppins is the answer to everyone&#8217;s prayers in the bustling Banks household. So open your umbrella and fly on over for a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious experience every generation of Vidiot will love!

**Picks from the Video Store**

Our musicals section has a shelf dedicated to the great Julie Andrews! Take home more magic tonight!

*Thoroughly Modern Millie, First a Girl, Cinderella *(1957)*, The Princess Diaries*

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

Mary Poppins Sing-Along

**Screenwriters**: Ugo Bienvenu,  Félix de Givry

**Producers**: Félix de Givry,  Sophie Mas,  Natalie Portman,  Ugo Bienvenu

A magical and beautifully animated journey through time, *Arco* is a dazzling adventure about a 10-year-old boy from a peaceful, distant future who accidentally travels back to the year 2075 and discovers a world in peril. As Arco develops a charming and touching friendship with a young girl named Iris, they band together and along with her trusted robot caretaker Mikki, set out on a quest to get Arco home, while the two children may also be the only ones who can save our planet.  A wondrous odyssey filled with hope and optimism for our future, *Arco* is an enchanting fable from breakout filmmaker Ugo Bienvenu, produced by Remembers’ Bienvenu and Felix de Givry, and mountainA’s Natalie Portman and Sophie Mas. The film debuted at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and won The Cristal Award for Best Feature Film at the 2025 Annecy Awards.

Arco (English Dubbed)

**Screenwriters**: Oscar Brodney,  Myles Connolly from the stage play by Mary Chase

**Producer**: John Beck

Is it madness or just a giant rabbit? Jimmy Stewart has never been more delightful than in this bunnariffic comedy classic, a beloved staple of springtime for over 75 years! Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Mary Chase, this beyond charming film is the (cotton)tail of a man that befriends an invisible man-sized rabbit, who may either be his ticket to the looney bin or the answer to all his problems!

**Picks from the Video Store**

Want more 1950s comedies? We&#8217;ve got dozens! Including these gems:

*Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, The Mouse that Roared, Pillow Talk*

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

Harvey

**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

**Screenwriters**: S.S. Rajamouli, Sai Madhav Burra

**Producers**: D.V.V. Danayya

Can&#8217;t stop! Won&#8217;t Stop! The biggest film of the decade has become a Vidiots tradition! *RRR* is an exhilarating, action-packed spectacular, starring two of India&#8217;s biggest superstars, N.T Rama Rao Jr., aka Jr NTR and Ram Charan. Set in the 1920s before their fight for India’s independence began, *RRR* imagines a fictional meeting between two real-life freedom fighters who helped lead India’s fight for independence from the British Raj.

With staggeringly choreographed action sequences, an all-timer of a musical number, and a powerful story, *RRR* is pure cinematic joy from start to finish. Audiences across the world have been won over, and trust us — If you haven&#8217;t seen this on a big screen, you haven&#8217;t really seen it, and if you have, you know why we sell out every single screening!

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

*Urgh! **A Music War,* the pioneering punk concert classic, returns to LA! Hollywood Entertainment proudly presents this unmissable cavalcade of counterculture with legendary musicians too numerous to list in full!

A raucous and rarely-screened record of the state of punk, post-punk, new wave, reggae, and ska, *Urgh! A Music War *is one of the great documents of live music. It is a uniquely breathless rush of back-to-back live performances featuring raw and righteous takes from Devo, X, XTC, Au Pairs, The Cramps, The Go-Go&#8217;s, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Dead Kennedys, Pere Ubu, Athletico Spizz 80, Gary Numan, Klaus Nomi, Gang of Four, Chelsea, and many, MANY more…

Several of the film’s most memorable performances were filmed over two nights at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and one night at the Whiskey a Go Go in August 1980 along with sets from San Diego, New York City, Frejus, Paris, Portsmouth, and London.

*35mm screening of the original theatrical cut*

Urgh! A Music War

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

From Umberto Lenzi, notorious director of such Euro-sleaze classics as PARANOIA, SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS, SPASMO, EYEBALL and CANNIBAL FEROX comes NIGHTMARE BEACH, a shockingly gory tale of a madman in a motorcycle helmet who is taking out young co-eds all over the sparkling sands of South Florida during Spring Break. As the body count creeps up, Miami detective John Saxon tries to keep ahead of the curve in this carnage-packed slasher gem from the maestro of macabre. Featuring a rollicking score by Goblin’s Claudio Simonetti and co-starring the great Michael Parks.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Rialto Pictures

COUNTRY: USA/Italy

Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive Special thanks to Phil Blankenship for the print ‘Cinematic Void’

Cinematic Void Presents NIGHTMARE BEACH

**Screenwriter**: Harmony Korine

**Producer**: Cary Woods

Co-presented by community programming partners **The Cinegogue**.

Harmony Korine &#8211; one of America&#8217;s purest and most provocative auteurs &#8211; made his directorial debut with this absurd and confrontational cult classic; a film that&#8217;s hard to describe but easy to fall under its sway. A cast of aimless youth don bunny ears, tape their nipples, hunt cats, and spend time loitering on the streets of Xenia, Ohio, a small town that has never recovered from the tornado that ravaged the community in the 1970s. Not for the average film-goer, this obtuse oddity creates an often-grimy piece of art out of a gutter of strange that will either mesmerize you or leave you questioning what you&#8217;ve just experienced!

**Picks from the Video Store**

Bring home more Chloe Sevigny treasures on physical media tonight!

*The Last Days of Disco, Julien Donkey Boy, Zodiac*

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

Gummo

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

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.

### **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

**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

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

### **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

**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!

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 Russel’s Altered States and Mike Nichols’s The Day of the Dolphin. 

Directors Michael Almareyda 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

**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.

### **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**: [UCLA Alumni Association](https://alumni.ucla.edu/), [UCLA Asian American Studies Department](https://asianam.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.

MY JOY,

DONBASS,

7:30 PM

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

THE YARD (2026)(NR)(Wed 3/25) 8pm

8:00 PM

BUNNYLOVR

7:00 PM

Women Wednesday Night of Shorts Part 2

9:30 PM

Henry & June

7:30 PM

Last Week in End Times Cinema, Algorithm of the Night

7:00 PM

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice

7:00 PM

A Useful Ghost

7:30 PM

Project Hail Mary 70mm

The Caine Mutiny

2:00 PM

FILM DIARY 4: GO TO THE MOUNTAINS AND PRAY

8:00 PM