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The David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum is a modern movie palace with a wide range of programming, where tickets are always just $10.
Why it matters: With the rise of streaming, and the continued effects of the pandemic, many have closed — including, just last month, the nearly 100-year-old Highland Theatre in Los Angeles.
Why now: The Academy Museum has been screening more contemporary films like Nope or even Twister, and Gen Z is responding.
Go deeper:
It’s no secret that movie theaters have been hit hard in recent years. First, pandemic shutdowns in 2020 and then a dearth of product during the dual SAG/WGA strikes of 2023.
Approximately 2,000 screens across the nation have closed. That includes independent movie houses and chain multiplexes like Regal Cinemas. In the last few weeks, theaters in Cincinnati, Dover, Denver, and Boise, have joined L.A.’s Highland Theatre in saying goodbye.
But as we’ve been sharing in recent weeks, there are theaters that have found renewed life, especially around Los Angeles. Whether it's because of celebrity intervention or a serious dose of blood, sweat and occasional tears, one thing unites a lot of these places: repertory films.
The David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum is a red velvet marvel of a space. The walls, the ceiling, the seats envelop you in a red-carpet-red dome. While it doesn’t have the classic 100-year-old architecture of a place like the Egyptian or the Chinese, it’s a modern movie palace that might be showing anything from 2 Fast 2 Furious to Showgirls to Soy Cuba or Spellbound.
From the street on Wilshire, in the Miracle Mile neighborhood near LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits, the suspended spherical structure looks more like the Death Star than a 952-seat movie theater. And despite its location, you don’t have to purchase entry to the museum to catch a movie here, and tickets to screenings are just $10, regardless of the movie or guest speaker. (Christopher Nolan on-stage? $10.)
Underground is the Geffen’s sister cinema, the Ted Mann. (The theaters are named after the entertainment magnates and museum’s major donors.)
“Saying that the cinema is in the basement is not doing it justice,” says Academy Museum director of programming, K.J. Relth-Miller. It’s a 277-seat theater that is a visual counter to the Geffen’s overwhelming red — instead, draped in a cool green. Relth-Miller shares: “When the experimental filmmaker Mike Kuchar came into the space, he walked in and said, ‘I'm going to get lost in the cinema forest.’”
Both theaters are truly state of the art — equipped with multi-format projection (that’s the full range of 16mm, 35mm, 70mm, and digital) with Dolby vision and sound.
The screenings at the David Geffen and Ted Mann theaters will always nod to the Academy’s history, with programs like Oscar Sundays, celebrating films that have been honored at the awards. Or, the Branch Selects series, chosen in partnership with the 18 branches of the Academy, each representing a different craft or discipline in filmmaking.
But that doesn’t mean the only films they program are Academy Award winners or nominees. Relth-Miller notes that “the ceremony is one marker of cultural excellence, but we're really interested in moving beyond that.”
Programming at these theaters also explores counter-cultural trends and movements that may not have been recognized by the Academy, like screenings of cult classics by John Waters or talks with filmmakers like punk icon Penelope Spheeris.
And there’s an appetite for this kind of film programming among audiences.
Relth-Miller had been programming films in Los Angeles at UCLA for about six years, screening in the Billy Wilder Theater. There, she had been working with an audience that was skewing 50 and older before the pandemic shut their doors in 2020.
Now at the Academy Museum, which opened its doors in 2021, Relth-Miller is seeing the majority of audience members at screenings are under the age of 40.
(It should be noted that the New Beverly Cinema, just north of the Academy Museum in the Fairfax District, also reported younger audiences coming to the theater post pandemic).
“That's actually a different demographic than what we were seeing citywide in the repertory scene before the pandemic,” says Relth-Miller.
But it was not an easy road getting here.
Architectural plans for the museum’s building were first presented in 2008, shortly before the housing market crash. The initial land purchased for the museum site was sold and plans were put on hold.
In 2012, new plans were presented by architect Renzo Piano for a new location in the former May Company building, a historic Streamline Moderne structure on the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard. The estimated opening date was 2017, but amid fundraising slowdowns, budget increases, and leadership changes, the museum’s launch was pushed to December 2020. That was announced before COVID shutdowns began. Then the museum’s opening was eventually set for September 2021.
”We have had to build an audience from a post pandemic reality,” Relth-Miller says.
The shifting age demos and trends around repertory screenings have opened doors to what is considered a “revival” film.
A successful screening of Twister (1996) took Relth-Miller by surprise. When she first started programming theaters in L.A., less than a decade ago, she recalls, “I felt like it was hard to get folks out for a film from the 90s because the films still felt fresh to the majority of the people who were going out to see repertory screenings, right?”
But younger generations who didn’t have a chance to see those films in theaters, and who are developing a cinephilia on platforms like Letterboxd, are clamoring for an experience.
“Gen Z did not have a chance to see something like Twister in the theater, and so they're gonna show up and see it on 35mm, and sometimes in their first ever opportunity to have a communal experience with it," Relth-Miller says.
In reporting out this series, every cinema operator or programmer I’ve spoken with has talked about movie theaters as a source of memory. Maybe you don’t even remember the movie itself, but you remember the company, the seats, the popcorn. And screening films can be an act of recall too.
“We're like activating ghosts, right?” says Relth-Miller. “We're watching people come to life. We're bringing Katharine Hepburn back to life when we show something like Christopher Strong, and when we screen Spellbound, we're bringing Gregory Peck back to life, before our very eyes.”
The David Geffen and Ted Mann theaters are only three years old — most of their history is yet to come.
“We can feel a sense of history the older a place becomes,” says Relth-Miller. “I think what's the most exciting thing to think about is what this theater will feel like in 20 years…because of the people who have come through it.”
Upcoming film programs include The Sewing Circle: Sapphic Icons of Early Hollywood, In the Midnight Hour: A History of Late-Night Movies and Forever a Contender: A Centennial Tribute to Marlon Brando. You can find a full calendar of screenings here.
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An appeals court issued a ruling Friday that strikes down a federal government effort to block a lower court’s order requiring the construction of 2,550 new housing units on the Veterans Affairs campus in West Los Angeles.
The backstory: The long-running case, brought forward by disabled veterans struggling with homelessness in the L.A. area, has centered on the use of the sprawling 400-acre VA campus. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter had previously scrutinized leases for the private Brentwood School, a parking lot company, an oil drilling enterprise and UCLA’s baseball stadium. Ruling that the campus was meant to aid veterans, Carter ordered the VA to not renew the leases and quickly build 750 units of temporary housing and 1,800 units of permanent housing.
What’s new: Carter’s September 2024 order has been on hold ever since the defendants asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to review his decision. On Friday, more than two-thirds of the court’s 29 judges ruled against the VA’s petition for a rehearing. That means Carter’s order will stand, at least for now. The VA could attempt to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. A spokesperson for the VA declined to comment on the ruling, saying the department does not discuss pending litigation.
Read on… for reaction to the ruling from veteran advocates and lawyers.
An appeals court issued a ruling Friday that strikes down a federal government effort to block a lower court’s order requiring the construction of 2,550 new housing units on the Veterans Affairs campus in West Los Angeles.
The long-running case, brought forward by disabled veterans struggling with homelessness in the L.A. area, has centered on the use of the sprawling 400-acre VA campus.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter had previously scrutinized leases for the private Brentwood School’s athletic facilities, a parking lot company, an oil drilling enterprise and UCLA’s baseball stadium.
Ruling that the campus was meant to aid veterans, Carter ordered the VA to not renew the leases and quickly build 750 units of temporary housing and 1,800 units of permanent housing.
But Carter’s September 2024 order has been on hold ever since the defendants asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to review his decision.
On Friday, more than two-thirds of the court’s 29 judges ruled against the VA’s petition for a rehearing.
“It's a historic day for veterans,” said Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney with Public Counsel representing the plaintiffs.
“The government has been fighting their veterans, who went to fight on behalf of the nation,” he added. “They've been fighting them like they are the enemy. They went to the district court to fight. They lost.”
Rosenbaum said he’s pleased to see the case return to Carter’s courtroom after a long appeals process. Carter, himself a Marine Corps veteran who served in the Vietnam War, took an active role in pushing the VA to address a homelessness crisis that has thousands of former service members experiencing homelessness on any given night in L.A. County.
Carter has also ordered the VA to stop using veterans' disability payment benefits as a reason to make them ineligible for supportive housing programs due to income restrictions.
But Rob Reynolds, an Iraq War veteran who advocates for L.A.’s veteran community, said the federal government’s attempts to win an appeal could continue.
“The government can still appeal this to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Reynolds said.
When veterans involved in the case first heard today’s news on the 9th Circuit ruling, he said they immediately asked about the potential for further appeals.
“All of us are really hoping that the government stops this fight, and that we can get housing built for our veterans and end this madness once and for all,” Reynolds said.
A spokesperson for the VA declined to comment on the ruling, saying the department does not discuss pending litigation.
Topline:
L.A. Comedian Jenny Yang has been traveling across the country turning immigrant grocery stores into comedy hubs. Now she’s back in L.A getting ready to start a mini-residency in Highland Park, tape her first one-hour special and share moments from the tour.
The backstory: Yang kicked off her Good Egg Immigrant Grocery Store Standup Comedy Tour in June in L.A., then continued it across 15 cities in the country. She tells LAist that the decision came as a way to cope with the grief from her dad’s death, 10 failed IVF treatments between 2020 and 2025 and seeing the news of ICE raids spread across the country.
The context: She said the idea to tour grocery stores was a way to reclaim those spaces, after immigration enforcement left many afraid to go out and do simple tasks like buying groceries.
Why now? Now she’s back in L.A. and doing a mini-residency at the Outside In Theater in Highland Park for the next three Saturdays in September. Her first show is tomorrow.
What's next: Next February, Yang will be taping her first one-hour special, at Rancho Meat Market #1 in Lincoln Heights. She describes it as a love letter to Los Angeles that’s endured so much, from the ICE raids to the January fires.
Jenny Yang, a comedian from L.A., has been traveling across the country turning immigrant grocery stores into comedy hubs. Now she’s back in L.A. getting ready to start a mini-residency in Highland Park, tape her first one-hour special and share moments from the tour.
Yang kicked off her Good Egg Immigrant Grocery Store Standup Comedy Tour in June in L.A., then took it to 15 cities across the country. She told LAist the decision came as a way to cope with the grief from her dad’s death, 10 failed in vitro fertilization treatments between 2020 and 2025 and seeing the news of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids spread across the country.
She said the idea to tour grocery stores was a way to reclaim those spaces, after immigration enforcement left many afraid to go out and do simple tasks like buying groceries.
“If we cannot laugh in front of a wall of instant ramen around our bok choy," Yang said, "then what is the American dream for?"
Her routine wove in stories about her fertility struggles and the challenges of having to be a “good egg” growing up as the child of immigrant parents from Taiwan. Her hope for the tour was to connect with people, to make jokes and help people feel lighter after.
The tour proceeds went to local nonprofits serving immigrant communities, and Yang said those organizations helped recruit the grocery stores. She said some stores said no at first — they felt overwhelmed by ICE activity in their city, had lost staff or worried about drawing attention.
“That's part of the story of the tour is it's one thing to want to imagine this beautiful world where you can tell jokes inside of immigrant grocery stores," Yang said. "It's another thing to know what those obstacles are, and I think that's still very telling for where we are as a country.”
One moment stood out to Yang: performing at Shuang Hur Supermarket in Minneapolis. It’s near the memorial for Alex Pretti, the nurse that a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed in January as federal agents carried out immigration enforcement in the city.
“I was able to talk to Henry, the owner who’s a Chinese American uncle. [He] was so proud of being able to help his regular patrons, who for the most part even though it was an Asian centered grocery store, were majority Latino,” Yang said. “I was able to bear witness to their resilience as a community, what they did to take care of each other.”
Now she’s back in L.A. and is doing a mini-residency at the Outside In Theater at 5317 York Blvd. in Highland Park. Her first show is 6 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 12, followed by shows on Sept. 19 and 26 at the same time. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, and you can find them at Outside In's website.
In February 2027, Yang will be taping her first one-hour special at Rancho Meat Market #1 in Lincoln Heights. She describes it as a love letter to Los Angeles that’s endured so much, from the ICE raids to the January fires.
You can follow Jenny Yang’s work here.
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Take N’ Taste — a sandwich business based in Burbank — offers variety of options, including classics like melts and dips, and delivers to locals from a home kitchen. Here's how to get one of their sandwiches.
About the owners: Ashley Childs and James Schroeder, who've both spent time working in the service industry, started it as a side hustle of sorts.
MEHKO explainer: Short for Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation, this is a type of food permit available through the L.A. County Department of Public Health that allows folks to serve food from their home, at a much smaller scale than a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
How to order: They primarily deliver to the Burbank and Toluca Lake areas. Orders can be made on their website. For any specific order-related questions, you can also reach out to them on their website, Instagram, or via email at takentastela@gmail.com. They're open Monday to Friday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Keep going... to learn more about the types of sandwiches they offer.
When you wanna keep it simple for lunch — go with a sandwich.
Take N’ Taste — a sandwich business based in Burbank — offers a variety of options, including classics like melts and dips, and delivers to locals from a home kitchen.
A Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO) is a type of permit available through the L.A. County Department of Public Health, which allows folks to run a food service business from their home. Although it has more limitations than a brick-and-mortar restaurant, it also provides an avenue to build small business.
According to the L.A. County Department of Public Health's website, it allows MEHKO businesses to sell up to 30 meals per day with a limit of 90 meals per week. For businesses that are approved for the county's compact mobile food operations permit, that number jumps up to 80 meals per day and 200 meals per week.
The permit doesn't allow third-party food delivery app use, meaning they deliver directly to you or you schedule a pickup with the business.
Ashley Childs' local culinary background runs pretty deep — she's worked at places like Tony’s Darts Away, a gastropub in Burbank, as well as the vegan hole-in-the-wall restaurant Doomie's Home Cookin' on Melrose. As the chef-and-owner of Take N' Taste, she's carried those experiences into her current work, which serves as a side hustle while she pursues a master's degree in nutritional science.
It's also a side hustle of sorts for co-owner James Schroeder, who works primarily as a storyboard artist. He previously worked managing the East Hollywood Farmers Market, which helped him connect with local farmers and learn the best ways to source ingredients.
Topline:
10 years ago, voters approved bringing back bilingual education in California public schools. But bilingual teacher training still hasn’t recovered from the 1998 ban organized by English Only advocates.
Why it matters: In 2017, a year after bilingual education was reinstated in California, only about 400 public schools offered it. But while that’s grown to more than 1,000 in recent years, it's still not enough to meet the demand from families.
Why now: It's 10 years since California voters approved Prop 58 to bring back bilingual education. Officials have set a goal of 1,600 schools with bilingual programs by 2030.
Read on… to see how one teacher’s bilingual class explored the similarities between an indigenous Guatemalan word and its equivalents in Spanish and English.
In 2017, only about 400 public schools in the state offered bilingual education.
But in the 10 years since voters approved Prop 58 overturning the ban on bilingual teaching, that number has now grown to more than 1,000.
It's still not enough to meet the demand from parents and caregivers who want their kids to have the advantages of bilingualism, as well as academic support for Spanish and other languages spoken at home.
California officials now want to increase the number of public schools to 1,600 by 2030.
“These programs have expanded quickly, but these schools continue to really struggle to find and retain the teachers to teach in them,” said Cati de los Rios, an associate professor of language, literacy, and culture at UC Berkeley.
She said the lag in the teacher pipeline is the main problem. The bilingual education ban, approved by voters in 1998 through Prop. 227, also shriveled up university training programs for bilingual teachers.
There are signs of recovery. The number of teachers trained in bilingual education in California has grown to a record of nearly 1,400 in the 2023-2024 school year.
Educators feel the momentum is growing. On Saturday, some of them are set to gather at California State University, Dominguez Hills for a yearly Bilingual Teacher Conference to take advantage of that energy.
“It's a celebration … to highlight the importance and the beauty of being bilingual and supporting our students and our families and our communities to really embrace bilingualism,” said Elexia Reyes-McGovern, a professor of teacher education at the campus.
These [bilingual] programs have expanded quickly, but these schools continue to really struggle to find and retain the teachers to teach in them.
The keynote speaker, she said, will talk about how teachers can nurture students’ thinking about mathematics in English and a second language.
A report out this year signaled that the vast majority of the bilingual education teacher graduates received training to teach Spanish and English, but the number of graduates across the state authorized to teach other languages, such as Mandarin, Vietnamese and Armenian also grew.
“[I taught] two sisters and they were twins, and they came from Guatemala,” said Cristal Guadarrama, who teaches fifth grade Spanish-English dual language in South L.A.
She crafted a lesson one day, she says, around those students’ indigenous language, in particular the word for table, which was similar to the Spanish word.
“That was showing the other kids, like, ‘oh wow, there's so many similarities within the language. It's just like a change of letters.’ So then they started wanting to learn,” she said.
Research shows students in bilingual programs attend school more regularly and help recent immigrants enter all-English classes faster than without bilingual support.
We've changed the mindset of this kind of linguistic supremacy of English-only monolingualism being the present and the future.
California’s been engaged in a policy back and forth with bilingualism and multilingualism for over 150 years. For now, the anniversary of Prop. 58’s approval suggests a future that’s more embracing of non-English languages as an asset to learning, rather than a liability.
“We've changed the mindset of this kind of linguistic supremacy of English-only monolingualism being the present and the future,” de los Rios said.
