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LAUSD's back in session, but we can all get schooled at DocuWeeks. The annual festival opens this weekend at Laemmle's NoHo 7 & continues through the end of the month. Subjects range from underwater sculpture (Garden in the Sea) to critical burn survivors (Trial by Fire: Lives Re-Forged). While Olympic maneuvers are fresh in our minds, Without A Net shows how similar twists, turns & leaps present a gold-class opportunity for Brazilian youth to escape favela violence. American kids get their chance to shine in Once in a Lullaby: The PS22 Chorus Story, following a group of fifth graders turned viral sensation turned Academy Award performers.
Tragedy motivates extraordinary journey in Digital Dharma (about the efforts to preserve burned Tibetan books) and La Source (about two brothers who reunite in their Haitian motherland to deliver clean water after the 2010 earthquake). The most "star-studded" of the bunch, La Source comes from local production company Transcendental Media (The Philosopher Kings - reviewed by us here) and features music from Sigur Rós & narration from Don Cheadle. Joining these features is a Shorts Program featuring Beauty CULTure (from the director of Queen of Versailles) and Kings Point (from the editor of Sundance-winning docs Regret to Inform and Paragraph 175). Coming at the tail end of season known for sequels & remakes, DocuWeeks reminds us of all the "stronger than fiction" stories still waiting to be told.
But not everyone can rock a doc. The New Beverly presents two cinematic history lessons. One is "Summer of '82", presented by the head geeks at Ain't It Cool News. Thursday, the series boasts Steve Martin in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and Henry Winkler & Michael Keaton in Night Shift. Sunday, the series goes sci-fi with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan & John Carpenter's The Thing. Between those programs is another series, "Films Shot at The Lot". A legendary studio located at the corner of Santa Monica & Formosa, The Lot was originally owned by Mary Pickford & Douglas Fairbanks and dubbed (appropriately) Pickford-Fairbanks Studio. Since then, it's changed names & hands many times before being demolished earlier this year. Friday's & Saturday's line-up features two Pickford pictures from its glory days, My Best Girl (1927) & Sparrows (1926).
For more Hollywood history, the Echo Park Film Center's Filmmobile screens Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), with Charlie Chaplin & The Keystone Kops. The first feature-length comedy, this silent selection will be introduced by filmmaker & UCLA Film & Television Archives restorationist Ross Lipman. Follow the Filmmobile to learn the location of this free outdoor screening.
Full list appears below. See you at the movies!
ALL WEEK
After the Wizard (2011) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
Frank & Chip: The Olympic Experience (2012) (Downtown Independent)
Goats (2012) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
The Green Wave (2011) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
The Imposter (2012) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
The Intouchables (2012) (Lammle's BLVD) (Regent Theatre) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
Killer Joe (2011) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) (Lammle's BLVD)
Nuit #1 (2011) (Nuart Theatre)
Ruby Sparks (2012) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
To Rome With Love (2012) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
The Well-Digger's Daughter (2011) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
THURSDAY 08/09
1st Annual Korean American Film Festival (Korean Cultural Center)
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) / Night Shift (1982) (New Beverly Cinema) (Summer of '82)
Kumare (2011) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) (Aero Theatre)
The Ruthless Four (1968) / Requiescant (1967) (w/ live subtitles) (Egyptian Theatre) (Spaghetti Westerns Unchained)
FRIDAY 08/10
1st Annual Korean American Film Festival (Korean Cultural Center)
Aliens From Spaceship Earth (1977) (w/ director Don Como) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
Breathless (1960) / Band of Outsiders (1964) (Aero Theatre)
Companeros (1970) / The Price of Power (1969) (w/ live subtitles) (Egyptian Theatre) (Spaghetti Westerns Unchained)
Cry Baby (1990) (Nuart Theatre) (Cine-Insomnia Midnight Movie)
The Descent (2005) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Friday Night Frights)
H+: The Digital Series (free event w/ filmmakers) (USC School of Cinematic Arts) (Alumni Screening Series)
Jobriath A.D. (2011) (w/ director Kieran Turner) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Don't Knock the Rock 2012)
My Best Girl (1927) / Sparrows (1926) (New Beverly Cinema) (Films Shot at the Lot)
Puss in Boots (2011) (free event) (LACMA) (Outdoor Films: Animation August)
Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) (free event) (Echo Park Film Center) (Filmmobile Screening)
Whirlpool (1934) / The Whole Town's Talking (1935) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (The Two Faces of Jean)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) (Old Town Music Hall)
SATURDAY 08/11
1st Annual Korean American Film Festival (Korean Cultural Center)
Before Sunrise (1995) / Before Sunset (2004) (Aero Theatre)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) (Autry National Center) (What is a Western?)
An Evening with Alan Spencer (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
Django (1966) / The Grand Duel (1973) (Egyptian Theatre) (Spaghetti Westerns Unchained)
Friday (1995) (Eat|See|Hear) (Hollywood Recreation Center)
The Judge, the Hunter, the Thief, and the Black Orchid (2010) (w/ director Rich Walton) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
Kumaré (2011) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
Mary Poppins (1964) (Aero Theatre) (Family Matinees)
My Best Girl (1927) / Sparrows (1926) (New Beverly Cinema) (Films Shot at the Lot)
Olympia (1938) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (The Body Athletic)
Party Wire (1935) / The Defense Rests (1934) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (The Two Faces of Jean)
The Raid: Redemption (2011) (New Beverly Cinema) (New Beverly Midnights)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Live Shadowcast Midnight Show) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Sins O' The Flesh Midnight Show) (Nuart Theatre)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Midnight Insanity Midnight Show) (South Coast Village Regency Theaters)
Split Image (1982) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
The Terminator (1984) (Hollywood Forever Cemetery) (Cinespia Screenings)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) (Old Town Music Hall)
SUNDAY 08/12
Django Kill...If You Live, Shoot! (1967) / Hellbenders (1967) (Egyptian Theatre) (Spaghetti Westerns Unchained)
Escape in the Fog (1945) / Behind Closed Doors (1948) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Ride Lonesome: The Films of Budd Boetticher)
A Face in the Crowd (1957) (Aero Theatre)
The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964) (free event) (Hammer Museum) (Family Flicks)
Kumaré (2011) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
Sarah J. Christman: As Above, So Below (w/ Sarah Christman) (Los Angeles Filmforum) (Egyptian Theatre)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) / The Thing (1982) (New Beverly Cinema) (Summer of '82)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) (Old Town Music Hall)
