LAist Film Calendar: Islamic Punks & Michel Gondry

When you think of Islam, you probably don't picture mohawks and leather jackets. That may change after viewing The Taqwacores, a new film about a motley crew of New Yorkers that bring the music to Muhammad and crank it past 12.

These American-born artists take their faith very seriously (taqwa meaning a conscious obedience to Allah), while embodying the punk ethos of challenging authority and welcoming outsiders. Though The Taqwacores is fiction, its source material (originally distributed as a homemade zine) inspired a movement that threw the finger in the face of homophobic Imams and Western leaders alike. All while rocking a hijab.

The film opens this weekend at the Sunset 5, with triple threat Eyad Zahra and leads Noureen DeWulf & Bobby Naderi at the Friday evening show.

French auteur (that's what they call them over there) Jean-Luc Godard was offered an Oscar, but wouldn't come to America to pick it up. It's almost certainly because of the very '80s remake of his classic, Breathless. But it has Richard Gere, so who are we to judge?

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The Cinefamily features Breathless and another of Gere's '80s films, American Gigolo, as part of its Neon Noir series on Friday. The "Family" in Cinefamily, Family Bookstore, hosts a more appreciative Frenchman Thursday, when Michel Gondry appears for a signing of his new book/DVD, My New New York Diary.

The film is a hybrid from Gondry and French animator (that's what they call them over there) Julie Doucet, available only in this release, while the book chronicles every step of their collaborative creative process. If that isn't enough Gondry (fun fact: it isn't), he'll also lead a Q&A at the Friday evening screening of The Kids Grow Up with director Doug Block and daughter/subject Lucy at the Sunset 5.

Speaking of Q&A's, now is the perfect time to revisit LAist's interview with Marwencol director Jeff Malmberg, as the documentary opens this week at the Nuart.

Full list appears below. See you at the movies!

All Week

• Inside Job (2010) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
  
• The Kids Grow Up (2009) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
  
• A Marine Story (2010) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
  
• Marwencol (2010) (Nuart Theatre)
  
• The Taqwacores (2010) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
  

Thursday 11/11

• Baraka (1992) (70MM w/ producer Mark Magidson) (Egyptian Theatre)
  
• The End (2008) / The Krays (1990) (w/ directors Nicola Collins & Peter Medak) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (What's Up, Docs?)
  
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) / The Seven Year Itch (1955) (New Beverly Cinema)
  
• House by the Medlar Tree (2010) / Basilicata Coast to Coast (2010) (Aero Theatre) (Cinema Italian Style 2010)
  
• Oh My Soul (2008) (w/ filmmaker Nicholas Monsour) (Echo Park Film Center)
  

Friday 11/12

• Adrift (2009) (w/ special guests) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (New Voices From Vietnam)
  
• American Gigolo (1980) / Breathless (1983) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Neon Noir)
  
• Blazing Saddles (1984) / Spaceballs (1987) (Drink Along & Beer Pong) (Downtown Independent)
  
• House (1977) (Nuart Theatre) (Cine-Insomnia Midnight Movie)
  
• The Kids Grow Up (2009) (w/ filmmaker Doug Block, his daughter Lucy, and Michel Gondry at the 7:45pm show) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
  
• The Killer (1989) / As Tears Go By (1988) (LACMA) (Hard Boiled Hong Kong)
  
• Marwencol (2010) (w/ filmmaker Jeff Malmberg at 7:30pm & 9:40pm shows) (Nuart Theatre)
  
• Miami Childhood (1990) (midnight show w/ Will Oldham) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Neon Noir)
  
• Murder Over New York (1940) (Old Town Music Hall)
  
• Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010) (midnight show w/ special guests) (New Beverly Cinema)
  
• A Second Childhood (2010) / Cigarettes (2010) (w/ actress Francesca Neri & producer Tilde Corsi) (Aero Theatre) (Cinema Italian Style 2010)
  
• Shadows (1959) / The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) (New Beverly Cinema)
  
• Spirited Away (2001) (Regency Academy) (Insomniac Cinema Midnight Movie)
  
• The Taqwacores (2010) (w/ filmmaker Eyad Zahra and actors Noureen DeWulf & Bobby Naderi at 7pm show) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
  
• Winstanley (1975) / It Happened Here (1965) (w/ director Kevin Brownlow) (Egyptian Theatre)
  

Saturday 11/13

• Batman Begins (2005) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
  
• Boxing Gym (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
  
• Cinefamily's 100 Most Outrageous Kills (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (HFS!)
  
• Clash (2009) (w/ screenwriter) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (New Voices From Vietnam)
  
• Daddy's Home (2004) / I Dream to be a Worker (2006) / My Apartment Block (2009) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (New Voices From Vietnam)
  
• The Departed (2006) / The Gangs of New York (2001) (Egyptian Theatre) (Scorcese & DiCaprio)
  
• The Kids Grow Up (2009) (w/ filmmaker Doug Block at the 3:10pm & 7:45pm shows) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
  
• Marwencol (2010) (w/ filmmaker Jeff Malmberg at 7:30pm & 9:40pm shows) (Nuart Theatre)
  
• The Mission (1999) / Hard Boiled (1992) (LACMA) (Hard Boiled Hong Kong)
  
• Murder Over New York (1940) (Old Town Music Hall)
  
• Napoleon Dynamite (2004) (Devil's Night Drive In)
  
• Passion (2010) / Dark Love (2010) (Aero Theatre) (Cinema Italian Style 2010)
  
• 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)
  
• Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010) (midnight show w/ special guests) (New Beverly Cinema)
  
• Shadows (1959) / The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) (New Beverly Cinema)
  
• Troop Beverly Hills (1989) / Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991) (interactive show) (Downtown Independent)
  
• Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
  

Sunday 11/14

• The Best of "Human Giant" (w/ guests) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
  
• The Black Stallion (1979) (free event) (Hammer Museum) (Family Flicks)
  
• Boxing Gym (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
  
• The Double Hour (2010) (Aero Theatre) (Cinema Italian Style 2010)
  
• Marwencol (2010) (w/ filmmaker Jeff Malmberg at 3:10pm show) (Nuart Theatre)
  
• Me, Them and Lara (2010) / Our Life (2010) (Aero Theatre) (Cinema Italian Style 2010)
  
• Murder Over New York (1940) (Old Town Music Hall)
  
• Owl and the Sparrow (2007) (w/ screenwriter) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (New Voices From Vietnam)
  
• Riding Bikes With the Dutch (w/ director) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
  
• Saluting Shorts (Echo Park Film Center)
  
• Samurai Rebellion (1967) / The Sword of Doom (1966) (New Beverly Cinema)
  
• Sunset Boulevard (1950) (The Bay Theatre)
  
• Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
  
• The Women (1939) (Egyptian Theatre)
  

That's all for this week. If only Clash was about the band The Clash, I would've had the perfect opening for a "Rock the Casbah" joke!