Cinespia lures Angelenos to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery for outdoor movies; On the 50th anniversary of the Watts Riots a new play wants to reframe it as an uprising; Sarah and Sean Watkins make an album with Fiona Apple and other friends who play in their Watkins Family Hour stage show
Cinespia: How one 'odd idea' sparked 14 years of filmgoing at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Summertime in Los Angeles means a lot of things: Beach days, ditching work early on Fridays (if you’re lucky), wildfires, and, of course, Cinespia — outdoor movie screenings among the graves and crypts at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Cinespia was created in 2002 by John Wyatt, who hoped to bring classic and cult films to an audience that’s likely never seen them on the big screen. Over the last 14 years, the program has grown into an insanely popular event that brings up to 4,000 people together on picnic blankets every weekend from May to September.
Wyatt has expanded Cinespia to include special events like the screening of last year’s finale episode of "Breaking Bad" and screening at the Ace Hotel Theater in Downtown Los Angeles.
Wyatt stopped by The Frame studio to talk about how he chooses the movies to screen, the famous people buried at Hollywood Forever and how Hitchcock features into the birth of Cinespia. .
Interview Highlights:
Typically, you don't have to worry about the weather. But this year's proved a little more challenging for Cinespia, right?
For the first time in 14 years, we got rained out of a show in the middle of July in Los Angeles, and we had our coldest May since the 1920s. So we felt that too, but people still turned out to be out there in the cold in May, and everybody wanted to come in the rain — they really didn't want us to cancel, but unfortunately it was too unsafe for my guys to set up, so we pulled the plug.
People who haven't been to one of your venues, the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, might imagine that they're balancing their wine bottles on headstones, so even though you're projecting movies on the wall of a mausoleum, explain the separation between where the audience is and where people's remains are buried.
Well, it's a beautiful location and a very old cemetery, over 100 years old, and in the center of it is a giant lawn called the Fairbanks Lawn. It was originally part of the Fairbanks' monument, for Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
You're not amongst the graves at any time, you're on paved roads, and then you come deep inside the cemetery to this beautiful open lawn, you have the Paramount backlot just over your shoulder, and it's really a unique place to see the films that all of these people made when they were alive.
Because a lot of the people who were in the movies are buried there, right?
That's true, more than we even know. Certainly the famous directors and actors like Peter Laurie, John Huston, Cecil B. Demille, the people who worked on the backlot, the costumers, the hair people, the grips...really, you have all these kinds of Hollywood people buried there, not just the famous ones. That gives us a lot of satisfaction.
The cemetery itself had been in a state of disrepair not that long ago. When you're having your initial conversations about why this would be a good place to show films, what were those conversations like? What were the obstacles that you had to overcome to get your movies shown there?
They thought it was an odd idea when I first pitched it, but there was a movement with the Cemetery to not only restore the grounds but also to bring some cultural events and life there. So they were a little skeptical, but they said, "Let's try one."
I showed Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train," and we had a couple-hundred people — the word had kinda gotten out — and when the movie reached its end, everybody started cheering and screaming, and I thought, Wow, this really could be something.
So when you're picking movies for your screenings, what are the kinds of things you're looking for? Or, if it's easier, what are the kinds of things you're not looking for?
The first thing we want is to show a great, classic film, but we also want it to feel fresh and modern, we want it to grab our viewers and keep them entertained, and we want them to walk away with a feeling like they just experienced a great work of art. Maybe it challenges them a little, maybe it scandalizes or scares them a little, but they should walk out feeling like they just experienced great cinema.
Especially these days, when you're so often watching film on a laptop by yourself, suddenly seeing them with thousands of people becomes a really different experience, and it's important — it's the way these films were meant to be seen, and on the big screen they become something totally different.
How do you measure the success of a screening? Is it the way in which a crowd reacts to the movie? How many people show up? Or whether or not you get A-List Hollywood people in the audience?
[laughs] Really, it's measured by how the crowd reacts, how much they love the movie. Because this is Los Angeles, you're going to have a movie star next to an aspiring screenwriter next to the girl who served her coffee that morning, and really we're all together on this field and we all become movie-lovers. We drop who we are and what we do, and we just jump into this thing that we love to do.
Watkins Family Hour brings Fiona Apple and friends together for debut album
Sara and Sean Watkins are a brother and sister duo who have been playing in bands together since before they were teenagers. They formed the Grammy award winning folk band Nickel Creek with Chris Thile in the early 90’s, and in 2002, The Watkins started hosting their own monthly musical stage show called “Watkins Family Hour” at the LA music and comedy club, Largo.
But the family hour wasn’t just for relatives. Sean and Sara would bring friends and other LA musicians -- like Jackson Browne and Fiona Apple -- and they would cover classic and traditional folk songs.
Now after putting on the live LA show for more than a decade, Watkins Family Hour has released its debut self-titled album and the band is going on tour.
The Frame's John Horn talks with Sara and Sean Watkins about why they decided to release an album now, their monthly shows at Largo and the dynamics of playing in a band with a sibling:
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
After performing together as the Watkins Family Hour for over a decade, why did you two decide to release an album now?
SEAN: We've always thought of the Watkins Family Hour as just a live show that we do at Largo. It's not recorded and now that's part of the beauty of it, like, going to play a show knowing that it's just going to happen that night and then it would just disappear. After doing it for 10 years, a friend of ours -- named Sheldon Gomberg who has a studio is Silverlake -- suggested we record some songs.
We had two or three days and we didn't know what we were gonna record until we did. We just did these covers -- picked a few covers that we liked -- and then Sara and I were talking with Fiona Apple who's a big part of the Watkins Family Hour, she was saying that she wanted to get out and play some shows. Somehow the idea of putting this record out and doing some shows around the states just came together.
How did Fiona Apple get involved with Watkins Family Hour and there's a number of different vocalists who were sitting in and doing songs with you guys. Is that pretty emblematic of the repertory that you were doing at Largo?
SARA: Yeah, everybody in the band sings on this record and we met Fiona at Largo when she was coming down a lot to sit in with Jon Brion when he had his weekly show. Most musicians we've met in town, we just kind of meet on stage and then you talk afterwards. But that's the kind of first impressions -- there's a lot of people who you just find yourself with and you get into it.
The people who've gone to Largo and seen Watkins Family Hour over the years, there's probably hundreds of songs you perform there?
SEAN: I would say maybe a hundred or a hundred fifty.
And you gotta cook it down quite a bit to pick the songs from the album.
SEAN: Well they come and go. I mean there's songs we did years ago that we've probably just completely forgot at this point. I was looking at old songs from 7 or 8 years ago and I didn't realize there were so many songs that we've completely haven't done in years.
SARA: And that's part of the fun of this band, is that you could do something once and that's fine. When you do a monthly show, you kind of have to mix it up and you have to bring new things to the table.
Or You'll go crazy.
SARA: Or you'll go crazy and the audience will get bored! You don't want them to have to see the same show every time. So you could play a show once and if it's good, maybe you'll play it again. If it was just kind of a fun lark then that's great, too.
So how do you pick the songs for the album?
SEAN: For the record, this was as loose as it could be. We literally just parked our cars and walked into the studio and said, 'What do you wanna do?' And one of us would say, 'How about this song?' The others would say, 'Great, what key?' And then we'll record it 4 or 5 times and listen back and pick the best take. All of the songs on the record are songs that stayed with us over the years. Like 'Early Morning Rain' is one we've been doing since we first started at Largo.
SARA: Very first show.
SEAN: Yeah, maybe the first show we did. It's fun to play on and it's just a beautiful song that sort of is timeless. So we tried to pick the ones that've been around and withstood the test of years of playing them.
SARA: A lot of these songs they won't be recorded on solo records or with other bands by us. They're just things that we do with the Watkins Family Hour. It was good to give those songs that have been with us for a long time, to give them a place.
As musicians who are playing together for so long, has that actually helped or hurt your relationship as siblings?
SARA: It's hard to say!
SEAN: Yeah! It hasn't hurt. I'm just really grateful, especially growing up, to have a sibling who is equally as into music. A lot of people don't have that. I dunno. What do you think?
SARA: I totally agree.
SEAN: Do you hate me?
SARA: [Laughs] It was really great to have just someone around who was into the same thing and it really helped when we were younger, because our parents would take us to bluegrass festivals and it was a family event. So instead of going on vacations, we just went to these things and it wasn't torn. There wasn't another kid who was interested in sports.
SEAN: And, you know, a lot of families -- there's one person who's really into music and another sibling who's kind of into it, but not as much. For us, it's strange because we're both equally as driven.
SARA: It was great to have company and even still if I'm writing a song, Sean's gonna be one of the first people who hears it. It's very common for us to play a song and be like, 'Hey, listen. I don't really need any feedback. I just need to play this for you.' And then maybe halfway through you just kind of like, 'Okay, thanks! Got it. I need to go work on it.'
When you guys have a disagreement or a conversation about music or about songs, are you having that conversation as bandmates, brother and sister or is there really a distinction between the two?
SEAN: We respect each other a lot musically. Honestly there's a lot of times when I'll like a song and Sara doesn't and she gives me a reason and I'm like, 'That's a great reason.' So I think we respect each other enough to talk about stuff and disagreements. We also totally argue like siblings on stage though. We're not afraid of that.
SARA: But the nice thing about having separate careers and then being able to come back together to do the Watkins Family Hour is that if something doesn't resonate with both of us, we can do it in a different situation and that's great. You know, this particular project -- Watkins Family Hour -- we've always wanted it to be a release and a celebration of commonality that we have with our guests who come and sit in. We encourage people to bring in cover songs that we might all know that we can we can celebrate and enjoy together.
The Watkins Family Hour's debut self-titled album is out now.
The 50th anniversary of the Watts riots inspires a "cathartic history lesson"
The Watts Village Theatre Company and playwright Donald Jolly will take audiences on a ride back to 1965 in the play "Riot/Rebellion."
In an ancient storytelling way, actors riff off each other through poetry and fact reporting playing across race, gender and age. Each actor inhabits characters whose lives were intertwined with the Watts riots.
Carole Simon jumps out of scene from one moment to the next, playing the storyteller then transitioning to the nosy neighbor snooping around everyone's business. Simon said "Riot/Rebellion" is one of the "realest" plays she's ever been in which has become more of a history lesson for her. "I wouldn't even call it a play, its more like a story of what happened 50 years ago and we're just retelling it to everyone," said Simon.
The play opens this Friday August 14 at the Mafundi Theatre in Watts at one of the exact intersections where the riots took place 50 years ago. "It's so scary that it happened right here where we are. Like I don't even feel like we're acting, like I'm just trying to relive the characters that lived through this," said Simon.
Fifty years passed, the cast said police harassment is still happening. "Sometimes I'm leaving rehearsal, I'm seeing cops pulling people over, dragging them out their car right down the street. Or we'll be rehearsing with the doors open and someones yelling cursing at the police and I'm just like, this is what we're talking about 50 years ago and its happening right now. Outside when we open the doors is the soundtrack to the play," said Simon.
"One minute I am an old man, the next minute I'm telling a horror story," said Ashley Wilkerson who, along with the actors, play a variety of characters. "It wasn't just burning and looting, people were speaking up standing up for their rights," said Wilkerson. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Wilkerson said she hopes the Watts community comes out to affirm, and question what they see in the play and she hopes to meet the future storytellers, actors, and activists that will transform Watts even further.
None of the actual cast grew up in Watts but may say they feel a responsibility to re-telling the stories through those that lived it.
Actor Roberto Martin said, "There's this one line. We shall never more fall victim to the harassment of the police, tear gas fire, we declare this day from 1965. Then it throws me off, everything I'm saying it's the same thing that's happening. This story its our stories as men of color."
Jacob Gibson grew up in Kansas City but can relate to the Watts community, "My perspective is always from the outside in and that's what the majority of the country and the world looks at Watts, is from the outside in."
Javier Ranceros had never been to Watts prior to working on the play, "I don't know anything so in a sense I'm one of the audience members. We're journalists we're reporting on what happened to people from 50 years ago."
Playwright Donald Jolly who is originally from the Washington D.C. area, did exhaustive research digging through old newspapers and interviewing people about their recollections. All of which factored into the creation of the characters in the play.
Bruce Lemon, the artistic director of the Watts Village Theatre company, is one of the only people involved in the play that was born and raised in Watts. He says he never had much access to theatre growing up. "The significance for the people of Watts to see these stories and tell our own, we're telling them ourselves so we get it right." Lemon continued, "When you come see "Riot/Rebellion" you'll see the lives of hundreds of people who grew up in 1965 or 2000, you're going to see lives of the people who have shaped the country and the nation."
Deena Selenow who is the director of "Riot/Rebellion" says, "The piece is primarily testimony interviews, members of the community, actual words by actual people. Having that marriage between documentary and service and theatricality, hyper abstract, comedia, over the top, moments that really sink in and hit the spot."
Selenow and the rest of the cast all hope that the play sparks meaningful dialogue and conversations in and beyond Watts, "I'm hoping this could be cathartic history lesson experience where we're not pointing fingers but where we're all culpable."
Preparation for the play started back in 2013 when Donald Jolly and Bruce Lemon began doing research and conducting interviews about how the riots started.
When Donald Jolly was commissioned to write "Riot/Rebellion," he said he was given a title and a few people willing to be interviewed to start. One of the biggest challenges Jolly said was making sense of all the stories and finding a narrative arc. He explained how they used what's called the joint stock theatre method, where actors performed characters for the playwright based off interviews they did without notes.
"When I first got to Watts, something reminded of my D.C. youth. So I tried to find a way by relating and listening to the human story behind it all," said Jolly.
One of the voices that found it's way into the play is the story of Lynn Manning. The former Watts Village Theatre Company artistic director who recently passed away. Manning was about 10-years old when the riots broke out and experienced the event in the context of the civil rights movement. Kids like Manning learned a lot of new words that summer like oppression, riot, and curfew.
"Lynn was a tour de force, genius." Lynn Manning was completely blind from the result of a gun shot to the head. He couldn't see but knew exactly how to direct a play. He was a mentor for members of the Watts Village Theatre Company like Jolly and Lemon, and he was eager to support emerging artists. Manning's voice can be heard throughout the play said Jolly.
"Working with Lynn, it's really hard to describe in words. Tell it like it is, you need to say what needs to be said. Lynn was like that in his own life and own work. Every performer has something Lynn said to them to me," said Jolly.
The Watts Village Theatre Company is a young group. But the play requires a certain maturity and respect. When Jolly started writing the play it was about 1965 police harassing people of color and then the wave of black lives matter took hold in the public dialogue. And that found it's way into the play. "It's about people feeling disenfranchised and having a voice. The throughline is the artists in the community who took it upon themselves to change things. A community figure in every part of the word," said Jolly.
Riot/Rebellion starts August 14th at the Mafundi Theatre and runs until September 18. Click here for tickets.