A tour through a labyrinth of mysteriously linked Los Angeles McMansions circa Y2K provides a dreamlike glimpse into the lives of five unique women who live behind the front gates.
During the era of hyper-formulated pop music in the early 1980s, The Dream Syndicate emerged from Los Angeles as a sensation with their gritty, guitar-driven sound that relied heavily on feedback. How Did We Find Ourselves Here? chronicles the band's journey from their early beginnings, through conflicts with former friends, battles with major record labels, and disbandment, to their eventual reunion in 2012. Despite never achieving widespread commercial success, the band maintains a devoted fanbase and commands great respect from musicians around the globe for their significant influence.
THERE ARE MERMAIDS IN LA follows Cassie. Bored of her relationship. Having mediocre orgasms. Trying desperately to reupholster a lamp because why not? “It might be the first step towards sewing patchy jeans or something.” But one day Cassie’s boat is rocked by a mysterious silent visitor. A woman. With long, fire-engine red hair and almost no discernible personality or clothes. We’ll call her Mermaid. Because, as the legend goes, she made a bad trade somewhere down the line, swapped her voice out for legs, and then wound up in the wrong place. The place being this woman's beach... RIP the prince. As Mermaid makes herself comfortable in Cassie’s home, the two women begin to form an unlikely bond. The game is simple: Cassie talks and Mermaid listens. Until they both get sick of it.
It’s late at night in Los Angeles. Kia and Iris seek expressions of love, sexuality and friendship in musical moments that provide the soundtrack to their lives.
Filmed in Susan Mogul’s Los Angeles multi-ethnic working class neighborhood, Highland Park, Everyday Echo Street: A Summer Diary, is an insider’s view of how home and neighborhood are constructed in everyday relations. Composed of conversational and anecdotal portraits of neighbors and merchants, Susan ruminates about the past and the present, as she looks out her apartment window. Struggling to arrive at a new definition of “home,” she ponders loss, middle age, and living alone.
Norman Bates' 1st cousin once removed invites the camera out to his desert homeland to discuss his notorious distant relative (Short, Drama).
London-based artist and photographer Muzi Quawson examines the lives of people situated at the fringes of the mainstream. She is drawn to individuals who tend to assert their identity via a blending of references informed by cinema, music and the history of popular culture. Doll Parts functions as a quiet study on the nature of identity.
The year is 1969. When her psychotic ex shows up for dinner in her new home, a pregnant housewife struggles to hide her true identity from her fiancee whilst battling to keep her own sanity.
"L.A. Restaurants" opens with a panned shot recorded while driving past Cole's P.E. Buffet in downtown Los Angeles, which was founded in 1908 and claims to be the oldest restaurant and bar in the city. In a manner reminiscent of the typological catalogues of gas stations and buildings on the Sunset Strip first explored in his seminal artist's books of the 1960s, Ruscha documents sixty-four restaurants emblematic of "Old Hollywood" across the LA region. This visual perambulation moves in a spiral formation, from the outer limits of the San Fernando Valley along Ventura Boulevard to the centrally located restaurants near Culver City.
"Twelve Years over Hollywood" comprises thousands of still photographs of the Hollywood sign taken from Golia's Los Angeles balcony over a twelve-year period. The resulting 35mm film captures the artist's personal documentation of his surroundings, condensing a vast temporal duration into a fleeting clip that serves as a metaphorical shorthand for broader experiences at the core of all art making.
The IOC has managed to assemble 49 minutes of sound coverage and 99 minutes of silent footage from the 1932 Summer Games, using material from U.S., British, German and Swedish newsreels.
From tagging to piecing, this controversial documentary chronicles some of L.A.'s hottest graffitti writers and crews. Shot from a graffitti writers perspective, the question of whether it's art or vandalism is left for you to decide. Segments were featured on NBC News/Today Show.
As the pressures of daily life mount in a rapidly changing city, some residents turn to dance roller skating as an activity for release, creating a style unique to Los Angeles.
“Set against the rattle of shopping carts and the white noise of L.A. traffic... “Disco’d” is an unvarnished, moving look at the lives affected by the rising crisis of homelessness.” —Los Angeles Times
More than 40 years ago, Bas Jan Ader decided to go on an adventure. In a tiny sailing boat, the Dutchman set sail across the ocean. Nine months later the boat was found adrift at sea. There was no sign of Ader. It’s a story that has always fascinated filmmaker Martijn Blekendaal, not just because of the disappearance itself, but also because of the entire mystery that surrounds it. Blekendaal embarks on an investigation that follows his footsteps to Hollywood. It turns out that, in order to understand what drove this man to his fateful voyage, the filmmaker has to overcome his fear of looking beyond his own horizon. In a whirlwind montage of images jumping from one time, place and person to another, Blekendaal shows us that Bas Jan left behind something more special than just a mystery.
Another nostalgic look at Southern California's past, particularly things and places in and around Los Angeles which no longer exist.
Wylie carries a telescope through the streets of Los Angeles to offer passersby a new and closer look at a familiar object: the moon. Because everyone needs to keep looking up. Because it is a beautiful and wondrous sight to behold the body of the moon.
To popularize the idea of automobile travel, Ford Motor Company produced Ford Educational Weekly, a film magazine distributed free to theaters. One 1916 series featured "Visits to American Cities." In this episode, Los Angeles is featured at the very beginning of the boom created by oil, movies and aircraft. On the occasion of its centennial in 1953, Ford donated its film to the National Archives and Records Service; this copy derives from a fine grain master printed from the Archive's preservation negative. Music by Frederick Hodges.
Mitrice Richardson, a lovely 24 year old African-American woman, was released late at night from the Malibu, California Sheriffs jail after having been detained for not paying her bill at an upscale restaurant. She was described as 'acting crazy' and, in fact, was having a mental crisis. She was released into the mountainous region with no cell, no purse, no ID, no car, no way home and vanished. Eleven months later her remains were found in a desolate Malibu canyon. 'Lost Compassion,' shot from ten days after Mitrice went missing, tells the complex, emotional inside story of the search for Mitrice and struggles with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, whose deputies lied about her arrest and likely were involved with her disappearance and murder.