Herb & Dorothy 50 X 50 – director, Megumi Sasaki

Herb & Dorothy 50 X 50Developed as the follow-up film to Megumi Sasaki’s award-winning documentary HERB & DOROTHY (2008) that moved millions of art-lovers worldwide, HERB & DOROTHY 50X50captures the last chapter of the Vogel’s extraordinary life and their gift to the nation, raising various questions on art, and what it takes to support art in today’s society.  In 2008, legendary art collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel made an announcement that stunned the art world. Known and loved as a retired postal worker (Herb) and librarian (Dorothy) who built a world-class art collection on their humble salaries, the Vogels launched a national gift project with the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington DC that would constitute one of the largest gifts in the history of American art: to give a total of 2,500 artworks to museums in all fifty states. Director Megumi Sasaki talks about art, love between two art lovers and a nearly 20-year journey that three people have taken together.

http://herbanddorothy.com/about#sthash.4DYYCGqj.dpuf

“Sesuki … widens her focus, offering insights into the state of contemporary art museums, nearly all of which are limited to the taste of their donors.” – Peter Debruge, Variety

“It’s an absorbing document of an extraordinary act of generosity.” – Chris Klimek, Village Voice

Let The Fire Burn, director Jason Osder

Let the Fire Burn posterOn May 13, 1985, a longtime feud between the city of Philadelphia and controversial radical urban group MOVE came to a deadly climax. By order of local authorities, police dropped military-grade explosives onto a MOVE-occupied rowhouse. TV cameras captured the conflagration that quickly escalated-and resulted in the tragic deaths of eleven people (including five children) and the destruction of 61 homes. It was only later discovered that authorities decided to “…let the fire burn.” Using only archival news coverage and interviews, first-time filmmaker Osder has brought to life one of the most tumultuous and largely forgotten clashes between government and citizens in modern American history. In the astonishingly gripping Let the Fire Burn, director Jason Osder talks about how he was able to craft found-footage film into a work that unfurls with the tension of a great thriller.

http://www.letthefireburn.com/

“Let the Fire Burn outshines the lackluster likes of Our Nixon by combining the death-trip of a Senna with the radical history of Black Power Mixtape.” – Nicolas Rapold, Film Comment Magazine

“Telling its riveting, despairing tale entirely through archival footage, the terrific documentary “Let the Fire Burn” has the force and intrigue of a courtroom thriller.” – Tim Griererson, Screen International

Morning, director Leland Orser

Morning film poster 

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Five days in the life of an American couple immediately following the accidental death of their child. An every day story of tragedy, loss, acceptance, hope and renewal. ‘Morning’ follows the divergent paths of Mark (Leland Orser) and Alice Munroe (Jeanne Tripplehorn) as they circle each other in a heart-breaking pas-de-deux of grief before finally coming to grips with their shared loss.  Writer / director / actor Leland Orser stops by for a conversation on the challenges and rewards of telling a story of horrifying tragedy and profound love.

http://www.morningthemovie.com/

“Morning is a new and most welcome addition to the genre of films dealing with the splintering, fissuring effects of a child’s death on a family. Movies like Ordinary People, In the Bedroom, and more recently, The Greatest, spring to mind. Each brings its own focus, emphasis, breadth and psychological orchestration.” – Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D., is Senior Editor of the Journal of Media Psychology and Emeritus Professor of Media Psychology

“Mr. Orser is a director worth watching. His work behind the camera-as well as in front of it-is clean and direct, unsentimental almost to the point of austerity.” – Rex Reed, New York Observer

GMO OMG, director Jeremy Seifert

GMO OMG film posterWho controls the future of your food? GMO OMG explores the systematic corporate takeover and potential loss of humanity’s most precious and ancient inheritance: seeds. Director Jeremy Seifert investigates how loss of seed diversity and corresponding laboratory assisted genetic alteration of food affects his young children, the health of our planet, and freedom of choice everywhere. GMO OMG follows one family’s struggle to live and eat without participating in an unhealthy, unjust, and destructive food system. In GMO OMG, the encroaching darkness of unknown health and environmental risks, chemical toxins, and food monopoly meets with the light of a growing global movement to take back what we have lost. Director Jeremy Seifert joins us for a conversation on the future of our planets food supply.

Theater Locations:
*Arena Cinema*
1625 N. Las Palmas Ave. Hollywood, CA 90028

Laemmle Playhouse
673 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91101

“Combines the folksy charm of Taggart Siegel’s The Real Dirt on Farmer John and the frightening facts of Robert Kenner’s Food, Inc.” –  Andrew Schenker Time Out New York

“A documentary that is by turns exasperating, illuminating, and intentionally infuriating.” – Ernest Hardy, Village Voice

“[Provides] a gentle, flyover alert to obliviously chowing-down citizens … without hectoring and with no small amount of charm.” Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

Harry Dean Stanton, Partly Fiction, director Sophie Huber

Harry Dean Stanton poster 

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HARRY DEAN STANTON: PARTLY FICTION is a mesmerizing, impressionistic portrait of the iconic actor comprised of intimate moments, film clips from some of his 250 films and his own heart-breaking renditions of American folk songs. Stunningly lensed in color and b/w by Seamus McGarvey, the film explores the actor’s enigmatic outlook on his life, his unexploited talents as a musician, and includes candid scenes with David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Sam Shepard, Kris Kristofferson and Debbie Harry. The fragile soul of an actor emerges from the poignant collage. We are joined by Director Sophie Huber for a conversation on the challenges of getting inside the closely guarded world of Harry Dean Stanton and his famous friends.

Starts Friday, September 13 at the Nuart Theatre
 – One Week Only!


Star Harry Dean Stanton & Director Sophie Huber In Person Friday, September 13 at 7:30 & 9:40pm!

 “This moody, soulful, music-drenched documentary on the great character actor uses movie clips, his singing, and shards of conversation to create its dark-hued portrait of zen survival. A real treat for those in the know.” – Chris Barsanti, Film Journal International

 “A film that’s in perfect sync with its subject.” – Nick Schager, Village Voice

 “Engaging documentary tribute to the craggy character-actor and his five-decade career is elevated by classy visuals and a nicely relaxed, casual tone.” – Neil Young, Hollywood Reporter

Short Term 12, producer Asher Goldstein

Short term 12 posterA 20-something supervising staff member of a foster care facility navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend. From writer / director Destin Daniel Cretton’s simple premise comes a complex and nuanced story where no good choice is often the only choice. Funny, moving, surprising and emotional, Short Term 12 producer Asher Goldstein stops by to talk about the risks and the rewards that come with working on a film that defies easy answers.

 “Magical. A shining example of what cinema is all about” – Germain Lussier, Slash Film

“Short Term 12” expresses its serious subject matter in a fresh and authentic manner, never relying on the content itself to keep the viewer’s interest but how it unfolds for the audience, anchored to these characters who we grow to deeply care about. In the end, “Short Term 12” is a roller coaster of every emotion, managing to be both heartwarming and heartrending at once. But what a great ride. – Katie Walsh, The Playlist

“Phenomenally moving” – David Edelstein, New York Magazine

 “The performances are outstanding and should be remembered when the time comes to remember who did great things this year. Everyone filling in the tapestry of the film is memorable. This is a film I will remember for a long time.” Fred Topel, Crave Online

My Father and the Man in Black, director Joanthan Holiff

My Father and The Man in Black posterThe Man in Black was, of course, Johnny Cash. Saul Holiff was his long-time manager, a dedicated, remote, often cruel man who committed suicide and left his son with a lot of unanswered questions. Following his father’s suicide, director Jonathan Holiff discovers hundreds of letters and audio diaries, including recorded phone calls with Johnny Cash during his crazed pill-fueled 1960s jags, triumphs at Folsom and San Quentin, wedding to June Carter, and his conversion in the early 1970s to born-again Christian. Mixing found footage, creative re-enactments and poignant voice-over narration, the documentary tells a riveting story with creative means as well as an act of catharsis for its maker. Director Holiff joins us for a conversation on the professional and person journey he undertook in making this gripping film about a father he barely knew.

Director Jonathan Holiff will be doing Q&As at the Music Hall 3 in Beverly Hills opening weekend. The Johnny Cash tribute band The Mighty Cash Cats will perform at 6:30PM on September 6 prior to the 7:15PM showing. 

“Extraordinary… As Cash might say, it has the heart, and it has the blood, and by the time childhood chatter is played back again, feeling is soaked through it like the sweat in Cash’s guitar strap.” – Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice

“Incredibly eye-opening and extraordinary thanks to endearingly personal accounts and strong archival footage.” View London

Film Festival Awards:  2012 EDINBURGH DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL (Winner, Best Documentary) 2012 HAMBURG INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL (Winner, Best Documentary) 2012 VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Top 10 Audience Favorite) 2012 CALGARY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Top 10 Audience Favorite) 2013 MEMPHIS INTERNATIONAL FILM & MUSIC FESTIVAL (Winner, Best Documentary) 2013 TIBURON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Winner, Orson Welles Award)