FREEWAY CITY is a provocative case study on how the collision of race, politics and casino economics shaped the destiny of Gardena, California.
A much loved Parisian-style bistro located in Los Angeles between a thriving McDonalds and KFC, Belle Vie is owned and operated by the charming and hopeful Vincent Samarco, who struggles to adapt, survive and keep the bistro alive in the midst of a pandemic that has ravaged small businesses everywhere.
Belle Vie
2022
8
In the second largest school district in the United States, 98% of teachers vote to authorize a strike. Watch as one of the largest educator strikes in modern U.S. history unfolds in real-time, highlighting the stories and leadership of some of the women who led it, from union leaders to classroom teachers. From strike vote to contract vote, When We Fight goes behind the picket lines, documenting how and why teachers strike. "This powerful and beautifully crafted film is a must watch for anyone interested in the state of labor in America today." - Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and Professor of Public Policy, UC Berkeley
When We Fight
2023
0
In 2012 Dalya and her mother Rudayna fled Aleppo for Los Angeles as war took over. Months before, Rudayna learns a secret that destroys her marriage, leaving her single at midlife. Arriving in LA, Dalya enrolls as the only Muslim at Holy Family Catholic High School. Can mother and daughter remake themselves while holding on to their Islamic traditions?
Dalya's Other Country
2017
0
Tongue-in-cheek look at 20-something singles clubbing and partying in L.A. Voice-over narration, charts and graphs, and visits to a research laboratory punctuate the story of a single night when groups of friends go out, drink alcohol, take drugs, dance and talk, and look for someone to go home with.
The Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down
2007
6
Documentary film version of the stage show in which actress Cynthia Gates Fujikawa explores the story of her father, actor Jerry Fujikawa, who had a long career in films and television, most often as a stereotyped Asian. The daughter, in the course of searching out her late father's history, discovers many things that she had not known, among them that her father had spent time in Manzanar, the internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II, that he had had a family prior to hers, and that somewhere out there was a sister she had never known existed.
Old Man River
1999
10
In 2021, a Pentagon report revealed what the US government had denied for decades -- UFOs are real and may even pose a threat to our planet. Now, ex-military members break their silence about the massive cover-up. Are we prepared for an alien invasion?
Alien Endgame
2022
6
Music provided relief during the years of the Japanese American internment throughout WWII. Mary Nomura performed in Manzanar for the three years of her incarceration, and she became known as the "Songbird of Manzanar." In this film, Mary shares old field recordings of her musical performances in Manzanar, believed to be the only surviving field recordings of music from Japanese American internment. In the conclusion of the film, Mary honors her nickname and sings one of her favorite jazz standards by George Gershwin.
The Songbird of Manzanar
0
The Long Ryders, with bands such as The Bangles and The Three O' Clock, were key players in the Paisley Underground, a musical movement from the mid-1980s, combining the chiming folk rock of the 1960s with a psychedelic bent and a bit of punk attitude. The Long Ryders developed a cult following, becoming college radio favorite. This presentation finds frontman Sid Griffin and his band performing at the Roxy in Los Angeles in February of 1986.
The Long Ryders: Rockin' at the Roxy
2002
0
'Looking for the Perfect Beat' is a cinema verite immersion inside the unique Los Angeles 'beat-scene' music community centered around the world famous Low End Theory club night. Filmed over the Summer of 2013, a climatic point in this particular music scene's trajectory, we are given the opportunity to elegantly lift the veil on the personal creative processes of the internationally-acclaimed pillars of the scene. Indie music luminaries such as Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Gaslamp Killer, Daedelus, Nosaj Thing, Ras G, Teebs, D-Styles, TOKiMONSTA and Matthewdavid are all featured in vivid detail. The soundtrack for the film creates itself live on camera as the film elapses. This avant-garde visual angle on each subject in their respective creative spaces provides for an introspective glimpse into what would otherwise be unseen.
Looking for the Perfect Beat
2014
0
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.
Doll Parts
2013
0
Americans refused to be drafted from the concentration camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Ready to fight, but not before their rights as U.S. citizens were restored and families released.
Conscience and the Constitution
9
This film is a poetic composition of recorded history and non-recorded memory. Filmmaker Rea Tajiri’s family was among the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. And like so many who were in the camps, Tajiri’s family wrapped their memories of that experience in a shroud of silence and forgetting. This film raises questions about collective history – questions that prompt Tajiri to daringly re-imagine and re-create what has been stolen and what has been lost.
History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige
1991
0
A documentary film about the internment of Japanese Americans at Heart Mountain, Wyoming during World War II. The program, hosted by Jan Yanehiro, proceeds in part as a series of interviews. It also includes archival film footage of Heart Mountain and Japanese Americans during World War II, as well as present day footage of the Heart Mountain landscape.
Heart Mountain: Three Years in a Relocation Center
0
In a contemporary reimagining of the American West, three young women - a snake hunter, a New York artist, and a rodeo queen - challenge the idea of who is permitted to be a cowgirl.
How the West Was One
2024
0
The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.
The Decline of Western Civilization
1981
7
This short travelogue depicts snippets of locations in Hollywood, California, most of them as seen from the streets. Considerable time is taken showing the kinds of architecture of private homes. There are images of various important buildings, and a depiction of the Hollywood Bowl. Finally, there is a sequence revolving around the premiere of the film “Dirigible” (1931) at the famed Chinese Theatre.
Round About Hollywood
1931
6
An exhilarating documentary film that celebrates the unsung hero of aviation - the local airport - by tracing the life, history, and struggles of an airport icon: Southern California's Van Nuys Airport. Featuring thrilling aerial photography and a sweeping original score, the film dispels common misconceptions and opposes criticism of General Aviation airports.
One Six Right
2005
8
On August 1, 1942, a 22-year-old Mexican American man was stabbed to death at a party. To white Los Angelenos, the murder was just more proof that Mexican American crime was spiraling out of control. The police fanned out across LA, netting 600 young Mexican American suspects. Almost all those taken into custody were wearing the distinctive uniform of their generation: Zoot Suits. The tragic murder and the injustice of the trial that followed, coupled with sensational news coverage of both, fanned the flames of the racial hostility that was already running rife in the city. Within months of the verdict, Los Angeles was in the grip of some of the worst violence in its history.
Zoot Suit Riots
2002
0
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.
The Dream Syndicate: How Did We Find Ourselves Here?
2022
0
Long considered a cult classic, "Mondo Hollywood" captures the underside of Hollywood by documenting a moment in time (1965-67), when an inquisitive trust in the unknown was paramount, hope for the future was tangible and life was worth living on the fringe. An interior monologue narrative approach is used throughout the film, where each principal person shown not only decided on what they wanted to be filmed doing, but also narrated their own scenes. The film opens with Gypsy Boots (the original hippie vegan - desert hopping blender salesman), and stripper Jennie Lee, working out 'Watusi-style' beneath the 'Hollywood' sign -- leading into the 'sustainable community' insight of Lewis Beach Marvin III, the S&H Green Stamp heir, who lived in a $10 a month garage while owning a mountain retreat in Malibu.
Mondo Hollywood
1967
5