The American Cinematheque proudly presents ‘This Is Not A Fiction,’ its inaugural documentary and non-fiction film festival from April 10th to 18th, 2024. Spanning nine days across three venues-Aero Theatre, Egyptian Theatre, and Los Feliz 3-the festival showcases 43 films and 11 short films, hosts over 20 filmmakers and subjects for in-person Q&As, celebrates with a special anniversary panel, and unveils six premieres.

The inaugural festival will include a dynamic lineup of repertory classics, cutting-edge documentaries, television programs, experimental works, essay films, fiction and more. ‘This Is Not A Fiction’ goes beyond the limits of genre, with a lineup reflecting the boundless possibilities of non-fiction storytelling, and is a celebration of non-fiction as a form of filmmaking and its profound impact on our lives, from its influence in art and entertainment to its power in education, political advocacy and social discourse.

Schedule of Events:

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

7:00 PM: THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT: THE BON JOVI STORY
Free (members-only)

Aero Theatre | Q&A with filmmaker Gotham Chopra and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame front-man Jon Bon Jovi

L.A. Premiere of the complete series!

Opening night of ‘This Is Not A Fiction’

THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT: THE BON JOVI STORY is a four-part, all access docuseries chronicling the epic past and uncertain future of one of the most recognizable bands in the world and its front-man Jon Bon Jovi. A 40-year odyssey of rock and roll idolatry on the precipice as a vocal injury threatens to bring everything to a screeching halt. THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT: THE BON JOVI STORY joins the band in February 2022 and follows their real time journey with its fits and starts as they attempt to chart out their future. As thrilling as the story of a once-in-a-lifetime talent is, it is even more rare that a legend like Jon Bon Jovi lets the world into his most vulnerable moments, while he’s still living them. 40 years of personal videos, unreleased early demos, original lyrics, and never before seen photos that chronicle the journey from Jersey Shore Clubs to the biggest stages on the planet. The series relives the triumphs and setbacks, greatest hits, biggest disappointments, and most public moments of friction.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Hulu

COUNTRY: USA

Location: AERO THEATRE, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403

7:00 PM: ******** OF THE PARTY
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | Q&A with filmmaker Cle Shaheed Sloan

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

Raised in the Athens Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Cle Bone Sloan was four years old when his father died, and 12 when he became a member of the Bloods. Now an inactive member of the notorious gang, Sloan looks back at the history of black gangs in his city and makes a powerful call for change in modern gang culture

FORMAT: DCP

COUNTRY: USA

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

10:00 PM: NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | ‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘The Latin American Canon of Cruelty’

For his new film master director Patricio Guzman, famed for his political documentaries, travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the driest place on earth, the Atacama Desert, where atop the mountains astronomers from all over the world gather to observe the stars. The sky is so translucent that it allows them to see right to the boundaries of the universe.

The Atacama is also a place where the harsh heat of the sun keeps human remains intact: those of Pre-Columbian mummies; 19th century explorers and miners; and the remains of political prisoners, “disappeared” by the Chilean army after the military coup of September, 1973.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Icarus Films

COUNTRY: Chile

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Thursday, April 11, 2024

7:00 PM: LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Aero Theatre | Q&A with filmmaker Thom Andersen

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

Thom Andersen’s landmark documentary explores the tangled relationship between the movies and their fabled hometown – as seen entirely through the films themselves.

From its distinctive neighborhoods to its striking architectural homes, Los Angeles has been the backdrop to countless movies. In this dazzling work, Andersen takes viewers on a whirlwind tour through the metropolis’ real and cinematic history, spanning nearly 100 years, from the silent era to modern times. With extensive research, and an abundance of clips, anecdotes and analysis, he adroitly peels back layers of fiction to reveal the real city and the actual lives of its denizens beneath the glaring lights.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Cinema Guild

COUNTRY: USA

Location: AERO THEATRE, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403

7:00 PM: NOT A PRETTY PICTURE
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | Q&A with filmmaker Martha Coolidge

New restoration courtesy of Janus Films

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

In 1976, trailblazing director Martha Coolidge (VALLEY GIRL, RAMBLING ROSE) made her feature debut with the startling NOT A PRETTY PICTURE, a documentary-fiction hybrid that continues to raise provocative questions about sexual violence and the ethics of its on-screen representation. Coolidge based the film’s fictional sections on her rape at the age of sixteen; in the role of her younger self, she cast Michele Manenti, also a rape victim. As they interpret Coolidge’s script, cast members reflect on their encounters with assault; their feelings about acting out these scenes of intense aggression; their attitudes concerning consent, trauma, and self-blame; and, in the case of Coolidge’s best friend, Anne Mundstuk, their ability to play themselves.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: USA

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

10:00 PM: MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | ‘This Is Not A Fiction’

Apichatpong Weerasethakul brought an appetite for experimen­tation to Thai cinema with his debut feature, an uncategorizable work that refracts documentary impressions of his homeland through the surrealist concept of the exquisite corpse game. Enlisting locals to contribute improvised narration to a simple tale, Apichatpong charts the collective construction of the fiction as each new encounter imbues it with unpredictable shades of fantasy and pathos. Shot over the course of two years in 16 mm black and white, MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON established the director’s fascination with the porous boundaries between the real and the imagined.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: Thailand

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Friday, April 12, 2024

7:00 PM: 30 FOR 30: 15TH ANNIVERSARY PANEL
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Egyptian Theatre | 15th Anniversary Panel with VP and Executive Producer, ESPN Films, Marsha Cooke, Original Executive Producer John Dahl and producer Daniel Silver, and filmmakers Barbara Kopple, Brett Morgen and Jeff Tremaine

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

As part of the inaugural year of ‘This Is Not A Fiction,’ the American Cinematheque is thrilled to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the incredibly successful sports documentary film series 30 FOR 30 at the Egyptian Theatre on Friday April 12, 2024. Featuring a panel with VP and Executive Producer, ESPN Films, Marsha Cooke, Original Executive Producer John Dahl and producer Daniel Silver, and filmmakers Barbara Kopple, Brett Morgen and Jeff Tremaine, the celebration will celebrate the exciting new future of the award winning series, by taking a look back at the first season with curated clips from the films THE HOUSE OF STEINBRENNER, JUNE 17TH, 1994, THE BIRTH OF BIG AIR and more.

Location: EGYPTIAN THEATRE, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

10:00 PM: TRASH HUMPERS
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Egyptian Theatre | 15th Anniversary!

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

TRASH HUMPERS brings us a gang of elderly degenerates who film themselves in the backlots and alleyways of Nashville, drinking heavily, defiling garbage and anything else at hand, and spreading destruction wherever they go. An unclassifiable work of post-cinema that plays like the most bizarrely unsettling home movie ever uncovered in a flea-market bargain bin.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Belcourt

COUNTRY: USA

Location: EGYPTIAN THEATRE, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

7:30 PM: CRUMB
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Aero Theatre | Q&A with filmmaker Terry Zwigoff  

30th Anniversary!

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

Terry Zwigoff’s CRUMB is an intimate portrait of the underground artist Robert Crumb. It is also a creepy, darkly funny, and haunting glimpse into the capriciousness of fate in the workings of a single family. Shot over six years, CRUMB uses unexpurgated interviews with the artist, his family, colleagues, critics, and ex-lovers, along with footage of his work, to paint a riveting picture of this artist’s obsessions, and of the powerful visions he has created with them. Ultimately, the film is about following one’s vision and the rewards and risks of doing so.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Pictures Classics

COUNTRY: USA

Location: AERO THEATRE, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403

7:00 PM: GIRLS STATE
Free

Los Feliz 3  | Q&A with filmmakers and producers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss. Moderated by Amy Nicholson.

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

Tickets Go On Sale 2024-04-03 12:00 pm PST

What would American democracy look like in the hands of teenage girls? A political coming-of-age story and a stirring reimagination of what it means to govern, GIRLS STATE follows young female leaders - from wildly different backgrounds across Missouri - as they navigate an immersive experiment to build a government from the ground up.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Apple TV+

COUNTRY: USA

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

10:00 PM: SANS SOLEIL
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3  | ‘This Is Not A Fiction’

Chris Marker, filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, and now videographer and digital multimedia artist, has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his complex queries about time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. SANS SOLEIL is his mind-bending free-form travelogue that journeys from Africa to Japan.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: France

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Saturday, April 13, 2024

2:00 PM: LEVIATHAN / SWEETGRASS
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Egyptian Theatre | Q&A with filmmakers Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor  

‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor: An American Cinematheque Retrospective’

LEVIATHAN, 2012, Dir. Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 87 Min, Grasshopper Films, USA

Filmed off the coast of New Bedford, Massachusetts – at one time the whaling capital of the world as well as Melville’s inspiration for Moby Dick; it is today the country’s largest fishing port with over 500 ships sailing from its harbor every month.

LEVIATHAN follows one such vessel, a hulking groundfish trawler, into the surrounding murky black waters on a weeks-long fishing expedition. But instead of romanticizing the labor or partaking in the longstanding tradition of turning fisherfolk into images, filmmakers Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel present a vivid, almost-kaleidoscopic representation of the work, the sea, the machinery and the players, both human and marine.

FORMAT: DCP

SWEETGRASS, 2009, Dir. Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 101 Min, Grasshopper Films, USA

An unsentimental elegy to the American West, Sweetgrass follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana’s breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. This astonishingly beautiful yet unsparing film reveals a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed.

FORMAT: DCP

Location: EGYPTIAN THEATRE, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

7:00 PM: *******: THE MOVIE
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Egyptian Theatre | Q&A with filmmaker Jeff Tremaine

‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘Jeff Tremaine: An American Cinematheque Tribute’

Johnny Knoxville and his band of maniacs perform a variety of stunts and gross-out gags on the big screen.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount

COUNTRY: USA

Location: EGYPTIAN THEATRE, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

10:00 PM: GIMME SHELTER
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Egyptian Theatre | ‘This Is Not A Fiction’

Called the greatest rock film ever made, this landmark documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their notorious 1969 U.S. tour. When three hundred thousand members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hells Angels at San Francisco’s Altamont Speedway, Direct Cinema pioneers David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin were there to immortalize on film the bloody slash that transformed a decade’s dreams into disillusionment.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: USA

Location: EGYPTIAN THEATRE, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

12:00 PM: HOMELAND: IRAQ YEAR ZERO
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Aero Theatre | Co-presented by the Arab Film and Media Institute

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

HOMELAND: IRAQ YEAR ZERO is a monumental accomplishment, a two-part, five-and-a-half hour documentary following the life of everyday Iraqis before and after the 2003 American invasion. In February 2002 Iraqi filmmaker Abbas Fahdel traveled home from France to capture daily life as his country prepared for war. He concentrated on family and friends, including his 12-year-old nephew, Haidar, as they went about their daily lives, which had come to include planning for shortages of food, water and power. When Fahdel resumed filming in 2003, two weeks after the invasion, daily activities had come to a near standstill, the city was overrun with foreign soldiers, and many areas of Baghdad had been closed off to ordinary citizens. Fahdel’s epic yet intimate HOMELAND: IRAQ YEAR ZERO paints a compelling portrait of people struggling to survive while their civilization, dating back to ancient times, is destroyed around them.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Kino Lorber

COUNTRY: Iraq / France

Location: AERO THEATRE, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403

7:30 PM: HARLAN COUNTY, USA / AMERICAN DREAM
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Aero Theatre | Q&A with filmmaker Barbara Kopple

‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and and ‘Barbara Kopple: An American Cinematheque Tribute’

HARLAN COUNTY USA, 1976, Dir. Barbara Kopple, 103 Min, Janus Films, USA

Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award–winning HARLAN COUNTY USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners’ sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. Featuring a haunting soundtrack—with legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, Sarah Gunning, and Florence Reece-the film is a heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.

FORMAT: 35mm

HARLAN COUNTY, USA was preserved in 2004 by the Women’s Film Preservation Fund of New York Women in Film and Television and the Academy Film Archive.

AMERICAN DREAM, 1990, Dir. Barbara Kopple, 100 Min, USA/UK

An examination of the six-year labor dispute at a Minnesota meat-packing plant.

FORMAT: 35mm

AMERICAN DREAM Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

Location: AERO THEATRE, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403

12:30 PM: LOST LOST LOST
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | ‘This Is Not A Fiction’

LOST LOST LOST, comprised of fourteen years of footage, documents Jonas Mekas’ early years in New York as he and his brother Adolfas build their new life in America, discovering the city and the burgeoning film and arts community of the 1950 and 60s downtown scene.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Kino Lorber

COUNTRY: USA

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

4:00 PM: BROTHER'S KEEPER
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | Q&A with filmmaker Joe Berlinger

Joe Berlinger’s Personal 35mm Print!

‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘Joe Berlinger: An American Cinematheque Tribute’

This compelling documentary details the strange-but-true murder trial of Delbert Ward, accused of the mercy killing of his brother in rural upstate NY.

FORMAT: 35mm

COUNTRY: USA

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

10:00 PM: CATCHING FIRE: THE STORY OF ANITA PALLENBERG
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | Pre-recorded Q&A with filmmakers Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill

Los Angeles Premiere!

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

This intimate documentary reveals the story of a fierce rock ‘n’ roller, actress, muse and mother who rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s. Using the words of her unpublished memoir, Anita brings us deep into her world, with the help of a supporting cast that includes her family – Marlon, Angela, and their father Keith Richards. Never-seen-before home movies and family photographs show life with the Rolling Stones: this is a bittersweet tale of adventure and misadventure. From Barbarella to the Swiss Alps, and the Lower East Side of New York, Anita Pallenberg was a woman ahead of her time.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Magnolia Pictures

COUNTRY: USA

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Sunday, April 14, 2024

12:00 PM: SCIENCE IS FICTION: THE FILMS OF JEAN PAINLEVÉ
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Aero Theatre | ‘This Is Not A Fiction’

“The Sea Horse,” 1935, Dir. Jean Painlevé, 14 Min, France

Jean Painlevé’s classic underwater short THE SEA HORSE uses dreamlike imagery to detail the lives of the titular upright-swimming creatures.

FORMAT: DCP

“Sea Urchins,” 1954, Dir. Jean Painlevé, 10 Min, France

From 1927 to 1928, Jean Painlevé made his first three films aimed at the general public. Shown in ‘ciné-clubs’ and avant-garde movie theaters of Paris, these films were written and edited to entertain as well as educate. SEA URCHINS is one of these educational films.

FORMAT: DCP

“The Love Life Of The Octopus,” 1967, Dir. Jean Painlevé, 14 Min, France

The mating rituals and reproductive cycle of the octopus are the subject of this short documentary by Jean Painlevé.

FORMAT: DCP

“Acera or the Witches’ Dance,”1972, Dir. Jean Painlevé, 14 Min, France

The lives of miniscule mollusks are intimately captured as they wallow in mud, mate and give birth. Director Jean Painlevé sublimely sets their dance like movements to music.

FORMAT: DCP

“The Vampire,” 1945, Dir. Jean Painlevé, 9 Min, France

Jean Painlevé’s short THE VAMPIRE draws the connection between the movie monsters of the same name and the South American vampire bat. The animal’s gruesome feeding habits are on full display.

FORMAT: DCP

“The Octopus,”1928, Dir. Jean Painlevé, 13 Min, France

Part of Painlevé’s first three films written and edited to entertain and educate.

FORMAT: DCP

“Liquid Crystals,” 1978, Dir. Jean Painlevé, 13 Min, France

A semi-psychedelic collection of different liquids crystalizing under a microscope.

FORMAT: DCP

Location: AERO THEATRE, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403

12:00 PM: TITICUT FOLLIES
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Egyptian Theatre | Virtual Q&A with filmmaker Frederick Wiseman

35mm print courtesy of the Library of Congress

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

Frederick Wiseman’s first feature as a director is a stark and graphic portrayal of the conditions at the State Prison for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The film documents the various ways the inmates were treated by the guards, social workers, and psychiatrists.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Zipporah Films

COUNTRY: USA

Location: EGYPTIAN THEATRE, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

5:00 PM: RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Egyptian Theatre | Theatrical Premiere in Dolby Atmos!

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

In Japanese with English subtitles.

A celebration of an artist’s life in the purest sense, RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS is the definitive swan song of one of the world’s greatest musicians. In late 2022, as a parting gift, Ryuichi Sakamoto mustered all of his energy to leave us with one final performance: a concert film featuring just him and his piano. Curated and sequenced by Sakamoto himself, the twenty pieces featured in the film wordlessly narrate his life through his wide-ranging oeuvre. The selection spans his entire career, from his pop-star period with Yellow Magic Orchestra and his magnificent scores for filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci to his meditative final album,12. Intimately filmed in a space he knew well and surrounded by his most trusted collaborators, including director Neo Sora, his son, Sakamoto bares his soul through his exquisitely haunting melodies, knowing this was the last time he would be able to present his art.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: Japan

Location: EGYPTIAN THEATRE, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

7:30 PM: PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Egyptian Theatre | Q&A with filmmaker Joe Berlinger

Joe Berlinger’s personal 35mm print!

‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘Joe Berlinger: An American Cinematheque Tribute’

The landmark documentary that sparked an international movement to “Free the West Memphis Three,” Paradise Lost investigates the gruesome 1993 murder of three eight-year-old boys and the three teenagers accused of killing them as part of a Satanic ritual.

FORMAT: 35mm

COUNTRY: USA

Location: EGYPTIAN THEATRE, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

3:00 PM: STEVE! (MARTIN) A DOCUMENTARY IN 2 PIECES
Free

Aero Theatre | Q&A with filmmaker Morgan Neville

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

Tickets Go On Sale 2024-04-02 12:00 pm PST

Steve Martin is one of the most beloved and enigmatic figures in entertainment. STEVE! (MARTIN) A DOCUMENTARY IN 2 PIECES dives into his extraordinary story from two distinct points of view, with companion documentaries that feature never-before-seen footage and raw insights into Martin’s personal and professional trials and triumphs. “Then” chronicles Martin’s early struggles and meteoric rise to revolutionize stand-up before walking away at 35. “Now” focuses on the present day, with Martin in the golden years of his career, retracing the transformation that led to happiness in his art and personal life.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Apple TV+

COUNTRY: USA

Location: AERO THEATRE, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403

7:30 PM: DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA / SOMNILOQUIES
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Aero Theatre | Q&A with filmmakers Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor

‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor: An American Cinematheque Retrospective’

DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA, 2022, Dir. Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 118 Min, Grasshopper Film and Gratitude Films, France

In French with English subtitles.

Five centuries ago, anatomist Andreas Vesalius opened up the human body to science for the first time in history. Today, DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA opens the human body to the cinema. It reveals that human flesh is an extraordinary landscape that exists only through the gaze and attention of others. As places of care, suffering and hope, hospitals are laboratories that connect every body in the world.

FORMAT: DCP

SOMNILOQUIES, 2017, Dir. Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 73 Min, Sensory Ethnography Lab, France

The camera moves over sleeping naked bodies while a soundtrack relays the sleep talk, nocturnal speculations, and dreams of Dion McGregor, a gay American songwriter whose hallucinatory, salacious, and sadistic dreams were recorded by his New York roommate over a seven-year period in the 1960s.

FORMAT: DCP

Location: AERO THEATRE, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403

1:00 PM: SALESMAN
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | ‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘Sunday Print Edition’

SALESMAN captures in vivid detail the bygone era of the door-to-door salesman. While laboring to sell a gold-embossed version of the Good Book, Paul Brennan and his colleagues target the beleaguered masses-then face the demands of quotas and the frustrations of life on the road. Following Brennan on his daily rounds, the Maysles discover a real-life Willy Loman, walking the line from hype to despair.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: USA

Restored by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

4:00 PM: LUMUMBA: DEATH OF A PROPHET
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | L.A. Premiere of New 4K Restoration courtesy of Janus Films

‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘Sunday “Rest”oration’

In French with English subtitles.

Investigating revolutionary Patrice Lumumba’s brief tenure as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as the machinations behind his shocking assassination, legendary Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck discovers critical flashpoints where a nation’s officially curated narratives intersect with repressed truths.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

7:00 PM: "GOURMET BABY" / SHIRKERS
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | Q&A with filmmaker Sandi Tan

Sandi Tan’s Personal 35mm prints courtesy of Netflix and Colorlab

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

“Gourmet Baby,” 2001, Dir. Sandi Tan, 14 Min, Singapore/USA

A lonely middle-aged man is neurotically fixated on his young niece. He wants to turn her into his ideal dining companion.

FORMAT: 35mm

SHIRKERS, 2018, Dir. Sandi Tan, 96 Min, Netflix, Singapore/UK/USA

In 1992, Sandi Tan and her friends shot a quirky film on the streets of Singapore. Then the footage disappeared, sending her on a hunt for answers.

FORMAT: 35mm

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

10:00 PM: RICHARD PRYOR: LIVE IN CONCERT
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | 45th Anniversary!

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

Richard Pryor’s classic 1979 concert film has him discussing a wide range of topics, including race, the police and his favorite target - himself.

FORMAT: 4K DCP

COUNTRY: USA

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Monday, April 15, 2024

7:00 PM: FOREIGN PARTS
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3  | Q&A with filmmakers Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor  

‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor: An American Cinematheque Retrospective’

Residents of Willets Point, an industrial site filled with scrap heaps and auto shops, try to stop their evictions to allow for urban renewal.

FORMAT: DCP

COUNTRY: USA

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

7:30 PM: KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Aero Theatre | Q&A with filmmaker Brett Morgen

‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘Brett Morgen: An American Cinematheque Tribute’

Hailed as one of the most innovative and intimate documentaries of all time, experience Kurt Cobain like never before in the only ever fully authorized portrait of the famed music icon. Academy Award nominated filmmaker Brett Morgen expertly blends Cobain’s personal archive of art, music, never seen before movies, animation and revelatory interviews from his family and closest friends.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: End of Film

COUNTRY: USA

Location: AERO THEATRE, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403

10:00 PM: CANIBA
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | Introduction by filmmakers Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor  

‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor: An American Cinematheque Retrospective’

CANIBA reflects on the discomfiting significance of cannibalistic desire in human existence through the prism of one Japanese man, Issei Sagawa, and his mysterious relationship with his brother, Jun Sagawa. As a 32-year-old student at the Sorbonne in Paris, Issei Sagawa was arrested on June 13, 1981 when spotted emptying two bloody suitcases containing the remains of his Dutch classmate, Renée Hartevelt. Two days earlier, Mr. Sagawa had killed Hartevelt and began eating her. Declared legally insane, he returned to Japan. He has been a free man ever since. Ostracized from society, he has made his living off his crime by writing novels, drawing manga, appearing in innumerable documentaries and sexploitation films in which he reenacts his crime, and even becoming a food critic.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Grasshopper Films

COUNTRY: France/Japan

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

7:30 PM: CAMERAPERSON
$10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission)

Aero Theatre |  Q&A with filmmaker Kirsten Johnson

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

A boxing match in Brooklyn; life in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina; the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife; an intimate family moment at home: these scenes and others are woven into CAMERAPERSON, a tapestry of footage captured over the twenty-five-year career of documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. Through a series of episodic juxtapositions, Johnson explores the relationships between image makers and their subjects, the tension between the objectivity and intervention of the camera, and the complex interaction of unfiltered reality and crafted narrative. A work that combines documentary, autobiography, and ethical inquiry, CAMERAPERSON is both a moving glimpse into one filmmaker’s personal journey and a thoughtful examination of what it means to train a camera on the world.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: USA

Location: AERO THEATRE, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403

7:00 PM: "INCIDENT" / DECASIA
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3  | Q&A with filmmaker Bill Morrison!

Los Angeles Premiere of “Incident,” winner of the IDA’s Best Short Documentary of 2023

Co-presented by the International Documentary Association

‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘Bill Morrison: An American Cinematheque Tribute’

“Incident,” 2023, Dir. Bill Morrison, 30 Min, USA

Morrison reconstructs a 2018 police shooting in Chicago, reassembling the event and its immediate aftermath from a variety of sources, including surveillance, CCTV, dashboard, and body-worn cameras, as a synchronized split-screen montage.

FORMAT: DCP

DECASIA, 2003, Dir. Bill Morrison, 67 Min, Icarus Films, USA

Bill Morrison’s personal 35mm print

Often compared to Stan Brakhage, Bill Morrison created DECASIA entirely with decaying, old found footage, melded to the music of Bang on a Can’s Michael Gordon, performed by the 55 piece Basel Sinfonietta. The result is a delirium of deteriorated film stock, a moving avant-garde masterpiece that leaves its meaning open to interpretation and, most importantly, your imagination.

FORMAT: 35mm

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

10:00 PM: DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3  | Introduction by filmmaker Bill Morrison

‘This Is Not A Fiction’ and ‘Bill Morrison: An American Cinematheque Tribute’

This meditation on cinema’s past from director Bill Morrison pieces together the bizarre true history of a long-lost collection of 533 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s. Located just south of the Arctic Circle, Dawson City was settled in 1896 and became the center of the Canadian Gold Rush that brought 100,000 prospectors to the area. It was also the final stop for a distribution chain that sent prints and newsreels to the Yukon. The films were seldom, if ever, returned. The now-famous Dawson City Collection was uncovered in 1978 when a bulldozer working its way through a parking lot dug up a horde of film cans. Morrison draws on these permafrost-protected, rare silent films and newsreels, pairing them with archival footage, interviews, historical photographs, and an enigmatic score by Sigur Rós collaborator and composer Alex Somers. DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME depicts the unique history of this Canadian Gold Rush town by chronicling the life cycle of a singular film collection through its exile, burial, rediscovery, and salvation.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Kino Lorber

COUNTRY: USA

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

7:00 PM: KANEHSATAKE: 270 YEARS OF RESISTANCE
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | Co-presented by The National Film Board of Canada

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

In July 1990, a dispute over a proposed golf course to be built on Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) lands in Oka, Quebec, set the stage for a historic confrontation that would grab international headlines and sear itself into the Canadian consciousness. Filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin—at times with a small crew, at times alone—spent 78 days behind Kanien’kéhaka lines filming the armed standoff between protestors, the Quebec police and the Canadian army.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: National Film Board of Canada

COUNTRY: Canada

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

10:00 PM: TONGUES UNTIED / BLACK IS... BLACK AIN'T
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | ‘This Is Not A Fiction’

TONGUES UNTIED, 1989, Dir. Marlon T. Riggs, 55 Min, Frameline, USA

In the seminal documentary on Black gay life, Emmy Award-winning director Marlon T. Riggs uses poetry, personal testimony, rap, and performance (featuring poet Essex Hemphill and others), to describe the homophobia and racism that confront Black gay men.

FORMAT: DCP

BLACK IS…BLACK AIN’T, 1995, Dir. Marlon T. Riggs, 87 Min, Frameline, USA

The final film by Marlon Riggs jumps into the middle of explosive debates over Black identity. Riggs uses his grandmother’s gumbo as a metaphor for the rich diversity of Black identities. His camera traverses the country, bringing us face to face with Black folks young and old, rich and poor, rural and urban, gay and straight, grappling with the paradox of numerous, often contested definitions of Blackness.

Riggs mixes performances by choreographer Bill T. Jones and poet Essex Hemphill with commentary by noted cultural critics Angela Davis, Bell Hooks, Cornel West, Michele Wallace, Barbara Smith and Maulana Karenga to create a flavorful stew of personal testimony, music, and history.

FORMAT: DCP

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Thursday, April 18, 2024

7:00 PM: POWER / STRONG ISLAND
Free

Aero Theatre | Q&A with filmmaker Yance Ford

Los Angeles Premiere of POWER

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

Tickets Go On Sale 2024-04-11 12:00 pm PST

POWER, 2024, Dir. Yance Ford, 85 Min, Netflix, USA

A deep dive into the untold history of American policing that asks, “Who is more powerful: the people — or the police?”

FORMAT: DCP

STRONG ISLAND, 2017, Dir. Yance Ford, 107 Min, Netflix, USA

The forces of family, grief and racial injustice converge in this Oscar-nominated documentary exploring the murder of filmmaker Yance Ford’s brother.

FORMAT: DCP

Location: AERO THEATRE, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403

7:00 PM: LANDSCAPE SUICIDE
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | Q&A with filmmaker James Benning  

‘This Is Not A Fiction’

Benning continues his examination of Americana through the stories of two murderers that took place 30 years apart. Ed Gein, a Wisconsin farmer and multiple murderer who taxidermied his victims in the 1950s, and Bernadette Protti, who stabbed one of her California high-school classmates to death in 1984 over an insult.

FORMAT: DCP

COUNTRY: USA

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

10:00 PM: THIS IS NOT A FILM
$8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

Los Feliz 3 | ‘This Is Not A Fiction’

In Persian with English subtitles.

This clandestine documentary, shot partially on an iPhone and smuggled into France in a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, depicts the day-to-day life of acclaimed director Jafar Panahi (OFFSIDE, THE CIRCLE) during his house arrest in his Tehran apartment. While appealing his sentence – six years in prison and a 20 year ban from filmmaking – Panahi is seen talking to his family and lawyer on the phone, discussing his plight with Mirtahmasb and reflecting on the meaning of the art of filmmaking.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Kino Lorber

COUNTRY: Iran

Location: LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Date:
April 10-18, 2024

Locations:
- EGYPTIAN THEATRE, 6712 Hollywood Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90028
- LOS FELIZ THEATRE, 1822 N Vermont Ave Los Angeles, CA 90027
- AERO THEATRE, 1328 Montana Ave Santa Monica, CA 90403

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