Barbara Smith and the American Cinematheque have been synonymous since she helped found it in the early 1980s with Gary Essert and Gary Abrahams. After a 37-year career, Smith is retiring from her post as exec director of the Cinematheque.
Her last event will be the screening of a restored version of “Rosita” on Dec. 7 at the Egyptian Theatre.
Smith, Essert and Abrahams incorporated the Cinematheque while they were still at the legendary Filmex, the Los Angeles Intl. Film Exposition, which ran from 1971 to the 1980s.
“We decided that we worked really hard all year to create the three-week festival, so if we did just a little more work, we could turn what we were doing into a year-round film program — a Cinematheque,” Smith says. “We were still doing Filmex when we started the American Cinematheque in 1981. The festival had about 100 employees and just as many or more volunteers.
“When we were starting out,...
Her last event will be the screening of a restored version of “Rosita” on Dec. 7 at the Egyptian Theatre.
Smith, Essert and Abrahams incorporated the Cinematheque while they were still at the legendary Filmex, the Los Angeles Intl. Film Exposition, which ran from 1971 to the 1980s.
“We decided that we worked really hard all year to create the three-week festival, so if we did just a little more work, we could turn what we were doing into a year-round film program — a Cinematheque,” Smith says. “We were still doing Filmex when we started the American Cinematheque in 1981. The festival had about 100 employees and just as many or more volunteers.
“When we were starting out,...
- 11/29/2018
- by Shalini Dore
- Variety Film + TV
Polly Bergen: Actress on Richard Nixon's 'enemies list' (image: Polly Bergen publicity shot ca. late 1950s) (See previous article: "Polly Bergen Movies: First U.S. Woman President.") As discussed in the previous post, despite its deceptively progressive premise — the first United States woman president as a palpable reality — Kisses for My President, written by veteran Paramount screenwriter Claude Binyon (Search for Beauty, The Gilded Lily) and newcomer Robert G. Kane (whose sole other movie credit was the poorly received Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy Western Villain), was an unabashedly reactionary, "traditional family values" effort. Ironically, Polly Bergen, for her part, was a liberal-minded, politically active Democrat. At around the time Kisses for My President was released, Bergen, along with Gregory Peck, James Garner, and other Hollywood personalities, publicly came out against California's Proposition 14, a 1964 ballot initiative that would have nullified the Rumford Fair Housing Act, thus paving the way for...
- 9/22/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The University of Chicago’s film society Doc Films, which has been remarkably in continuous existence for 75 years, screening films every day of the school year, from late September to June, has begun a ten week film series, called Sisters in Cinema: African-American Women Writers-Directors, which will continue until the end of the winter quarter.The series, which started yesterday, with Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Love and Basketball, will screen films every Thursday until March 13th starting at 7Pm, at the Max Palevsky Cinema located at 1212 E. 59th St. on the U of Chicago campus.The screenings, which are open (as are all Doc Films screenings) to everybody, and which was...
- 1/10/2014
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
“Movie Houses of Worship” is a regular feature spotlighting our favorite movie theaters around the world, those that are like temples of cinema catering to the most religious-like film geeks. This week, Fsr’s Allison Loring chose one of her favorite theaters in Los Angeles. If you’d like to suggest or submit a place you regularly worship at the altar of cinema, please email our weekend editor. Aero Theater Location: 1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, CA Opened: Originally opened in 1939 as a 24-hour theater for aircraft workers, but closed in 2003 after Robert Redford’s Sundance Cinemas project (which was going to take over ownership of the theater) fell through because General Cinemas (which was being sold to AMC) went bankrupt. The Aero is now officially known as the “Max Palevsky Aero Theater” thanks to Palevsky’s funding for the American Cinematheque’s refurbishment of the theater which re-opened in January 2005. No. of...
- 9/22/2013
- by Allison Loring
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Starting this week during the spring quarter on every Tuesday until May 31st, the Doc Film Society at the University of Chicago will screen a black film series of mainly rarely seen Hollywood produced black films and independently made “race” movies of the 1940′s: White on Black: Hollywood and Black Cinema
Some of the films in the series will include Spencer Williams’ Go Down Death (1944), Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates(1920) and his gangtser film Underworld (1937) King Vidor’s MGM film (1929, one of the first sound films made) and Reet, Petite and Gone with the true innovator, and who many, perhaps rightly, claim was the real creator of “rock and roll”, Louis Jordan (1947)
And rumor has it that a certain annoying pest (better known as me) will host and introduce a few of the films in the series. All the films will start at 7Pm at Doc Films’ Max Palevsky...
Some of the films in the series will include Spencer Williams’ Go Down Death (1944), Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates(1920) and his gangtser film Underworld (1937) King Vidor’s MGM film (1929, one of the first sound films made) and Reet, Petite and Gone with the true innovator, and who many, perhaps rightly, claim was the real creator of “rock and roll”, Louis Jordan (1947)
And rumor has it that a certain annoying pest (better known as me) will host and introduce a few of the films in the series. All the films will start at 7Pm at Doc Films’ Max Palevsky...
- 3/31/2011
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
By Lisa Horowitz
Max Palevsky, a computer executive and philanthropist who helped to save the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, died Wednesday morning of heart failure at his Los Angeles home, according to his family.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Friday at the Max Palevsky Aero Theater at 1328 Montana Ave in Santa Monica.
Palevsky (at left with his wife, Jodie Evans, and Diane Keaton at a Hammer Museum gala in 2007) produced se...
Max Palevsky, a computer executive and philanthropist who helped to save the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, died Wednesday morning of heart failure at his Los Angeles home, according to his family.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Friday at the Max Palevsky Aero Theater at 1328 Montana Ave in Santa Monica.
Palevsky (at left with his wife, Jodie Evans, and Diane Keaton at a Hammer Museum gala in 2007) produced se...
- 5/6/2010
- by Lisa Horowitz
- The Wrap
Computer executive and arts philanthropist Max Palevsky died peacefully of heart failure at his Los Angeles home on Wednesday morning at 5 am, according to his family. His memorial service is planned for this Friday, May 7 at 2 pm at the Max Palevsky Aero Theater (which he rescued from destruction) at 1328 Montana Ave in Santa Monica. Palevsky was born on July 24, 1924 to Polish immigrant parents in Chicago, Illinois. He entered the U.S. Army after high school and after serving as a meteorologist in the Philippines during World War II, he attended the University of Chicago on the G.I. Bill, earning a Bachelor of Philosophy degree and a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and continuing on to graduate work in math and ...
- 5/5/2010
- Thompson on Hollywood
Judd Apatow and Natalie Portman will attend the 826La 5th Anniversary celebration gala in Los Angeles on April 24.
826La is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. The event will also feature Dave Eggers, comedy by Aziz Ansari and a performance by Richard Thompson.
The event takes place at the home of Jodie Evans and Max Palevsky in Beverly Hills at 6pm, and immediately follows the La Times’ Festival of Books. Admission is $250 dollars, with tickets and more information available here.
Read more...
826La is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. The event will also feature Dave Eggers, comedy by Aziz Ansari and a performance by Richard Thompson.
The event takes place at the home of Jodie Evans and Max Palevsky in Beverly Hills at 6pm, and immediately follows the La Times’ Festival of Books. Admission is $250 dollars, with tickets and more information available here.
Read more...
- 4/15/2010
- Look to the Stars
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