BOYLE HEIGHTS: Last weekend, Curbed and friend View from a Loft checked out the recently re-opened street around Mariachi Plaza. The street (think it was Pleasant Avenue) had been closed due to construction because of Gold Line work, but is open again; the Mariachi players were out and about and looking quite fine. [Curbed Staff]
PASADENA: The city has launched a summer movie series with a twist in terms of where the movies will be screened: For instance, in honor of the “basement horror" flicks, "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" will be seen at the lower level of the Schoolhouse Parking Garage on Green Street, while "Lord of the Rings" will be screened at the grassy One Colorado Courtyard. Press release indicates "Lord" will be all night affair, followed by a "sunrise Hobbit breakfast." Press release after jump. [Curbed InBox]
LONG BEACH: Work has begun on the Long Beach Residence Inn, a $30 million project at 600 Queensway Dr. The project should be done by the end of next summer. [Curbed InBox]
For Immediate Release:
ROOFTOPS, BASEMENTS, ALLEYS AND COURTYARDS:
OLD PASADENA’S FREE FILM FESTIVAL BRINGS MOVIES TO URBAN SETTING
July 11 to 26, 2008
PASADENA, CALIF. (July 2008) -- American Cinematheque presents the Old Pasadena Film Festival, a three-week free movie series that unites film with urban settings, featuring more than 20 screenings, celebrity appearances and works by emerging filmmakers happening on Fridays and Saturdays, July 11 through 26. In collaboration with Old Pasadena Management District and One Colorado, this district-wide festival will take place in basements, on walls, in courtyards, shops and theaters throughout this famous and historic downtown. All Old Pasadena Film Festival screenings, appearances and events are free and open to the public.
The Festival will showcase a variety of genres that reflect the urban environment of alleys, courtyards and buildings. Most films are screened in unique outdoor settings and unconventional spaces, and are themed to fit their location, including “basement horror,” with TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE introduced by the director himself Tobe Hooper, shown in the lower level of Schoolhouse Parking Garage, 33 E. Green Street; and “roof-top sci-fi,” with THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (original 1953 version) screened on the top-deck of the same multi-story structure.
The films of Audrey Hepburn will be featured on the large outdoor screen in the central One Colorado Courtyard. There will be an all-night presentation of the Peter Jackson’s LORD OF THE RINGS with a sunrise Hobbit breakfast, also in the Courtyard. Armory Center for the Arts will be the location for weekly showings of innovative shorts and digital works by emerging filmmakers and students from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena City College as well as from the Armory itself, with introductions by filmmakers and faculty. Other themes include MENTAL HYGIENE SHORTS, shown in high schools in the 1950s and 1960s. At the time, these were billed as a means of delivering social guidance for supposedly wayward youth (Mercantile Alley). There will also be a special family matinee of one of the most beloved family musicals of all time, MARY POPPINS shown on the big screen at the Laemmle’s One Colorado Theater. Distant Lands, the specialty travel bookstore in Old Pasadena, will host TRAVEL films while the festival will conclude with a special “date night” showcasing the irresistible teen-dream musical, GREASE in Mills Alley.
Old Pasadena Film Festival includes several celebrity and author appearances. Actress Ann Robinson (Imitation of Life) will introduce the original THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, a film in which she starred, on Friday, July 11 at 10:00 P.M. on the roof of the Schoolhouse Parking structure. Director Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist, Invaders from Mars) will introduce the screening of his classic TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE on Friday, July 18, 10:00 P.M. in the basement of the same structure. Archivist and historian Rick Prelinger (Ephemeral Films) will present MENTAL HYGIENE SHORT FILMS on Saturday, July 19 at 10:00 P.M. in Mills Alley. Other appearances are to be announced. All screenings, appearances and events are included in detail at www.oldpasadenafilmfestival.com
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:
Friday, July 11
7:00 PM – EMERGING FILMMAKERS Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.
8:30 PM – CLASSIC HEPBURN: BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
"I've got to do something about the way I look. I mean a girl just can't go to Sing Sing with a green face." - So sighs Audrey Hepburn's girl-about-town Holly Golightly, breezing ever-so-gently through the real world with hardly a ripple. But when she meets sober, handsome, nice guy George Peppard, she begins to gradually re-think her “anything-goes,” high-living lifestyle.
10:00 PM – SCI FI: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953) School House Parking structure rooftop, 33 E. Green Street.
Actress Ann Robinson will introduce the screening.
The quintessential 1950's science fiction film, in which scientists and the military join forces to conquer an alien invasion. Even today, few films can match this movie's triumphant blend of special effects and snappy romance (in the form of the relationship between astronomer Gene Barry and his spunky girlfriend Ann Robinson.)
Saturday, July 12
7:00 PM – EMERGING FILMMAKERS Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.
8:30 PM - CLASSIC HEPBURN: MY FAIR LADY One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
This unforgettable musical adaptation is PYGMALION as reinvented by Lerner and Loewe as reinvented by master director George Cukor. Oscar winner Rex Harrison plays Henry Higgins, who teaches lower class, Cockney flower girl Audrey Hepburn to be a lady and falls in love with her in the process.
Friday, July 18
7:00 PM – EMERGING FILMMAKERS Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.
8:30 PM – CLASSIC HEPBURN: CHARADE One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
Widow Audrey Hepburn finds herself thrust into adventure when her dead husband's war buddies come after her, thinking she has money they stole together during the war. Cary Grant is the stranger who is as mysterious as he is attractive--and whom Hepburn falls for as she runs for her life.
10:00 PM – HORROR FILM: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE Basement of Schoolhouse Parking Garage, 33 E. Green Street.
Director Tobe Hooper will introduce the screening.
One of the best American horror films from the 1970s and certainly one of the scariest movies ever made. The unknown actors and real-life locations burn themselves into your memory, assuming a nightmarishly twisted reality that lingers long after you’ve seen the film. After hearing of a cemetery desecration, Marilyn Burns and friends go on a jaunt in the broiling Texas countryside to make sure her grandparents’ graves are okay, only to become stranded at the rural home of a family of inbred cannibals. Director Tobe Hooper expertly escalates the horror until you can’t stand it anymore?then goes one step further. With Gunnar Hansen, Ed Neal.
Saturday, July 19
10:00 AM - FAMILY MATINEE: MARY POPPINS Laemmle’s One Colorado Cinemas, 42 Miller Alley
Julie Andrews is God’s gift to nanny-dom as Mary Poppins in this classic musical comedy/fantasy. When Poppins comes to work for the Banks family in their turn-of-the-20th-century London household, she uplifts everyone’s spirits and brings magic to their lives. Dick Van Dyke is Bert, the good-natured chimney sweep and the great Jane Darwell, in her last screen appearance, plays the bird lady. Winner of five Academy Awards, including Andrews for Best Actress and Richard M. & Robert B. Sherman for Best Original Song and Best Original Music Score.
7:00 PM – EMERGING FILMMAKERS Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.
8:30 PM – CLASSIC HEPBURN: SABRINA One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
Chauffeur's daughter Audrey Hepburn blooms from ugly duckling to fashion queen as she tries to choose between wealthy, middle-aged Humphrey Bogart (at his sexy, smokey best) and cocky lover-boy William Holden (a Wilder favorite). Billy Wilder's classic romantic triangle.
10:00 PM – MENTAL HYGIENE SHORT FILMS Mercantile Alley (right behind Coffee Bean at 18 S. Fair Oaks)
Presented by Archivist and Historian Rick Prelinger.
For the quarter-century following World War II, a special kind of classroom film received wide circulation. These "mental hygiene" films thrived in a confused and nervous America. The rebellious behavior of young people challenging the social norms struck fear into the hearts of parents and educators, who saw dark futures for teens who broke the rules and refused to fit in with society. These concerned adults embraced the metal hygiene film as a new means of delivering social guidance. The creators of the films took their cues from the wildly successful training and propaganda films of the World War II era. They used the same shock and scare techniques to warn teenagers about substance abuse, venereal disease, juvenile delinquency and the awful fate of kids who drive too fast on prom night.
Friday, July 25
7:00 PM – EMERGING FILMMAKERS Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.
8:30 PM – CLASSIC HEPBURN: ROMAN HOLIDAY One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
A real-life princess (Audrey Hepburn), weary of her sheltered existence, takes off on her own to see the sights of Rome, only to encounter romance in the form of suave Gregory Peck. But unbeknownst to Hepburn, Peck is really a reporter out for a story, and this inevitably complicates things as the two grow more intimate. This sweet-natured romantic comedy won three Oscars, including Best Actress for Hepburn.
10:45 PM – CLASSIC FOREIGN FILM: SEVEN SAMURAI One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
Director Akira Kurosawa's most famous film is certainly one of the finest movies ever made - a huge, sprawling but intimate, character-driven period epic about an aging swordsman (the great Takashi Shimura) who enlists six other warriors-for-hire (amongst them, Toshiro Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Isao Kimura, Daisuke Kato, Seiji Miyaguchi, Yoshio Inaba) to safeguard a remote village plagued by bandits.
Saturday, July 26
7:00 PM – EMERGING FILMMAKERS Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.
8:30 PM – GREASE with guest to be announced, 22 Mills Place
Pompadoured tough-guy John Travolta learns the meaning of true love, 1950's style, from summertime sweetheart Olivia Newton-John, with help from a fantastic supporting cast including Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, Eve Arden and Frankie Avalon. A soundtrack of wall-to-wall hits ("You're The One That I Want," "Hopelessly Devoted To You," "Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee") in director Randal Kleiser's irresistible teen-dream of a movie musical.
8:30 PM till Dawn – LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY, One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Middle Earth
J.R.R. Tolkien's literary masterpiece The Lord of the Rings has influenced generations of readers worldwide and continues to captivate new fans around the globe. Director Peter Jackson and a brilliantly talented cast and crew have brought to cinematic life the epic adventure of good against evil. The future of civilization rests in the fate of the One Ring, which has been lost for centuries. Powerful forces are unrelenting in their search for it. Fate has placed it in the hands of a young Hobbit named Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), who inherits the Ring - and undertakes a heroic quest revealing how, through courage, commitment, and determination, even the smallest of us can change the world.
Screening concludes with sunrise Hobbit breakfast.
About American Cinematheque
Established in 1981, the American Cinematheque is a 501 C 3 non-profit viewer-supported film exhibition and cultural organization dedicated to the celebration of the Moving Picture in all of its forms. At the Egyptian Theatre, the Cinematheque presents daily film and video programming which ranges from the classics of American and international cinema to new independent films and digital work. Exhibition of rare works, special and rare prints, etc., combined with fascinating post-screening discussions with the filmmakers who created the work, are a Cinematheque tradition that keep audiences coming back for once-in-a-lifetime cinema experiences. The American Cinematheque renovated and reopened (on Dec. 4, 1998) the historic 1922 Hollywood Egyptian Theatre. This includes a state-of-the-art 616-seat theatre housed within Sid Grauman's first grand movie palace on Hollywood Boulevard. The exotic courtyard is fully restored to its 1922 grandeur. The Egyptian was the home of the very first Hollywood movie premiere in 1922. In January 2005 the American Cinematheque expanded its programming to the 1940 Aero Theatre on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. For more information: www.americancinematheque.com
For further information about the OId Pasadena Film Festival, the public is asked to please call (626) 356-9725 or visit www.oldpasadenafilmfestival.com
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Kershona Mayo Mgr. Marketing & Events
OLD PASADENA MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
65 N. Raymond Ave., Ste. 260 Pasadena CA 91103
Tel 626.356.9725 x14 Fax
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