Results tagged “sundance”

Here are our to-do picks for a post-Fourth Monday in LA: DIY DRUMMING* Tonight the On Ensemble, a contemporary taiko quartet, brings D.I.Y. Drumming to the Ford Amphitheater at 7 pm. Bring your drums, percussion instruments or even paint buckets to play along as the Ensemble coaxes Japanese taiko rhythms out of everyday household items. The J.A.M. session is free, so reserve your spot by calling the Ford Box Office: 323.461.3673. Don’t forget to bring a picnic for dinner.

For the most part, eco-documentaries follow a pretty narrow pattern; either they’re well funded and a little boring or guerrilla style and probably a bit nauseating, but either way you’re supposed to be so outraged you get out of your seat and punch the richest asshole you can find. That’s the gist. But there’s often a disconnect between the images of the film and the actions of the audience because, ecologically, problems tend to be so big any given person feels powerless.

The city is experiencing a golden age of naughty puppet films. Hot on the trail of Black Devil Doll is Let My Puppets Come, a fuzzy-felt skeleton pulled from the closet of the late Gerard Damiano (Deep Throat, The Devil In Miss Jones) for The Not-So-Silent Theatre's "Mondo Sexo" this Saturday. If the thought of puppets feels a bit too soft, the very fleshy, very foxy Louise Brooks (Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl) appears alongside curmudgeonly comedian W.C. Fields (The Bank Dick, You Can't Cheat An Honest Man) next Wednesday at the same locale. And while you're in the neighborhood, swing by the New Beverly for a brand-spankin' new print of The Day The Earth Stood Still (the one with the robot, not Keanu; wait, that doesn't narrow it down!). Given the Bev's massive trailer collection, their accompanying "Sci-Fi and More Trailer Show" should be great fun too. You'll be frozen with terror by this 1950's extravaganz-o-rama, in earth-shattering black & white!

First Isabella did the sex life of insects, now she's back online at Sundance with her second "Green Porno" series, this time focusing on sea creatures. These are hilarious and educational - and what a good sport she is.

The Sundance Film Festival starts today which not only means cool movies being screened and attended by celebrities in their hippest Dumb & Dumber apres-skiwear but it means a lot more content for the Sundance Channel for the year. There will be live blogging of the festival's events at the Sundance Channel's (really cool!) website and head on over to iTunes to pick up a free short film from Sundance every day from now to January 25th.

RIght NOW on CNN (11a PST), you can check out a condensed version of the hit documentary I.O.U.S.A., about the growing national debt crisis that we all face. In these tough economic times, one way to stay on top is to stay informed, and I.O.U.S.A. is a great way to do just that.

Dear CW fans, apparently none of you are watching the network on Sundays so management is yanking all of it's original content from that night ("In Harm's Way", "Valentine", "Easy Money", etc. - you know, the shows you've never heard of) and replacing them with repeats of "Jericho" and "The Drew Carey Show" which will somehow result in higher ratings(?) because as we all know, we don't get enough rerun content today, especially of shows that ended years ago.

When it was found that the CEO of Cinemark Theatres donated $9,999 to support Prop 8, talks of boycotting Sundance came up because the only movie theatre used in Park City, Utah is one owned by the company. But Sundance isn't budging and many opponents of Prop 8 agree. "As a nonprofit organization devoted to supporting artists, we very much appreciate and are sensitive to the larger issue at hand and respect the rights of individuals to express themselves," Sundance said in a statement via Variety. "It is our hope that people will embrace the festival for its commitment to diversity, not avoid it."

The CEO of Cinemark, the company that operates 2700 screens internationally including the only movie theatre used at the Sundance Festival in Park City, Utah, has reportedly donated a large sum of money to support Prop 8, the ballot initiative that eliminated gay marriage in California. Alan Stock donated $9,999 in late October to proponents of the measure.

The rumor of our favorite serial killer series, "Dexter", getting picked up for more seasons turns out to be true. Showtime bought two more seasons of the Peabody Award winning show (take that Colber(t)). Shooting of season four begins in the spring of '09 in Los Angeles. [Hey Showtime, where's the love? You sent me no screeners this season.]

Gob from "Arrested Development", aka Will Arnett, has struck a deal with Fox to create his own show. His absence from the small screen will finally come to an end and here's to hoping that the show won't turn into some kind of generic garbage. Hubby Amy Poehler is also slated to get her own show on NBC sometime after their first child is born. I dunno, both parents are actors with starring roles on shows on different networks, that's a tall order to fill - wish them luck.

As the SAG/AFTRA/AMPTP drama continues, advertisers are still ponying up the big bucks for TV advertising: $9.2 billion in pre-booked ads for the 2008-2009 season. This broad sale of advertising combined with targeted ad sales technology now offered by Canoe Ventures (you got a dog? say "hello" to even more Purina commercials) makes it seem like things are hunky-dory in TV land but they might not be. Some folks are perceiving these as just defensive measures: the networks had to sell much more inventory than usual to achieve that $9.2 billion mark and Canoe's technology is seen as a way to staunch the flow of ad dollars going to the Web.

It's Earth Day on (some of) TV. Below are some marked programming that is Earth Day-related and of course there's plenty online, including web "TV" properties like Joost who have launched an Earth Day Channel.

In Orange County, CA, a nearly empty theater Sunday night became a crime scene when two men watching the Sundance raved-about gruesome horror movie, The Signal, got stabbed by another man who fled through the back doors.

Hollywood's latest exercise in Justin Chang providing some choice barbs.

George A. Romero pioneered the zombie genre when he wrote and directed the seminal . I had a chance to interview him this week.

The Super Bowl isn't just the center of the universe for the sports business, but also for anybody working at E! or People. Even TMZ had a giant mobile billboard just outside the stadium in Glendale -- probably reminding party-goers to send them any interesting photos.

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist.

For me, the Sundance Film Festival officially ended at the airport in Salt Lake City when I was waiting in line behind Bijou Phillips at the Quizno's in Terminal 1. She was politely arguing with the counter guy about why she couldn't get fresh mustard from behind the counter instead of having to use the the mustard packets by the napkin stand. In a heavy accent, he kept saying that all they had was "runny mustard" and she kept asking, "What is runny mustard?" before finally realizing he was saying "honey mustard" and asking him to give her some. Somehow, that moment perfectly captured the surreality of Sundance.

We just received an unbelievable e-mail from friend-of-LAist and local indie troubadour Matthew Moon and wanted to share. Some amazing and surprising things really do happen at Sundance. Read on:

Two days ago I was performing at a Sundance Film Festival event in Salt Lake City, UT. After my performance at Rose Wagner Theater, I began driving the 25 minutes it takes to get back up to Park City.

Continue reading "Dear LAist, I Unexpectedly Rocked Out at Sundance with Velvet Revolver"

As one of my favorite bloggers Jeffrey Wells recently wrote, "The Sundance Film Festival is a 10-day event, but it's always over as of Wednesday morning...the voltage turns down, there are fewer people on Main Street, all the presumably hot titles (i.e., name casts, advance-hyped) have been screened." Park City actually becomes a manageable town again and tickets that were impossible to get a few days ago can usually be had for less than face value. With that in mind, I decided to blow off the morning's press screenings and head out with a group of friends to see a film I'd been closed out of earlier, .

While the features and shorts at Sundance are occasionally hit or miss, the documentaries are always strong across the board. Yesterday, I was able to see two that I have had my eye on since the festival schedule was originally released: by Morgan Spurlock. Considering all the frantic back-and-forths I've been doing since last Friday, it was a blessing that these two awesome documentaries were screening right after each other at the same theater.

Even on the best days, the Sundance Film Festival is an extremely hectic place to be. Screenings and events often overlap and are spread all over town, and even though the public transportation is good (and free!), it can still be a nightmare to get someplace quickly. Cabs can be hard to come by and parking (when available) is expensive. Furthermore, there are always going to be lines waiting for you so you have to plan to get everywhere fairly early. Sometimes, you get bit in the ass like I did (twice) yesterday.

LAist caught up with Ben Lyons from E! to tell us what Park City is really like during the Sundance Film Festival. From Charlize Theron to Diddy, Ben's time at the festival is jam packed with screenings, interviews, and parties. We asked him to fill us in on his favorite films, his obsession with "Beverly Hills 90210", and going bobsledding with Ivan Radcliff.

In 1992, Quentin Tarantino made a huge splash at the Sundance Film Festival with his directorial debut, . He didn't return to Park City until this year to serve as a member of the Festival's Jury. Last night, he was honored with the Ray-Ban Visionary Award and LAist was there. Following a short introduction by Dennis Hopper, Quentin took the stage and riffed about his first Sundance experience for about twenty minutes. Following that, The Bravery took the stage for a short concert. Videos and photos of all of it are after the jump.

There are usually only two things to talk about at the Sundance Film Festival: the movies and the parties. Last night was unique, though, because everybody was talking about...the blackout! That's right. Around 9:30 last night the whole town just went completely dark for at least half on hour. Periodic blackouts continued for the next hour or so before everything finally returned to normal. It was a surreal scene. Thousands of people were just standing out in the cold on Main Street in utter darkness.

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Starting tomorrow and continuing through next week, LAist will be reporting live from the Sundance Film Festival. We'll be covering the films, the parties, the people and the various surreal and pointless events that comprise the most important film festival in the country. With the WGA strike still in full bloom, most are expecting a buying frenzy up in Park City as distributors stock up on films just in case the strike continues to paralyze the industry. It should be a fun week of long days and even longer nights.

When is the cultural myth of vagina dentata. Jess Weixler plays Dawn, a young Christian girl who is struggling with her budding sexuality and the aggressive attentions of the men around her. She soon discovers that she possesses the ultimate weapon against over-familiarity.

I hope you've got a bunch of stuff Tivo'd because there's nothing on until Sunday. You tell me that there is stuff on tonight? What, you mean Friday Night Lights, NUMB3RS, or Las Vegas? Please. Tomorrow, there's no reason to turn on prime time TV unless it's for Citizen Kane on TCM at 8:30. The Big Story is Sunday, check it: Sunday 8:00pm Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project HBO - Special. Don Rickles is...