Mezzanine, 2220 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA (2024)

11/26/2024

Support Mezzanine and LAFM with a donation before Giving Tuesday. If you pledge $250 now to our campaign, you will be guaranteed a festival pass at the 2025 . 👁️🎟️

Read more about our board of directors and ways to support us at lafestivalofmovies.org.

“Mezzanine screenings are a beacon of energy for the Los Angeles moviegoing scene, where FYC, pay-for-play, and exclusive industry preview screenings can appear to suffocate everything else around it. After moving to LA in summer 2022, I started attending Mezzanine screenings and found that they didn’t just look cool on social media. The care behind the curation and audience development work shone through in thoughtful program notes, great Q&As and guests, and a vibrant, engaged audience that would often stick around after screenings. Now with the addition of LAFM as a yearly program, Mezzanine is proof that film culture is very much still alive, and worth supporting.” -Abby Sun

Our board member Abby Sun is ’s Director of Artist Programs and Editor of Documentary magazine. She is currently researching media policy to support independent documentary filmmaking as a Shorenstein Documentary Film Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. Before joining IDA, Abby was the Curator of the DocYard and edited MIT Open Documentary Lab’s Immerse. She has bylines in Film Comment, Filmmaker, Film Quarterly, Notebook, Sight & Sound, and other publications. Abby has served on festival juries for Hot Docs, Dokufest, Palm Springs, New Orleans, and CAAMfest, as well as nominating committees for the Gotham Awards and Cinema Eye. She has reviewed projects for IDFA Forum, BGDM, NEA, SFFILM, LEF Foundation, Princess Grace Foundation, the Boston Foundation, Sundance Catalyst, and spoken on and facilitated panels at Locarno, IFFR, TIFF, NYFF, EFM, and other film festivals.

11/25/2024

Songs Build Little Rooms in Time: Dave Berman Remembered

Co-presented by Mezzanine, Jokermen and Poetic Research Bureau

Saturday, January 4

doors/bar 7:00
event 7:30

A live event with readings and performances by:

David Longstreth
Britta Phillips
Anahid Nersessian
John Tottenham
and others

Followed by a screening of SILVER JEW (2007, 52 min) with a video introduction by Cassie Berman.

On the occasion of his birthday, we are thrilled to present an event commemorating the life and words of David Berman, the frontman and lyricist of Silver Jews, who passed away in 2019. With wry songs and poems filled with black humor and spiritual longing, Berman’s utterly singular artistic sensibility continues to move and inspire a generation. We will be presenting readings from his poetry collection ACTUAL AIR and performances, followed by a screening of Michael Tully’s intimate documentary on the Silver Jews’ first world tour in 2006.

Approx runtime: 90 min.

A portion of the proceeds of this event will be donated to the WTJU David Berman Memorial Fund.

Poster art by Mark Neeley

Special thanks to Brandon Harris, Michael Tully and Cassie Berman.

11/13/2024

As Mezzanine continues to grow, we want to take this opportunity to spotlight our individual Board of Directors. These local luminaries have been working to support our mission of building a renewed film culture in Los Angeles.

First up is Adam Piron (Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma and Mohawk), a Southern California-based filmmaker, writer, and curator. He is the Director of Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program, where he oversees the organization’s support for Indigenous filmmakers globally, and a co-founder of COUSIN (): a film collective dedicated to supporting Indigenous artists experimenting with, and pushing the boundaries, of the moving image. As a film programmer, he has served as a member of the Sundance Film Festival’s Film Programming Team since 2013 and was also previously the Film Curator for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

“Mezzanine and LAFM have been a vital addition to LA’s film programming scene, highlighting bold and daring works that have often been overlooked or ripe for rediscovery. It’s not only created a showcase for these films, but also sustained a community that’s only grown since Mezzanine’s first screening. I’ve been proud to help guide the organization as it’s grown and am looking forward to what possibilities continue to blossom under Micah [Gottlieb] and Sarah [Winshall]’s leadership.” -Adam Piron

Are you interested in supporting Mezzanine and the Los Angeles Festival of Movies?

Donate $250 now, and you will be guaranteed a festival pass at the 2025 . 👁️🎟️

Donate $125 now, and your contribution will sustain us into the coming year. 📽️

Join us! Link in bio.

10/30/2024

CANDY MOUNTAIN 🎸
directed by Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer
1987, Switzerland/Canada/France, 97m, DCP

West Coast premiere of a new restoration, courtesy of Film Movement

Wednesday, November 13

doors/bar 7:30
film 8:00

A collaboration between legendary photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank (CO******ER BLUES) and writer Rudy Wurlitzer (TWO-LANE BLACKTOP) yielded this ineffably laid-back road movie, featuring music and appearances by Joe Strummer, Tom Waits, David Johansen and Dr. John. In some ways a distinctly Beat Generation take on 1980s music industry burnout and its surviving traces of Americana, CANDY MOUNTAIN follows a lone-wolf musician (Kevin J. O’Connor) who is hired to track down a legendary guitar maker, and hitchhikes from New York City to east Canada, while running into a series of outsiders and eccentrics (played by, among others, Bulle Ogier, Laurie Metcalf and Mary Margaret O’Hara). On occasion of Robert Frank’s centennial in 2024, we’re thrilled to present a new restoration of his stirring ode to the open road.

Special thanks to Erin Farrell (Film Movement) and Alec Moeller.

“Robert Frank is, to me, the godfather of so many different things.” -Jim Jarmusch

“A quintessential road movie... Ambling along like a wry, laid-back HEART OF DARKNESS, this likable and touching film makes good use of Frank’s remarkable photographic eye and Wurlitzer’s witty, acerbic, and quasi-mystical handling of myth that has served him well in his novels. The results are a resonant reflection on the music business and a memorable ode to wanderlust—with lots of good music (by Dr. John, Joe Strummer, David Johansen, Tom Waits, and others) on the sound track.” -Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

“In a way, this shaggy-dog hipster road film is Frank’s ultimate work—evoking the end of the road and even the end of Endsville—but he has persevered.” -J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

10/16/2024

CANDY MOUNTAIN 🎸
directed by Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer
1987, Switzerland/Canada/France, 103m, DCP

West Coast premiere of a new restoration, courtesy of Film Movement

A collaboration between legendary photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank (CO******ER BLUES) and writer Rudy Wurlitzer (TWO-LANE BLACKTOP) yielded this ineffably laid-back road movie, featuring music and appearances by Joe Strummer, Tom Waits, David Johansen and Dr. John. In some ways a distinctly Beat Generation take on 1980s music industry burnout and its surviving traces of Americana, CANDY MOUNTAIN follows a lone-wolf musician (Kevin J. O’Connor) who is hired to track down a legendary guitar maker, and hitchhikes from New York City to east Canada, while running into a series of outsiders and eccentrics (played by, among others, Bulle Ogier, Laurie Metcalf and Mary Margaret O’Hara). On occasion of Robert Frank’s centennial in 2024, we’re thrilled to present a new restoration of his stirring ode to the open road.

Special thanks to Erin Farrell (Film Movement) and Alec Moeller.

“Robert Frank is, to me, the godfather of so many different things.” -Jim Jarmusch

“A quintessential road movie... Ambling along like a wry, laid-back HEART OF DARKNESS, this likable and touching film makes good use of Frank’s remarkable photographic eye and Wurlitzer’s witty, acerbic, and quasi-mystical handling of myth that has served him well in his novels. The results are a resonant reflection on the music business and a memorable ode to wanderlust—with lots of good music (by Dr. John, Joe Strummer, David Johansen, Tom Waits, and others) on the sound track.” -Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

“In a way, this shaggy-dog hipster road film is Frank’s ultimate work—evoking the end of the road and even the end of Endsville—but he has persevered.” -J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

10/07/2024

Mezzanine + Dirty Looks present: FRESH KILL (1994) 🐠👩🏾‍💻📀♻️

Los Angeles premiere of a brand-new 35mm print restoration, courtesy of the filmmaker 🎞️

With director Shu Lea Cheang in person for a Q&A

Sunday, October 13
8pm

FRESH KILL
directed by Shu Lea Cheang
1994, U.S./UK, 80m, 35mm

Among the most inventive debut films of the 1990s, Shu Lea Cheang’s one-of-a-kind q***r cyberpunk eco-thriller is a hilarious and bracing blend of s*x and capitalist critique – as much an evergreen state-of-the-union address as BORN IN FLAMES was for the ‘80s. Claire (Erin McMurtry) and Shareen (Sarita Choudhury), a young le***an couple living in Staten Island, discover that their daughter has been fed sushi contaminated by the local landfill, leading them to uncover (and fight against) a global corporate conspiracy. A noted influence on ‘90s hacker subcultures, FRESH KILL’s rapid-fire vision of multiculturalism, greenwashing and incessant consumerism – intercut with garish television ads reflecting the era’s ever-commodified media landscape – makes it a truly prophetic work of New Q***r Cinema that deserves reappraisal. We are thrilled to host this screening of a new 35mm print of the film as part of its U.S. roadshow tour!

Official Selection: Toronto International Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, 1994. Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2024.

“Part formalist satire, part melodrama, part neon-colored capitalist critique…[A] one-of-a-kind Marxist feminist camp eco-horror.” -Dana Reinoos, Screen Slate

“Rather than try to rationalize capitalism and imperialism, FRESH KILL meets its absurdity with glitches, formal and conceptual interruptions in the film and by extension the world as we know it. Cheang’s film is here to hack the communication system and tell you what it means to live.” -Ayanna Dozier, The Brooklyn Rail

Special thanks to Jheanelle Brown (REDCAT).

09/29/2024

MERMAID LEGEND 🌊 (Ningyo densetsu)
directed by Toshiharu Ikeda
1984, Japan, 110m, DCP

West Coast premiere of a new restoration courtesy of Error 4444

Tuesday, October 8

doors: 7:30
film: 8:00

An underground gem from 1980s Japanese cinema, Toshiharu Ikeda’s environmental revenge-thriller is a lyrical and mesmerizing descent into horror, building to a furious climax that must be seen to be believed. In a small seaside village, fisherman Keisuke and his wife Migiwa (Mari Shirato) work on a fishing boat together, where they witness a murder arranged by the head of an industrial development corporation. Migiwa’s life is thrust into chaos after Keisuke is subsequently killed and she gradually transforms from a grieving widow to a relentless assailant on a quest for vengeance, both for the death of her husband and the exploitation of nature.

Adapted from Kazuhiko Miyaya’s manga, MERMAID LEGEND was produced by the Directors Company, a production house acclaimed for its avant-garde approach and investment in young and emerging filmmakers, including Shinji Sōmai and Kiyoshi Kurosawa. The recent discovery of long-lost negatives of many of their releases has allowed for the reappraisal of a whole new era of Japanese cinema; with this new restoration, MERMAID LEGEND’s forceful blend of myth and exploitation cinema is poised to be rediscovered. Please note: this film contains a sequence of s*xual assault which may upset some viewers.

In Japanese with English subtitles. Special thanks to Alexander Fee (Japan Society).

“Incurring a siren’s sanguinary wrath—one which can only be described as a sheer force of nature—the elegiac MERMAID LEGEND is a brooding requiem for loss, a cautionary parable for man’s true acquiescence to the natural world.” -Japan Society

“A masterful, transcendental work that utilizes sumptuous underwater photography and a delicate score from Toshiyuki Honda to great effect.” - James Balmont, Dazed

09/19/2024

Mezzanine + Dirty Looks present: FRESH KILL (1994)

35mm roadshow presentation — Los Angeles premiere of a brand-new restored print courtesy of the filmmaker

With director Shu Lea Cheang in person for a Q&A

Sunday, October 13
8pm

FRESH KILL
directed by Shu Lea Cheang
1994, U.S./UK, 80m, 35mm

Among the most inventive debut films of the 1990s, Shu Lea Cheang’s one-of-a-kind q***r cyberpunk eco-thriller is a hilarious and bracing blend of s*x and capitalist critique – as much an evergreen state-of-the-union address as BORN IN FLAMES was for the ‘80s. Claire (Erin McMurtry) and Shareen (Sarita Choudhury), a young le***an couple living in Staten Island, discover that their daughter has been fed sushi contaminated by the local landfill, leading them to uncover (and fight against) a global corporate conspiracy. A noted influence on ‘90s hacker subcultures, FRESH KILL’s rapid-fire vision of multiculturalism, greenwashing and incessant consumerism – intercut with garish television ads reflecting the era’s ever-commodified media landscape – makes it a truly prophetic work of New Q***r Cinema that deserves reappraisal. We are thrilled to host this screening of a new 35mm print of the film as part of its U.S. roadshow tour!

Official Selection: Toronto International Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, 1994. Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2024.

“Part formalist satire, part melodrama, part neon-colored capitalist critique…[A] one-of-a-kind Marxist feminist camp eco-horror.” -Dana Reinoos, Screen Slate

“Rather than try to rationalize capitalism and imperialism, FRESH KILL meets its absurdity with glitches, formal and conceptual interruptions in the film and by extension the world as we know it. Cheang’s film is here to hack the communication system and tell you what it means to live.” -Ayanna Dozier, The Brooklyn Rail

Special thanks to Jheanelle Brown (REDCAT).

09/12/2024

MERMAID LEGEND (Ningyo densetsu)
directed by Toshiharu Ikeda
1984, Japan, 110m, DCP

West Coast premiere of a new restoration courtesy of Error 4444

Tuesday, October 8

doors: 7:30
film: 8:00

An underground gem from 1980s Japanese cinema, Toshiharu Ikeda’s environmental revenge-thriller is a lyrical and mesmerizing descent into horror, building to a furious climax that must be seen to be believed. In a small seaside village, fisherman Keisuke and his wife Migiwa (Mari Shirato) work on a fishing boat together, where they witness a murder arranged by the head of an industrial development corporation. Migiwa’s life is thrust into chaos after Keisuke is subsequently killed and she gradually transforms from a grieving widow to a relentless assailant on a quest for vengeance, both for the death of her husband and the exploitation of nature.

Adapted from Kazuhiko Miyaya’s manga, MERMAID LEGEND was produced by the Directors Company, a production house acclaimed for its avant-garde approach and investment in young and emerging filmmakers, including Shinji Sōmai and Kiyoshi Kurosawa. The recent discovery of long-lost negatives of many of their releases has allowed for the reappraisal of a whole new era of Japanese cinema; with this new restoration, MERMAID LEGEND’s forceful blend of myth and exploitation cinema is poised to be rediscovered. Please note: this film contains a sequence of s*xual assault which may upset some viewers.

In Japanese with English subtitles. Special thanks to Alexander Fee (Japan Society).

“Incurring a siren’s sanguinary wrath—one which can only be described as a sheer force of nature—the elegiac MERMAID LEGEND is a brooding requiem for loss, a cautionary parable for man’s true acquiescence to the natural world.” -Japan Society

“A masterful, transcendental work that utilizes sumptuous underwater photography and a delicate score from Toshiyuki Honda to great effect.” - James Balmont, Dazed

09/11/2024

Coming next week: the artist and filmmaker Andrew Norman Wilson joins us in-person to present a live performance exploring the precarity of success in the contemporary art world.

Tickets now on sale at mezzaninefilm.com.

It’s Not What The World Needs Right Now: a live essay by Andrew Norman Wilson

With in person

Thursday, Sept 19

doors/bar: 7:30
event: 8:00

In the twenty-tens, Andrew Norman Wilson had seen his art go viral a few times, and landed four biennials—the start of a promising career. In “It’s Not What the World Needs Right Now,” his recent essay for issue 73 of , Wilson asks what precisely that looks like in an industry that pays in clout and almost never in cash.

For one night only, join Wilson for a live video essay presentation of “It’s Not What the World Needs Right Now,” featuring new images, videos, and passages that paint a stark portrait, replete with a rib removal and an episode of penguin-induced dissociation, of his departure from a contemporary art world whose works serve no one but yacht owners and curatorial bureaucrats with terminal degrees.

Approx runtime: 75m.

Andrew Norman Wilson is an artist and director based between Europe and America. Festival screenings include Sundance, the New York Film Festival, and Rotterdam. His work is in collections such as the Museum of Modern Art New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Getty Museum, and The Centre Pompidou. He is currently in pre-production on a commercial film titled Interlaken, a romantic thriller set in the Swiss Alps. He is also authoring a memoir based on his article “It’s Not What the World Needs Right Now” for the Baffler. The book will chronicle his career in the art world, beginning with his transition into it from documentary and activism and culminating with his escape into the film industry.

08/27/2024

Coming in September!

RHYTHM THIEF
directed by Matthew Harrison
1994, U.S., 88m, DCP

World premiere of a new 4K restoration, courtesy of Kino Lorber

Followed by a conversation with director Matthew Harrison. 30th anniversary!

Matthew Harrison’s gritty and electrifying NYC street drama—made for $11,000 at the height of the ‘90s American indie boom—is a time capsule of hard-knock city living in a pre-gentrification Lower East Side, shot in hypnotic high-contrast black-and-white. A cassette-tape bootlegger (Jason Andrews) is down and out on Delancey Street, barely scraping out a living while seeing his on-and-off girlfriend (Kimberly Flynn) and fending off his wannabe-sidekick (Kevin Corrigan), eventually incurring the wrath of a group he’s ripped off (led by Bush Tetras singer Cynthia Sley). Upon its 1994 release, RHYTHM THIEF was praised by Scorsese and walked away with a directing prize at Sundance, yet has remained among what Richard Brody describes among a “lost generation of independent films” from the 1990s. We are thrilled to present a new restoration of this ‘90s indie classic ripe for rediscovery.

Winner: Special Jury Mention for Directing, Sundance Film Festival, 1994

“Inventive, exciting, original.” -Martin Scorsese

“In its best moments this crude black-and-white film has the edgy, loose-jointed spontaneity of a hip-hop, avant-funk BREATHLESS, but one with a grimier neo-realist view of urban life.” -The New York Times

“[I] immediately admired Harrison’s tender but subtle comic inventiveness, his sense of place, and his hard-nosed practical vitality—the authentic tough-mindedness and feel for the desperately high stakes of just getting by.” -Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Special thanks to George Schmalz (Kino Lorber).

Poster by

08/24/2024

It’s Not What The World Needs Right Now: a live essay by Andrew Norman Wilson

With in person

Thursday, Sept 19

doors/bar: 7:30
event: 8:00

In the twenty-tens, Andrew Norman Wilson had seen his art go viral a few times, and landed four biennials—the start of a promising career. In “It’s Not What the World Needs Right Now,” his recent essay for issue 73 of , Wilson asks what precisely that looks like in an industry that pays in clout and almost never in cash.

For one night only, join Wilson for a live video essay presentation of “It’s Not What the World Needs Right Now,” featuring new images, videos, and passages that paint a stark portrait, replete with a rib removal and an episode of penguin-induced dissociation, of his departure from a contemporary art world whose works serve no one but yacht owners and curatorial bureaucrats with terminal degrees.

Approx runtime: 75m.

Andrew Norman Wilson is an artist and director based between Europe and America. Festival screenings include Sundance, the New York Film Festival, and Rotterdam. His work is in collections such as the Museum of Modern Art New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Getty Museum, and The Centre Pompidou. He is currently in pre-production on a commercial film titled Interlaken, a romantic thriller set in the Swiss Alps. He is also authoring a memoir based on his article “It’s Not What the World Needs Right Now” for the Baffler. The book will chronicle his career in the art world, beginning with his transition into it from documentary and activism and culminating with his escape into the film industry.

08/19/2024

NO FEAR, NO DIE (S’en fout la mort)
directed by Claire Denis
1990, France/Germany, 90m, DCP

West Coast premiere of a new 4K restoration, courtesy of

Tuesday, September 10

doors: 7:30
film: 8:00

Long unavailable in the U.S., the third feature from master French director Claire Denis (BEAU TRAVAIL) can now be widely recognized as a masterpiece: a visceral noir that intimately explores the effects of colonialism, belonging, and violence in the lives of two black immigrants from Benin and Martinique. Dah (Isaach de Bankolé) arrives in a Paris suburb with his business partner Jocelyn (Alex Descas), where they begin working for an illegal cockfighting enterprise run by shady entrepreneur Pierre (Jean-Claude Brialy) and his provocative restaurateur wife (Solveig Dommartin of Wings of Desire). As tensions rise, Dah witnesses the slow unraveling of Jocelyn’s psychological state, as he strives to maintain personal and professional focus. Hardboiled and tactile (shot expertly by Agnès Godard on a handheld 35mm camera) and inspired by the postcolonial writings of Frantz Fanon, NO FEAR, NO DIE submerges us in a tragic dance toward oblivion.

“[Denis’s] first masterwork… In NO FEAR NO DIE, [her] copious and nuanced observations, her aesthetic sensibility, and her analytical world view are unified. She films as if she is a part of the world she films, as do the best modern documentarians; her fiction, here, conveys a sense of immediate experience, a feeling of freedom.” -Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“Denis could be the strongest French filmmaker of the post-New Wave generation. She is certainly the greatest risk-taker — unafraid to eroticize her male actors, unleash outré violence, or subsume an elusive narrative in a fiercely lyrical force field. NO FEAR, NO DIE, made nearly a decade before BEAU TRAVAIL, does all three.” -J. Hoberman, The New York Times

Special thanks to Jake Perlin (The Film Desk).

08/02/2024

NO FEAR, NO DIE (S’en fout la mort)
directed by Claire Denis
1990, France/Germany, 90m, DCP

West Coast premiere of a new 4K restoration, courtesy of

Tuesday, September 10

doors: 7:30
film: 8:00

Long unavailable in the U.S., the third feature from master French director Claire Denis (Beau travail) can now be widely recognized as a masterpiece: a visceral noir that intimately explores the effects of colonialism, belonging, and violence in the lives of two black immigrants from Benin and Martinique. Dah (Isaach de Bankolé) arrives in a Paris suburb with his business partner Jocelyn (Alex Descas), where they begin working for an illegal cockfighting enterprise run by shady entrepreneur Pierre (Jean-Claude Brialy) and his provocative restaurateur wife (Solveig Dommartin of Wings of Desire). As tensions rise, Dah witnesses the slow unraveling of Jocelyn’s psychological state, as he strives to maintain personal and professional focus. Hardboiled and tactile (shot expertly by Agnès Godard on a handheld 35mm camera) and inspired by the postcolonial writings of Frantz Fanon, No Fear, No Die submerges us in a tragic dance toward oblivion.

“[Denis’s] first masterwork… In NO FEAR NO DIE, [her] copious and nuanced observations, her aesthetic sensibility, and her analytical world view are unified. She films as if she is a part of the world she films, as do the best modern documentarians; her fiction, here, conveys a sense of immediate experience, a feeling of freedom.” -Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“Denis could be the strongest French filmmaker of the post-New Wave generation. She is certainly the greatest risk-taker — unafraid to eroticize her male actors, unleash outré violence, or subsume an elusive narrative in a fiercely lyrical force field. “No Fear, No Die,” made nearly a decade before “Beau Travail,” does all three.” -J. Hoberman, The New York Times

Special thanks to Jake Perlin (The Film Desk).

08/01/2024

Jokermen presents: THE T.A.M.I. SHOW (1964) in 16mm

60th anniversary screening from a rare 16mm print, followed by a conversation with Evan Laffer and Ian Grant of

THE T.A.M.I. SHOW
directed by Steve Binder
1964, U.S., 112m, 16mm

One of the first and greatest rock concert films ever made, the Teen Age Music International (T.A.M.I.) Show took place over two nights in 1964 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, where many of the greatest performers of the era took the stage in front of 3,000 screaming fans (largely students from nearby Santa Monica High School). Featuring a relentless array of talents – including Lesley Gore, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, a bevy of go-go-dancers, and a famously show-stopping performance from James Brown and the Famous Flames – and recorded months after the Civil Rights Act was signed, the event symbolized a meeting point between rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm-and-blues, black and white performers, and the broader US and UK musical countercultures. The film was also significant for its pioneering “Electronovision” recording technology, a high-resolution video capture that was transferred to film and enlarged to the big screen. Most of all, it is simply a divine recording of a moment when rock n’ roll seemed poised to conquer the world.

“The first full-scale rockumentary, and it’s still a model of the genre.” -Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“Its unsurpassed exuberance, not just onstage but also off it, assures that it will remain forever young…Part Pentecostal preacher, part s*x machine, [James] Brown initiated every one of the adolescents at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, regardless of race or gender, into adulthood. ” -Melissa Anderson, Artforum

Special thanks to Adam Sekuler, Jorge Ravelo (Los Angeles Filmforum) and Dan Sullivan (Film at Lincoln Center).

Tickets now on sale at mezzaninefilm.com.

07/23/2024

“One of the great unseen films of contemporary immigrant life.” -MoMA

FAR FROM HOME (Dar Ghorbat)
directed by Sohrab Shahid Saless
1975, Iran/Germany, 93m, DCP

West Coast premiere of a new 4K restoration, courtesy of Shahid Saless Archive and Provobis Film

Thursday, August 8

doors: 7:30
film: 8:00

One of the most celebrated figures in Iranian cinema, the films of Sohrab Shahid Saless have been largely unseen for decades in the U.S. We are thrilled to present a new restoration of his 1975 masterwork, made after Saless emigrated from Iran to West Germany, where he continued to work for several decades. An exploration of alienation and perseverance in the life of a Turkish immigrant in ‘70s West Berlin, FAR FROM HOME follows Husseyin (played by actor and director Parviz Sayyad), a factory worker who lives in a communal apartment with other immigrants, and submits to a monotonous routine in order to assimilate himself into German society. Despite resistance from his peers and anxieties about his distant family, Saless chronicles Husseyin’s attempts to maintain his dignity. With its patient, structural style, full of Sisyphean repetition and unexpected moments of levity, FAR FROM HOME remains as striking today as it was upon its first release, both for its political themes and distinctive cinematic voice. 
In Turkish and German with English subtitles. An Arbelos Films release ().

Official Selection: Il Cinema Ritrovato, To Save and Project (MoMA)

“Demanding our attention and patience, Shahid Saless offers in return a peaceful and powerful contemplation on the pace of life in conditions of migration and exile.” -Lucy Sternbach, Screen Slate

“A masterwork of restraint, repetition and patience, the film is at once a chronicle of the quotidian and a deeply observed, resonant portrait of the immigrant experience.” -Arbelos Films

Special thanks to David Marriott and Ei Toshinari (Arbelos Films).

Tickets now available at mezzaninefilm.com.

07/18/2024

GHOST HUNTING
directed by Raed Andoni
2017, Palestine/France/Switzerland/Qatar, 94m, DCP

A Gaza aid benefit, presented with Failed Architecture . Followed by a recorded conversation with Andoni and Nasreen Abd Elal.

All proceeds from this screening will benefit relief and evacuation efforts in Gaza.

Tuesday, August 13

doors: 7:30
film: 8:00

Winner of the top documentary film prize at the Berlinale, Raed Andoni’s film is a stunning account of a radical and transformative experiment, wherein the filmmaker worked directly with former Palestinian prisoners to reconstruct their experiences in a theatrical setting. In 2017, the filmmaker placed an advertisement in Ramallah looking for former inmates of the al-Moskobiya interrogation center in Jerusalem, with an emphasis on those who have experience in construction, architecture and acting. After the casting process, he asks the men to build a replica of the cells and rooms to scale, and then to rehearse and re-enact their interrogations. As these men come face to face with their long-repressed traumas, the experience allows them to heal as part of a group, and turn their collective suffering into strength. 
“[The film’s] ultimate point does not lie in merely reenacting the trauma, but rather in the nuances—the surplus of contradictory feelings, the dark humor, the contextualizing, the bodily language, and finally the words. All these make the film’s final impact far more complex than one would assume.” -Ela Bittencourt, Reverse Shot 
Official Selection: Berlinale 2017 (Winner: Best Original Documentary)

Failed Architecture is a platform for architecture and spatial criticism. By opening up new perspectives on the built environment, its editors aim to reconnect architecture with the real world. For more information, please visit failedarchitecture.com.

This screening is part of Besieged: Home, Land, Time, Water, a Failed Architecture series about the spatial politics of settler colonialism in Palestine. The series runs July through August on failedarchitecture.com/besieged.

Special thanks to Sasha Plotnikova.

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