Industry Town: The Avant-Garde and Hollywood

  • The Death of the Gorilla (1966) by Peter Mays
  • Based on Romance (1979) by Bruce & Norman Yonemoto
  • The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1928) by Robert Florey, Slavko Vorkapich, & Gregg Toland
  • Title (1971) by John Baldessari
  • Cue Rolls (1974) by Morgan Fisher
  • Zebra Skin Clutch (1977-78) by Cynthia Maughan
  • The Loves of Franistan (1949) by Jules Schwerin
  • The Death of the Gorilla (1966) by Peter Mays
  • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1975) by Jack Goldstein

    October 16, 2011, 7:30PM
    Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90028

    Los Angeles Filmforum continues our film screening series Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980 on October 16thth with Industry Town: The Avant-Garde and Hollywood. Many experimental works have explicitly played with the dominant film industry (Hollywood and beyond), parodying its forms or structures of manufacture or utilizing images from classic and not-so-classic films as the raw material for new creations.  We’ll start the show with one of the earliest examples of commentary on the Hollywood quest, and perhaps the first made with a expressionist bent in Los Angeles, Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra.  Its importance is such that we have included it despite it coming from before 1945. 

    We continue through the decades with ever evolving approaches to the industry, practice and lifestyle of Hollywood.  Puce Moment (Kenneth Anger, 1949) and Zebra Skin Clutch (Cynthia Maughan, 1977-78) both look at a woman and their relationship to the fabulous styles of starlets, revealing the influence of celebrity and fashion.  In Death of the Gorilla, Peter Mays manipulates footage filmed off late night television to create his own colorful collage of form and wonder. George Lucas’s 6-18-67 starts from the position of a standard movie “making of” short and subverts it into a meditation on landscape and beauty.  By the time we reach the 1970s, the conceptual investigations of art of the time find appropriate parallels. John Baldessari’s Title breaks down some of the essential elements of screen plays, language, and acting. Based on Romance utilizes storytelling traditions of melodrama but locates the scenes in the art world of the time.


    In person: Peter Mays, Bruce Yonemoto, Norman Yonemoto

    Tickets: $10 general, $6 students/seniors with ID, free for Filmforum members. 

    Tickets available at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/203082

    Films to be Screened

    • The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1928) by Robert Florey, Slavko Vorkapich, & Gregg Toland The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1928) by Robert Florey, Slavko Vorkapich, & Gregg Toland

      The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1928, 16mm (orig. 35mm), b/w, silent, 11min.)
      Directed by Gregg Toland, Slavko Vorkapich and Robert Florey

      (print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive)
    • Puce Moment (1949, 16mm, color, sound, 6min.)
      Directed by Kenneth Anger

    • The Loves of Franistan (1949) by Jules Schwerin The Loves of Franistan (1949) by Jules Schwerin

      The Loves of Franistan (1949, 16mm, b/w, sound, 9min.)
      Directed by Jules Schwerin

      (print courtesy of the iotaCenter collection at the Academy Film Archive)
    • The Death of the Gorilla (1966, 16mm, color, sound, 16min.)
      Directed by Peter Mays

      (restored print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive)
    • 6-18-67 (1967, 16mm, color, sound, 5min.)
      Directed by George Lucas

    • Title (1971) by John Baldessari Title (1971) by John Baldessari

      Title (1971, 16mm, b/w & color, sound, 20min.)
      Directed by John Baldessari

    • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1975) by Jack Goldstein Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1975) by Jack Goldstein

      Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1975, 16mm (or video), color, sound, 2min.)
      Directed by Jack Goldstein

    • Cue Rolls (1974) by Morgan Fisher Cue Rolls (1974) by Morgan Fisher

      Cue Rolls (1974, 16mm, colour, sound, 5:30)
      Directed by Morgan Fisher

    • Zebra Skin Clutch (1977-78) by Cynthia Maughan Zebra Skin Clutch (1977-78) by Cynthia Maughan

      Zebra Skin Clutch (1977-78, video, b/w, sound, 2min.)
      Directed by Cynthia Maughan

    • Based on Romance (1979) by Bruce & Norman Yonemoto Based on Romance (1979) by Bruce & Norman Yonemoto

      Based on Romance (1979, video, color, sound, 24min.)
      Directed by Bruce Yonemoto and Norman Yonemoto