In an effort to highlight West Los Angeles College’s expansion of its cinema class offerings,
the Cinema Media Entertainment Arts Dept. will host a 3-day Cinema Festival, Wednesday through Friday, from 10 to 4:30 each day, in the 400-seat Fine Arts Theatre on campus.
The campus is located at Overland Avenue and Freshman Drive, just south of Jefferson Boulevard. The Festival is free and open to the public.
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Mel Horowitz, left and Ross Hawkins
On hand for the opening of the festival will be Dr. Mark Rocha, President of West,
John Edward Jordan, Chair of the Communications Entertainment Media Arts Division
at West, this reporter as President of the Backlot Film Festival and Melvin Horowitz, Director
of Development for the Backlot Film Festival.
I will introduce a 5-minute video featuring highlights from the last three Backlot
Film Festivals. West L.A. College hosted the first Festival in December of ‘04
Opening the festival will be a screening of the pilot for “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,” followed by
a Q & A session with Executive Producer/screenwriter Evan Charnov.
Afternoon screenings will include “Muse of Fire,” an award-winning documentary produced and directed by Lawrence Bridges, and funded by the National Endowment For The Arts; the film
features memoirs from U.S. troops and their families, and it includes readings by Kevin Costner,
Edward Parker Gyokeres and writer Jack Lewis.
At 2 o’clock, MGM’s classic “Cabin In The Sky” will be shown. “Cabin” was one of the first big budget,
all-black cast musicals to be made by Hollywood. Filmed at MGM in Culver City, it marked the
directorial debut of Vincente Minnelli, who went on to direct classic MGM films such as
“Meet Me In St. Louis,” “An American In Paris” and “Gigi.” The film stars Lena Horne, Ethel Waters,
Louis Armstrong, Eddie Anderson and Duke Ellington. The film will be introduced by Steve Saltzman,
the grandson of “Cabin’s” producer songwriter Arthur Freed. Mr. Saltzman is president of Arthur
Freed Productions.
Thursday screenings include “Lady Magdalene’s,” starring Nichelle Nichols, written and directed by Neil Shulman, at 10 a.m. Mr. Schulman will be on hand for a Q & A session following the film.
At 12 noon, the feature documentary “Medicinal,” which explores the controversy about
medicinal marijuana and the passage of Prop. 215, which legalized the use of it in California
Producer-director Dan Frank will host a Q & A session after the film.
Producer-director Daniel Selznick will introduce his award-winning documentary “Gone With the Wind, The Making of a Legend," taking us behind the scenes with footage from the making of the 1939
classic with rare footage of Culver City, MGM and RKO Studios and their back lots. Screening
will be at 2.
On Friday at 10, the festival will open with “La Cucina” (The Kitchen), co-winner of Best
Independent Feature Film at Culver City's Backlot Film Festival. Members of cast and crew
will be on hand for Q & A following this delightful comedy drama.
The festival will close on Friday afternoon with a screening of the skateboard-hipster film
“Lords of Dogtown”" produced by Mr. Charnov.
In addition to the feature films, the Cinema Festival will also screen the Laurel and Hardy
1930 classic, “The Music Box,” “Better Never Than Late,” written and directed by Kenn Scott;
“A Real Doozy,” a comedy about a young ad executive whose co-workers remember more
about last night’s office party than he does, directed by John Burish; Shelly Grant’s
romantic comedy “Manejar,” “Pencil Fighting,” directed by Fro Rojas and winner of the Backlot
Film Festival’s Best Short Fiction Film award, and “Dandelion,” winner of the Arthur Freed Award
for Best Student Film at the Backlot Film Festival. Dates and times for short films will be announced later.
For information: contact John Jordan at 310.287.4436, Bryne Fox Owen Deatry, from Academic Affairs,
at 310.2874394 or Ross Hawkins at the Scene Dock/Backlot Film Festival at 310.204.6920
