Award-winning media artist Jess Irish’s new documentary short film, This Mortal Plastik, unravels the enduring problem of plastics through an unusually artful exploration of this beguiling banality. Described as “a personal dive into the world’s most impersonal substance,” Irish paints a playful and provocative story of its history, science, adoption, and impact which now pervade every facet of modern life. A recent Chain NYC (“Best Director of a Documentary Short”) and Cannes World Film Festival winner (for “Best Environmental Film” – June 2021 Edition), it is scheduled to screen at two festivals this month. Read the rest of this entry »

September 15, 2021 [UPDATED Oct. 1, 2021] – Tirgan, North America’s preeminent hub for Persian arts and culture, is proud to announce the virtual presentation of The Scarlet Stone, a multidisciplinary and collaborative music/dance/animation work that merges expressive modern aesthetics with Persian traditions. Composer/Director Shahrokh Yadegari created this profound cultural experience in conjunction with dancer/choreographer Shahrokh Moshkin Ghalam based on the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi and the last work of Siavash Kasrai, Moher-ye Sorkh (The Scarlet Stone). Read the rest of this entry »

The Montalbán announces the long-awaited return of Rooftop Movies at The Montalbán, its annual summertime series that begins August 27, 2021, offering guests a cinematic experience under the stars—with Coronavirus safety precautions in place—at the historic Hollywood venue. The season kicks off with the 2013 comedy This Is the End on opening night, followed by Bohemian Rhapsody, Birdman, and Pulp Fiction rounding out the opening weekend. Screeningswill continue every weekend—with double features on Fridays and Saturdays—for the foreseeable future. The cinematic experience rolls right into Halloween-themed fun in October during Rooftop Screams!. Read the rest of this entry »

REDCAT presents the Los Angeles premiere of Infinitely Yours by animator, designer and performer Miwa Matreyek for the debut of her latest work. Running for three performances from Thursday, January 16 through Saturday, January 18, 2020, the award-winning interdisciplinary creator brings her nightmarish vision of climate grief to Los Angeles audiences before heading to Park City, Utah for the works’ world premiere during Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier program. Infinitely Yours will then embark on a North American tour throughout June. All music for Infinitely Yours was composed, recorded and performed by Morgan Sorne who will join Matreyek for the REDCAT show as live musical accompaniment.

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Highways Performance Space & Gallery is pleased to present Film Maudit 2.0 from Thursday, November 14, through Sunday, November 17, 2019, its inaugural film festival celebrating the work of outré filmmakers. Conceived and curated by Highways’ Artistic Director, Patrick Kennelly, the festival program will include six feature films and 40 shorts from around the globe with work from Belgium, Canada, Columbia, Estonia, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands and the UK. 50% of selected films are by female-identifying filmmakers. Each feature and short film in the program will make its Los Angeles premiere. Awards will be given for Best Narrative Feature, Best Experimental Feature, Best Narrative Short, Best Experimental Short and Best Animated Short.

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The Montalbán is proud to partner with Infinity Grove Entertainment to present Los Angeles audiences with a special opportunity to experience an enhanced workshop production of Accidental Joy: A New Musical, coming to the theatre for one-night-only on Saturday, June 29, 2019. Book by Marcus Terrell Smith, music by Robbie McDonald, and lyrics by both, Accidental Joy is a dark comedy musical about one woman’s incredible journey to find the guru within, and the four or five hilarious murders that follow her along the way. Doors will open at 7:00pm and the performance will begin at 8:00pm on the Montalbán’s main stage Read the rest of this entry »

The Montalbán, a theatre in Hollywood with a rich history (celebrating three anniversaries in 2019, read more about that below), announced its June screening schedule for its popular Rooftop Movies at The Montalbán. In addition, the venue is also rolling out a new creative curation initiative: weekly themed “Binge Weeks” for the rest of the season. The curation team is programming movies within designated themes that will screen each week including “Bad Ass Denzel,” “Sci-Fi Classics,” “Wild and Crazy Guy!,” “Loaded Weapon 1,” and various series such as “Director Series: Pedro Almodovar.” Read the rest of this entry »

Highways turns 30! The performance space presents Behold! Highways’ Queer Fest 2019 May–June, its annual queer performance arts festival, which appropriately collides with the enduring creative space’s 30th birthday. From May 3rd through June 30, 2019, two months of new LGBTQIA work will be presented by Highways’ extended family of artists, writers and performers such as solo-theatre legend Tim Miller (a founder and original co-artistic director), eminent artist-activist Michael Kearns, the nation’s first out transgender modern dance choreographer Sean Dorsey, and Black Lives Matter Co-founder Patrisse Cullors. Look for specific Dirty 30 anniversary events that bookend the festival (5/3, 5/4 and 6/29). Behold! will also feature such emerging performance artists and curators as Tyler Matthew Oyer, Marval A Rex, Celeste XXX, Moises Josue Michel, Kyoko Takenaka and Shruti Purkayastha. 

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130F Films and director/writer Michael Allen present How Hot Is It Going To Get?, a new feature-length global warming documentary that asks a simple question and reveals both the Fahrenheit answer to this question and how young voters can change the answer. The film lays bare the chief hurdles in getting global warming recognized as fact and achieving real policy change in the U.S. to ensure a livable Earth for current and future generations. A dynamic, animation-enhanced visual presentation, How Hot Is It Going To Get? includes interviews with Millennial-generation voters, political experts and climate change scientists who give lucid analysis of the clear and present challenge to prevent a Soylent Green-like future on Earth.

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The Montalbán is pleased to announce its outdoor 2018 film screening schedule for its preeminent rooftop event space in the heart of Hollywood, The 2018 Montalbán Summer Movie Series. Carrying on the historic venue’s tradition of screening films since 1933, the five month series begins on Thursday, May 31, 2018 and is scheduled to run through Wednesday, October 31, 2018. Foreign films from Spain and Mexico will inaugurate the summer film series – thanks to LA OLA – Independent Films From Spain and Hola Mexico Film Festival – followed by a diverse range of Montalbán-curated films including Black Panther, Grease, Inglorious Bastards, Sunset Blvd., Superbad and many others. Films are scheduled to run five nights per week – every Tuesday through Saturday – with two screening on Friday and Saturday evenings (some exceptions may apply due to private bookings; always check the schedule). Doors open at 6:00pm and films start screening 10 minutes after sunset. Prices are either $10, $15 or $18. The Montalbán is also pleased to announce its new culinary partner Umami Burger. The historic theater is located at 1615 Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90028.

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