ARTScorpsLA/ACLA Emerging Producers presents Beat the Drum‘s second annual drum festival, Beat the Drum: East Los Meets West Los, to be held on Sunday, July 15, 2012 at 8:00pm, at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood.  Doors open at 6:00pm for picnicking, drum technique demonstrations from South Mexican and Central American traditions, live screen printing and painting, and dancing by the Capoeira Collective in the Ford Theatre Plaza.  At 8:00pm, audience members will be ushered into the venue in a percussive, celebratory parade led by Aztec drumming.  The main event features performances by Atabey (traditional Puerto Rican Bomba), East LA Taiko (Latin, Afro-Cuban, Japanese fusion) featuring drummer Fredo Ortiz of the Beastie Boys, and CAVA (Bolero/Tropical with primal Taiko & Cajon drumming).  Joining East LA Taiko in a groundbreaking collaboration will be Lysa Flores (Alice Bag, El Vez, Jonathan Richman) who will merge her sultry vocals and feminist Chicana lyrics with the power of Japanese Taiko drums.  Tickets are $20-$40; some discounts apply*.  The event will be held at the Ford Amphitheatre located at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068.  For tickets and additional information, please call 323-461-3673 (323-GO-1-FORD) or visit http://fordtheatres.org/en/events/details/id/362 and https://www.facebook.com/BeatTheDrumLA.

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Stepping Up, a multimedia art exhibit about rising up to meet challenges, opens officially to the public with an artist reception on Friday, June 22, 2012 in the Rampart Village office of the United Long Term Care Workers (ULTCW), west of Downtown Los Angeles.  The brightly colored, primarily figurative exhibition features works by artists such as Oscar Magallanes, Keba Konte, and Paul Barron.  Stepping Up is the newest gallery installation by ULTCW, which is part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The artist reception, which features a DJ, light refreshments, and exhibition artists in attendance, will run from 5:00pm to 7:00pm.  The ULTCW offices are located at 2910 Beverly Blvd. 3rd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90057 (877-698-5829).

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Photo credit Jeff Woodward.

501 (see three) ARTS and Highways Performance Space present Who’s Hungry -Santa Monica, part of an ongoing series of experimental tabletop puppet plays that give a voice and face to hunger, with four performances on Fridays and Saturdays from January 27 to February 4, 2012.  The plays, produced and written by Dan Froot, designed and directed by Dan Hurlin, with music by Amy Denio (a Meet The Composer commission), aim to raise awareness of the lives of those of us who, on a daily basis, must choose between life’s basic necessities – food or rent, food or medicine, food or bus fare. The upcoming production weaves together the stories of five homeless and/or hungry residents of Santa Monica, California, incorporating puppetry, dance, music, and text.

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(photo credit: Nabil Elderkin)

Award-winning film Bouncing Cats, the inspiring story of one man’s attempt to create a better life for the children of Uganda through hip hop, makes its US television premiere on Documentary Channel Saturday, November 19, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. (EST/PST). The film, narrated by Common and featuring interviews with Will.I.Am, and K’Naan, follows the legendary Crazy Legs of the Rock Steady Crew and b-boy Abramz, the founder of Breakdance Project Uganda (BPU), on a journey to unify, empower and inspire youth in the war torn region that has been called one of the worst places on earth to be a child.  The film, produced by Red Bull Media House and directed by Australian filmmaker and photographer Nabil Elderkin, toured the film festival circuit in 2010 and 2011, earning awards along the way at Urbanworld Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, and Southern Utah International Documentary Film Festival, among others.  Proceeds from the film benefit BPU.

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The Artivist Collective presents its 8th annual Artivist Film Festival August 18, 19, 20, 2011 at the historic Egyptian Theatre in the heart of Hollywood, California.  This year the closing night awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, August 20th from 6:00 to 10:00PM.  Highlights include the Artivist Awards given to ten films and Artivist Award Honoree Kristen Bell, known for her film (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Burlesque, etc.) and television work (Heroes, Veronica Mars, etc.), as well as her philanthropy (Alzheimer’s Association, Invisible Children, PETA, SCPA, etc.).  Actress Rachel Bilson will present the award to Bell.  Also on hand will be Master of Ceremonies Dan Nainan and presenters Persia White and Marco Antonio Regil.  The closing night ceremonies are complimentary to the press and public (as is the entire festival) but seats are limited and must be reserved in advance.

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Award-winning film Bag It, a touching and often funny documentary about how we use and abuse plastic, is set to air nationally on public television during Earth Week starting April 17, 2011. The film, by award-winning director Suzan Beraza, is an eye-opening look at the environmental and health dangers posed by the global use of disposable, non-biodegradable plastic products. Told with wit and humor, Bag It follows “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he embarks on a global tour to unravel the complexities of our plastic world.

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LDTP “The Slumber of Reason” – Photo Credit: Dorit Thies

Innovative performance group the Latina Dance Theater Project (LDTP) announces the return of their critically acclaimed piece, The Slumber of Reason (El Sueño de la Razon), to Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles for one weekend only, Friday, February 25 and Saturday, February 26, 2011. Directed by Tim Perez, The Slumber of Reason is a series of ten dark and humorous vignettes that depict various follies and foibles of mankind.  The creative springboard for this interdisciplinary work is Spanish artist Francisco de Goya’s tour-de-force prints, Los Caprichos (The Caprices), considered one of the most profound indictments of human vice ever set on paper.  The Slumber of Reason show times are at 8:00pm on both nights.

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Jon Reiss, the director of Bomb It, the global graffiti documentary, and his team, have a lot to announce and celebrate this month.  Starting as early as today – November 1, 2010 – Bomb It can be seen in tens of millions of cable, satellite, and telco Video On Demand (VOD) homes.  In mid-November the Bomb It team will be releasing a free geo-location graffiti and street art application (app) for both iPhone and Android operating systems (tentative release date: 11/22/10).  And Bomb It 2, commissioned as a web series exclusively for the digital broadcast network Babelgum, is rolling out new weekly episodes at http://www.babelgum.com/bombit2.

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“Untitled” Roscoe Wilson

Following a successful launch in Beijing, the A&I Gallery in Hollywood will host the North American premiere of Common Ground 2010, an exhibition of fine art digital prints from across the globe, all with an environmental theme. The exhibition of new media work, at the intersection of art, technology, and eco-activism, opens on July 8, 2010 and runs through August 13, 2010. Over 1,000 artists from 40 countries submitted their digital art for consideration. The resulting curated collection contains work from 85 artists. A portion of all proceeds generated from the touring exhibition will benefit non-profit organizations including the World Wildlife Fund, Global Giving, and The Global Environmental Institute. Read the rest of this entry »

Award winning filmmaker Jon Reiss is set to release his new book Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution and Marketing for the Digital Era on March 15, 2010. The book is a primer for filmmaking in the digital era covering distribution of all types of media content – feature films, shorts, webisodes, transmedia, vblogs, etc., and is the first to address the new distribution and marketing landscape facing filmmakers today.
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