LA’s The Cinefamily Is Doing An Amazing Telethon - That You Can See Live Online!
The Cinefamily is the group that puts on some incredible, diverse and adventurous programming at the Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles. They lean towards the strange, the artistic, the obscure, the cool and the out there, and they're a vital resource for Los Angeles film fans. Over the last couple of years the Cinefamily has perfected a programming mixture of great films, odd rarities, live performances and fun parties.
But doing that ain't cheap, and they're a non-profit. So this weekend the Cinefamily is hosting a 24 hour telethon to get 1000 new members and raise the funds they need to keep kicking ass in the new year.
Fret not: this isn't going to be a 24 hour endurance challenge like Butt-Numb-A-Thon (although it can be, if you choose to treat it that way). The telethon is being cut up into chunks, and every four hours they'll be clearing out the theater and letting in a new crowd; if you want to buy tickets for all the shows you surely can, but it's designed so that folks can come and stay as long as they want.
The line up is, frankly, awesome. Here's the schedule as of now; it's constantly being added to:
The Opening, Saturday 12pm-4pm
- "The Ghosts of Spike Jonze Past": Spike Jonze takes us on a trip through his work from the very beginning to now
- Jake Austen (Roctober Magazine) will present a special video show on Outsider Music, hosted by Neil Hamburger, and followed by live performances by Guy Chookoorian & Paul Zone (of The Fast)
Primetime, Saturday 4pm-9pm
- Heathers Panel with writer Daniel Waters and director Michael Lehman
- Jonathan Gold (L.A. Weekly’s Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic) will give a lecture on “Food and Film”
- Benicio del Toro presents Kaneto Shindo's masterpiece The Naked Island
Midnight Madness, Saturday 9pm-2am
- Doug Benson and surprise guests will do a specially-constructed multi-movie Movie Interruption
- Everything is Terrible! takes over
- Thu Tran (Food Party) will show a new short film about her experiments in black-light food, and will set up a special black-lit restaurant on our backyard patio.
The Nite Owl, Sunday 2am-6am
- No Age & Friends (including Lance Bangs, Doug Aitken, and Patrick O’Dell) will play, and curate a show at 1AM.
- Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields will host a program at 3AM that we’re calling "Films You Can't Go To Sleep To", with original ditties on the uke to intro each short film!
- Cinefamily Mondo Mix Mania!
Good Morning Cinefamily, Sunday 6am-11am
- Dawn Salon of rare experimental films, with live musical accompaniment throughout the morning by:
- Paul Livingstone (sitar) & Homnath Upadhyaya (tabla master from Katmandu, Nepal), in a set of early morning ragas moving from a devotional meditative state to high rhythmic climaxes
- DJ Carlos Nino, with a selection of New Age, ethno and vibratory records designed for relaxation and enlightenment
- A live acoustic gong sound bath from members of spiritual jazz ensemble Build an Ark
- JR Robinson (Wrekmeister Harmonies), in a New Age/experimental set live with members of The Melvins, Pit er Pat and The David Grisman Quintet
- A sneak peak at the new documentary on The Source Family by Process Media's Jodi Wille, who will also conduct an authentic Source mind-expanding ritual and exercise
- Jerry Beck will host “Saturday Morning Cartoons on Sunday Morning”
- DJ Lance Rock (Yo Gabba Gabba!) rocks out!
The Finale, Sunday 11am-1pm
- A Tribute to Elliott Gould
- Members-Only Lunch (provided by The Foundry)
The whole show, except the Members-Only lunch (which will be incredible and worth attending for members) will be livecast on the Cinefamily site - click here for the telethon page. Ticket info can also be found there.
If you're an LA resident I highly recommend a Cinefamily membership; the perks are great, and the Cinefamily is a new institution really worth supporting. And at the very least, there are some truly cool events happening there this weekend!
