As a proud Los Angeleno, I like to brag about the great things the city has to offer, like Cinefamily. This weekend the heroic programmers have cooked up an insane 24-hour telethon for their year-end fundraiser, which you’ll be able to watch online live as it happens at their website (I’ll post it here also).
If you’re going to be in LA on the 17th and 18th, admission will be free, given out on a first-come, first-serve basis, but new audiences will be rotated into the theater every 4-5 hours (see schedule). You can always get right back in line, though, just like at Disneyland, (and also like Disneyland, donors/members get the “fast pass,” and get in first to these shows, i.e. the best way to get in is by donating or becoming a member).
Yes indeed, the idea is to sell as many Cinefamily memberships as possible, and there is a private event on Sunday that is only for new and renewing members that should sell several: Actor Michael Cera will be presenting a special selection of mind-blowing shorts, crazy commercials and other rarities from the early career of Jim Henson.
Cinefamily members will get priority admittance to the event. It’s free but donations will be gratefully accepted.
Opening: 12pm – 4:15pm (Saturday Dec. 17th)
- Spike Jonze live!: Spike 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: 4:15pm-9pm (Saturday Dec. 17th)
- Jonathan Gold (L.A. Weekly’s Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic) will give a lecture on “Food and Film”!
- Shadoe Stevens presents an encore presentation of “The Best of Fred Rated & The Commercials of The Federated Group”!
- Surprise guest Q&A!
- Benicio del Toro presents Kaneto Shindo’s masterpiece The Naked Island!
Midnight Madness: 9pm (Saturday Dec. 17th) – 1am (Sunday, Dec. 18th)
- Doug Benson and surprise guests will do a specially-constructed multi-movie Movie Interruption
- Everything is Terrible! takes over
- Cinefamily’s Mondo Christmas Special!
The Nite Owl: 1am – 6am (Sunday, Dec. 18th)
- No Age & Friends (including Lance Bangs, Doug Aitken, and Patrick O’Dell) will play, and curate a show at 1AM.
- 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!
- 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!
- “We Program In Public”: Cinefamily’s call-in talk show w/ guests!
Good Morning Cinefamily: 6am – 11am (Sunday, Dec. 18th)
- Dawn Salon: a meditative morning of rituals & visuals, with live sitar, soundbath and other musical accompaniment! (Performers include Paul Livingstone (sitar) & Homnath Upadhyaya (tabla master from Katmandu, Nepal), DJ Carlos Nino, Build An Ark, JR Robinson, and 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
- Cinefamily, Jr: hosted by DJ Lance Rock from “Yo Gabba Gabba” and featuring Saturday morning cartoons, kiddie commercials and other Sunday funnies!
Finale: 11am – 2:30pm (Sunday, Dec. 18th)
- A Conversation With Elliott Gould
- NEW-&-RENEWING MEMBERS-ONLY EVENT: Michael Cera presents “Jim Henson: Commercials & Experiments” + Members-Only Donor Lunch (provided by The Foundry on Melrose!)