Sep 14, 2009– Patrick Swayze, the popular movie star of “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost,” died in Los Angeles on Monday after two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57. Swayze most recently starred as a tough FBI agent in A&E drama series “The Beast.” His battle with cancer played out publicly as his condition worsened […]

Mon Oct 12 | 8:30 pm

The revered avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs kicks off Ken Jacobs, Recent Youthful Indiscretions, a weeklong residency in Los Angeles with a rare and highly anticipated live staging of his “Nervous Magic Lantern” performance at REDCAT. For 50 years, Jacobs has charted a uniquely artisanal and radical mode of cinema, creating an unrivalled body-of-work that includes scores of films, videos, sound pieces, live performances of 3-D shadow plays and light projections, and the written word.

Paladin, the new independent film company formed by veteran distribution executive Mark Urman, will release The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, the acclaimed drama based on a heretofore unproduced original screenplay by legendary writer Tennessee Williams. The film, which stars Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Evans will play at select film festivals this Fall and qualify for year-end awards by opening in exclusive New York and Los Angeles engagements in late December.

Filmmaker Doug Pray has directed a number of acclaimed feature documentaries about American subcultures and maverick characters.  His best-known and most recent film is “Surfwiaw,” which tells the inspiring, humorous, often tumultuous story of surfer Dr. Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, his wife Juliette, and their nine children. The film premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival and was released in theaters nationwide by Magnolia Pictures. “Surfwise” won the audience award at New York’s Gen Art Film Festival and still enjoys a “100% Fresh” rating at RottenTomatoes.com.

Melvin Van Peebles, one of the “Godfathers” of independent film and modern black cinema, has also distinguished himself in an impressive list of other aspects of the entertainment industry–as a director, producer, writer, and composer.  From music (a three-time Grammy nominee) to television (an Emmy-award winner), to Broadway as a writer and director (eleven Tony nominations), and after 35 years his blockbuster movie “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” remains on Variety’s list of all-time top grossing films.