Current Schedule

The State of the Art in Los Angeles, 1980

Sun, 20 May 2012 20:24:21 -0400

Sunday May 20, 2012, 7:30pm

Los Angeles Filmforum Presents
L.A. Filmworks – The State of the Art in Los Angeles, 1980
In person: Betzy Bromberg, Terry Cannon, Tom Leeser, Craig Rice, William Scaff, Keith Ullrich (schedules permitting)

At the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood
Los Angeles Filmforum presents the 28th show in our series Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980.The series will feature over 24 shows between October 2011 and May 2012.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL SCREENING DESCRIPTION AND LIST OF FILMS ON THE ALTERNATIVE PROJECTIONS WEBSITE.

Alternative Projections is Filmforum’s exploration of the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental film and video in Southern California in the postwar era. Film series curated by Adam Hyman and Mark Toscano, with additional contributions by David James, Christine Panushka, Terry Cannon, Ben Caldwell, Stephanie Sapienza, Jerri Allyn, and more.

Alternative Projections is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

Our website alternativeprojections.com contains details on the screening series, oral histories, articles, and a searchable database with individuals, films, organizations, and exhibitions, and archival content. This is the first database of its kind and will give scholars and the public a much richer understanding of art production in Los Angeles for years to come.

Primary funding for Alternative Projections was provided by the Getty Foundation, with additional support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This screening series is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque.

The Alternative Projections Marathon

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:17:20 -0400

Friday May 18, 2012, 8:00pm

Los Angeles Filmforum Presents
The Alternative Projections Marathon
In person: Lots of folks!

At The Echo Park Film Center
**NOTE THE CHANGE IN DAY, TIME, AND LOCATION!**
Alternative Projections has featured over 26 shows since October 2012. For the penultimate experience, we celebrate with an incredible range of films and videos that we haven’t squeezed into other screenings, with frequent breaks for socializing! Come at the start or in the middle! Some classics and lot of rarities will please you to no end! Films by Pat O’Neill, Louis Hock, Chick Strand, Susan Mogul, Roberta Friedman & Grahame Weinbren, Gary Beydler, Michael Scroggins, Beth Block, William Hale, Amy Halpern, Morgan Fisher, Diana Wilson, Curtis Harrington, home movies, and many more!

Special thanks to: Everyone, but especially everyone who brings food and drink!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL SCREENING DESCRIPTION ON THE ALTERNATIVE PROJECTIONS WEBSITE.

Alternative Projections is Filmforum’s exploration of the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental film and video in Southern California in the postwar era. Film series curated by Adam Hyman and Mark Toscano, with additional contributions by David James, Christine Panushka, Terry Cannon, Ben Caldwell, Stephanie Sapienza, Jerri Allyn, and more.

Alternative Projections is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

Our website alternativeprojections.com contains details on the screening series, oral histories, articles, and a searchable database with individuals, films, organizations, and exhibitions, and archival content. This is the first database of its kind and will give scholars and the public a much richer understanding of art production in Los Angeles for years to come.

Primary funding for Alternative Projections was provided by the Getty Foundation, with additional support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This screening series is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque.

Moving Pictures: Painting, Photography, Film

Sat, 12 May 2012 20:09:27 -0400

Saturday May 12, 2012, 8:00 pm

Los Angeles Filmforum Presents
Moving Pictures: Painting, Photography, Film
In person: Sam Erenberg (schedule permitting)

At The Echo Park Film Center
**NOTE THE CHANGE IN DAY, TIME, AND LOCATION!**
Los Angeles Filmforum presents the 26th show in our series Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980.The series will feature over 24 shows between October 2011 and May 2012.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL SCREENING DESCRIPTION AND LIST OF FILMS ON THE ALTERNATIVE PROJECTIONS WEBSITE.

Alternative Projections is Filmforum’s exploration of the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental film and video in Southern California in the postwar era. Film series curated by Adam Hyman and Mark Toscano, with additional contributions by David James, Christine Panushka, Terry Cannon, Ben Caldwell, Stephanie Sapienza, Jerri Allyn, and more.

Alternative Projections is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

Our website alternativeprojections.com contains details on the screening series, oral histories, articles, and a searchable database with individuals, films, organizations, and exhibitions, and archival content. This is the first database of its kind and will give scholars and the public a much richer understanding of art production in Los Angeles for years to come.

Primary funding for Alternative Projections was provided by the Getty Foundation, with additional support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This screening series is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque.

Abstractions of the 1960s and 1970s

Thu, 3 May 2012 20:01:16 -0400

Thursday May 3, 2012, 7:30 pm

Los Angeles Filmforum and Cinefamily Present
Numbers, Patterns, and Shapes: Later Abstractions of the 60s and 70s
In person: Larry Cuba, Pat O’Neill, Sara Petty, Michael Scroggins, John Whitney Jr. (schedules permitting)

At Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre
**NOTE THE CHANGE IN DAY AND LOCATION!**
Los Angeles Filmforum presents the 25th show in our series Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980.The series will feature over 24 shows between October 2011 and May 2012.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL SCREENING DESCRIPTION AND LIST OF FILMS ON THE ALTERNATIVE PROJECTIONS WEBSITE.

Alternative Projections is Filmforum’s exploration of the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental film and video in Southern California in the postwar era. Film series curated by Adam Hyman and Mark Toscano, with additional contributions by David James, Christine Panushka, Terry Cannon, Ben Caldwell, Stephanie Sapienza, Jerri Allyn, and more.

Alternative Projections is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

Our website alternativeprojections.com contains details on the screening series, oral histories, articles, and a searchable database with individuals, films, organizations, and exhibitions, and archival content. This is the first database of its kind and will give scholars and the public a much richer understanding of art production in Los Angeles for years to come.

Primary funding for Alternative Projections was provided by the Getty Foundation, with additional support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This screening series is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque.

Queer Identity and Culture

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 19:51:08 -0400

Sunday April 29, 2012, 7:30 pm

Los Angeles Filmforum Presents
Same Sex/Different Sex: Queer Identity and Culture
In person: Penelope Spheeris, Linda Spheeris (schedules permitting)

At the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood
Los Angeles Filmforum presents the 24th show in our series Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980.The series will feature over 24 shows between October 2011 and May 2012.

Special thanks to Kristin Pepe, Outfest; the Getty Research Institute; Anthology Film Archives.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL SCREENING DESCRIPTION AND LIST OF FILMS ON THE ALTERNATIVE PROJECTIONS WEBSITE.

Alternative Projections is Filmforum’s exploration of the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental film and video in Southern California in the postwar era. Film series curated by Adam Hyman and Mark Toscano, with additional contributions by David James, Christine Panushka, Terry Cannon, Ben Caldwell, Stephanie Sapienza, Jerri Allyn, and more.

Alternative Projections is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

Our website alternativeprojections.com contains details on the screening series, oral histories, articles, and a searchable database with individuals, films, organizations, and exhibitions, and archival content. This is the first database of its kind and will give scholars and the public a much richer understanding of art production in Los Angeles for years to come.

Primary funding for Alternative Projections was provided by the Getty Foundation, with additional support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This screening series is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque.

Bright Ideas: Conceptual Art Films

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 19:45:04 -0400

Sunday April 22, 2012, 7:30pm

Los Angeles Filmforum Presents
Bright Ideas: Conceptual Art Films
In person: Thom Andersen, Susan Rosenfeld (schedules permitting)

At the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood
Los Angeles Filmforum presents the 23rd show in our series Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980.The series will feature over 24 shows between October 2011 and May 2012.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL SCREENING DESCRIPTION AND LIST OF FILMS ON THE ALTERNATIVE PROJECTIONS WEBSITE.

Alternative Projections is Filmforum’s exploration of the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental film and video in Southern California in the postwar era. Film series curated by Adam Hyman and Mark Toscano, with additional contributions by David James, Christine Panushka, Terry Cannon, Ben Caldwell, Stephanie Sapienza, Jerri Allyn, and more.

Alternative Projections is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

Our website alternativeprojections.com contains details on the screening series, oral histories, articles, and a searchable database with individuals, films, organizations, and exhibitions, and archival content. This is the first database of its kind and will give scholars and the public a much richer understanding of art production in Los Angeles for years to come.

Primary funding for Alternative Projections was provided by the Getty Foundation, with additional support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This screening series is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque.

Crosstown Rivals: UCLA/USC in the 1960s 2

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:06:07 -0400

Thursday April 19, 2012, 7:30 pm

Los Angeles Filmforum and USC CInematheque 108 present
Crosstown Rivals: Films from USC and UCLA in the 1960s
In person: David Lebrun, others to be announced (Schedules permitting)

At the USC Ray Stark Family Theatre, George Lucas Building
**NOTE THE CHANGE IN DAY, TIME, AND LOCATION!**
Los Angeles Filmforum presents the 22nd show in our series Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980.The series will feature over 24 shows between October 2011 and May 2012.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL SCREENING DESCRIPTION AND LIST OF FILMS ON THE ALTERNATIVE PROJECTIONS WEBSITE.

Special thanks to the UCLA Film & Television Archive; Mark Quigley; Todd Wiener, Alex Ago; Dino Everett; USC School of Cinematic Arts, Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive; May Haduong, Academy Film Archive

Alternative Projections is Filmforum’s exploration of the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental film and video in Southern California in the postwar era. Film series curated by Adam Hyman and Mark Toscano, with additional contributions by David James, Christine Panushka, Terry Cannon, Ben Caldwell, Stephanie Sapienza, Jerri Allyn, and more.

Alternative Projections is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

Our website alternativeprojections.com contains details on the screening series, oral histories, articles, and a searchable database with individuals, films, organizations, and exhibitions, and archival content. This is the first database of its kind and will give scholars and the public a much richer understanding of art production in Los Angeles for years to come.

Primary funding for Alternative Projections was provided by the Getty Foundation, with additional support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This screening series is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque.

Crosstown Rivals: UCLA/USC in the 1960s

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:58:01 -0400

Thursday April 12, 2012, 7:30 pm

Los Angeles Filmforum and UCLA Melnitz Movies present
Crosstown Rivals: Films from UCLA and USC in the 1960s
In person: David Lebrun, others to be announced (Schedules permitting)

UCLA Melnitz Movies - James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall, UCLA
**NOTE THE CHANGE IN DAY, TIME, AND LOCATION!**
Los Angeles Filmforum presents the 22nd show in our series Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980.The series will feature over 24 shows between October 2011 and May 2012.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL SCREENING DESCRIPTION AND LIST OF FILMS ON THE ALTERNATIVE PROJECTIONS WEBSITE.

This program will repeat at USC Cinematheque 108 on Thursday April 19 at 7:00 pm!

Alternative Projections is Filmforum’s exploration of the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental film and video in Southern California in the postwar era. Film series curated by Adam Hyman and Mark Toscano, with additional contributions by David James, Christine Panushka, Terry Cannon, Ben Caldwell, Stephanie Sapienza, Jerri Allyn, and more.

Alternative Projections is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

Our website alternativeprojections.com contains details on the screening series, oral histories, articles, and a searchable database with individuals, films, organizations, and exhibitions, and archival content. This is the first database of its kind and will give scholars and the public a much richer understanding of art production in Los Angeles for years to come.

Primary funding for Alternative Projections was provided by the Getty Foundation, with additional support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This screening series is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque.

Jon Jost’s Swimming in Nebraska

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 10:32:34 -0400

Sunday March 18, 2012, 7:30 pm

Los Angeles Filmforum Presents
The U.S. premiere of Jon Jost’s Swimming in Nebraska
Jon Jost in person! A Jon Jost weekend!

At the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood
After two nights of his films made in Los Angeles in the 1970s, Filmforum hosts Jon Jost with the United States premiere of a new digital video work, Swimming in Nebraska. Continuing the examination of place and mood found in the earlier works, Jost has fully embraced the medium of digital technology in his work of the past decade. His recent films are rigorous and beautiful, often abstract, and yet immersed in the real world. Swimming in Nebraska continues Jost’s ongoing challenges to the assumptions of American mass media while embracing the possibilities of artistic practice and meditation.

This is the third of three nights with Jon Jost in Los Angeles. Friday March 16 at 8:00 pm we’re hosting him at the Echo Park Film Center with his film Chameleon. Saturday March 17 at 5:00 pm he’ll be at Cinefamily with his other Los Angeles-based film Angel City. For more details on the Cinefamily screening, and tickets, please click here.
 Swimming in Nebraska (2010, digital video, color, sound, 74 min)
U.S. Premiere!
“An essay-documentary of what I suppose most would call an experimental kind. It is meant as an oblique critique of the kind of provincialism in which New Yorkers or Parisians or Angelinos say things like, "Nebraska, there's nothing there" or refer to the American mid-West as "fly-over country." This film is a celebration of the provincialism where there's "nothing." A rich tapestry of color, ideas, and a kind of spirituality. An electronic essay.” – Jon Jost

About Jon Jost:

Born in Chicago on May 16, 1943, of a military family, Jon Jost grew up in Georgia, Kansas, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. Expelled from college in 1962, he began making 16mm films in January, 1963. He is self-taught. He has made some 20+ shorts and 14 feature length films on celluloid, 16 and 35mm, all of which he has conceived, written, photographed, directed and edited; most of these he also produced. Since 1996 he has worked only in Digital Video (DV), completing 18 full-length works and many shorts, as well as one large-scale 7 screen installation work, Trinity, presented at the ZKM, Karlsruhe Germany, in this medium as of 2009.

After 10 years of making short works, Jost made his first feature-length film in 1974, and since devoted himself to the making of a wide-ranging series of films, largely focused on specifically American topics, in forms ranging from essays (Speaking Directly, Stagefright, Plain Talk & Common Sense), to fictions (Last Chants for a Slow Dance; Bell Diamond) to documentaries (Nas Correntes De Luz da Ria Formosa, London Brief) and hybrids such as Angel City. In Digital Video his work shifted to include highly abstract works such as Passages, Trinity and Dissonance.

His work has shown widely in museums, film archives, and festivals since 1975. Most recently his films were accorded full retrospectives at the Cinemateca Portuguese (1996) and the Filmoteca Español (1997), and in 2006 the Buenos Aires Independent Festival accorded his work a partial retrospective. He has been regularly invited to major film festivals with new work, including Venice (2004), Rotterdam (2008), Berlin, Toronto, London, Edinburgh, Sydney, Yamagata, Jeonju, Singapore, and many others.

Jost's recent work, Homecoming, was shown at the Venice Film Festival, Cinema Digitale section, in Sept. 2004, and then was shown at the Rotterdam festival in January 2005, as well as being in competition at Jeon Ju, Korea. Since 2006 his works, Passages, La Lunga Ombra, and Over Here were screened at the Rotterdam Festival, and subsequently at Jeon Ju, Warsaw, Frankfurt, Split, San Jose Maverick and other festivals. His most recent film, Imagens de uma cidade perdida was shown in Rotterdam and in competition at the Yamagata documentary festival in Japan in Oct 2011.

Advance ticket purchase for general admission available through Brown Paper Tickets. Click here to purchase.

This screening series is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque.

Jon Jost’s Chameleon

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:20:52 -0400

Friday March 16, 2012, 8:00 pm

Los Angeles Filmforum Presents
Jon Jost’s Chameleon
Jon Jost in person! A Jon Jost weekend!

At The Echo Park Film Center
**NOTE THE CHANGE IN DAY, TIME, AND LOCATION!**
A scathing portrait of the Hollywood/LA arts milieu of the late 70’s, Jon Jost’s Chameleon (1978, color, sound, 16mm blown up to 35mm, projected digitally, 90 minutes) follows the amorphous day of its lead character, an Armani-jacketed peddler of high-class dope, fraudulent art, and preening postures suited-to-fit the changing victims. In proximate association with Filmforum’s series Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, this almost never-screened film returns to the town of its making. Renowned filmmaker Jon Jost in person on a rare visit to Los Angeles!

This is the first of three nights with Jon Jost in Los Angeles. Saturday March 17 at 5:00 pm he’ll be at Cinefamily with his other Los Angeles-based film Angel City. For more details on the Cinefamily screening, and tickets, please click here. Sunday March 18, 7:30 pm he’ll be at Filmforum at the Egyptian with the U.S. premiere of his digital video.
 “Jon Jost’s Chameleon was probably the happiest instance of a mixed marriage at the Festival (Edinburgh 1979): combining a freak, trippy (in fact almost Corman-esque) saga of a dope-dealer and all-round hustler with an abstract distillation of patterns of color and light. The place of the latter in the film is both somewhere within the drug-laced nimbus of its title character, Terry (Bob Glaudini), and somewhere outside its ironic description of the rampant merchandising of all other human activities. In a way, this abstract element almost serves as a secondary narrative, or at least becomes the ‘point’ of the film - Richard Combs, American Film

“Jost’s Chameleon cost a mere $35,000 to make (including the 16 to 35mm blowup) and is a triumph of artistry over budget. Jost’s day in the life of a lean, mean Los Angeles hustler (Bob Glaudini) is a cautionary tale about the self-destructiveness of American opportunism. The main character - hero or villain, according to taste - moves reptile-like through a land of easy-prey gullibility, sucking dry his victims and his own humanity alike. The film is packed with bold visual metaphors. When a gun is fired, the whole screen explodes into white; when the hustler changes his “act” for different clients, the screen, chameleon like, changes its colors. Chameleon is a nervy, intelligent, exciting advance on Jost’s last film, Angel City.” - Nigel Andrews, American Film, 1979

About Jon Jost:

Born in Chicago on May 16, 1943, of a military family, Jon Jost grew up in Georgia, Kansas, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. Expelled from college in 1962, he began making 16mm films in January, 1963. He is self-taught. He has made some 20+ shorts and 14 feature length films on celluloid, 16 and 35mm, all of which he has conceived, written, photographed, directed and edited; most of these he also produced. Since 1996 he has worked only in Digital Video (DV), completing 18 full-length works and many shorts, as well as one large-scale 7 screen installation work, Trinity, presented at the ZKM, Karlsruhe Germany, in this medium as of 2009.

After 10 years of making short works, Jost made his first feature-length film in 1974, and since devoted himself to the making of a wide-ranging series of films, largely focused on specifically American topics, in forms ranging from essays (Speaking Directly, Stagefright, Plain Talk & Common Sense), to fictions (Last Chants for a Slow Dance; Bell Diamond) to documentaries (Nas Correntes De Luz da Ria Formosa, London Brief) and hybrids such as Angel City. In Digital Video his work shifted to include highly abstract works such as Passages, Trinity and Dissonance.

His work has shown widely in museums, film archives, and festivals since 1975. Most recently his films were accorded full retrospectives at the Cinemateca Portuguese (1996) and the Filmoteca Español (1997), and in 2006 the Buenos Aires Independent Festival accorded his work a partial retrospective. He has been regularly invited to major film festivals with new work, including Venice (2004), Rotterdam (2008), Berlin, Toronto, London, Edinburgh, Sydney, Yamagata, Jeonju, Singapore, and many others.

Jost's recent work, Homecoming, was shown at the Venice Film Festival, Cinema Digitale section, in Sept. 2004, and then was shown at the Rotterdam festival in January 2005, as well as being in competition at Jeon Ju, Korea. Since 2006 his works, Passages, La Lunga Ombra, and Over Here were screened at the Rotterdam Festival, and subsequently at Jeon Ju, Warsaw, Frankfurt, Split, San Jose Maverick and other festivals. His most recent film, Imagens de uma cidade perdida was shown in Rotterdam and in competition at the Yamagata documentary festival in Japan in Oct 2011.

Advance ticket purchase for general admission available through Brown Paper Tickets. Click here to purchase.

This screening series is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque.