Filmforum at 50, program 1: Classics of Los Angeles Experimental Film
Los Angeles Filmforum presents
Filmforum at 50, program 1: Classics of Los Angeles Experimental Film
Sunday November 16, 2025, 7:30 pm
At 2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90057
Tickets: $50 special Filmforum at 50 donation; $15 general, $10 students/seniors, free for Filmforum members: https://link.dice.fm/Lf6d9e9bc00c
We hope you will join us for this special event, the launch of our celebration of Filmforum’s 50th year!
As the USA prepared to celebrate its bicentennial year, the nation took little notice of one small non-profit organization dedicated to screening avant-garde films. This cheery oasis of sanity and unconventionality amidst the miasma of Southern California arose from the efforts of Terry Cannon. The Neighborhood Church in Pasadena (at 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd) hosted that first season. After a special event screening in November 1975, Filmforum’s first full season, January-March, 1976, set a clear, high standard for the programs ever since. Starting off with four weeks dedicated to “The Ethnographic Film,” in its first three months Filmforum embraced “The American Avant-Garde: West Coast,” “Thee Films of Paul Robeson,” “Sixteen Films Under Five Minutes,” “Films of Sexy Humor,” and “Women in Film.” We will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Filmforum with multiple screening and events over the next year with blasts from the past, films looking to the next fifty years, and visits from former directors and programmers of the organization. Tonight, we start with some highlights of experimental films made in Los Angeles, several of which by people linked to Filmforum. Works by Amy Halpern, Sara Kathryn Arledge, James Whitney, Adam Beckett, Beth Block, Chick Strand, Pat O’Neill, Craig Rice, and more!