During only three and a half decades, California Institute of the Arts alumni have made significant contributions to virtually every aspect of cinematic art. This program, an overview of the Museum of Modern Art’s current in-depth retrospective, salutes the diversity and creative reach of CalArts by presenting student work from some of its many notable graduates.  More...

Take a peek inside the teachers’ lounge in this hilarious glimpse into the awkward lives of high school teachers. Drawing from the mock-reality show style of “The Office” or “Arrested Development,” writer/director Mike Akel and writer/co-star Chris Mass, both actual teachers, mix comedy with a bittersweet commentary on the obstacles facing our public school teachers. Surrounded by wonderfully deadpan, real life students, the cast delivers ingeniously subtle performances as teachers struggling to win “Teacher of the Year,” decipher school policy, or just make it until the bell rings.  More...

Cinematographer Style is a 90-minute feature length documentary that celebrates the art of motion picture photography, and examines how and why movies look the way they do. With interviews of 110 leading cinematographers around the world, director/cinematographer Jon Fauer explores how his colleagues use technique and technology, art and lighting to tell stories with moving images.  More...

In Israel, army service is compulsory for both men and women. Though they have little in common, newly enlisted Mirit and Smadar find themselves partnered in their patrol unit. Frequently at odds about boys, work and life, the two focus on their daily concerns, but Israel’s political realities have a way of intruding on ordinary lives. Revealing a rarely shown facet of Israeli life with precise detail, Close to Home offers a thought-provoking portrait of a country where the personal and political are necessarily intertwined.  More...

Join us for this special conversation with Artist in Residence Danger Mouse.  More...

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. His L.A. Quartet novels—The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A .Confidential and White Jazz—were international bestsellers. American Tabloid was Time magazine’s novel of the year for 1995; his memoir My Dark Places was a New York Times Notable Book and a Time Best Book of the Year for 1996; his novel The Cold Six Thousand was a New York Times Notable Book and Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year for 2001. He lives in Los Angeles. Join us for this special evening moderated by Elvis Mitchell in which Mr. Ellroy will show clips and discuss writing for and being adapted to the screen along with other topics. Photo credit: Marion Ettlinger  More...

No one fits the description of an independent filmmaker better than writer/director Richard Linklater, who appears at the festival with his latest, 
A Scanner Darkly. Since coming to national attention with the generation-defining Slacker in the early 1980s, Linklater has kept his distinctive voice through such efforts as Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Tape and the innovative animated feature Waking Life. Richard Linklater is joined by film critic Elvis Mitchell in what promises to be a lively, very personal evening of conversation and clips.  More...

William Friedkin is considered one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of the early ‘70s. Most notable are his films The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973) which garnered a total of 5 Academy Awards and 15 nominations. Most recently the director’s credits include Rules of Engagement (2000) and The Hunted (2003) as well as directing the 2005 staged operas Samson & Delilah in Israel and Aida in Italy. Friedkin’s latest film, Bug, screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and will be released later this fall. Join us for an absorbing evening of conversation and film clips moderated by TIME magazine film critic, Richard Schickel.  More...

At a New York City wedding reception, two guests, seemingly strangers, become entangled in a sexually charged battle of wits. But as the night carries on in a cigarette smoke haze, the nameless couple’s repartee deepens to reveal the passion of their two-decades-past love affair. Escaping the party for a hotel room, the two are soon gripped by their mutual past and the individual choices that led them to the present. Unfolding entirely in split-screen, director Hans Canosa’s feature debut is an unconventional and poignant love story, marvelously brought to life by Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham Carter.  More...

“It gets in your blood,” says a resident of Picher, Oklahoma about his sense of hometown pride. His words, however, take on a powerful irony in this documentary about the toxic legacy of Picher’s lead mining industry. Since their town was declared a Superfund site in 1981, Picher’s residents have been forced to choose between preserving their image of the American dream and preserving their health. The Creek Runs Red carries us into the heart of this sharply divided community to reveal with extraordinary intimacy and insight the full human tragedy of environmental catastrophe.  More...