Filly Brown: Q&A with Actor Lou Diamond Phillips and Directors Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos
By Annette Graham, DC Film Society Member
Filly Brown was the Opening Night film at the AFI's Latin American Film Festival in September of 2012. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips, director/screenwriter Youssef Delara and director/producer Michael D. Olmos were present for this Q&A on September 20. AFI Programmer Todd Hitchcock moderated the discussion. The film stars Gina Rodriguez as an aspiring LA hip hop artist, Lou Diamond Phillips as her father, Jenni Rivera as her mother, and Edward James Olmos. This was the first screen role for superstar singer Jenni Rivera who died in a fatal plane crash on December 9, 2012 at the age of 43.
Todd Hitchcock: Thank you for being here. It's great to get the festival started this way. You have a terrific cast with a lot of newcomers, including some first time actors and veterans like Lou [Diamond Phillips]. How did you put the cast together?
Michael D. Olmos: We did a lot of the casting ourselves; we were on the front lines. We had a casting director who came in and did an amazing job. But closer to the end, in our preproduction process, we were so lucky to find Gina Rodriguez. As you see, she's amazing. We reached out to some female emcees who knew how to rap, because we knew that for this role to work, whoever played that role had to be very proficient at that and they also had to be very proficient as an actor. We went the former way and we saw a lot of people, and they were great but they pulled the depth of the performance off. By some fate or kismet, we were introduced to Gina Rodriguez. She was amazing, she's a trained actor, she's part of the Nuyorican Poet Society. She was not a rapper but she could perform the spoken word. She came in and blew us away and the rest is history. She actually spent six months working with our music people; we had two groups of music people.
Lou Diamond Phillips: The story you're not telling is about your pops Eddie [Edward James Olmos, father of Michael D. Olmos]. He read the script and said, "Good like finding this girl."
Michael D. Olmos: He said, "I'll do your movie if you find your Filly Brown. But good luck."
Youssef Delara: And luckily I'd shot a screen test of Gina. So I said, just go to our vimeo page and watch the link. And he did and said, "Okay, you found Filly, I'll do it. I'm in." What a lot of people don't know when it comes to casting, it's a weird bit of alchemy. Independent films don't have resources in general across the board. And it's the same with casting. So a lot of times you just don't know how everything is going to come together. There's a bit of faith you have to have. We found Gina. Then there was the possibility of working with this guy [Lou Diamond Phillips] and I thought that can't even be real but let's just get him the script and hopefully it will happen. And it happened. And I cornered your dad because he was raving about it, and I said, "Well you should act in it sir." And he kind of went along with it and you were surprised, "I can't believe he just did that."
Michael D. Olmos: Lou, can you tell the story of how you came to the project?
Lou Diamond Phillips: It was very simple. First of all, Edward James Olmos provided me an opportunity to be in one of the finest films of my career; it is now in the American register of films; it's been picked by the AFI as one of the top 100 most inspirational films of all time: Stand and Deliver (1988), also made for a nickel and a dime. (audience claps). My experience with Edward James Olmos transcended making that film. It was such an artistic venture. But what your father was able to give me--we marched with Cesar Chavez together; we tried to get arrested together. When I was a young man in Hollywood I was so fortunate not just to have people who were mentors to me in the entertainment world. I had people like Edward James Olmos who were mentors to me as a human being--how to toe the line, to do the right thing, to tell stories that are true and real and then live that in your life. And give back to the community. So whenever Eddie calls, I jump. And I got the call. Eddie's doing this film. So I was 100% inclined to do the film even before I read the script. And then I read the script and the realization occurred to me: I would have crawled through glass to get an audition for this role if I wasn't connected. Thankfully I was. Because I read this script and I was so moved by it and I was so in touch with this character from his first appearance. I'm the father of four daughters now so this wasn't a big stretch. Thankfully they aren't that old yet; the oldest is about to turn 15. I can't imagine this. As I was reading it I realized: this is Angel from Stand and Deliver, all grown up. He was this little gangbanger out getting in trouble, doing a lot of shit that he regretted, and now it's 25 years later and he's going to walk the walk. He's got to stand up and be a man and be a father and keep this family together. And this role spoke to me so much that I was willing to do it as a favor. Then I suddenly realized it was a gift to me.
Youssef Delara: Thank you for that. On the script writing phase, that was something Mike and I developed together for quite a long period of time. I wrote the script three years before we got in production. It was ambling about and I couldn't find it right. We did a movie together, our previous movie was called Bedrooms (2010), it had four directors, we all told four different stories. Mike and I were talking, what are we going to do next; let's do something. I said, "I have this little hip-hop project lying around called Filly Brown, let me send it to you." And I did. And we started developing it.
Michael D. Olmos: That was fun. I think the first time, I said, "I don't want to do a hip hop movie." Did that already. But there was something that appealed. You see it in the script--this family, this character, the hardness of these people. That was there, we just had to craft that out. Youssef was generous enough to allow me to have a creative voice in the shaping of the script and to work on it. So I'm very grateful for that.
Todd Hitchcock: The music is great. There are a lot of people who are musicians first and now branching into acting: Jenni Rivera, Baby Bash, Chingo Bling. Lou, what did all this look like from your perspective as far as the set and the shoot and working together?
Lou Diamond Phillips: Going back to Stand and Deliver, Eddie and I were the only ones with a resume at all. My only resume--(I had worked in the Texas film industry for about four years before I landed La Bamba)--I had one credit in Hollywood before I did Stand and Deliver and that was La Bamba. At that point, I'm still an unknown since the movie hadn't come out. But we hired a bunch of "first time actors" for Stand and Deliver and that's very true about this. Chingo is a Tejano brother, he kills me, I had no idea he was going to come with that; that was amazing. Baby Bash adapted the dialogue so that he could make it work. Chingo and Baby Bash, these are legitimate music stars. They've got amazing followings across the country. Chingo with Tejano music mixed with a little rap. Baby Bash had a major radio play hit. Cuete [Yeska], the bald guy, he's a legitimate rapper.
Todd Hitchcock: Jenni Rivera...
Lou Diamond Phillips: I'm getting to her; I'm building.... These guys gave us a lot of street cred. So I was really happy to see that it wasn't a glitter thing. You have to realize, I had La Bamba, Eddie did Selena (1997), now we've made this. We've made three amazing Latino music movies. We kind of know what we're doing. (audience claps). We know where the heart is and how to approach it. The musicians in this--to me--gave a veracity and verisimilitude to this. Then you throw in Jenni Rivera who is the biggest Mexican-American recording artist in Mexico and for the Mexican American public in the United States. She sells out 200,000 seat stadiums. She had never acted before. It was Eddie who asked her to do this. And she went raw. She has her own reality show; she's got the big hair, and the big lashes and she looks great with the push up bra. {audience laughs)
Michael D. Olmos: And she sold 10 million albums last year.
Lou Diamond Phillips: There's that. The boys told her, "No makeup. As a matter of fact, We're going to make you look like shit." She was game. But she was intimidating. She came in and you saw what she did--first time out. That's a huge credit to the script; it's a huge credit to the boys for giving her that environment where she felt that safe to give that honest a performance.
Youssef Delara: When Mike and I met her for dinner, we actually didn't think she would do the project. She's really famous and really rich. And we're just independent film makers, a bunch of dudes with a small movie. Mike and I are saying, "She's got to do two weeks of rehearsal and she's got to do this and that and commit herself to the process."
Michael D. Olmos: And she picks the most expensive restaurant in LA.
Youssef Delara: We can't cover that. No way. Just reach for the wallet when it comes time and hopefully she'll cover. (audience laughs). So we go and she had her family there, her husband, her son. It was really hard getting to her, it took three or four days to get this meeting. We're all amped up and we just lay it all out. And she says, "Ok, great, I don't know this acting thing and you guys are experts and whatever you want, I'll do it. Let's do it." Two weeks of rehearsal are a big deal for a star. No pay.
Michael D. Olmos: So we got that, we got everything we wanted.
Youssef Delara: And then we reach for the wallet. And she said, "No, I got it." (audience laughs) Another big part, she did the rehearsals. We had a great acting coach Nikolai Guzov, very Russian. But the big thing was Gina was there at every single Jenni rehearsal, she was there rehearsing the scenes, rehearsing with her, letting her in to what she knows as a trained actor and really bringing that process along. A lot of what makes Jenni so great is Gina and the work they did behind the scenes.
Todd Hitchcock: Not just what you see of Gina on screen but also working with her cast mates.
Youssef Delara: It takes that. You have to give yourself to the process. And you have to give to the process. And I think Gina did that.
Michael D. Olmos: Even after you become very successful.
Lou Diamond Phillips: That doesn't stop. We made this for a nickel and a dime. I change in rest rooms, whatever. I'm a little sick and tired of the divas in Hollywood who get a few hits and suddenly can't be touched, and can't be bothered. And yet they lose touch with the art. That really bothers me. I knew that for me, when I said yes to this, not a problem. I'm not expecting my espresso in the morning and my Cuban cigar in the afternoon. It's like, "What bathroom am I changing in this time? Do we have the key to the men's room this time?" I'm joking.
Youssef Delara: We had trailers, come on.
Michael D. Olmos: We did have trailers. We told everyone we're going to be slumming. This is a low low budget production. But you were in to it.
Lou Diamond Phillips: You commit. You bring your A game no matter what. I don't care how much you get paid, I don't care what the amenities are. If you say yes to a project as an artist, you have a responsibility if nothing else to yourself, to bring your art and to do the best you can, to give to that. The celluloid sees the heart. It's no longer celluloid, but you can tell when people care.
Michael D. Olmos: Lou really cares about this project. We did a couple of reshoots. This shows his dedication. He showed up no charge.
Lou Diamond Phillips: I saw the rough draft and I loved it. The three of us ended up in the editing room that night rewriting the scene and going over it. Yes, I am passionate about it and I'm sorry I was an asshole. (everyone laughs)
Youssef Delara: There was a reshoot is at the very end when JJ kidnaps Gina and Lou rescues her. Before it was a different scene with guns, it was more involved. On our budget that was most complex scene, with every single actor at night, exterior night.
Michael D. Olmos: That would normally be a one-week shoot.
Youssef Delara: We shot it in one night.
Michael D. Olmos: But to have an actor of Lou's caliber leave his house at one o'clock in the morning and drive up to Holllywood and sit there at 3:00am in the morning, just going back and forth--that's the kind of dedication it took.
Audience: What made you pick Gina?
Youssef Delara: She did a movie called Go For It (2011) and Mike and our producer Victor [Teran] saw that film. She had one really powerful scene. She came in for the read, I knew her through a buddy of mine, Jesse Garcia, who was in our previous film. Gina comes in and we meet her and she's the full package. She's got the credible look, like she fits in that world. She's got the energy, the rawness, she's a trained actress. You saw that working with her. It was consistent every time. She's not a process. She's not someone who has to find it. It's there. You've got that training, that look, that vibe, that energy. And at the very end of the rehearsal, she did a spoken word thing that was really funny and she had the cadence. It's like a no-brainer at that point. You're stupid if you don't jump on that.
Michael D. Olmos: The thing she did at the end was great. She was sitting in the lobby waiting to come in. She got into an "actor" thing with another person who was also auditioning. She brought that energy into the piece and expressed it...
Youssef Delara: Which is exactly what rappers do, if they rap off the cuff. She was the third person we saw. Don't even wait. It's stupid to wait. Just jump on it.
Audience: How do you look for funding? How can you get this into the movie theaters or schools?
Youssef Delara: You have to find people who believe in your work. A lot of this business is about relationships. We had a good track record with my first film ESL (2005). Mike and I did our second film Bedrooms which was on Showtime. We had a track record, a vision, we wanted to go after a market that was underserved like the third generation Latino market. There aren't a lot of movies out there for Latinos who are young. Everyone goes to Spiderman, we get that. We felt like a lot of specialized Latino films weren't really catering to the youth and energy out there. We had a really cool story. This story fits this underserved market. We hung our hat on that concept and because of our track record, someone bought in to it, then a second and third, and then we have a movie.
Michael D. Olmos: The movie coming out in January. We want to do screenings in colleges and high schools to get the word out. We believe in that and we want to get movie to the people. Films like this third generation Latino films are really suffering. We haven't had a big hit like Stand and Deliver and La Bamba. We don't want to hurt the next group of filmmakers coming after us who are trying to get their movies out. Our success is their success.
Lou Diamond Phillips: Stand and Deliver is still being shown in math classes today. I get approached by teachers who say they show Stand and Deliver in their calculus classes to inspire them. There is a lot that is very inspirational in Stand and Deliver. I'm a lot older now than I was then. I know when I have a tool. I will be personally doing fundraisers based around Filly Brown for.music groups, for acting groups, for young Latino actors, simply to give them inspiration, to give them something so they can say, "I can do that as well." Part of this marketing is take it to the people who need to hear it, to whom it's going to make a difference, to the young spoken word artist, the young hip hop artist, the young writer, actor, musician. This crosses so many boundaries.
Youssef Delara: There is one sponsor that happened. We are doing a screening October 8 in LA for Proposition 38, a huge California initiative, to help in education and redistribution of monies. $7400 dollars a year goes to students in public schools, $130,000 to incarceration of youth. So we donated this film to this initiative.
Lou Diamond Phillips: Every once in a while you create a piece of art that can actually have an impact on the community and I will continue to get it out there, to make a difference.
Audience: Some of film's darkest moments were lit the brightest. What you were trying to accomplish?
Youssef: He's a film student!
Michael De Olmos: Yes, I can see that!
Youssef Delara: I don't know if we actually targeted specifically that the dark moments would be light. It's astute of you to point that out. There's an overall look we were going for--we wanted things to be desaturated. The original concept was I wanted to do the film in black and white. But Mike said, "No. You're not a known guy." So we let the process evolve and one of the things that evolved was the very desaturated look. A lot of colors are drawn out. We targeted places where we wanted the color and the color scheme to play differently.
Michael D. Olmos: It's interesting that you pointed that out. Maybe it's an unconscous thing we did there.
Youssef Delara: To answer your question, we're crammed in car, Gina's driving on Echo Park, crying. I'm saying, "Get out of the car now." She gets out, the sun is shining. Working with our DP [Ben Kufrin}, we don't let the inspiration of the moment get in the way of the design. You as directors have an idea, a vision and scope, and there's a million obstacles against that vision. You don't win every battle. Sometimes you have to turn the camera araound, sometimes you have to do X or Y or you don't have enough money so you do Z do you do C. You keep things moving, keep everything turning. In the long run, you'll see that a lot of what you set out to accomplish really is there. It may not be exactly how you set it up.
Audience: What is a shoe-string budget and why does it cost so much money to make a movie?
Michael D. Olmos: The average cost of independent film in time of Spike Lee was $2-5 million. The average cost of an independent film now is $300,000 to $700,000.
Youssef Delara: We're in the middle.
Lou Diamond Phillips: Stand and Deliver was made for $1 million in 1987.
Youssef Delara: A movie is like a concert for 25 days in a row. There's actors, SAG, insurance, equipment, crew, organization. How you load the trucks in the morning will delineate how much time you have to work with Lou Diamond Phillips. If you don't have the right people making the decisions and if you really want to do it on the cheap, you get a lot of films that look cheap and feel cheap. A lot of it has to do with organization. The other part is post production, the editing process, color correction, the mix. Mike and I were hard core about having 26 weeks to edit the film, we ended up with 20 or 21 which is unheard of. It all costs. And minimizing that cost--finding a way to do that on the cheap. Most independent films mix for 5 days. We mixed for 11. That had a lot to do with my relationships with the house and the fact that we begged and pleaded. That's why the film has a sound mix that feels authentic.
Lou Diamond Phillips: Everyone worked for scale or less. On a standard Hollywood film, people work hard, develop a reputation. They climb to the top of the heap. Now you're talking about a major motion picture that has $40 million in cast spent before you roll a frame of film. If we have Tom Cruise, you have to have the best music, best editor, composer, 250 person crew. Now you are paying the rates that are premium for everyone down the line and suddenly you have a $100 million dollar movie.
Filly Brown opened in the DC area on April 26.
Calendar of Events
FILMS
American Film Institute Silver Theater
A series of films by Olivier Assayas will be shown in May and June. May titles are Cold Water, Late August Early September, Les Destinees, Irma Vep and Carlos. Assayas' latest film Something in the Air (2012) will be shown May 2 at 7:15pm.
"L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema" is a series that began at the AFI and the National Gallery of Art. Titles in May include the feature filmCompensation and two programs of short films. Also a restored 35mm print of Nothing But a Man.
"Visionario: The Films of Guillermo del Toro" continues in May with Blade II, Hellboy, The Devil's Backbone and Hellboy II with more in June.
"Ten Years of Film Movement" is a series of 15 international films originally distributed by Film Movement. Titles in May are Adam's Apples, The Bothersome Man, Welcome, The Grocer's Son, The Violin, The FOrest for the Trees, Antares, Mother of Mine and How I Ended This Summer. More in June.
Mel Brooks is the subject of the AFI Life Achievement Award Retrospective. May's films are History of the World Part I, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. More in June.
There are two programs in the "Silent Cinema Showcase" in June. "Wild and Weird" short films with music accompaniment by the renowned Alloy Orchestra on May 3 at 7:30pm and a program of Buster Keaton Shorts also with music by Alloy on May 4 at 3:00pm.
A series of films by Howard Hawks which began in February continues in in May with Part II. Titles are To Have and Have Not, A Song Is Born, Red River, I Was a Male War Bride, The Thing from Another World, Monkey Business and The Big Sky with more in June.
Special engagements in May include Secretariat's Jockey Ron Turcotte, 8-1/2, Black Narcissus and The Comedy. Also in new 35mm prints are The Wages of Fear, Grand Illusion and We Won't Grow Old Together.
The 2013 DC Caribbean Film Festival begins May 31.
"The 48 Hour Film Project" screens films May 9-12 and on May 23 is the "Best of 2013" program.
The "Opera on Film" for May stars Plácido Domingo in Giuseppe Verdi's "Nabucco" performed by the Royal Opera House of London on May 12 at 11:00am and May 14 at 12:30pm.
The "Ballet on Film" for May is "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" performed by the Royal Ballet of London on May 5 at 11:00am and May 7 at 12:30pm. Also "Giselle" from the Royal Ballet of London on May 19 at 11:00am and May 20 at 12:30pm.
Freer Gallery of Art
"The Revolutionary Cinema of Ritwik Ghatak" continues in May. On May 5 at 4:00pm is E-Flat (1961); on May 12 at 2:00pm is The Golden Thread (1965) and on May 19 at 2:00pm is A River Called Titas (1973).
On May 1 at 7:00pm is My Father's House (Zhao Dayong and David Bandurski, 2011), about an African community living in China. Dr. Yoon Jung Park from the Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network will lead a discussion following the film.
On May 5 at 1:00pm is Emperor Visits the Hell with director Luo Li in person.
National Gallery of Art
On May 4 at 2:00pm and 4:00pm is "In the Kingdom of Shadows" a program of films by Zoe Beloff, with the artist present to introduce the films. On May 5 at 4:30pm is an illustrated talk by Zoe Beloff. Part of the series "American Originals Now."
"Shirley Clarke: The Real Thing" is a four-part program of the independent film makers work. On May 11 at 2:00pm is Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World (1962); on May 11 at 4:00pm is Portrait of Jason (1967); on May 25 at 2:00pm is Ornette: Made in America (1986); and on May 26 at 4:30pm is The Connection (1961).
"Jean Rouch in Africa" is a short series of films by the French ethnographer. On May 26 at 2:00pm is Moi, Un Noir shown with the short Mammy Water (1956). More in June.
Special events for May are "Melies: A Trip to the Moon and More" a short program of films by Georges Melies, shown on May 1 at 2:00pm, May 2 a 12:30pm and May 3 at 12:30pm. A digital restoration of Tess (Roman Polanski, 1979) is on May 12 at 4:00pm and May 18 at 2:00pm. Miss Julie (Alf Sjoberg,1951) is on May 19 at 4:30pm.
An illustrated lecture by media historian David James "Toward CS Blues: Delinquency and Danger in Rolling Stones' Films" is followed by a screening of CS Blues (Robert Frank, 1972).
Ballet-related films will complement the new exhibit "Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929: When Art Danced With Music." On May 31 at 1:00pm is The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948). Ballet dancer Betty Low will introduce the film. On May 31 at 3:45pm is Ballets Russes (Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, 2005) with the introduction by Anna Winestein. One more in June.
National Museum of the American Indian
State of Aloha (Anne Misawa, 2009) is a documentary about Hawaii shown at 11:00am and 3:00pm on most Tuesdays and Thursdays during May.
National Portrait Gallery
The great silent classic The Wind (Victor Seastrom, 1928) starring Lillian Gish will be shown in the McEvoy Auditorium May 19 at 3:00pm. Andrew Simpson will perform his original score.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
On May 15 at 6:30pm is the third of three programs of films by Nam June Paik and his contemporaries.
Washington Jewish Community Center
On May 6 at 7:30pm is Defiant Requiem (Doug Shultz, 2012) a documentary about prisoner-musicians in Theresienstadt who performed Verdi's Requiem as an act of resistance.
On May 19 at 3:00pm is Revolutionary Optimists (Nicole Newnham and Maren Grainger-Monsen, 2013) a documentary about the work of Amlan Ganguly who works with children from the Calcutta slums.
A restored Yiddish film from the 1930s Green Fields (Edgar G. Ulmer and Jacob Ben-Ami, 1937), based on the classic play by Peretz Hirshbein, will be shown on May 21 at 7:30pm.
Goethe Institute
"50 Years of French-German Friendship" is a new film series starting in May and ending in July. On May 6 at 6:30pm is Jules and Jim (Francois Truffaut, 1962); and on May 13 at 6:30pm is Cesar and Rosalie (Claude Sautet, 1972. More next month.
The Goethe Institute is one of the locations for the Best of INPUT (International Public Television Conference). On May 4 starting at 9:15am programs from the UK, France, Germany and Spain will be shown throughout the day.
Strathmore
On May 11 at 8:00pm is Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performing Chaplin's original score. Marin Alsop conducts.
French Embassy
Populaire (Régis Roinsard, 2012), which was scheduled for May 7 has been CANCELLED.
The Japan Information and Culture Center
On May 23 at 6:30pm is Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story (Regge Life, 2012), a documentary about JET program participant Taylor Anderson who died in the Tohoku earthquake. A Q&A panel will follow with director Regge Life.
The National Theatre
The series "Montgomery Clift: Hollywood Enigma" ends in May with The Misfits (John Huston, 1961) on May 6 at 6:30pm.
National Archives
On May 9 at 7:00pm is "A Conversation with Gerda Weissmann Klein" and a screening of the Oscar winning documentary of her life One Survivor Remembers.
"Oscar's Docs: American Stories from the 1970s" is a program of classic Oscar-nominated documentaries from the 1970s. On May 30 at 7:00pm is Princeton: Search for Answers (1973) and Marjoe (1972) about the child evangelist. On May 31 at noon is The Flight of the Gossamer Condor (1978) about the first human-powered flying machine and The Great American Cowboy (1973), about rodeo.
West End Cinema
On May 21-23 is "Sudestival," a selection of films (both features and shorts) from the 2013 Sudestival competition.
A Czech film festival is coming in late May. See the website for more information.
The Avalon
The "Czech Lions" film for May is Matchmaking Mayor (Erika Hnikova, 2010), a documentary about a Slovak village which is losing population, on May 8 at 8:00pm. The French Cinematheque film is TBA and the May film for "Reel Israel" is Alice (Dana Goldberg, 2012) on May 22 at 8:00pm.
On May 1 at 8:00pm is a documentary Long Distance Revolutionary (2012), about Mumia Abu-Jamal. Director Stephen Vittorio will do a Q&A after the film.
Italian Cultural Institute
On May 6 at 7:00pm is The Garden of the Finzi Contini (Vittorio De Sica, 1970).
Anacostia Community Museum
On May 23 at 11:00am is Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story (Larkin McPhee, 2010). A discussion with Linda Maxwell follows the screening.
Embassy of Austria
On May 29 at 7:30pm is Shadows from My Past, a documentary about the filmmaker's return to Vienna, a city she had fled as a child in 1940. Filmmaker Gita Kaufman will be present for audience Q&A afterwards.
Solas Nua
On May 20 at 7:00pm is Ballymun Lullaby. Location: Renaissance Dupont Circle Hotel.
The Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital
On May 10 at 7:00pm is Car of the Future, narrated by John Lithgow.
The Hill Center takes part in "The Best of INPUT" on March 3 at 2:45pm, showing mostly non-European films.
Bloombars
On May 7 at 7:00pm is The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Robert Guédiguian, 2011) with a Q&A afterward.
Alden Theater
On May 15 at 7:30pm is The Beloved Rogue (Alan Crosland, 1927) starring John Barrymore as François Villon. Film historian Bruce Lawton will provide commentary and Ben Model with accompany the film with live music.
On May 1 at 10:00am is American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973) as the pick for "Morning Movies" from the AFI's list of 100 Greatest Movies. E.T. (Steven Spielberg, 1982) is shown on May 24 at 7:30pm for "Family Movie Night."
Workhouse Arts Center
The "Dinner and a Movie" event for May is Mamma Mia (Phyllida Lloyd, 2008) on May 3 at 8:00pm.
Busboys and Poets
On May 6 at 6:00pm is War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State about four people who were silenced. Q&A afterward; at the 5th and K location.
DC Shorts
On May 17-18 at the US Navy Memorial Heritage Center are two comedy programs. Short films will be shown with live performances. Each show is presented twice: show A is May 17 at 7:00pm and May 18 at 9:30pm. Show B is May 17 at 9:30pm and May 18 at 7:00pm. See the website for titles and comedians.
FILM FESTIVALS
