Blog

Join us for a sneak preview of the upcoming Wholphin No 9 on Saturday, July 11th at ATA. The screening will include Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega’s riveting, Academy Award-nominated documentary, La Corona, about a beauty pageant in a Columbian women’s prison, this year’s Cannes Jury Award winner, Julius Avery’s Jerrycan, a stunning French animation about a man who is hit by a meteorite and knocked 91 centimeters off axis, a haunting narrative short about the danger that lies in the Flemish countryside, a brand new, original short by Caveh Zahedi, and much more.

This evening’s screening of 14 shorts features experimental, narrative, and documentary films and videos that use the city of Los Angeles in overtly narrative or thematic roles, thereby allowing the city to serve not only as the setting, but as a protagonist as well. Charles Doran, the program’s curator, presents the LA premiere of his Westsider; Patrick Robins debuts Hair Cowboy, a documentary about a homeless hairdresser; and Echo Park film students Ava Hess and Valentina Martin offer up a music video and experimental “film poem,” respectively.

Cuban director Juan Carlos Cremata’s film tells the story of a young girl who runs away from home because her mother plans to leave Cuba and she doesn’t want to go. Malu is from a priveleged family and her single mother does not want her to play with Jorgito, as she thinks his background coarse and commonplace. Jorgito’s mother is a socialist who is proud of her family’s less privileged social standing. What neither woman recognizes is the immense strength of the bond between Malu and Jorgito. When the children learn that Malu’s mother is planning to leave Cuba and take her along, they decide to travel to the other side of the island to find Malu’s father and persuade him against signing the forms that would allow it. 2005, Cuba, 80min., Spanish with English subtitles.