Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on schools, stores, businesses and events. With in-person concerts, talks, comedy shows, food festivals and other gatherings cancelled, we have turned our events column into an events/nonevents column. It will remain this way as long as social distancing and stay-at-home orders are in effect.
During this difficult time, please consider contributing to your local arts organizations or to individual artists and performers.
Attend online festivals that focus on Israeli and Irish films. Watch The Mads riff along to vintage shorts and cartoons. Learn about Shirley Jackson's life and work at a Miskatonic lecture from London. Hear about art as an outlet during the Age of Mass Incarceration. And find out how higher education can better serve students and society at a Zócalo panel.
InFocus: Israeli Cinema
NewFilmmakers LA presents screenings of festival shorts and the feature Asia, Ruthy Pribar's debut and the Israeli entry for the 93rd Oscars International Feature Film category. Also available to attend online are Q&A sessions with directors of participating films and panels with top Israeli creatives Alma Har'el (Honey Boy), Ron Leshem (Euphoria and Beaufort) and others.
COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO
The World Is Full Of Terrible People: Shirley Jackson And Female Violence
The London branch of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies begins its 2021 spring lecture series with a focus on writer Shirley Jackson. The online session, presented by Bernice M. Murphy of Trinity College in Dublin, examines Jackson's life and work, including The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962).
COST: £8 GBP; MORE INFO
In Conversation: Carl L. Hart and Carla Shedd
The California African American Museum (CAAM) welcomes Carl L. Hart, professor at Columbia University, who argues in his new book, Drug Use For Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear, that the greatest damage from drugs comes from their illegality. Through research and personal experience, he argues that the criminalization and demonization of drug use -- not drugs themselves -- are a scourge on America. Listen as Hart discusses his position with sociologist and author Carla Shedd. RSVP for Zoom instructions.
COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO
The Mads: A Night of Shorts 2
Mystery Science Theater 3000's Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff ("Dr. Clayton Forrester'' and "TV's Frank" aka the Mads) reunite for a livestream event. They'll live-riff through a series of vintage short films and cartoons and then end the night with a Q&A. Watch via a private link which will be sent to ticketholders an hour before the show.
COST: $10; MORE INFO
Séisme (Earthquake)
The Fowler Museum presents an online discussion on Séisme (Earthquake), a beaded flag created in 2010 by Haitian artist Evelyne Alcide, on the 10-year anniversary of a devastating Haitian earthquake. Katherine Smith, curatorial and research associate of Haitian Arts, and Kyrah Malika Daniels, assistant professor of Art History and Africana Studies at Boston College, discuss the work's depicted nightmarish landscape of Port-au-Prince post-earthquake.
COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO
Live Read: Bringing Up Baby
Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy, A Simple Favor) guest directs Film Independent's first Live Read of 2021, a reimagining of the script by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde and the 1938 film starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. The Live Read cast includes Jane Levy, Alex Newell, Skylar Astin, John Clarence Stewart, Mary Steenburgen and more to be announced.
COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO
Artificial Intelligence: How it Works and What it Means for the Future
Yisong Yue, professor of computing and mathematical sciences in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech, continues the school's Watson Lecture series with an exploration of AI -- data, systems and how it's changed the world. Yue also examines what AI means for the future of material design, robotics and big data seismology. An audience Q&A follows the live webinar lecture.
COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration
CAAM also welcomes Nicole R. Fleedwood this week to discuss her book Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration. Fleetwood offers a chronicle of the U.S. prison system through the creative outlets of people made invisible by America's prison system. Marking Time shows how art can provide the imprisoned with a political voice and a new vision of freedom for the 21st century. RSVP for Zoom instructions.
COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO
Crip Camp
It's been 30 years since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This documentary, from co-directors Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht, focuses on Camp Jened, a ramshackle camp in the Catskills where the "handicapped" felt fulfilled as human beings instead of being isolated or relegated to the fringes of society. The film is executive produced under The Obamas' Higher Ground Productions. FILM at LACMA presents a screening of the film, followed by a post-screening conversation with co-directors Newnham and LeBrecht, moderated by Eric Deggans of NPR. This screening will be hosted on a third-party screening platform or you can watch the film now on Netflix.
COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO
Reconstruction Space: Civilizing Europe After World War II
The Wende Museum's Cold War Spaces lunchtime online Zoom series continues this week with Paul Betts, professor of Modern European History at St. Anthony's College, University of Oxford, and Joes Segal, the Wende Museum's chief curator and director of programming. Betts is author of the book, Ruin and Renewal: Civilizing Europe after WWII.
COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO
The Revivalists
The New Orleans eight-piece rock band plays a livestreamed show from the legendary Crescent City venue Tipitina's to celebrate Tip's 44th birthday.
COST: $15; MORE INFO
CIACLA's Irish Short Reel Series
The Contemporary Irish Arts Center Los Angeles showcases 21 Irish films online for 2021. The curated selection of shorts range from drama, comedy, documentary, animation, sci-fi and contemporary storytelling, all created and produced by some of Ireland's emerging filmmakers.
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Rio Records
The advocacy organization River LAand experiential entertainment artist Mikhael Tara Garver offer a live, immersive journey along the past, present and future of the L.A. River. The online event features live performances and combines art, music, history, design and storytelling for only 100 guests per interactive performance. No two performances are alike.
COST: $25 - $40; MORE INFO
Can Higher Education Be Transformed to Better Serve Society?
Rising tuition, student debt and outdated curricula have marginalized the neediest students. Zócalo's first online panel discussion for the new year asks, what is the value of higher education and how can institutions right the ship? How can higher education transform itself to better serve society? The panel features Arizona State University President Michael Crow, Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr and California State University Chancellor Joseph Castro. Moderated by Jennifer Ruark, deputy managing editor, Chronicle of Higher Education.
COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO
Prodigal Son: Season Two Preview Panel
The Paley Center's 2021's Front Row series launched last week with the release of a prerecorded conversation between cast and creatives of the FOX show. Participants include actors Tom Payne, Michael Sheen, Bellamy Young, Lou Diamond Phillips, Halston Sage, Keiko Agena, Aurora Perrineau and Franks Harts as well as executive producers, writers and showrunners Chris Fedak and Sam Sklaver. Watch on Yahoo Entertainment.
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Search Party, Season 4
The new season of the comedy-thriller Search Party (formerly on TBS) starring Alia Shawkat, John Early, Cole Escola, Meredith Hagner and John Reynolds, starts streaming on HBO Max with the first three episodes released on Jan. 14. The story picks up as Dory (Shawkat) is being held prisoner by psychotic stalker Chip (Escola), who's trying to make her believe that they're best friends.
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer
If you remember the summer of 1985 in L.A., then you'll remember the heat and how the Night Stalker terrorized SoCal. His victims of sexual assault and murder ranged in age from 6 to 82 with varying racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. The hunt was led by Gil Carrillo from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and homicide investigator Frank Salerno. The four-part docuseries, directed by Tiller Russell, is told through first-person interviews, archival footage and original photography. Available on Netflix.
Who doesn't miss going out to eat or stopping by a bar for a drink? Here are a few options from restaurants and bars as we work our way back toward normal.
