Acropolis Cinema
Bringing experimental, international, and undistributed films to Los Angeles
April 6, 2023
Rewind & Play (Dir. Alain Gomis, 2022)
Time: 8:00pm
Location: 2220 Arts + Archives
Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90057
Los Angeles premiere!
In December 1969, legendary jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk ended his European concert tour with a performance at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. Before the show, he was invited to appear on a French television program to perform and answer questions in an intimate setting. Using newly discovered footage from this recording, director Alain Gomis (Félicité) reveals the disconnect between Monk and his interviewer, Henri Renaud, whose unwittingly trivializing approach conveys the casual racism and exploitation prevalent in the music industry at large. A fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary with extraordinary rarely-seen performances, Rewind & Play offers a unique opportunity to see Monk in a way that very few people did.
Riveting.
Tony Pipolo, Artforum
Rewind & Play dazzles! A gleaming portrait of Monk at work.
Lisa Kennedy, The New York Times
Gomis’s film illuminates [Monk] in a light in which we’ve rarely seen him... What Gomis has uncovered is fascinating.
Connor Williams, Reverse Shot
A minor masterwork of historical investigation and a fervent tribute to the epochally great musician... Monk’s solo performances [are] spectacular.
Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Makes Monk a man again, one who was gifted, loved, harassed... Shows not only a genius's performance but also the work of crafting a public image.
Blair McClendon, 4Columns
March 16-19, 2023
Time: Various
Location: 2220 Arts + Archives
Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90057
Los Angeles premieres!
An unprecedented collaboration between Acropolis Cinema and the Locarno Film Festival, the sixth annual Locarno in Los Angeles returns in 2023 to its new home at the multidisciplinary arts venue 2220 Arts + Archives in MacArthur Park. Running from March 16-19, the sixth edition of Locarno in Los Angeles will feature eleven films from the most recent edition of Locarno, including a selection of many of the prize winners. The festival opens with the winner of Locarno’s Special Jury Prize, Alessandro Comodin’s delightful and mischievous The Adventures of Gigi the Law (March 16). The Spotlight Selection (March 17) is Patricia Mazuy’s acclaimed revenge thriller Saturn Bowling; Fairytale, Russian master Alexander Sokurov’s dreamlike meditation on the 20th century’s legacy of autocrats and dictators, is the Centerpiece Selection (March 18), while the Closing Night Selection (March 19) is Iraqi-French director Abbas Fahdel’s deeply personal look at his nation’s contemporary struggles and contradictions, Tales of the Purple House.
