Brush up your franglais! It’s time for COLCOA.

Film
Not Coca-Cola©, but COLCOA, the annual French film festival in Hollywood that joins the City of Lights and the City of Angels at the cinematic-hip. 2018 COLCOA French Film Festival launches next Monday evening at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood, and features 86 films, television series, digital series and VR programs. An exclusive ...

Doing the mashed potato with Dee Dee Sharp … and Steve

Music
When we last left our friend Steve Vilarino, he was 15 years old and doing the pony at “Hollywood A Go Go,” a teen dance-party broadcast, behind Marvin Gaye singing (er …lip syncing) “Can I Get A Witness.” Steve pops up again, this time doing the mashed potato, appropriately enough to “Mashed Potato Time” sung ...

Robert Dornhelm, who directed two prominent dance docs, to get award

Film
​ ​Director Robert Dornhelm, a contemporary filmmaker of great range and versatility who has worked across genres and formats, is slated to receive the 2018 SEEfest Legacy Award. The award will be granted at the 12th annual South East European Film Festival‘s opening night, April 26, at the Writer’s Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. A ...

I love you, Leigh Taylor-Young! 1

Film
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary screening of the hit Peter Sellers comedy from 1968, ‘I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!‘ The Establishment meets the counterculture in this topical and often uproarious satire that poked fun at many of the conflicts dividing the country during the tumultuous 1960s. Sellers plays ...

A Giselle for the 21st Century

Dance · Fashion
Seen above, the tragic-heroine, “Giselle,” in a contemporary re-make of a woman’s story dating from the 19th century and transferred (rightfully in the 21st century) to the choreographic reins of a woman. The role is delivered with great pathos by the work’s creator/lead dancer Dada Masilo in her “Giselle” on view this weekend at The ...

Aline Mare’s resplendent body art @ Beyond Baroque

Visual arts
Los Angeles-based artist Aline Mare grew up in New York City and began her career as an image maker and performer in the thriving avant-garde arts scene of downtown Manhattan in the 1970s and 1980s – her collaborators and close friends included Richard Foreman, Meredith Monk, Nam June Paik, and Richard Serra. Mare first met ...

Dear, departed Donald McKayle

Dance
Touching tribute photos of the beloved DONALD MCKAYLE (1930 – 2018), legendary dancer, choreographer, director and consummate teacher and mentor who perished aged 87 after a lengthy illness, April 7, 2018 — in Irvine, California.

Michael Jackson could only spin to the left, said Donald McKayle

Dance · Music · Theater
Chatting in 2011 with the great Tony Award-winning choreographer Donald McKayle (Raisin, Sophisticated Ladies, Dr. Jazz), who passed away just last week, McKayle let drop that he had worked with Michael Jackson on two occasions. And he remembered one funny detail. “He taught himself to dance,” said McKayle. “He could spin only to the left.” ...

Feathers, masks, veils: bodies transfigured by Charlie Le Mindu

Fashion · Visual arts
Charlie Le Mindu‘s NOIR is an exhibition of raw sculptures; through literal extensions of his existing work with the human form, he explores the competing forces that drive our daily lives and relationships. Le Mindu will present a series of performances on the exhibit’s opening night demonstrating his provocative visual imagination, in which the gendered ...

Spirited actress/director Ida Lupino showcased @ UCLA Film Archive

Film
This one is for Kelly Anne Graml, the longtime publicist at UCLA Film & Television Archive who has been a joy to work with and who will retire from the Archive soon. *          *         * Calling all me-too’ers and enough-is-enough’ers! Now’s the time to march across Wilshire Boulevard and get-thee to a round-up of films ...