SEED: The Untold Story follows passionate seed keepers protecting our 12,000-year-old food legacy. In the last century, 94% of our seed varieties have disappeared. As biotech chemical companies control the majority of our seeds, farmers, scientists, lawyers, and indigenous seed keepers fight a David and Goliath battle to defend the future of our food. Both directors, Jon Betz and Taggart Siegel, will be doing Q & As after the 4:50, 7:20, and 10:00 pm shows Friday, September 30 and September October 1 at the MONICA FILM CENTER. Jon Betz will be doing a Q & A after the 11:00 am show in PASADENA ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2. Taggart Siege [...]

Some of the production company Merchant Ivory's greatest triumphs are adaptations of E.M. Forster novels. There are three of them: A Room with a View (1985), Maurice (1987) and Howards End (1992), which is one of their undisputed masterpieces. Based on Forster’s 1910 novel, Howards End is a saga of class relations and changing times in Edwardian England. Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson, who won the Best Actress Oscar for this performance) and her sister Helen (Helena Bonham Carter) become involved with two couples: a wealthy, conservative industrialist (Anthony Hopkins) and his wife (Vanessa Redgrave), and a working-class man (Samuel West) a [...]

Set in 1940s New York, Stephen Frears' Florence Foster Jenkins is the true story of the legendary New York heiress and socialite (Meryl Streep) who obsessively pursued her dream of becoming a great singer. The voice she heard in her head was beautiful, but to everyone else it was hilariously awful. Her "husband" and manager, St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), an aristocratic English actor, was determined to protect his beloved Florence from the truth. But when Florence decided to give a public concert at Carnegie Hall, St. Clair knew he faced his greatest challenge. All of our 7:10 PM screenings on Thursday, August 11 and 1:30 PM screenin [...]

The documentary Hieronymus Bosch: Touched by the Devil follows a team of art historians who try to reveal the mystery of the 25 extant paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Over the course of five years the research team travelled the world, visiting museums such as The Louvre, The Prado and the National Gallery of Art in Washington to make an in-depth analysis of Bosch’s paintings. By using modern techniques, such as X-ray, infrared photography, and multi-spectrum analysis, they allow us to penetrate into the deeper layers of his paintings thus helping the audience to look at the works of Bosch with new eyes. [caption id="attachment_7918" ali [...]

It comes as no surprise that DYING TO KNOW, Gay Dillingham's documentary has been held over at three Laemmle locations (Monica Film Center, Playhouse 7 and Claremont 5). After all, it chronicles the intriguing friendship between TIMOTHY LEARY and RAM DASS, two of the 60s most fascinating luminaries. Plus, it doesn't hurt that the film has been playing to great critical and audience acclaim.  To wit, check out this short video clip featuring audience footage from the film's premiere at the Royal last week. To celebrate this sleeper hit, we've procured a copy of Ram Dass' seminal book BE HERE NOW signed by the great mystic himself! EN [...]