The Best Movies Starring…Los Angeles

Lots of movies are filmed in Los Angeles, but only a relative few give a leading role to the city itself. Yet a new series at Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive “considers a selection of films that foreground the history, architecture, and neighborhoods of Los Angeles.” The series includes mainstream picks like “Chinatown” and “La La Land”, but also under the radar gems like “Killer of Sheep,” a milestone in Black indie film, and the landmark Asian Pacific American feature “Hito Hata: Raise the Banner.” We’ll talk with film critics about those movies and more…and we want to hear from you…what’s your most essential LA movie?

Guests:

Elvis Mitchell, culture critic and historian; host of KCRW's The Treatment, an inside look at the creators of popular culture; director of the 2022 Netflix documentary "Is That Black Enough for You?!?

Amy Nicholson, LA-based film critic; host of the podcast "Unspooled"

May Hong HaDuong, director, UCLA Film & Television Archive; Film and Television Archive - which collaborated with BAMPFA on the "Cities and Cinema: Los Angeles series. The series runs through October 3 at BAMPFA in Berkeley.

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