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Panelists and speakers explore the many ways in which Los Angeles has been imagined, reimagined, and refracted through the camera lens, in conjunction with a 3-day film series.
The Los Angeles of such films as Sunset Boulevard, Chinatown, Bladerunner, Pulp Fiction, and Mulholland Drive, is a magical city of the imagination that is as complex, dynamic, and familiar as the real city of palm trees and Santa Anas, burnished beaches and melting asphalt under the relentless sun. It is a world unto itself—a mythic place of abundant promise, a desert that has bloomed on the edge of a continent, a golden mirage of edenic prosperity that nonetheless harbors a darker edge: an apocalyptic fault line that runs through its subterranean vaults and threatens its otherwise sunny optimism with the specter of disaster.
An accompanying three-day movie series will present a mix of well known films that offer big studio visions of Los Angeles, as well as lesser known independent films that present viewers with a very different sense of the city.
Friday, March 28th
Keynote, Embassy Room, Davidson Conference Center
6 p.m.
Reception
7 p.m.
Welcome: Lloyd Armstrong, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at USC; and Joseph Aoun, Dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, USC
Introduction: Steve Wasserman, Codirector, Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities, and Editor, Los Angeles Times Book Review
Keynote Speaker: John Rechy: “From Sunset Boulevard to Mulholland Drive: Los Angeles and the Cinematic Imagination”
John Rechy is the author of City of Night, Our Lady of Babylon, and The Coming of the Night.
Saturday, March 29th
“Picturing L.A.,” Embassy Room, Davidson Conference Center
9 a.m.
Introduction:
Joseph Aoun, Dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, USC
Welcoming remarks:
Jerry Campbell, Chief Information Officer and Dean of the USC Libraries; and Steven J. Ross, Professor, Department of History, USC, and Co-director, Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities
9:30 a.m.
Keynote Speaker
Camille Paglia: “Hollywood Vamps: Modern Mythology of the Femme Fatale”
Camille Paglia is University Professor of Humanities and Media Studies, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and author, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson; Sex, Art, and American Culture; and Vamps and Tramps: New Essays
Introduction: Victoria Steele, Head, Department of Special Collections, UCLA
11:15 a.m.
David Thomson, critic and author, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, in conversation with Robert Towne, Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Chinatown)
12:30 p.m.
Lunch, Doheny Memorial Library courtyard
2:00 p.m.
Discussion panel: “Critical Takes”
Doheny Memorial Library, second floor, 2:00–4:15 p.m.
Panelists: Rachel Abramowitz, critic and author, What’s That Gun in Your Pocket?; Steve Erickson, critic and author, Days Between Stations: A Novel; Manohla Dargis, critic, Los Angeles Times; Richard Schickel, critic, Time Magazine; Ella Taylor, critic, L.A. Weekly.
Moderator: Kenneth Turan, critic, Los Angeles Times
4:00 p.m.
Closing remarks: Steve Ross
Sunday, March 30th
Film screenings, Norris Cinema Theater
Admission is free. On-campus parking is $6 a day. Reservations by email are strongly encouraged.
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