TCM’s festival begins on Thursday, May 6th and will continue through May 9th. Films will be available for viewing on specific times and dates on TCM and others will be available on demand on HBO Max.

So here are my choices as the films most likely to scratch that theater itch amongst this year’s Classic Film Festival selections.

On TCM:

May 6th:

West Side Story opens the festival at 8:00 PM ET. TCM is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the film. Joining the showing of this 10-time Academy Award winner will be a newly filmed conversation with George Chakiris (“Bernardo”), Rita Moreno (“Anita”) and Russ Tamblyn (“Riff”).

May 7th:

Annie Get Your Gun is showing at 11:45 AM ET in a new 4K restoration. Betty Hutton stars as Annie Oakley and Howard Keel stars as Frank Butler in this film version of the Irving Berlin musical.

Wuthering Heights is showing at 2:00 PM ET. The film stars Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff and Merle Oberon as Cathy. The film opened on April 7, 1939. Twenty days later a play by Randolph Carter opened at the Longacre Theater in New York with Don Terry as Heathcliff and Edith Barrett as Catherine Ernshaw. The play closed after just 12 performances.

Grease 2 is showing at 11:00 PM ET. While the original film Grease grossed nearly 400 million dollars worldwide, this sequel (starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Maxwell Caulfield and Lorna Luft) only grossed 15 million dollars worldwide.

The Producers, the original Mel Brooks film from 1968, is showing at 1:15 AM ET (technically May 8th, but on TCM’s schedule as a May 7th showing – but that’s 10:15 PM PT). Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel stars as Leo Bloom and Max Bialystock.

May 8th:

Nichols and May: Take Two, a documentary about Mike Nichols and Elaine May is being shown at 11:45 AM ET.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? screens at 1:00 PM ET. Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal and Sandy Dennis star in this 1966 adaptation of Edward Albee’s play.

From Broadway to Hollywood, hosted by pianist Richard Glazier, screens at 3:00 AM ET. The show promises interviews, music and commentary.

May 9th:

Her Man, a film from 1930 with Helen Twelvetrees and X, is showing at 8:45 AM ET. The film is loosely based on the play Frankie and Johnnie, written by John M. Kirkland. The play opened in 1925 and ran for 61 performances.

The Goodbye Girl, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason, shows at 9:30 PM ET. The film served as the inspiration for the Marvin Hamlisch, Neil Simon and David Zippel musical from 1993. There will be a new interview with Dreyfuss as part of this program.

Fame screens at 11:45 PM ET. The film, which starred Debbie Allen, Irene Cara, Paul McCrane, Anne Meara, Barry Miller and others was directed by Alan Parker. It served as the inspiration for the 1998 musical (that only used the title song from the film). There will be a new interview with Allen as part of this program.

HBO MAX will also be showing the following films on demand:

Dogfight, the 1991 film by Nancy Savoca, starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor. This film inspired by 2012 musical by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

MGM Musicals & Outtakes will show outtakes from It’s Always Fair Weather, Singin‘ in the Rain and Take Me Out to the Ball Game.

Once, the 2007 film by John Carney starring Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. This is the movie that inspired by 2012 Tony Award-winning musical.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher. The film was inspired by Ken Kesey’s novel as was the 1963 play by Dale Wasserman which starred Kirk Douglas. The actor had long wanted to make a film, but was unable to do so. His son, Michael Douglas, produced the film being shown which went on to win Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.

A Star Is Born from 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason. Though it has never appeared on Broadway, there has long been talk of adapting this film for the stage. Most recently Bill Condon (who directed the film version of Dreamgirls and the Broadway revival of Side Show) was said to be involved with adapting the Bradley Cooper film for the stage.

Enjoy the movies!

Photo: Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel and Lee Meredith in The Producers (Photo by: Mary Evans/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection/Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival 2021)

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According to Dance Camera West’s Kelly Hargraves it all comes down to math.

“It is competitive to get into our festival. Last year we had 325 films submitted and we showed 50-60. This year we had 250 submissions and we’re showing 16. There’s a 10% chance you’ll get in…or less.”

Dance Camera West is a Los Angeles-based film festival that showcases the best in international dance films. Hargraves co-founded the festival twenty years ago and has served as the Executive and Artistic Director of Dance Camera West since 2018.

Like any festival in the past year, Dance Camera West has had to find new ways of doing things. The 2021 festival will take place on January 30th and 31st as a drive-in movie event at Santa Monica College in conjunction with The Broad Stage.

“I think it will be so cool to see these films so big,” said Hargraves by phone last week. “It’s also sad that we won’t all be communing which is why people love theater in the first place, but you won’t have to panic about safety. I’m not looking forward to seeing my face 25 feet high. If I come out of this with any ego, you’ll know it was strong.”

As for the films themselves, one thing Hargraves is pleased about is the reinvention of how dance can be presented on film.

“There are still 3-4 ways to make dance films, but the biggest evolution about dance is the loss of the proscenium frame and the films we choose don’t have a front view. We want the camera in duet with the performer, so the moving camera and performer create a different dimension of dance. Now because of the evolution of cameras and drones, it’s a lot more expansive. They have the ability to go from minute detail of a baby toe to a huge landscape and see how they fit in the environment.”

It should be noted that Hargraves does not decide which films make the festival each year.

“I’m working really hard to not just make it my vision. It needs to be hipper, cooler, more gender diverse. We have 30 people reviewing films and four people on a jury.”

The films that did make it into the festival range from films shot on a huge canvas before the pandemic to films that were shot under the restrictions required during it.

“I really like to go back and forth between what one artist can do on their own and what others with a big cast can do. Showing both side by side is fine. I don’t really want to show only the high production value. I want to help support the artists coming up with work on their own.”

One of the smaller, and more moving films, is Forest Floor, directed and choreographed by Robbie Synge. He appears in the film with his longtime collaborator Julie Cleves.

“It’s a beautiful film that touches people emotionally because of the way it’s made. What I like about that film is there’s a little bit of a narrative forming and characters and relationships that play out more in films than on stage. With those two the intimacy is there from the beginning because of their relationship.”

Given what the last few years have wrought on the world, it comes as no surprise that there are a couple films with politics on their mind. For instance, Heidi Duckler’s ESCAPE, which was filmed in three different locations in Chile in November 2019. Hargraves revealed a bit of how that film came to be.

“She didn’t set out to make it blatantly political until it became that and she decided they needed to capture what was going on. It’s a lovely film, the way they used the environment, the site specific-ness of it. The other one that is working directly toward that is Second Seed by Baye & Asa.” Second Seed was created in response to D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation.

Last year Dance Camera West was online. Hargraves is looking forward to a post-Covid festival in 2022.

“I’m looking forward to everything that happens after Covid! I swear I’m going to Target to enjoy it. I pray that our perspective has shifted and we’re full of gratitude for every little thing we see, do and touch. I hope people have discovered the power of dance films. The great thing about this year is people are discovering it in a new way.”

Every festival, whether by accident or design, somehow ends up reflecting who we are in a given moment. Famed dancer/choreographer Martha Graham wrote in her memoir, Blood Memory, “I feel the essence of dance is the expression of man – the landscape of his soul.”

Hargraves has very definite ideas of how Dance Camera West 2021 reflects the landscape of our souls.

“Artists are going to make work, especially dancers, with whatever they can. Whatever limitations they have, it’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity. How lucky are we that through this pandemic we’re all connected through social media and we have phones at home to take photos and videos. I just think dancers are amazing. They are making stuff out of nothing. It’s just there if you let yourself see it.”

Dance Camera West 2021 is being shown in two parts. Each night Program A and Program B will be shown. You can watch both programs in one night or come back on successive nights to see each program. There are eight films in each program. For details go here.

Main Photo: An image from ESCAPE (Courtesy Dance Camera West)

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She is one of the founders of Jacob Jonas The Company (along with Jonas and William Adashek). She’s been dancing with the company since its inception and recently added a producer title to her resume by producing, along with Jonas, the films.dance festival that launched yesterday.

The company produced fifteen new dance films that will be unveiled one-at-a-time over 15 weeks. The first film, Kaduna, was released yesterday. Wilson dances in two of the films: Match (debuts on February 15th) and Same Sky (debuts March 22nd.)

Last week I spoke by phone with Wilson about contemporary definitions of dance, working on these films and how dance might thrive with or without superstars. What follows are excerpts from that conversation that have been edited for length.

I’ve watched all fifteen films you’ve produced. It left me wondering is all movement dance?

That’s a great question that comes up a lot actually. Dance is movement, but I wouldn’t say all movement is dance. It has to do with intention and where your intention lies in the movement to make it into a dance.

How did these fifteen films become the projects Jacob Jonas The Company opted to produce?

We brought in a group as a committee to brainstorm to create films that intersect dance styles and artists who may not typically work together because of geography or their dance style. We did research and invited individuals we thought would be interesting pairings. Many had never met in person. We produced all fifteen films early in the pandemic. We found a safe way to create them and wanted to build a community.

Did you build into the films a thematic through-line amongst the films? If not, did you in hindsight discover there was one?

There were a few themes we kept in mind when creating the series. One was celebrating the human spirit and using dance to celebrate that authentic meaning of being human. One was celebrating diversity in dance. Another strong theme was the relationship to nature and how do we use the backyards of these countries in the films.

How much of the work do you think is a response to the pandemic since they were all created after the pandemic closed theaters around the world?

It’s definitely a reflection of the time – this new area that we as artists and everyone in the world has entered into. We have a deeper understanding of each other because we’re having a shared experience. Whether intentionally or subconsciously, those ideas are running through artists as they create. We might not have created a film specifically about isolation, but the themes are there as we express ourselves.

What is, or should be, the role of narrative in dance films?

I don’t think it is necessary, but I think it exists and when it does it could allow for individuals who might not have a strong connection with dance to connect to it more. Dance can sometimes be misunderstood by those without experience. One of the beautiful things about dance is its ability to communicate without words. Having worked on these films across continents and cultures you can see the universality of the movement telling the story.

One of the films you produced, Another Serious Dance Film, is making fun of dance films. What are the pitfalls that have to be carefully navigated so that projects don’t fall victim to everything this film is spoofing?

I love it’s tongue-in-cheek nature! I think it is a great reminder to not take things so seriously. We can get so in our head and this is a reminder that we can celebrate and have fun and make something to laugh about and bring people together in a light-hearted way.

Looking at some of the films it made me wonder when an editor might be just as responsible for the success of a given film as much, if not more so, than the choreographer. What was your experience on these fifteen films in that regard?

Not only the editor and choreographer, but the director is really important for the films we produced. We made sure people could come together and share their creative ideas as a team and create the best results. Something I’ve learned from this process is seeing how many versions of one film there could be. If you had two different editors on the same film you could make two different films with the same material. It comes down to artistic practice.

For you personally, what did you get out of these projects as a producer versus what satisfies you as a dancer?

The global community has been something that has been something I really treasure and am grateful to be a part of. I feel much more involved. As a dancer you have to improvise to be a dancer, as a producer you oversee it all with the director, the choreographer, the dancers. My community gets broadened.

Legendary actor, dancer, director and choreographer Gene Kelly told Interview Magazine that “The future of dance will always be tied up with the public’s acceptance of the star. If they accept the star, then they’ll accept the dance.” We have very few actual dance stars today of the kind he was describing. From your perspective, what will the future of dance be tied up with moving forward?

The first thing that comes to mind is the feeling and the emotion. There’s something so powerful about dance. People, especially now, need the time to dive deep into their feelings. I read a New York Times article talking about arts and artists right now. Much of the world is very constrained and art is something that can help us exhale. Dance is one of the ways we can do that. That’s something to recognize – the power of the art form.

Main Photo: Jill Wilson (Photo by Jacob Jonas/Courtesy Jacob Jonas The Company)

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Keeping in mind what’s going on, curators Jecca Barry, Kristin Marting, and Beth Morrison have created this year a festival that showcases work that can easily be enjoyed at home. The works were mostly created in response to the reality of living in a pandemic. Rather than a lengthy creation/development process, several pieces were created within the year.

Prototype begins on Friday, January 8th and continues through Saturday, January 16th. All but one of the programs is available for streaming. All but one work is free to view. Those who live in New York will have the opportunity to see the one in-person event, but more about that in a minute.

Here is the line-up for the 2021 Prototype Festival:

Opening the festival is the digital world premiere of Modulation. Composers Jojo Abot, Sahba Aminikia, Juhi Bansal, Raven Chacon, Carmina Escobar, Yvette Jackson,Molly Joyce, Jimmy López, Angelica Negrón, Paul Pinto, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Joel Thompson, and Bora Yoon were all asked to write music for this viewer-lead experience.

The work examines how opera and theatre can adapt and perhaps thrive by embracing digital technology. Viewers watching Modulation get to choose their own path which asks them to deal with very real issues exacerbated by the pandemic.

There are 13 different pieces included. Imaginary Places designed the visual components. This is the only priced-ticket part of the festival. Tickets are $25.

Beginning on January 9th is Times³ (Times x Times x Times) which sounds perfect for headphones. Composer Pamela Z and artist Geoff Sobelle created Times³ to give a sense of Times Square and its history in all its sonic glory before the pandemic rendered the popular tourist destination eerily quiet.

Also having its debut on January 9th will be the one in-person event. Ocean Body, which utilizes film and music, is an installation at HERE in SOHO. Appointments to see the show are required as each audience is limited to eight people. Longtime collaborators composer/vocalists Helga Davis and Shara Nova have teamed up with filmmaker Mark DeChiazza and visual artist Annica Cuppetelli for Ocean Body.

The next three programs are grouped together as Digital U.S. Premieres. They are:

The Murder of Halit Yozgat is an opera inspired by a tragic event that is hard to believe. The title character was 21 when he was assassinated in a parents’ café in Kassel, Germany in 2006. He was shot twice in the head. In spite of this being in a very small café, in broad daylight, a German secret service agent who was there claims he never heard a gunshot and never noticed Yozgat’s lifeless body.

Composer Ben Frost and Petter Ekmann have collaborated with librettist Daniela Danz to bring this story to life. This is not a traditional opera. Electronic music, dark metal and sound art are all utilized in the score. Frost directed the film that will be streaming.

The Planet – A Lament is a song cycle depicting life in a small village trying to recover from a tsunami.

Director Garin Nugroho, working with dramaturg Michael Kantor, consulted with Papuan choreographers, composers and dancers to realize The Planet – A Lament. The project was born out of the research of Papuan singer/composer Septina Layan.

Layan also performs The Planet which utilizes film, live dance and a 14-voice choir to examine how life and creation can arise from such a devastating disaster.

Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists was inspired by the book of poetry by the same name by a. Rawlings. The work was composed by Valgeir Sigurðsson.

In Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists, the stages of sleep are mirrored with the metamorphosis of butterflies and moths. From egg to larva to caterpillar to moth is depicted in parallel to insomnia, narcolepsy, dream states and sleepwalking.

Of all the offerings at Prototype Festival, this one intrigues me the most.

The first of scheduled artist chats begins on Sunday, January 10th. To see the schedule for a specific offering, click on the title of each piece to be taken to more details, access to tickets and details about the artist chats.

Photo: An image from Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists (Photo courtesy Prototype Festival)

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Dance Camera West has partnered with the various filmmakers and Ovid.TV to make over half of this year’s films available. There is a $12 fee, but you will have access to films for one week.

This Virtual Film Festival is divided into five different programs. The first four programs each offer a minimum of 8 films. The fifth program is dedicated to documentaries and there are three in that program. This virtual film festival starts May 14th and continues through June 1st.

Here is a list of what’s available in the various programs:

PROGRAM #1: In the Anchor Print, Wounded Not Conquered, Screaming Shapes, Kopitoto, The Wait Room, HOME, Save Yourself and Bhairava

PROGRAM #2: Cinderella Games, Kota, Unspoken Spoken, Dialectics, Making Men, If I Sound Happy That’s Your Mistake, But First and FÖLD: Sculpted in the Wind

PROGRAM #3: PungJeong.Gak (A Town with a Blue Hill), Goldfish, ALI, About Face, Maids, Mass, Family Portrait and I See Life Through Your Eyes

PROGRAM #4: Vestiges, Some ways to get rid of a body, Bloodrot, Don’t Miss It, Skin I’m In, Humana, OME, Cielo, One Another, Monk and Her Magnum Opus

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM: Cipher, From There to Here, Three Dances

Dance Camera West always offers challenging and visionary depictions of dance. The films in these programs present a world view not just of dance, but of our time.

You can get more details by clicking on the link in the opening paragraph.

Photo from Wounded Not Conquered (Courtesy of Dance Camera West)

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Unlike many other streaming options available to view, the Stratford Festival is making each production available for three weeks. To access the films, just click on the link in the first paragraph.

The Stratford Festival has grouped three plays into four different themes.

Trilogy #1: Social Order and Leadership

The Stratford Shakespeare Film Festival began last week with King Lear starring Colm Feore. King Lear began April 23rd and will be available through May 14th.

André Sills stars as Coriolanus, a Roman General who, after a significant victory, proves to be an immature and boastful man who has no empathy towards the lower class. Robert LePage directed this production. Coriolanus will be available April 30th to May 21st.

That Scottish play, aka Macbeth, will be available May 7th to May 28th. Ian Lake stars as the title character. Krystin Pellerin stars as Lady MacBeth. Michael Blake is MacDuff and Scott Wentworth is Banquo. Shelagh O’Brien directed the film of the play directed by Antonio Cimolino.

Trilogy #2: Isolation

The second trilogy is called Isolation. It begins on May 14th with The Tempest, which will be available through June 4th. Timon of Athens will run May 21st to June 11th. Love’s Labour’s Lost concludes this trilogy May 28th to June 18th.

Trilogy #3: Minds Pushed to the Edge

The third trilogy is called Minds Pushed to the Edge. Hamlet will launch on June 4th and run through June 25th. King John is next starting June 11th and available through June 2nd. Pericles closes out this trilogy June 18th to July 9th.

Trilogy #4: Relationships

The final trilogy is named Relationships and features three very different views of relationships. The historical drama Antony and Cleopatra starts June 25th and will be available through July 16th. Romeo and Juliet, the ultimate tragedy, will be available July 2nd to July 23rd. This trilogy, and the entire film festival, concludes with the comedy The Taming of the Shrew from July 9th to July 30th.

As each trilogy gets started, we will update you with cast and additional details.

In the meantime all you Anglophiles and Shakespeare fans, you have much to look forward to with the Stratford Shakespeare Film Festival.

Main Photo: Ian Lake with members of the company of Macbeth (Photo by David Hou)

All photos courtesy of the Stratford Festival

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It seems like a Herculean task: documenting the history of music in New Orleans in less than two hours. After all, music in the Big Easy goes back hundreds of years. The task, however, did not seem as daunting to filmmaker Michael Murphy. The end result is his thoroughly enjoyable and informative new film Up from the Streets: New Orleans The City of Music. The documentary has the first of three screenings at the Pan African Film Festival and Arts Festival on Friday. Given this film is a love letter to the city he loves, it is appropriate that first showing is on Valentine’s Day.

Up from the Streets, which features musician Terence Blanchard as both a performer and the on-camera narrator, was originally planned to be part of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of New Orleans. Like many a documentary before his, Murphy wasn’t able to get the film done by that time.

Earlier this week I spoke by phone with Murphy about the city he loves, how Louis Armstrong is the foundation of much of the music from New Orleans and about the future of the city itself. Here are edited excerpts from that conversation.

In the film Herbie Hancock says, “New Orleans has been the heart and soul of this country for generations.” Do you think that is common knowledge?

I don’t. Why not? I can only tell you from my own personal experience. Being an independent filmmaker and trying to pitch film and programs about my city, there was always, I consider it almost like a knee-jerk reaction that “New Orleans is great, Michael, but your city’s music almost belongs in a museum.” One of the first questions asked by potential distributors was “How are you going to make this music still seem relevant?”

I knew how I was going to do it. I’ll start with the founding of the city and take it all the way up to bands of today like Tank and the Bangas and Terence Blanchard. Like Terence says in the film, “You can walk down the street and it sounds like they have an influence of Louis Armstrong and they don’t even know it.” You have one eye in the rear-view mirror and one eye looking forward.

If Louis Armstrong were to hear Tank and the Bangas, would he see or hear his legacy in that music?

I’m not sure if he would see it immediately. If he talked to the band members he might pick it up. I think I would have to be a musician to really understand that.

In the film Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong are called by Preservation Hall Creative Director Ben Jaffe “punk rock of their time.” Obviously Armstrong changing a lyric in “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South” to “When It’s Slavery Time Down South” is pretty punk, particularly when he did it. What else makes them punk?

Going back to the 1980s when I started doing this stuff, [Murphy has filmed Jazz Fest in New Orleans for nearly 20 years] there were a lot of musicians who didn’t understand Louis Armstrong. It was that negative association that he was an Uncle Tom sort of thing. As I became more involved with the musicians over the years and Terence says it beautifully, this guy was on the cutting edge. This guy was taking the tradition of New Orleans and he was adding things like solos that were keeping perfectly in time with the song, but suddenly you have this incredible solo that  breaks out. Harry Connick Jr. talks about the importance of improv and a lot of that improv comes from Louis. I can see what Ben was talking about. He was breaking out of the traditional New Orleans sound.

You have a lot of unique performances of songs in the film. How did you select the artists and the songs and will there be a life for those recordings outside the film?

The selection of the songs was rather difficult. Initially I had 200 songs, then I got it down to 100, then 50. But I was always bouncing ideas off Terence and throwing out a song, trying to see what encapsulates as best as possible all this music that comes out of the city knowing I couldn’t include everybody. In terms of other use, there have been people asking if we are doing a CD. That is something we are going to pursue.

Hurricane Katrina devastated the city and you include it in the film. While watching it, I got the sense that future generations may never get to experience due to global warming. Did you consider that while making the film?

I’m not sure I thought of it like that, but I will tell you the Katrina segment I built into the film, I can admit, I still cry every time I look at that segment. I get really emotional. I’m kind of doing it right now.

I was here. I was stubborn as hell. At the last minute I got out, but when I came back the destruction was unbelievable. I still carry that particular concern, but I have that concern on a global basis.

Louis Armstrong once said, “Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine, I look right into the heart of good ole New Orleans. It has given me something to live for.” What has New  Orleans given you?

Oh my God. New Orleans have given me a very deep appreciation of life. And trying to live life to the fullest.  As a young kid we didn’t have air conditioning. It was hot in the summertime. We would always sleep with our windows open. I have memories of laying in bed and I would hear somebody practicing an instrument. It could be a piano, a horn or a drum. But every night you would hear from different corners of the neighborhood. I would fall asleep listening to that. That’s New Orleans right there.

Up from the Streets screens February 14th at 9:30 PM; February 19th at 4:00 PM and February 20th at 9:25 PM at the Cinemark Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza Theatres. For tickets go here.

Main photo: Terence Blanchard in a scene from Up From the Streets (All photos courtesy of the filmmaker)

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Directed by Stephen Kijak, the film explores the often tumultuous relationship between the two. Even though he had played a major part in the resurrection of her later career, theirs was not an easy relationship. Though his involvement with the star yielded some of her best work and her television show on CBS.

As Kijak told the San Francisco Chronicle in June, “You’re aware of the greater perception of Sid Luft out in the world, especially in Judy-world, and this film was by no means an attempt to rehabilitate him,” Kijak says. “What this movie does is put you in their world together in their time. We wanted to show that this was a complicated relationship, personally and professionally. I find the making of ‘A Star Is Born’ endlessly fascinating because of the complexities around it.”

Luft and Garland divorced in 1965 – four years before her death.

Actors Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight) read letters written by Luft and Garland that come from Luft’s archives.

Sid & Judy will premiere on Showtime on October 18th.

For tickets go here.

Photo of Judy Garland courtesy of Showtime

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The screening takes place on Tuesday, July 23rd at 9:30 PM at the TCL Chinese Six Theatres.

Harris performed Ham at the Pasadena Playhouse. Here’s what he told me about the film in February:

“We just finished editing. It’s gorgeous. I’m so happy. It looks beautiful, the sound is beautiful. I’m pleased with my performance as much as that is possible.”

He let out a huge laugh immediately after saying that.

“I’m just thrilled. This began as a book. Then this sprang from me doing readings and traveling all over the country. Then we added songs and we’re in theaters. My friend Susie Dietz saw it in New York and said, ‘let’s expand this.’

“I went to New York and worked with Billy Porter and he directed the first incarnation. We played in New York for six weeks or something and did it in Los Angeles for several weeks.

“I’m telling my most intimate stories. There’s a suicide attempt and a celebration. It’s an arc. The theme is ‘What is enough?’ It’s never enough. For most of my life it was never enough. You’re out there trying to make it enough. At my age, I know what enough is. I have a kid. I have a sense of something outside myself. It’s my work. It’s who I am. It’s what I do. It represents me, but it’s not my sole identity. At this point in my life and career to be able to put this out there is a celebration.”

Sam Harris will be performing live after the screening.

For tickets go here.

Photo of Ham: A Musical Memoir courtesy of Outfest.

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“We all said the second film was going to be easier,” McKay says. “It wasn’t. The financial market fell apart. I make the films by myself. It was really difficult to raise money. We don’t get major grants because we don’t do films about animals going extinct. This movie is about Broadway and stars. It was editing and shooting little by little and keeping it all going. It was worth the battle.”

In the first documentary, Broadway’s biggest stars (Bea Arthur, Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Marlon Brando) talked not just about their own careers, but the performances and shows that inspired them. The second film covers shows from the late 1950s all the way through to A Chorus Line becoming the longest running show of all time. McKay’s volume of interviews and his ability to find rare footage means the films start out very long. “I still think that my first cuts at 17 hours are the best,” he says with a laugh. “But I couldn’t find anyone who would book it. I look at editing these films with 100 people’s interviews like throwing a dinner party. You separate husbands and wives so they can have different people to talk to. Since I’m the interviewer, lighting guy, and cameraman, I can say ‘so and so said’ and then eliminate my question and have one person respond to the other.”

For McKay, the most exciting discovery included in the new film is footage of Liza Minnelli subbing for Gwen Verdon in Chicago opposite Chita Rivera. “I didn’t know that Liza replaced Gwen. She was never advertised. I have the full ‘Nowadays’ and ‘Hot Honey Rag.’ I think of that as the Holy Grail in this film. Candy Brown, the ultimate Fosse dancer, did Liza with a Z and Pippin. Thank God she was shooting home movies—her dad had given her an 8mm camera. It shot home movies with sound. Who today could go on stage in Chicago in 5 days, learning the lead role and sing and dance, who is in their 20s who already has won an Oscar and a Tony? There aren’t that many people with that kind of staggering training.”

Philosopher George Santayana’s quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” inspires McKay. “The tagline for my mission statement is ‘Creating the future by preserving the past,’” McKay says. “I have interns who are theatre majors who don’t know anyone in the film. I showed them a chapter with Liza, [Robert] Redford, Glenn Close, and others, and they didn’t know any one of them. Charles Durning talks about going to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and being thrown out. He said ‘I stood in the wings and studied people.’ Chita talks about being in the wings and studying [Ethel] Merman. Others talk about standing in the wings and studying Chita. With today’s actors, everyone goes downstairs and gets on their cell phone.”

Finding solace in the theatre as a young boy growing up in Indiana is one reason McKay is doing these films. “I haven’t gotten rich,” he says. “I still owe money on the first film. I did the second because I was worried that someone would make it, and now I’m afraid someone wouldn’t. There are so many of us in small towns all over the world that think they are the only ones who like these things. They go to bigger cities to find others like them. I feel like I’m making this film for the people who never left those towns. Some of these shows and some of these people gave me the courage to find what I wanted. The theatre can do that more than movies often can.”

Originally published at LAMag.com on January 6, 2016

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