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%2c%202003%20by%20Thom%20Andersen.%20Courtesy%20and%20copyright%20the%20artist/index.jpg?itok=nUlKKEpm "Thom Andersen, Los Angeles plays itself (film still), 2003. Courtesy and copyright the artist.")
Essay Film Festival: Los Angeles Plays Itself
26 Mar 2015
Thom Andersen’s landmark documentary, Los Angeles Plays Itself, now available in a re-mastered and re-edited version, explores the tangled relationship between the movies and their fabled hometown – as seen entirely though the films themselves. This video essay is an overwhelming work of film archaeology, delving deeply into the various archetypical and often contradictory ways in which film has represented and defined Los Angeles against the city itself, its rich and complex history, its people and communities.
Masterfully edited by Andersen out of hundreds of film excerpts, Los Angeles Plays Itself is constructed in three thematic sections: the city as background, the city as character, and the city as subject. Ultimately Thom Andersen’s gesture is one of militant nostalgia (using his own words), a recuperation of a city’s vanished history.
3-5 Screenings: Full price tickets £9 each
6-8 Screenings: Full price tickets £8 each
Los Angeles Plays Itself, dir. Thom Andersen, USA 2003/2014, 170 mins.
The ICA Cinema is now completely ad-free. Please note the feature will start following a selection of trailers and information relevant to the ICA programme. All films are 18+ unless otherwise stated.
%2c%202008%20by%20Peter%20von%20Bagh.%20Courtesy%20and%20copyright%20Illume/index.jpg?itok=t93A44JM "Peter von Bagh, Helsinki, Forever (film still), 2008. Courtesy and copyright Illume")
%2c%202013%20by%20Peter%20von%20Bagh.%20Courtesy%20and%20copyright%20Illume/index.jpg?itok=m36wFRxb "Peter von Bagh, Remembrance (film still), 2013. Courtesy and copyright Illume.")
%202014%20by%20Thom%20Andersen.%20Courtesy%20and%20copyright%20the%20artist/index.jpg?itok=sv3_ANHB "Thom Andersen, The Thoughts That Once We Had (film still), 2014. Courtesy and copyright the artist.")
%2c%202012%20b/index.jpg?itok=iaJNZuJ- "The Otolith Group, People to be Resembling (film still), 2012, original photography by Isio Saba. Copyright the artists, courtesy the artists and project 88")
%2c%202011%20by%20Rania%20Stephan.%20Courtesy%20and%20copyright%20the%20artist/index.jpg?itok=awIB8gT4 "Rania Stephan, The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni (film still), 2001. Courtesy and copyright the artist.")
%2c%201975%20by%20Thom%20Andersen.%20Courtesy%20and%20copyright%20the%20artist/index.jpg?itok=U6VZFRN2 "Thom Andersen, Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (film still), 1975. Courtesy and copyright the artist.")
%2c%202014%20by%20.%20Courtesy%20and%20copyright%20the%20artists/index.jpg?itok=LubZeb9b "Profession Documentarist (film still), 2014, Courtesy and copyright the artists.")