Evento

LankerSCREAM: CastleMania/ Homicidal

The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) Performing Arts Division and NoHo Micro Cinema are debuting a new project to celebrate the Halloween season. Honoring creative artists working in the horror genre, the LankerSCREAM Festival of Fright is a weekend of theatrical performances, cinema, dance on film and classic animation.

The LankerSCREAM Festival of Fright debuts with a spotlight on two filmmakers, horror movie producer William Castle, an American-born film producer and showman, and Max Fleischer, an American animator and best known as the creator of Betty Boop. The festival will also showcase some of L.A.s most creative emerging artists and film scholars who will offer insight and differing perspectives on the films.

The LankerSCREAM Festival of Fright celebration will include four days of performing arts activities at DCAs Lankershim Arts Center (LNK), located in the heart of the NoHo Arts District at 5108 Lankershim Boulevard, in North Hollywood. All festival events are free and open to the public, but due to limited space, reservations are highly recommended. For more information, please refer to the LNKs Instagram account: @dca_lnk or call: 818.301.6120.

The weeks line-up is as follows:

Wednesday, October 9, 2024
7:30 P.M.
Saints of Poe
presented by DCA and the Interact Theatre Company

This play reading delves into the dark, inner world of Edgar Allan Poe, where horror is a
distinctly human experiencea relentless force within ordinary people that compels
them toward hubris, revenge, rage, and despair. Interact Theatre Company brings Poes chilling tales to life through three masterful pieces that blur the line between victim and villain, leaving us haunted and introspective, as we catch a glimpse of ourselves in the shadows.

Thursday, October 10, 2024
9:00 P.M. (doors open at 8:30pm)
CastleMania! The William Castle Retrospective: The Tingler
presented by DCA and NoHo Micro Cinema

Directed by William Castle, written by Robb White, performances by Vincent Price and
Judith Evelyn, Columbia Pictures,1959, 83 min. Followed by a conversation with horror
critic, filmmaker, and co-host of the Midnight Mass podcast, Michael Varrati, in a post-
film discussion, moderated by festival co-producer Jorge Aparicio from NoHo Micro Cinema.

Horror icon Vincent Price stars as an obsessed pathologist who discovers a parasitic
creature called a tingler, which grows on the spinal cords of people and feeds on fear,
and who must find a way to prevent it from causing deadly havoc when it escapes
and it will escape! Its meta-horror meets melodrama with deliciously droll performances
by Price and Evelyn.

Considered by film scholars to be Castles magnum opus, the film was presented in
Percepto, a promotion that Castle sold as the newest and most startling gimmick on
the screen! This in-theater immersive experience featured random seats that buzzed
the behinds of select audience members in specially rigged theater seats, and we will
be presenting as such. In the words of the films poster: When the screen screams youll
scream too if you value your life!

Friday, October 11, 2024
9:00 P.M. (doors open at 8:30pm)
CastleMania! The William Castle Retrospective: Homicidal.
presented by DCA and NoHo Micro Cinema

Directed by William Castle, written by Robb White, performances by Glenn Corbett and
Joan Marshall (as Jean Arless), Columbia Pictures, 1961, 83 min. Followed by a
conversation with Sean Abley, author of Queer Horror, moderated by festival co-producer Jorge Aparicio from NoHo Micro Cinema.

A sleepy town is rocked by the brutal murder of a justice of the peace, which uncovers a
lurid fight over a family inheritance. Castle marketed the movie with a fright break stunt
so anyone too scared to see the shocking ending would exit the theater and follow a
yellow streak on the theater floor to the Cowards Corner photo opportunity in the lobby.
We encourage patrons to take pictures at our own Cowards Corner, but not before
enjoying the entirety of this killer mix of camp, queerness, and macabre comedy with
a twist you have to see to believe.

Saturday, October 12, 2024
9:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M.
BETTY BOOPS HALLOWEEN PARTY
presented by DCA and NoHo Micro Cinema

Boop-oop-a-doop your way into The Lankershim Arts Center in the morning with a Halloween themed Saturday Morning Cartoon Café celebrating some of the Fleischer Studios best spooky toons featuring the iconic Betty Boop and Friends. We will have two showings in our screening room upstairs and Betty Boops Halloween Party downstairs: Free milk and cereal for the kiddies with complimentary freshly made coffee and cappuccinos whipped by our guest barista for the grown-ups; arts and crafts; selfie spots; and music. Customs are encouraged.

Saturday, October 12, 2024
6:00 P.M.
Inspired by William Castle
Dance in the City
Dance on Film Event
Presented by DCA and LADWC

The Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) Performing Arts Division (PERF), in collaboration with Los Angeles Dance Worker Coalition (LADWC), presents the 2024 dance on-film commission awardees. Seven artistsBrandon Maxwell, Diamondback Annie, Ibuki Kuramochi, Jennifer Rose, Kate Coleman, Kevin Zambrano, and Precious Elliswere commissioned to create new works as part of the 2024 Dance in the City, formerly named Dance in the Districts, project being presented at the Lankershim Art Center in NoHo this fall as an event in the LANKERSCREAM FESTIVAL OF FRIGHT. Emerging artists were commissioned to create video works influenced or inspired by the 1950s and 1960s gimmick thriller films of William Castle.

Saturday, October 12, 2024
9:00 P.M. (doors open at 8:30pm)
CastleMania! The William Castle Retrospective: Straight-Jacket.
presented by DCA and NoHo Micro Cinema

Directed by William Castle, written by Robert Bloch, performances by Joan Crawford
and Diane Baker, Columbia Pictures ,1964, 93 min. Followed by a conversation with
comedy writers and co-hosts of the Mama needs a Movie podcast, Anne Rieman and
Ryan Perez, moderated by festival co-producer Jorge Aparicio from NoHo Micro Cinema.

Screen legend Joan Crawford stars as Lucy Harbin, a newly released murderess who
served 20 years for a grisly crime of passion. Now reunited with her daughter and her
brothers family, her life is back to normal or is it? When a spate of ax murders
mysteriously start occurring, all eyes are on Lucy. Written by the screenwriter of
Psycho, this is Castles foray into the psycho-biddy genre, with Castle capitalizing on
Joan Crawfords newfound popularity as a horror icon.

All artists, moderators and speakers are subject to change without notice.

Please arrive 30 minutes prior to the event to check in. Limited seating is on a first come first serve basis.

Patrons without a ticket are welcome to join the stand by line.

ABOUT WILLIAM CASTLE
(19141977) William Castle was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter best known for his inventive and influential approach to horror filmmaking. Castle's flair for showmanship, and his ability to create entertaining movies with extra-filmic practices made him one of the most notable genre pioneers.

Born William Schloss Jr in New York City, later adopting the pseudonym (Schloss being the German word for Castle) An orphan by 11, at age 13, he saw a performance of the play Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. I knew then what I wanted to do with my life, Castle wrote in his autobiography, I wanted to scare the pants off audiences.

He saw the play so many times that he met the legendary Lugosi, who recommended him for an assistant stage manager position for Draculas upcoming tour. At 15 years old he dropped out of school and joined the production, thus beginning his career in show business.

Castles legacy is also notable for its impact on the broader landscape of horror filmmaking. He was able to popularize burgeoning genre trends such as psychological and body horror, and his emphasis on spectacle and creative approaches to engaging audiences paved the way for future artists to explore interactive and immersive elements in cinema, theatre and other types of live performance.

Castle's creative approaches to engaging audiences and industry practices have left a lasting legacy, inspiring filmmakers like Jordan Peele, Joe Dante, Sam Raimi, Robert Zemeckis and John Waters, who has cited Castle as a significant influence on his work.

His work has been the subject of retrospective at film art spaces such as La Cinémathèque Française in Paris and the Film Forum in New York, and now at the Lankershim Arts Center in Los Angeles at the inaugural LankerSCREAM Festival of Fright.

ABOUT MAX FLEISCHER
(1883-1972) Max Fleischer was an influential Polish-American animator and film producer known for his pioneering work in early animation. Born on July 19, 1883, in Kraków, Poland, Fleischer emigrated to the United States, where he became a key figure in the development of animation.
He is best known for founding Fleischer Studios in 1921, alongside his brother Dave. From 1921 to 1942, the studio produced nearly 700 cartoons and was instrumental in developing several iconic characters and innovations in animation.

Among the studios most famous creations are Betty Boop a groundbreaking cartoon character known for her flapper style and distinctive voice, who became a cultural icon in the 1930s and is still popular decades later.

Other major characters adapted to cartoons through Fleischer Studios where E.C. Segars Popeye the Sailor Man and Jerry Siegel and Joe Shusters Superman. The studio was known for its high production values and influential animation techniques, including the use of the rotoscopea device that allowed animators to trace over live-action footage to create realistic movements. This technique significantly enhanced the fluidity and realism of animated characters.

Fleischer's work laid significant groundwork for the animation industry, influencing other animators and studios, including Walt Disney and Ralph Bakshi. Max Fleischer's contributions to animation remain highly regarded to this day.