SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our THE HEART WANTS Series, Wednesday, February 1, 2023
LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021
*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the building. Make a right on Wilson Street, then a right behind the building. We’re the first set of black steps after the big gate.
7:30pm MOONLIGHT (2016, dir. Barry Jenkins, A24, USA, 111mns, Digital)
9:40pm PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (2019, dir. Celine Sciamma, NEON, France, 120mns, Digital)
We’re aiming to fill up our February 2023 with romance movies of all kinds, from all kind of perspectives, from all parts of the world!
Tonight, we do a double feature of two of the most powerful LGBTQ romances of the last ten years.
First up is the Academy Award Best Picture-winning Moonlight which follows Chiron, born to an addict mother in Miami, Florida, through three key phases of his life from childhood to young adulthood.
Screenwriter and director Barry Jenkins delivers a powerful, emotionally moving, and deeply complex look not only at complicated LGBTQ sexuality but also at black masculinity in the 21st century.
Moonlight does what great cinema strives to do: it tells a captivating story in a surprising way and also illuminates the human experience in a way that makes us all a bit more empathetic and thoughtful.
The movie is filled with stunning and breakout performances and leads to a third act you won’t be able to predict.
We follow this with filmmaker Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire which took international art cinema by storm in 2019. A period piece which focuses on 18th century painter Marianne who is commissioned by a wealthy family to come to the tempestuous island of Brittany to point the portrait of Heloise, about to me married to a nobleman.
Marianne and Heloise develop intense feelings for each other across the time of the portrait painting, fall in love, and soon begin a secretive but deep and intense romance.
Though the period LGBTQ romance has now become something of a sub-genre unto itself, Portrait of a Lady on Fire develops its power not only from its filmmaker’s own LGBTQ identification (giving the love story a powerful and quiet veracity) but also her commitment to telling her story in an intense yet quiet way.
This is not a movie that paints in the garish bold strokes of the cynical. Rather, like all great romance movies, it tells a story we feel, we, regardless of our sexual identification, can identify with.
It also showcases Sciamma as a bold new talent on the scene. Something she confirmed just a year later with her equally incredible Petit Maman.
Come join us and catch these two amazing recent movies to re-inspire your belief that independent and art cinema is alive and well.
Best always,
Craig Hammill
Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
REFUNDS:
We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.
However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening, good for 90 days. (Disclaimer: Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:
We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.
There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.
HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?
You can follow us on Instagram/Twitter: @secretmovieclub or Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm
You can also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter at secretmovieclub.com or by writing to us at community@secretmovieclub.com and using the header “SUBSCRIBE ME TO NEWSLETTER”.
HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.