Cinefamily

History

The complex originally opened in 1942 as The Silent Movie Theater by silent film collector John Hampton and his wife Dorothy. Until its closure due to low attendance in 1979, Hampton had the largest private collection of silent films, which he exclusively projected in his theater. A year after Hampton's death, the Silent Movie Theater reopened in 1991 and remained active until January 1997 when the theater's owner, Lawrence Austin, was murdered.

In 2007, Hadrian Belove (co-founder of Cinefile Video, a specialty video store), along with Sammy Harkham (co-owner of the nearby Family Bookstore) and his brother Dan, founded the Cinefamily, which officially opened its doors on Halloween of 2007.

Programming

Cinefamily programming included a range of films, from early silents to contemporary features, live comedy, live music, found footage, mixed media and other special events, and extended form post-screening Q&As. They mounted original retrospectives on filmmakers Jim Henson, Jerry Lewis, John Cassavetes, and Andrzej Zulawski and commissioned live film scores by musicians such as No Age, Stephin Merritt and Espers.

Some of Cinefamily's programming included Animation Breakdown, Don't Knock the Rock, Everything is Festival!, reunion tributes for The Adventures of Pete and Pete and Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast, and women-only pajama party screenings.

After independent film maker Neil Breen's film Double Down was played at the Cinefamily cinematheque in 2010, he amassed a small cult following. In early 2011, the Cinefamily exhibited the Greek independent film Dogtooth, which received an Academy Award nomination within a month of its sold-out run. The Cinefamily also held special screenings of We Need to Talk About Kevin, Margaret, Bullhead, Michael and Battle Royale.

Starting in 2011, Cinefamily held an annual 24-hour holiday telethon. Robert Downey Jr. made an appearance at the second annual event, where he pledged to donate to the theatre's upgrade fundraiser. About $144,000 was raised for the theatre to install digital projection and make restorations. In 2014, Downey and his father, Robert Downey Sr., made appearances in a retrospective for the latter to help raise funds for the theatre, in place of the telethon.

As early as December 2012, artist collective Everything Is Terrible! held events at the theatre. In October 2014, the collective exhibited its full collection of over 7,000 Jerry Maguire VHS tapes in the formation of the "Jerry Throne".

Starting in 2013, the theatre hosted SpectreFest from SpectreVision, an indie horror film company co-founded by Elijah Wood. Also that year, Quentin Tarantino hosted a screening of Robert Blake films, and a retrospective of Kris Kristofferson films was screened, with appearances from Kristofferson, who played music with Harry Dean Stanton at one event.

In 2014, Mel Brooks presented the 1973 compilation film of Your Show of Shows and Werner Herzog made an appearance at the beginning of a weeklong run of his 1979 film Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht. In 2015, Cinefamily worked with SpectreVision and Cinelicious Pics to restore the 1973 animated Japanese film Belladonna of Sadness.

In 2016, the theatre held an X-Files marathon with a live episode of Kumail Nanjiani's podcast The X-Files Files.

Sexual misconduct allegations

In August 2017, an anonymous email was sent to Cinefamily members detailing a 2014 sexual harassment allegation against Belove that resulted in a settlement and accused Shadie Elnashai, vice president of the board of directors, of "raping multiple women." Both men subsequently resigned on August 22, 2017. On August 23, Women of Cinefamily co-founder Brie Larson announced that she was stepping aside from the organization for the foreseeable future. Cinefamily itself suspended all operations as of August 26. A number of former volunteers and employees subsequently alleged that an atmosphere of sexism against women had long permeated the theatre, including alleged abuses by Belove and Elnashai.

On November 14, 2017, Cinefamily altered its website so that only a text statement appeared. The board of directors formally announced the end of the organization, following an independent inquiry into the allegations. By January 2018, a website was launched by a former Cinefamily member with self-proclaimed expertise in "economic and workplace justice" to continue investigating alleged wrongdoing by the theatre; this led to the discovery of apparent financial misdeeds. In late 2018, Elnashai released a statement on his personal website. He admitted that he had once acted inappropriately at a Cinefamily party, but denied all other charges, citing an alleged lack of evidence produced by the investigation.

Rebranding

On December 25, 2019, following a year-long refurbishment project, Dan and Sammy Harkham reopened the theatre under the name Fairfax Cinema. On October 6, 2020, clothing company Brain Dead announced that they would be leasing the space. Rebranding the theater as Brain Dead Studios, the venue focuses on cult cinema fare and offers an outdoor cafe specializing in Asian cuisine. In an interview, Brain Dead co-founder Kyle Ng, who was a Cinefamily member, acknowledged the former cinematheque's sexual harassment scandal and stated:

References

References

1. "Brain Dead Studios in Los Angeles, CA".
2. Rauzi, Robin. (13 June 2006). "Not just the silent treatment on Fairfax".
3. "About".
4. "Membership - The Cinefamily".
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6. (1984). "The Fading Image". Spitzer Graben.
7. (September 2013). "The Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912–1929". [[Library of Congress]].
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11. Saperstein, Pat. (24 August 2017). "Brie Larson Speaks Out on 'Upsetting' Cinefamily Sexual Harassment Allegations".
12. Longworth, Karina. (20 May 2010). "Hadrian Belove: Pathologically Idiosyncratic Programming".
13. Ehrenstein, David. (3 June 2009). "Jerry Lewis Retrospective at Cinefamily".
14. Longworth, Karina. (3 March 2011). "John Cassavetes Series at Cinefamily".
15. "The Unbelievable Genius of Andrzej Zulawski – Page 1 – Film+TV – Los Angeles – LA Weekly".
16. Age, No. (19 August 2009). "NO AGE - NO MORE R&R: Live Score of "The Bear" at The Cinefamily at The Silent Movie Theater".
17. Gladysz, Thomas. (8 July 2010). "Six Questions With Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields".
18. Turner, Gustavo. (4 February 2010). "Cinefamily to Screen Amazing Cult Films From the Silver Lake of the Soviet Era".
19. (2 December 2011). "Around Town: Don Hertzfeldt kicks off Cinefamily's 'Animation Breakdown'".
20. (12 July 2011). "Don't Knock the Rock: Films for the vinyl crowd".
21. (30 June 2011). "Around town: Strange delights at Cinefamily's Everything Is Festival".
22. Bradley, Paul T.. (21 November 2011). "The Adventures of Pete and Pete Reunion at Cinefamily: Mike Maronna, Danny Tamberelli & Artie...the Strongest Man...in the World".
23. Whalen, Brendan. (5 December 2011). "Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast Reunion at Cinefamily, With Actors and Animators From Cartoon Network's Superhero Talk Show".
24. "No Boys Allowed: Cinefamily's All Girl Pajama Party".
25. Longworth, Karina. (3 February 2011). "State of the Art House".
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27. Longworth, Karina. (11 January 2012). "Margaret Starring Anna Paquin, the Best Film of 2011, Gets a Run at Cinefamily".
28. (17 February 2012). "Oscars 2012: Watch an exclusive clip from Belgium's 'Bullhead'".
29. Anderson, Melissa. (16 February 2012). "Oscar-Nominated Bullhead and Michael at Cinefamily".
30. (23 December 2011). "Around Town: 'Battle Royale' finally gets U.S. theatrical release".
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32. Woodard, Sean. (2013-06-14). "'Singin' in the Rain': Cinefamily Debuts New Projector Los Angeles Magazine".
33. (2014-12-06). "Cinefamily Pays Tribute To Outsider Filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. At Their Annual Fundraiser".
34. Gallegos, Emma G.. (2012-12-22). "Get Out: 'Everything Is Terrible' at Cinefamily, Punk Christmas & More".
35. Prescott, Julia. (October 7, 2014). "We Saw the World's First Throne Made Out of 'Jerry Maguire' VHS Tapes".
36. "Everything Is Terrible!".
37. Collis, Clark. (October 9, 2013). "Elijah Wood's SpectreVision announces L.A. horror film festival".
38. (2013). "Quentin Tarantino presents The Films of Robert Blake, Day 1".
39. King, Susan. (2013-10-27). "Cinefamily at Silent Movie Theatre celebrates Kris Kristofferson".
40. Ziegler, Chris. (2013-11-01). "Kris Kristofferson: Say It Like a Prayer (Interview)".
41. Evanier, Mark. (April 6, 2014). "My Evening of Evenings".
42. Olsen, Mark. (2014-05-16). "Re-release of Werner Herzog's 'Nosferatu': 'It's not a remake'".
43. (Aug 25, 2015). "Cinelicious Pics, SpectreVision, and The Cinefamily Team To Present 4K Restoration of Japanese Anime Feature Belladonna of Sadness (1973)".
44. (January 14, 2016). "The Cinefamily presents The X-Files: Live Podcast and Marathon with sneak preview of new X-Files episode".
45. (August 23, 2017). "Two top Cinefamily leaders resign over anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct".
46. (August 23, 2017). "Brie Larson, Women of Cinefamily Co-Founder, Calls for 'Further Action' on Sexual Harassment Charges".
47. (August 27, 2017). "Cinefamily Suspends All Activities Following Sexual Misconduct Allegations".
48. Lange, Ariane. (August 28, 2017). "Former Employees Of A Beloved LA Movie Theater Describe Sexism In The Workplace".
49. Cills, Hazel. (August 31, 2017). "Former Cinefamily Employees Allege Mishandling of Sexual Harassment Claims".
50. Ramos, Dino-Ray. (15 November 2017). "Cinefamily Permanently Shuts Down After Sexual Harassment Allegations".
51. Zerolnick, Jon. (January 3, 2018). "News of Cinefamily's Death Greatly Exaggerated (By Cinefamily)".
52. "About me".
53. "Finances".
54. "Shadie Elnashai Statement".
55. Pener, Degen. (2019-12-18). "L.A.'s Former Cinefamily Theater to Open as Fairfax Cinema (First Look)".
56. Takanashi, Lei. (November 5, 2020). "Why Streetwear Brand Brain Dead Is Permanently Taking Over an L.A. Movie Theater". Complex Media, Inc..
57. "Slammers". BRAIN DEAD LLC.