Library related blogs and posts (on Library Blog page only).
The LAFS Library Team would like to wish all of you a happy holiday season! To help you get into the spirit, we’ve put together this blog post with as much merriment and cheer as we could find.
We’ve been waiting all year, and it’s finally time! As the weather starts to cool down, we’ll be carving our jack-o-lanterns in anticipation of Halloween!
If you’re as excited as we are, then you’ll be delighted to see what we’ve got in store.
Each member of the Library team has picked their favorite horror movies from our collection. Let us know if you’re interested in borrowing any of these and let us know what you think. Don’t forget the popcorn!
Don’t worry, we didn’t forget the music! Our team made a Halloween Vibes Playlist to help get you in the spooky mood. Let us know if we missed anything!
Los Angeles really knows how to celebrate Halloween. Check out these awesome events and attractions that we found online! Take pics and tag us on Instagram to show us how you’ve been celebrating the spooky season!
Join us as we celebrate by highlighting some of our favorite hispanic filmmakers, music makers, writers, animators and more!
Each week, we’ll be adding a section to the blog to showcase a different industry.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of hispanic people making the movies and shows that you love. You can even stop by the library and check out some of the scripts and videos we have that were helmed by hispanic creatives!
Guillermo del Toro was born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Raised by his Catholic grandmother, del Toro developed an interest in filmmaking in his early teens. Later, he learned about makeup and effects from the legendary Dick Smith (The Exorcist) and worked on making his own short films. At the age of 21, del Toro executive produced his first feature, Dona Herlinda and Her Son. Del Toro spent almost 10 years as a makeup supervisor, and formed his own company, Necropia in the early 1980s. He also produced and directed Mexican television programs at this time, and taught film. – via IMDB
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco was born on November 28th in Mexico City, Mexico. From an early age, he yearned to be either a film director or an astronaut. However, he did not want to enter the army, so he settled for directing. – via IMDB
Alejandro González Iñárritu (ih-nyar-ee-too), born August 15th, 1963, is a Mexican film director. González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and by the Directors Guild of America for Best Director. He is also the first Mexican-born director to have won the Prix de la mise en scene or best director award at Cannes (2006), the second one being Carlos Reygadas in 2012. His six feature films, ‘Amores Perros’ (2000), ’21 Grams’ (2003), ‘Babel’ (2006), ‘Biutiful’ (2010), ‘Birdman’ (2014) and ‘The Revenant’ (2015), have gained critical acclaim world-wide including two Academy Award nominations. Alejandro González Iñárritu was born in Mexico City. – via IMDB
The most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel was born in a small town (Calzada de Calatrava) in the impoverished Spanish region of La Mancha. He arrived in Madrid in 1968, and survived by selling used items in the flea-market called El Rastro. Almodóvar couldn’t study filmmaking because he didn’t have the money to afford it. Besides, the filmmaking schools were closed in early 70s by Franco’s government. Instead, he found a job in the Spanish phone company and saved his salary to buy a Super 8 camera. From 1972 to 1978, he devoted himself to make short films with the help of of his friends. The “premieres” of those early films were famous in the rapidly growing world of the Spanish counter-culture. In few years, Almodóvar became a star of “La Movida”, the pop cultural movement of late 70s Madrid. His first feature film, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom, was made in 16 mm and blown-up to 35 mm for public release. In 1987, he and his brother Agustín Almodóvar established their own production company: El Deseo, S. A. The “Almodóvar phenomenon” has reached all over the world, making his films very popular in many countries. – via IMDB
The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the university there, where his close friends included Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca. – via IMDB
Born in 1974, Sebastián Lelio is one of the leading figures (along with Pablo Larraín, Andrés Wood and a few others) of the post-dictatorship Chilean cinema. After graduating from the “Escuela de Cine de Chile” in Santiago, Lelio started by making shorts (he made five from 1995 to 2003, as well as a documentary). From 2005 on, he directed four remarkable feature films, the first three very dark, the fourth one somewhat lighter, which all garnered awards in the festival circuit. The Sacred Family is kind of Chilean version of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema. It was followed by Navidad, a drama of uncommon intensity focusing on three teenagers alienated from their families and The Year of the Tiger, recounting the escape of an inmate during Chile’s 2010 earthquake. Coming after this taught triptych, Gloria surprises by its peaceful tone. The amorous adventures of Gloria, a sixty-year-old office worker in Santiago, although not without tensions and bitterness, are less upsetting than what Lelio had filmed before. But whether dark or rosy, Lelio’s cinema explores the Chilean society of today with the same acuteness. – via IMDB
Guillermo Arriaga is a Mexican author, screenwriter, director and producer. Self-defined as “a hunter who works as a writer,” he is best known for his Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay nominations for Babel and his screenplay for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which received the 2005 Cannes Best Screenplay Award. – via Wikipedia
Javier “Javi” Grillo-Marxuach, born October 28, 1969 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a television screenwriter and producer, and podcaster, known for his work as writer and producer on the first two seasons of the ABC television series Lost, as well as other series including Charmed and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. – via Wikipedia
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is an American playwright, screenwriter, and comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics and for the television series Glee, Big Love, Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin. He is Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics. Aguirre-Sacasa grew up in Washington, D.C., the son of the senior Nicaraguan World Bank official turned Nicaraguan Ambassador to the US (1997-2000) and later Foreign Minister (2000-2002). Francisco Javier Aguirre Sacasa and Maria de los Angeles Sacasa Arguello y Gomez Arguello, both Nicaraguan nationals. Aguirre-Sacasa received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University and later a Masters Degree in English literature from McGill University; he then graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 2003.
Pablo Larraín was born in Santiago, Chile. He is a director, writer and producer, known for Spencer (2021), Jackie (2016), El Club (2015), NO (2012), among others. Together with his brother Juan de Dios Larraín, they founded Fabula in 2004, one of the most prolific production companies in Latin America. – via IMDB
Juan Antonio García Bayona is a Spanish film director. He directed the 2007 horror film The Orphanage, the 2012 drama film The Impossible, and the 2016 fantasy drama film A Monster Calls. Bayona’s latest film is the 2018 science fiction adventure film Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the fifth installment of the Jurassic Park film series. He has also directed television commercials and music videos. He will direct the first two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. – via IMDB
Damián Szifron is an Argentine film and television director and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the TV series Los Simuladores, the most successful TV series in the history of Argentina, and writer-director of Wild Tales, the most successful film in the history of Argentina. – via Wikipedia
Juan José Campanella is an Argentine television and film director, writer and producer. He achieved worldwide attention with the release of The Secret in Their Eyes, for which he was awarded the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. – via Wikipedia
Is the son of a Spanish mother and a Chilean father. His family moved back to Spain when he was 1 year old, and he grew up and studied in Madrid. He wrote, produced and directed his first short film La cabeza at the age of 19, and he was 23 when he directed his feature debut Thesis. His film Open Your Eyes was a huge success in Spain and was distributed worldwide. It was remade in Hollywood by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz (also the star of the original version) and Cameron Diaz. The Others is Amenábar’s first English language film. – via IMDB
Charise Castro Smith is an American playwright, actress, screenwriter, producer, and co-director. Castro Smith is from Miami, Florida, where she was raised in a Cuban American family. She attended Brown University as an undergraduate student and later the Yale School of Drama, where she earned her MFA in acting. Previous to graduate school, she was a city schoolteacher. She lives in LA and is married to actor Joby Earle, whom she met at Yale. – via Wikipedia
Hailing from The Bronx, Steven Canals is a 2015 graduate of UCLA’s MFA Screenwriting program. He began his writing career as a Research Assistant at Hungry Jackal Productions for Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. Steven served as the Staff Writer on Freeform’s Dead of Summer, the same year his short film, Afuera, premiered at the 2016 LA Film Festival. He is Co-Creator and Co-Executive Producer of Pose (2018). Canals is openly queer. He is of African American and Puerto Rican heritage. – via IMDB and Wikipedia
Rodrigo Prieto is a Mexican cinematographer. He is best known for Brokeback Mountain (2005), Babel (2006), Argo (2012), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and Silence (2016). He also worked with Alejandro González Iñárritu on the acclaimed Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), and Biutiful (2010). Pietro was nominated for two Academy Award for Best Cinematography, first in Brokeback Mountain and later in Silence. – via IMDB
Luisa Leschin (born Louisa Josefina Gomez) is an American television producer, actress, and voice-over artist. She currently serves as co-executive producer for the Amazon Studios TV series Just Add Magic. In 2019, she won a Norman Lear Writer’s Award at the 34th annual Imagen Awards. Leschin was born in Hollywood and grew up in Guatemala, where Spanish was her native tongue. Leschin’s mother was a concert pianist and her father was a former President of El Salvador. At age five, she made her debut as a dancer, and at the age of eight, she left Guatemala to spend her teenage years in Europe, where she learned to speak French and Italian. After her return to America, she studied at the High School of Performing Arts in New York City, where she majored in ballet. – via Wikipedia
What’s a celebration without any music? Check out the playlist we made. It’s full of our favorite Hispanic artists from around the world!
Everyone loves cartoons! And I’ll bet you didn’t know that some of your childhood favorites had Hispanic and Latino artists working on the creative team behind them. Below, we’ve highlighted some fantastic Hispanic and Latino artists next to the animated features they’re attached to.
@lafslibrary LAFS Students, come check out the new arrivals to our book collection! #librarytok #thelosangelesfilmschool #newbooks #booktok #nationalbookloversday ♬ Opportunity - Quvenzhané Wallis
Labor Day Weekend is the perfect opportunity to get in some last minute Summer excitement! If you’re in need of some suggestions, we’ve got you covered. Here are a few events we found online. Let us know what your Labor Day Weekend plans are!
The first day of Fall is fast approaching! That time of year for gloomy skies, falling leaves and your favorite sweater. The kids go back to school, and the summer heat finally begins to let up. It’s our signal that the end of the year is soon to come and a reminder of how precious time truly is.
To many people in the United States, Autumn is an opportunity to acknowledge everything we have to be grateful for. It’s the season of harvest and abundance – the season of reflection and new beginnings.
This year, the first day of Fall is September 22nd. So mark your calendars and cozy up with your loved ones. We’ve taken the liberty of creating a September Songs playlist, and a September Watchlist to make getting into the Autumn spirit as easy as pumpkin pie.
Grab yourself a pumpkin spice latte, a warm blanket and relax with our September Songs Playlist.
As we prepare to usher in the new season, join us at the LAFS Library in our efforts to capture the cozy autumn spirit!
We’ve got a few things up our sleeves, as well as some tips to keep the end of summer fun and eventful.
The library team has been working hard to shake things up on campus!
@lafslibrary LAFS Students, come check out the new arrivals to our book collection! #librarytok #thelosangelesfilmschool #newbooks #booktok #nationalbookloversday ♬ Opportunity - Quvenzhané Wallis
Labor Day Weekend is the perfect opportunity to get in some last minute Summer excitement! If you’re in need of some suggestions, we’ve got you covered. Here are a few events we found online. Let us know what your Labor Day Weekend plans are!
The first day of Fall is fast approaching! That time of year for gloomy skies, falling leaves and your favorite sweater. The kids go back to school, and the summer heat finally begins to let up. It’s our signal that the end of the year is soon to come and a reminder of how precious time truly is.
To many people in the United States, Autumn is an opportunity to acknowledge everything we have to be grateful for. It’s the season of harvest and abundance – the season of reflection and new beginnings.
This year, the first day of Fall is September 22nd. So mark your calendars and cozy up with your loved ones. We’ve taken the liberty of creating a September Songs playlist, and a September Watchlist to make getting into the Autumn spirit as easy as pumpkin pie.
Grab yourself a pumpkin spice latte, a warm blanket and relax with our September Songs Playlist.
Work load got you stressed? Sometimes it can feel like we have too much on our plates. Take a moment to decompress and remind yourself that you’re doing your best and that you are allowed to feel overwhelmed. We’ve put together a few fun and relaxing activities for when you need some time to clear your mind. Try your hand at an origami tutorial, or see how long it takes you to finish a Sodoku puzzle. We even have some coloring pages and crayons for those of you who just want to turn your brain off for a bit. We plan to expand upon our Creation Station or “Maker Space” in the future, so if you have any suggestions for fun activities we could feature let us know!
Summer time is the perfect opportunity to create and achieve some goals! Make use of this sunny season and challenge yourself to go for more walks, drink more water, eat more greens, join a club and read more books! We’ll be sharing some of our library staff goals throughout the summer. Let us know what your plans are!
We put together some Hot Summer Playlists to keep you cool all summer long! Got any favorite summer jams? Let us know and we’ll add ’em!
Be sure to check out some of the awesome events happening this summer! From movie screenings, to pop ups, to festivals & concerts! There’s never a shortage of things to do in this city! Be sure to wear your sunblock!
Cinespia is a Los Angeles based organization that brings movie magic to life with screenings of classic films throughout the year to an audience of hundreds of thousands from all around the world, including some of Hollywood’s most famous faces. With over 30 events per year, Cinespia hosts dazzling screenings under the stars at iconic venues including The Hollywood Forever Cemetery, The Greek Theatre, and Los Angeles Historic Park.
Since its opening in 1922, the Hollywood Bowl has been the premier destination for live music in Southern California, hosting everyone from Billie Holiday to The Beatles to Yo-Yo Ma under the iconic silhouette of its concentric-arched band shell.
The past ten years have been a huge step forward for representation of marginalized communities in mainstream media. From CODA and Love On The Spectrum to Ru Paul’s Drag Race and Everything Everywhere All At Once– we’re seeing just how hungry people are for diversity in story-telling. We all want to see ourselves represented in the media we consume, and we all want to feel like our voices are being heard. The LGBTQ+ community is no exception, which brings me to my first point: a great and easy way to be a good ally is to support queer voices. Support us when we’re sharing our lived experiences, our perspectives and our talents with the world. That means watching our movies, listening to our music and reading what we write. It also means incorporating those stories into your discussions about media and entertainment with your friends, family and colleagues (even when it’s uncomfortable to do so). One of the easiest ways to hurt our community is to leave us out of the conversation; to pretend we don’t exist. But not to worry! I’ve put together a few lists of different queer media to get you started.
For the most part, queer movies tend to fly under the radar. But that isn’t to say they’re not worth watching. In fact, I would argue that they’re integral to one’s film education. Queer movies have been around almost as long as cinema has been around, and though we’ve been censored in various ways throughout history, we’ve fought to maintain a presence. As a gift to you, here are some of my favorite queer movies.
There will always be those movies– the ones everyone has seen, and if you haven’t what the hell is wrong with you?? Right? Movies like Titanic, Star Wars, Apocalypse Now and The Wizard of Oz. But in the Queer World, our list of legacy movies is a little different. So here’s a crash course on important queer movies that you absolutely must watch.
Coming of Age movies are a staple in cinematic history. Everyone has at least one in their list of favorite films. And there definitely are some classics: Goonies, Stand By Me, Now and Then. They helped us to feel seen and understood when we were at our most vulnerable, and sometimes they even taught us some valuable life lessons. Unfortunately, queer kids aren’t quite so fortunate to have as many coming of age movies dedicated to their experiences. But there are definitely some treasures to be found! So if you’re interested in coming of age films and how they intersect with the queer experience, I’ve got a list for you.
Now, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. What about those films that you probably wouldn’t watch with your mom, but you love nonetheless; those dark but lovable movies that stick in your mind for the rest of your life; the movies that connect you to all the other weirdos who love the same movie for the same reasons. As you may have guessed, there is an ABUNDANCE of cult films that appeal to the queer community. So grab some popcorn, ’cause you’re definitely not gonna wanna pass these up.
Television has played an enormous role in helping to shape American culture. Where would be be today if not for the life lessons courtesy of The Facts of Life or The Brady Bunch? And American television is no stranger to queerness. Of course, sometimes we have to move in stealth mode. But no matter what, we always find a way to be seen and to be heard. Here are some of my favorite queer television shows!
If you were wondering when we’d get to the tunes, then wait no longer. Gay culture is rich with great music by great artists. From House to Rap to Disco to Rock; queer musicians have always been there. To help you get yourself immersed, we’ve made some playlists for you!
Who doesn’t love cartoons? Some may think that at a certain age you become too old for ’em. Others say to heck with that! Regardless of how you may feel, it’s undeniable that cartoons play a big role in our lives as we grow and learn. They teach us life lessons by way of colorful palettes, funny voices and lovable characters. They show us that it’s okay to be human and to have flaws. They can even have the power to make us feel like we belong. It’s so important for young queer people to see themselves represented in the shows that are made specifically for children. It’s equally important for young straight children to see the diversity of the real world represented in the shows they watch. With that, here are some amazing cartoons that have broken boundaries with their representation of queer characters.
February, along with being Black History Month (if you haven’t seen our blog post, you can find here! ) is the month of love! Here are some movies, scripts and playlists that we at the library just LOVE.
The LAFS has Reopened to a limited capacity. Check out our website to see our temporary hours and come by to see us!
The Brothers Grimm arrive at the home of a wealthy Grande Dame who speaks of the many legends surrounding the fable of the cinder girl before telling the “true” story of her ancestor.
Harry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin the friendship.
While homesick in bed, a young boy’s grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love.
Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family’s expectations, and his true feelings.
Tom returns to his hometown on the tenth anniversary of the Valentine’s night massacre that claimed the lives of 22 people. Instead of a homecoming, Tom finds himself suspected of committing the murders, and it seems like his old flame is the only one that believes he’s innocent.
After serving as a bridesmaid 27 times, a young woman wrestles with the idea of standing by her sister’s side as her sibling marries the man she’s secretly in love with.
Join us this month to celebrate the many amazing contributions to the entertainment industry made by Black filmmakers, writers, composers and performers. We’ve put together a few examples of what we have in our catalog along with some other great resources that we hope you will enjoy.
Best known for his works with director Jordon Peele, such as: Get Out (2017) and Us (2019).
Notable works include: BlacKkKlansman (2018), 25th Hour (2002), Inside Man (2006), Da 5 Bloods (2020).
Composed for films such as: Clemency (2019), Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019), Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir (2021), Women of the Movement (2022).
Known for his work on: Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021), Bridgerton (2020), When They See Us (2019), and Respect (2021).
An up and coming film composer known for her works on: Dreamland: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street and A Black Lady Sketch Show.
Brooklyn-born composer known for her works on: Mudbound (2017), The Assistant (2019) and Shirley (2020).
Within Our Gates was produced and directed by Oscar Micheaux in 1919. He is considered to be the first African-American director of feature films and this is the first such film still in existence.
I found the plot difficult to follow, and he does not give full play to the “money” scenes at the conclusion but it is certainly of historic interest.
Distinctly referred to as “a redwood tree, with deep roots in American culture,” Dr. Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928-May 28, 2014) led a prolific life. As a singer, dancer, activist, poet and writer, she inspired generations with lyrical modern African-American thought that pushed boundaries. Best known for her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Random House), she gave people the freedom to think about their history in a way they never had before.
With unprecedented access, filmmakers Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack trace Dr. Angelou’s incredible journey, shedding light on the untold aspects of her life through never-before-seen footage, rare archival photographs and videos and her own words.