Mush! to the Movies: Eskimo (1933) and Northern Lights Over Mount Halde (in 3-D!)
WS Van Dyke and Ray Mala shaking hands in a scence from 'Eskimo"
Mush! To The Movies! : A Polar Film Club –
Eskimo (1933) and Northern Lights Over Mount Halde (in 3-D!)
Saturday Aug 15, 2015, 7:30 pm
At The Velaslavasay Panorama, 1122 W. 24th St. LA, CA 90007
Co-presented by 3-D SPACE and the LA 3-D Club
Members of the family of Ray Mala, star of Eskimo, will attend!
Mush to the Movies concludes with the stunning 1933 melodrama Eskimo, the first fictional feature film to be shot in a Native American language (Inupiat) and the first to be shot in Alaska. It also received the first Academy Award ever for Film Editing. Not yet on DVD, the film merges tragedy, a love story, a police drama, documentary passages of Inuit activity, and humorous hunting sequences shot on Hollywood soundstages. Unquestionably dated in its representation of the Inuit, it still retains its sympathy for the lead character, the “Eskimo” Mala.
We’ve paired this wonderful film with a 3-D short showing the Northern Lights!
Mush! To The Movies! Is a selection of films spanning over 90 years of glacial activity and handpicked by Los Angeles Filmforum's Director Adam Hyman and Sara Velas & Ruby Carlson of The Velaslavasay Panorama. The series features six events with free popcorn offered to all, along with an opportunity to visit the Nova Tuskhut, an installation of the only Arctic Trading Post on the North American Continent, located on the grounds of the Velaslavasay Panorama. Attendees will be given a unique souvenir Polar Passport and those who attend all six screenings will receive a surprise gift and a chance to win a night’s stay in The Nova Tuskhut!
Special Thanks to Lael Morgan, Ted Mala, Galina Mala, Warner Bros., Eric Kurland, and the L.A. 3-D Club.
For more event information: www.panoramaonview.org, or call 213-746-2166 with questions
Tickets: $10 general, free for Filmforum members. Available by credit card in advance from Brown Paper Tickets at http://eskimo.bpt.me/
VPES & LA FILMFORUM members get free tickets with advance RSVP to EVENT@PANORAMAONVIEW.ORG
Eskimo
Eskimo
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
US, 1933, Warner Bros., Digital Projection, 117 min.
Starring Ray Mala (Mala); Lulu Wong Wing (Mala's first wife Aba); Lotus Long (Mala's second wife Iva); Peter Freuchen (the Ship Captain); W. S. Van Dyke (Inspector White); Joseph Sauers (Sergeant Hunt).
This screening is sponsored by McIntyre Ranch
Filmed in Inupiat (Alaskan Inuit language) with English intertitles This Academy Award-winning film, based on the book Eskimo by Peter Freuchen (Danish anthropologist, writer, and Hollywood Script Advisor for all things Arctic related) and starring Ray Mala, recounts the tribulations of Alaskan Inuit and non-Native traders who visit an Alaskan village and wreak havoc among the families there. Meant to deal with the effect of Western culture on remote societies, the film displays the early Hollywood symptom of trivializing the very society it attempts to elevate. (Warning: animals do seem to get hurt and killed in this film.) Nevertheless, it remains a stunning work. NOT AVAILABLE ON DVD
This screening will be attended by relatives of Mala family.
There is also a rare movie poster on display in the lobby of the Velaslavasay Panorama!
Northern Lights Over Mount Halde
Northern Lights Over Mount Halde
2013, Norway, Digital Projection in 3D, 7:30 min.
Directed by Morten Skallerud
Northern Lights over Mount Halde is based on real events, persons and places in the history of Norwegian Northern Lights research. Much of the film is shot on location at Halde Mountain, where the remains of the world's first permanent Northern Lights Observatory are still to be seen today. Most of the film is presented in 3-dimensional silhouette against the night sky. Northern Lights scenes are also filmed in 3D, using two cameras some kilometeres apart. Here we can see shapes and figures of the Aurora in a way that is impossible with the naked eye.
Morten Skallerud (b. 1954) is a short film director, cinematographer and VFX camera operator, specializing in visual effects, animation and large-format. Skallerud has worked professionally with film since 1977, mainly as a cinematographer, camera operator, and with visual effects. He's worked extensively with experimental camera techniques, and founded the production company Camera Magica in 1987, specializing in visual effects work.