Culver City (California) Film Festival at Magic Lantern Video & Book Store

          Culver City, California {ZIP code 90230} uses the motto "The Heart of Screenland", and rightly so.
          Motion pictures were made in Culver City even before the city was incorporated by Harry Culver in 1917. Cecil B. DeMille photographed much of "The Squaw Man" [1914] along the then-willow-lined Ballona Creek.
          Thomas H. Ince [1882-1924] built Triangle Pictures Studios in Culver City in 1915; the property was later owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Lorimar, and is now the home of Sony-Columbia. Ince also built The Culver Studios in 1918, later owned by R.K.O. and Selznick and Desilu. Hal Roach [1892-1992] built his studio properties in 1919, later the site of USAAF's First Motion Picture Unit during World War II. These and other movie companies produced hundreds of short films and feature films and hundreds of animated cartoons and hundreds of television episodes in the nearly century-long tenure of Culver City as a major manufacturer of cinema.

Films famously made on the studio backlots of Culver City include the "Rocky" series, "Gone With The Wind" [1939], "The Time Machine" [1960], "The Wizard of Oz" [1939], "Citizen Kane" [1941], and TV series such as "Combat", "The Real McCoys", "Lucy", "Star Trek" and "Dallas", besides which are the many films that were made on the streets and in the homes & businesses of Culver City, and even up in the once-rural Baldwin Hills.
Films of the Silent Era, especially, display glimpses of Culver City's Downtown area: Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy, Mack Sennett, Charley Chase, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, Hal Roach's Our Gang – each filmed scores of shorts and features there. The film crews often simply went outside the studio property with camera and lights and actors and created the day's footage improvisationally.

The movies featured on this Online Culver City Film Festival webpage are those with scenes OF Culver City, recognizable shots of buildings and streets or distant hills that often look very much the same today – OR such locations that might be long gone but remain vivid in the memories of those who worked or lived in "The Heart of Screenland".

If you know of any other film with scenes on location in Culver City or its neighbors,
please send an email suggestion

The Sun Down Limited 1924 silent short starring the Our Gang kids

"Sundown Limited" [Hal Roach/Pathé Sept 1924]
Hal Roach's 'Our Gang' kids play in the Santa Fe train yards (featuring AT&SF 4-6-2 steam locomotive #1344) and get kicked out; they then build a rickety train on an abandoned rail line; the finale is an ensemble chase thru the streets of Culver City, past the Sam Seelio Co. Public Market.
Produced & written by Hal Roach; directed by Robert F. McGowan; starring Joe Cobb, Jackie Condon, Mickey Daniels, Allen 'Farina' Hoskins, Mary Kornman, Andy Samuel & 'Sonny Boy' Warde
available on DVD within several collections on the Little Rascals / Our Gang Page
full credits from IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia
watch full movie [19:59] online at Internet Archive

Culver City Adjacent
Of course, quite a few movies were filmed just outside the city limits of Culver City,
such as at nearby Venice Beach and in Santa Monica and up along the Malibu coast.
(NOT included here are the many teen surfing movies made in the 1960s and later,
with filming northward up Pacific Coast Highway at Malibu and Zuma and Trancas).

"American Venice" documentary [2016] 2016

Co-produced & directed by and starring Cle Shaheed 'Bone' Sloan /tt2461210/

"Dope" [Open Road Films June 2015]

Set in Inglewood and Los Angeles, California; geeky Afro-American teen in senior year of high school has straight-A grades and wants to get into Harvard; he and two pals get sucked into a drug deal but manage to survive; lots of hip-hop music on the soundtrack. Co-produced & narrated by Forest Whitaker; co-produced, written & directed by Rick Famuyiwa; starring Shameik Moore, Kiersey Clemons, Tony Revolori, Quincy Brown, Rakim Mayers/A$ap Rocky, Blake Anderson, Chanel Iman, Zoë Kravitz, Roger Guenveur Smith, Kap G, Bruce Beatty, De'aundre Bonds, Julian Brand, Kimberly Elise, Rick Fox, Amin Joseph, Ricky Harris, Allen Maldonado, Mimi Michaels, Ashton Moio, Lidia Porto, Keith Stanfield, Tyga & rapper Casey Veggies
Universal Studios widescreen color Blu-ray/DVD set [DUE Oct 2015] 2 disks for $24.97
Universal Studios widescreen color DVD [DUE Oct 2015] for $19.97
full credits at IMDb • official movie site • movie entry at Wikipedia

"Made In Venice" documentary [Aug 2016]

'Made In Venice' skateboarding documentary

The skateboarders of Venice progress from raising hell at the beach and on the bikepath in their teens to turning professional in the 1980s and putting 'street skating' on the global map. But their biggest challenge wasn't becoming skateboarding legends, it was getting what they had long dreamed of: a skatepark on Venice Beach for the commu-nity and the pro skaters of tomorrow • Co-produced & directed by Jonathan Penson; co-produced & written by Diane Rozas; featuring Jay Adams, Dave Duncan, Ray Flores, Christian Hosoi, Jesse Martinez, Jim Muir
DVD/Blu-ray not yet available • full credits at IMDb • official movie website
watch 4/2016 official trailer [1:33] online at YouTube

"Man In The Dark" [Columbia April 1953]

Filmed in 3-D; a convicted robber undergoes experimental brain surgery to remove his 'criminal tendencies'; when released from prison, members of his former gang kidnap him to get him to reveal the location of the hidden loot from their last robbery – but he can't remember. Torture by the gang triggers strange dreams that reveal pieces of the missing info, leading to a climax on the wooden roller coaster at a beachside amusement park (Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica, California). Directed by Lew Landers; starring Edmond O'Brien, Audrey Totter, Ted de Corsia & Horace McMahon • not available on DVD (2017)
Twilight Time Region 1 Limited Edition 3-D Blu-ray [1/2014] for $35.79
full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia

"Valentine's Day" [2010]
Great exterior shots all over Los Angeles, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and San Fernando Valley,
and several glimpses of the Venice Canals neighborhood.

"Venice Underground" [indep 2005]

Described as badly-made junk; election pressures drive 'City of Venice' police chief to recruit non-cop 'agents' to combat street crime, which starts a gang war. Written & directed by Eric DelaBarre; starring Ed Lauter, Danny Trejo, Randall Batinkoff, Mark Boone Jr., Francis Capra, James Duval, Edward Furlong, Carolina Garcia, Nicholas Gonzalez, Nichole Hiltz
LionsGate color DVD [4/2006] for $5.79
full credits at IMDb

"Vicious Circle" [Maya Releasing 2008]

A tragic 'punk rock' Latino love story set on the streets of modern-day Venice Beach, California Directed by Paul Boyd; starring Paul Rodriguez, Emily Rios, Trevor Wright
DVD/Blu-ray not yet available • full credits from IMDb • official movie site

"Westside" [Warner Bros./ABC-TV 2013?]
Announced 2/2013: Original title "Venice", with allusions to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"; primetime soap opera about two families vying for
'control' of Los Angeles beach district Venice, with forbidden love between surfshop owner Robbie Carver's son and ingenue Sophie Nance;
co-produced & directed by McG • latest info at IMDb

here on the Culver City (California) Film Festival Page at Magic Lantern Video & Book Store

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