Ed Rampell

Ed Rampell is an LA-based film historian and critic, author of "Progressive Hollywood: A People’s Film History of the United States," and co-author of "The Hawaii Movie and Television Book." He has written for Variety, Television Quarterly, Cineaste, New Times L.A., and other publications. Rampell lived in Tahiti, Samoa, Hawaii, and Micronesia, reporting on the nuclear-free and independent Pacific and Hawaiian Sovereignty movements.

LATEST ARTICLES BY Ed Rampell

Culture

L.A.’s AFI Fest returns with films about occupation, voting, and protest
November 22, 2021 By Ed Rampell
The AFI Fest returned to Hollywood for live, in-person screenings and events, with an additional virtual component.
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Culture

L.A.’s biggest film festival returns with great anti-racist films
November 19, 2021 By Ed Rampell
Some of the screenings were accompanied by talent who introduced and/or spoke about their films when they were shown at the TCL Chinese Theatres.
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Culture

‘The Serpent’: An Edenic experimental classic returns to the live stage
October 27, 2021 By Ed Rampell
Instead of telling a single tale, in The Serpent the dozen multi-culti, mostly young members of the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble stage a series of vignettes with an improvisational vibe.
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Culture

Lights! Cameras! Action! Academy Museum features Hollywood history, hoopla and inclusivity
October 1, 2021 By Ed Rampell
The Motion Picture Academy’s latest creation is walking a tightrope, mixing showbiz pizzazz with world cinema and a reflectiveness on the medium’s origins and power.
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Culture

‘I’m Not a Comedian…I’m Lenny Bruce’: Ronnie Marmo channels the standup philosopher
September 30, 2021 By Ed Rampell
As a standup comic with a philosophical slant, Lenny was a pre-Social Media forerunner of the free speech cause.
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Culture

‘Our Man in Santiago’: A comedy about the overthrow of Salvador Allende?
September 28, 2021 By Ed Rampell
A "comic spy thriller inspired by the true story of a spectacularly botched U.S. attempt to overthrow Chile’s democratically elected leader.”
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Culture

‘Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster,’ a nonfiction creature feature
September 24, 2021 By Ed Rampell
You don’t have to be a horror fan to enjoy Thomas Hamilton’s documentary Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster (I’m not and I did).
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Culture

‘Lizastrata’: Make eros, not thanatos, says Aristophanes
September 15, 2021 By Ed Rampell
The Troubadour Theater Company’s uproarious mounting of Lizastrata at the Getty Villa’s amphitheater is the latest of countless versions of Aristophanes’ Greek classic Lysistrata.
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