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

Non-aligned movement featured at South East European Film Festival
May 21, 2024 By Ed Rampell
The award-winning Mila Turajlić expands the boundaries of conventional nonfiction films.
Read more
Culture

‘Monsters of the American Cinema’: Creatures from the Black and sexual lagoon
May 13, 2024 By Ed Rampell
St. Croix’s play dramatizes this above all else: What we have in common is more powerful than what keeps us apart.
Read more
Culture

TCM Festival 2024: The ‘Coachella of Classic Movies’ rides again in Hollywood
May 9, 2024 By Ed Rampell
So this year I looked forward to the April 18-21 TCM Classic Film Festival more than ever. At least I’d be able to enjoy TCM for four days without interruption, and as usual, I wasn’t disappointed.
Read more
Culture

‘The Bespoke Overcoat’: Gogol’s giggles, ghosts and class struggle
March 28, 2024 By Ed Rampell
A theatrical adaptation of “The Overcoat,” a short story written in 1842 by the Ukrainian-born Nikolai Gogol, who along with Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Gorky is one of the most renowned contributors to Russian literature.
Read more
Culture

Pan African Film Festival 2024: ‘Moments,’ ‘Maharlika,’ and ‘Black Best Friend’
March 21, 2024 By Ed Rampell
The L.A. premiere of writer/director Malachi Rivers’s Moments shatters stereotypes regarding African Americans in his 9-episode digital series of shorts that are each under 13 minutes long.
Read more
Culture

Pan African Film Festival: ‘This is Lagos’
March 20, 2024 By Ed Rampell
Arguably the best thing about PAFF is that it provides U.S. theatergoers with the opportunity to see films about Mother Africa by Africans, from a decidedly continental perspective.
Read more
Culture

Pan African Film Festival 2024: ‘Bob Marley: One Love’
March 18, 2024 By Ed Rampell
You don’t need to smoke a spliff beforehand (or during) in order to enjoy the highly entertaining Bob Marley: One Love. Ya mon!
Read more
Culture

Pan African Film Festival: ‘Kipkemboi’ and ‘A Double Life’
March 14, 2024 By Ed Rampell
At PAFF, films span the spectrum from Oscar nominees to hard-to-find gems from Africa, the Caribbean, America and beyond that L.A. viewers are unlikely to be able to see at any other venue.
Read more