Ed Rampell

Ed Rampell is an L.A.-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. Rampell’s novel about the Native Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement for Indigenous rights, The Disinherited: Blood Blalahs, is being published this year.

LATEST ARTICLES BY Ed Rampell

“Eat With Me”: You may be hungry an hour after this tasty coming-out tale
June 19, 2014 By Ed Rampell
"Eat With Me" alternates between being an enjoyable, poignant coming-out comedy drama and a paint-or rather film-by numbers story.
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Thaïs: Religion versus sexuality on an epic scale
May 30, 2014 By Ed Rampell
Jules Massenet's Thaïs is a tale of religion and sexual repression, with baritone Plácido Domingo as Athanaël, a meddler of epic proportions, masquerading as a monk to hide his inner psychological conflicts.
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Review: “Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself “
May 14, 2014 By Ed Rampell
The PBS American Masters series is airing a biopic about the writer who made a career out of being a "professional amateur."
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“Porgy and Bess”: Gershwin – You is my man now!
May 5, 2014 By Ed Rampell
Inspired by a newspaper clipping about a true-life crime, this perennial classic takes place in Charleston's fictionalized Catfish Row .
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A triumphant must-see show about Paul Robeson
May 2, 2014 By Ed Rampell
Daniel Beaty doesn't miss a beat in his one-man tribute to African American Paul Robeson, the son of a runaway slave who went on to become an actor, activist and Renaissance Man.
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“The Galapagos Affair, Satan Came to Eden” film review
April 30, 2014 By Ed Rampell
The atavistic impulse to "get away from it all" and "return to nature" has been a literary theme since Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson cast away on desert islands.
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“Alphaville” totalitarian fears still relevant decades later
April 30, 2014 By Ed Rampell
Almost 50 years later, the prescient Godard's sci fi classic takes on a whole new dimension as a parable of the NSA national security surveillance state.
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“Cesar’s Last Fast”: The last shall be first
April 21, 2014 By Ed Rampell
Jesus may have had a Last Supper but Cesar Chavez had a Final Fast.
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