Venice West and the LA Scene (2006)
Swinging in the Shadows (Part One)
58 minutes
Rebels from the 50s in the City of Angeles
The connection between art and poetry set the aesthetics during this short-lived but dynamic time in Los Angeles. Poets influenced the artists and were, in turn, inspired by the art.
Venice West and the LA Scene brings out what developed in Southern California among this underground group. It’s the story of the early Ferus, Syndell Studio, Gas House, and Venice West Café told in the words of the participants. What took place in these spaces, studios and in the “pads” in Venice and LA were the roots of what developed into a very professional; but still, energetic Los Angeles art scene. The surviving poets, most still living in poverty, remain true to the uncompromising spirit they forged in the 50s.
The myth of the muse set our spines straight directed
- Tony Scibella
Philomene Long
Photograph by Pegarty Long
Screenings:
In January 2006, Venice West and the LA Scene was screened at a Symposium at the University of Utah in Logan. This was in conjunction with their exhibition, “Semina Culture—Wallace Berman and His Circle” in the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art in Logan, Utah. The exhibition opened in 2005 at the Santa Monica Museum in California.
The Centre Pompidou in Paris screened it in conjunction with their exhibition, “Los Angeles– 1955-1985”, March -July 2006.
The documentary was also screened at “sprachsalz”, a literary festival in Tirol, Austria in September 2006.
