Indie filmmaker Sid Laverents celebration

UCLA hosts 100th birthday Screening Celebration for indie filmmaker Sid Laverents

WHAT: Los Angeles Premiere! THE SID SAGA: SID LAVERENTS' CENTENNIAL BIRTHDAY PARTY ("The Sid Saga" and short "Multiple SIDosis," both directed by Sid Laverents), part of the series "Preservationists Choice: Selected Hits from the Archive's Festival of Preservation"

WHO: 100-year-old filmmaker Sid Laverents (health permitting), UCLA Film Preservationist Ross Lipman, Sid's filmmaking buddy Fritz Harshbarger, pop culture critics Kim Cooper (Scram magazine, Esotouric) and Jake Austin (Roctober magazine).

WHERE: James Bridges Theater, 1409 Melnitz Hall, UCLA Campus, Westwood. 310-206-8013.

WHEN: Thursday, August 7, 2008, 7:30 pm

COST: $10

"Mr. Laverents is a distinctively American artist: a rec-room tinkerer with the can-do optimism of someone who got through the Depression and found comfort in the suburbs. Following his own whims rather than any cultural movement, he turned himself from a one-man band into a one-man independent movie studio. Mr. Laverents makes multitalented feature filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez and Steven Soderbergh look like slackers." ­Matt Haber, New York Times

"Multiple SIDosis" is THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE! Everyone I've ever shared this film with has been amazed." ­ Jake Austen, Roctober

Amateur filmmaker Sid Laverents burst into national attentionin 2000 at age 92, when his deliriously funny short film "Multiple SIDosis" was selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry. He turns 100 on August 5th, and his friends at UCLA are throwing a party on August 7th so everyone can get a chance to meet this astonishing artist (who still answers his own email and sells his films directly to fans), sing "happy birthday"and see Sid's wonderful work for themselves.

Screening on August 7 as part of the series "Preservationists Choice: Selected Hits from the Archive's Festival of Preservation" is "The Sid Saga"--Sid's magnum opus and an undiscovered masterpiece. The film's three parts (the shot-on-video Part 4 is not included in this screening) chronicle Sid's ambles across the country in the early part of the century, his marriages, his saucy adventures and his many uniquely American jobs-- which included barn storming vaudevillian, dishwasher, sign painter, Fuller Brush salesman, carpenter, soldier, sheet metal worker and, yes, rocket scientist. In Part 3 we meet the mature Sid, who became a filmmaker in his 50s, and explore everything from his surprisingly erotic backyard nature documentaries to such mind-boggling comedies as "It Sudses and Sudses andSudses," in which Sid has to jump out his bathroom window to escape out-of-control soap bubbles.

"The Sid Saga" is the story of one life through one American century. Twenty years in the making and soon to be preserved by UCLA, this unknown gem will receive its Los Angeles premiere in a special tribute evening for Sid Laverents.

Preceeding "The Sid Saga," the audience will enjoy UCLA's 35mm preservation of "Multiple SIDosis," Sid's National Film Registry classic. This short masterpiece of visual and audio multi-tracking will drop your jaw through the floor as you watch the incredibly ordinary-looking Sid replicate his Vaudeville-era one man band act, transforming himself with funny hats, kitty whiskers, mouse ears and ingenious comb-overs while playing a delightful tune. Soon there are multiple Sids up on the screen, the very special effects created with just one (very smart, deceptively non-descript) man, one camera, and no fancy editing equipment.

In addition to the films, this never-to-be-repeated evening will include a group singalong of "Happy Birthday to Sid" and special guests including Fritz Harshbarger, a fellow member of Sid's amateur movie making club in San Diego; Roctober Magazine editor and author of the definitive Sid Laverents webpage, Jake Austen; and pop culture critic and Scram Magazine editrix Kim Cooper.

LINKS
Jake Austen's Sidography article
http://www.roctober.com/roctober/greatness/sidography.html

UCLA's restored "Multiple SIDosis" on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cRZmvr-2QM