US DOCUMENTARY filmmaker Thom Andersen will be at The National Film and Sound Archive to present  “Thom Andersen’s Cinema Cities,” a series of talks and screenings at the archive  from October 24 to 27.

Andersen’s visit is one of the NFSA contributions to “Canberra 100,” a  part of the “Utopian Cinema”  series of film screenings that seek to explore the connections between cinema and architecture.

Andersen’s work is known for exploring and drawing connection between the two art forms, especially through the history and built environment of Los Angeles – the home of the Hollywood film industry and thus   the world’s most-filmed city.

A filmmaker, film critic and teacher, Andersen began his career with “Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer” in 1974,  but is best-known for his 2003 film “Los Angles Play Itself”, which was voted best US documentary of 2004 by the Village Voice Critic’s Poll.

Andersen now  teaches film theory and history at the California Institute of the Arts, and in 2012 was an artist in residence at the Whitney Biennial.

The “Cinema Cities” program is as follows:

6pm, Thursday, October 24, 6pm: Andersen will be joined by another US and Los Angeles-born cultural theorist – Lawrence Weschler – for a seminar/conversation about the history and culture of Los Angeles on film.

7.30pm Thursday,  October 24: New films by Thom Andersen. The director will introduce two of his most recent films, “Get Out of the Car” (2010) about the disrepair and disappearance of Los Angeles’ visual landmarks and “Reconversão” (2012) about Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura.

4.30pm, Saturday October 26: Thom Andersen carte blanche – 1974 car chase film “Gone in 60 Seconds”.

1.30pm, Sunday,  October 27: “Los Angeles Plays Itself”. Andersen introduces   the film he calls a “City Symphony in reverse,” for which Andersen used over 200 clips from 90 years of LA movies, to reveal what Hollywood’s conceals.

4.45pm, 1.30pm, Sunday,  October 27: “American Cities”. This  final session looks beyond Los Angeles and honours Walter and Marion Mahoney Burley Griffin’s origins in Chicago and the mid-west USA. The program includes the official film made as part of Detroit’s unsuccessful bid to hold the 1968 Olympics, “The Detroit you’ve Never Met” (1962).

Inquiries to 6248 2000.