SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents

Part of our HOLIDAY HOPE 2023 Series, Saturday, December 23, 2023

LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021

*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the 1917 Bay St building. Our entrance is NOT on Bay Street. You access our entrance from Wilson Street by turning into the street art alleyway/corridor in the back of the building. Look for our signs which are always posted on Wilson and in the corridor to guide the audience.

7:30pm CHILDREN OF MEN (2006, co wri & dir by Alfonso Cuaron, Universal, USA, 107mns, 35mm)

Often, the best movies about faith, hope, the transcendant keep silent about these themes. A good movie is a good movie regardless of your philosophical bent. Such themes can be available for those who want them and other powerful themes can be just as present.

Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men one of the greatest movies of the 21st century threads this needle with such grace and understatement, it may be one of the very best to ever hover between the spiritual and the secular.

Based on PD James novel of the same name, Children of Men takes place in the (now) uncomfortably close year of 2027 in which no baby has been born for 18 years. The world is ravaged by ecological disaster, mass migration displacement, racism, and despair. Theo (a wonderful Clive Owen) wanders a bleak London barely alive in his soul. When his estranged wife Julian (Julianne Moore) reappears, she reveals she's been working with a rebel group and needs his help. Theo and Julian lost a child themselves and at first Theo is angry, resistant. But then Julian reveals that she has been protecting Kee, a young woman who is (miraculously) pregnant.

Theo then embarks on an odyssey with Kee across a tortured and treacherous landscape to get her to a rendezvous ship away from the politics, brutality, and violence of the mainland.

Cuaron and his DP Emmanuel Lubezki staged some of the most stunning "oners" (scenes that all take place as one shot) this side of Orson Welles and Steven Spielberg. But it's really Cuaron's tremendous world building, sense of atmosphere, and deep humanity that infuses Children of Men with a deep profundity.

There's no mistaking why this movie was released here in the US on Christmas Day back in 2006. It may be the best version of the Nativity story ever put to celluloid. And we're showing it on 35mm.

Best always,

Craig Hammill

Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer

*Please note that though we strive to always show titles on 35mm film if advertised, we may have to screen digitally if the print we receive is in such bad shape or if we don't receive the print in time because of a shipping delay. We will do our best to alert the audience. When this does occur, we will offer each ticket holder who chooses not to attend a complimentary ticket to a future event in exchange. (Disclaimer: Good for 90 days – Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

REFUNDS:

We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.

However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening, good for 90 days. (Disclaimer: Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)

HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:

We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.

There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.

HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?

You can follow us on Instagram/Twitter: @secretmovieclub or Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm

You can also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter at secretmovieclub.com or by writing to us at community@secretmovieclub.com and using the header “SUBSCRIBE ME TO NEWSLETTER”.

HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:

You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.