LBCC Filmmakers Association
Exclusive G.I. Jesus Screening & Panel Discussion Event
The LBCC Filmmakers Association proudly presents:
The exclusive screening of the award-winning independent feature film, G.I. Jesus, followed by a meet-and-greet panel discussion with members of the cast and crew. Thursday, May 24th at 6:30 PM at the Art Theater in Long Beach: 2025 E. 4th Street, Long Beach, CA 90814
WATCH THE TRAILER
Synopsis
G.I. Jesus sheds a new and different light on immigrant oppression in the US. With the acceleration of immigrant criminalization, the US military in its ongoing war against the planet, has concocted a shrewd Faustian bargain trading the carrot stick of American citizenship in exchange for a seeming gladiator deployment to Iraq.
The deeply conflicted Jesus Feliciano (Joe Arquette), a young undocumented Mexican living a menial existence in a Baja, California border shack with his wife Claudia (Patricia Mota) - his 'Dominican princess' with whom he is very much in love - and his precocious grade school daughter Marina (Telana Lynum) who is pretty clever at dissecting war zone conflict, whether at home with mom and dad or abroad in Iraq.
Jesus has initially signed up with the Marines as a fast track road to citizenship, and hopefully a better life economically for his family. But when Jesus returns home from Iraq, he's plagued by post-traumatic nightmares as the ghosts of the dead and those whose lives he helped extinguish, relentlessly haunt him.
WINNER OF THE GRAND JURY PRIZE AT CINEVEGAS 2006
Thursday, May 24th at 6:30 PM
G.I. Jesus and the LBCC Filmmakers Association
In March 2007, the LBCC Filmmakers Association was fortunate enough to be introduced to Frederic Goodich, accomplished filmmaker and cinematographer for G.I. Jesus. After hosting one of the best guest lecture events the “Association” had ever seen, Mr. Goodich approached the Long Beach City College based organization with the proposal of having a free screening night for the students and community, followed by a panel discussion with the cast and crew.
“Long Beach City College is an extraordinarily diverse campus of students who are concerned with the local, national and global issues that affect all of our lives, particularly the current controversy over immigration in California and the ongoing conflict in Iraq. G.I. Jesus is a pointed, timely look at both of these issues in new context, giving voice to a perspective that has not been explored in mainstream film”, said Ericka Concha, LBCC Filmmakers Association president, “I am proud to bring this film to the students and to the Long Beach community.”
Not only will this event bring G.I. Jesus to Long Beach, but it will also give Long Beach City College film students the opportunity to meet and interact with the film’s cast and crew. Creating industry-based networking opportunities is one of the LBCC Filmmakers Association’s key objectives, believed to play a significant role in the student’s personal career growth.
G.I. Jesus will be hosted by the historic Long Beach Art Theater on 4th Street, one of the oldest theaters in Los Angeles County.
The Art Theater
The Art Theatre of Long Beach is the last remaining neighborhood movie theatre in Long Beach. When it opened, the 636 seat theatre showed silent films and contained an orchestra pit and a pipe organ. Originally called "The Carter Theatre" when it opened in 1924, it later became "The Lee" in 1935, and then "The Art" in the 1940's.
The structure is a composite of architectural design revealing three successive eras of development. Plans indicate the first building was constructed in a modest vernacular style with "orientalizing" touches reminiscent of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Two store fronts flanked the theatre. The one on the east side survives with the original transom windows intact.
The Art Theatre exemplifies movie-theatre architecture, with its richly decorative facade and ornamental sidewalk, highly visible and designed to attract in the 1940's and early 1950's. Long Beach possessed dozens of downtown and neighborhood movie houses. In 2004 such theaters are a dying breed. The Art Theatre is only one of a few from this era remaining in the Los Angeles region.
