As previews continue in advance of showtime upon its opening on September 22, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles—the starry institution conceived by director George Lucas and his wife Melody Hobson—announced its inaugural film program at San Diego Comic Con.
In a panel discussion featuring Lucas Museum senior curator and head of film programs Ryan Linkof alongside DC Comics CEO Jim Lee, actress Keke Palmer, and two founders of ConStoopid Buddy Stoodios, news dropped for what will be on offer in two designated theaters where select films will be screened “on a non-stop basis throughout the day, offering visitors an open-door, drop-in gallery-like experience.”
The list is eclectic, with films (and excerpts of films) ranging from documentaries on the history of cinema to avant-garde works by artists including Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, Stan Brakhage, Kenneth Anger, Mary Ellen Bute, and Jordan Belson.
The museum’s Robert Flaherty Theater, named after a documentarian and focused on “tradition of using cinema to capture reality in all its richness,” will feature the newly commissioned series Seeing is Believing: The Story of Narrative Art, episodes of the 2024 TV series The Power of Film, Robert Mann’s 1988 film Comic Book Confidential, and documentaries about artists on show at the Lucas including Norman Rockwell, Jim Lee, Charles Schulz, Maurice Sendak, Diego Rivera, J.C. Leyendecker, and Weegee.
The Slavko Vorkapich Theater, named after a 1920s-’40s–era filmmaker and dedicated to “the emotion of motion,” will show the avant-garde films noted above as well as clips of Vorkapich’s work on Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, silent films by the likes of Georges Méliès, musical interludes by Busby Berkeley, Looney Tunes cartoons, early animations by Winsor McCay, sound animations by Walt Disney Studios and Fleischer Studios, an episode of Star Wars: Visions, and student films by George Lucas dating from 1965 to 1969.
In a press release, Linkof, the curator, said, “We wanted to offer an alternative to the traditional museum film program and create a dynamic, open-door experience designed for discovery, allowing audiences to encounter cinema as a living, breathing art form at their own pace. Our inaugural programming will shed light on the evolution of film form and the creative process more broadly, tracing a direct line from early innovators to the modern masterworks of visual storytelling that shape our culture today.”
