Since 2011, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Art + Film Gala has brought together the creative communities of Los Angeles. Co-chaired by Eva Chow and Leonardo DiCaprio, LACMA’s Art + Film Gala draws notables from the art, film, fashion, music and entertainment industries to celebrate the most influential artists and filmmakers of our time.
When the pandemic hit and the gala couldn’t take place last year, LACMA turned to Lisanne Skyler, filmmaker and film production faculty member of the School of Theatre, Film & Television to create a film looking back on the extraordinary history and impact of the Museum’s signature event.
Skyler’s A Few Things about Art + Film tracks its decade-long history from its early days as an initiative to revitalize the film program to becoming known as “the Met Ball of the West.” The film spotlights the 18 diverse artists and filmmakers the Gala has honored from 2011 through 2019: John Baldessari and Clint Eastwood, Ed Ruscha and Stanley Kubrick, David Hockney and Martin Scorsese, Barbara Kruger and Quentin Tarantino, James Turrell and Alejandro Iñárritu, Robert Irwin and Kathryn Bigelow, Catherine Opie and Guillermo Del Toro, George Lucas and Mark Bradford, and Alfonso Cuaron and Betye Saar. The film was edited by FTV alum Jeanna French (’12).
Presented by Gucci, A Few Things about Art + Film was produced under the banner of LACMA Productions, which since 2011 has commissioned emerging and mid-career filmmakers, including Lucy Walker, Doug Pray, Dime Davis and Christine Turner to tell the stories of the artists of our time. Films in the series have earned official selections and awards at leading international film festivals, including Sundance, SXSW, DOC NYC, Outfest, Aspen Shortsfest and Sheffield Doc/Fest. In 2016, LACMA invited Skyler to write and direct A Few Things About Robert Irwin about the pioneering Light and Space artist for the series. The film premiered at the 2016 LACMA Art + Film Gala and went onto a screen at AFI Docs in DC, Provincetown International Film Festival, the Florida Film Festival and the Yale University Art Museum.
Lisanne Skyler is the writer/director of award-winning fiction, documentary and branded films including the historic South Central LA documentary No Loans Today, recently acquired by the UCLA Film Archives, the critically acclaimed feature film Getting To Know You, an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, and the Oscar-shortlisted HBO Documentary Brillo Box (3¢ off), now streaming on HBO and HBO Max. Skyler is in production on the feature documentary Museums of the Night, following the rise and fall of New York’s 1980s club scene through the lived experiences of the artists who created this influential but fleeting movement.
The LACMA Art + Film Gala returns on November 6, 2021 honoring the artists Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley, the creators of the Obama portraits, and legendary director Steven Spielberg.
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