“Venice Pier” by Gary Beydler, courtesy of Los Angeles Filmforum
By Peter Doyle Coogan.
A rare Venice Beach art film shows this weekend.
Gary Beydler’s VENICE PIER (1976) screens Sunday as part of YesterdayLA, a June series of local films at L.A.’s Philosophical Research Society.
https://www.prs.org/YesterdayLA.html
Yes, you already have your hands full; but, no, we’d never seek to distract or divert fans of Bloomsday, James Joyce, or Sunday’s psychedelia happenings at Beyond Baroque.
Yet, look!, our own Venice Pier stars in a movie, with its name in the title, “VENICE PIER.”
This “underseen experimental gem” shows almost nowhere outside of art galleries, or France, and, locally; it shows almost never, except this Sunday.
Pat O’Neill’s WATER & POWER + Gary Beydler’s VENICE PIER
Date: Sun 15 Jun., 2025 7 PM
Location: Philosophical Research Society PRS.org
3910 Los Feliz Blvd, L.A., CA 90027
“The Philosophical Research Society and Los Angeles Filmforum present Pat O’Neill’s masterpiece — a complex, avant garde LA city symphony, alongside an underseen experimental gem, Venice Pier, both presented on 16mm! Pat O’ Neill in person!”
This film rarity, VENICE PIER, also has a few select homes online, one of which is in Paris, France (naturellement, n’est-ce pas!):
https://LightCone.org/en/film-10204-venice-pier
If you feel unmoved by L.A. taking an interest in your pier in Venice, how do you feel about your local muralists and Venice artists of public spaces?
“MUR MURS” (1981), by the late departed giant of French documentary films, Agnès Varda, also appeared in The YesterdayLA series at PRS, but last weekend.
Varda included a role in Mur Murs for a young Judy Baca.
Yes, the same Judith F. Baca, who founded Venice’s Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). Baca continues in Venice, as SPARC artistic director, while serving at UCLA as a Distinguished Professor in the departments of Chicano/a Studies and World Arts and Cultures.
Baca founded the first City of Los Angeles mural program in 1974, and in 1976, she started SPARC in Venice.
Baca has earned world-renown as a painter and muralist. Baca’s signature piece is “The Great Wall of Los Angeles.”
https://sparcinla.org/programs/greatwallinstitute/
As noted by the Philosophical Research Society for its screening last Sunday, Agnès Varda saved for us a ‘striking and unforgettable snapshot of Los Angeles’ now largely bygone tapestry of street murals.’