Fairfax Cinema
Cinefamily founder and board member Sammy Harkham took a break between stints of film programming at his theater on Fairfax to write about Hollywood men behaving badly. We take a closer look at Sammy’s graphic novel and his broken promises of creating a safe and responsible workplace.
Read MoreAfter months of pandemic-related shutdown, cinema-going in Los Angeles is ramping back up, and films are once more being shown commercially at the Silent Movie Theater. And once more, operations resume with another change in branding: the space is now called “Brain Dead Studios,” following its brief run as Fairfax Cinema and, before that, Cinefamily.
Read MoreAfter agreeing to talk with this website, Fairfax Cinema changed course. Then the anonymous Tweets began. Are the Harkhams falling back on an old playbook?
Read MoreRather than oversee Cinefamily or Fairfax Cinema, Dan Harkham develops hotels. What can we learn from a 20-year old dispute involving a Harkham strike, rabbis marching with bitter herbs, and a hotel rebranding?
Read MoreFairness for workers is a constant, never-ending struggle. Will Fairfax Cinema engage in the same shady practices Cinefamily allegedly engaged in? These practices may or may not be newly-illegal in California…
Read MoreAfter more than two years of planning, Dan and Sammy Harkham’s Fairfax Cinema opened its doors to the public on December 25, 2019. The new staff report having to address old business.
Read MoreDan Harkham is trying to open a theater and a hotel at the same time. This website unearths a Cinefamily Employee Handbook. How do those two things connect?
Focus, and ask again.
Read MoreAccording to The Hollywood Reporter, Fairfax Cinema—the rebranded Cinefamily entity—will open next week with a 35mm run of “Uncut Gems,” the new Safdie Brothers movie starring Adam Sandler. Yet inaccuracies in THR reporting left readers scratching their heads, and roiling anger over the Cinefamily scandal spilled into social media and may have caused the filmmakers to rethink their plans.
Read MoreThe future of workplace safety is up in the air. We don’t yet know if #MeToo will herald a new era of responsibility, or if it’s just the latest in a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. Changing the culture is a long-term project, and while (some) perpetrators have been held accountable, new ones take their place every day. For sustainable, lasting change, we have to walk and chew gum at the same time: as we hold jerks to account, we must also attend to the systems and structures that support and protect them.
On seeing a ‘life ruined,’ a hit of smug superiority can give a false sense of justice served—false because this downfall addresses only part of the problem. Increasingly, advocates and the press are putting enablers under the microscope…
Read MoreFancy new seating, fancy new lighting, and “a fall opening with much the same program as Cinefamily.” Now, about that Certificate of Occupancy…
Read MoreAugust 2019 will mark two years since jerks like Hadrian Belove and Shadie Elnashai ruined Cinefamily. Two years since jerks on Cinefamily’s Board rushed to shut the organization down rather than fix it, and paid for a secret report allegedly clearing them of wrongdoing. Two years since jerks like Dan and Sammy Harkham oversaw its demise, grabbed what they could, and tried for a rebrand and a do-over.
We attempt to mark the occasion, visit a new cinema, and provide a programming note…
Read MoreAn intrepid visitor to 611 N. Fairfax sends along these fresh pictures of the renovations Dan and Sammy Harkham are making to the Silent Movie Theater.
Read MoreA disclosure from the Harkhams’ former lobbyist raises new questions about the viability of the project, and signals that the renovations and rebranding may not be on track.
Read MoreCinefamily / Fairfax’s Dan Harkham has brought a veteran lobbyist onto the team. Apex LA’s Margaret Taylor is expected to help the Harkhams secure a conditional use permit to allow beer and wine sales at the rebranded Fairfax Cinema at the Silent Movie Theater.
Read MoreCinefamily ceased operations in August 2017 and Dan Harkham launched Fairfax Cinema shortly thereafter. But Cinefamily continues to exist as a legal entity. Newly-discovered state filings suggest Cinefamily finally closed. Except here’s why it didn’t.
Read MoreIn late 2018 the Harkhams applied for a Certificate of Occupancy from the L.A. Department of Building and Safety for the Silent Movie Theater’s Fairfax Cinema (Cinefamily). As of this writing in early February 2019, the application is still pending. New documents indicate that plans for the venue may have changed yet again, possibly related to an alcohol licensing challenge with the state ABC.
Read MoreA new set of laws went into effect on January 1. They probably would have helped workers at Cinefamily. Hopefully at Fairfax Cinema the Harkhams will increase their attentions to wage theft, workplace bullying, and sexual harassment and abuse.
Read MoreThe ABC’s License Query System indicates the Harkhams’ application for a license to sell alcohol at the Silent Movie Theater’s Fairfax Cinema has been placed on hold. Are they a “public nuisance?” Was Cinefamily?
Read MoreIn November 2017, months after closing their doors, Cinefamily was named as a defendant in yet another lawsuit. (Hadrian Belove was also named as a defendant.)
Read MoreThere may be something satisfying about tearing down abusers, but don’t confuse that for justice, Masha Gessen warns.
Read More
![“Uncut Gems” [Was] to Open Cinefamily / Fairfax on Christmas 2019 [Updated]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d859da3ebd96315b08954f5/1576697160012-KX13QRW4X6J7UEUUJL2N/sandler.jpg)
