'Zoot Suit' will celebrate 45 years at The Ford with Edward James Olmos and Luis Valdez
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The classic Chicano film “Zoot Suit” is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year in style.The Golden Globe-nominated movie, featuring a lead performance by Edward James Olmos, was based on a stage play penned by legendary screenwriter and director Luis Valdez, who drew inspiration from a pamphlet about the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the riots that it sparked.On Thursday it was announced that the flick will be screened at The Ford amphitheater on July 8 to honor its notable benchmark and enduring legacy.The special screening will include a conversation with Valdez, Olmos and actor-educator Cristina Frías, who will discuss the movie’s production, influence and place in the L.A.
film canon.California The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of racist attacks on the Mexican, Black and Filipino communities of Los Angeles during the first week of June 1943.“‘Zoot Suit’ changed the way our stories could be seen on screen,” Olmos said in a statement.
“It gave voice to a history that many people had never been taught and showed the beauty, strength and complexity of the Chicano experience.Forty-five years later, the film continues to inspire because it is about more than one moment in time.
It is about identity, dignity and the responsibility we have to remember where we come from.”The screening will also feature a vintage car show put on by the Pachuco Car Club, which will showcase the rides reminiscent of the time period shown in the movie.In June 1943, L.A.was engulfed in the lawlessness and violence that became known as the Zoot Suit Riots.
The name is misleading because it suggests that the zoot suiters — the young Mexican, Black and Filipino men and boys who wore the flamboyant outfits — were the perpetrators.In fact, they were the victims.The attacks by servicemen and white Angelenos on zoot suiters, derided as “gamin dandies” in The Times, were dr...