Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn's L FOR LEISURE (2014) - Tenth anniversary screening with co-director in person!
Among the key independent films of the 2010s, Kalman & Horn's blissed-out social satire effortlessly blurs the lines between irony and sincerity.
~
May 13, 2025, 8:00 PM
2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90057, USA
L FOR LEISURE
directed by Lev Kalman and Whiney Horn
2014, U.S., 74m, DCP
Tenth anniversary screening, followed by a conversation with co-director Lev Kalman
doors/bar: 7:30
film: 8:00
The films of Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn provide a heady combination of high and lowbrow pleasures: their idiosyncratic blend of cheeky humor, bespoke production design and 16mm cinematography remains singular in the realm of contemporary arthouse cinema. Among the key independent films of the 2010s, their blissed-out sophomore feature, L FOR LEISURE, embodies summertime in the early ‘90s, following a group of attractive graduate students who take a break from their research to jet-set on a lush series of vacations. Amid casual hookups and deadpan ideological arguments, Kalman & Horn’s episodic narrative at times resembles a chillwave Slacker by way of Whit Stillman (set to a pulsating electronic score by John Atkinson), while reveling in amateurish performances from a cast of nonprofessional actors, including filmmakers Mati Diop and Gabriel Abrantes, and an early turn from Melissa Barrera. Effortlessly blurring the lines between irony and sincerity, Kalman and Horn’s enduringly original (and hilarious) social satire is best enjoyed with a Snapple.
This screening is a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of L FOR LEISURE's very limited theatrical release. This year, the filmmakers are touring the film to alternative, community and DIY spaces. If you are interested in screening the movie in your town/city, reach out to leisureiswar@gmail.com!
“Both a delicious social satire and a dreamy, almost sci-fi evocation of a nattily brainy alternate past.” -MoMA
“Equal part class critique and deadpan laugh riot.” -Erik Leuers, Filmmaker Magazine
“At once a nostalgic, freely imagined snapshot of a past that perhaps never was, and a psychedelic speculation about futures yet to come… If Whit Stillman’s BARCELONA (1994) and Andy Warhol’s MY HUSTLER (1965) were to go on an ayahuasca retreat, meet on a higher plane of spiritual/cinematic existence, and fuse their consciousnesses, chances are they’d return as L for Leisure.” -Le Cinéma Club