The Mods & Rockers Film Festival was a Los Angeles film festival that celebrated rock culture. It was presented by the non-profit cultural organization American Cinematheque annually from 1999 to 2010, with the exception of 2004.
The festival was founded in 1999 by humorist/producer Martin Lewis and Cinematheque programming director Dennis Bartok, who jointly produced the event through 2005. After Bartok’s departure from the organization, his successor as programmer, Chris Desjardins, continued producing the festival with Lewis. The festival took place in Los Angeles each summer at the American Cinematheque’s two theaters: Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.
The festival was originally a celebration of 1960s pop culture, and presented British and American films made in that decade – especially those that reflected the more exuberant aspects of the 1960s. The festival title was inspired by the name given to the two warring British youth subcultures prevalent in the early to mid-1960s - the mods and rockers. The festival later started showing films from other decades. The films screened represented a broad mixture of filmmaking, including mainstream hits, offbeat cult classics, obscurities, feature films, documentaries and concert films. A few films received their world premiere at the festival. Other films received their US, West Coast, or Los Angeles premieres.
The festival attracted major celebrities to discuss films with which they have been associated, including: Roger Daltrey of the Who, Michelle Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas, Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, Spencer Davis, Howard Kaylan of the Turtles, Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane, Andy Summers of the Police, Denny Laine of the Moody Blues, Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, Nancy Sinatra, Rod McKuen, Barry McGuire, Olivia Newton-John, Lynn Redgrave, Michael York, Judy Geeson, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Barbet Schroeder, Eleanor Bron, Michael Des Barres, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
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Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films were mainly liberal adaptations of existing texts, or biographies, notably of composers of the Romantic era. Russell began directing for the BBC, where he made creative adaptations of composers' lives which were unusual for the time. He also directed many feature films independently and for studios.
Mods and rockers were two conflicting British youth subcultures of the late 1950s to mid 1960s. Media coverage of the two groups fighting in 1964 sparked a moral panic about British youth, and they became widely perceived as violent, unruly troublemakers.
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Rockers, leather boys, Ton-up boys, and possibly café racers are members of a biker subculture that originated in the United Kingdom during the 1950s. It was mainly centred on British café racer motorcycles and rock 'n' roll music. By 1965, the term greaser had also been introduced to Great Britain and, since then, the terms greaser and rocker have become synonymous within the British Isles, although used differently in North America and elsewhere. Rockers were also derisively known as Coffee Bar Cowboys. Their Japanese counterpart was called the Kaminari-Zoku.
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The American Cinematheque is an independent, nonprofit cultural organization in Los Angeles, California, United States dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the moving image in all its forms.
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