Outside the Box [Office] invites you and a guest to attend
 

A Special IMAX Screening of

JACK HAS A PLAN

Directed by Bradley Berman
Produced by Chris Metzler

Followed by a Q&A with Bradley Berman and SCA Alumnus Chris Metzler

Moderated by SCA Professor Lisa Leeman

7:00 P.M. on Monday, April 3rd, 2023

The Michelle and Kevin Douglas IMAX Theatre, RZC 119
Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts
3131 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007

FREE ADMISSION. OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. RSVPs REQUIRED.
 

CLICK HERE TO RSVP
 

About Jack Has a Plan

Jack Tuller’s career as a budding San Francisco musician was altered in 1994 when he was diagnosed with a terminal condition and given six months to live. Jack Has a Plan tells the story of the following 25 years as Jack dodges one bullet after the next. How is it possible to be terminal for two decades? But Jack somehow turns his predicament into a Left Coast art-performance project complete with experimental movies, diaries, and funky dance moves. Finally, Jack engineers a graceful exit from life’s stage. But not if his family and friends have anything to say about it. San Francisco Examiner: “As joyous, thrilling and funny as any film about death could be.”

Running time: 73 minutes.

About the Guests

BRADLEY BERMAN (Director, Producer)

Bradley Berman received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University and a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Television from New York University. For the past two decades, his work has focused on writing and producing non-fiction content about transportation and urban design for major newspapers and magazines. Berman has contributed to The New York Times, MIT Technology Review, Popular Mechanics, and U.S. News & World Report.

In 2017, he made his directorial debut with NAT BATES FOR MAYOR, a feature documentary that screened at film festivals across the U.S. and aired on public television’s Truly CA series. JACK HAS A PLAN, his second feature documentary, is a film collaboration with his close friend, musician Jack Tuller.

CHRIS METZLER (Producer, SCA Alumnus)

Chris Metzler graduated from USC with a degree in business and cinema. His offbeat environmental documentary, PLAGUES & PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA, was narrated by the legendary John Waters. The film won more than 37 awards for Best Documentary and was named by Booklist as one of its Top 10 Environmental Films. A cult favorite, the film was released theatrically in the United States and broadcast nationally on the Sundance Channel and public television’s America ReFramed.

With the success of that film, he has gone on to pursue other sub-cultural documentary subjects, including rogue economists, lucha libre wrestlers, ganja-preneurs, and evangelical Christian surfers.  Additional feature documentaries include the Emmy nominated documentary EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE about the legendary Black ska-punk band, which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, screened at SXSW, and aired nationally on PBS and Starz. And his most recent feature is the ITVS co-production RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE about the giant swamp rat invasion of Louisiana, which was released theatrically and aired nationally on PBS’s Independent Lens.

LISA LEEMAN (Moderator, USC Professor)

Lisa Leeman believes that strong narrative and character-driven films can change the world, one story at a time, and agrees with Roger Ebert that film is a powerful "empathy machine."  

Lisa is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and has served as a judge at the Sundance Film Festival, the president of the International Documentary Association, and on the boards of the IDA and the National Coalition of Independent Public Broadcasting Producers.  She teaches Cinematic Ethics, Documentary Producing, Conceptualizing & Development, Writing non-fiction, Editing, and Visual Communication.  Leeman serves as a film expert for the American Film Showcase, and has taught master classes on documentary filmmaking in Azerbaijan, China, Portugal, Jordan, the West Bank, Malawi, and the Republic of Georgia.  

Leeman has produced, directed, written & edited award-winning feature & short documentaries for the last twenty-five years. Calling her films ‘sideways social- issue films,’ she specializes in illuminating contemporary social issues through character-driven stories that follow people at critical turning points in their lives.  Her work has been seen on PBS, HBO, Discovery, BBC, ARTE, and in theaters and festivals worldwide.  Awards include Sundance's Filmmakers Trophy for her directorial debut, Metamorphosis (POV, PBS, 1990), cited as the first American film to chronicle a gender transition, and an Emmy nomination for her short Fender Philosophers.  She is a frequent moderator and panelist at documentary and independent filmmaking events.

Leeman is currently in post-production on Walk by Me, a sequel to her groundbreaking first film, Metamorphosis,  following the film’s transgender animation artist at a new crossroads, twenty-five years after the release of Metamorphosis.

She most recently co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed the award-winning feature documentary Awake, about the influential Indian swami Paramahansa Yogananda (author of the classic Autobiography of a Yogi).  Awake screened theatrically for 48 weeks in the U.S. and grossed over $1.5 million dollars at the box office, screening in over 220 markets.  It is one of only 17 films directed by women in the 250 top-grossing films of 2014.  Unusual for a documentary, it screened theatrically in 17 countries, including India, France, Germany, Brazil, and Mexico.

Roger Ebert named Leeman’s One Lucky Elephant as one of the best documentaries of 2011.  That film premiered at LAFF and IDFA, was released theatrically, broadcast on OWN as part of Oprah Winfrey's Documentary of the Month Club, and was selected for the U.S. State Department's American Documentary Showcase.

Other notable works include directing the feature doc Out of Faith (PBS) & producing the feature doc Crazy Wisdom: The Life & Times of Chogyam Trunga  (2011, Alive Mind Cinema).   Lisa has collaborated with many acclaimed filmmakers, including Haskell Wexler, the renowned cinematographer with whom she co-directed Who Needs Sleep (Sundance, 2006).

Lisa spent a decade writing and editing award-winning social issue documentaries, including the acclaimed Made in LA, and films for noted documentary directors Stanley Nelson; Renee Tajima-Pena; Michele Ohayon; Micha Peled; Lourdes Portillo; and others.  Lisa's work has been supported by the once-in-a-lifetime American Film Institute’s Independent Filmmaker Grant; the Sundance Institute, the Catapult Film Fund, California Humanities Council, a Western States Media Arts Fellowship; the National Endowment for the Arts, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Pacific Mountain Network, and California Arts Council, and the Center for Cultural Innovation, and USC's Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities & Social Sciences initiative.

About Outside the Box [Office]

Outside the Box [Office] is a weekly showcase for upcoming releases highlighting world cinema, documentary and independent film titles. The series draws from around the globe to present movies that may challenge, inspire or simply entertain.

To view the calendar of screenings, click here

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Check-In & Reservations

This screening is free of charge and open to the public A reservation confirmation will automatically be sent to your e-mail account upon successfully making an RSVP through this website. Doors will open at 6:30 P.M.

All SCA screenings are OVERBOOKED to ensure seating capacity in the theater, therefore seating is not guaranteed based on RSVPs. The RSVP list will be checked in on a first-come, first-served basis until the theater is full. Once the theater has reached capacity, we will no longer be able to admit guests, regardless of RSVP status.

Parking

NO STUDENT, STAFF, FACULTY OR THEATER PARKING IS AVAILABLE AT THE ROBERT ZEMECKIS CENTER.

We recommend Parking in the USC Shrine Parking Structure, located 686 W 32nd St. Parking passes may be purchased at the gate. Metered street parking is also available along 32nd street.

The USC Robert Zemeckis Center is located at 3131 South Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90007, one block north of Parking Structure D, on the North side of the Shrine Auditorium. The RZC entrance is located at the rear of the building, behind the red fence on 32nd St.

Contact Information

Name: Alessandro Ago
Email: aago@cinema.usc.edu