On Sept. 22, KCET and PBS SoCal joined forces with Grand Performances and LAist to kick off the 14th season of original arts and culture series “Artbound” with a free outdoor screening event premiering “Chinatown Punk Wars,” a documentary on the origins of punk rock music in Los Angeles.
The event took place at Grand Performances in Downtown Los Angeles, where over 1,000 guests previewed an advance screening of the documentary followed by a panel discussion and a live performance by L.A.-based popular punk rock band The Linda Lindas with special guest appearances by punk rock trailblazers Alice Bag and Chip Kinman from The Dils.
Attendees included fans, Grand Performances members, LAist listeners and PBS SoCal/KCET viewers as well as the filmmakers and onscreen experts from all six of the upcoming documentaries from the new season of “Artbound” premiering with “Chinatown Punk Wars” on Oct. 5 on KCET.
All six of the documentaries in the new season will also subsequently air on PBS SoCal with “Chinatown Punk Wars” debuting Friday, Oct. 6, at 8 p.m. local time. The films will also be available for streaming at http://kcet.org/artbound and the free PBS app.
KCET/PBS SoCal Chief Operating Officer Jamie Myers introduced guests to the new season of “Artbound” after opening remarks from Grand Performances Chief Executive Officer Rafael González. The premiere screening was followed by a panel discussion with The Linda Lindas, musician/author/punk rock trailblazer Alice Bag (The Bags) and UCLA’s Jessica Schwartz, moderated by LAist Studios’ Antonia Cereijido. An audience participation activity was facilitated by Chicxs Rockerxs South East Los Angeles before the night was capped off with a 12-song set list from The Linda Lindas.
At a filmmaker’s reception preceding the screening, guests celebrated the documentary while drinking appropriately named cocktails based on favorite punk bands, eating some light bites inspired by Chinatown classics while listening to punk music. Attendees included director of “Chinatown Punk Wars” Steve Kochones, Giant Robot’s Martin Wong, founder of Hong Kong Café Barry Seidel, filmmaker Omar Foglio, KCET personality Val Zavala, LAist CEO Herb Scannell, musician Chip Kinman (The Dils), the Music Center’s Robert Gonzalez and more.
Five additional free screenings of the entire “Artbound” Season 14 documentary lineup accompanied by filmmaker panel discussions will take place at LAist’s convening venue, The Crawford in Pasadena, from October thru December. For more information and to RSVP for the in-person screening events, visit http://LAist.com/events.