Los Angeles’ The Cinefamily programs one of the city’s finest lineups of repertory films, cult classics, carefully curated theme nights, and celebrity events, all in a low-tech, intimate setting that aims to make moviegoing a celebratory, communal experience, aided by cupcakes and beer. And normally you’d have to actually head down to The Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax Ave. and sit on one of Cinefamily’s notoriously uncomfortable folding chairs to take part, but on Dec. 17 that’s not true: As part of its first-ever fundraiser, Cinefamily is hosting a free, 24-hour telethon filled with unusual screenings and even more unusual guests, and it will all be streaming online.
Among the many people and things you’ll see if you either turn up or tune in: Spike Jonze offering a personal career retrospective; Neil Hamburger hosting a show on outsider music; Shadoe Stevens offering a best-of from his days as absurdist electronics pitchman Fred Rated; Benicio Del Toro presenting Kaneto Shindo’s The Naked Island; Doug Benson doing a special edition of Movie Interruption; a live set from found footage scavengers Everything Is Terrible; The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt hosting a 3 a.m. program called “Films You Can’t Go To Sleep To” with ukulele accompaniment; Yo Gabba Gabba’s DJ Lance Rock presenting a collection of Saturday morning cartoons; a set from No Age; a conversation with Elliott Gould; and for new and renewed members, a presentation of early Jim Henson work from recent Muppet inspiration, Michael Cera. Again, it’s free to watch either live or online, but if you do so, you should probably not be a jerk and either sign up for a membership or chip in a donation.