{"id":248884,"date":"2026-04-02T19:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T19:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/248884\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T19:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T19:36:20","slug":"john-earlys-directorial-debut-maddies-secret-premieres-april-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/248884\/","title":{"rendered":"John Early&#8217;s directorial debut Maddie&#8217;s Secret premieres April 9"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of comedy\u2019s most singular voices is stepping behind the camera and kicking off a festival in the process.<\/p>\n<p>John Early (Search Party, Eternity) makes his directorial debut with Maddie\u2019s Secret, the opening-night film of the Los Angeles Festival of Movies,\u00a0making its Los Angeles premiere April 9 at Vidiots. Early also stars in the film, about a food influencer whose carefully curated life begins to fracture as fame triggers an unresolved adolescent eating disorder. Afterward,\u00a0cast members Kate Berlant, Vanessa Bayer, Pat Regan and Claudia O&#8217;Doherty\u00a0all stick around for a Q&amp;A\u00a0alongside Early.<\/p>\n<p>RECOMMENDED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/comedy\/we-talked-to-comedian-john-early-about-showgasm-xxl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">We talked to comedian John Early about Showgasm. XXL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The rest of the lineup leans just as eclectic. On Sunday, April 12, the festival hosts the West Coast premiere of a new 4K restoration of Macho Dancer at 2220 Arts + Archives. Directed by Lino Brocka, the long out-of-print cult classic follows an 18-year-old gigolo navigating the queer nightlife of Manila.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, the fest spotlights homegrown talent with the debut of the Presidium Overactive shorts block on Saturday, April 11. Curated by L.A.-based filmmaker Creston Brown, the program brings together premieres from local directors exploring everything from seductive cults to existential unraveling, with a focus on unconventional storytelling and emotional volatility.<\/p>\n<p>The closing night film will be the April 12 U.S. premiere of Sophy Romvari&#8217;s Blue Heron, an intimate coming-of-age drama that previously played the Locarno and Toronto film fests.<\/p>\n<p>April 11 and 12 will see three panels and discussions: Artists: On Moviegoing, featuring\u00a0Josephine Decker and Lisa Hanawalt in conversation,\u00a0moderated by Kiva Reardon; Writers: On Moviegoing, featuring Melissa Anderson and William E. Jones and\u00a0moderated by Adam Piron; and\u00a0Parenthood &amp; Filmmaking, featuring Lauren Melinda (Simbelle Productions), Alexa Coblentz (cineCamp), Christine Haroutounian (Filmmaker, After Dreaming), Josh Locy (Potato, Potato) and moderated by Sarah Winshall (LAFM)<\/p>\n<p>Taken together, the lineup suggests a festival more interested in tone and voice than convention\u2014equal parts camp, queerness and creative risk.<\/p>\n<p>Festival passes are sold out,\u00a0 but tickets ot individual screenings and events are available. For more information and to buy tickets, click <a href=\"https:\/\/lafestivalofmovies.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of comedy\u2019s most singular voices is stepping behind the camera and kicking off a festival in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[50946,48,52,51,47,50,49,1399,50947],"class_list":["post-248884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-categories-movies","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-movies","tag-news-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}