Sad Facets of Life in L.A. From Ranen

In addition to Aron Ranen’s cool, matter-of-fact “Sex and Religion” trilogy, which was presented at Vidiots last May, three new Ranen shorts will be shown Friday and Saturday at9 p.m. at the Cinema Cafe, 7160 Melrose Ave. They are examples of provocative video reportage at its most economical. The eight-minute “Surveillance in L.A.” is a scary consciousness-raiser illustrating how we are under TV monitor surveillance--often via devices impossible to detect--far more than we realize; a visit to a surveillance conference at the L.A. Convention Center is chilling in its implications. The seven-minute “Breathing in L.A.” illustrates how our notorious air pollution affects a class of schoolchildren; the five-minute “Black Mall” probes the attitudes of young people at the Crenshaw Mall toward racism and de facto segregation. One sixth-grade girl says of white people: “We don’t intend for them to stay away; they want to stay away from us.”

Ranen’s “Sex and Religion” is composed of an expanded version of his “Television Believers,” a 1986 expose of televangelist/faith healer Peter Popoff; “Suburban Submission,” a 1987 portrait of a suburban dominatrix who enjoys her work as much as her clientele; and “Portraits: Two Male Hustlers,” a 1980 study of two teen-agers who support themselves as transvestite prostitutes. The overall impact of the trilogy is to make us feel that sex and religion in American can be sad phenomena indeed.

Information: (213) 939-2233.