Screening Room: Film academy salutes inventor Petro Vlahos

Petro Vlahos might not be a household name, but he’s one of the most accomplished scientific and technical innovators in film and television. He holds more than 35 patents on equipment including camera crane motor controls, optical soundtracks and projection screens, but he’s best known for creating both the analog and digital hardware and software versions of the Ultimatte compositing system.

FOR THE RECORD:
“Woodstock”: The Screening Room column in Thursday’s Calendar said that “Woodstock” would be playing Sunday at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. It screens Saturday at 7:30 p.m. —

On Thursday, Bill Taylor, the governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Science and Technology Council, will host “A Conversation With Petro Vlahos” at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. The evening will feature an informal discussion with Vlahos, clips from his work and interviews with his friends and colleagues. https://www.oscars.org.

Also on Thursday, screenwriter Larry Karaszewski (“Ed Wood”) will present two films from director Michael Schultz — the acclaimed 1975 coming-of-age comedy “Cooley High” and the kitschy 1985 musical “The Last Dragon,” starring Prince’s former protégé Vanity — at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre.

On Saturday, the Egyptian presents “Retro Format — Midsummer Night Silent Comedy,” a program comprising two hours of 8-millimeter comedies from the silent era, including 1905’s “Laughing Gas” and fractured flickers with Mabel Normand, Ford Sterling, Laurel and Hardy, and Charlie Chaplin. https://www.egyptiantheatre.com.

The Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre will be filled with the sounds of rock ‘n’ roll beginning Thursday evening with its “Wild Things: A Celebration of Rock Documentaries,” which kicks off with the West Coast theatrical premiere of the 2010 documentary “Stones in Exile,” a look back at the making of the Rolling Stones’ 1971 album, “Exile on Main Street.” Following will be Albert and David Maysles’ 1970 documentary “Gimme Shelter,” chronicling the Stones’ 1969 tour, which culminated in the tragedy at Altamont.

On tap for Friday are D.A. Pennebaker’s seminal 1968 film “Monterey Pop,” which captures the excitement of the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival, and a restored, extended version of 1973’s “Wattstax,” about the 1972 concert that came to be dubbed the “black Woodstock.”

The beautiful music concludes Sunday with the 40th anniversary screening of the Oscar-winning documentary “Woodstock,” directed by Michael Wadleigh. https://www.aerotheatre.com.

Hugh Hefner and director Brigitte Bergman will appear at the 7:15 p.m. screening Friday at the Nuart of the new documentary “Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel.” The big question, of course, is whether Hef will be wearing his famous pajamas. https://www.landmarktheatres.com.

Judy Garland warbles the Oscar-winning tune “On the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe” in the sprightly 1946 Technicolor musical western “The Harvey Girls,” which screens at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Wells Fargo Theater in Griffith Park as part of “The Imagined West” film series. George Sidney directed. https://www.theautry.org.

UCLA Film & Television Archive presents a preview of Yael Hersonski’s powerful documentary “A Film Unfinished” on Monday evening the Billy Wilder Theater. The documentary looks at the truth behind a Nazi-produced film about the Warsaw Ghetto. https://www.cinema.ucla.edu.

susan.king@latimes.com