Ed Rampell

Ed Rampell is an L.A.-based film historian and critic, author of Progressive Hollywood: A People’s Film History of the United States, and co-author of The Hawaii Movie and Television Book. He has written for Variety, Television Quarterly, Cineaste, New Times L.A., and other publications. Rampell lived in Tahiti, Samoa, Hawaii, and Micronesia, reporting on the nuclear-free and independent Pacific and Hawaiian Sovereignty movements. Rampell’s novel about the Native Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement for Indigenous rights, The Disinherited: Blood Blalahs, is being published this year.

LATEST ARTICLES BY Ed Rampell

Culture

Shakespeare’s ‘Coriolanus’: An ancient class struggle epic with modern topicality
June 5, 2018 By Ed Rampell
In the first act the company’s timing was occasionally off, but by Act II they were off and flying into the wild blue yonder.
Read more
Culture

Good when she’s bad: Bawdy bard Mae West’s ‘Sex’ appeals
May 16, 2018 By Ed Rampell
In our more enlightened age, like the immortal Mae West herself, you too, will enjoy Sex. Why don’t you come up and see it sometime?
Read more
Culture

Stormy weather, creativity, love ands laughs in “El Niño”
March 15, 2018 By Ed Rampell
El Niño beautifully reveals not only the importance of romantic love and the part it plays in one’s self esteem, but in how these dynamics affect the creative process.
Read more
Culture

Is nothing Sacred, Fools?: “The Art Couple” premieres in L.A.
March 8, 2018 By Ed Rampell
When I found out Sacred Fools was mounting a play about Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin I immediately set out to review The Art Couple.
Read more
Culture

Pan African films off the beaten track from PAFF
February 23, 2018 By Ed Rampell
In addition to what I’ve previously written, here’s a wrapup of the other works I saw at PAFF 2018.
Read more
Culture

Moviegoers of the world, unite!: A rabblerousing biopic of Marx and Engels
February 21, 2018 By Ed Rampell
You have nothing to lose but your chains as The Young Karl Marx theatrically opens Feb. 23 in New York and Los Angeles.
Read more
Culture

Pan African Film Festival: Screening the global Black experience and spirit
February 16, 2018 By Ed Rampell
Thanks to the Pan African Film Festival, now I know who Errol Walton Barrow was: The independence leader who became Barbados’ first prime minister.
Read more
Culture

Tackling Trump on stage, page, and workout videos
February 12, 2018 By Ed Rampell
Covering Trump in a variety of media is now a cottage industry. But the faux workout video was innovative.
Read more