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

Enigmatic Romanian film “The Japanese Dog” at SEEFest
June 15, 2015 By Ed Rampell
Films such as enigmatically named The Japanese Dog represent the drama of everyday life, without a single solitary screeching car chase, explosion or shooting.
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“Cartel Land” reviewed, and Mammoth Lakes Film Festival awards
June 15, 2015 By Ed Rampell
"Cartel Land" deservedly won the Bravery Award; this is yeoman filmmaking, done at great risk to the filmmakers as well as the participants.
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A would-be Gorbachev in the People’s Republic: “The Chinese Mayor”
June 4, 2015 By Ed Rampell
This film is an insider's look at Geng Yanbo, the reform-minded mayor of Datong, one of the People's Republic of China's most polluted cities.
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The cost of fame: “The Cult of JT Leroy”
June 3, 2015 By Ed Rampell
The film shows how nonfiction becomes novelized, with dramatization and confabulation fobbed off as "news" and "truth."
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Ray’s eye: The magnificent Apu Trilogy rides again
June 2, 2015 By Ed Rampell
Before there was Bollywood or "The Mindy Project" there was Satyajit Ray, India's movie maestro.
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Controversial Aloha co-stars Hawaiian independence leader
June 1, 2015 By Ed Rampell
A lynch mob is attacking writer/director Cameron Crowe's new movie "Aloha," which opened May 29.
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The fetishism of commodities: “Mad Men,” capitalism, and its discontents
June 1, 2015 By Ed Rampell
What made "Mad Men" arguably the greatest dramatic series in American TV history is that there was a method to its madness.
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When Aaron met Rachel: “The Fourth Noble Truth”
May 26, 2015 By Ed Rampell
While at first the discussions about the tenets of Buddhism do raise some consciousness and are absorbing and educational, Noble quickly runs out of steam.
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