Media Contact:
Charmaine Nelson
(626) 344-4325
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

BEHIND THE SCENES: THE FILMS AND FILMMAKERS THAT CHANGED HOLLYWOOD TOPIC OF THE NEXT MASTERS SERIES AT PASADENA SENIOR CENTER 

Calling all film buffs and cinephiles. Producer, director and author Steven C. Smith will host the six-week Masters Series event, titled Behind the Scenes: The Films and Filmmakers That Changed Hollywood hosted by the Pasadena Senior Center consecutive Tuesdays, April 16 to May 21, from 2 to 4 p.m. via Zoom.

The series will explore a plethora of film topics, touching on genres, classic films and famous directors, revealing the compelling human stories behind classic movies and their makers. Participants will discover how these storytellers changed Hollywood and why their films remain vital today.

Each of the six-week presentations will have a different topic:

April 16: Casablanca: The Making Of Movies’ Greatest Love Story

April 23: They’re Here! Hollywood Sci-Fi and Soviet Scares in the 1950s

April 30: Hollywood Rebels: Orson Welles and Otto Preminger

May 7: Mel Brooks and the Art of Movie Parody

May 14: Screwball: It Happened One Night and His Girl Friday

May 21: West Side Story, The Sound of Music and The Era of Musical Blockbusters

The cost for this course of The Masters Series, which embraces lifelong learning, is only $75 for members of the Pasadena Senior Center and $90 for nonmembers.  

To register or for more information visit www.PasadenaSeniorCenter.org, then click on Activities & Events or call (626) 795-4331. Registration is required to receive the Zoom link. Recordings of sessions are available to registered participants.

Smith is a four-time Emmy nominee and 16-time Telly Award winner. He has created over 200 long-form documentaries for various media, including AMC, TCM, History Channel, A&E, National Geographic and Bravo. A former supervising producer of the TV series A&E Biography and AMC Backstory, he has worked with such filmmakers as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow.

Smith, featured as a film expert in documentaries and audio commentaries for 20th Century Fox, Universal, Sony and The Criterion Collection, is the author of the biography, A Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann, which won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award.

The Pasadena Senior Center’s mission is to improve the lives of older adults through caring service with opportunities for social interaction, fitness programs, basic support and needs services, education, volunteerism and community activism. With 10,000 Americans per day becoming older adults, the center is a leader in addressing the issues of aging and provides innovative, cutting-edge, nationally recognized programs for this population group.

As a donor-supported nonprofit, the center operates without any local, state or federal funding and provides more services to older adults in the San Gabriel Valley than any other organization. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon. To learn more, visit www.pasadenaseniorcenter.org or call 626-795-4331. The Center is located at 85 E. Holly Street in Pasadena.