An intersection in Leimert Park was dedicated Sunday as Ben Caldwell Square in honor of the independent filmmaker and educator who has spent over four decades as a fixture of Leimert Park\u2019s arts and culture scene.<\/p>\n
Caldwell was joined in speaking at the 9:30 a.m. ceremony at the corner of 43rd Place and Leimert Boulevard by Councilwoman Heather Hutt, who introduced the motion designating the square in Caldwell\u2019s honor, and other community leaders.<\/p>\n
Caldwell\u2019s interest in film began in his youth in New Mexico when he helped his grandfather project films at a small theater. While serving in the U.S Army during the Vietnam War, Caldwell documented the lives of his fellow soldiers.<\/p>\n
Following his service, Caldwell received a master\u2019s degree in film from UCLA in 1976.<\/p>\n
Caldwell was a founding member of the L.A. Rebellion, a groundbreaking movement of African American filmmakers who sought to change the image of Black people from the stereotypes prevalent in the film industry.<\/p>\n
He created culturally focused and experimental films such as \u201cMadea,\u201d \u201cI & I: An African Allegory,\u201d and \u201cWater Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification,\u201d which explored the depth of Black culture in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Caldwell has described his artistic philosophy as creating \u201ccultural\u201d rather than \u201cpolitical\u201d films with the belief his art should bring people closer together.<\/p>\n
Caldwell founded the KAOS Network, a community arts center, in 1984 in Leimert Park where he has mentored Black artists, creatives and technologists.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we named the corner of 43rd pl and leimert blvd after a visionary icon of film and friend of the community, Ben Calldwell,\u201d Hutt said in a social media post Sunday afternoon. \u201cBen\u2019s contributions are most deeply felt as founder of @kaosnetworkz, giving young people from South LA the opportunity to learn and grow in media arts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An intersection in Leimert Park was dedicated Sunday as Ben Caldwell Square in honor of the independent filmmaker…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":632582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,39441,276,84945,81102,9053,22628,2961,364111,224,5337,6141],"class_list":["post-1034089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-caldwell","tag-california","tag-dedicated","tag-filmmaker","tag-honor","tag-intersection","tag-la","tag-leimert","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-park"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}