Screening from Series Available Space
The Tuba Thieves
In person: Alison O’Daniel
Starts at $5
Thu, Jun 26, 2025
An official selection of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, MoMA’s Doc Fortnight, IDFA, and CPH:DOX, filmmaker and visual artist Alison O’Daniel’s first feature, The Tuba Thieves (2023), may be based on real events—the 2011–13 tuba thefts from 12 Los Angeles–area high schools—but her film named for these incidents defies neat categories of documentary and fiction. With an extensive background in sound, sculpture, installation, and performance art, O’Daniel, who is deaf, uses this true story as a jumping-off point, expanding on the strange trend as “an apt metaphor for loss and disempowerment” (Contemporary Art Review). O’Daniel collaborated with musical artists before starting with a traditional script, asking them to compose to different prompts. The project became, as the filmmaker describes it, “a... game of telephone,” with free association from one scene and collaborator to the next. The result, which presents evocative open captions on-screen throughout the film, with sound vibrations amplified through inflated balloons handed out to viewers, is an immersive experience that engages the senses and pays homage to the filmmaker’s beloved Los Angeles.
The Tuba Thieves has open captions on-screen throughout the film. The post-screening conversation with the filmmaker will be accompanied by American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters.
Programmed and note by K.J. Relth-Miller.
Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.
Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.
2023 | 92 min | USA | Color | English | Open captions | Not rated | DCP
DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Alison O’Daniel
WITH: Nyeisha “Nyke” Prince, Geovanny Marroquin, Russell Harvard, Warren “WAWA” Snipe
In person: Alison O’Daniel
In person: Alison O’Daniel
Know Before You Go
Plan your Visit
Location
The Academy Museum and its theaters are located at 6067 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Parking
Self-parking, accessible parking, and electric vehicle charging options are available. See below for our parking structure information and view the parking page for further details.
Ride-Share Drop Off
Roddenberry Lane, entrance on Fairfax Ave.
LACMA's Pritzker Parking Garage
6000 W 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90036, entrance on 6th St.
5am–10pm
$20 ($12 after 8pm entry)
Accessible spots on P1, adjacent to elevators
EV charging stations on P1 and P2Petersen Automotive Museum Garage
744 Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036, entrance on Fairfax Ave. or 8th St.
6am–11pm
$24 (first 15 min. free)
Accessible spots on P1 only; no garage elevator
EV charging stations on P1Accessibility
Audio Description
For visitors who are blind or partially-sighted, audio description devices are available for some digital film screenings on a first-come, first-served basis.
Real-time audio descriptions are available for some performances upon request with at least three weeks’ notice, subject to the availability of describers. Email academymuseum@oscars.org to submit your request.
Closed Captioning
For visitors who are deaf or hard of hearing, in-seat closed captioning or descriptive audio-devices are available for some digital film screenings on a first-come, first-served basis. Please confirm availability at academymuseum@oscars.org before planning your visit.
Real-time captioning is available for programs upon request with at least three weeks’ notice, subject to the availability of captioners. Email academymuseum@oscars.org to submit your request.
Please see our Accessibility page for complete information, including details on our Visual Description Tours, Calm Mornings, and Covid-19 policies.
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From 2008 to 2016, Bangkok-based filmmaker Sompot Chidgasornpongse, best known by his nickname “Boat,” rode every line of the Thai railway, capturing countless hours of footage of his encounters through the lens of his digital camera. Produced by his long-time friend and colleague Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Boat’s remarkable documentary Railway Sleepers depicts an unparalleled journey comprising elements that resemble the “real world” we live in—with its families, friends, food, chitchats, and hustles—but only exists amid the temporariness of the railroad; a fantastical world with a sense of nostalgia. Shot in a first-person point of view, the film starts as the train slowly leaves the station, establishing the inevitable reality of departure, of saying good-bye, that one faces before embarking on a journey to a new world. From school kids on a field trip to friends and young lovers, from foreigners in the nicer part of the train to the cramped section in the back, Boat’s inquisitive mind gently wonders and sparkles in the lights penetrating through the windows, the camera lens, and the dawn that breaks through the quiet darkness of the night. Railway Sleepers is an immersive field of fantasy where strangers relate, time stands still, and a sense of nostalgia subtly lingers.
Programmed and note by Hyesung ii.
DCP