Edythe and Eli Broad, filmmaker honored at REDCAT

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Saturday’s REDCAT gala drew guests from film, television, the visual and performing arts, and a considerable variety of other businesses as well.

‘Where else can you find a crowd like tonight?’ asked Ed Harris, a four-time Academy Award nominee and the night’s emcee, as he began the ceremonies, which honored philanthropists Edythe and Eli Broad and filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Harris and his wife, Amy Madigan, an Oscar nominee herself, joined the 250 gala-goers filling the experimental theater, transformed for the night by artist Choi Jeong Hwa via 10 majestic chandeliers reflected onto mirrored tables.

Weerasethakul, whose film ‘Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives’ won the 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or prize, was so touched by the turnout that on stepping up to the stage, he snapped a picture of the audience.

Artist Mike Kelley came, he said, to ‘support Eli Broad’s support of the arts,’ which includes plans for his new museum downtown. Artist Ed Ruscha, on presenting the couple with their award, called the neighborhood where the new museum will be built ‘the hot spot we dreamed of,’ listing the Walt Disney Concert Hall, MOCA and the Colburn School, among other nearby art venues.

With prices ranging from $850 per ticket to $50,000 per table, organizers estimated that net proceeds of $500,000 will go to REDCAT.

--Ellen Olivier