Film

Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to temporarily lower filming fees at their newly opened Grand Park downtown. Movie and TV crews previously had to pay $20,000 a day per block of park space they used. Many entertainment executives said that was too high, especially compared with similar backdrops. The cost of permits was the main reason why only one film has been shot at the park since it opened last year, executives said. Under the new fee structure, crews will pay as much as $5,000 a day, depending on time of day and what part of the 12-acre park they use. Supervisors voted 4 to 1 to approve the new costs, with Don Knabe casting the only no vote.

Hollywood North is going south. That's the fear among many in the once-booming production community in Vancouver, Canada. Although Vancouver still attracts high-profile movies and television shows, including A&E's recently launched "Bates Motel," the city is rapidly losing its perch as one of the industry's busiest production hubs as it faces rising competition from cities in eastern Canada and south of the border. The city that pioneered the use of film incentives now finds itself struggling to compete with emerging rivals offering stronger tax credits and rebates.

AFRICA Slide show Dave Garfinkle will show slides of his trip in June to northern and southern Africa, including Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique. When, where: 7:30 p.m. Monday at Distant Lands, 20 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. Admission, info: Free. RSVP to (626) 449-3220. BACKPACKING Workshop Glen Van Peski will take you through the steps on how to pack lighter so you can do more. When, where: 7 p.m. Friday at the Adventure 16 store, 11161 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles.

On the fourth floor of a vacant wing of St. Vincent Medical Center near downtown Los Angeles, some 150 crew members crowded the hallways, joining actors Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson as they prepared to film a scene for "Captain America: The Winter Soldier. " The hospital wing is often used for filming television crime dramas such as "CSI" and "Private Practice," but Tuesday's shoot was among the largest St. Vincent has accommodated in 20 years of renting out its facilities to Hollywood.

As a movie icon, the American farmer has, for many a year, occupied a hand-whittled pedestal, standing tall as a weathered symbol of all that's good and true in this screwed-up world. One of the galvanic surprises of "At Any Price," the Iowa-set drama starring Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron, is that it upends every cliché and worn-out romantic notion about farming and places it in the real world of agribusiness and high-stakes economic pressure. Director Ramin Bahrani approaches the subject with the same journalist's curiosity that made his earlier films, among them the pitch-perfect "Chop Shop," such sharp depictions of otherwise invisible subcultures and the outsiders who inhabit them.

A few minutes before a screening of "Filly Brown" last week, Oscar-nominated actor Edward James Olmos tried to explain why the new family drama about a female Los Angeles street poet "is the most hopeful film I've ever worked on in my life. " Olmos, 66, had gathered in a backroom at Universal CityWalk's AMC theaters with his costar and longtime friend Lou Diamond Phillips, 51, and Gina Rodriguez, 28, whose performance as an aspiring rap star helped land "Filly Brown" a spot at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

China's film and television business generated revenue of $15.5 billion, or 100 billion yuan in local currency, and supported more than 900,000 jobs in 2011, according to a new study by the Motion Picture Assn. and the China Film Distributors and Exhibitors Assn. The report did not offer comparable figures for 2010, but said film and TV revenues have grown 85% in non-inflation-adjusted sales from 2006. The figures underscore the growth of the Chinese market, which within a few years is expected to pass the United States as the world's No. 1 box-office territory.

Marc Jacobs isn't one to shy away from fashion risks. The often iconoclastic superstar designer - who has become synonymous with a certain young, casually cool New York state of mind - helped usher in the controversial "heroin chic" look in the '90s and favors a combo of kilts and combat boots for his daily work uniform. But for Jacobs' debut film role in the indie drama "Disconnect," which arrived in theaters in limited release last Friday, the style maven was forced to step outside his comfort zone - in terms of both fashion and raw physicality.

Expand or die. This ominous motto of economic imperialism courses throughout the film "At Any Price," set against the imperiled world of modern-day family farming. Director Ramin Bahrani, who co-wrote the screenplay with Hallie Elizabeth Newton, spent six months in Iowa living among farmers as the duo spoke to people about the issues facing their lives and businesses. The film grapples with enduring issues of generational conflict and transition as well as the perennial drama of success and failure in America.