Ivan Olita

Endurance Test: The 1000 Days

For the latest chapter of Endurance Test, Los Angeles-based director Ivan Olita talks about his portrait of the monks of Mount Hiei, Japan, where spiritual practices hearken back thousand of years, and where the kaihōgyō, a pilgrimage lasting 1000 days, has been completed by less than fifty monks in over a century: “Kaihōgyō, the 1000-day pilgrimage performed by Tendai Buddhists, is not a challenge in the usual sense. The literal translation is 'circling the mountain,' so the mountain itself and a connection to nature is crucial; it has a more meditative meaning, it is part of a lineage of enlightenment wisdom that spans centuries, ages and generations.

A King

The Official Elvis impersonator of Las Vegas has to confront his identity and sexuality as his public persona slowly fades away.

Can't Nobody Else Love You

Can't Nobody Else Love You is a documentary that takes a dreamlike plunge into the freedoms, uncertainties and radical creative expressions of New York City's youth. In Can't Nobody Else Love You, the surreal and loose-limbed non-fiction film follows 9 individuals as they wander through a layered narrative that combines vérité footage from the street of New York interspersed with vividly staged scenes that ultimately provide a sense of dislocation yet uncanny attachment. Can we be loved if we don't love ourselves first?

Muxes

In the indigenous communities around the town of Juchitán, the world is not divided simply into males and females. The local Zapotec people have made room for a third category, which they call “muxes” - men who consider themselves women and live in a socially sanctioned limbo between the two genders.

Amazing Angelyne

Beneath her iconic billboards on Sunset Boulevard, you’ll find Angelyne cruising the streets in her custom pink corvette. Years before the social media phenomenon, she paved the way for today’s famous-for-being-famous celebrities. Amazing Angelyne by director Ivan Olita, divulges into her past and out onto the streets of Los Angeles.

Gaga on Gaga

A short film by Ivan Olita conceived exclusively for V Magazine that offers an unprecedented peek into Lady Gaga's system of beliefs about fashion and the collaborative nature that defines her vision.