Mark Taper Auditorium, Los Angeles Central Library

Rick Prelinger is an archivist, writer, filmmaker, UC Santa Cruz professor of film and digital media. He also founded and runs the San Francisco-based Prelinger Library as well as the appropriation-friendly Prelinger Archives, a free online clearinghouse of thousands of ephemeral films — think educational and advertising films, newsreels, and home movies. For fans of LA history, his silent film “Lost Landscapes: Los Angeles” is a must-see. It uses never-before-seen archival footage of greater Los Angeles to tell a story…