‘Secret Policeman’s Ball’ gets a salute

For the last three decades, comedians and rock stars have been gathering to raise money for Amnesty International in British concerts generally known as “The Secret Policeman’s Ball.” Those benefits, often credited with helping to demonstrate the power that entertainers have in raising awareness of social causes, will be the subject of a five-week film festival in L.A. and New York this summer.

Featuring performances by Pete Townshend, Sting, Bono, Peter Gabriel, John Cleese, Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson and scores of others, “The Secret Policeman’s Film Festival” will screen 25 movies and TV programs that have chronicled the various incarnations of the concerts and their offshoots held elsewhere to similarly benefit Amnesty International.

The festival will run June 11 to July 19 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. It will play in New York June 26 to July 31.

Presented by the American Cinematheque, the Paley Center for Media, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Mods & Rockers Film Festival, the event is curated and produced by Martin Lewis, a Cinematheque board member who co-produced the first four “Secret Policeman’s Ball” concerts and also produced “The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball,” a 1982 documentary about two of the early benefits.

Tickets are on sale now. Information: www.secretpolice mansball.com.