Of course, the Bay Area has a German language film festival. Berlin & Beyond opens Friday, February 7 to Thursday, February 13. It will screen 18 feature films and a program of seven shorts. Screenings will take place at the Castro, the Goethe-Institut, the Vogue, and for the first time in the East Bay, the … Continue reading Berlin & Beyond showcases German-language films
What’s Screening: January 17 – 23
What's in Bay Area outarthouse cinemas this week? A hilarious disaster. A real and tragic disaster. And movies by Spielberg, Forman, Fellini, Lumet, Keaton, and Varda. But no film festivals. <Sorry about that. I was running a fever when I wrote that.> The Week's Big Event A Airplane! 40th anniversary, Castro, Sunday, 3:00They're flying on … Continue reading What’s Screening: January 17 – 23
The 54 Bay Area Film Festivals in 2019
By my count, the Bay Area hosted 54 film festivals this year. Of course, that depends on how you define a film festival. A 90-minute program of feline videos called The Cat Film Festival is not a festival. And yet a selection of films that call itself a series just might be one. My definition: … Continue reading The 54 Bay Area Film Festivals in 2019
Fritz Lang and David Lynch: Saturday at BAMPFA
I spent Saturday at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), watching three movies I'd never seen before. Fritz Lang's Indian Epic The day started with two Fritz Lang action flicks, The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb. These are two movies the way Kill Bill are two movies. It's one story, with the … Continue reading Fritz Lang and David Lynch: Saturday at BAMPFA
IndieFest celebrates films between the cracks
Amongst Bay Area film festivals, SF IndieFest is a hard one to classify. It's not about a genre (documentaries, noir) nor focused on a certain type of person (Jews, Asian Americans), and it's not big and flashy like the red-carpet festivals (SFFilm Fest, Mill Valley). Let's say IndieFest is a festival for films that fell … Continue reading IndieFest celebrates films between the cracks
What’s Screening: January 10 – 16
What's in the Bay Area's best movie theaters this week? Three new movies - two about capital punishment. A farewell to Agnès. Noir by Graham Greene, Charles Laughton, and Leigh Brackett. And comedies from the west, down under, and outer space. But no film festivals (I don't count Sketchfest). New films opening A Clemency, Embarcadero … Continue reading What’s Screening: January 10 – 16
Capital punishment hurts everybody in Clemency
A Drama Written & directed by Chinonye Chukwu How do you comfort the mother of a man about to be executed - especially when your job is to oversee the execution? The answer, inevitably, is "not well." The experience gets worse when the execution, by lethal injection, gets thoroughly botched and the condemned man suffers … Continue reading Capital punishment hurts everybody in Clemency
