The Bay Area supports several of what I can genre film festivals. There’s Noir City, Hole in the Head, Doc Fest, and two silent film festivals. (It also supports a lot of identity festivals—Jewish, Arab, Asian, LGBT, and so on–but that’s irrelevant to the current discussion.) It occurred to me recently that one important and popular genre doesn’t get its own festival: comedy.
I must not have been the only one to think of that. Next month, the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation is putting on LOL-SF, a week-long festival of classic and little-known comedies. (At least, I think the Foundation is putting it on; the information I’ve found isn’t all that clear.)
Running July 8 through the 15th (overlapping one night with the San Francisco Silent Movie Festival), LOL-SF will screen 14 features. Most will be personal picks from popular local comedians. For instance, Bob Sarlatte picked Groundhog Day, while Will Durst brings us the original Pink Panther. But the festival will open with the relatively new (2009) German Soul Kitchen, and IFC will present four independent comedies. Chicken Run and Duck Soup will make for two fowl kiddie matinees (sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun).
One panel discussion is scheduled, on Why Comedies Aren’t Taken Seriously.
The festival will screen at the Vogue.
Bayflicks 