The Bay Area's biggest film festival opens this week. And there are plenty of great films around that have nothing to do with SFIFF. Festivals The San Francisco International Film Festival opens Wednesday and runs for 15 days. You'll find my recommendations and reports in this special section of Bayflicks. The Sonoma International Film Festival … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 31 – April 6
Month: March 2017
Silent Film Fest coming in early June
Let's step away from the Festival opening next Wednesday, and take a look at a very different one that opens in early June. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival provides an intensive, four-day immersion into the first decades of the cinema. The festival brings rare prints and new restorations of classic and obscure silent movies, … Continue reading Silent Film Fest coming in early June
San Fran Intl Film Fest Preview, Part 3
Here's my final preview batch of San Francisco International Film Festival mini-reviews. Hope they help you choose what to see. When the Festival opens next Wednesday, I'll start writing about films as they screen for paying audiences - a much better way to see a movie. You can read all of my coverage of this … Continue reading San Fran Intl Film Fest Preview, Part 3
San Fran Intl Film Fest Preview, Part 2
Once again, I present three new mini-reviews of films that will screen at the San Francisco International Film Festival. You can also check out my first batch of five. I'll post at least four more before the festival opens. As usual, they're listed from best to worst. A- A Date for Mad Mary The story … Continue reading San Fran Intl Film Fest Preview, Part 2
What’s Screening: March 24 – 30
Black Panthers, Woody Allen, Chaplin's best talkie, and a whole lot of Buster Keaton grace Bay Area movie theaters this week. Festivals The Albany Film Festival continues through Sunday Buster Keaton Weekend opens tonight and runs through the weekend. Read my report and recommendations. The Sonoma International Film Festival opens Wednesday Promising events Panel discussion … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 24 – 30
Buster Keaton Weekend
Movie audiences first saw Buster Keaton on the big screen in 1917, with the premiere of Fatty Arbuckle's short The Butcher Boy. To celebrate the centenary of Keaton's first cinematic appearance, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum turns its theater over to the Great Stoneface with a mini festival of 11 shorts and four feature-length … Continue reading Buster Keaton Weekend
SF Intl Film Fest Preview, Part 1
Here's my first collection of San Francisco International Film Festival mini-reviews: five movies appraised from best to worst. Three of them are narratives. The two documentaries, which happen to be the two best in the lot, deal with Haiti, and cover the horrible 2010 earthquake. A Bending the Arc If this documentary doesn't make you … Continue reading SF Intl Film Fest Preview, Part 1
What’s Screening: March 17 – 23
Howard Hawks, Spike Lee, Ernst Lubitsch, dangerously violent Jews, and a chance to make fun of Tom Cruise grace Bay Area film theaters this week. Festivals CAAMfest continues through Sunday. You can still check out my recommendations. The Albany Film Festival - the only film festival in easy walking distance from my home - opens … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 17 – 23
San Francisco International Film Festival turns 60
We don't have Sundance or Toronto in the Bay Area, but we do have the oldest film festival in the Americas. The San Francisco International Film Festival turns 60 this year, and the organization that runs it is now it's called SFFILM. This year, it's running 181 separate films (104 of them feature length) from April 5 through … Continue reading San Francisco International Film Festival turns 60
What’s Screening: March 10 – 16
Scorsese, Jerry Lewis, Laurel and Hardy, Greta Garbo, man-eating worms, a man-eating alien, and five film festivals grace Bay Area movie theaters this week. Festivals Cinequest closes Sunday The East Bay International Jewish Film Festival also closes Sunday CAAMfest continues through this week and beyond. Check out my reports on this festival. The Bay Area … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 10 – 16
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