Watch CITY LIGHTS Shine: A Gallery of Art

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Curated by Gary Meyer

Charles Chaplin might be the most recognizable person in the world. His iconic Little Tramp image can be found everywhere. I am guessing that more books have been written about him than any movie star.

One of the many beauties of his work is that they communicate with people who speak any language.

And on Saturday, February 19, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents Chaplin’s 1931 masterpiece, CITY LIGHTS accompanied by the Oakland Symphony under the direction of Timothy Brock, at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre. This is a must see experience for all ages.

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THE CREATIVE HIGH

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By C.J. Hirschfield

In 2020, more people in San Francisco died of overdoses than of covid-19—an almost impossible statistic to comprehend.

So a film featuring people living in that city who are in recovery from addiction is timely and hopeful; what is unique is that all nine of them have had their lives dramatically transformed by the “alternative high” they achieve through art-making.

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BEING A CENTURY OLD DOESN’T STOP BETTY REID SOSKIN AND ANNA HALPRIN FROM ROCKIN’ OUR WORLD

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BY C.J. Hirschfield

Writer Pearl S. Buck said that “To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.”

Two of the remarkable Bay Area women featured in the 10th annual Legacy Film Festival on Aging have seemingly done just that, and they’ve used their collective 200 (!) years of rich experience to arrive at a place where they now choose to enlighten and inspire.

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Designing a Life

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By C.J. Hirschfield

A couple of decades ago, I took a half-day off work to visit the first-ever tour of an historic 1909 Arts & Crafts house that featured its original furniture–many pieces by the man considered the father of the American Arts & Crafts movement, Gustav Stickley. Touring the glorious house in the required surgical booties, I was in heaven.

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The Camera Is Escher’s Eye

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“I think it’s in my basement…Let me go upstairs and check.”

― M.C. Escher

By Steve Segal

Maurits Cornelis Escher commonly known as M.C. Escher was an artist who has inspired millions with his unique vision. This is made abundantly clear in the film M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity, a hugely entertaining and informative documentary.

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Alice Street: A Mural Becomes a Movement

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BY C.J. Hirschfield

About my home town of Oakland, a recent Washington Post article wrote: “Protesters want to defund the police. Homicides and violence are spiking. In Oakland, ideology and practicality collide.”

It was a wonderful juxtaposition shortly thereafter to watch the excellent new documentary Alice Street, which shows Oakland at its multicultural, peaceful, protesting best.

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Time is an Illusion

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By Andrea Chase

There is a quiet desperation running through Tom Dolby’s The Artist’s Wife. It creates the sort of cinematic tension that Mr. Dolby and his muse, Lena Olin in the title role, used like a fine chiaroscuro throughout the drama of a genius slowly losing his mind, and the devoted wife who has subsumed her life to his genius for 25 years. With that chapter of her life ending, choices she made in the past are thrown into sharp relief as the prospect of a life lived solely for herself proves a daunting leap into the unknown.

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THE SHAPE OF FILMS TO COME- An Excerpt

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An excerpt from the new book by James Curtis.

Have you ever marveled at the “look” of certain movies? The art direction creates a memorable world. For example, The Son of the Sheik……

Son of Sheik

William Cameron Menzies’ original rendering of Ahmed’s desert retreat for The Son of the Sheik (1926). Economies scotched the design, a shame considering it would be Rudolph Valentino’s final film and a formidable commercial success. (courtesy of Pamela Lauesen)

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