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.
By Andrea Chase
In conversation after a watch party for A CONCERTO IS A CONVERSATION, co-subject and co-director (with Ben Proudfoot) Kris Bowers said that part of the reason he wanted to make the film because the Emmy™-winning composer thought his grandfather, Horace Bowers, Sr., was a hero. A hero who should be celebrated. He also wanted to have an in-depth conversation with him while the 91-year-old was still with us. The result is a tender and intimate portrait of strength, joy, and how family shapes us.
By C.J. Hirschfield
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently released their short list for the Oscar in the Best Documentary (Short Subject) category. These films include everything from The Speed Cubers, which follows the relationship between two of the fastest Rubik’s Cube-solvers, to Call Center Blues, which focuses on four individuals working at a Tijuana call center after having been deported by the U.S.
By Teller
M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity – Witty, touching, and illuminating. As we listen to a choice selection of Escher’s words, exuberantly delivered by Stephen Fry, we see – in stills, clips, and animation – how Escher’s ingenious notions and preoccupations become works of art.
“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.
A selection of animations and clips inspired by the work of M.C. Escher.
A candid conversation with the film programmers at the Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA).
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.
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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