San Francisco Plays a Pivotal Role in Beth de Araújo’s Family Drama “Josephine”

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By Noma Faingold.  (October 1, 2026)

Picture Josephine, a sporty eight-year-old girl, without a care in the world, jogging in Golden Gate Park with her father at dawn. Being that it’s a familiar activity, she races ahead to show her athletic dad what she can do. Abruptly, she comes upon a man following a female jogger into a public restroom. The woman screams and frantically tries to get away, but he catches her and forces her to the ground.

Josephine instinctively hides behind a nearby tree and watches it all, a clumsy, violent sexual assault. Josephine, played by newcomer Mason Reeves, is transfixed. She is scared and doesn’t dare move. A variety of subtle expressions roll across her face. Her father, Damien, played by Channing Tatum, comes into view and interrupts the brutal act. After making sure his daughter is out of immediate danger, he chases after the assailant. Damien catches him with the help of police.

Yet Josephine will never be the same.

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DEMOCRACY NOIR- A New Dawn

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By Connie Field                 (September 13, 2026)

In April, I watched Viktor Orbán ousted in Hungary by a landslide. I was amazed and ecstatic. This was personal for me. I had traveled there with my Hungarian husband every year since 1990. Over three decades we watched the country change through the eyes of people we loved — through the euphoria of the early post-Communist years and, eventually, through its disturbing turn to autocracy. We watched avidly last year as Péter Magyar, the man who would go on to oust Orbán, traveled all around Hungary drawing bigger and bigger crowds. But I always assumed Orbán would find a way to change the election laws yet again so he’d win no matter how strong the opposition was. He didn’t. Magyar won by a landslide. Continue reading →

Bonnie & Clyde Killed People- An new book excerpt about the making of the film

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On May 23, 1934, two borderline inept but ruthless criminals named Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker met their end in a hail of semiautomatic gunfire on a rural road in the Louisiana backcountry. The duo had terrorized Depression-era Middle America with a string of robberies and a brazen daylight prison escape, killing nearly a dozen police officers along the way.

A legend was born.

Arthur Penn’s “Bonnie and Clyde” will have as rare theatrical showing on Monday, August 17 at the Lark Theater near San Francisco.

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Margaret Cho: The Outsider Comedian Who Found a Way In

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            “Choligarchy” returns to the Bay Area for a limited engagement, September 15-19, at Berkeley Rep.  Tickets are on sale now here. 

Photo by Albert Sanchez

By Noma Faingold.                                               

 (Updated August 6, 2026) 

Trailblazing comedian Margaret Cho has always made sure her brazen stand-up material aligns with her feminist, politically progressive and all-inclusive views on sexuality. What is radically different about the 57-year-old San Francisco native is that her once chaotic, dangerous life has gradually evolved into a that of a serene homebody, who surrounds herself with animal and plant life.

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You Don’t Have To Be………Jewish

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By Gary Meyer.  (updated August 1 ,2026)

Family dramas, Amazing Sea Monkeys, Hollywood censorship, Woody Guthrie, the Middle East conflicts, Berlin’s nightlife, uncomfortable secrets, teenage angst, many kinds of music, short films, Holocaust stories we never knew, New Yorker cartoonists, LBGTQ lives, inside the most famous Catskills summer resort, and family comedies.

These are some of the stories at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival playing through Sunday, August 2. Continue reading →

10 Must-See World Cinema Films

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By Geneva Anderson                                                              (April 24, 2026)

The 69th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM 69) returns to the Bay Area Friday, April 24, and runs 11 days through Monday, May 4, featuring 79 sharply-curated film programs from 40 countries screening in seven Bay Area theaters.   The world cinema line-up of 32 narratives and 11 docs is phenomenal, with original stories that crystalize into masterful portraits of individuals and place. Continue reading →

Clara Bow Runnin’ Wild- On Making “IT”

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By David Stenn

(Editor’s note:The San Francisco Silent Film Festival will return to the restored Castro Theatre on Sunday, March 22 at 7pm with Clara Bow in “IT” live accompaniment by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. Information and tickets here.  Best selling author David Stenn shares his chapter on the making of “IT” and we have added a gallery of stunning images at the end.)

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The Librarians: On the Front Line for Freedom

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By C.J. Hirschfield

I know that I live in a bubble—my liberal community’s libraries don’t ban books, and even offer drag queen story time. But outside of this bubble exists a very real and growing threat to the flow of ideas that none of us can afford to ignore.

Be very afraid when a compelling new documentary often quotes from the dystopian novel Farenheit 451, and shows Nazis burning books as often as it does in an attempt to reflect current events. The parallels are both appropriate and chilling. Continue reading →

Messages for the Future

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The United Nations Association Film Festival returns to the Bay Area with another urgent, globally expansive lineup. Running from October 16–26, the 28th edition of UNAFF brings 60 documentary films to venues across Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Stanford University. More than just a film festival, UNAFF is a civic forum—a space for dialogue, reflection, and action.

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Lawrence Ferlinghetti-Painter & Poet for All Generations

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By Noma Faingold                 (August 1, 2025)

“I never wanted to be a poet. It chose me. I didn’t choose it. One becomes a poet almost against one’s will, certainly against one’s better judgement. I wanted to be a painter, but from the age of 10, these damn poems kept coming. Perhaps one of these days they will leave me alone and I can get back to painting.”

           – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet laureate, publisher, activist, playwright, novelist and painter

The poet and artist Lawrence Ferlinghetti in his San Francisco studio. (Photo courtesy of Brian Flaherty for The New York Times)

Calling someone an “icon” is annoyingly overused these days. However, when it comes to the late multi-hyphenate Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), the moniker is appropriate, especially in San Francisco, where he thrived artistically and socially since his arrival in 1951. Continue reading →

Isaac Julien Dreams A World

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By Noma Faingold (April 16, 2025)

Watching the 28-minute, 10-screen film/art installation, “Lessons of the Hour,” by British artist/filmmaker Sir Isaac Julien, isn’t as overwhelming as one might think. In fact, the flood of images, sounds and words, dedicated to the life of writer, orator, philosopher, and social justice activist Fredrick Douglass (1818-1895), a former slave, allows the viewer to absorb and interpret the immersive experience in their own way.

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