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.

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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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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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From Film Critic to Filmmaker to Podcaster

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By Gerald Peary

(Nov. 10, 2024)

A seven-part podcast, The Rabbis Go South, produced and hosted by Amy Geller and me, has launched! It tells the story of 16 Reform rabbis answering the call of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964 to help desegregate St. Augustine, Florida. The rabbis were arrested and jailed, the largest incarceration to that time of rabbis in American history. A very compelling story. But like most of you, we’d never heard about this incident before we began.

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Bobi Wine-The People’s President—From Pop Star to Politician

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By C.J. Hirschfield

(November 2, 2023)

At a recent San Francisco gathering Bobi Wine (Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu) said he would like you to know that the United States gives $1 billion a year to support Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni’s 30+ year ruthless and dictatorial rule.

Ugandan opposition leader, former member of parliament, activist, and national megastar musician Wine would very much like for you to “stop paying for our oppression.”

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I Didn’t See You There

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By C.J. Hirschfield

(Updated January 9, 2023)

A monument to circus showman P.T. Barnum stands in Reid Davenport’s hometown of Bethel, Connecticut. “He got a pedestal,” says the director of I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE, the new documentary that premiered at the 65th SFFILM Festival, while the disabled filmmaker’s perspective is from the sidewalk. The film, a meditative and personal feature that invites the viewer to see the world through his eyes—and at his level– often refers to the corrosive legacy of Barnum’s freak shows and how society relates to those who are different.

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SIGN THE SHOW: A Benefit, Not a Burden

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By C.J. Hirschfield

October 22, 2022

I can’t imagine being denied access to movies, plays, comedy shows, or concerts; you probably can’t either. And yet that’s how it is for 40+ million Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HOH) Americans, whose attempts to get venues and artists to understand their need for consistent, high-quality professional and well-lit sign language interpreters are met with barrier after barrier.

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TOWN DESTROYER: When Art Offends

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By C.J. Hirschfield

October 8, 2022

For a documentary to even-handedly and adroitly cover a complex, painful and controversial subject in just 52 minutes requires not only talent, but a clarity of vision, and cinematic compassion.

Award-winning Bay Area filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman have accomplished just that in their timely Town Destroyer, with its world premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival Saturday, October 8. Continue reading →

FANTASTIC NEGRITO: A Cat With More Than Nine Lives

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Fantastic Negrito: Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? album review | Louder

 

By C.J. Hirschfield                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     October 8, 2022

Xavier. Amin. Andrew. Blood Sugar X. Oakland’s Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter, born Xavier Dphrepaulezz and now known as Fantastic Negrito has had many names, and even more lives. The new documentary Fantastic Negrito: Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?, which has its world premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival, traces his remarkable and unlikely journey, telling the story in chronological order, interspersed with song tracks and jam sessions that feature his unique blues/R&B/roots music. It all comes together beautifully. Continue reading →

Who’s Afraid of the Big Red Panda?

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By Mihaela Mihailova

On paper, Pixar’s Turning Red, a film about a thirteen-year-old Chinese Canadian girl whose entry into puberty causes her to transform into a large red panda every time she feels a strong emotion, is not for (or about) me. I am not of Chinese descent. I did not grow up in Toronto (or in North America, for that matter). My parents are not immigrants (I am). I have yet to transform into a large beast, unless we count persistent pandemic weight gain. More importantly, I am not one of Oscar-winning director Domee Shi’s friends and immediate family members. 

TURNING RED

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