Captivating Picks from Eclectic Lineup at the Frameline50 Film Festival

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By Noma Faingold                                     (June 13, 2026)

Frameline50, the annual San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, is celebrating its 50th anniversary, June 17-27. The milestone is a big deal for the largest and longest-running queer film festival in the world. Several San Francisco and East Bay venues, including the newly restored Castro Theater, will host 140 films from 35 countries with LGBTQ+ themes by mostly queer filmmakers. Programming for the 11-day event also includes parties, networking events and industry panels.

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Queer Love Triumphs Over Fear in “Minister Chucky”

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By Noma Faingold.       (June 11, 2026)

“Minister Chucky,” a short film about the unconventional Las Vegas wedding of a queer couple, officiated by a killer doll Chucky impersonator, from the eight-installment “Child’s Play” horror movie franchise, is funny until you consider the full context of the celebration and the subsequent plans for the pair to flee the United States under the bleak Donald Trump regime.

Filmmakers non-binary Graham Kolbeins and trans man Jonathan Andre Culliton documented their cheeky nuptials, along with their life choices before and after the festivities. The 11-minute film highlights love and resistance in times when the LGBTQ+ community is under attack.

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MOREAU AND THE AUTEURES INVADE THE ROXIE

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MCP’s Unique Look at Gender Issues in Classic French Film

OWEN FIELD (interviewing Phoebe Green and Don Malcolm)

(March 28,2024)

In the midst of its long-running rare French noir series (that will exceed 150 titles screened when it concludes this fall), Midcentury Productions has opened the door to an entirely other aspect of classic French cinema: what we might call “the battle of the sexes.”  It’s a rich area, because that battle is still going on—particularly in America, with reproductive rights suddenly front and center.

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Why December 4th is the Date To Reintroduce Yourself To… THE LOST CONTINENT OF CLASSIC FRENCH FILM NOIR

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By Owen Field

(Including fragments of an interview with Midcentury Productions’ Don Malcolm.) (November 30, 2023)

THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT is one of the world’s best-kept open secrets, spilling out a world of film noir—or, more accurately, perhaps, a “lost continent” that has been relentlessly explored at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco since November 2014.

Lino Ventura in WITNESS IN THE CITY (UN TEMOIN DANS LA VILLE)

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UNSUNG HEROES THROUGH THE NIGHT- Special Free Screening Thursday, Jan. 19

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By C.J. Hirschfield

(Updated January 17, 2023)

Shanina and Noah

Shanona Tate is one of the frontline workers we have come to revere as of late—a pediatric emergency room nurse who works the overnight shift at a New York hospital. We can bang pots and pans to acknowledge her service and that of other employees within essential industries who must physically show up to their jobs—at whatever hour–but until we really see the economic and psychic toll it takes we can’t begin to understand how our current system is not working for them.

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THE BEST PROGRAMMING IN TOWN: French Noir

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By Meredith Brody

(November 5, 2022)

San Francisco is lucky to have Donald Malcolm’s French Noir Series, “The French Had a Name for It” at the Roxie.

The upcoming festival programs 15 films over four days at the Little Roxie, and once again I will be there for all of it.  It unspools on Sunday November 6 and Monday November 7, and the following on Saturday November 12  and Sunday November 13.    

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Know Any Cat Daddies?

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By Marilyn Freund

(October 28, 2022)

Cat Daddies is a deceptive film, and therein lies its emotional punch. On the surface, director Mye Hoang’s documentary debut presents episodes from the lives of nine men whose lives have been changed by their relationships with cats. But underneath, it takes a look at what behavior our culture has traditionally considered to be “manly,” and how those stereotypes might be redefined today.

Truck driver David Durst visits Sedona, AZ with his cat Tora. Image by Mye Hoang.

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