By Gary Meyer
(Updated October 29,2022)
Do you ever tell people about your scariest moments? We asked all kinds of people to tell us theirs.
MORE SCARIEST MOMENTS
by Gary Meyer. (Updated October 29,2022)
We got so many terrific responses to our inquires about scariest experiences both with art and real life that we decided to break them onto two pieces so readers will not be overwhelmed in one sitting. as you meet the daughters of horror masters Boris Karloff, Vincent Price and William Castle and Lon Chaney Jr.’s grandson. The Czar of Noir Eddie Muller (Noir City), directors Roger Corman and John Waters, author Daniel Handler, drag queen and haunted attractions impresario Peaches Christ, and Creature Features producer Tom Wyrsch offer surprises. Continue reading
MURDER, SHE COOKED- A Farewell to Angela Lansbury and A Favorite Recipe
By Jenny Hammerton
October 23,2022
When Dame Angela Lansbury travelled up to that Hollywood in the sky, the outpouring of love and respect for her terrific talent and tremendous career was palpable. She was beloved by many theatre, film and television fans and will be very much missed.
SIGN THE SHOW: A Benefit, Not a Burden
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.
LAST FLIGHT HOME
By C.J. Hirschfield
October 21, 2022
In the Jewish religion, “LeChaim!” means “to life,” and is the traditional toast.
In 2019, 92-year old Eli Timoner chose death instead, and his journey is recorded in the insightful and moving new documentary, Last Flight Home.
SANTOS: Skin to Skin
By Gaetano Kazuo Maida
October 16, 2022
“The drum is like a heartbeat.” —John Santos
I grew up in the Bronx in the ‘50s. This was in an old Italian neighborhood, full of grape arbors and fig trees (even a goat!), but by the time I was eight our neighbors on one side and across the street were from Puerto Rico, and on the other side were African Americans; it’s mostly Caribbean now. My public school was a ten block walk from home and most of my classmates there were Jewish. My parents were a mixed couple (Japanese/Sicilian) and most of their friends were mixed in one way or another as well, so I had a strong sense of a wonderfully polyglot community that ill-prepared me for the rather homogeneous and affluent population of my elite public high school. But it did open my ears to a wide variety of music. The soundtrack at home was folk, blues, soul (long story), flamenco, and opera, but in the streets it was doo-wop and Afro-Caribbean.
Go to the Mill Valley Film Festival!
The First Weekend Was Great! And there was plenty to see.
By Meredith Brody
(Updated with Awards October 22, 2022 below.)
The takeaway from the first four days of MVFF45 was YOU CAN GET IN, EVEN TO FILMS AT RUSH!
And many of the movies I’ve seen will soon be in cinemas near you.
TOWN DESTROYER: When Art Offends
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
FINALLY FEELING FESTIVE – Looking Forward to the 2022 Mill Valley Film Festival, October 6 through 16
By Meredith Brody
October 6, 2022
In the past I have written, once or twice, thinking it was something of a joke, that if you wanted to see a movie beautifully projected on huge big screens with a full attentive audience who were all watching the BIG screen instead of their little screens, you had to go to a film festival.
Sir Ian McKellen’s 2015 Tribute; Photo by Drew Altizer Photography
And now, after nearly three years of not going to movies, whether in theaters or at festivals, and becoming increasingly used to – but not happy about — seeing movies via streaming services at home, I find that my little joke rings increasingly true.
FANTASTIC NEGRITO: A Cat With More Than Nine Lives
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
How the Bay Area Got Hooked on Fish Tacos
By Nancy Friedman
September 20, 2022
Fish have been swimming onto San Francisco Bay Area menus ever since there were people around to catch and cook them. And Mexican cuisine has been represented in the region ever since Alta California was part of Mexico. But until 1992, although dozens of Bay Area restaurants served a steady tide of petrale sole, halibut, salmon, and sand dabs—not to mention McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish, invented in 1962—and although there were plenty of places to enjoy burritos, enchiladas, and quesadillas, one Mexican fish dish was still just a wish: the fish taco.
Continue reading