(January 13, 2024)
Cheryl Hess has been doing the film festival circuit with her hilarious short documentary about a vegan recipe at a Meatball Contest.
And we have that recipe for you below.
Why December 4th is the Date To Reintroduce Yourself To… THE LOST CONTINENT OF CLASSIC FRENCH FILM NOIR
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)
Bobi Wine-The People’s President—From Pop Star to Politician
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.”
Its Not Over Until the Last Frame
More to Watch at the Mill Valley Film Festival 46
By Meredith Brody
(October 9, 2023)
Halfway home! But there’s still lots to recommend and to look forward to. I didn’t catch American Fiction in Toronto, and I didn’t hear very much about it – it wasn’t one of those movies that people cited as one of their favorites – so I was quite surprised when it won TIFF’s prestigious People’s Choice Award. Since way down deep I am shallow, this increased my want-to-see tenfold. It’s the directing debut and first feature film of Cord Jefferson, a journalist and television writer. It sounds slightly dangerous – Jeffrey Wright plays a college professor and mid-range novelist who concocts a pseudonymous novel replete with Black tropes that he disdains, that becomes a literary sensation. It’s easier to laugh in a big audience, so I’d love to see it at the festival. (Playing Wednesday October 11 at 6:30 at the Sequoia, and Friday October 13 at 3 pm at the Rafael.)
COOKING WITH JOAN CRAWFORD
By Jenny Hammerton
(October 8, 2023)
Are you ready to sprinkle some stardust around your kitchen?
From the earliest days of Hollywood, movie stars shared their favourite dishes with fan magazines, syndicated newspapers and cookbook compilers. I’ve been collecting these film star recipes for around 25 years, and my stash now numbers over 8,000. I’m gradually cooking my way through them. Some of the results are wonderful, some are inedible, but I always get the feeling that the glamour of tinsel town is rubbing off on me when I am elbow-deep in singing cowboy chilli or mashing up some glamour girl guacamole. Continue reading
The Best of The Fall Film Festivals Coming to a Festival Near You
MVFF46: Some Highly Recommended Movies in Our Delightful Local Film Festival
By Meredith Brody
(October 5, 2023)
Some of us cinephiles know the exquisite pain of yearning to see a movie for months and months before we can access it. When the festival circuit begins with Sundance in January, Berlin in February, and the 900-pound-gorilla Cannes in May, we learn about the tempting new films that are greeted with standing ovations and win prizes and acclaim.
Start Making Sense– A New Way to Experience the Talking Heads
by Gary Meyer
(October 4, 2023)
The Castro Theatre in San Francisco was packed for the World Premiere of Jonathan Demme’s first concert film at the Closing Night of the 1984 San Francisco International Film Festival.
Festival Director Peter Scarlet introduced Demme who then brought David Byrne, back-up singer Lynn Mabry, keyboardist/guitarist Jerry Harrison and producer Gary Goetzman on stage. Demme explained that he had been working on the film practically up to the screening.
“We’ve never seen this before either.”
I Went to the Dance
By C.J. Hirschfield
(September 13, 2023)
In 1982, I attended Oakland’s legendary Festival at the Lake, where my mind was blown by a dynamic and charismatic accordionist/ performer named Queen Ida—she and her Bon Ton Zydeco band had everyone on their feet dancing to a type of music that seemed at once both regional– universal. Seven years after that concert, the celebrated documentary filmmaker Les Blank (with partners Chris Strachwitz and Maureen Gosling) released I WENT TO THE DANCE (J’ai Ete Au Bal), a definitive study of the high-spirited and lively music of French southwest Louisiana, where both Cajun and Zydeco music originated. Featuring so many of the style’s musical greats, the film has been remastered, and will be screened this month, with the filmmakers and live music in attendance. (details below)
Making the Cut at Pixar
(August 7, 2023)
Join industry insiders Bill Kinder and Bobbie O’Steen as they guide readers on a journey through every stage of production on an animated film, from storyboards to virtual cameras and final animation in their recently published Making the Cut at Pixar: The Art of Editing Animation. We offer an excerpt from the book.
And meet them in person at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive as they introduce a series of contemporary animated features from Pixar, Hayao Miyazaki, Marjane Satrapi, Wes Anderson, and others throughout August. There will also be free outdoor screenings as part of “The Art of Animation: Storytelling in the Digital Age.”
Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands- An Excerpt and a Recipe
By Linda Ronstadt and Lawrence Downes, with photographs by Bill Steen
(July 14, 2023)
Growing up the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and a descendant of Spanish settlers near northern Sonora, Ronstadt’s intimate new memoir celebrates the marvelous flavors and indomitable people on both sides of what was once a porous border whose denizens were happy to exchange recipes and gather around campfires to sing the ballads that shaped Ronstadt’s musical heritage. Continue reading
“The New Mediterranean Jewish Table”
Recipes by Joyce Goldstein
For thousands of years, the people of the Jewish Diaspora have carried their culinary traditions and kosher laws throughout the world. In the United States, this has resulted primarily in an Ashkenazi table of matzo ball soup and knishes, brisket and gefilte fish. But Joyce Goldstein is now expanding that menu with this comprehensive collection of over four hundred recipes from the kitchens of three Mediterranean Jewish cultures: the Sephardic, the Maghrebi, and the Mizrahi.
eatdrinkfilms.com 