Read two critical perspectives on Finding Fela! (2014, Alex Gibney) , from Michael Fox and Angeline Rodriguez. Finding Fela! opens at the Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Francisco, and the Shattuck Theatre in Berkeley on Friday, August 15, 2014. Continue reading
by Paul Duane and David Cairns
Paul Duane: The first thing I heard of Bernard Natan was a bunch of lies and half-truths, innocently peddled by somebody who’d heard about him from another source, who was in turn dependent on internet rumor and falsehood. That’s the way history gets written & re-written. Continue reading
by Joyce Goldstein
The Sturgeon Queens (2014) is a charming paean to the Russ & Daughters appetizer store on the Lower East Side of NYC, now celebrating its hundred-year anniversary. The story is told by many different voices: three generations of the Russ family; celebrity patrons of the store such as Calvin Trillin, Maggie Gyllenhal, Mario Batali and Ruth Bader Ginsberg; and narrated by long-time customers who read from a script written by director Julie Cohen.
Read two critical perspectives on Life Itself (2014, Steve James) , from Frako Loden and Dennis Willis. Life Itself opens in San Francisco at Landmark Cinema’s Embarcadero Center Cinema, Landmark’s Albany Twin in Albany, and Rafael Film Center in San Rafael on Friday, July 4, 2014. Continue reading
by Tien-Tien L. Jong
“Hopelessness is being gay in Russia,” so says the protagonist of Stand , one of the films programmed as part of the Spotlight on LGBT Films in Today’s Russia at this year’s Frameline film festival (now playing through Sunday, June 29). Here’s a quick guide to the Spotlight line-up, including 2 films coming up this weekend.
by Michael Guillén
In my first political science class at San Francisco State University in the mid-’70s, my professor argued that without practicing solidarity with the struggles of disempowered people, political change could never be effected. Solidarity became the introductory lynchpin to an engaged activism that resisted pluralistic efforts to divide and conquer. “Unless you can feel solidarity with the cultural critiques proposed in Malcolm X’s autobiography and the prison letters of George Jackson,” my professor insisted, “you will never understand the plight of Black people in the United States.” Continue reading
Read two critical perspectives on Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia (2013, Nicholas Wrathall) , from Peter Canavese and Ryan Lattanzio. Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia opens in San Francisco at Landmark Cinema’s Opera Plaza and in Berkeley at Landmark’s Shattuck Theater on Friday, June 13, 2014.
by Gaetano Kazuo Maida
I’d known the late Les Blank pretty much since I moved to Berkeley over 20 years ago. We’d cross paths at those intersections of food, music and film for which he is justifiably famous for documenting. He had a keen eye for odd characters and a taste for interesting food and drink, and his films were always a treat. Somehow you always wanted to know what had been going on between the takes. Continue reading
by Michael Fox
The popularity peak presently enjoyed by documentaries and reflected in the ongoing success of SF DocFest (opening June 5 and continuing through June 19 in San Francisco and Oakland) owes a great deal to a pair of galactic mainstream-media shifts over the last two decades: Hollywood lost interest in depicting the reality-based world and TV networks abdicated the work of investigative journalism. Continue reading
Read two critical perspectives on Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013, Frank Pavich), from Richard von Busack and Mel Valentin. Jodorowsky’s Dune will be screening Thursday, June 5 at the Castro Theatre as a special one-off event.
Lunch Love Community is an online documentary project offering shareable films, community engagement, and creative resources to inspire change in the way kids eat. This evening will include documentary shorts and lively discussion among filmmakers, educators, and food specialists about Berkeley’s role in food reform and food justice movements in area schools and neighborhoods. Continue reading
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