Join your fellow human beings in Bay Area theaters this week with recommendations from our film critic Michael Fox.
Gary Meyer Selects: Trailers and Short Films
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley
Wednesday, Aug. 17, 7pm
Tickets: $7-12
The unsung heroes of the movie business are the programmers, bookers, exhibitors and small-theater owners. They’re the ones who keep the dream machine humming, and feed our popcorn-fueled pleasure centers. For some it’s a job, and for others it’s a mission, a crusade, a calling.
Gary Meyer started programming films when he was 12 years old, and his particular passion led him from drive-ins to the UC Theater in Berkeley, Landmark Theaters across the country, the Balboa in San Francisco and the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. Invited to show a favorite film this Wednesday, Aug. 17 as part of the Pacific Film Archive’s three-night Cinema Mon Amour series, and unwilling (or unable) to limit himself to a single title, Meyer has compiled a two-hour buffet of shorts, snippets and trailers spanning every genre from experimental to animation to vintage comedy to European drama. (He has extensive and egalitarian tastes, to put it mildly). Meyer has always approached cinema as simultaneously a communal and a personal activity, and you should expect nothing less from Gary Meyer Selects: Trailers and Short Films.
Also…
If you require further cheering up during the so-called dog days of summer — or as they’re known in many households, The Last Days of Freedom Before School Starts — the rockin’ rebels of the long-running ‘80s dance party New Wave City and SF Indiefest present Mod Night at the Movies at the Roxie on Sunday, Aug. 21. The toe-tapping double bill opens with the marvelous 1979 screen adaptation of The Who’s Quadrophenia, followed by the rarely screened 1981 ska performance compilation Dance Craze. Kick out the jams.
