Whether it was truth in advertising or the cheekiness of youth, the Disposable Film Festival scored points 10 years ago by choosing a name that popped the pretentiousness of modern technology. The festival was never dismissive of the work of experimental artists and amateur moviemakers using handheld devices and consumer computer software, mind you, but rather the inflated cachet that surrounded anything “digital” at the time.
Today, the word’s residual mystique is on par with that of “natural” and “artisanal,” which means we can respond and react to the Disposable Film Festival’s selections without filtering them through the tools and the process used to achieve them.
Short works are the DFF’s métier, as evidenced by the annual opening night compilation at the Castro Theater on Thursday, March 30. Whet your appetite for a free outdoor show at Proxy in Hayes Valley on Friday night, Mar. 31, where food is movies’ unifying factor.
Lest you think the festival is all fun, networking and games, drop by the Citizen Journalism Workshop at the San Francisco Film Society’s Filmhouse offices on the cusp of Chinatown and North Beach on Saturday afternoon (paradoxically, April Fools’ Day). For all the teenagers mastering their moviemaking skills in hopes of being the next Michael Bay (Jah forbid), the best feature of ubiquitous pocket technology is its usefulness in documenting the reality on the streets.
