Film buffs in New York and Paris have the great good fortune that every worthwhile film made in the world in the course of a year comes through their town for at least one show. (This poses a great challenge to filmgoers, needless to say.) The Bay Area is right behind, thanks to our plethora of independent festivals. The old joke is that there’s a festival hereabouts every weekend; this month, that’s true. San Jose’s Cinequest is already in mid-swing as March begins, and continues through March 11. In San Francisco, meanwhile, the Roxie cracks open the vault for a week of underexposed early-1930s movies, Hollywood Before the Code: Nasty-Ass Films for a Nasty-Ass World (March 2-8). And that’s just the beginning. Ready, set, action!
Taste the Waste
San Francisco Green Film Festival: The second annual edition of this idealistic social-issue-slash-cultural event, running March 1-7, offers moving evidence that filmmakers in every country are galvanized by the state of the environment. Of course, global = local at this crucial point in the planet’s well being. In Taste the Waste (Tuesday, March 6, 5:30pm, San Francisco Film Society Cinema), German director Valentin Thum’s shocking exposé of the vast amount of food assured of rotting by our system of food production and distribution, speaks to all of us. For tickets and information visit sfgreenfilmfest.org.
Pink Ribbons, Inc.
Injustice and its correctives propels the 2012 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, unspooling on Thursday nights throughout March at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Léa Pool’s investigation of breast-cancer fundraising, Pink Ribbons, Inc. (Thursday, March 29, 7pm & 9pm, YBCA), will be of particular interest to those galvanized by last month’s Susan G. Komen For the Cure decision to defund Planned Parenthood. For more information visit www.ybca.org.