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"content": "\u003cp>When the Cinequest Film Festival sprouted in San Jose 25 years ago, the South Bay economy boomed (and occasionally busted) on silicon chips, not consumer electronics. Diverse, highly educated worker bees endured constant deadline pressure to innovate in \u003cem>Prisoner\u003c/em>-like industrial parks. OK, that last part may still hold true — but today’s computer, math and engineering brainiacs are far more socially skilled than the original geeks, and have even been turned into mainstream icons by commercials and TV shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If CQFF ever sought (among its unspoken aims) to fill the hole in the soul of its career-driven audience and to turn San Jose into a cultural hotspot, those goals have been superseded by the festival’s skill and focus in finding its sweet spots: honoring and celebrating iconoclastic filmmakers and directors, and spotlighting the intersection of film and technology. Here’s how the 25th festival, running Feb. 24–Mar. 8, hits its niche:\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10408964\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/RosarioDawson.jpg\" alt=\"Rosario Dawson appears at Cinequest Feb. 28.\" width=\"640\" height=\"446\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10408964\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/RosarioDawson.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/RosarioDawson-400x279.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosario Dawson appears at Cinequest Feb. 28.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s a Maverick, Maverick World:\u003c/strong> An enticing array of artists from L.A. and elsewhere confide the secrets of their success via tribute nights and onstage interviews. Writer-directors John Boorman (with his latest, \u003cem>Queen and Country\u003c/em>, Feb. 26) and Lawrence Kasdan (Feb. 28), who will no doubt be peppered with questions about his new \u003cem>Star Wars\u003c/em> screenplays, head the parade, followed by crime novelist Dennis Lehane (Feb. 28) and actress Rosario Dawson (Feb. 28). Producer and one-time studio head Mike Medavoy (Mar. 8) can be expected to diplomatically slag the current state of Hollywood affairs while inspiring attendees to pursue their individual voices and visions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>(Over)achievers of the World Unite:\u003c/strong> The Valley is full of single-minded, highly motivated immigrants and expatriates from India, China and elsewhere. They are sure to see themselves—or their children—in \u003cem>Miss India America\u003c/em> (one of an incredible 91 world, North American or U.S. premieres, screening Feb. 27, Mar. 1 and 5), a colorful comedy about a too-perfect high school valedictorian whose planned-within-a-millimeter future starts to crumble the instant she sheds her cap and gown. This less-than-likable lass (played by Tiya Sircar) enters a beauty contest (don’t ask why) where comic antics ensue and she learns humanizing life lessons. L.A.-based, British-born director and co-writer Ravi Kapoor affectionately skewers the lifestyles of well-off Indian-Americans, who seem to have assimilated quite nicely into another valley (San Fernando).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Corporate Retreat:\u003c/strong> Another world premiere, Thomas Miller’s feature-length sports documentary, \u003cem>One Day in April\u003c/em> (Feb. 28, Mar. 2 and 4), relies on style over substance in tracing the paths of four favored relay teams (two men and two women’s) to the annual Little 500 bicycle race in Bloomington, Indiana. Miller ignores the class dynamics that propelled \u003cem>Breaking Away\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>the 1979 Best Picture winner set against the backdrop of the race, or any context other than individual determination in the service of team success. An excellent choice for middle managers or above seeking an activity to launch this year’s team-building campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10408969\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/LAtalante.jpg\" alt=\"Jean Vigo's L'Atlante.\" width=\"640\" height=\"422\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10408969\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/LAtalante.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/LAtalante-400x264.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jean Vigo’s \u003cem>L’Atlante\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Poetry in Motion:\u003c/strong> My gifted and dear colleague in the field of film criticism, Richard von Busack of Metro Newspapers, will be deservingly honored with the Media Legacy Award on Mar 3. He’s chosen to screen French poet-filmmaker Jean Vigo’s gorgeous and elemental \u003cem>L’Atalante\u003c/em>, the immortal tale of a barge captain who brings his new bride into the world of monotonous men’s work. If you’ve never seen the 1934 masterpiece, or know nothing of Vigo’s short life and precious few films, this is the ideal setting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Family Affair:\u003c/strong> CQFF is unusually good at finding small, memorable films from other countries. In the first five minutes of \u003cem>The Life After\u003c/em> (\u003cem>La Vida Despues\u003c/em>), novice Mexican director David Pablos adeptly conveys the unique, private and loving relationship between a mother and her two young sons. But she can’t keep it together, and one day in their early teens they wake to discover a terse note: “I had to leave—Mom.” Rodrigo and Samuel set out to find her in the tender, sensual and aptly titled \u003cem>The Life After\u003c/em> (Feb. 26, Mar. 5 and 7).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You Must Remember This:\u003c/strong> Ever heard of the World Memory Championships, an international competition of talented memorizers? (Don’t you dare say, “I can’t recall.”) \u003cem>Sweden’s Coolest National Team\u003c/em> (Feb. 25 and 27, Mar. 1) a one-hour doc hailing from the titular nation, introduces us to this curious sport in which contestants memorize the order of all 52 cards in a shuffled deck, 200 spoken words, and a flickering stream of 0s and 1s. One of the most popular and effective techniques consists of inventing visual stories employing sexual or violent images. (The filmmakers miss a bet by not persuading a contestant to relate such a story, and animating it. Where’s Ralph Bakshi when you need him?) The dapper reigning Swedish champ, Mattias Ribbing, sells memorization skills to the educational market while battling the public perception that memory mavens are “a small, specialized group of nerds.” Maybe \u003cem>that\u003c/em> rings a bell with Silicon Valley’s code writers and algorithm aces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Putting the Motion in Motion Pictures:\u003c/strong> The English landscape photographer Eadweard Muybridge is best remembered hereabouts for his 1872 photographs, taken for former Gov. Leland Stanford’s pleasure and pocketbook, proving that all of the hooves of a galloping horse left the ground. Kyle Rideout’s lovely and curious \u003cem>Eadweard\u003c/em> (Feb. 28, Mar 2 and 4) concerns itself with the chunk of the 1880s when Muybridge relentlessly photographed all kinds of motion (animal and human) at the University of Pennsylvania. Michael Eklund portrays one of the fathers of movies (Thomas Alva Edison also makes an appearance) as impenetrably eccentric on most days, and uncommonly charming on the others. Part scientist, part artist, Muybridge strode to his own rhythm—as does this picturesque Canadian character study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10408968\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/The_Center.jpg\" alt=\"A scene from The Center.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10408968\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/The_Center.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/The_Center-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from \u003cem>The Center\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Groupthink For Yourself:\u003c/strong> Cinequest generally prefers under-the-radar American indies to star-strewn Sundance entries, to varied effect. A winner making its world premiere, \u003cem>The Center\u003c/em> eerily and believably conveys the steps by which an unformed twenty-something (a very good Matt Cici) with more frustrations than self-confidence becomes increasingly involved in a self-actualization outfit with resemblances to est, Scientology and you name it. I wouldn’t compare startups to cults, but \u003cem>The Center\u003c/em> (Feb, 27, Mar. 1 and 3) will play like gangbusters at CQFF. This well-written, stylishly directed and efficiently lean (72 minutes) film is the work of Charlie Griak of Minneapolis in collaboration with a tight circle of friends and family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>War Correspondence:\u003c/strong> The Academy Awards chose to overlook the mixed messages of \u003cem>American Sniper\u003c/em>, even as many viewers looked past the alienating and debilitating effects of the Iraq War (any war, really) on its participants. The powerhouse documentary \u003cem>Healing a Soldier’s Heart\u003c/em> (Feb. 28, Mar. 2 and 5) accompanies five Vietnam veterans, desperate to call a truce in their ongoing personal wars, to the battleground of their youth. Bay Area filmmaker Stephen Olsson allows the men, their partners and Dr. Edward Tick, a therapist who’s worked with vets of that blasted war since the ‘70s, to relate their sagas. A deeply candid and compassionate film, \u003cem>Healing a Soldier’s Heart\u003c/em> includes a few numbers to memorize: 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam, and 110,000 vets have taken their lives in the decades since. Cinequest may be located in the digital and virtual capital of the known universe, but the world it reflects and refracts is unmistakably real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cinequest runs Feb. 24–Mar. 8, 2015, at the Camera 12 and other venues in San Jose. For more information, see the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cinequest.org/film-festival\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">festival’s site\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When the Cinequest Film Festival sprouted in San Jose 25 years ago, the South Bay economy boomed (and occasionally busted) on silicon chips, not consumer electronics. Diverse, highly educated worker bees endured constant deadline pressure to innovate in \u003cem>Prisoner\u003c/em>-like industrial parks. OK, that last part may still hold true — but today’s computer, math and engineering brainiacs are far more socially skilled than the original geeks, and have even been turned into mainstream icons by commercials and TV shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If CQFF ever sought (among its unspoken aims) to fill the hole in the soul of its career-driven audience and to turn San Jose into a cultural hotspot, those goals have been superseded by the festival’s skill and focus in finding its sweet spots: honoring and celebrating iconoclastic filmmakers and directors, and spotlighting the intersection of film and technology. Here’s how the 25th festival, running Feb. 24–Mar. 8, hits its niche:\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10408964\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/RosarioDawson.jpg\" alt=\"Rosario Dawson appears at Cinequest Feb. 28.\" width=\"640\" height=\"446\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10408964\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/RosarioDawson.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/RosarioDawson-400x279.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosario Dawson appears at Cinequest Feb. 28.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s a Maverick, Maverick World:\u003c/strong> An enticing array of artists from L.A. and elsewhere confide the secrets of their success via tribute nights and onstage interviews. Writer-directors John Boorman (with his latest, \u003cem>Queen and Country\u003c/em>, Feb. 26) and Lawrence Kasdan (Feb. 28), who will no doubt be peppered with questions about his new \u003cem>Star Wars\u003c/em> screenplays, head the parade, followed by crime novelist Dennis Lehane (Feb. 28) and actress Rosario Dawson (Feb. 28). Producer and one-time studio head Mike Medavoy (Mar. 8) can be expected to diplomatically slag the current state of Hollywood affairs while inspiring attendees to pursue their individual voices and visions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>(Over)achievers of the World Unite:\u003c/strong> The Valley is full of single-minded, highly motivated immigrants and expatriates from India, China and elsewhere. They are sure to see themselves—or their children—in \u003cem>Miss India America\u003c/em> (one of an incredible 91 world, North American or U.S. premieres, screening Feb. 27, Mar. 1 and 5), a colorful comedy about a too-perfect high school valedictorian whose planned-within-a-millimeter future starts to crumble the instant she sheds her cap and gown. This less-than-likable lass (played by Tiya Sircar) enters a beauty contest (don’t ask why) where comic antics ensue and she learns humanizing life lessons. L.A.-based, British-born director and co-writer Ravi Kapoor affectionately skewers the lifestyles of well-off Indian-Americans, who seem to have assimilated quite nicely into another valley (San Fernando).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Corporate Retreat:\u003c/strong> Another world premiere, Thomas Miller’s feature-length sports documentary, \u003cem>One Day in April\u003c/em> (Feb. 28, Mar. 2 and 4), relies on style over substance in tracing the paths of four favored relay teams (two men and two women’s) to the annual Little 500 bicycle race in Bloomington, Indiana. Miller ignores the class dynamics that propelled \u003cem>Breaking Away\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>the 1979 Best Picture winner set against the backdrop of the race, or any context other than individual determination in the service of team success. An excellent choice for middle managers or above seeking an activity to launch this year’s team-building campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10408969\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/LAtalante.jpg\" alt=\"Jean Vigo's L'Atlante.\" width=\"640\" height=\"422\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10408969\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/LAtalante.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/LAtalante-400x264.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jean Vigo’s \u003cem>L’Atlante\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Poetry in Motion:\u003c/strong> My gifted and dear colleague in the field of film criticism, Richard von Busack of Metro Newspapers, will be deservingly honored with the Media Legacy Award on Mar 3. He’s chosen to screen French poet-filmmaker Jean Vigo’s gorgeous and elemental \u003cem>L’Atalante\u003c/em>, the immortal tale of a barge captain who brings his new bride into the world of monotonous men’s work. If you’ve never seen the 1934 masterpiece, or know nothing of Vigo’s short life and precious few films, this is the ideal setting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Family Affair:\u003c/strong> CQFF is unusually good at finding small, memorable films from other countries. In the first five minutes of \u003cem>The Life After\u003c/em> (\u003cem>La Vida Despues\u003c/em>), novice Mexican director David Pablos adeptly conveys the unique, private and loving relationship between a mother and her two young sons. But she can’t keep it together, and one day in their early teens they wake to discover a terse note: “I had to leave—Mom.” Rodrigo and Samuel set out to find her in the tender, sensual and aptly titled \u003cem>The Life After\u003c/em> (Feb. 26, Mar. 5 and 7).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You Must Remember This:\u003c/strong> Ever heard of the World Memory Championships, an international competition of talented memorizers? (Don’t you dare say, “I can’t recall.”) \u003cem>Sweden’s Coolest National Team\u003c/em> (Feb. 25 and 27, Mar. 1) a one-hour doc hailing from the titular nation, introduces us to this curious sport in which contestants memorize the order of all 52 cards in a shuffled deck, 200 spoken words, and a flickering stream of 0s and 1s. One of the most popular and effective techniques consists of inventing visual stories employing sexual or violent images. (The filmmakers miss a bet by not persuading a contestant to relate such a story, and animating it. Where’s Ralph Bakshi when you need him?) The dapper reigning Swedish champ, Mattias Ribbing, sells memorization skills to the educational market while battling the public perception that memory mavens are “a small, specialized group of nerds.” Maybe \u003cem>that\u003c/em> rings a bell with Silicon Valley’s code writers and algorithm aces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Putting the Motion in Motion Pictures:\u003c/strong> The English landscape photographer Eadweard Muybridge is best remembered hereabouts for his 1872 photographs, taken for former Gov. Leland Stanford’s pleasure and pocketbook, proving that all of the hooves of a galloping horse left the ground. Kyle Rideout’s lovely and curious \u003cem>Eadweard\u003c/em> (Feb. 28, Mar 2 and 4) concerns itself with the chunk of the 1880s when Muybridge relentlessly photographed all kinds of motion (animal and human) at the University of Pennsylvania. Michael Eklund portrays one of the fathers of movies (Thomas Alva Edison also makes an appearance) as impenetrably eccentric on most days, and uncommonly charming on the others. Part scientist, part artist, Muybridge strode to his own rhythm—as does this picturesque Canadian character study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10408968\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/The_Center.jpg\" alt=\"A scene from The Center.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10408968\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/The_Center.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/The_Center-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from \u003cem>The Center\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Groupthink For Yourself:\u003c/strong> Cinequest generally prefers under-the-radar American indies to star-strewn Sundance entries, to varied effect. A winner making its world premiere, \u003cem>The Center\u003c/em> eerily and believably conveys the steps by which an unformed twenty-something (a very good Matt Cici) with more frustrations than self-confidence becomes increasingly involved in a self-actualization outfit with resemblances to est, Scientology and you name it. I wouldn’t compare startups to cults, but \u003cem>The Center\u003c/em> (Feb, 27, Mar. 1 and 3) will play like gangbusters at CQFF. This well-written, stylishly directed and efficiently lean (72 minutes) film is the work of Charlie Griak of Minneapolis in collaboration with a tight circle of friends and family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>War Correspondence:\u003c/strong> The Academy Awards chose to overlook the mixed messages of \u003cem>American Sniper\u003c/em>, even as many viewers looked past the alienating and debilitating effects of the Iraq War (any war, really) on its participants. The powerhouse documentary \u003cem>Healing a Soldier’s Heart\u003c/em> (Feb. 28, Mar. 2 and 5) accompanies five Vietnam veterans, desperate to call a truce in their ongoing personal wars, to the battleground of their youth. Bay Area filmmaker Stephen Olsson allows the men, their partners and Dr. Edward Tick, a therapist who’s worked with vets of that blasted war since the ‘70s, to relate their sagas. A deeply candid and compassionate film, \u003cem>Healing a Soldier’s Heart\u003c/em> includes a few numbers to memorize: 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam, and 110,000 vets have taken their lives in the decades since. Cinequest may be located in the digital and virtual capital of the known universe, but the world it reflects and refracts is unmistakably real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cinequest runs Feb. 24–Mar. 8, 2015, at the Camera 12 and other venues in San Jose. For more information, see the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cinequest.org/film-festival\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">festival’s site\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Forget 'The Interview'—Curators Credit Sony For Deep Commitment to Film",
"headTitle": "Forget ‘The Interview’—Curators Credit Sony For Deep Commitment to Film | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>You can probably be forgiven if the name “Sony Pictures” evokes only the image of a pudgy-faced dictator suffering a perpetual bad hair day. The incredible \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Interview_%282014_film%29\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">story of \u003cem>The Interview\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is the stuff of Hollywood legends, certain to provide the raw material for a first-rate navel-gazer of a picture some day. Probably not from Sony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But lest you think we’re kicking a multinational conglomerate when it’s down, we’re about to provide some excellent press for Sony. Because in covering some of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/13/diehards-try-to-keep-the-art-of-film-projection-alive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">issues around the digital projection-of-movies boom\u003c/a> of the past few years, I found that Sony Pictures actually enjoys a stellar reputation among people who care about preserving America’s film heritage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re really just about the greatest company on the face of the earth,” is the way Elliot Lavine puts it. He’s been picking and choosing films for Bay Area audiences for 25 years, as the program director of the Roxie in San Francisco from 1990 to 2003, and subsequently as the keeper of the theater’s popular \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Film-programmer-Elliot-Lavine-revels-in-dark-side-2372333.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">noir festivals\u003c/a>. “Sony’s library is vast, they’re generous, they’re helpful,” he says. “They will lend you anything you want.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huh. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10375120\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/2001aspaceodyssey2-1180x778.jpg\" alt=\"Scene from <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i>\" width=\"640\" height=\"422\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10375120\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/2001aspaceodyssey2-1180x778.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/2001aspaceodyssey2-400x264.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/2001aspaceodyssey2-800x528.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/2001aspaceodyssey2.jpg 1193w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scene from \u003ci>2001: A Space Odyssey\u003c/i>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area in 2015 is not exactly a time and a place where people shy away from taking shots at big corporations. But Lavine and the three other curator/programmers I spoke with who are deep into the exhibition of old movies all describe Sony as a benevolent presence in the festival/repertory landscape, lauding the company for a progressive commitment to preserving and distributing its library of old films. Those consist mostly of the Columbia Pictures archive that goes back to 1924; Sony bought Columbia from Coca-Cola in 1989.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Digital Tsunami\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To understand this appreciation for the entertainment giant, you have to understand the digital tidal wave that’s altered the movie industry in the past decade, in the same way it has other media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Check out how many of these \u003ca href=\"http://www.ourtuts.com/film-logo-design/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">film company logos\u003c/a> involve film stock or film reels. How very 20th century! Studios now release new films almost exclusively on something called Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs). No more of those bulky reels of film that baby boomers used to lug around as members of the school audio-visual squad. These physical representations of the blood, sweat and tears that go into making a movie were at the core of the film distribution ecosystem for over 100 years. But now, new releases come in a hard drive, housing a beautiful arrangement of zeroes and ones, that theater employees formerly known as “projectionists” simply plug into a server. And while giving their new movies the digital treatment, studios have also been converting their \u003cem>old\u003c/em> films to DCP, becoming much more restrictive about renting their back catalogue—sometimes through distributors—on 35mm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10132110\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/01/projectionist3604.jpg\" alt=\"Peter Conheim\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10132110\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/01/projectionist3604.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/01/projectionist3604-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/01/projectionist3604-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Peter Conheim\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As far as the general public goes, this is not a reason to take to the streets. In fact, most people probably like the digital versions of movies better, because they are free of defects like scratches and fading.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whether (the audience) knows it or not, they’re used to a level of perfection when they pay for a ticket,” says Adam Bergeron, the co-owner of the Balboa Theatre in San Francisco, which shows new and old films in both 35mm and DCP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Conheim, a film curator active in the programming community, says the film prints that many of us saw at movie theaters were not exactly artisinal, anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The very fact that the labs had gone to a mass-production model of high-speed printing just meant for poorer overall quality control,” he says. “I’ve heard of prints with incorrect framing, terrible focus, terrible optical soundtracks. Once any 35mm print got into the hands of a multiplex with a poorly-maintained projection and platter system, it could get scratched up from the very first show.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Film Holdouts\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10375125\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/twingirls-copy.jpg\" alt=\"<i>The Shining</i>\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10375125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/twingirls-copy.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/twingirls-copy-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003ci>The Shining\u003c/i>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From an economic perspective, it’s easy to see why studios have pushed relentlessly toward digital. “You have your digital transfer,” says Steve Seid, who curated films for the Berkeley Museum of Art/Pacific Film Archive for 26 years before \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2015/01/16/pacific-film-archives-steve-seid-on-retiring-amidst-changing-face-of-film/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">retiring\u003c/a> in December, “and you’re putting it on a portable drive that costs about $50 and can be erased and reloaded with another film. Whereas a theatrical print can be like $5,000, and it’s vulnerable. So every time you rent the film, they’re sending you a $5,000 investment, and when you rent it on DCP they’re sending you a $50 investment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The studios have also had to spend vast sums on the housing and shipping of prints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But certain film purists are having none of that rationale. They believe film should be, well, \u003cem>film\u003c/em>, and that exhibiting movies as a physical object with projected light shown through it is the way God and Cecil B. DeMille intended. The conversion to digital has roiled not just this cinéaste subset but also some of Hollywood’s biggest directors, including Christopher Nolan, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7npmu9Ge_OY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paul Thomas Anderson \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/13/diehards-try-to-keep-the-art-of-film-projection-alive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quentin Tarantino\u003c/a>. Tarantino actually delivered a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs-iawvv9NU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bitter obituary for cinema\u003c/a> at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, stating that digitally projected films are “just television in public. … (W)hat I knew as cinema is dead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Says Peter Conheim: “It’s a replica of motion picture film. It’s just a reference copy, and you should always be able to see what the original thing looked like, imperfections and all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conheim’s not only a film curator and former movie theater owner, he’s also a man who’s gone to great lengths to keep the art of traditional projection alive. That’s if you consider “great lengths” to be turning the basement of his modest El Cerrito home\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/01/05/the_projectionist/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> into a 17-seat movie theater\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conheim believes it can be an aesthetic disservice to a movie shot on film, and intended to be shown as film, to be shown digitally. Steve Seid described the argument against (and for) digital projection in his program notes to a 2013 PFA \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/4K\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> presentation about the technology\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A prickly issue arises when an older film, born photochemical, is transferred to digital for projection. Suddenly, the ‘film’ finds itself occupying the screen in absolute stability, the subliminal flicker gone, the light values subtly altered, the contrast and depth redefined. Does this misrepresent the experience of film history? Perhaps. Or does it resurrect a history that might otherwise be lost to us? Again, perhaps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some cinephiles, the answer is clearly the former. Both Seid and Anita Monga, director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, told me they have had people boycott their programs when they show digital movies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sony Pictures’ Efforts\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10376561\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Grover-Crisp-headshot-2008.jpg\" alt=\"Grover Crisp\" width=\"640\" height=\"960\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10376561\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Grover-Crisp-headshot-2008.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Grover-Crisp-headshot-2008-400x600.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grover Crisp\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Here’s where Sony comes in. For people who love movies on \u003cem>film\u003c/em>, the studio gets a big thumbs up for making just about the entirely of its 35mm print collection available to repertory houses and institutions like PFA. Among studios, this is the exception, not the rule, according to most of the film presenters I spoke to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grover Crisp’s official title is senior vice president of asset management, film restoration and digital mastering for Sony Pictures, but Seid called him an “exemplary archivist” in one of his program notes. Crisp has facilitated Sony’s “reaching deep into their vaults” to return obscure titles to circulation, Seid wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crisp says Sony has retained original release prints—35 mm film—of most movies it controls, available through its \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/SonyRepertory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sony Pictures Repertory\u003c/a> department. “We don’t have all 3,000 prints (of a title), but we will have a healthy selection so we can still distribute to theaters that want it.“\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Conheim says Sony’s efforts to preserve its catalogue show a “completely different mindset” than some other studios. “They had a whole mission in the ’90s to preserve every film that Columbia Pictures ever made. Budd Boetticher, Sam Fuller, whoever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Warner Bros.: The ‘Anti-Sony’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last fall, PFA ran a \u003ca href=\"http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/eyeswide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stanley Kubrick retrospective\u003c/a> in which the movies were predominantly DCP. Seid says that’s because Warner Bros. did not offer them on film. “If you want to screen Kubrick’s films, you have no choice but to accept the prints they will provide and they are, almost without exception, digital. The door to the vault is resoundingly closed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Seid, Conheim and Lavine said it’s almost impossible to get a film print out of Warner Bros.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10376563\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/CO3.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/CO3-1180x716.jpg\" alt=\"<i>A Clockwork Orange</i>\" width=\"640\" height=\"388\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10376563\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/CO3-1180x716.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/CO3-400x243.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/CO3-800x485.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/CO3.jpg 1197w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003ci>A Clockwork Orange\u003c/i>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Anita Monga, of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, has had a different experience with the studio; she’s gotten prints from it as recently as the January \u003ca href=\"http://www.noircity.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Noir City Festival\u003c/a> she coprogrammed at the Castro Theatre.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bergeron, the Balboa owner, says that Warners is just extremely discriminating about who it will ship film prints to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since most 35mm copies are the last ones, they are very selective about who they rent to,” he said. “If it were to get damaged, it wouldn’t exist in the world anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monga says she agrees with that policy wholeheartedly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I used to show things at the Castro and we would talk studios into making preservation prints, and the print would be $3,000. We would take exquisite care of it, it would go onto somebody else, and then the print would be ruined, so we wouldn’t be able to show it again. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“(But) if you screw up the DCP, there’s another DCP that takes its place. I think (DCPs are) incredibly good news for classic cinema.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason programmers focus on Warner Bros. is that it controls such a large part of America’s cinematic output, through its ownership of the old MGM/ UA and RKO libraries, in addition to its own. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conheim contends Warner Bros. could make new film prints if it chose to, and the studios’s reluctance is part of the broader rush to digital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“(Warner Bros.) began to downplay 35mm pretty early on,” he says. “They would only make new prints generally if they were monetizing big titles for super popular things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lavine calls Warner the “anti-Sony” in terms of accessibility to 35mm prints. But he does praise the studio for making its back catalogue available through the \u003ca href=\"http://shop.warnerarchive.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Warner Archive collection\u003c/a>, from which you can order a custom-made film burned onto DVD.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I ran 30 of those titles in a festival,” says Lavine. “I’ve been doing this particular show for 25 years and this was my best attended ever.” In November, he says, Roxie attendance at a \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Risque-French-film-noirs-are-a-revelation-5883449.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">program of French noir\u003c/a>, all on DVD, topped even that show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seid, for one, doesn’t think this gets Warner off the hook, because he doesn’t believe DVDs of films are suitable for theatrical presentation. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were never intended to be anything more than a consumer product,” he says. “I think there is a trade-off between access to any copy of a work that will allow you to exhibit a film,” he says, “and the notion that the film requires a certain level of reputable reproduction and the audience deserves as well a modicum of aesthetic integrity in the presentation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Warner Bros. declined to comment for this article.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As far as working with Paramount, Universal, MGM, Disney and Fox, the curators had varying opinions, with the majority praising Universal for being almost as beneficent as Sony in making titles available on film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sony Gets High Marks For Digital Transfers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10375122\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 649px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/In-Cold-Blood.jpg\" alt=\"<i>In Cold Blood</i>\" width=\"649\" height=\"365\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10375122\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/In-Cold-Blood.jpg 649w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/In-Cold-Blood-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 649px) 100vw, 649px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003ci>In Cold Blood\u003c/i>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lavine and Seid both said they prefer to show in 35mm, but only if the prints are in decent condition. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We prefer to match a work with its medium of origination. But there is a big difference between prefer and can,” Seid said. “I favor the art, not the artifact.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seid said that means foregoing a print in terrible condition if a well-crafted DCP is available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when it comes to making DCPs, Sony’s reputation, again, is stellar. The company’s Grover Crisp earned great respect for his film restorations in the pre-digital age, and now he’s garnering similar praise for his digital transfers. Monga says Sony has made the most impressive digital prints to date. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re just really careful,” Seid said of Crisp’s department. “You can do bad, quick transfers to digital, where contrast is bad and color timing is off. And some places do that—they’re in a hurry or they don’t want to spend the money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sony now creates DCPs only from 4k scans, which yields a resolution roughly four times of what one sees on a Blu-ray disc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“4K is much closer to capturing the inherent image quality of a typical 35mm film frame than 2K, which has been the standard resolution for many years,” Crisp says. “Scanning 35mm film at 2K means you are leaving out information—image quality, detail, sharpness—that is actually in the film.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anybody can do 4k,” says Monga, “but they’re doing it really beautifully. I’ve seen horrible 35mm prints done where the lab didn’t time it properly. You get film that was timed to television so it looks completely washed out on the big screen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s an artist,” she says without hesitation of Crisp. “The people who run the lab, they’re craftspeople. They made beautiful 35mm and they’re making beautiful digital.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crisp, who has overseen restorations of such classics as \u003cem>On the Waterfront\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Lawrence of Arabia\u003c/em>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.thedigitalbits.com/featured/interviews/grover-crisp-restoration-of-taxi-driver\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Taxi Driver\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/February2007/PostFocus/page1.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Dr. Strangelove\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, \u003cem>Five Easy Pieces\u003c/em>, and \u003cem>Mr. Smith Goes to Washington\u003c/em>, is known for consulting with the cinematographers and directors of the films he’s working on. He says his department is careful to resist the temptation to use the powerful digital tools now at their disposal to make the original movie look “better,” a process he called “tampering.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10376567\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/http-makeagif.com-media-2-09-2015-qDIPWQ.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/http-makeagif.com-media-2-09-2015-qDIPWQ.gif\" alt=\"Two stills demonstrating restoration of <i>In Cold Blood</i>\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10376567\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two stills demonstrating restoration of \u003ci>In Cold Blood\u003c/i>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We don’t go into any of our films… and automatically start thinking it needs to look contemporary,” he says. “You can remove film grain or manipulate imagery in any number of ways, but you have to be careful and make sure you’re controlling those tools, and it’s not the other way around.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monga says early in the digital restoration era, “people thought, ‘oh, let’s clean this up.’ It was horrifying. Grover is the exemplar of someone who is doing this with sensitivity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that doesn’t mean he won’t go in and aggressively rectify physical problems. New tools have allowed repair of damage that was too complex to fix in an analog world, Crisp says. Such is the case for a 4k restoration of \u003cem>In Cold Blood\u003c/em>, which will premiere at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crisp calls a film’s original camera negative the “piece of gold we all want,” but \u003cem>In Cold Blood\u003c/em>‘s negative had a 22-frame tear in it. “Now that’s slightly less than a second, but it’s visible,” Crisp says. “It shows on the screen as a gash that runs across the length of the frame.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A previous restoration, in the ’90s, had also removed that defect, but only by using second and third generation source materials duplicated from the original negative to replace the entire shot. That left it looking obviously softer and grainier than the rest of the film, Crisp said. The current restoration avoids this tradeoff by filling in the area of the tear with intact material on either side of the 22 frames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Demand for 35mm Waning\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10376569\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/on-the-waterfront-primary.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/on-the-waterfront-primary.jpg\" alt=\"<i>On the Waterfront</i>\" width=\"640\" height=\"407\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10376569\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/on-the-waterfront-primary.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/on-the-waterfront-primary-400x254.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003ci>On the Waterfront\u003c/i>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite the protestations of some celluloid purists, demand for 35mm is waning even among cinephiles, Crisp says. Thus, Sony is only making 35mm prints of its digital restorations for preservation purposes, not for rental by theaters. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’ve found over the last few years is the actual requests for prints have dropped dramatically, even at theaters where they always wanted the latest and greatest new print,” Crisp explains. “Most of those theaters have now switched to digital. What we knew would happen is once theaters do this, they really lose interest in prints, because DCP is so much easier.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adam Bergeron of the Balboa agrees. He says while the theater has occasional glitches with DCPs, they are nothing like the Christmas Day fiasco that occurred when the film for the newly released \u003cem>Les Miserables\u003c/em> broke. “We ruined Christmas for a couple of hundred people,” Bergeron says. (On the other hand, Craig Valenza, a projectionist at PFA for more than 40 years, told me he can fix most any problem that arises with film, but if something goes screwy with a DCP, he has to call in tech support.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crisp understands some who love film are reluctant to embrace digital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve found it’s tough to convince some people,” he says. “That’s partly due to some of the work that’s been seen around for a number of years. But if we are really careful in how you prepare your digital version, you can have a very good and fairly authentic theatrical experience. It is different, but it doesn’t have to look like video.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monga called those who won’t give digital a chance “format fetishists.” And Lavine thinks those who cling to the 35mm past do not have a happy future in store. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To hang onto the notion that the only pure way to watch it or to experience it is on film, then your entire spectrum becomes so narrow,” Lavine says. “You’re going to be watching the same movies over and over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even a 35mm hardliner like Peter Conheim says as long as the audience is informed in advance, sometimes a title’s digital version represents the better theatrical option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to strive to present the ‘best’ version of the work that you can, the ‘best’ which exists, otherwise you are consigning it to purgatory by simply refusing to show it in a verifiably good digital master. The key words are ‘verifiably good,’ and most curators, as well as sales reps at the studios, should be able to make that distinction. Unfortunately, we’re seeing that it can be elusive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, he’s disappointed that Sony will not offer its new 4k transfers as 35mm rentals. If Sony abandons its longstanding practice of providing film prints as it makes newer and better digital transfers, it would be a shame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seeing a film as intended on celluloid,” he says, “is still the way it should be done.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Among major studios, Sony enjoys the best reputation both for making their archive available on 35mm film and for digital transfers, say many film curators and programmers. ",
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"description": "Among major studios, Sony enjoys the best reputation both for making their archive available on 35mm film and for digital transfers, say many film curators and programmers. ",
"title": "Forget 'The Interview'—Curators Credit Sony For Deep Commitment to Film | KQED",
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"description": "Jon Brooks is a KQED News online editor and writer for KQED's daily news blog, \u003ci>News Fix\u003c/i>. A veteran blogger, he previously worked for Yahoo! in various news writing and editing roles. He was also the editor of \u003ca>EconomyBeat.org\u003c/a>, which documented user-generated content about the financial crisis and recession. Jon is also a playwright whose work has been produced in San Francisco, New York, Italy, and around the U.S. He has written about film for his own blog and studied film at Boston University. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You can probably be forgiven if the name “Sony Pictures” evokes only the image of a pudgy-faced dictator suffering a perpetual bad hair day. The incredible \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Interview_%282014_film%29\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">story of \u003cem>The Interview\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is the stuff of Hollywood legends, certain to provide the raw material for a first-rate navel-gazer of a picture some day. Probably not from Sony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But lest you think we’re kicking a multinational conglomerate when it’s down, we’re about to provide some excellent press for Sony. Because in covering some of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/13/diehards-try-to-keep-the-art-of-film-projection-alive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">issues around the digital projection-of-movies boom\u003c/a> of the past few years, I found that Sony Pictures actually enjoys a stellar reputation among people who care about preserving America’s film heritage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re really just about the greatest company on the face of the earth,” is the way Elliot Lavine puts it. He’s been picking and choosing films for Bay Area audiences for 25 years, as the program director of the Roxie in San Francisco from 1990 to 2003, and subsequently as the keeper of the theater’s popular \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Film-programmer-Elliot-Lavine-revels-in-dark-side-2372333.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">noir festivals\u003c/a>. “Sony’s library is vast, they’re generous, they’re helpful,” he says. “They will lend you anything you want.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huh. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10375120\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/2001aspaceodyssey2-1180x778.jpg\" alt=\"Scene from <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i>\" width=\"640\" height=\"422\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10375120\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/2001aspaceodyssey2-1180x778.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/2001aspaceodyssey2-400x264.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/2001aspaceodyssey2-800x528.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/2001aspaceodyssey2.jpg 1193w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scene from \u003ci>2001: A Space Odyssey\u003c/i>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area in 2015 is not exactly a time and a place where people shy away from taking shots at big corporations. But Lavine and the three other curator/programmers I spoke with who are deep into the exhibition of old movies all describe Sony as a benevolent presence in the festival/repertory landscape, lauding the company for a progressive commitment to preserving and distributing its library of old films. Those consist mostly of the Columbia Pictures archive that goes back to 1924; Sony bought Columbia from Coca-Cola in 1989.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Digital Tsunami\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To understand this appreciation for the entertainment giant, you have to understand the digital tidal wave that’s altered the movie industry in the past decade, in the same way it has other media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Check out how many of these \u003ca href=\"http://www.ourtuts.com/film-logo-design/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">film company logos\u003c/a> involve film stock or film reels. How very 20th century! Studios now release new films almost exclusively on something called Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs). No more of those bulky reels of film that baby boomers used to lug around as members of the school audio-visual squad. These physical representations of the blood, sweat and tears that go into making a movie were at the core of the film distribution ecosystem for over 100 years. But now, new releases come in a hard drive, housing a beautiful arrangement of zeroes and ones, that theater employees formerly known as “projectionists” simply plug into a server. And while giving their new movies the digital treatment, studios have also been converting their \u003cem>old\u003c/em> films to DCP, becoming much more restrictive about renting their back catalogue—sometimes through distributors—on 35mm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10132110\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/01/projectionist3604.jpg\" alt=\"Peter Conheim\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10132110\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/01/projectionist3604.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/01/projectionist3604-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/01/projectionist3604-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Peter Conheim\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As far as the general public goes, this is not a reason to take to the streets. In fact, most people probably like the digital versions of movies better, because they are free of defects like scratches and fading.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whether (the audience) knows it or not, they’re used to a level of perfection when they pay for a ticket,” says Adam Bergeron, the co-owner of the Balboa Theatre in San Francisco, which shows new and old films in both 35mm and DCP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Conheim, a film curator active in the programming community, says the film prints that many of us saw at movie theaters were not exactly artisinal, anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The very fact that the labs had gone to a mass-production model of high-speed printing just meant for poorer overall quality control,” he says. “I’ve heard of prints with incorrect framing, terrible focus, terrible optical soundtracks. Once any 35mm print got into the hands of a multiplex with a poorly-maintained projection and platter system, it could get scratched up from the very first show.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Film Holdouts\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10375125\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/twingirls-copy.jpg\" alt=\"<i>The Shining</i>\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10375125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/twingirls-copy.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/twingirls-copy-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003ci>The Shining\u003c/i>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From an economic perspective, it’s easy to see why studios have pushed relentlessly toward digital. “You have your digital transfer,” says Steve Seid, who curated films for the Berkeley Museum of Art/Pacific Film Archive for 26 years before \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2015/01/16/pacific-film-archives-steve-seid-on-retiring-amidst-changing-face-of-film/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">retiring\u003c/a> in December, “and you’re putting it on a portable drive that costs about $50 and can be erased and reloaded with another film. Whereas a theatrical print can be like $5,000, and it’s vulnerable. So every time you rent the film, they’re sending you a $5,000 investment, and when you rent it on DCP they’re sending you a $50 investment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The studios have also had to spend vast sums on the housing and shipping of prints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But certain film purists are having none of that rationale. They believe film should be, well, \u003cem>film\u003c/em>, and that exhibiting movies as a physical object with projected light shown through it is the way God and Cecil B. DeMille intended. The conversion to digital has roiled not just this cinéaste subset but also some of Hollywood’s biggest directors, including Christopher Nolan, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7npmu9Ge_OY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paul Thomas Anderson \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/13/diehards-try-to-keep-the-art-of-film-projection-alive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quentin Tarantino\u003c/a>. Tarantino actually delivered a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs-iawvv9NU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bitter obituary for cinema\u003c/a> at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, stating that digitally projected films are “just television in public. … (W)hat I knew as cinema is dead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Says Peter Conheim: “It’s a replica of motion picture film. It’s just a reference copy, and you should always be able to see what the original thing looked like, imperfections and all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conheim’s not only a film curator and former movie theater owner, he’s also a man who’s gone to great lengths to keep the art of traditional projection alive. That’s if you consider “great lengths” to be turning the basement of his modest El Cerrito home\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/01/05/the_projectionist/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> into a 17-seat movie theater\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conheim believes it can be an aesthetic disservice to a movie shot on film, and intended to be shown as film, to be shown digitally. Steve Seid described the argument against (and for) digital projection in his program notes to a 2013 PFA \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/4K\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> presentation about the technology\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A prickly issue arises when an older film, born photochemical, is transferred to digital for projection. Suddenly, the ‘film’ finds itself occupying the screen in absolute stability, the subliminal flicker gone, the light values subtly altered, the contrast and depth redefined. Does this misrepresent the experience of film history? Perhaps. Or does it resurrect a history that might otherwise be lost to us? Again, perhaps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some cinephiles, the answer is clearly the former. Both Seid and Anita Monga, director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, told me they have had people boycott their programs when they show digital movies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sony Pictures’ Efforts\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10376561\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Grover-Crisp-headshot-2008.jpg\" alt=\"Grover Crisp\" width=\"640\" height=\"960\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10376561\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Grover-Crisp-headshot-2008.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Grover-Crisp-headshot-2008-400x600.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grover Crisp\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Here’s where Sony comes in. For people who love movies on \u003cem>film\u003c/em>, the studio gets a big thumbs up for making just about the entirely of its 35mm print collection available to repertory houses and institutions like PFA. Among studios, this is the exception, not the rule, according to most of the film presenters I spoke to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grover Crisp’s official title is senior vice president of asset management, film restoration and digital mastering for Sony Pictures, but Seid called him an “exemplary archivist” in one of his program notes. Crisp has facilitated Sony’s “reaching deep into their vaults” to return obscure titles to circulation, Seid wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crisp says Sony has retained original release prints—35 mm film—of most movies it controls, available through its \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/SonyRepertory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sony Pictures Repertory\u003c/a> department. “We don’t have all 3,000 prints (of a title), but we will have a healthy selection so we can still distribute to theaters that want it.“\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Conheim says Sony’s efforts to preserve its catalogue show a “completely different mindset” than some other studios. “They had a whole mission in the ’90s to preserve every film that Columbia Pictures ever made. Budd Boetticher, Sam Fuller, whoever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Warner Bros.: The ‘Anti-Sony’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last fall, PFA ran a \u003ca href=\"http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/eyeswide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stanley Kubrick retrospective\u003c/a> in which the movies were predominantly DCP. Seid says that’s because Warner Bros. did not offer them on film. “If you want to screen Kubrick’s films, you have no choice but to accept the prints they will provide and they are, almost without exception, digital. The door to the vault is resoundingly closed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Seid, Conheim and Lavine said it’s almost impossible to get a film print out of Warner Bros.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10376563\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/CO3.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/CO3-1180x716.jpg\" alt=\"<i>A Clockwork Orange</i>\" width=\"640\" height=\"388\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10376563\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/CO3-1180x716.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/CO3-400x243.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/CO3-800x485.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/CO3.jpg 1197w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003ci>A Clockwork Orange\u003c/i>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Anita Monga, of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, has had a different experience with the studio; she’s gotten prints from it as recently as the January \u003ca href=\"http://www.noircity.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Noir City Festival\u003c/a> she coprogrammed at the Castro Theatre.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bergeron, the Balboa owner, says that Warners is just extremely discriminating about who it will ship film prints to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since most 35mm copies are the last ones, they are very selective about who they rent to,” he said. “If it were to get damaged, it wouldn’t exist in the world anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monga says she agrees with that policy wholeheartedly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I used to show things at the Castro and we would talk studios into making preservation prints, and the print would be $3,000. We would take exquisite care of it, it would go onto somebody else, and then the print would be ruined, so we wouldn’t be able to show it again. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“(But) if you screw up the DCP, there’s another DCP that takes its place. I think (DCPs are) incredibly good news for classic cinema.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason programmers focus on Warner Bros. is that it controls such a large part of America’s cinematic output, through its ownership of the old MGM/ UA and RKO libraries, in addition to its own. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conheim contends Warner Bros. could make new film prints if it chose to, and the studios’s reluctance is part of the broader rush to digital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“(Warner Bros.) began to downplay 35mm pretty early on,” he says. “They would only make new prints generally if they were monetizing big titles for super popular things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lavine calls Warner the “anti-Sony” in terms of accessibility to 35mm prints. But he does praise the studio for making its back catalogue available through the \u003ca href=\"http://shop.warnerarchive.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Warner Archive collection\u003c/a>, from which you can order a custom-made film burned onto DVD.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I ran 30 of those titles in a festival,” says Lavine. “I’ve been doing this particular show for 25 years and this was my best attended ever.” In November, he says, Roxie attendance at a \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Risque-French-film-noirs-are-a-revelation-5883449.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">program of French noir\u003c/a>, all on DVD, topped even that show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seid, for one, doesn’t think this gets Warner off the hook, because he doesn’t believe DVDs of films are suitable for theatrical presentation. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were never intended to be anything more than a consumer product,” he says. “I think there is a trade-off between access to any copy of a work that will allow you to exhibit a film,” he says, “and the notion that the film requires a certain level of reputable reproduction and the audience deserves as well a modicum of aesthetic integrity in the presentation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Warner Bros. declined to comment for this article.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As far as working with Paramount, Universal, MGM, Disney and Fox, the curators had varying opinions, with the majority praising Universal for being almost as beneficent as Sony in making titles available on film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sony Gets High Marks For Digital Transfers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10375122\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 649px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/In-Cold-Blood.jpg\" alt=\"<i>In Cold Blood</i>\" width=\"649\" height=\"365\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10375122\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/In-Cold-Blood.jpg 649w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/In-Cold-Blood-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 649px) 100vw, 649px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003ci>In Cold Blood\u003c/i>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lavine and Seid both said they prefer to show in 35mm, but only if the prints are in decent condition. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We prefer to match a work with its medium of origination. But there is a big difference between prefer and can,” Seid said. “I favor the art, not the artifact.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seid said that means foregoing a print in terrible condition if a well-crafted DCP is available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when it comes to making DCPs, Sony’s reputation, again, is stellar. The company’s Grover Crisp earned great respect for his film restorations in the pre-digital age, and now he’s garnering similar praise for his digital transfers. Monga says Sony has made the most impressive digital prints to date. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re just really careful,” Seid said of Crisp’s department. “You can do bad, quick transfers to digital, where contrast is bad and color timing is off. And some places do that—they’re in a hurry or they don’t want to spend the money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sony now creates DCPs only from 4k scans, which yields a resolution roughly four times of what one sees on a Blu-ray disc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“4K is much closer to capturing the inherent image quality of a typical 35mm film frame than 2K, which has been the standard resolution for many years,” Crisp says. “Scanning 35mm film at 2K means you are leaving out information—image quality, detail, sharpness—that is actually in the film.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anybody can do 4k,” says Monga, “but they’re doing it really beautifully. I’ve seen horrible 35mm prints done where the lab didn’t time it properly. You get film that was timed to television so it looks completely washed out on the big screen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s an artist,” she says without hesitation of Crisp. “The people who run the lab, they’re craftspeople. They made beautiful 35mm and they’re making beautiful digital.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crisp, who has overseen restorations of such classics as \u003cem>On the Waterfront\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Lawrence of Arabia\u003c/em>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.thedigitalbits.com/featured/interviews/grover-crisp-restoration-of-taxi-driver\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Taxi Driver\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/February2007/PostFocus/page1.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Dr. Strangelove\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, \u003cem>Five Easy Pieces\u003c/em>, and \u003cem>Mr. Smith Goes to Washington\u003c/em>, is known for consulting with the cinematographers and directors of the films he’s working on. He says his department is careful to resist the temptation to use the powerful digital tools now at their disposal to make the original movie look “better,” a process he called “tampering.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10376567\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/http-makeagif.com-media-2-09-2015-qDIPWQ.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/http-makeagif.com-media-2-09-2015-qDIPWQ.gif\" alt=\"Two stills demonstrating restoration of <i>In Cold Blood</i>\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10376567\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two stills demonstrating restoration of \u003ci>In Cold Blood\u003c/i>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We don’t go into any of our films… and automatically start thinking it needs to look contemporary,” he says. “You can remove film grain or manipulate imagery in any number of ways, but you have to be careful and make sure you’re controlling those tools, and it’s not the other way around.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monga says early in the digital restoration era, “people thought, ‘oh, let’s clean this up.’ It was horrifying. Grover is the exemplar of someone who is doing this with sensitivity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that doesn’t mean he won’t go in and aggressively rectify physical problems. New tools have allowed repair of damage that was too complex to fix in an analog world, Crisp says. Such is the case for a 4k restoration of \u003cem>In Cold Blood\u003c/em>, which will premiere at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crisp calls a film’s original camera negative the “piece of gold we all want,” but \u003cem>In Cold Blood\u003c/em>‘s negative had a 22-frame tear in it. “Now that’s slightly less than a second, but it’s visible,” Crisp says. “It shows on the screen as a gash that runs across the length of the frame.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A previous restoration, in the ’90s, had also removed that defect, but only by using second and third generation source materials duplicated from the original negative to replace the entire shot. That left it looking obviously softer and grainier than the rest of the film, Crisp said. The current restoration avoids this tradeoff by filling in the area of the tear with intact material on either side of the 22 frames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Demand for 35mm Waning\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10376569\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/on-the-waterfront-primary.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/on-the-waterfront-primary.jpg\" alt=\"<i>On the Waterfront</i>\" width=\"640\" height=\"407\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10376569\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/on-the-waterfront-primary.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/on-the-waterfront-primary-400x254.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003ci>On the Waterfront\u003c/i>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite the protestations of some celluloid purists, demand for 35mm is waning even among cinephiles, Crisp says. Thus, Sony is only making 35mm prints of its digital restorations for preservation purposes, not for rental by theaters. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’ve found over the last few years is the actual requests for prints have dropped dramatically, even at theaters where they always wanted the latest and greatest new print,” Crisp explains. “Most of those theaters have now switched to digital. What we knew would happen is once theaters do this, they really lose interest in prints, because DCP is so much easier.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adam Bergeron of the Balboa agrees. He says while the theater has occasional glitches with DCPs, they are nothing like the Christmas Day fiasco that occurred when the film for the newly released \u003cem>Les Miserables\u003c/em> broke. “We ruined Christmas for a couple of hundred people,” Bergeron says. (On the other hand, Craig Valenza, a projectionist at PFA for more than 40 years, told me he can fix most any problem that arises with film, but if something goes screwy with a DCP, he has to call in tech support.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crisp understands some who love film are reluctant to embrace digital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve found it’s tough to convince some people,” he says. “That’s partly due to some of the work that’s been seen around for a number of years. But if we are really careful in how you prepare your digital version, you can have a very good and fairly authentic theatrical experience. It is different, but it doesn’t have to look like video.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monga called those who won’t give digital a chance “format fetishists.” And Lavine thinks those who cling to the 35mm past do not have a happy future in store. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To hang onto the notion that the only pure way to watch it or to experience it is on film, then your entire spectrum becomes so narrow,” Lavine says. “You’re going to be watching the same movies over and over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even a 35mm hardliner like Peter Conheim says as long as the audience is informed in advance, sometimes a title’s digital version represents the better theatrical option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to strive to present the ‘best’ version of the work that you can, the ‘best’ which exists, otherwise you are consigning it to purgatory by simply refusing to show it in a verifiably good digital master. The key words are ‘verifiably good,’ and most curators, as well as sales reps at the studios, should be able to make that distinction. Unfortunately, we’re seeing that it can be elusive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, he’s disappointed that Sony will not offer its new 4k transfers as 35mm rentals. If Sony abandons its longstanding practice of providing film prints as it makes newer and better digital transfers, it would be a shame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seeing a film as intended on celluloid,” he says, “is still the way it should be done.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "How One S.F. Teen’s Cuban Sacrifice Fly Anticipated a Diplomatic Grand Slam",
"headTitle": "How One S.F. Teen’s Cuban Sacrifice Fly Anticipated a Diplomatic Grand Slam | KQED",
"content": "\u003caside class=\"event-info alignright\">\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/the-do-list/\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/thedolist_icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/the-hot-stove-movie-and-music-festival/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event Information\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch2>Hot Stove Movie & Music Festival\u003c/h2>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Series includes ‘Havana Curveball.’\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 6-8, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Vogue Theatre\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/the-hot-stove-movie-and-music-festival/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Details and tickets\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In the documentary world, timing can be everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When 12-year-old Mica Jarmel-Schneider hit on the idea of collecting and sending baseball equipment to Cuban kids his own age, he ran into a logistical roadblock. Because of the U.S. embargo on the island nation, the San Francisco lad had to deal with additional questions and paperwork, and then route his shipment the long way through Canada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we first conceived of this as not merely Mica’s project but also a film, it was because of the 50-plus-year-old embargo of Cuba,” says his father, the veteran filmmaker and editor Ken Schneider. “If he initiated the project today, with the lifting of said embargo imminent, we may not have picked up the camera.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schneider and Marcia Jarmel’s resulting documentary, \u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em>, is compelling precisely because it shows Mica overcoming various obstacles—and encountering uncomfortable realities—to fulfill his admirable deed. Those hurdles (conflict) and the boy’s persistence (character development) elevate the film far beyond a simplistic feel-good story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the present-day side of the timeline, the Obama Administration has embarked upon steps to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba at the precise moment that \u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em> is crisscrossing the country on the film-festival circuit. You can’t buy that kind of sociopolitical relevance and front-page advertising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em>, which premiered at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival last summer, screens Sunday, Feb. 8 in the first-ever \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/the-hot-stove-movie-and-music-festival/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hot Stove Movie & Music Festival\u003c/a> at the Vogue, and continues its run through Thursday, Feb. 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10373563\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/MicaPitching.jpg\" alt=\"Mica Jarmel-Schneider, pitching, traveled to Cuba to deliver baseball equipment to that country's children.\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10373563\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/MicaPitching.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/MicaPitching-400x266.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mica Jarmel-Schneider, pitching, traveled to Cuba to deliver baseball equipment to that country’s children.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mica, a hardcore baseball fan, hit on the idea of sending gear to Cuba as his bar mitzvah project. In recent years, many American Jews have recognized that the function of the bar or bat mitzvah ceremony as a marker of entry to adulthood has been overshadowed by the party and gifts. Achieving this landmark entails certain obligations, and the emphasis now is for Jewish boys and girls to choose a cause or create a social-issue project. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We started with this notion that our son’s experience could be a vehicle for all kinds of kids having this conversation with themselves, their families and their communities about what their responsibility was in the world and how they might like to contribute,” Jarmel recalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jarmel and Schneider envisioned a short film they could knock out in three months, but Mica’s endeavors were more arduous and ambitious than anticipated. The film kept growing, and when Mica and his father journeyed with a second shipment of baseball equipment to Cuba, \u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em> gained an emotionally rich and resonant third act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What Mica experienced on the ground was that this was difficult, it was complicated, it was messy,” Schneider says. “Today he asks himself a different set of questions. More complicated questions. Not just ‘How do I change the world?’ but ‘Is it possible for me to change the world? What are the barriers in my way?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em> works viscerally on the personal level, but it also connects on a political level, Jarmel observes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve found that lots of folks who don’t remember what we call the Cuban Missile Crisis don’t know there is an embargo, and don’t realize what it’s meant to Cubans and Americans,” Jarmel says. “Or some strongly support U.S. policy and haven’t reconsidered their opinions in years. Our little non-polemical story can be a way into a deeper conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To that end, the filmmakers are actively partnering on the grassroots level with educators, organizations and festivals to screen \u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em> everywhere from classrooms to festivals to churches and synagogues. For those eager to see hearts and minds change on Capitol Hill, the filmmakers have not scheduled a screening for members of Congress or the State Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The embargo remains in place, and will continue through the current congressional cycle,” Schneider says. “That said, the easing of travel restrictions will allow more contact between Americans and Cubans, and will inherently change both personal and political engagement between Americans and Cubans. Since Obama eased restrictions on travel and remittances in 2009, hundreds of thousands of Americans have traveled there. Today, tour groups bring Americans to Cuba to dance, attend the Havana Jazz Festival, watch sports, attend the Havana Art Biennial, learn about the history of Cuban Jews, etc. To what extent it changes economic engagement will depend on how our countries behave after the embargo is lifted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schneider recently screened the film to a group of Cuban filmmakers, actors, artists and activists, and has been invited back to tour the island with the film in the spring. He and Jarmel—and Mica—are clearly thrilled at the shifting relationship between the U.S. and Cuba, and normalization is plainly a big deal in this country. But, as Schneider discovered earlier this month at the Sundance Film Festival, which he attended as one of the editors of the new documentary \u003cem>In Football We Trust\u003c/em>, we’re still behind the rest of the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While pitching \u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em> to a Danish television programmer he met at Sundance, Schneider was surprised to hear that she wasn’t interested in the film despite both the historical moment and her network’s regular coverage of stories from around the globe. The rest of the world, remember, withdrew from the embargo of Cuba years ago (the most recent U.N. vote, last October, was 188-2 against). Internationally, it’s a non-issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or to put it in baseball terms, for years the U.S. has been late on the fastball.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more information about ‘Havana Curveball,’ see \u003ca href=\"http://www.havanacurveball.info/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the film’s site\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"event-info alignright\">\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/the-do-list/\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/thedolist_icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/the-hot-stove-movie-and-music-festival/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event Information\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch2>Hot Stove Movie & Music Festival\u003c/h2>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Series includes ‘Havana Curveball.’\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 6-8, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Vogue Theatre\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/the-hot-stove-movie-and-music-festival/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Details and tickets\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In the documentary world, timing can be everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When 12-year-old Mica Jarmel-Schneider hit on the idea of collecting and sending baseball equipment to Cuban kids his own age, he ran into a logistical roadblock. Because of the U.S. embargo on the island nation, the San Francisco lad had to deal with additional questions and paperwork, and then route his shipment the long way through Canada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we first conceived of this as not merely Mica’s project but also a film, it was because of the 50-plus-year-old embargo of Cuba,” says his father, the veteran filmmaker and editor Ken Schneider. “If he initiated the project today, with the lifting of said embargo imminent, we may not have picked up the camera.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schneider and Marcia Jarmel’s resulting documentary, \u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em>, is compelling precisely because it shows Mica overcoming various obstacles—and encountering uncomfortable realities—to fulfill his admirable deed. Those hurdles (conflict) and the boy’s persistence (character development) elevate the film far beyond a simplistic feel-good story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the present-day side of the timeline, the Obama Administration has embarked upon steps to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba at the precise moment that \u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em> is crisscrossing the country on the film-festival circuit. You can’t buy that kind of sociopolitical relevance and front-page advertising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em>, which premiered at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival last summer, screens Sunday, Feb. 8 in the first-ever \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/the-hot-stove-movie-and-music-festival/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hot Stove Movie & Music Festival\u003c/a> at the Vogue, and continues its run through Thursday, Feb. 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10373563\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/MicaPitching.jpg\" alt=\"Mica Jarmel-Schneider, pitching, traveled to Cuba to deliver baseball equipment to that country's children.\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10373563\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/MicaPitching.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/MicaPitching-400x266.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mica Jarmel-Schneider, pitching, traveled to Cuba to deliver baseball equipment to that country’s children.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mica, a hardcore baseball fan, hit on the idea of sending gear to Cuba as his bar mitzvah project. In recent years, many American Jews have recognized that the function of the bar or bat mitzvah ceremony as a marker of entry to adulthood has been overshadowed by the party and gifts. Achieving this landmark entails certain obligations, and the emphasis now is for Jewish boys and girls to choose a cause or create a social-issue project. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We started with this notion that our son’s experience could be a vehicle for all kinds of kids having this conversation with themselves, their families and their communities about what their responsibility was in the world and how they might like to contribute,” Jarmel recalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jarmel and Schneider envisioned a short film they could knock out in three months, but Mica’s endeavors were more arduous and ambitious than anticipated. The film kept growing, and when Mica and his father journeyed with a second shipment of baseball equipment to Cuba, \u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em> gained an emotionally rich and resonant third act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What Mica experienced on the ground was that this was difficult, it was complicated, it was messy,” Schneider says. “Today he asks himself a different set of questions. More complicated questions. Not just ‘How do I change the world?’ but ‘Is it possible for me to change the world? What are the barriers in my way?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em> works viscerally on the personal level, but it also connects on a political level, Jarmel observes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve found that lots of folks who don’t remember what we call the Cuban Missile Crisis don’t know there is an embargo, and don’t realize what it’s meant to Cubans and Americans,” Jarmel says. “Or some strongly support U.S. policy and haven’t reconsidered their opinions in years. Our little non-polemical story can be a way into a deeper conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To that end, the filmmakers are actively partnering on the grassroots level with educators, organizations and festivals to screen \u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em> everywhere from classrooms to festivals to churches and synagogues. For those eager to see hearts and minds change on Capitol Hill, the filmmakers have not scheduled a screening for members of Congress or the State Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The embargo remains in place, and will continue through the current congressional cycle,” Schneider says. “That said, the easing of travel restrictions will allow more contact between Americans and Cubans, and will inherently change both personal and political engagement between Americans and Cubans. Since Obama eased restrictions on travel and remittances in 2009, hundreds of thousands of Americans have traveled there. Today, tour groups bring Americans to Cuba to dance, attend the Havana Jazz Festival, watch sports, attend the Havana Art Biennial, learn about the history of Cuban Jews, etc. To what extent it changes economic engagement will depend on how our countries behave after the embargo is lifted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schneider recently screened the film to a group of Cuban filmmakers, actors, artists and activists, and has been invited back to tour the island with the film in the spring. He and Jarmel—and Mica—are clearly thrilled at the shifting relationship between the U.S. and Cuba, and normalization is plainly a big deal in this country. But, as Schneider discovered earlier this month at the Sundance Film Festival, which he attended as one of the editors of the new documentary \u003cem>In Football We Trust\u003c/em>, we’re still behind the rest of the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While pitching \u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em> to a Danish television programmer he met at Sundance, Schneider was surprised to hear that she wasn’t interested in the film despite both the historical moment and her network’s regular coverage of stories from around the globe. The rest of the world, remember, withdrew from the embargo of Cuba years ago (the most recent U.N. vote, last October, was 188-2 against). Internationally, it’s a non-issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or to put it in baseball terms, for years the U.S. has been late on the fastball.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more information about ‘Havana Curveball,’ see \u003ca href=\"http://www.havanacurveball.info/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the film’s site\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003caside class=\"event-info alignright\">\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/the-do-list/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/thedolist_icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Event Information\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch4>‘Through a Lens Darkly’\u003c/h4>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Screening with filmmaker discussion.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 12, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">CounterPulse\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/events/pick/black-history-month-celebration/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>–\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>‘A Love Supreme’ Night\u003c/h4>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Screening with live jazz.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 13, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Impact Hub, Oakland\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/events/pick/love-supreme-night/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>–\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Digital Diaspora Family Reunion Roadshow\u003c/h4>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Participatory family-photo afternoon event with live jazz.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 14, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">World Assembly Family of Churches\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/events/pick/digital-diaspora-family-reunion-roadshow/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>It’s February, and all across the U.S., events celebrate Black History Month to honor African-American contributions to society. In Oakland, the country’s \u003ca href=\"http://priceonomics.com/the-most-and-least-diverse-cities-in-america/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most diverse\u003c/a> city, celebrations come with an added importance of remembering history and the importance of the visual image.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Photographs are powerful. They are also personal. For Thomas Allen Harris, the family photo album has been a source of inspiration, as well as a point of collaboration and conversation. In his most recent film, \u003cem>Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People\u003c/em>, Harris interweaves his own story into the history of African-American photographers in the United States. An award-winning filmmaker, Harris has made films for the past 20 years using his family narrative as a point of departure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris, who grew up in the Bronx and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is deeply interested in family histories and how they intersect with the public record. At a young age, Harris sat on the knees of his grandfather, enjoying the stories of his family. Many of his previous films, in fact, have been tied to familial themes: \u003cem>Families of Value\u003c/em> (1995) takes a deeper look at black families through the lens of queer siblings; \u003cem>É Minha Cara/That’s My Face\u003c/em> (2001) is a queer “mythopoetic” journey through the African diaspora; and \u003cem>Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela\u003c/em> (2004) was inspired by the passing of his South African stepfather, whose “weapon of choice was the camera,” Harris says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4Kd1GfkfW4\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With \u003cem>Through a Lens Darkly\u003c/em>, Harris’ aim was to create a film based on Deborah Willis’ book, \u003cem>Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present\u003c/em>. The film is not just about black photography; on the phone from the East Coast, Harris describes it as “a war of images in the American family album.” As the end product of over seven years of extensive research and sifting through more than 15,000 photographs from institutional archives and professional photographers, in addition to 6,000 images from personal archives, the film uses about 950 images. Six months before the film was finished, Harris decided to put his own story into the film. “In many ways, it explodes notions of documentary,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Understanding the legacy of black photographers has important ramifications for what goes on today. Harris hopes the film will prompt viewers to think about race in a different way, and sees it ultimately as a call to action. “The goal is to understand the power of our family photographs and how they connect our family stories to the historical record, understanding our commonality despite our differences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10360670\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10360670\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/3-1180x787.jpg\" alt=\"Art by Malik and Karen Seneferu\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/3-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/3-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/3-800x533.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail of art by Malik Seneferu at Impact Hub in Oakland. (Photo: Lakshmi Sarah) \u003ccite>(Lakshmi Sarah)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Harris, it’s about “how we see one another and ourselves,” a theme that’s echoed in an accompanying art exhibit at the \u003ca href=\"http://oakland.impacthub.net/omi-gallery/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">OMI gallery at Impact Hub\u003c/a> in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"http://oakland.impacthub.net/omi-gallery/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BLACK<3MATTERS\u003c/a>,” curated by Ashara Ekundayo, co-founder of Impact Hub Oakland, represents the second time Oakland-based artists Karen Seneferu and her husband Malik Seneferu have shown their artwork together. As Karen Seneferu sees it, “The concerns that people have for the community can’t happen without love.” Ultimately, she believes one can’t declare that “black lives matter” unless one also recognizes “black love matters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Impact Hub Oakland and Ekundayo, it’s all about love. “Love is our bottom line,” she says. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of John Coltrane’s seminal album \u003cem>A Love Supreme\u003c/em> and Impact Hub Oakland’s first anniversary, Ekundayo sees the events as a three-prong conversation with the film, the space and the art.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Understanding the legacy of black photographers has important ramifications for what goes on today. Harris hopes the film will prompt viewers to think about race in a different way, and sees it ultimately as a call to action. “The goal is to understand the power of our family photographs and how they connect our family stories to the historical record, understanding our commonality despite our differences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10360670\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10360670\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/3-1180x787.jpg\" alt=\"Art by Malik and Karen Seneferu\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/3-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/3-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/3-800x533.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail of art by Malik Seneferu at Impact Hub in Oakland. (Photo: Lakshmi Sarah) \u003ccite>(Lakshmi Sarah)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Harris, it’s about “how we see one another and ourselves,” a theme that’s echoed in an accompanying art exhibit at the \u003ca href=\"http://oakland.impacthub.net/omi-gallery/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">OMI gallery at Impact Hub\u003c/a> in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"http://oakland.impacthub.net/omi-gallery/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BLACK<3MATTERS\u003c/a>,” curated by Ashara Ekundayo, co-founder of Impact Hub Oakland, represents the second time Oakland-based artists Karen Seneferu and her husband Malik Seneferu have shown their artwork together. As Karen Seneferu sees it, “The concerns that people have for the community can’t happen without love.” Ultimately, she believes one can’t declare that “black lives matter” unless one also recognizes “black love matters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Impact Hub Oakland and Ekundayo, it’s all about love. “Love is our bottom line,” she says. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of John Coltrane’s seminal album \u003cem>A Love Supreme\u003c/em> and Impact Hub Oakland’s first anniversary, Ekundayo sees the events as a three-prong conversation with the film, the space and the art.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Cult of JT LeRoy: A Conversation with Filmmaker Marjorie Sturm",
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"content": "\u003caside class=\"event-info alignright\">\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/the-do-list/\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/thedolist_icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/sf-indiefest/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event Information\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch2>SF Indiefest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Film fest featuring ‘The Cult of JT Leroy.’\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 5-19, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Various Venues\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/sf-indiefest/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Details and tickets\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Even if you wanted to write a cautionary tale about the present age’s toxic sanctification of victimhood and celebrity, the rise and fall of JT LeRoy would seem too outlandish and audacious to be true. But it was. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco filmmaker Marjorie Sturm started filming LeRoy in 2002, when he was the darling of the Bay Area literary scene. That was before the story of a drug-addicted, HIV-positive transgender teen prostitute who was encouraged to start writing by his therapist, San Francisco psychologist Dr. Terrence Owens, was revealed as a master con perpetrated by Laura Albert, erstwhile vocalist in the bands Daddy Don’t Go and Thistle. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2005, it became clear that LeRoy’s ascent as a celebrity—fueled by a parade of famous writers, musicians and actors like Lou Reed, Sandra Bernhard, and Nancy Sinatra (who stepped in to do public readings because LeRoy was supposedly too shy)—was an outlandish deception, and a hoax that left feelings of betrayal among some of the street kids who had idolized LeRoy as a triumphant survivor. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s harrowing about Sturm’s enthralling new documentary \u003cem>The Cult of JT LeRoy\u003c/em> isn’t the abuse detailed in LeRoy’s bestselling tales of woe, \u003cem>Sarah\u003c/em> and \u003cem>The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things\u003c/em>. Rather it’s the ordeal that Albert inflicted on writers like Joel Rose, Dennis Cooper, and Bruce Benderson, who describes Albert’s “sadistic manipulations,” while she pursued notoriety for her creation. SF IndieFest presents the Bay Area debut of \u003cem>The Cult of JT LeRoy\u003c/em> at the Roxie Theater, screening from Feb. 7-15. The film returns for a regular run at the Roxie March 13-18. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Sturm doesn’t make a point of it, the documentary amounts to a scathing indictment of the credulousness of the press. In a film bathed in surreality—Albert hired her boyfriend’s half-sister to appear publicly as LeRoy, her face often half obscured by a wig, oversized hat and sunglasses—one of the most biting scenes unfolds in Napa, where Sturm follows LeRoy to a celebrity-strewn photo shoot staged by the \u003cem>New York Times Magazine\u003c/em>. It wasn’t until writer Stephen Beachy published an \u003ca href=\"http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/14718/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article in \u003cem>New York\u003c/em> magazine\u003c/a> in October of 2005 that Albert’s dauntingly complex decade-long hoax was unmasked, which led to a fraud lawsuit from the film company that optioned \u003cem>Sarah\u003c/em>. Part detective story and part postmodern inquiry into the nature of authorship, the film is most interested in the ways that a cold-blooded con artist can prey upon the empathy and good intentions of the unwitting. I spoke with Sturm on the phone from her home in San Francisco. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You came to the JT LeRoy story in 2002, when you started to make a documentary about him. At that point, had you read the novels and what did you make of them?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I hadn’t read them. A friend had just moved to Los Angeles and he called me saying the photographer Kate Garner is looking for a documentary filmmaker, and do you want to start working on a project about this poet who lives in the Tenderloin? I jumped on the plane the next day and read \u003cem>The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things\u003c/em>. At that point, John Waters, Tom Waits and Dennis Cooper were completely excited about JT. I jumped in. It was fun, and I had a good time hanging out with him. I felt a kinship. They seemed very San Francisco-in-Los Angeles. That was my superficial take. At that point I worked on the film for 10 months, doing five or six shoots. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When you started filming, JT was being played by Savannah Knoop, and Laura Albert and her partner Geoffrey Knoop were posing as JT’s confidants and housemates Speedie and Astor. Did you have any inkling about what was going on?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all seemed strange, and they acted strange. In hindsight, people said Savannah had no Adam’s apple, but I absolutely thought there was a JT who wrote those books. From that first shoot in L.A. to the shoot in Napa, the question for me was that I didn’t know if I liked where he was going. JT seemed to be turning into this diva asshole. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>As the story came out that LeRoy didn’t exist, what was your reaction?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just the audacity to do it, that’s why it’s so astounding. Laura was the only one making the phone calls and emails. Savannah was hired for those occasions. At first I thought that JT definitely existed and Laura ghostwrote the books. Stephen Beachy basically had to deprogram me. I was blown away by his analysis of the situation from the get-go. He’s really brilliant. I just generally try to see the good in people, and this topic has been really challenging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The footage from Dr. Terrence Owens’s deposition is the most conspicuous thread running through the film. Can you talk a little bit about what he was being deposed for, and his relationship with JT and Laura?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was a deposition from the film company’s fraud lawsuit. Dr. Owens always did phone therapy with JT. He was duped like every other person, and just as shocked. But after that he continues to treat her as Laura. And Laura thinks that her therapeutic needs are so great it justifies everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You don’t get into your relationship with Laura Albert, or your attempts to interview her.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I decided not to make it about us, because that would be a limitation. It’s a much bigger story. About six months after Stephen Beachy’s story came out, she called me back after my attempt to interview her, and it started friendly enough. “How are you doing? How is your baby?” Then she started screaming and raging at me in this intense way, threatening to sue me if I made the film. “You’re an opportunist,” she said. “You’re going to kiss your kid’s college education goodbye.” I said, “Laura, you’re acting like you and me had this open and honest relationship.” And she said, “Oh, so you’re going to play that card.” This is what she does, and it works. Most people aren’t used to being on the receiving end of so much vitriol. I’ve worked with gang members and felons and the mentally ill, and I’ve never crossed paths with something like this. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You end the film with a title card saying that Laura Albert hasn’t published any books under her own name, but she’s had a fairly visible post-JT career, working in fashion, serving on the jury for film festivals. What do you make of that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think it really shows the power of a con artist, a cult leader, to twist and warp reality through charisma and lies. I think the story is confusing enough that I give some people the benefit of the doubt that they don’t fully understand the facts about it all. And some people prefer a good story to the facts. I don’t doubt that the people who Laura is ensnaring now are empathetic sorts who think she is a victim somehow. That is who con artists go after. I think we want to believe that we live in some sort of civilization, and it’s quite disconcerting that our world is as predatory as it is. We don’t expect this from artists. We expect this from Wall Street and wars. The other element is the curiosity factor. Laura has branded herself a celebrity by association with JT, who managed to get close to celebrities. Sadly enough, for some that is extremely exciting. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Often, discussions about the hoax center on Laura Albert’s right to use a pseudonym, but I think your film establishes that’s the least interesting question about this case.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pseudonym thing is a weird red herring that she used in the fraud trial. The work was always presented as autobiographical fiction. The first thing Laura Albert wrote as JT was a memoir published under the name “Terminator” in Laurie Stone’s \u003cem>Close to the Bone\u003c/em> anthology. The problem is that everyone interviews her and she just lies and lies. They go to her as a source for the story. The meta story is the relentless spinning and how the media gets it so wrong again and again. Like she keeps saying she never said JT was HIV positive, and she did numerous times. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Toward the end of the film, several people address whether or not JT LeRoy’s work can stand on its own. What do you think?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a circular question. It’s so subjective. Do people get value? Is she an outsider artist, writing her experience? I don’t care about the writing. I think it’s obvious the writing was fueled by the marketing. This work will always be caught up in the deception and the scandal. If people enjoy it, great.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"event-info alignright\">\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/the-do-list/\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/thedolist_icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/sf-indiefest/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event Information\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch2>SF Indiefest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Film fest featuring ‘The Cult of JT Leroy.’\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 5-19, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Various Venues\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/sf-indiefest/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Details and tickets\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Even if you wanted to write a cautionary tale about the present age’s toxic sanctification of victimhood and celebrity, the rise and fall of JT LeRoy would seem too outlandish and audacious to be true. But it was. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco filmmaker Marjorie Sturm started filming LeRoy in 2002, when he was the darling of the Bay Area literary scene. That was before the story of a drug-addicted, HIV-positive transgender teen prostitute who was encouraged to start writing by his therapist, San Francisco psychologist Dr. Terrence Owens, was revealed as a master con perpetrated by Laura Albert, erstwhile vocalist in the bands Daddy Don’t Go and Thistle. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2005, it became clear that LeRoy’s ascent as a celebrity—fueled by a parade of famous writers, musicians and actors like Lou Reed, Sandra Bernhard, and Nancy Sinatra (who stepped in to do public readings because LeRoy was supposedly too shy)—was an outlandish deception, and a hoax that left feelings of betrayal among some of the street kids who had idolized LeRoy as a triumphant survivor. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s harrowing about Sturm’s enthralling new documentary \u003cem>The Cult of JT LeRoy\u003c/em> isn’t the abuse detailed in LeRoy’s bestselling tales of woe, \u003cem>Sarah\u003c/em> and \u003cem>The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things\u003c/em>. Rather it’s the ordeal that Albert inflicted on writers like Joel Rose, Dennis Cooper, and Bruce Benderson, who describes Albert’s “sadistic manipulations,” while she pursued notoriety for her creation. SF IndieFest presents the Bay Area debut of \u003cem>The Cult of JT LeRoy\u003c/em> at the Roxie Theater, screening from Feb. 7-15. The film returns for a regular run at the Roxie March 13-18. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Sturm doesn’t make a point of it, the documentary amounts to a scathing indictment of the credulousness of the press. In a film bathed in surreality—Albert hired her boyfriend’s half-sister to appear publicly as LeRoy, her face often half obscured by a wig, oversized hat and sunglasses—one of the most biting scenes unfolds in Napa, where Sturm follows LeRoy to a celebrity-strewn photo shoot staged by the \u003cem>New York Times Magazine\u003c/em>. It wasn’t until writer Stephen Beachy published an \u003ca href=\"http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/14718/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article in \u003cem>New York\u003c/em> magazine\u003c/a> in October of 2005 that Albert’s dauntingly complex decade-long hoax was unmasked, which led to a fraud lawsuit from the film company that optioned \u003cem>Sarah\u003c/em>. Part detective story and part postmodern inquiry into the nature of authorship, the film is most interested in the ways that a cold-blooded con artist can prey upon the empathy and good intentions of the unwitting. I spoke with Sturm on the phone from her home in San Francisco. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You came to the JT LeRoy story in 2002, when you started to make a documentary about him. At that point, had you read the novels and what did you make of them?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I hadn’t read them. A friend had just moved to Los Angeles and he called me saying the photographer Kate Garner is looking for a documentary filmmaker, and do you want to start working on a project about this poet who lives in the Tenderloin? I jumped on the plane the next day and read \u003cem>The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things\u003c/em>. At that point, John Waters, Tom Waits and Dennis Cooper were completely excited about JT. I jumped in. It was fun, and I had a good time hanging out with him. I felt a kinship. They seemed very San Francisco-in-Los Angeles. That was my superficial take. At that point I worked on the film for 10 months, doing five or six shoots. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When you started filming, JT was being played by Savannah Knoop, and Laura Albert and her partner Geoffrey Knoop were posing as JT’s confidants and housemates Speedie and Astor. Did you have any inkling about what was going on?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all seemed strange, and they acted strange. In hindsight, people said Savannah had no Adam’s apple, but I absolutely thought there was a JT who wrote those books. From that first shoot in L.A. to the shoot in Napa, the question for me was that I didn’t know if I liked where he was going. JT seemed to be turning into this diva asshole. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>As the story came out that LeRoy didn’t exist, what was your reaction?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just the audacity to do it, that’s why it’s so astounding. Laura was the only one making the phone calls and emails. Savannah was hired for those occasions. At first I thought that JT definitely existed and Laura ghostwrote the books. Stephen Beachy basically had to deprogram me. I was blown away by his analysis of the situation from the get-go. He’s really brilliant. I just generally try to see the good in people, and this topic has been really challenging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The footage from Dr. Terrence Owens’s deposition is the most conspicuous thread running through the film. Can you talk a little bit about what he was being deposed for, and his relationship with JT and Laura?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was a deposition from the film company’s fraud lawsuit. Dr. Owens always did phone therapy with JT. He was duped like every other person, and just as shocked. But after that he continues to treat her as Laura. And Laura thinks that her therapeutic needs are so great it justifies everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You don’t get into your relationship with Laura Albert, or your attempts to interview her.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I decided not to make it about us, because that would be a limitation. It’s a much bigger story. About six months after Stephen Beachy’s story came out, she called me back after my attempt to interview her, and it started friendly enough. “How are you doing? How is your baby?” Then she started screaming and raging at me in this intense way, threatening to sue me if I made the film. “You’re an opportunist,” she said. “You’re going to kiss your kid’s college education goodbye.” I said, “Laura, you’re acting like you and me had this open and honest relationship.” And she said, “Oh, so you’re going to play that card.” This is what she does, and it works. Most people aren’t used to being on the receiving end of so much vitriol. I’ve worked with gang members and felons and the mentally ill, and I’ve never crossed paths with something like this. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You end the film with a title card saying that Laura Albert hasn’t published any books under her own name, but she’s had a fairly visible post-JT career, working in fashion, serving on the jury for film festivals. What do you make of that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think it really shows the power of a con artist, a cult leader, to twist and warp reality through charisma and lies. I think the story is confusing enough that I give some people the benefit of the doubt that they don’t fully understand the facts about it all. And some people prefer a good story to the facts. I don’t doubt that the people who Laura is ensnaring now are empathetic sorts who think she is a victim somehow. That is who con artists go after. I think we want to believe that we live in some sort of civilization, and it’s quite disconcerting that our world is as predatory as it is. We don’t expect this from artists. We expect this from Wall Street and wars. The other element is the curiosity factor. Laura has branded herself a celebrity by association with JT, who managed to get close to celebrities. Sadly enough, for some that is extremely exciting. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Often, discussions about the hoax center on Laura Albert’s right to use a pseudonym, but I think your film establishes that’s the least interesting question about this case.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pseudonym thing is a weird red herring that she used in the fraud trial. The work was always presented as autobiographical fiction. The first thing Laura Albert wrote as JT was a memoir published under the name “Terminator” in Laurie Stone’s \u003cem>Close to the Bone\u003c/em> anthology. 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"title": "Made in the Mission: A Talk with ‘The Other Barrio’ Director Dante Betteo",
"headTitle": "Made in the Mission: A Talk with ‘The Other Barrio’ Director Dante Betteo | KQED",
"content": "\u003caside class=\"event-info alignright\">\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/the-do-list/\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/thedolist_icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/sf-indiefest/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event Information\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch2>SF Indiefest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Film fest featuring ‘The Other Barrio.’\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 5-19, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Various Venues\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/sf-indiefest/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Details and tickets\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In December of 2012, the Brava Theater held a fundraiser for \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://www.theotherbarrio.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Other Barrio\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, a film noir nestled deep inside San Francisco’s Mission district. More than two years later, the film comes full circle with its premiere at the 17th San Francisco Independent Film Festival (SF IndieFest).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Café La Boheme, at 24th and Mission, served as an ideal place to meet with director Dante Betteo and discuss the path the film took, starting with its inception as a short story by San Francisco Poet Laureate \u003ca href=\"http://alejandromurguia.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alejandro Murguía\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why did you choose film noir as the genre for your first feature?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story dictates the genre, up to a point. And it also depends on how the director treats it. In this case, the producer, Lou Dematteis, and I both decided we liked the genre and that this story would be a good fit for a noir. The film started as a different project from what it became. The original idea was to interweave three short stories together to build into a feature, like \u003cem>21 Grams\u003c/em> or \u003cem>Amores Perros\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m always looking for stories, and was looking for what my first feature would be, looking at my budget: is this something that I can do with a low budget, or is it out of my reach? One day I was at City Lights going through books in the local authors section and I found a copy of \u003cem>San Francisco Noir\u003c/em>. The book contained local stories from different San Francisco neighborhoods and I saw there was one from the Mission. “The Other Barrio” was the first story from the collection we had on the drawing board. Lou was a friend of the author, Alejandro Murguía, and after meeting with him he agreed to give us the rights to produce the story. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the summer of 2012 we went into full production. We shot the whole story after I adapted it into the screenplay. And then I started editing it, and once we had a first pass, I told Lou that we had 55 minutes of film on \u003cem>The Other Barrio\u003c/em>, but that we still needed to raise money and do the pre-production work and casting for the two other films. I said, Why not build on what we have? All we need is roughly another 30 minutes, and we’ll have a full feature. And we agreed that was a good path to follow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We added additional scenes to the story. We brought Alejandro on board and the main star Richard Montoya, who was a big engine for collaboration on developing the new material. At that point we started to see that something was going on in the neighborhood—that we may have something that would be more relevant than what we initially began with, because the original story was based on the Gartland apartment fire in 1975. At the same time, we saw all of the changes going on in the neighborhood. And all the protests that came after, and the level of unhappiness with the changing neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What were the first signs of change that you started to see in the Mission?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I started noticing unhappiness within the traditional neighborhood residents. A lot of discontent from the people who had lived here for many years, of Hispanic descent, that other cultures were coming in, that they were displaced by not being able to afford the rents, and having to move out to the East Bay. Those feelings started bubbling to the surface as we were developing the film. And that’s why we thought the film was relevant to the time. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10362352\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/OtherBarrio.Inline.jpg\" alt=\"A scene from 'The Other Barrio,' directed by Dante Betteo.\" width=\"640\" height=\"319\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10362352\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/OtherBarrio.Inline.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/OtherBarrio.Inline-400x199.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from ‘The Other Barrio,’ directed by Dante Betteo.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What noir films from the past did you find inspiration from?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I like the classics: \u003cem>The Maltese Falcon\u003c/em>, and those films from the real noir era. Each film has good and bad merits, so I look at the overall era. And anything newer, of course. \u003cem>Chinatown\u003c/em>. That is a big inspiration for me. \u003cem>Tightrope\u003c/em>, a Clint Eastwood film, set in Monterey. In that film, I like the visual darkness, mostly night shots, and the darkness of the theme. The detective falls in love with a suspect, and she’s playing with him. I like those films that look deep into the soul of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>San Francisco itself comes through in the film as a full-fledged character.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a very cinematic city. This city has so many corners, so many places that don’t come up in regular Hollywood films. In Hollywood films, we see the Golden Gate Bridge, we see the cable cars, and while San Francisco is known for those iconic symbols, there’s so much more than that. I always wanted to do a project that would showcase the city, but not in this pristine Hollywood light and more of a realistic, down-to-earth view of our city which we all love. The director of photography did an awesome job of portraying what I wanted to show. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Your background is in journalism and making documentaries. Why did you want to branch out into narrative filmmaking?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have been doing documentaries for many years, and am stepping out of that genre to do feature films. This project was very liberating. You create and you execute: you don’t have to ask for permission or double-check facts. There are certain legal restrictions to feature films too, but it’s liberating in that sense. One of the things that we wanted to do was make it feel like a documentary. Visually, in some areas, we used real footage of marches, protests and sounds from the Mission. We tried to walk that thin line between keeping it a feature and not making it a documentary, because we didn’t set out to make a documentary. But at the same time, we wanted to make a social statement while making it as believable as possible. We wanted to make people think, react, and emotionally connect with a subject or with an idea, and I hope we succeeded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjCFhs5Vmtg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This may be a spoiler for some, but the ending is shot in daylight, a departure from the tone that precedes it.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you look at that last shot, everything seems to be in harmony. The hipsters enjoying culture. Inspector Morales, at the end, hugging the artist who we’ve previously seen painting murals. Someone else taking a picture, and the bright colors. Everything is in harmony in that closing shot. On a day-to-day basis, life seems difficult, life seems hard. But if we work together, if we become one family, one team, things can look brighter. We can enjoy one another’s company. We may not like each other, but we have to live together. We have to enjoy what we have and build together, and the future is bright if we do that. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>–\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘The Other Barrio’ is the Centerpiece Film at SF IndieFest 2015 and premieres Sunday, Feb. 8, at the Brava Theater.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The director of 'The Other Barrio' talks with KQED about his new film, a dark noir set in the Mission District, which premieres this weekend.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"event-info alignright\">\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/the-do-list/\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/thedolist_icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/sf-indiefest/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event Information\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch2>SF Indiefest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Film fest featuring ‘The Other Barrio.’\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 5-19, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Various Venues\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/sf-indiefest/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Details and tickets\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In December of 2012, the Brava Theater held a fundraiser for \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://www.theotherbarrio.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Other Barrio\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, a film noir nestled deep inside San Francisco’s Mission district. More than two years later, the film comes full circle with its premiere at the 17th San Francisco Independent Film Festival (SF IndieFest).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Café La Boheme, at 24th and Mission, served as an ideal place to meet with director Dante Betteo and discuss the path the film took, starting with its inception as a short story by San Francisco Poet Laureate \u003ca href=\"http://alejandromurguia.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alejandro Murguía\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why did you choose film noir as the genre for your first feature?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story dictates the genre, up to a point. And it also depends on how the director treats it. In this case, the producer, Lou Dematteis, and I both decided we liked the genre and that this story would be a good fit for a noir. The film started as a different project from what it became. The original idea was to interweave three short stories together to build into a feature, like \u003cem>21 Grams\u003c/em> or \u003cem>Amores Perros\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m always looking for stories, and was looking for what my first feature would be, looking at my budget: is this something that I can do with a low budget, or is it out of my reach? One day I was at City Lights going through books in the local authors section and I found a copy of \u003cem>San Francisco Noir\u003c/em>. The book contained local stories from different San Francisco neighborhoods and I saw there was one from the Mission. “The Other Barrio” was the first story from the collection we had on the drawing board. Lou was a friend of the author, Alejandro Murguía, and after meeting with him he agreed to give us the rights to produce the story. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the summer of 2012 we went into full production. We shot the whole story after I adapted it into the screenplay. And then I started editing it, and once we had a first pass, I told Lou that we had 55 minutes of film on \u003cem>The Other Barrio\u003c/em>, but that we still needed to raise money and do the pre-production work and casting for the two other films. I said, Why not build on what we have? All we need is roughly another 30 minutes, and we’ll have a full feature. And we agreed that was a good path to follow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We added additional scenes to the story. We brought Alejandro on board and the main star Richard Montoya, who was a big engine for collaboration on developing the new material. At that point we started to see that something was going on in the neighborhood—that we may have something that would be more relevant than what we initially began with, because the original story was based on the Gartland apartment fire in 1975. At the same time, we saw all of the changes going on in the neighborhood. And all the protests that came after, and the level of unhappiness with the changing neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What were the first signs of change that you started to see in the Mission?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I started noticing unhappiness within the traditional neighborhood residents. A lot of discontent from the people who had lived here for many years, of Hispanic descent, that other cultures were coming in, that they were displaced by not being able to afford the rents, and having to move out to the East Bay. Those feelings started bubbling to the surface as we were developing the film. And that’s why we thought the film was relevant to the time. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10362352\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/OtherBarrio.Inline.jpg\" alt=\"A scene from 'The Other Barrio,' directed by Dante Betteo.\" width=\"640\" height=\"319\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10362352\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/OtherBarrio.Inline.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/OtherBarrio.Inline-400x199.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from ‘The Other Barrio,’ directed by Dante Betteo.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What noir films from the past did you find inspiration from?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I like the classics: \u003cem>The Maltese Falcon\u003c/em>, and those films from the real noir era. Each film has good and bad merits, so I look at the overall era. And anything newer, of course. \u003cem>Chinatown\u003c/em>. That is a big inspiration for me. \u003cem>Tightrope\u003c/em>, a Clint Eastwood film, set in Monterey. In that film, I like the visual darkness, mostly night shots, and the darkness of the theme. The detective falls in love with a suspect, and she’s playing with him. I like those films that look deep into the soul of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>San Francisco itself comes through in the film as a full-fledged character.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a very cinematic city. This city has so many corners, so many places that don’t come up in regular Hollywood films. In Hollywood films, we see the Golden Gate Bridge, we see the cable cars, and while San Francisco is known for those iconic symbols, there’s so much more than that. I always wanted to do a project that would showcase the city, but not in this pristine Hollywood light and more of a realistic, down-to-earth view of our city which we all love. The director of photography did an awesome job of portraying what I wanted to show. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Your background is in journalism and making documentaries. Why did you want to branch out into narrative filmmaking?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have been doing documentaries for many years, and am stepping out of that genre to do feature films. This project was very liberating. You create and you execute: you don’t have to ask for permission or double-check facts. There are certain legal restrictions to feature films too, but it’s liberating in that sense. One of the things that we wanted to do was make it feel like a documentary. Visually, in some areas, we used real footage of marches, protests and sounds from the Mission. We tried to walk that thin line between keeping it a feature and not making it a documentary, because we didn’t set out to make a documentary. But at the same time, we wanted to make a social statement while making it as believable as possible. We wanted to make people think, react, and emotionally connect with a subject or with an idea, and I hope we succeeded.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/zjCFhs5Vmtg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/zjCFhs5Vmtg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This may be a spoiler for some, but the ending is shot in daylight, a departure from the tone that precedes it.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you look at that last shot, everything seems to be in harmony. The hipsters enjoying culture. Inspector Morales, at the end, hugging the artist who we’ve previously seen painting murals. Someone else taking a picture, and the bright colors. Everything is in harmony in that closing shot. On a day-to-day basis, life seems difficult, life seems hard. But if we work together, if we become one family, one team, things can look brighter. We can enjoy one another’s company. We may not like each other, but we have to live together. We have to enjoy what we have and build together, and the future is bright if we do that. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>–\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘The Other Barrio’ is the Centerpiece Film at SF IndieFest 2015 and premieres Sunday, Feb. 8, at the Brava Theater.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Five to Watch: Lovers’ Secrets",
"headTitle": "Five to Watch: Lovers’ Secrets | KQED",
"content": "\u003caside class=\"event-info alignright\">\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/the-do-list/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/thedolist_icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Event Information\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch4>Five to Watch: Lovers’ Secrets\u003c/h4>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Michael Fox’s movie picks for February.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 5 – 19, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">SF Indiefest\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/sf-indiefest/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 6 – 8, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">The Hot Stove Movie and Music Festival\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/the-hot-stove-movie-and-music-festival/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 12 – 22, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Mostly British Film Festival\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/mostly-british-film-festival/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 20 – Mar. 1, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Noise Pop Film Series\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/noise-pop-film-series/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 14, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Romeo and Juliet at the Castro\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/marc-huestis-presents-romeo-and-juliet-at-the-castro/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Back in the day, the movies taught us everything about love: How to dress, flirt, open a door or light a cigarette for your date, kiss, banter, seduce and—up to a point—make love. (The instruction manual was somewhat different for film noir and French films.) Perhaps movies still serve as an instrument of socialization for adolescents, while grownups embarking on a potential relationship use movies as a Rorschach test for compatibility. As for those already involved with what used to be called a significant other, here are some suggestions St. Valentine whispered in my ear. He really misses drive-ins, by the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10356640\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10356640\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Jacky.jpg\" alt=\"Still from Jacky in the Kingdom of Women.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Jacky.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Jacky-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from \u003cem>Jacky in the Kingdom of Women\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>SF Indiefest\u003c/strong>, the loopy compilation of under-the-radar, off-the-beaten-path gems, offers several temptations for open-minded couples. The French political satire \u003cem>Jacky in the Kingdom of Women\u003c/em> (Feb. 15 and 19) unfolds in an upside-down country where women run the show and men are confined to the house and their improbable dreams. Sweden sends \u003cem>Aerobics: A Love Story\u003c/em> (Feb. 14 and 16), an uplifting drama about a mentally challenged woman, the man she falls for, and her domineering sister. If your sweet tooth craves irony-steeped saccharine, add your voice to the power ballad sing-along (a.k.a. the \u003ca href=\"http://www.roxie.com/ai1ec_event/sf-indie-fest-power-ballad-sing-long/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Anti-Valentine’s Day Mass Karaoke Party\u003c/a>) on Feb. 14. Indiefest runs Feb. 5-19 at the Roxie and other venues. \u003ca href=\"http://sfindie.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets and more information here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10356641\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10356641\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/BullDurham.jpg\" alt=\"Still from Bull Durham.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/BullDurham.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/BullDurham-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from \u003cem>Bull Durham\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Super Bowl is over and spring training approacheth. Can the Giants deliver another miraculous season? (I’m not greedy. I just dislike the Dodgers very, very, very much.) The first-ever \u003cstrong>Hot Stove Movie and Music Festival\u003c/strong> puts us in the mood with the terrific and timely local docs \u003cem>Ghost Town to Havana\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em>, and live sets by former third-base coach Tim Flannery, local fave Chuck Prophet and L.A.’s witty Dan Bern (who wrote the songs for \u003cem>Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story\u003c/em>). Writer-director Ron Shelton will be on hand Feb. 6 to throw out the first pitch with \u003cem>Bull Durham\u003c/em>, starring the young and beautiful Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner. The \u003cstrong>Hot Stove Movie and Music Festival\u003c/strong> takes place Feb. 6-8 at the Vogue. \u003ca href=\"http://www.cinemasf.com/vogue/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets and more information here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10356642\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10356642\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Rampling.jpg\" alt=\"Still from I, Anna.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Rampling.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Rampling-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from \u003cem>I, Anna\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Charlotte Rampling—I could just stop there, yes?—embodies melancholic, despair-tinged romance. The annual \u003cstrong>Mostly British Film Festival\u003c/strong> treats us to the brave actress’ 2012 discomfiting portrayal of a woman who’s too smart for most men (and for her own good). \u003cem>I, Anna \u003c/em>(Feb. 13) was directed by her son, Barnaby Southcombe, and co-stars Gabriel Byrne as an unhappy London detective working a murder case. Too dark for you and your beau? The Irish romantic comedy \u003cem>Standby\u003c/em> (Feb. 16) throws former lovers Jessica Paré and Brian Gleeson together at the Dublin airport, then sends them out for an episodic night on the town. The Mostly British Film Festival runs Feb. 12-22 at the Vogue. \u003ca href=\"http://www.cinemasf.com/vogue/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets and more information here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10356643\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10356643\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Devo.jpg\" alt=\"Still from Hardcore Devo Live.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Devo.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Devo-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from \u003cem>Hardcore Devo Live\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The redoubtable \u003cstrong>Noise Pop\u003c/strong> music festival (Feb. 20-Mar. 1) kicks out the jams with a film series unspooling Feb. 20-23 at the Roxie, the Swedish American Hall, Artists’ Television Access and the Independent. There’s a free screening of Jonathan Demme’s timeless \u003cem>Stop Making Sense\u003c/em> (Feb. 23), recorded more than three (!) decades ago at Talking Heads shows in L.A. If dancing in place with that special someone reminds you too much of high school, clear out the cobwebs with the West Coast premiere of \u003cem>Hardcore Devo Live\u003c/em> (Feb. 20), a blistering concert resurrection of the Ohio band’s earliest, most experimental and least-known songs. \u003ca href=\"http://film.noisepop.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets and more information here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10356644\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10356644\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/RomeoJuliet.jpg\" alt=\"Still from Romeo & Juliet.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/RomeoJuliet.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/RomeoJuliet-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from \u003cem>Romeo & Juliet\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I can still remember my eighth-grade field trip to a downtown Chicago movie palace to see Franco Zeffirelli’s then-modern adaptation of \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Romeo and Juliet\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>. Shakespeare made accessible and relevant, or so our teacher thought, forgetting that 13-year-olds would be both titillated and embarrassed by the brief nudity. (Ah, those naïve, pre-internet days.) You see, Zeffirelli embraced the sexual revolution (and burgeoning youth market) by showing the star-crossed lovers as, well, lovers. Impresario nonpareil Marc Huestis revives the Bard’s lovelorn tragedy on Valentine’s Day with Leonard Whiting (the film’s Romeo), a Best Mask contest and an inspired array of film clips and surprise guests. If you’re going to drink, stick to absinthe. \u003ca href=\"http://www.castrotheatre.com/s-events.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets and more information here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Smooching in a movie theater is still legal, right? Here are five film events for the lovers' month of February.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"event-info alignright\">\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/the-do-list/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/thedolist_icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Event Information\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch4>Five to Watch: Lovers’ Secrets\u003c/h4>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Michael Fox’s movie picks for February.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 5 – 19, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">SF Indiefest\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/sf-indiefest/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 6 – 8, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">The Hot Stove Movie and Music Festival\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/the-hot-stove-movie-and-music-festival/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 12 – 22, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Mostly British Film Festival\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/mostly-british-film-festival/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 20 – Mar. 1, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Noise Pop Film Series\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/noise-pop-film-series/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Feb. 14, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">Romeo and Juliet at the Castro\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca title=\"Details\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/marc-huestis-presents-romeo-and-juliet-at-the-castro/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event details\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Back in the day, the movies taught us everything about love: How to dress, flirt, open a door or light a cigarette for your date, kiss, banter, seduce and—up to a point—make love. (The instruction manual was somewhat different for film noir and French films.) Perhaps movies still serve as an instrument of socialization for adolescents, while grownups embarking on a potential relationship use movies as a Rorschach test for compatibility. As for those already involved with what used to be called a significant other, here are some suggestions St. Valentine whispered in my ear. He really misses drive-ins, by the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10356640\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10356640\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Jacky.jpg\" alt=\"Still from Jacky in the Kingdom of Women.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Jacky.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Jacky-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from \u003cem>Jacky in the Kingdom of Women\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>SF Indiefest\u003c/strong>, the loopy compilation of under-the-radar, off-the-beaten-path gems, offers several temptations for open-minded couples. The French political satire \u003cem>Jacky in the Kingdom of Women\u003c/em> (Feb. 15 and 19) unfolds in an upside-down country where women run the show and men are confined to the house and their improbable dreams. Sweden sends \u003cem>Aerobics: A Love Story\u003c/em> (Feb. 14 and 16), an uplifting drama about a mentally challenged woman, the man she falls for, and her domineering sister. If your sweet tooth craves irony-steeped saccharine, add your voice to the power ballad sing-along (a.k.a. the \u003ca href=\"http://www.roxie.com/ai1ec_event/sf-indie-fest-power-ballad-sing-long/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Anti-Valentine’s Day Mass Karaoke Party\u003c/a>) on Feb. 14. Indiefest runs Feb. 5-19 at the Roxie and other venues. \u003ca href=\"http://sfindie.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets and more information here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10356641\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10356641\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/BullDurham.jpg\" alt=\"Still from Bull Durham.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/BullDurham.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/BullDurham-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from \u003cem>Bull Durham\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Super Bowl is over and spring training approacheth. Can the Giants deliver another miraculous season? (I’m not greedy. I just dislike the Dodgers very, very, very much.) The first-ever \u003cstrong>Hot Stove Movie and Music Festival\u003c/strong> puts us in the mood with the terrific and timely local docs \u003cem>Ghost Town to Havana\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Havana Curveball\u003c/em>, and live sets by former third-base coach Tim Flannery, local fave Chuck Prophet and L.A.’s witty Dan Bern (who wrote the songs for \u003cem>Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story\u003c/em>). Writer-director Ron Shelton will be on hand Feb. 6 to throw out the first pitch with \u003cem>Bull Durham\u003c/em>, starring the young and beautiful Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner. The \u003cstrong>Hot Stove Movie and Music Festival\u003c/strong> takes place Feb. 6-8 at the Vogue. \u003ca href=\"http://www.cinemasf.com/vogue/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets and more information here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10356642\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10356642\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Rampling.jpg\" alt=\"Still from I, Anna.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Rampling.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Rampling-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from \u003cem>I, Anna\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Charlotte Rampling—I could just stop there, yes?—embodies melancholic, despair-tinged romance. The annual \u003cstrong>Mostly British Film Festival\u003c/strong> treats us to the brave actress’ 2012 discomfiting portrayal of a woman who’s too smart for most men (and for her own good). \u003cem>I, Anna \u003c/em>(Feb. 13) was directed by her son, Barnaby Southcombe, and co-stars Gabriel Byrne as an unhappy London detective working a murder case. Too dark for you and your beau? The Irish romantic comedy \u003cem>Standby\u003c/em> (Feb. 16) throws former lovers Jessica Paré and Brian Gleeson together at the Dublin airport, then sends them out for an episodic night on the town. The Mostly British Film Festival runs Feb. 12-22 at the Vogue. \u003ca href=\"http://www.cinemasf.com/vogue/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets and more information here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10356643\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10356643\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Devo.jpg\" alt=\"Still from Hardcore Devo Live.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Devo.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Devo-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from \u003cem>Hardcore Devo Live\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The redoubtable \u003cstrong>Noise Pop\u003c/strong> music festival (Feb. 20-Mar. 1) kicks out the jams with a film series unspooling Feb. 20-23 at the Roxie, the Swedish American Hall, Artists’ Television Access and the Independent. There’s a free screening of Jonathan Demme’s timeless \u003cem>Stop Making Sense\u003c/em> (Feb. 23), recorded more than three (!) decades ago at Talking Heads shows in L.A. If dancing in place with that special someone reminds you too much of high school, clear out the cobwebs with the West Coast premiere of \u003cem>Hardcore Devo Live\u003c/em> (Feb. 20), a blistering concert resurrection of the Ohio band’s earliest, most experimental and least-known songs. \u003ca href=\"http://film.noisepop.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets and more information here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10356644\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10356644\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/RomeoJuliet.jpg\" alt=\"Still from Romeo & Juliet.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/RomeoJuliet.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/RomeoJuliet-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from \u003cem>Romeo & Juliet\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I can still remember my eighth-grade field trip to a downtown Chicago movie palace to see Franco Zeffirelli’s then-modern adaptation of \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Romeo and Juliet\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>. Shakespeare made accessible and relevant, or so our teacher thought, forgetting that 13-year-olds would be both titillated and embarrassed by the brief nudity. (Ah, those naïve, pre-internet days.) You see, Zeffirelli embraced the sexual revolution (and burgeoning youth market) by showing the star-crossed lovers as, well, lovers. Impresario nonpareil Marc Huestis revives the Bard’s lovelorn tragedy on Valentine’s Day with Leonard Whiting (the film’s Romeo), a Best Mask contest and an inspired array of film clips and surprise guests. If you’re going to drink, stick to absinthe. \u003ca href=\"http://www.castrotheatre.com/s-events.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets and more information here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003caside class=\"aligncenter\">\n\u003ch4>Cy Musiker and David Wiegand share their picks for great events around the Bay Area this week.\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/thedolist/2015/01/20150130tdl.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout aligncenter noborder\">\n\u003ch3>Joe Pug\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Few singers mix country, folk, and roots-rock with more heart than Joe Pug. Fans and critics have compared his literate songwriting to early Bob Dylan or John Prine, but Pug has said he’s influenced as well by writers like Walt Whitman and Raymond Carver. All those influences come through in lines like these from his “Hymn #101”: “Yeah, I’ve come to know the wish list of my father / I’ve come to know the shipwrecks where he wished.” Pug has a new album coming out in March, but don’t wait. He opens on Saturday, Jan. 31 for punk-bluegrass band the Devil Makes Three at the Fox Theater in Oakland. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/joe-pug/\">Details and ticket information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://youtu.be/z6n2lgDLRRg\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout aligncenter noborder\">\n\u003ch3>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-10314942\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Habjouqa_Untitled_3-400x225.jpg\" alt=\"Habjouqa_Untitled_3\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Habjouqa_Untitled_3-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Habjouqa_Untitled_3-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Habjouqa_Untitled_3-1180x663.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Habjouqa_Untitled_3.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">She Who Tells a Story\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center presents \u003cem>She Who Tells a Story\u003c/em>, an exhibition of twelve female photographers from across Iran and the Arab world. With more than 80 works on display, \u003cem>She Who Tells a Story\u003c/em> showcases artists working in various styles and themes, including documentary, political, portraiture, and humor. The exhibition includes photography from Jananne Al-Ani, Boushra Almutawakel, Gohar Dashti, Rana El Nemr, Lalla Essaydi, Shadi Ghadirian, Tanya Habjouqa, Rula Halawani, Nermine Hammam, Rania Matar, Shirin Neshat, and Newsha Tavakolian. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/she-who-tells-a-story/\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout aligncenter noborder\">\n\u003ch3>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-10342937\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/SevenFingersCircus-400x225.jpg\" alt=\"Les 7 Doigts\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/SevenFingersCircus-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/SevenFingersCircus-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/SevenFingersCircus-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/SevenFingersCircus.jpg 1900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">Les 7 Doigts de la Main\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Les 7 Doigts de la Main is a Montreal-based circus troupe—unlike Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey (think: no animals), and more like a smaller, edgier Cirque du Soleil. The West Coast Premiere of \u003cem>Sequence 8\u003c/em> explores the theme of alienation on an intimate human scale, and is heavy on moody dance, theatrics, and acrobatics. Les 7 Doigts is led by Shana Carroll and Gypsy Snider. For those who miss the Pickle Family Circus, Gypsy is the daughter of Pickle founders Larry Pisoni and Peggy Snider. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/les-7-doigts-de-la-main/\">Details and ticket information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://youtu.be/CumFUHSUSGQ\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout aligncenter noborder\">\n\u003ch3>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-10339840\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/JackySFIndieFest-400x225.jpg\" alt=\"Jacky\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/JackySFIndieFest-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/JackySFIndieFest-800x451.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/JackySFIndieFest-1180x665.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/JackySFIndieFest.jpg 1296w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">SF Indie Film Fest\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The annual compilation of under-the-radar, off-the-beaten-path gems, SF Indiefest, offers tempting films for unorthodox thinkers. The French satire \u003cem>Jacky in the Kingdom of Women\u003c/em> (Feb. 15 and 19) unfolds in an upside-down country where women run the show and men are confined to the house and their improbable dreams. Sweden sends \u003cem>Aerobics: A Love Story\u003c/em> (Feb. 14 and 16), an uplifting drama about a mentally challenged woman, the man she falls for, and her domineering sister. For irony-steeped saccharine, nothing beats the power ballad sing-along (a.k.a. Anti-Valentine’s Day Mass Karaoke Party). SF Indiefest runs Feb. 5-19, 2015 at the Roxie and other venues. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/sf-indiefest/\">Details and ticket information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://vimeo.com/105524794\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout aligncenter noborder\">\n\u003ch3>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-10342688\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/CP-400x225.jpg\" alt=\"CP\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/CP-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/CP.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">Chuck Prophet\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s nonstop songwriter Chuck Prophet crafted a wonderful ode to the city in his previous full-length \u003cem>Temple Beautiful\u003c/em>, but with his latest release, \u003cem>Night Surfer\u003c/em>, the longtime resident paints a more dystopian future. Live, Prophet and his Mission Express are thunderous, sentimental, thoughtful, loud and fun-loving—often in the course of the same song. That could have something to do with Prophet’s deep marination in rock history; in an interview with KQED, Prophet says he’s rewritten “Street Fighting Man” a hundred different ways, and it’s never let him down. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/chuck-prophet/\">Details and ticket information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout aligncenter noborder\">\n\u003ch3>New Frequencies Fest\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In a rare Bay Area appearance, the endlessly forward-thinking composer and saxophonist Henry Threadgill headlines the opening night of this unique jazz festival. While Threadgill brings his Double-Up group in a tribute to the composer Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, other nights include vocalist Anjélique Kidjo, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, guitarist Jenny Scheinman, saxophonist Matana Roberts and more. Appearing on many of the shows is pianist Myra Melford, co-curator of the festival, who with Isabel Yrigoyen deserves a hat tip for a lineup that effortlessly straddles jazz’s past and present. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/new-frequencies-fest/\">Details and ticket information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout aligncenter noborder\">\n\u003ch3>Joe Pug\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Few singers mix country, folk, and roots-rock with more heart than Joe Pug. Fans and critics have compared his literate songwriting to early Bob Dylan or John Prine, but Pug has said he’s influenced as well by writers like Walt Whitman and Raymond Carver. All those influences come through in lines like these from his “Hymn #101”: “Yeah, I’ve come to know the wish list of my father / I’ve come to know the shipwrecks where he wished.” Pug has a new album coming out in March, but don’t wait. He opens on Saturday, Jan. 31 for punk-bluegrass band the Devil Makes Three at the Fox Theater in Oakland. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/joe-pug/\">Details and ticket information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/z6n2lgDLRRg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/z6n2lgDLRRg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout aligncenter noborder\">\n\u003ch3>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-10314942\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Habjouqa_Untitled_3-400x225.jpg\" alt=\"Habjouqa_Untitled_3\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Habjouqa_Untitled_3-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Habjouqa_Untitled_3-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Habjouqa_Untitled_3-1180x663.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Habjouqa_Untitled_3.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">She Who Tells a Story\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center presents \u003cem>She Who Tells a Story\u003c/em>, an exhibition of twelve female photographers from across Iran and the Arab world. With more than 80 works on display, \u003cem>She Who Tells a Story\u003c/em> showcases artists working in various styles and themes, including documentary, political, portraiture, and humor. The exhibition includes photography from Jananne Al-Ani, Boushra Almutawakel, Gohar Dashti, Rana El Nemr, Lalla Essaydi, Shadi Ghadirian, Tanya Habjouqa, Rula Halawani, Nermine Hammam, Rania Matar, Shirin Neshat, and Newsha Tavakolian. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/she-who-tells-a-story/\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout aligncenter noborder\">\n\u003ch3>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-10342937\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/SevenFingersCircus-400x225.jpg\" alt=\"Les 7 Doigts\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/SevenFingersCircus-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/SevenFingersCircus-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/SevenFingersCircus-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/SevenFingersCircus.jpg 1900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">Les 7 Doigts de la Main\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Les 7 Doigts de la Main is a Montreal-based circus troupe—unlike Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey (think: no animals), and more like a smaller, edgier Cirque du Soleil. The West Coast Premiere of \u003cem>Sequence 8\u003c/em> explores the theme of alienation on an intimate human scale, and is heavy on moody dance, theatrics, and acrobatics. Les 7 Doigts is led by Shana Carroll and Gypsy Snider. For those who miss the Pickle Family Circus, Gypsy is the daughter of Pickle founders Larry Pisoni and Peggy Snider. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/les-7-doigts-de-la-main/\">Details and ticket information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/CumFUHSUSGQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/CumFUHSUSGQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout aligncenter noborder\">\n\u003ch3>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-10339840\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/JackySFIndieFest-400x225.jpg\" alt=\"Jacky\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/JackySFIndieFest-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/JackySFIndieFest-800x451.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/JackySFIndieFest-1180x665.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/JackySFIndieFest.jpg 1296w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">SF Indie Film Fest\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The annual compilation of under-the-radar, off-the-beaten-path gems, SF Indiefest, offers tempting films for unorthodox thinkers. The French satire \u003cem>Jacky in the Kingdom of Women\u003c/em> (Feb. 15 and 19) unfolds in an upside-down country where women run the show and men are confined to the house and their improbable dreams. Sweden sends \u003cem>Aerobics: A Love Story\u003c/em> (Feb. 14 and 16), an uplifting drama about a mentally challenged woman, the man she falls for, and her domineering sister. For irony-steeped saccharine, nothing beats the power ballad sing-along (a.k.a. Anti-Valentine’s Day Mass Karaoke Party). SF Indiefest runs Feb. 5-19, 2015 at the Roxie and other venues. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/sf-indiefest/\">Details and ticket information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout aligncenter noborder\">\n\u003ch3>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-10342688\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/CP-400x225.jpg\" alt=\"CP\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/CP-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/CP.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">Chuck Prophet\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s nonstop songwriter Chuck Prophet crafted a wonderful ode to the city in his previous full-length \u003cem>Temple Beautiful\u003c/em>, but with his latest release, \u003cem>Night Surfer\u003c/em>, the longtime resident paints a more dystopian future. Live, Prophet and his Mission Express are thunderous, sentimental, thoughtful, loud and fun-loving—often in the course of the same song. That could have something to do with Prophet’s deep marination in rock history; in an interview with KQED, Prophet says he’s rewritten “Street Fighting Man” a hundred different ways, and it’s never let him down. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/chuck-prophet/\">Details and ticket information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"callout aligncenter noborder\">\n\u003ch3>New Frequencies Fest\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In a rare Bay Area appearance, the endlessly forward-thinking composer and saxophonist Henry Threadgill headlines the opening night of this unique jazz festival. While Threadgill brings his Double-Up group in a tribute to the composer Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, other nights include vocalist Anjélique Kidjo, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, guitarist Jenny Scheinman, saxophonist Matana Roberts and more. Appearing on many of the shows is pianist Myra Melford, co-curator of the festival, who with Isabel Yrigoyen deserves a hat tip for a lineup that effortlessly straddles jazz’s past and present. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/new-frequencies-fest/\">Details and ticket information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Boy Wonder Saves the Day in 'Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the World'",
"headTitle": "Boy Wonder Saves the Day in ‘Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the World’ | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>November 15, 2013 started off as an ordinary day in San Francisco, complete with blue skies and a collective sense that all was well in our fair city. That serenity was shattered when SF Police Chief Greg Suhr interrupted ABC7’s morning newscast with a desperate plea for help. San Franciscans were in danger, and only one person could save them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who answered that call?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Batkid, of course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Batkid, a.k.a. Miles Scott, stormed the city and social media that day dressed as a miniature version of DC Comic’s moody icon. With the help of his sidekick Batman, Batkid saved a distressed damsel who’d been tied to the cable car tracks in Russian Hill, defused a bomb that was set to detonate, and captured longtime rival the Riddler in the act of robbing a bank vault in the Financial District. After stopping for lunch in Union Square, the crime-fighting duo apprehended the Penguin, who’d attempted to kidnap the Giants mascot Lou Seal in a brazen getaway. Before thousands of cheering fans gathered at City Hall, Batkid was gratefully given a key to the city by Mayor Ed Lee and watched as a U.S. Department of Justice representative read conspiracy charges against vanquished villains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The whole glorious affair unfurled thanks to the hard work of the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Greater Bay Area Chapter and its army of volunteers; key partners Clever Girls Collective, Apple, and Twitter; and thousands of cheering fans who helped realize the wish of a child who had fought and defeated leukemia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10336849\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bat-Kid-Getty.jpg\" alt=\"Leukemia survivor Miles, 5, dressed as BatKid, and Batman release the San Francisco Giants mascot from the Penguin as part of a Make-A-Wish foundation fulfillment at AT&T Park November 15, 2013 in San Francisco. (Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"489\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10336849\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bat-Kid-Getty.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bat-Kid-Getty-400x306.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leukemia survivor Miles Scott, 5, dressed as BatKid, and Batman release the San Francisco Giants mascot from the Penguin as part of a Make-A-Wish foundation fulfillment at AT&T Park Nov. 15, 2013 in San Francisco. (Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Debuting this week at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.slamdance.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Slamdance Film Festival\u003c/a> in Park City, Utah, the documentary film \u003ci>Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the World\u003c/i> recounts Miles’ triumphant day spent ridding San Francisco of crime, and the potential of social networking to enable our most humane qualities. When filmmaker Dana Nachman and her partners at KTF Films became aware of Miles’ story, they got in touch with the \u003ca href=\"http://sf.wish.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Make-A-Wish Foundation\u003c/a>, who asked if a film could be produced and released to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the event. In spite of a dauntingly short turnaround schedule, Nachman said yes. KQED Arts caught up with the director as she prepared to leave for the festival and found out more about the film’s production and possible impact on audiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How did you hear about Miles Scott and his request to the Make-A-Wish Foundation?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I overheard some colleagues talking about Miles and wondered why this kid and his story made such a buzz. A fellow journalist also mentioned it in conversation and encouraged me to follow up with Make-A-Wish. We met with the Scott family, and found out that there was more than one production company that was interested in making a film. We got to know the family, and they agreed to work with us in making the film. I was amazed that so many people wanted to help, and we wanted to capture that spirit as well as Miles’ triumph.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can you speak about the short turnaround time in producing the film? What was the urgency?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10336855\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bat-Kid-Getty-2.jpg\" alt=\"Leukemia survivor Miles, 5, dressed as BatKid, and Batman release the San Francisco Giants mascot from the Penguin as part of a Make-A-Wish foundation fulfillment at AT&T Park November 15, 2013 in San Francisco. (Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"468\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10336855\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bat-Kid-Getty-2.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bat-Kid-Getty-2-400x293.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leukemia survivor Miles Scott, 5, dressed as BatKid, and Batman release the San Francisco Giants mascot from the Penguin as part of a Make-A-Wish foundation fulfillment at AT&T Park Nov. 15, 2013 in San Francisco. (Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We met with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and they were really interested in releasing the film on the one-year anniversary of the day, which was November 15, 2014. I’ve never worked on any project that took less than three years to complete, so this was a huge challenge for us. Maybe without thinking too clearly about what we were committing to, we said yes. It was a very busy 12 months, and what we ended up showing the Foundation was a representative draft cut, but it conveys everything we hoped to capture about Miles, his family, and the event itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can you speak about the social media component of promoting the event?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Make-A-Wish Foundation sent out an email to supporters one month before the day with the hope that a few hundred people would show up. The email went viral, and by the evening of November 14, there were 12,00 people signed up to volunteer. Some estimates suggest that as many as 25,000 people showed up to cheer Miles on at different points during the day. After reading about the upcoming event on SFist, \u003ca href=\"http://www.clevergirlscollective.com/\">Clever Girls Collective\u003c/a> reached out to the Foundation and offered their social media services pro bono, and before we knew it, Apple and Twitter were also on board with offers to help. (More information and insight about the impact of responsive social media can be found in the\u003ca href=\"http://www.fastcoexist.com/3022058/inside-the-social-media-strategy-that-made-batkid-go-viral\"> Fast Company article\u003c/a> released shortly after the event.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What attracts to you a subject? Do you consider this a departure from other films – \u003ci>Witch Hunt \u003c/i>(2008) and \u003ci>Love Hate Love \u003c/i>(2011) – that KTF Films produces?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Honestly, Batkid was a departure from other subjects that KTF Films has produced. The subject is lighter, not nearly as heavy or serious, which offered an emotional break. What attracted me to the subject was a desire to work on something new, something that would possibly appeal to my kids and to others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why does Miles’ story resonate with audiences in San Francisco and elsewhere?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10336858\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/batkid_4-e1422316150810.jpg\" alt=\"Scene from <i>Batkid Begins</i> from John Crane Films\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10336858\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scene from \u003ci>Batkid Begins\u003c/i> courtesy John Crane Films \u003ccite>( John Crane Films)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s an easy narrative to digest—a cute kid in costume who survived cancer and chemotherapy treatment in the first five years of his life. It celebrates his remission, and those stories are important to share. Eighty percent of the children who are helped by Make-A-Wish go on to lead healthy lives, which isn’t well known. The city of San Francisco seems to attract whimsy and bold action, and I think that audiences appreciate the “higher level” of what happened. We wanted to capture that in the film, and I think we succeeded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can you speak about your Indiegogo experience? Will you use crowd funding platforms as a means of financial support for future projects?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was really hard! Raising large-scale sums of money—upwards of $100,000 is what we needed and asked for in the campaign—is much more difficult than tapping friends and family and extended professional network for smaller dollar amounts. Managing the campaign was a job unto itself. Would I do it again? Yes, for both large and small-scale projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Have you kept in touch with Miles and his family? Any updates on his progress and overall health?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10336860\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 494px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/batkid_9.jpg\" alt=\"Scene from <i>Batkid Begins</i> from John Crane Films\" width=\"494\" height=\"741\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10336860\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/batkid_9.jpg 494w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/batkid_9-400x600.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scene from \u003ci>Batkid Begins\u003c/i> courtesy John Crane Films\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Miles is in remission, and he’s happy and healthy and in school. He’s not a talkative kid, so the “man of action, not words” appeal of Batman makes sense. His mother said that while he was in treatment, Miles was really interested in and talked a lot about superheroes. That they win and always work hard appealed to him, and when the Make-A-Wish Foundation stepped in to support his dream, he said he wanted to be superhero. The family chose San Francisco over other locations, such as their hometown or an amusement park, to make this happen. They’re a private family, not at all interested in exposure, and living in a small town is a reflection of that. The money donated to the Batkid Fund will support five San Francisco-based charities, and the family fully supports that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s next for you and KTF Films?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m working on a fiction piece, and our next feature film \u003ci>The Human Experiment\u003c/i>, which will debut on Earth Day 2015. At the moment, I’m focusing on representing \u003ci>Batkid Begins\u003c/i> at Slamdance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the World\u003c/i> screens at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 24 and 27. The festival runs through Jan. 29.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "We speak with the director of the upcoming documentary \u003ci>Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the World,\u003c/i> about the news story that cheered up a nation. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>November 15, 2013 started off as an ordinary day in San Francisco, complete with blue skies and a collective sense that all was well in our fair city. That serenity was shattered when SF Police Chief Greg Suhr interrupted ABC7’s morning newscast with a desperate plea for help. San Franciscans were in danger, and only one person could save them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who answered that call?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Batkid, of course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Batkid, a.k.a. Miles Scott, stormed the city and social media that day dressed as a miniature version of DC Comic’s moody icon. With the help of his sidekick Batman, Batkid saved a distressed damsel who’d been tied to the cable car tracks in Russian Hill, defused a bomb that was set to detonate, and captured longtime rival the Riddler in the act of robbing a bank vault in the Financial District. After stopping for lunch in Union Square, the crime-fighting duo apprehended the Penguin, who’d attempted to kidnap the Giants mascot Lou Seal in a brazen getaway. Before thousands of cheering fans gathered at City Hall, Batkid was gratefully given a key to the city by Mayor Ed Lee and watched as a U.S. Department of Justice representative read conspiracy charges against vanquished villains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The whole glorious affair unfurled thanks to the hard work of the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Greater Bay Area Chapter and its army of volunteers; key partners Clever Girls Collective, Apple, and Twitter; and thousands of cheering fans who helped realize the wish of a child who had fought and defeated leukemia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10336849\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bat-Kid-Getty.jpg\" alt=\"Leukemia survivor Miles, 5, dressed as BatKid, and Batman release the San Francisco Giants mascot from the Penguin as part of a Make-A-Wish foundation fulfillment at AT&T Park November 15, 2013 in San Francisco. (Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"489\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10336849\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bat-Kid-Getty.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bat-Kid-Getty-400x306.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leukemia survivor Miles Scott, 5, dressed as BatKid, and Batman release the San Francisco Giants mascot from the Penguin as part of a Make-A-Wish foundation fulfillment at AT&T Park Nov. 15, 2013 in San Francisco. (Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Debuting this week at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.slamdance.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Slamdance Film Festival\u003c/a> in Park City, Utah, the documentary film \u003ci>Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the World\u003c/i> recounts Miles’ triumphant day spent ridding San Francisco of crime, and the potential of social networking to enable our most humane qualities. When filmmaker Dana Nachman and her partners at KTF Films became aware of Miles’ story, they got in touch with the \u003ca href=\"http://sf.wish.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Make-A-Wish Foundation\u003c/a>, who asked if a film could be produced and released to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the event. In spite of a dauntingly short turnaround schedule, Nachman said yes. KQED Arts caught up with the director as she prepared to leave for the festival and found out more about the film’s production and possible impact on audiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How did you hear about Miles Scott and his request to the Make-A-Wish Foundation?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I overheard some colleagues talking about Miles and wondered why this kid and his story made such a buzz. A fellow journalist also mentioned it in conversation and encouraged me to follow up with Make-A-Wish. We met with the Scott family, and found out that there was more than one production company that was interested in making a film. We got to know the family, and they agreed to work with us in making the film. I was amazed that so many people wanted to help, and we wanted to capture that spirit as well as Miles’ triumph.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can you speak about the short turnaround time in producing the film? What was the urgency?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10336855\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bat-Kid-Getty-2.jpg\" alt=\"Leukemia survivor Miles, 5, dressed as BatKid, and Batman release the San Francisco Giants mascot from the Penguin as part of a Make-A-Wish foundation fulfillment at AT&T Park November 15, 2013 in San Francisco. (Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"468\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10336855\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bat-Kid-Getty-2.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bat-Kid-Getty-2-400x293.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leukemia survivor Miles Scott, 5, dressed as BatKid, and Batman release the San Francisco Giants mascot from the Penguin as part of a Make-A-Wish foundation fulfillment at AT&T Park Nov. 15, 2013 in San Francisco. (Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We met with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and they were really interested in releasing the film on the one-year anniversary of the day, which was November 15, 2014. I’ve never worked on any project that took less than three years to complete, so this was a huge challenge for us. Maybe without thinking too clearly about what we were committing to, we said yes. It was a very busy 12 months, and what we ended up showing the Foundation was a representative draft cut, but it conveys everything we hoped to capture about Miles, his family, and the event itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can you speak about the social media component of promoting the event?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Make-A-Wish Foundation sent out an email to supporters one month before the day with the hope that a few hundred people would show up. The email went viral, and by the evening of November 14, there were 12,00 people signed up to volunteer. Some estimates suggest that as many as 25,000 people showed up to cheer Miles on at different points during the day. After reading about the upcoming event on SFist, \u003ca href=\"http://www.clevergirlscollective.com/\">Clever Girls Collective\u003c/a> reached out to the Foundation and offered their social media services pro bono, and before we knew it, Apple and Twitter were also on board with offers to help. (More information and insight about the impact of responsive social media can be found in the\u003ca href=\"http://www.fastcoexist.com/3022058/inside-the-social-media-strategy-that-made-batkid-go-viral\"> Fast Company article\u003c/a> released shortly after the event.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What attracts to you a subject? Do you consider this a departure from other films – \u003ci>Witch Hunt \u003c/i>(2008) and \u003ci>Love Hate Love \u003c/i>(2011) – that KTF Films produces?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Honestly, Batkid was a departure from other subjects that KTF Films has produced. The subject is lighter, not nearly as heavy or serious, which offered an emotional break. What attracted me to the subject was a desire to work on something new, something that would possibly appeal to my kids and to others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why does Miles’ story resonate with audiences in San Francisco and elsewhere?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10336858\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/batkid_4-e1422316150810.jpg\" alt=\"Scene from <i>Batkid Begins</i> from John Crane Films\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10336858\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scene from \u003ci>Batkid Begins\u003c/i> courtesy John Crane Films \u003ccite>( John Crane Films)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s an easy narrative to digest—a cute kid in costume who survived cancer and chemotherapy treatment in the first five years of his life. It celebrates his remission, and those stories are important to share. Eighty percent of the children who are helped by Make-A-Wish go on to lead healthy lives, which isn’t well known. The city of San Francisco seems to attract whimsy and bold action, and I think that audiences appreciate the “higher level” of what happened. We wanted to capture that in the film, and I think we succeeded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can you speak about your Indiegogo experience? Will you use crowd funding platforms as a means of financial support for future projects?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was really hard! Raising large-scale sums of money—upwards of $100,000 is what we needed and asked for in the campaign—is much more difficult than tapping friends and family and extended professional network for smaller dollar amounts. Managing the campaign was a job unto itself. Would I do it again? Yes, for both large and small-scale projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Have you kept in touch with Miles and his family? Any updates on his progress and overall health?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10336860\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 494px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/batkid_9.jpg\" alt=\"Scene from <i>Batkid Begins</i> from John Crane Films\" width=\"494\" height=\"741\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10336860\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/batkid_9.jpg 494w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/batkid_9-400x600.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scene from \u003ci>Batkid Begins\u003c/i> courtesy John Crane Films\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Miles is in remission, and he’s happy and healthy and in school. He’s not a talkative kid, so the “man of action, not words” appeal of Batman makes sense. His mother said that while he was in treatment, Miles was really interested in and talked a lot about superheroes. That they win and always work hard appealed to him, and when the Make-A-Wish Foundation stepped in to support his dream, he said he wanted to be superhero. The family chose San Francisco over other locations, such as their hometown or an amusement park, to make this happen. They’re a private family, not at all interested in exposure, and living in a small town is a reflection of that. The money donated to the Batkid Fund will support five San Francisco-based charities, and the family fully supports that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s next for you and KTF Films?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m working on a fiction piece, and our next feature film \u003ci>The Human Experiment\u003c/i>, which will debut on Earth Day 2015. At the moment, I’m focusing on representing \u003ci>Batkid Begins\u003c/i> at Slamdance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Slam Poet Bob Holman Tracks Endangered Languages in New Film",
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"content": "\u003caside class=\"event-info alignright\">\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/the-do-list/\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/thedolist_icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/events/pick/language-matters-a-celebration-of-mother-tongues/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event Information\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch4>‘Language Matters’\u003c/h4>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Musical celebration and discussion of documentary film.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Jan. 24, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">The Exploratorium\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/events/pick/language-matters-a-celebration-of-mother-tongues/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Details and tickets\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.bobholman.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bob Holman\u003c/a> is a word man. His decades of frenetic activity in the slam poetry, hip-hop and spoken-word scenes once led Henry Louis Gates, Jr. to call him “the postmodern promoter who has done more to bring poetry to cafes and bars than anyone since Ferlinghetti.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Holman is pouring his love for words into a movement to save the world’s endangered languages. There are roughly 6,500 languages spoken around the world today; linguists estimate that by the end of the century, that number could be cut in half. That’s right: Some 3,000 languages could soon pass away from this sweet earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every language contains a singular way of looking at the world,” Holman tells me by email. “The brain may be infinite, but we’ve only been able to invent 6,000 of these ways of looking at things. To lose one of these is a tragedy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10316789\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Welsh-Folk-Singer_HI.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10316789 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Welsh-Folk-Singer_HI-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Aron Jones performing at the Y Tap Pub in Wales. Photo by James Callanan.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Welsh-Folk-Singer_HI-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Welsh-Folk-Singer_HI-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Welsh-Folk-Singer_HI-1180x786.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Welsh-Folk-Singer_HI.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aron Jones performing at the Y Tap Pub in Wales. (Photo: James Callanan)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The precipitous disappearance of mother tongues is the subject of \u003ca href=\"http://www.languagemattersfilm.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Language Matters with Bob Holman\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a new documentary by David Grubin that airs nationwide on PBS in January (Jan. 25, 6-8 pm on KQED). Holman and Grubin will be at \u003ca href=\"http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calendar/language-matters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Exploratorium on Saturday, Jan. 24,\u003c/a> to screen excerpts from the film with language activists from the Bay Area’s Hawaiian and Native American communities. The native rock band \u003ca href=\"http://newsfromnativecalifornia.com/blog/walan-amana/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Walan Amana\u003c/a> are slated to play music in the \u003ca href=\"http://www.native-languages.org/maidu.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nisenan\u003c/a> language from the Sierra Nevada, \u003ca href=\"http://ohlone.tumblr.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vincent Medina\u003c/a> will perform in Ohlone, a Bay Area Indian language, and Carolyn Melenani Kuali`i and other Hawaiian artists will sing and dance Hawaiian meles, or chants. Other linguistic surprises will be in store as well at the event, which is co-sponsored by Heyday Books, the Center for the Art of Translation, Pacific Islanders in Communications, and KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like shrinking biodiversity, the problem of endangered languages is shocking, but as the Exploratorium event will show, efforts to keep languages vital are profound and filled with joy. Imagine if the language in which your mother sang lullabies were no longer, or rarely spoken, and then one day people started to sing it again. (English is so dominant that it’s hard to imagine it disappearing, but if the language of “\u003ca href=\"http://www.lullaby-link.com/hush-little-baby.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hush Little Baby\u003c/a>” were to go away, I wouldn’t know my own soul.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holman’s journey into endangered language began with his hip-hop-oriented students who claimed that their writing was original, that they “just made shit up.” Holman explained that hip-hop could be better seen as a current iteration of the African-American oral tradition. To understand the lineage better, he journeyed to Africa where he encountered the griots, the poet-musicians and keepers of the West African oral tradition, and also learned about many languages that were endangered. “I owe it all to hip-hop,” Holman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>Language Matters\u003c/em>, Holman and Grubin travel to Australia, Wales and Hawaii to tell three in-depth stories about language’s threat, preservation and survival. In the Australian outback, we meet Charlie Mangulda, an aboriginal “song man,” or poet, who is the very last speaker of \u003ca href=\"http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/amg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amurdak\u003c/a>, as well as a remote island community of 400 in which 10 different languages are spoken, all in danger of fading out of existence. Then it’s on to Wales, where the feisty Welsh have managed to protect the kernel of their language in spite of centuries of English domination, and where the schools are now bilingual and the country hosts a hugely popular annual poetry competition in Welsh—essentially, their World Series. Finally, in Hawaii, we learn how one Hawaiian-only elementary school founded in the ’80s has helped incubate a resurgence of Hawaiian language and culture that had been in danger of disappearing since the United States toppled Queen Liliuokalani in 1898.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Maui, Holman talks with the great 87-year-old poet/translator/Buddhist monk W.S. Merwin, who reflects on what is lost when languages disappear. “Where will meanings be,” Merwin asks, “when the words are forgotten?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holman’s journey contains a lot of music, because music, song and dance are the memory banks for language. Although Charlie Mangulda is the last Amurdak speaker, bits of the language have migrated into other “song men’s” songs. In Hawaii, language was preserved in the chants that accompany every hula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10316794\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bob-on-Stage-at-Stomp_HI.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10316794 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bob-on-Stage-at-Stomp_HI-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Bob Holman performing in The Stomp at the 2012 Eisteddfod in Wales. Photo by David Grubin.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bob-on-Stage-at-Stomp_HI-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bob-on-Stage-at-Stomp_HI-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bob-on-Stage-at-Stomp_HI-1180x786.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bob-on-Stage-at-Stomp_HI.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bob Holman performing in The Stomp at the 2012 Eisteddfod in Wales. (Photo: David Grubin)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the film, Holman is an infectious participant journalist, sharing his poet’s heart with the people he meets. In Cardiff, he even writes a poem in Welsh and competes in the local poetry slam. (Spoiler alert: He doesn’t win.) But as Gwyneth Lewis, the former national poet of Wales, says in the film, “Language should be a meeting place.” That point is certainly felt in the film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Globalization made it possible for Holman and Grubin to buzz around the world and make \u003cem>Language Matters\u003c/em>. But the same wired world of global travel and instant communication that many of us enjoy has also led to cultural homogenization and a battle of “just trying to preserve our own identities,” Holman tells me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Thinking that language is solely a means of communication, having big languages gobble up smaller ones—we are losing what it means to be human,” says Holman. “No Pringleazation! Humans aren’t all the same shaped potato chip! We refuse to fit in a tube!”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"event-info alignright\">\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/the-do-list/\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/thedolist_icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/events/pick/language-matters-a-celebration-of-mother-tongues/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event Information\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch4>‘Language Matters’\u003c/h4>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-desc\">Musical celebration and discussion of documentary film.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-dates\">\n\u003ch4>Jan. 24, 2015\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"event-venue\">The Exploratorium\u003c/div>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/events/pick/language-matters-a-celebration-of-mother-tongues/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Details and tickets\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.bobholman.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bob Holman\u003c/a> is a word man. His decades of frenetic activity in the slam poetry, hip-hop and spoken-word scenes once led Henry Louis Gates, Jr. to call him “the postmodern promoter who has done more to bring poetry to cafes and bars than anyone since Ferlinghetti.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Holman is pouring his love for words into a movement to save the world’s endangered languages. There are roughly 6,500 languages spoken around the world today; linguists estimate that by the end of the century, that number could be cut in half. That’s right: Some 3,000 languages could soon pass away from this sweet earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every language contains a singular way of looking at the world,” Holman tells me by email. “The brain may be infinite, but we’ve only been able to invent 6,000 of these ways of looking at things. To lose one of these is a tragedy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10316789\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Welsh-Folk-Singer_HI.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10316789 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Welsh-Folk-Singer_HI-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Aron Jones performing at the Y Tap Pub in Wales. Photo by James Callanan.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Welsh-Folk-Singer_HI-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Welsh-Folk-Singer_HI-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Welsh-Folk-Singer_HI-1180x786.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Welsh-Folk-Singer_HI.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aron Jones performing at the Y Tap Pub in Wales. (Photo: James Callanan)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The precipitous disappearance of mother tongues is the subject of \u003ca href=\"http://www.languagemattersfilm.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Language Matters with Bob Holman\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a new documentary by David Grubin that airs nationwide on PBS in January (Jan. 25, 6-8 pm on KQED). Holman and Grubin will be at \u003ca href=\"http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calendar/language-matters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Exploratorium on Saturday, Jan. 24,\u003c/a> to screen excerpts from the film with language activists from the Bay Area’s Hawaiian and Native American communities. The native rock band \u003ca href=\"http://newsfromnativecalifornia.com/blog/walan-amana/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Walan Amana\u003c/a> are slated to play music in the \u003ca href=\"http://www.native-languages.org/maidu.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nisenan\u003c/a> language from the Sierra Nevada, \u003ca href=\"http://ohlone.tumblr.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vincent Medina\u003c/a> will perform in Ohlone, a Bay Area Indian language, and Carolyn Melenani Kuali`i and other Hawaiian artists will sing and dance Hawaiian meles, or chants. Other linguistic surprises will be in store as well at the event, which is co-sponsored by Heyday Books, the Center for the Art of Translation, Pacific Islanders in Communications, and KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like shrinking biodiversity, the problem of endangered languages is shocking, but as the Exploratorium event will show, efforts to keep languages vital are profound and filled with joy. Imagine if the language in which your mother sang lullabies were no longer, or rarely spoken, and then one day people started to sing it again. (English is so dominant that it’s hard to imagine it disappearing, but if the language of “\u003ca href=\"http://www.lullaby-link.com/hush-little-baby.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hush Little Baby\u003c/a>” were to go away, I wouldn’t know my own soul.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holman’s journey into endangered language began with his hip-hop-oriented students who claimed that their writing was original, that they “just made shit up.” Holman explained that hip-hop could be better seen as a current iteration of the African-American oral tradition. To understand the lineage better, he journeyed to Africa where he encountered the griots, the poet-musicians and keepers of the West African oral tradition, and also learned about many languages that were endangered. “I owe it all to hip-hop,” Holman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>Language Matters\u003c/em>, Holman and Grubin travel to Australia, Wales and Hawaii to tell three in-depth stories about language’s threat, preservation and survival. In the Australian outback, we meet Charlie Mangulda, an aboriginal “song man,” or poet, who is the very last speaker of \u003ca href=\"http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/amg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amurdak\u003c/a>, as well as a remote island community of 400 in which 10 different languages are spoken, all in danger of fading out of existence. Then it’s on to Wales, where the feisty Welsh have managed to protect the kernel of their language in spite of centuries of English domination, and where the schools are now bilingual and the country hosts a hugely popular annual poetry competition in Welsh—essentially, their World Series. Finally, in Hawaii, we learn how one Hawaiian-only elementary school founded in the ’80s has helped incubate a resurgence of Hawaiian language and culture that had been in danger of disappearing since the United States toppled Queen Liliuokalani in 1898.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Maui, Holman talks with the great 87-year-old poet/translator/Buddhist monk W.S. Merwin, who reflects on what is lost when languages disappear. “Where will meanings be,” Merwin asks, “when the words are forgotten?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holman’s journey contains a lot of music, because music, song and dance are the memory banks for language. Although Charlie Mangulda is the last Amurdak speaker, bits of the language have migrated into other “song men’s” songs. In Hawaii, language was preserved in the chants that accompany every hula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10316794\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bob-on-Stage-at-Stomp_HI.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10316794 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bob-on-Stage-at-Stomp_HI-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Bob Holman performing in The Stomp at the 2012 Eisteddfod in Wales. Photo by David Grubin.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bob-on-Stage-at-Stomp_HI-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bob-on-Stage-at-Stomp_HI-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bob-on-Stage-at-Stomp_HI-1180x786.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/Bob-on-Stage-at-Stomp_HI.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bob Holman performing in The Stomp at the 2012 Eisteddfod in Wales. (Photo: David Grubin)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the film, Holman is an infectious participant journalist, sharing his poet’s heart with the people he meets. In Cardiff, he even writes a poem in Welsh and competes in the local poetry slam. (Spoiler alert: He doesn’t win.) But as Gwyneth Lewis, the former national poet of Wales, says in the film, “Language should be a meeting place.” That point is certainly felt in the film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Globalization made it possible for Holman and Grubin to buzz around the world and make \u003cem>Language Matters\u003c/em>. But the same wired world of global travel and instant communication that many of us enjoy has also led to cultural homogenization and a battle of “just trying to preserve our own identities,” Holman tells me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Thinking that language is solely a means of communication, having big languages gobble up smaller ones—we are losing what it means to be human,” says Holman. “No Pringleazation! Humans aren’t all the same shaped potato chip! We refuse to fit in a tube!”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Future Now: Pass the Gasoline and Praise the Profit",
"headTitle": "The Future Now: Pass the Gasoline and Praise the Profit | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Humanity is a future-oriented species. It’s an evolutionary advantage that took us from running the plains of the savanna in pursuit of prey to the first settlements of hunters and gatherers. Our ability to conceive of a time other than the present, and to project our lives into the time is part and parcel of who we are. We make \u003cem>plans\u003c/em>. They may not always pan out, but by the time we finish, we’ve generally forgotten the goal in our haste to create new futures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this year, 2015, like pretty much any year past \u003cem>1984\u003c/em>, has been foretold. What might feel to us like everyday reality was for those of the past, including many still alive and kicking, an all-too-imaginable future. The stories crafted out of those visions of the future tell us more about the past than they ever told their own present about the imagined future. Until someone invents a time machine, or pops back from the future in one (Doc Brown, where \u003cem>are\u003c/em> you?), science fiction set in any future will almost always be about the present in which the work is written.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/flying_marty.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10277753 alignright\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/flying_marty.jpg\" alt=\"flying_marty\" width=\"400\" height=\"561\">\u003c/a>That said, some people get it right, and others manage to be at least entertaining. The tease factor of these visions can be irresistible. Forget your flying cars and jetpacks—who couldn’t want a flying skateboard from 1989’s \u003cem>Back to the Future, Part II\u003c/em>? It’s the best pedestal that freedom could hope to have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve been looking forward to 2015 for a long time. Yet we’ll spend a fair amount of it thinking about the future yet to unfold, the greener grass (or lack thereof) on the other side of the day after tomorrow. As we begin our journey into what seems like an entirely all-too-predictable future, we’re well advised to take a look at what we were expecting. In short: not this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And because we so admire freedom, especially in the form of a flying skateboard, we’ll rate those visions of today from the past in skateboards, from zero (Wipeout!) to ten (Hang ten!). We won’t always base our judgment on the accuracy of those predictions for today, either. Science fiction is better at predicting the present than the future, and make no mistake, entertainment value and troublemaking ability matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/zemeckis-back_to_the_future_2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10277750\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/zemeckis-back_to_the_future_2.jpg\" alt=\"zemeckis-back_to_the_future_2\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/zemeckis-back_to_the_future_2.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/zemeckis-back_to_the_future_2-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Back to the Future, Part II\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>Written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale; directed by Robert Zemeckis (1989)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As much as I trend towards formatting these lists alphabetically by the author’s last name, this time we’ll go in reverse, in honor of the source of our skateboards. Since \u003cem>Back to the Future\u003c/em> left off in basically the middle of the story, this part picks up shortly after the ending of Part I, and before you can say “Fasten your seat belt,” Zemeckis has transported viewers some 26 years into the future. As much as we may lament the absence of flying skateboards in our present (other than in this movie), Zemeckis and his team nonetheless did a good job crafting the atmosphere, if not the actuality, of today’s 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Back to the Future, Part II\u003c/em> shows a messy, dystopian America. And while the purveyors of the teen dystopian serials might have us think we’ve got it good, by many measures, we are living in a chaotic dystopia. \u003cem>And we don’t even have flying skateboards to compensate\u003c/em>. Say what you will to the science fiction purity of this movie—it’s clearly a fun-filled fantasy—but Zemeckis and Gale took the pulse of 1985 and coughed up a 2015 that was highly entertaining, inspiring, even, and not without some prickly sharp observations of that which we’d prefer \u003cem>not\u003c/em> to think about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: 10 Skateboards—Hang Ten. You can still watch this movie and make the bleak future they show a bit more fun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/vonnegut-player_piano.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10277749 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/vonnegut-player_piano.jpg\" alt=\"vonnegut-player_piano\" width=\"400\" height=\"590\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Player Piano\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>By Kurt Vonnegut (1952)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>One of America’s great minds of the twentieth century began his career some 63 years ago with a novel set “sometime after a third world war.” This is a common call in early visions of the future, and quite important. It speaks to a deep-seated pessimism that colors how we see what is to come. But that’s not the worst part of the deal in \u003cem>Player Piano\u003c/em>. Vonnegut, who wrote the book while he was employed at GE, was unfortunately clear on where technology was headed. In an interview about the book, he said, “\u003cem>Player Piano\u003c/em> was my response to the implications of having everything run by little boxes. The idea of doing that, you know, made sense, perfect sense. To have a little clicking box make all the decisions wasn’t a vicious thing to do. But it was too bad for the human beings who got their dignity from their jobs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The boxes are smaller that Vonnegut might have imagined, but he’s got the income gap and the demolished middle class about right. He also treats all this with a foretaste of the mordant sense of humor that would infuse and inform his later works. Reading \u003cem>Player Piano\u003c/em> today (and you should, even if they ditched the nifty jacket for the first edition), one can see just how much Vonnegut got so chillingly right. Oh, the details may be different, but the feel of America is here in spades. Toss in a subplot about a traveling Shah, and you have the perfect recipe for nightmares and laughter. The proportion between the two will depend on your place in the Luxury Gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: Nine Skateboards. Ready for Maverick’s, Kurt!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/robinson-global_warming_trilogy.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10277745\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/robinson-global_warming_trilogy.jpg\" alt=\"robinson-global_warming_trilogy\" width=\"800\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/robinson-global_warming_trilogy.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/robinson-global_warming_trilogy-400x208.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below and Sixty Days and Counting\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>By Kim Stanley Robinson (2005-2007)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Leave it to Kim Stanley Robinson, the maverick from Davis, to offer up a science-fiction trilogy about global warming that’s mostly a domestic comedy. Robinson is no stranger to dystopia; he once told me that “We’re \u003cem>living\u003c/em> in a bad science fiction novel”—words to hold close in these long cold nights. The books make great company as well, as they offer up a smart recombination of humorous insights into the dynamics of marriage, government, society and the environment of the whole damn planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The through line in these novels is Charlie Quibler, a midlevel scientist trying to convince politicians that yes, the sky is blue, and yes, the world is getting warmer faster because humanity has pioneered a means of pumping bucket-loads of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, and yes, we’d be well-advised to do something about it before we’re, well, extinct. Robinson crafts great characters, including a President beleaguered by opposition to anything that does not maximize donor corporate profit. Will he succeed? Just look around. Or better still, read Robinson’s engaging narratives and immerse yourself in a world where science matters and some facts prove to matter as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: Nine Skateboards. A three-wave ride through the rip curls of family, science and politics. Phew!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Listen to conversations with Kim Stanley Robinson about these books \u003ca href=\"http://bookotron.com/agony/audio/ks_robinson.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://bookotron.com/agony/audio/ks_robinson_2006_part_1.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://bookotron.com/agony/audio/ks_robinson_2006_part_2.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://bookotron.com/agony/audio/2007/2007-news/090507-ks_robinson.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/firebird_2015ad.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10277740 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/firebird_2015ad-394x600.jpg\" alt=\"firebird_2015ad\" width=\"394\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/firebird_2015ad-394x600.jpg 394w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/firebird_2015ad.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 394px) 100vw, 394px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Firebird 2015 A.D.\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>Screenplay by Barry Pearson, Maurice Hurley and Biff McGuire; Directed by David M. Robertson\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This is not a great work of art. It’s not a great movie, and not even a good Douglas McClure movie when compared with his classics like \u003cem>At the Earth’s Core\u003c/em>. But it does name-check this year, and more importantly, shows the import of limitations when trying to peer into the future. Having no budget, no new ideas, and probably working from one of those plan-to-lose-money schemes, our three intrepid screenwriters still somehow manage to put their finger into an ugly bit of the American psyche. (Today, to a certain crowd, this might seem like reality TV.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a time when Mitch McConnell was the top dog in Jefferson County, John Boehner was cost-cutting his way through his time as the man in charge of Nucite Sales, and the Tea Party was just a gleam in the Koch Brothers’ eyes, Barry, Maurice and Biff took America’s temperature and came up with “burners.” Not burners as in Burning Man, but rather those still willing to drive their sports cars when the President of the U. S. of A. declares gas-burning automobiles \u003cem>illegal\u003c/em>—giving birth to \u003cem>Firebird 2015 A.D.\u003c/em>. The writers were canny to push forward culture instead of technology. They may have ignored technology because their movie had no budget, but that limitation forced to them to work with what they had. Theirs was the American Ugly right after the Gas Crises of the 1970’s: rev it, crack a six-pack, and try to stay awake through endless desert car chases. \u003cem>Firebird 2015 A.D.\u003c/em> is not unlike the traffic you’ll be fighting. And to be honest, 1981 looks a lot like 2015… without the distracted driving, that is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: Three skateboards, never got off the ground, but thanks for trying. Might have been two skateboards, but with they get one for having Biff on board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/heinlein-stranger_in_a_strange_land.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10277742 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/heinlein-stranger_in_a_strange_land-399x600.jpg\" alt=\"heinlein-stranger_in_a_strange_land\" width=\"399\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/heinlein-stranger_in_a_strange_land-399x600.jpg 399w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/heinlein-stranger_in_a_strange_land.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Stranger in a Strange Land\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>By Robert A. Heinlein (1961)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Robert A. Heinlein is a divisive figure in the world of fiction, and science fiction in particular. And in these divisive times, he still matters. No matter how unpleasant his perspectives may have been, he was always a keen observer of our culture. Moreover, he was quite adept at using science fiction to expose things in a manner that upset a lot of people, entertained a lot of people, and still makes us think to this day. \u003cem>Stranger in a Strange Land\u003c/em> was originally conceived as a science fiction spin on \u003cem>The Jungle Book\u003c/em>, but Heinlein took it to typically extreme lengths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once again, there’s a post-WW III setting, which we’ll conveniently assign the fixed date of 2015. I think Heinlein of 1961 would have grokked that date, and in fact that word (which means “to intuitively and completely understand something”) is now a part of our vocabulary. Heinlein’s Mowgli, Michael Valentine Smith, raised by Martians, returns to Earth with psychic powers that turn him into a religious figure. Heinlein’s vision of politicized religion, power, and pop culture was all right on, even if his predictions about World War were (understandably) wrong. Heinlein’s views are to many sensibilities abhorrent. But—just look around. He had the vibe nailed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: Seven skateboards. A good flight, but a little too much baggage for most of us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/fringe-freedom.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10277754\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/fringe-freedom.jpg\" alt=\"fringe-freedom\" width=\"576\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/fringe-freedom.jpg 576w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/fringe-freedom-400x189.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>“Letters of Transit,” \u003cem>Fringe\u003c/em>, Season 4, Episode 19\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>Written by Akiva Goldsman, J. H. Wyman], Jeff Pinkner; Directed by Joe Chappelle (2012)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the run of this show that was itself very peculiar, generally in the best possible way, “Letters of Transit,” the one episode set in the dystopian future of 2015, was more peculiar than most. Credit that to co-creator J.J. Abrams and executive producer Pinkner, both from the ABC series \u003cem>Lost\u003c/em>. Goldsman, who won an Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the 2001 (another iconic date!) movie \u003cem>A Beautiful Mind\u003c/em>, brings in the heavyweight considerations. While the story arc for this show is not in any way suitable for summary, let us simplify and say that this was the episode in which the Observers, humanity’s distant descendents, having wrecked the earth in the future, pop back to 2015 when things were still good. Then they enslave the humanity of our time—that is, us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Global warming, global oppression; even just three years ago, it might have seemed a bit outré. But to many, at this point, the Observers might look pretty good. Moreover, the show captures and exaggerates to great effect the feeling that our present feels unpleasantly futuristic. It’s not Alvin Toffler’s famous \u003cem>Future Shock\u003c/em> so much as it is future nausea. We feel woozy and confused, and not in a good way. Available via the futuristic platform of “streaming,” the entire run of \u003cem>Fringe\u003c/em> is worth binge-watching.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And you thought you had to \u003cem>wait\u003c/em> for the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: Eight skateboards. A solid ride with lots of TV parking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/egan_a_visit_from_the_goon_squad.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10277739 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/egan_a_visit_from_the_goon_squad.jpg\" alt=\"egan_a_visit_from_the_goon_squad\" width=\"400\" height=\"587\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Visit from the Goon Squad\n\u003ch2>\n\u003ch3>By Jennifer Egan\u003c/h3>\n\u003c/h2>\u003c/h2>\u003cp>Future histories that begin in the past are time-tested. Robert A. Heinlein devoted a large portion of his oeuvre to them, and Jennifer Egan’s masterpiece \u003cem>A Visit from the Goon Squad\u003c/em> is a superb, moving vision that begins in San Francisco during the punk rock years and ends up in the 2020s. \u003cem>A Visit from the Goon Squad\u003c/em> is a literary triumph that is about ten thousand times more entertaining than most fiction tagged with the “L” word. Using intricately interlocked narratives, Egan jumps back and forth in time to craft a vision of the past and the present that is peopled by characters so achingly real that when she heads out into the future, we buy it without question. This is the book that makes \u003cem>Powerpoint\u003c/em> poignant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As with the best science fiction, Egan crafts great characters, and deploys them with insights into our culture and our morals and ethics that are both understated and overwhelming. She fires on all cylinders as her broken musicians, parents, sons, and daughters scatter around the world. She’s smart enough to see the almost universally ignored truth about prognostication: that the future does not replace the present. It is instead heaped on top of it, mixed with it, until one dissolves into another and one day, we’re standing on the Golden Gate Bridge, talking on a cell phone and thinking, “My six year-old self would have \u003cem>loved\u003c/em> to know this was in store for me.” As for pros, the SF world ignored this book, while the rest went on to give it the Pulitzer Prize, proving that sometimes, the future \u003cem>does\u003c/em> get it right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: 10 skateboards. Books still matter!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hear a conversation with Jennifer Egan about\u003cem> A Visit from the Goon Squad\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://bookotron.com/agony/audio/2010/2010-interviews/jennifer_egan-2010.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/clarke-profies_of_the_future.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10277738 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/clarke-profies_of_the_future-352x600.jpg\" alt=\"clarke-profies_of_the_future\" width=\"352\" height=\"600\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Profiles of the Future\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>Arthur C. Clarke, 1962\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Arthur C. Clarke had a rocking track record when he wrote this book in 1962. He’d predicted (which is to say invented, without profit or copyright) the communications satellite while barely into his 20s, in 1945. By 1960, he was a respected futurist (a real thing by then, which he also helped invent) and science fiction writer. In 1961, he published a work on non-fiction futurology, \u003cem>Profiles of the Future\u003c/em>, required reading for a generation of kids growing up on rocket launches and America’s nascent space program. A mere eight years later, he’d collaborate with Stanley Kubrick on \u003cem>2001\u003c/em>, easily one of the greatest science-fiction works ever created.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003cem>Profiles of the Future\u003c/em> is not science fiction. One might expect he’d thus get it wrong, but looking at his timeline tells another story. Importantly, this is the first time Clarke stated his \u003cem>Three Laws\u003c/em>. They still apply today:\u003c/p>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/clarke-future_detail_scan.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-10277751\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/clarke-future_detail_scan-425x600.jpg\" alt=\"clarke-future_detail_scan\" width=\"425\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/clarke-future_detail_scan-425x600.jpg 425w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/clarke-future_detail_scan.jpg 574w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 425px) 100vw, 425px\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nTechnologically, his timeline is eerily prescient. As a young lad, I remember reading this book with the (Using the Terminology of the Future, Johnny) “takeaway” that we humans had better get around to inventing a decent battery. We’re still at it! Ultimately, Clarke nailed any future in one sentence: “The only thing that we can be sure of the future is that it will be absolutely fantastic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: 10 Skateboards and a magic iPhone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/bacigalupi-the_doubt_factory.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10277736 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/bacigalupi-the_doubt_factory.jpg\" alt=\"bacigalupi-the_doubt_factory\" width=\"300\" height=\"453\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Doubt Factory\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>By Paolo Bacigalupi (2014)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>While science fiction is supposed to be good at predicting the future, its real strength is to be found, as Cory Doctorow says, in its revelation of the present. Paolo Bacigalupi has written plenty of science fiction set in our future. \u003cem>The Doubt Factory\u003c/em>, his current-day YA novel, is not a dystopia (per se), but instead a toe-tapping tale of corporate misdeeds that adults should read both for entertainment value and to get a science-fiction take on the present and recent past that is more mind-boggling than a dozen detonated post-apocalyptic doom zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alix Banks is not a normal teenager, exactly. She’s pretty damn far to the right-hand side of that Luxury Gap. She attends a costly private school and lives in a wealthy neighborhood with her noisy but engaging family. Her father, however, is in the business of casting doubt on science in order to preserve corporate profits. Bacigalupi manages to weave in the sordid story of thousands of child deaths needlessly caused by Reyes syndrome. When it’s done kicking your reading butt, \u003cem>The Doubt Factory\u003c/em> will leave you with a prescient vision of the present. It will not make you happy, even if it does entertain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: Nine skateboards. It’s that good. Do you doubt me?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hear a conversation with Paolo Bacigalupi \u003ca href=\"http://bookotron.com/agony/audio/2014/2014-interviews/paolo_bacigalupi-2014.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/runarond-asimov.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10277748 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/runarond-asimov.jpg\" alt=\"runarond-asimov\" width=\"373\" height=\"512\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Runaround\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>By Isaac Asimov (1942)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Here’s the 2015 many were hoping for back in the day before it was clearly not going to happen. America is on the planet Mercury, busily trying to restart a mining operation abandoned ten years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s put this in perspective. We were \u003cem>walking on the moon in 1972\u003c/em>. Is there any reason, other than a preoccupation with, what, a world’s war worth of mini-wars, and consummate greediness, that we could not expect to be mining on Mercury some 43 years later? We pretty much had the technology \u003cem>then\u003c/em>. What we lacked was the cultural fiber to do so, which is why cultural science fiction tends to get it right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/runarond-asimov-interior_ill.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10277755 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/runarond-asimov-interior_ill.jpg\" alt=\"runarond-asimov-interior_ill\" width=\"309\" height=\"442\">\u003c/a>But Asimov, writing in the midst of World War II, was serenely and technologically optimistic. \u003cem>Runaround\u003c/em> finds Powell, Donovan and Robot SPD-13 (“Speedy”) realizing the “photo-cell banks” are about to die. Speedy is sent to fix them, but instead ends up circling them. The reason for this is another set of three famous laws from science fiction, introduced here for the first time, Asimov’s Laws of Robotics:\u003c/p>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cp>While Asimov essentially got everything else wrong, he got these so right we still have them with us today. Now \u003cem>that\u003c/em> is prognostication beyond the call of duty, when you split the difference between predicting and inventing the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: 10 skateboards that may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Step back from this list, and from the “bad science fiction novel” that is your life, and you’ll see the import and the danger of prognostications of the future. In fact, turn it around, and you’ll realize, that, as William Gibson suggested, the \u003cem>past\u003c/em> is just about as fantastic to those of us in the present as the future. We live in this moment. We’d best make the most of it.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "We've been looking forward to 2015 for a long time. And like pretty much any year past \u003cem>1984\u003c/em>, what is expected to occur this year has been foretold multiple times.",
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"description": "We've been looking forward to 2015 for a long time. And like pretty much any year past 1984, what is expected to occur this year has been foretold multiple times.",
"title": "The Future Now: Pass the Gasoline and Praise the Profit | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Humanity is a future-oriented species. It’s an evolutionary advantage that took us from running the plains of the savanna in pursuit of prey to the first settlements of hunters and gatherers. Our ability to conceive of a time other than the present, and to project our lives into the time is part and parcel of who we are. We make \u003cem>plans\u003c/em>. They may not always pan out, but by the time we finish, we’ve generally forgotten the goal in our haste to create new futures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this year, 2015, like pretty much any year past \u003cem>1984\u003c/em>, has been foretold. What might feel to us like everyday reality was for those of the past, including many still alive and kicking, an all-too-imaginable future. The stories crafted out of those visions of the future tell us more about the past than they ever told their own present about the imagined future. Until someone invents a time machine, or pops back from the future in one (Doc Brown, where \u003cem>are\u003c/em> you?), science fiction set in any future will almost always be about the present in which the work is written.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/flying_marty.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10277753 alignright\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/flying_marty.jpg\" alt=\"flying_marty\" width=\"400\" height=\"561\">\u003c/a>That said, some people get it right, and others manage to be at least entertaining. The tease factor of these visions can be irresistible. Forget your flying cars and jetpacks—who couldn’t want a flying skateboard from 1989’s \u003cem>Back to the Future, Part II\u003c/em>? It’s the best pedestal that freedom could hope to have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve been looking forward to 2015 for a long time. Yet we’ll spend a fair amount of it thinking about the future yet to unfold, the greener grass (or lack thereof) on the other side of the day after tomorrow. As we begin our journey into what seems like an entirely all-too-predictable future, we’re well advised to take a look at what we were expecting. In short: not this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And because we so admire freedom, especially in the form of a flying skateboard, we’ll rate those visions of today from the past in skateboards, from zero (Wipeout!) to ten (Hang ten!). We won’t always base our judgment on the accuracy of those predictions for today, either. Science fiction is better at predicting the present than the future, and make no mistake, entertainment value and troublemaking ability matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/zemeckis-back_to_the_future_2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10277750\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/zemeckis-back_to_the_future_2.jpg\" alt=\"zemeckis-back_to_the_future_2\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/zemeckis-back_to_the_future_2.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/zemeckis-back_to_the_future_2-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Back to the Future, Part II\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>Written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale; directed by Robert Zemeckis (1989)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As much as I trend towards formatting these lists alphabetically by the author’s last name, this time we’ll go in reverse, in honor of the source of our skateboards. Since \u003cem>Back to the Future\u003c/em> left off in basically the middle of the story, this part picks up shortly after the ending of Part I, and before you can say “Fasten your seat belt,” Zemeckis has transported viewers some 26 years into the future. As much as we may lament the absence of flying skateboards in our present (other than in this movie), Zemeckis and his team nonetheless did a good job crafting the atmosphere, if not the actuality, of today’s 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Back to the Future, Part II\u003c/em> shows a messy, dystopian America. And while the purveyors of the teen dystopian serials might have us think we’ve got it good, by many measures, we are living in a chaotic dystopia. \u003cem>And we don’t even have flying skateboards to compensate\u003c/em>. Say what you will to the science fiction purity of this movie—it’s clearly a fun-filled fantasy—but Zemeckis and Gale took the pulse of 1985 and coughed up a 2015 that was highly entertaining, inspiring, even, and not without some prickly sharp observations of that which we’d prefer \u003cem>not\u003c/em> to think about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: 10 Skateboards—Hang Ten. You can still watch this movie and make the bleak future they show a bit more fun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/vonnegut-player_piano.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10277749 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/vonnegut-player_piano.jpg\" alt=\"vonnegut-player_piano\" width=\"400\" height=\"590\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Player Piano\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>By Kurt Vonnegut (1952)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>One of America’s great minds of the twentieth century began his career some 63 years ago with a novel set “sometime after a third world war.” This is a common call in early visions of the future, and quite important. It speaks to a deep-seated pessimism that colors how we see what is to come. But that’s not the worst part of the deal in \u003cem>Player Piano\u003c/em>. Vonnegut, who wrote the book while he was employed at GE, was unfortunately clear on where technology was headed. In an interview about the book, he said, “\u003cem>Player Piano\u003c/em> was my response to the implications of having everything run by little boxes. The idea of doing that, you know, made sense, perfect sense. To have a little clicking box make all the decisions wasn’t a vicious thing to do. But it was too bad for the human beings who got their dignity from their jobs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The boxes are smaller that Vonnegut might have imagined, but he’s got the income gap and the demolished middle class about right. He also treats all this with a foretaste of the mordant sense of humor that would infuse and inform his later works. Reading \u003cem>Player Piano\u003c/em> today (and you should, even if they ditched the nifty jacket for the first edition), one can see just how much Vonnegut got so chillingly right. Oh, the details may be different, but the feel of America is here in spades. Toss in a subplot about a traveling Shah, and you have the perfect recipe for nightmares and laughter. The proportion between the two will depend on your place in the Luxury Gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: Nine Skateboards. Ready for Maverick’s, Kurt!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/robinson-global_warming_trilogy.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10277745\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/robinson-global_warming_trilogy.jpg\" alt=\"robinson-global_warming_trilogy\" width=\"800\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/robinson-global_warming_trilogy.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/robinson-global_warming_trilogy-400x208.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below and Sixty Days and Counting\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>By Kim Stanley Robinson (2005-2007)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Leave it to Kim Stanley Robinson, the maverick from Davis, to offer up a science-fiction trilogy about global warming that’s mostly a domestic comedy. Robinson is no stranger to dystopia; he once told me that “We’re \u003cem>living\u003c/em> in a bad science fiction novel”—words to hold close in these long cold nights. The books make great company as well, as they offer up a smart recombination of humorous insights into the dynamics of marriage, government, society and the environment of the whole damn planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The through line in these novels is Charlie Quibler, a midlevel scientist trying to convince politicians that yes, the sky is blue, and yes, the world is getting warmer faster because humanity has pioneered a means of pumping bucket-loads of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, and yes, we’d be well-advised to do something about it before we’re, well, extinct. Robinson crafts great characters, including a President beleaguered by opposition to anything that does not maximize donor corporate profit. Will he succeed? Just look around. Or better still, read Robinson’s engaging narratives and immerse yourself in a world where science matters and some facts prove to matter as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: Nine Skateboards. A three-wave ride through the rip curls of family, science and politics. Phew!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Listen to conversations with Kim Stanley Robinson about these books \u003ca href=\"http://bookotron.com/agony/audio/ks_robinson.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://bookotron.com/agony/audio/ks_robinson_2006_part_1.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://bookotron.com/agony/audio/ks_robinson_2006_part_2.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://bookotron.com/agony/audio/2007/2007-news/090507-ks_robinson.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/firebird_2015ad.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10277740 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/firebird_2015ad-394x600.jpg\" alt=\"firebird_2015ad\" width=\"394\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/firebird_2015ad-394x600.jpg 394w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/firebird_2015ad.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 394px) 100vw, 394px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Firebird 2015 A.D.\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>Screenplay by Barry Pearson, Maurice Hurley and Biff McGuire; Directed by David M. Robertson\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This is not a great work of art. It’s not a great movie, and not even a good Douglas McClure movie when compared with his classics like \u003cem>At the Earth’s Core\u003c/em>. But it does name-check this year, and more importantly, shows the import of limitations when trying to peer into the future. Having no budget, no new ideas, and probably working from one of those plan-to-lose-money schemes, our three intrepid screenwriters still somehow manage to put their finger into an ugly bit of the American psyche. (Today, to a certain crowd, this might seem like reality TV.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a time when Mitch McConnell was the top dog in Jefferson County, John Boehner was cost-cutting his way through his time as the man in charge of Nucite Sales, and the Tea Party was just a gleam in the Koch Brothers’ eyes, Barry, Maurice and Biff took America’s temperature and came up with “burners.” Not burners as in Burning Man, but rather those still willing to drive their sports cars when the President of the U. S. of A. declares gas-burning automobiles \u003cem>illegal\u003c/em>—giving birth to \u003cem>Firebird 2015 A.D.\u003c/em>. The writers were canny to push forward culture instead of technology. They may have ignored technology because their movie had no budget, but that limitation forced to them to work with what they had. Theirs was the American Ugly right after the Gas Crises of the 1970’s: rev it, crack a six-pack, and try to stay awake through endless desert car chases. \u003cem>Firebird 2015 A.D.\u003c/em> is not unlike the traffic you’ll be fighting. And to be honest, 1981 looks a lot like 2015… without the distracted driving, that is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: Three skateboards, never got off the ground, but thanks for trying. Might have been two skateboards, but with they get one for having Biff on board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/heinlein-stranger_in_a_strange_land.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10277742 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/heinlein-stranger_in_a_strange_land-399x600.jpg\" alt=\"heinlein-stranger_in_a_strange_land\" width=\"399\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/heinlein-stranger_in_a_strange_land-399x600.jpg 399w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/heinlein-stranger_in_a_strange_land.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Stranger in a Strange Land\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>By Robert A. Heinlein (1961)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Robert A. Heinlein is a divisive figure in the world of fiction, and science fiction in particular. And in these divisive times, he still matters. No matter how unpleasant his perspectives may have been, he was always a keen observer of our culture. Moreover, he was quite adept at using science fiction to expose things in a manner that upset a lot of people, entertained a lot of people, and still makes us think to this day. \u003cem>Stranger in a Strange Land\u003c/em> was originally conceived as a science fiction spin on \u003cem>The Jungle Book\u003c/em>, but Heinlein took it to typically extreme lengths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once again, there’s a post-WW III setting, which we’ll conveniently assign the fixed date of 2015. I think Heinlein of 1961 would have grokked that date, and in fact that word (which means “to intuitively and completely understand something”) is now a part of our vocabulary. Heinlein’s Mowgli, Michael Valentine Smith, raised by Martians, returns to Earth with psychic powers that turn him into a religious figure. Heinlein’s vision of politicized religion, power, and pop culture was all right on, even if his predictions about World War were (understandably) wrong. Heinlein’s views are to many sensibilities abhorrent. But—just look around. He had the vibe nailed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: Seven skateboards. A good flight, but a little too much baggage for most of us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/fringe-freedom.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10277754\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/fringe-freedom.jpg\" alt=\"fringe-freedom\" width=\"576\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/fringe-freedom.jpg 576w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/fringe-freedom-400x189.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>“Letters of Transit,” \u003cem>Fringe\u003c/em>, Season 4, Episode 19\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>Written by Akiva Goldsman, J. H. Wyman], Jeff Pinkner; Directed by Joe Chappelle (2012)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the run of this show that was itself very peculiar, generally in the best possible way, “Letters of Transit,” the one episode set in the dystopian future of 2015, was more peculiar than most. Credit that to co-creator J.J. Abrams and executive producer Pinkner, both from the ABC series \u003cem>Lost\u003c/em>. Goldsman, who won an Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the 2001 (another iconic date!) movie \u003cem>A Beautiful Mind\u003c/em>, brings in the heavyweight considerations. While the story arc for this show is not in any way suitable for summary, let us simplify and say that this was the episode in which the Observers, humanity’s distant descendents, having wrecked the earth in the future, pop back to 2015 when things were still good. Then they enslave the humanity of our time—that is, us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Global warming, global oppression; even just three years ago, it might have seemed a bit outré. But to many, at this point, the Observers might look pretty good. Moreover, the show captures and exaggerates to great effect the feeling that our present feels unpleasantly futuristic. It’s not Alvin Toffler’s famous \u003cem>Future Shock\u003c/em> so much as it is future nausea. We feel woozy and confused, and not in a good way. Available via the futuristic platform of “streaming,” the entire run of \u003cem>Fringe\u003c/em> is worth binge-watching.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And you thought you had to \u003cem>wait\u003c/em> for the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: Eight skateboards. A solid ride with lots of TV parking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/egan_a_visit_from_the_goon_squad.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10277739 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/egan_a_visit_from_the_goon_squad.jpg\" alt=\"egan_a_visit_from_the_goon_squad\" width=\"400\" height=\"587\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Visit from the Goon Squad\n\u003ch2>\n\u003ch3>By Jennifer Egan\u003c/h3>\n\u003c/h2>\u003c/h2>\u003cp>Future histories that begin in the past are time-tested. Robert A. Heinlein devoted a large portion of his oeuvre to them, and Jennifer Egan’s masterpiece \u003cem>A Visit from the Goon Squad\u003c/em> is a superb, moving vision that begins in San Francisco during the punk rock years and ends up in the 2020s. \u003cem>A Visit from the Goon Squad\u003c/em> is a literary triumph that is about ten thousand times more entertaining than most fiction tagged with the “L” word. Using intricately interlocked narratives, Egan jumps back and forth in time to craft a vision of the past and the present that is peopled by characters so achingly real that when she heads out into the future, we buy it without question. This is the book that makes \u003cem>Powerpoint\u003c/em> poignant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As with the best science fiction, Egan crafts great characters, and deploys them with insights into our culture and our morals and ethics that are both understated and overwhelming. She fires on all cylinders as her broken musicians, parents, sons, and daughters scatter around the world. She’s smart enough to see the almost universally ignored truth about prognostication: that the future does not replace the present. It is instead heaped on top of it, mixed with it, until one dissolves into another and one day, we’re standing on the Golden Gate Bridge, talking on a cell phone and thinking, “My six year-old self would have \u003cem>loved\u003c/em> to know this was in store for me.” As for pros, the SF world ignored this book, while the rest went on to give it the Pulitzer Prize, proving that sometimes, the future \u003cem>does\u003c/em> get it right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: 10 skateboards. Books still matter!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hear a conversation with Jennifer Egan about\u003cem> A Visit from the Goon Squad\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://bookotron.com/agony/audio/2010/2010-interviews/jennifer_egan-2010.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/clarke-profies_of_the_future.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10277738 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/clarke-profies_of_the_future-352x600.jpg\" alt=\"clarke-profies_of_the_future\" width=\"352\" height=\"600\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Profiles of the Future\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>Arthur C. Clarke, 1962\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Arthur C. Clarke had a rocking track record when he wrote this book in 1962. He’d predicted (which is to say invented, without profit or copyright) the communications satellite while barely into his 20s, in 1945. By 1960, he was a respected futurist (a real thing by then, which he also helped invent) and science fiction writer. In 1961, he published a work on non-fiction futurology, \u003cem>Profiles of the Future\u003c/em>, required reading for a generation of kids growing up on rocket launches and America’s nascent space program. A mere eight years later, he’d collaborate with Stanley Kubrick on \u003cem>2001\u003c/em>, easily one of the greatest science-fiction works ever created.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003cem>Profiles of the Future\u003c/em> is not science fiction. One might expect he’d thus get it wrong, but looking at his timeline tells another story. Importantly, this is the first time Clarke stated his \u003cem>Three Laws\u003c/em>. They still apply today:\u003c/p>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/clarke-future_detail_scan.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-10277751\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/clarke-future_detail_scan-425x600.jpg\" alt=\"clarke-future_detail_scan\" width=\"425\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/clarke-future_detail_scan-425x600.jpg 425w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/clarke-future_detail_scan.jpg 574w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 425px) 100vw, 425px\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nTechnologically, his timeline is eerily prescient. As a young lad, I remember reading this book with the (Using the Terminology of the Future, Johnny) “takeaway” that we humans had better get around to inventing a decent battery. We’re still at it! Ultimately, Clarke nailed any future in one sentence: “The only thing that we can be sure of the future is that it will be absolutely fantastic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: 10 Skateboards and a magic iPhone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/bacigalupi-the_doubt_factory.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10277736 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/bacigalupi-the_doubt_factory.jpg\" alt=\"bacigalupi-the_doubt_factory\" width=\"300\" height=\"453\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Doubt Factory\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>By Paolo Bacigalupi (2014)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>While science fiction is supposed to be good at predicting the future, its real strength is to be found, as Cory Doctorow says, in its revelation of the present. Paolo Bacigalupi has written plenty of science fiction set in our future. \u003cem>The Doubt Factory\u003c/em>, his current-day YA novel, is not a dystopia (per se), but instead a toe-tapping tale of corporate misdeeds that adults should read both for entertainment value and to get a science-fiction take on the present and recent past that is more mind-boggling than a dozen detonated post-apocalyptic doom zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alix Banks is not a normal teenager, exactly. She’s pretty damn far to the right-hand side of that Luxury Gap. She attends a costly private school and lives in a wealthy neighborhood with her noisy but engaging family. Her father, however, is in the business of casting doubt on science in order to preserve corporate profits. Bacigalupi manages to weave in the sordid story of thousands of child deaths needlessly caused by Reyes syndrome. When it’s done kicking your reading butt, \u003cem>The Doubt Factory\u003c/em> will leave you with a prescient vision of the present. It will not make you happy, even if it does entertain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: Nine skateboards. It’s that good. Do you doubt me?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hear a conversation with Paolo Bacigalupi \u003ca href=\"http://bookotron.com/agony/audio/2014/2014-interviews/paolo_bacigalupi-2014.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/runarond-asimov.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10277748 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/runarond-asimov.jpg\" alt=\"runarond-asimov\" width=\"373\" height=\"512\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Runaround\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch3>By Isaac Asimov (1942)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Here’s the 2015 many were hoping for back in the day before it was clearly not going to happen. America is on the planet Mercury, busily trying to restart a mining operation abandoned ten years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s put this in perspective. We were \u003cem>walking on the moon in 1972\u003c/em>. Is there any reason, other than a preoccupation with, what, a world’s war worth of mini-wars, and consummate greediness, that we could not expect to be mining on Mercury some 43 years later? We pretty much had the technology \u003cem>then\u003c/em>. What we lacked was the cultural fiber to do so, which is why cultural science fiction tends to get it right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/runarond-asimov-interior_ill.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10277755 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/runarond-asimov-interior_ill.jpg\" alt=\"runarond-asimov-interior_ill\" width=\"309\" height=\"442\">\u003c/a>But Asimov, writing in the midst of World War II, was serenely and technologically optimistic. \u003cem>Runaround\u003c/em> finds Powell, Donovan and Robot SPD-13 (“Speedy”) realizing the “photo-cell banks” are about to die. Speedy is sent to fix them, but instead ends up circling them. The reason for this is another set of three famous laws from science fiction, introduced here for the first time, Asimov’s Laws of Robotics:\u003c/p>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cp>While Asimov essentially got everything else wrong, he got these so right we still have them with us today. Now \u003cem>that\u003c/em> is prognostication beyond the call of duty, when you split the difference between predicting and inventing the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rating\u003c/strong>: 10 skateboards that may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Step back from this list, and from the “bad science fiction novel” that is your life, and you’ll see the import and the danger of prognostications of the future. In fact, turn it around, and you’ll realize, that, as William Gibson suggested, the \u003cem>past\u003c/em> is just about as fantastic to those of us in the present as the future. We live in this moment. We’d best make the most of it.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Pacific Film Archive's Steve Seid on Digital vs. Film and the Erotica Series That Got Away",
"headTitle": "Pacific Film Archive’s Steve Seid on Digital vs. Film and the Erotica Series That Got Away | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Fans of movies-they-just-don’t-make-like-that-anymore may have already considered which sardonic, misanthropic gem to take in at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive’s series, \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/billwilder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Ready for His Close-Up: The Films of Billy Wilder\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, running through Feb. 28. Wilder favorites like \u003cem>Double Indemnity\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Some Like It Hot\u003c/em>, and \u003cem>The Apartment\u003c/em> are on tap, as is the seldom-shown \u003cem>Five Graves to Cairo\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That film, a World War II spy thriller, is on loan from the UCLA Film and Television Archive—Universal, the studio, did not have a print. Series curator Steve Seid has begged and borrowed (but probably not stolen) just the right film for the right show for 26 years, and the Wilder program will be one of his last for BAM/PFA as one of three full-time curators for the archive’s popular film series—he retired at the end of 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BAM/PFA shows about 400 films a year, and over his career, Seid estimates, he’s gotten to pick and choose several thousand individual movies for over 1,000 different programs. A \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/search/filmsearchresults.php?SearchAll=steve%20seid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">search on the PFA site\u003c/a> reveals the ultra-eclectic nature of his interests: There are Seid series on the Free Speech Movement, punk rock, the early films of Milos Forman, Sergio Leone, pirates and piracy, \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/giantsvideo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video art\u003c/a>, genetics, \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/ecoamok\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ecological sci-fi disaster movies\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/wellruns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">appreciation of water\u003c/a>, Robert Aldrich, Hollywood and the New Deal, and one simply called \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN17804\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Eccentric Cinema: Overlooked Oddities and Ecstasies\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. In that 2009 program, viewers were turned on to/suffered through such weird fare as Brian De Palma’s \u003cem>Phantom of the Paradise\u003c/em>, Frank Zappa’s \u003cem>200 Motels\u003c/em>, and the best film of all time featuring the\u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/images/film/eccentric_cinema/Eccentric_ZardozSMALL.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> contours of Sean Connery’s genitals\u003c/a>—\u003cem>Zardoz\u003c/em>. “In the year 2293 A.D., Sean Connery will wear a red loincloth and bandoliers, and he will liberate a society from the onus of eternal life,” wrote Seid in his \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN17804\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">notes on the film\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10305543\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 220px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/01/Zardoz.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10305543 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/01/Zardoz.jpg\" alt='“In the year 2293 A.D., Sean Connery will wear a red loincloth and bandoliers, and he will liberate a society from the onus of eternal life.\"' width=\"220\" height=\"268\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“In the year 2293 A.D., Sean Connery will wear a red loincloth and bandoliers, and he will liberate a society from the onus of eternal life.”\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All in all, sounds like it was a pretty great job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah, it was definitely a great job,” Seid says. “I was somewhat set loose, and the only things that might restrain me would hopefully be my good sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Senior BAM/PFA Film Curator Susan Oxtoby praises Seid for being “really in touch with the zeitgeist, but he’s also a wonderful film historian. So when he shapes a program, he really does so in a way that frames historical periods or issues or trends. And he’s got a real commitment to showing films that need another look.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Conheim, who collaborated with Seid on PFA shows over the years, notes how Seid approaches film curation with a deconstructionist’s eye. “He’s a very wise and clever curator who is also a rabble-rouser,” Conheim says, “and he’s sort of looking under the surface. He’ll subvert the forms of the shows themselves, and the audience’s expectations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think some curators are much more inclined to put on an easily recognizable type of show,” Conheim adds, “and he’s more willing to break the wall down and do crazy stuff, all with a sense of humor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To wit, Conheim cites the \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/saddestmusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">10th anniversary celebration\u003c/a> of \u003cem>The Saddest Music in the World\u003c/em>, by Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin. “The film centers on a beer-jingle writing contest in frigid Winnipeg in the middle of winter,” he says, “and at one point beer is consumed from a giant glass leg. So we had a glass leg outside and people were able to drink beer out of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conheim also recalls Seid convincing a Berkeley sound company to recreate Universal’s earth-shaking but less-than-earth-shattering \u003ca href=\"http://www.tested.com/tech/455667-thx-cinema-shaking-technology-sensurround/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sensurround\u003c/a> technology, which rattled seats during a handful of disaster-suspense films in the 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They brought in subwoofers for the film \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN15068\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rollercoaster\u003c/a>\u003c/em> in a sort of faux Sensurround,” Conheim says of the PFA event. “It shook the building.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That 2004 series, called \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/exploit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Exploit-O-Scope\u003c/a>, remains one of Seid’s favorites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I found all these films that had gimmicks, and then I recreated the gimmick,” he says. The program included John Waters’ \u003cem>Polyester\u003c/em> in “Odorama”—audiences could partake of 10 scratch-and-sniff scents—and Ray Dennis Steckler’s \u003ca href=\"http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN15069\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Maniacs are Loose\u003c/em>\u003c/a> in “Hallucinogenic Hypno-Vision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Originally, (Steckler) said live axe murderers were in the theater, so I had myself and another person running around with axes,” says Seid. “Part of the job was to remind people that cinema really came out of vaudeville. Most of the early theaters were actually vaudeville theaters that they then equipped to see cinema, and you might see a movie, and then the juggler or ventriloquist would come out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\n“Literally, when we got our digital projector, there were several people who said, ‘If you’re going to be showing films on digital, I’m not coming anymore.’” \u003ccite>Steve Seid\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Digital Controversy\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seid is leaving PFA at what he calls a “pivotal time” in the distribution and archiving of movies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new era in that admixture of art and commerce we call the movies began in earnest in 2014, when the word “film” became an anachronistic term to describe what the public sees in theaters. Last year was the first in which the studios stopped shipping film prints and insisted all movie houses be outfitted with digital projection equipment. The digital tsunami hasn’t just affected new releases—retro houses and archives like BAM/PFA, which make heavy use of the studios’ back catalogues, have also been forced to exhibit in the new format as studios have been much more hesitant to lend film prints. Yet, Seid says, studios have also been slow to convert less-popular but important works from film to digital, leaving such titles unavailable altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The major distributors are not really interested in making (film-based) materials available in the way they used to,” says Seid. “They really want people to move over to digital media. So there’s a gap right now where most of the good work is to be found on film, which they also don’t want to lend, and there are very few substitutes. Maybe in five years they will have caught up, and there will be hundreds or thousands more films that have been converted to digital. But right now it’s kind of a problematic moment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the superannuation of real, honest-to-goodness film has gone unmourned by the moviegoing public, some\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/13/diehards-try-to-keep-the-art-of-film-projection-alive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> film purists\u003c/a> view it as an aesthetic distortion of the way films were meant to be seen. Seid says a vocal minority of the BAM/PFA audience has voiced displeasure at his willingness to show movies digitally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Literally, when we got our digital projector, there were several people who said, ‘If you’re going to be showing films on digital, I’m not coming anymore.’ Some of them left and some of them have slowly come back, because I think they realize we show film when we can, and digital isn’t some Satanic thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seid said some curators flat-out won’t show digitally projected movies, but that he has been less “parochial” about it. The Billy Wilder series, for instance, is a mix of Digital Cinema Packages (the industry term for digitally projected movies) and film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the Billy Wilder show, some of the distributors have the films on DCP, and they have some of the titles on 35 mm. But often they’ll say ‘We have this new digital transfer on DCP, or you can get this beat-up old print.’ So then you have to make that decision about the authenticity of the materials versus trying to control the quality of the experience in a different way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Show That Got Away\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seid, 66, plans to use his newly freed-up time to write about Ant Farm, the San Francisco art collective who in 1975 marked July 4th by \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXY6ocvaZyE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">driving a Cadillac through a wall of burning TV sets\u003c/a> at the Cow Palace. Aside from having a deep knowledge of narrative films, Seid’s also a well-known specialist on video art, curating shows on the subject at both PFA and Berkeley Art Museum galleries, says his former boss, Susan Oxtoby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is there any curation he would have liked to do, but didn’t?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have wanted to do a history of erotic films,” Seid says. “That seems to be unaddressed, even though year by year and decade by decade we’re flooded with sexuality. You can go all the way back to the silent period and see erotic films. It was a kind of underground from the very beginning. I went to a film festival in Mexico one year and one of the most starling programs I saw was from the Filmoteca, one of the natonal archives in Mexico City. They brought a bunch of silent pornography and it was amazing to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But it’s sometimes difficult to get access to that material,” Seid explains, “and I never quite found the right shape for it. A series like that, I wouldn’t want to do in a clumsy fashion because it’s going to be controversial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One question he implies that he’s asked frequently: After researching, promoting and watching so many movies, what’s his favorite?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When people ask me that I often just say \u003cem>Mean Streets\u003c/em>. I don’t think I’ve ever shown it. I just adore those kind of small films with huge ambitions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, judging by his career, a lot of others, too.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Fans of movies-they-just-don’t-make-like-that-anymore may have already considered which sardonic, misanthropic gem to take in at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive’s series, \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/billwilder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Ready for His Close-Up: The Films of Billy Wilder\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, running through Feb. 28. Wilder favorites like \u003cem>Double Indemnity\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Some Like It Hot\u003c/em>, and \u003cem>The Apartment\u003c/em> are on tap, as is the seldom-shown \u003cem>Five Graves to Cairo\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That film, a World War II spy thriller, is on loan from the UCLA Film and Television Archive—Universal, the studio, did not have a print. Series curator Steve Seid has begged and borrowed (but probably not stolen) just the right film for the right show for 26 years, and the Wilder program will be one of his last for BAM/PFA as one of three full-time curators for the archive’s popular film series—he retired at the end of 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BAM/PFA shows about 400 films a year, and over his career, Seid estimates, he’s gotten to pick and choose several thousand individual movies for over 1,000 different programs. A \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/search/filmsearchresults.php?SearchAll=steve%20seid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">search on the PFA site\u003c/a> reveals the ultra-eclectic nature of his interests: There are Seid series on the Free Speech Movement, punk rock, the early films of Milos Forman, Sergio Leone, pirates and piracy, \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/giantsvideo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video art\u003c/a>, genetics, \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/ecoamok\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ecological sci-fi disaster movies\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/wellruns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">appreciation of water\u003c/a>, Robert Aldrich, Hollywood and the New Deal, and one simply called \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN17804\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Eccentric Cinema: Overlooked Oddities and Ecstasies\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. In that 2009 program, viewers were turned on to/suffered through such weird fare as Brian De Palma’s \u003cem>Phantom of the Paradise\u003c/em>, Frank Zappa’s \u003cem>200 Motels\u003c/em>, and the best film of all time featuring the\u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/images/film/eccentric_cinema/Eccentric_ZardozSMALL.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> contours of Sean Connery’s genitals\u003c/a>—\u003cem>Zardoz\u003c/em>. “In the year 2293 A.D., Sean Connery will wear a red loincloth and bandoliers, and he will liberate a society from the onus of eternal life,” wrote Seid in his \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN17804\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">notes on the film\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10305543\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 220px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/01/Zardoz.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10305543 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/01/Zardoz.jpg\" alt='“In the year 2293 A.D., Sean Connery will wear a red loincloth and bandoliers, and he will liberate a society from the onus of eternal life.\"' width=\"220\" height=\"268\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“In the year 2293 A.D., Sean Connery will wear a red loincloth and bandoliers, and he will liberate a society from the onus of eternal life.”\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All in all, sounds like it was a pretty great job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah, it was definitely a great job,” Seid says. “I was somewhat set loose, and the only things that might restrain me would hopefully be my good sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Senior BAM/PFA Film Curator Susan Oxtoby praises Seid for being “really in touch with the zeitgeist, but he’s also a wonderful film historian. So when he shapes a program, he really does so in a way that frames historical periods or issues or trends. And he’s got a real commitment to showing films that need another look.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Conheim, who collaborated with Seid on PFA shows over the years, notes how Seid approaches film curation with a deconstructionist’s eye. “He’s a very wise and clever curator who is also a rabble-rouser,” Conheim says, “and he’s sort of looking under the surface. He’ll subvert the forms of the shows themselves, and the audience’s expectations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think some curators are much more inclined to put on an easily recognizable type of show,” Conheim adds, “and he’s more willing to break the wall down and do crazy stuff, all with a sense of humor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To wit, Conheim cites the \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/saddestmusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">10th anniversary celebration\u003c/a> of \u003cem>The Saddest Music in the World\u003c/em>, by Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin. “The film centers on a beer-jingle writing contest in frigid Winnipeg in the middle of winter,” he says, “and at one point beer is consumed from a giant glass leg. So we had a glass leg outside and people were able to drink beer out of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conheim also recalls Seid convincing a Berkeley sound company to recreate Universal’s earth-shaking but less-than-earth-shattering \u003ca href=\"http://www.tested.com/tech/455667-thx-cinema-shaking-technology-sensurround/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sensurround\u003c/a> technology, which rattled seats during a handful of disaster-suspense films in the 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They brought in subwoofers for the film \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN15068\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rollercoaster\u003c/a>\u003c/em> in a sort of faux Sensurround,” Conheim says of the PFA event. “It shook the building.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That 2004 series, called \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/exploit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Exploit-O-Scope\u003c/a>, remains one of Seid’s favorites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I found all these films that had gimmicks, and then I recreated the gimmick,” he says. The program included John Waters’ \u003cem>Polyester\u003c/em> in “Odorama”—audiences could partake of 10 scratch-and-sniff scents—and Ray Dennis Steckler’s \u003ca href=\"http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN15069\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Maniacs are Loose\u003c/em>\u003c/a> in “Hallucinogenic Hypno-Vision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Originally, (Steckler) said live axe murderers were in the theater, so I had myself and another person running around with axes,” says Seid. “Part of the job was to remind people that cinema really came out of vaudeville. Most of the early theaters were actually vaudeville theaters that they then equipped to see cinema, and you might see a movie, and then the juggler or ventriloquist would come out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\n“Literally, when we got our digital projector, there were several people who said, ‘If you’re going to be showing films on digital, I’m not coming anymore.’” \u003ccite>Steve Seid\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Digital Controversy\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seid is leaving PFA at what he calls a “pivotal time” in the distribution and archiving of movies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new era in that admixture of art and commerce we call the movies began in earnest in 2014, when the word “film” became an anachronistic term to describe what the public sees in theaters. Last year was the first in which the studios stopped shipping film prints and insisted all movie houses be outfitted with digital projection equipment. The digital tsunami hasn’t just affected new releases—retro houses and archives like BAM/PFA, which make heavy use of the studios’ back catalogues, have also been forced to exhibit in the new format as studios have been much more hesitant to lend film prints. Yet, Seid says, studios have also been slow to convert less-popular but important works from film to digital, leaving such titles unavailable altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The major distributors are not really interested in making (film-based) materials available in the way they used to,” says Seid. “They really want people to move over to digital media. So there’s a gap right now where most of the good work is to be found on film, which they also don’t want to lend, and there are very few substitutes. Maybe in five years they will have caught up, and there will be hundreds or thousands more films that have been converted to digital. But right now it’s kind of a problematic moment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the superannuation of real, honest-to-goodness film has gone unmourned by the moviegoing public, some\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/13/diehards-try-to-keep-the-art-of-film-projection-alive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> film purists\u003c/a> view it as an aesthetic distortion of the way films were meant to be seen. Seid says a vocal minority of the BAM/PFA audience has voiced displeasure at his willingness to show movies digitally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Literally, when we got our digital projector, there were several people who said, ‘If you’re going to be showing films on digital, I’m not coming anymore.’ Some of them left and some of them have slowly come back, because I think they realize we show film when we can, and digital isn’t some Satanic thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seid said some curators flat-out won’t show digitally projected movies, but that he has been less “parochial” about it. The Billy Wilder series, for instance, is a mix of Digital Cinema Packages (the industry term for digitally projected movies) and film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the Billy Wilder show, some of the distributors have the films on DCP, and they have some of the titles on 35 mm. But often they’ll say ‘We have this new digital transfer on DCP, or you can get this beat-up old print.’ So then you have to make that decision about the authenticity of the materials versus trying to control the quality of the experience in a different way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Show That Got Away\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seid, 66, plans to use his newly freed-up time to write about Ant Farm, the San Francisco art collective who in 1975 marked July 4th by \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXY6ocvaZyE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">driving a Cadillac through a wall of burning TV sets\u003c/a> at the Cow Palace. Aside from having a deep knowledge of narrative films, Seid’s also a well-known specialist on video art, curating shows on the subject at both PFA and Berkeley Art Museum galleries, says his former boss, Susan Oxtoby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is there any curation he would have liked to do, but didn’t?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have wanted to do a history of erotic films,” Seid says. “That seems to be unaddressed, even though year by year and decade by decade we’re flooded with sexuality. You can go all the way back to the silent period and see erotic films. It was a kind of underground from the very beginning. I went to a film festival in Mexico one year and one of the most starling programs I saw was from the Filmoteca, one of the natonal archives in Mexico City. They brought a bunch of silent pornography and it was amazing to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But it’s sometimes difficult to get access to that material,” Seid explains, “and I never quite found the right shape for it. A series like that, I wouldn’t want to do in a clumsy fashion because it’s going to be controversial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One question he implies that he’s asked frequently: After researching, promoting and watching so many movies, what’s his favorite?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When people ask me that I often just say \u003cem>Mean Streets\u003c/em>. I don’t think I’ve ever shown it. I just adore those kind of small films with huge ambitions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"order": 9
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"order": 15
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"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 18
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"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
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"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
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"masters-of-scale": {
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"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
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"meta": {
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"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 11
},
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"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
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"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"planet-money": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
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