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"content": "\u003cp>So you think you’ve got what it takes to be a filmmaker? I’ve been involved with short films for over a decade. I have seen more than 20,000 short films and have traveled to numerous film festivals specializing in short films: Cinequest (San Jose), Mill Valley Film Festival, Palm Springs, Aspen, Toronto, Cinema Jove (Spain), and the biggest of them all, Clermont-Ferrand (France). Every year in Clermont-Ferrand, their short film marketplace contains over 7,700 films.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lot has changed in the past decade. Films can now be done at a fraction of the cost on digital video and edited on home computers (or a mere mobile device). The web has also fueled the popularity of short films through easy access on sites such as YouTube. The democratization of the storytelling — no longer the exclusive domain of expensive film schools — is a doubled-edged sword. The good news is now everybody can make a film. The bad news is now everybody can make a film. Let me explain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/17/scottclermont.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>Just because you have access to the equipment doesn’t automatically make you a filmmaker. Filming your cat, dog, or drunk friend doing stupid tricks may be hysterical and get lots of hits on the web, but calling it a film is a bit of a stretch. Many shorts lack storytelling skills, not to mention the technical skills. And even if you have the technical skills, if you don’t have a compelling story, it won’t matter how technically proficient you might be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the program director at KQED, the producer of \u003ca href=\"/arts/programs/imagemakers\">\u003cstrong>ImageMakers\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>, and the executive producer of \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/filmschoolshorts/\">\u003cstrong>Film School Shorts\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>, I see a lot of television programs and short films. I tell people that my primary job is to watch bad films, so you don’t have to. I liken my job to searching through the gravel pit to find a few diamonds. “Quality” can be in the eye of the beholder, but take my word on this, if you don’t like my selections, just be glad you didn’t see the ones that didn’t make the final cut!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/17/scottmarketplace.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003cbr>Filmmakers, distributors and other film festival programmers attend the largest short film festival and market in the world in Clermont every February.\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>On \u003cstrong>ImageMakers\u003c/strong>, my ultimate goal is to find stories with impact — short films that resonate and actually get better with repeated viewing. Great films allow us to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. We can live vicariously through people in difficult situations. A good film makes us ask, “What would we do in a similar situation?” Big meanings can come from simple actions. We may not agree with their behavior, but hopefully we can better understand what led them to their actions. Filmmaking is an art form and great filmmaking usually achieves these lofty goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyone can call themselves a filmmaker, but not many can call themselves a great filmmaker. If through watching \u003cstrong>ImageMakers\u003c/strong> or \u003cstrong>Film School Shorts\u003c/strong>, you are now inspired to become a filmmaker, or if you think you can do better than these “amateurs,” then prove it. If you want to read three good books about starting out making short films and navigating the film festival world, you should check out the following books — all three women have been in the business for a long time and offer great advice to aspiring filmmakers:\u003cbr>– \u003cstrong>Making it Big in Shorts: The Ultimate Filmmaker’s Guide to Short Films\u003c/strong> by Kim Adelman at \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932907580/kqedorg-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>amazon.com\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>– \u003cstrong>How Not to Make a Short Film\u003c/strong> by Roberta Munroe at \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1401309542/kqedorg-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>amazon.com\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>– \u003cstrong>The Complete Filmmaker’s Guide to Film Festivals\u003c/strong> by Monika Skerbelis at \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1615930884/kqedorg-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>amazon.com\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>The 1984 comedy-drama \u003ci>Irreconcilable Differences\u003c/i> doesn’t exactly represent state-of-the-art filmmaking; it sometimes tilts from stinging psychological insight to sitcom-style yuks,the acting is occasionally flat, the heart-tugging transparent. The film is, one might say, stalkedby the shadow of mediocrity. IMDB users, to take one chunk of audience, agree, giving themovie a \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087482/\">cumulative rating of 5.6\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet, I can’t help but view the film as some sort of emotional masterpiece. Over the last25 years, I’ve seen the thing like eight times, forcing a succession of significant others to watchalong and pretend how fabulous they think it is. Certain movies, it would seem, just get underyour skin, so that something in their DNA works on your own. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, I am going to make the case that even if a majority of moviegoers don’t experience themovie on a cellular level, it’s nonetheless an overlooked gem, or at the very least the best romcom in which two of the genre’s leading practitioners, \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0583600/\">Nancy Meyers\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000106/\">Drew Barrymore\u003c/a>, have participated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film has two main themes going on: movie culture and dysfunctional families. Both havebeen fat, frequent targets on screen, but it’s their intertwining here that makes for such acompelling narrative and carves out a unique niche among grander indictments of Hollywoodlike \u003ci>Sunset Boulevard\u003c/i> and \u003ci>The Player\u003c/i>. The story is esoteric in that its victim, theonly child of two industry egos, suffers in the rarefied world of high-stakes moviemaking, yet the story is familiar enough to anyone who’s had a run-in with their local narcissist and wondered what it’s like to be his kid. The psychological intelligence with which the husband and wife director-writer team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers imbued the project is considerable, and even though there are moments of high satire to lessen the sting, the result is one of the most truthful, specific, and chilling portraits of bad parenting ever put on screen. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/14/diff5.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movie’s start is inauspicious. The silly introduction of a serious premise has little Casey(nine-year-old Drew Barrymore in a \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Barrymore#Rebellious_era\">too-close-for-comfort role\u003c/a>) suing her Hollywoodparents for divorce. Modest giggles brought on by the kid’s plucky precociousness amid themedia circus ensue. But rather quickly, the film takes a nice turn when her father takes the standand states that he has a PhD thesis in cinema on the “semiological analysis of the sexualovertones in the early films of \u003ca href=\"http://www.lubitsch.com/\">Ernst Lubitsch\u003c/a>.” It’sprecisely at that point you get the feeling you may actually be in for something more substantialthan advertised. The clunky framing device of the trial then gives way to essentially a longflashback, in which we witness the story of a nice, likable couple seduced by Hollywood andtransformed into self-involved monsters, in full view of their only child. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan O’Neal gives a believable performance as Albert Brodsky, a film-scholar-turned-directorwith a story arc awfully similar to that of director \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Bogdanovich\">Peter Bogdanovich\u003c/a>. Brodsky is hitchhiking his way to California and a teaching position at UCLA, when in the middle of a driving rainstorm, he’s picked up by Lucy (Shelley Long) en route to meet up with her fiancé. Long, in mid-\u003ci>Cheers\u003c/i> form, is the analog to Bogdanovich’s ex-wife, the screenwriter and production designer \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Platt\">Polly Platt\u003c/a>. The hypotenuse in that triangle, actress Cybill Shepherd, is represented here by a young Sharon Stone, with perhaps a dollop of centerfold-turned-actress \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Stratten\">Dorothy Stratten\u003c/a> thrown in. (Years later, (\u003ca href=\"http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/movies/item_OAQaQFfGbEoBqdMIF6H6JN#axzz2PMbVPJ4d\">Bogdanovich called the film\u003c/a> “terrible” and “totally biased against me and Cybill.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Albert and Lucy drive cross-country, they start out bickering. But in a nice romanticsequence — Lucy reading Albert her unpublished children’s book, dancing in the lounge of aroadside motel, dissolving into mutual tears while watching a Spanish-language version of\u003ci>An Affair to Remember\u003c/i> — they fall in love. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marriage and a child follow. But a big time producer named David Kessler (SamWanamaker), impressed by Albert’s encyclopedic knowledge of film, takes him under his wingas a consultant. After experiencing a large dose of Hollywood shallowness at one of his parties, a prophetic Lucy says, “I don’t want to turn into these people.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually Kessler gives Albert a chance to write and direct. While Albert’s discussing hisfirst script with Lucy, she off-handedly improves one of the scenes, and he convinces her to cowrite the film, which becomes a huge hit. But while searching for an ingénue for their follow-up project, he impetuously hires a beautiful but wild woman named Blake Chandler (Stone), whom he found working as a waitress at a hot dog stand. She moves in with the couple for round-the-clock coaching, Albert falls in love with her, and just like that he and Lucy are divorced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/14/diff3.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two then engage in a topsy-turvy battle of wills and careers, as Albert moves ontodirectorial stardom while Lucy falls into obscurity, her contribution to their movies completelyoverlooked. She makes a comeback, however, with a fictionalized tell-all book about theirmarriage, just as Albert’s career hits the skids. But no matter which one’s on top, their daughter is put in the middle, taking the brunt of their mutual recriminations. As the psychic wounds take apalpable toll on Casey, the film becomes a searing portrait of parental neglect, as well as adepiction of a codependent in the making. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The night that Lucy discovers her husband’s affair, she grabs Casey and they drive off, butinstead of comforting her daughter, she breaks down in a self-indulgent panic. Later, shecontinually bashes Albert in front of Casey, while at the same time pumping her for informationabout Blake. Meanwhile, over at Albert’s Hollywood mansion, his slavish devotion to his newwife leaves no room for his daughter. Finally, Casey is reduced to ping-ponging between them,forced to bear vicious messages from one to the other. Some of the exchanges between Caseyand her parents are particularly depressing:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Albert: What do you think of your old man? Be honest.\u003cbr>Casey: Daddy you know for a long time you didn’t talk to me so much because you werealways so busy. And now it’s like you want me to be your best friend or something. It’s notfair.\u003cbr>Albert: Fair? You want to talk about fair? Two Academy Award nominations, look at me. Ican’t get arrested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many affecting scenes in the film, both comedic and dramatic. A highlight is thesequence in which Albert attempts to shoot \u003ci>Atlanta\u003c/i>, a musical version of \u003ci>Gone Withthe Wind\u003c/i>, a self-financed vanity project for Blake, destined to flop in the grand style of\u003ci>Heaven’s Gate\u003c/i> in part because of Albert’s Stanley Kubrick-level obsessiveness. Beforeshooting his version of the famous scene in which the camera cranes up from Scarlett O’Hara toreveal hundreds of dead and wounded soldiers lying in rows, Albert laments they don’t haveenough flies. He then fixates on the dress color of an extra somewhere deep in the background as his assistant warns him that the sun’s about to go down. Finally, a coke-snorting Blake emerges from her trailer in full diva mode, ready to sing the lyrics she herself wrote: “This… civil war… ain’t gonna get… me down… I’m moving my act… To a brand new town!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she yells “cut!” before the scene ends, putting an end to the day’s shooting and pushing the already over-budget film further into the red. “Collect the flies!” yells the A.D.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a great take on how a bad idea is made worse on-screen. (See Bogdanovich’s \u003ci>At Long Last Love\u003c/i> forthe real-life parallel.) But the true impact of \u003ci>Irreconcilable Differences\u003c/i> lies not in its close-to-the-bone take down of Hollywood excess, but in the finely observed psychological moments: Lucy compulsively giving notes to Blake on her performance while Albert languorously lights theyoung beauty’s cigarette, tipping off his wife to the affair with just that one gesture. Or Lucybeckoning her staff — a pair of standard Hollywood flunkies — to giddily inform them that herbook has gone to number one, then insisting on telling the housekeeping staff as well. When thecook seems puzzled, just the slightest hint of loneliness and shame flashes across Long’sface; she’s on top of the world, but has no one to share it with. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/14/diff4.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film winds to a close with Albert and Lucy, on either side of their daughter, literallypulling her arms in opposite directions during one of their vicious fights. The flashback ends andwe’re back in the courtroom, where Casey takes the stand to sum up her view of what we havejust seen:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think if you have a child, you should treat that child like a human being and not like a pet. Not like you treat your dog or something. You know, when you have a dog sometimes you forget he’s there, and then when you get lonely suddenly you remember him, and you remember how cute he is and stuff, and you kiss him a lot, but then the next day when you’re busy again you don’t notice him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Irreconcilable Differences\u003c/i> is an insider’s view of the perils of Hollywood success andthe neediness that drives certain types of the industry’s personalities. But what makes the filmmore than just a knowing castigation is the real element of tragedy, not only in the emotionalabuse of a child, but in the disintegration of a deeply sympathetic romantic partnership. Over theyears, I have come to interpret the downfall of Albert and Lucy’s relationship differently. Thecorrupting influence of Hollywood — that’s there. But one wonders if the seeds of failurepredated the characters’ success, existing from the start in Albert’s total immersion in movies. “Isee in you exactly what Jimmy Stewart saw in Jean Arthur,” he tells Lucy when they are fallingin love, one of several instances in which he cites a film to explain his psychological state. Forsomeone whose main frame of reference is pictures, perhaps it’s only a matter of time before real life wilts under the weight of cinema-driven projections. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all, those wildest-dreams-come-true can instill a deep vanity. The flip side, however, isthe self-loathing that emerges as they start to crumble, and an inability to nurture anything butyour own success. “Do you love me a lot?” Lucy stops reveling over her invitation to appear on\u003ci>The Tonight Show\u003c/i> to ask her daughter. In Hollywood, the film suggests, maybe that’s the only real question on anyone’s mind. \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Movie culture and a dysfunctional family make for an emotional masterpiece based in real-life Hollywood relationships, starring Ryan O'Neal, Shelley Long, Sharon Stone, an a precocious nine-year-old named Drew Barrymore.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The 1984 comedy-drama \u003ci>Irreconcilable Differences\u003c/i> doesn’t exactly represent state-of-the-art filmmaking; it sometimes tilts from stinging psychological insight to sitcom-style yuks,the acting is occasionally flat, the heart-tugging transparent. The film is, one might say, stalkedby the shadow of mediocrity. IMDB users, to take one chunk of audience, agree, giving themovie a \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087482/\">cumulative rating of 5.6\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet, I can’t help but view the film as some sort of emotional masterpiece. Over the last25 years, I’ve seen the thing like eight times, forcing a succession of significant others to watchalong and pretend how fabulous they think it is. Certain movies, it would seem, just get underyour skin, so that something in their DNA works on your own. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, I am going to make the case that even if a majority of moviegoers don’t experience themovie on a cellular level, it’s nonetheless an overlooked gem, or at the very least the best romcom in which two of the genre’s leading practitioners, \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0583600/\">Nancy Meyers\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000106/\">Drew Barrymore\u003c/a>, have participated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film has two main themes going on: movie culture and dysfunctional families. Both havebeen fat, frequent targets on screen, but it’s their intertwining here that makes for such acompelling narrative and carves out a unique niche among grander indictments of Hollywoodlike \u003ci>Sunset Boulevard\u003c/i> and \u003ci>The Player\u003c/i>. The story is esoteric in that its victim, theonly child of two industry egos, suffers in the rarefied world of high-stakes moviemaking, yet the story is familiar enough to anyone who’s had a run-in with their local narcissist and wondered what it’s like to be his kid. The psychological intelligence with which the husband and wife director-writer team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers imbued the project is considerable, and even though there are moments of high satire to lessen the sting, the result is one of the most truthful, specific, and chilling portraits of bad parenting ever put on screen. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/14/diff5.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movie’s start is inauspicious. The silly introduction of a serious premise has little Casey(nine-year-old Drew Barrymore in a \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Barrymore#Rebellious_era\">too-close-for-comfort role\u003c/a>) suing her Hollywoodparents for divorce. Modest giggles brought on by the kid’s plucky precociousness amid themedia circus ensue. But rather quickly, the film takes a nice turn when her father takes the standand states that he has a PhD thesis in cinema on the “semiological analysis of the sexualovertones in the early films of \u003ca href=\"http://www.lubitsch.com/\">Ernst Lubitsch\u003c/a>.” It’sprecisely at that point you get the feeling you may actually be in for something more substantialthan advertised. The clunky framing device of the trial then gives way to essentially a longflashback, in which we witness the story of a nice, likable couple seduced by Hollywood andtransformed into self-involved monsters, in full view of their only child. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan O’Neal gives a believable performance as Albert Brodsky, a film-scholar-turned-directorwith a story arc awfully similar to that of director \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Bogdanovich\">Peter Bogdanovich\u003c/a>. Brodsky is hitchhiking his way to California and a teaching position at UCLA, when in the middle of a driving rainstorm, he’s picked up by Lucy (Shelley Long) en route to meet up with her fiancé. Long, in mid-\u003ci>Cheers\u003c/i> form, is the analog to Bogdanovich’s ex-wife, the screenwriter and production designer \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Platt\">Polly Platt\u003c/a>. The hypotenuse in that triangle, actress Cybill Shepherd, is represented here by a young Sharon Stone, with perhaps a dollop of centerfold-turned-actress \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Stratten\">Dorothy Stratten\u003c/a> thrown in. (Years later, (\u003ca href=\"http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/movies/item_OAQaQFfGbEoBqdMIF6H6JN#axzz2PMbVPJ4d\">Bogdanovich called the film\u003c/a> “terrible” and “totally biased against me and Cybill.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Albert and Lucy drive cross-country, they start out bickering. But in a nice romanticsequence — Lucy reading Albert her unpublished children’s book, dancing in the lounge of aroadside motel, dissolving into mutual tears while watching a Spanish-language version of\u003ci>An Affair to Remember\u003c/i> — they fall in love. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marriage and a child follow. But a big time producer named David Kessler (SamWanamaker), impressed by Albert’s encyclopedic knowledge of film, takes him under his wingas a consultant. After experiencing a large dose of Hollywood shallowness at one of his parties, a prophetic Lucy says, “I don’t want to turn into these people.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually Kessler gives Albert a chance to write and direct. While Albert’s discussing hisfirst script with Lucy, she off-handedly improves one of the scenes, and he convinces her to cowrite the film, which becomes a huge hit. But while searching for an ingénue for their follow-up project, he impetuously hires a beautiful but wild woman named Blake Chandler (Stone), whom he found working as a waitress at a hot dog stand. She moves in with the couple for round-the-clock coaching, Albert falls in love with her, and just like that he and Lucy are divorced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/14/diff3.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two then engage in a topsy-turvy battle of wills and careers, as Albert moves ontodirectorial stardom while Lucy falls into obscurity, her contribution to their movies completelyoverlooked. She makes a comeback, however, with a fictionalized tell-all book about theirmarriage, just as Albert’s career hits the skids. But no matter which one’s on top, their daughter is put in the middle, taking the brunt of their mutual recriminations. As the psychic wounds take apalpable toll on Casey, the film becomes a searing portrait of parental neglect, as well as adepiction of a codependent in the making. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The night that Lucy discovers her husband’s affair, she grabs Casey and they drive off, butinstead of comforting her daughter, she breaks down in a self-indulgent panic. Later, shecontinually bashes Albert in front of Casey, while at the same time pumping her for informationabout Blake. Meanwhile, over at Albert’s Hollywood mansion, his slavish devotion to his newwife leaves no room for his daughter. Finally, Casey is reduced to ping-ponging between them,forced to bear vicious messages from one to the other. Some of the exchanges between Caseyand her parents are particularly depressing:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Albert: What do you think of your old man? Be honest.\u003cbr>Casey: Daddy you know for a long time you didn’t talk to me so much because you werealways so busy. And now it’s like you want me to be your best friend or something. It’s notfair.\u003cbr>Albert: Fair? You want to talk about fair? Two Academy Award nominations, look at me. Ican’t get arrested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many affecting scenes in the film, both comedic and dramatic. A highlight is thesequence in which Albert attempts to shoot \u003ci>Atlanta\u003c/i>, a musical version of \u003ci>Gone Withthe Wind\u003c/i>, a self-financed vanity project for Blake, destined to flop in the grand style of\u003ci>Heaven’s Gate\u003c/i> in part because of Albert’s Stanley Kubrick-level obsessiveness. Beforeshooting his version of the famous scene in which the camera cranes up from Scarlett O’Hara toreveal hundreds of dead and wounded soldiers lying in rows, Albert laments they don’t haveenough flies. He then fixates on the dress color of an extra somewhere deep in the background as his assistant warns him that the sun’s about to go down. Finally, a coke-snorting Blake emerges from her trailer in full diva mode, ready to sing the lyrics she herself wrote: “This… civil war… ain’t gonna get… me down… I’m moving my act… To a brand new town!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she yells “cut!” before the scene ends, putting an end to the day’s shooting and pushing the already over-budget film further into the red. “Collect the flies!” yells the A.D.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a great take on how a bad idea is made worse on-screen. (See Bogdanovich’s \u003ci>At Long Last Love\u003c/i> forthe real-life parallel.) But the true impact of \u003ci>Irreconcilable Differences\u003c/i> lies not in its close-to-the-bone take down of Hollywood excess, but in the finely observed psychological moments: Lucy compulsively giving notes to Blake on her performance while Albert languorously lights theyoung beauty’s cigarette, tipping off his wife to the affair with just that one gesture. Or Lucybeckoning her staff — a pair of standard Hollywood flunkies — to giddily inform them that herbook has gone to number one, then insisting on telling the housekeeping staff as well. When thecook seems puzzled, just the slightest hint of loneliness and shame flashes across Long’sface; she’s on top of the world, but has no one to share it with. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/14/diff4.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film winds to a close with Albert and Lucy, on either side of their daughter, literallypulling her arms in opposite directions during one of their vicious fights. The flashback ends andwe’re back in the courtroom, where Casey takes the stand to sum up her view of what we havejust seen:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think if you have a child, you should treat that child like a human being and not like a pet. Not like you treat your dog or something. You know, when you have a dog sometimes you forget he’s there, and then when you get lonely suddenly you remember him, and you remember how cute he is and stuff, and you kiss him a lot, but then the next day when you’re busy again you don’t notice him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Irreconcilable Differences\u003c/i> is an insider’s view of the perils of Hollywood success andthe neediness that drives certain types of the industry’s personalities. But what makes the filmmore than just a knowing castigation is the real element of tragedy, not only in the emotionalabuse of a child, but in the disintegration of a deeply sympathetic romantic partnership. Over theyears, I have come to interpret the downfall of Albert and Lucy’s relationship differently. Thecorrupting influence of Hollywood — that’s there. But one wonders if the seeds of failurepredated the characters’ success, existing from the start in Albert’s total immersion in movies. “Isee in you exactly what Jimmy Stewart saw in Jean Arthur,” he tells Lucy when they are fallingin love, one of several instances in which he cites a film to explain his psychological state. Forsomeone whose main frame of reference is pictures, perhaps it’s only a matter of time before real life wilts under the weight of cinema-driven projections. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all, those wildest-dreams-come-true can instill a deep vanity. The flip side, however, isthe self-loathing that emerges as they start to crumble, and an inability to nurture anything butyour own success. “Do you love me a lot?” Lucy stops reveling over her invitation to appear on\u003ci>The Tonight Show\u003c/i> to ask her daughter. In Hollywood, the film suggests, maybe that’s the only real question on anyone’s mind. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Cold War Between the Sexes: Neil LaBute's 'reasons to be pretty'",
"headTitle": "The Cold War Between the Sexes: Neil LaBute’s ‘reasons to be pretty’ | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Neil LaBute will probably never shake off his reputation as a misogynist. His notoriously brow- and ire-raising works — \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119361/\">\u003ci>In The Company of Men\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119517/combined\">\u003ci>Your Friends and Neighbors\u003c/i>\u003c/a> and other taut dramas revealed unbridled male cruelty towards women. Alternatively, \u003ci>The Shape of Things\u003c/i> showed the treachery women are capable of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ci>reasons to be pretty\u003c/i>, which opened March 26, 2013 at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfplayhouse.org/\">SF Playhouse\u003c/a>, LaBute, presents a more melancholy take on impasse between men and women. The war between the sexes is still in full throttle, but it’s now a cold war, not a blood sport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SF Playhouse’s co-founder Susi Damilano directs this appealingly crisp and smart production. Even without LaBute’s established inflammatory tone, the play captures attention with lively dialogue and its tense depiction of abrasive relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The play, which ran on Broadway in 2008, is part of LaBute’s “trilogy” of plays about physical appearance. Previous installations of the trilogy, \u003ci>The Shape of Things\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Fat Pig\u003c/i>, explore societal attitudes about standards of beauty. In \u003ci>reasons to be pretty\u003c/i>, no one rejects anyone for being a fat pig, but the description of a woman’s face as simply “regular” becomes fighting words. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/07/reasons2.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lauren English plays Steph, a young woman who concludes that her boyfriend doesn’t find her pretty enough. The curtain goes up on Steph in a tantrum of hysterics, allegations, and castigations. She’s leaping on the bed, cursing up a storm, demanding that her boyfriend Greg (Craig Marker) confess to what she says she knows that he feels. She wants to thrash it out, he side-steps. He flounders in her tidal wave of vitriol and meets it with inept sputters. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If men are from Mars, in LaBute’s cosmic view, then women are from planet psycho. English and Marker perform this domestic battle with shrewd humor. But the cards are stacked in his favor. He may display typical male-pattern detachment but clearly this chick’s a whack-job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this four character play of two couples, one dude’s an jerk, one’s a decent guy; LaBute positions himself to be an equal opportunity observer of bad behavior in both of the sexes. Or perhaps he’s an equal opportunity caricaturist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kent, Greg’s buddy and fellow shift worker in a packing plant, is a textbook misogynist. His disrespect for women, including his wife, is broadly conceived. Still, Patrick Russell’s crude performance is skin-crawlingly accomplished. His wife Carly, played by Jennifer Stuckert, evolves from manipulative troublemaker to emotionally insecure victim. Steph also evolves into a less angry, sadder version of herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/07/reasons1.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s Greg who occupies more of a gray area. We know he’s a good egg because he spends his lunch hour reading 19th-century novels and trying to stay out of trouble. But try as he might to do the right thing, Steph is a wild card — summoning an audience at the mall’s food court to verbally flog him. Nickie Braucher’s set swivels from bedroom to factory lunch room to mall as months pass and relationships erupt and fade. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ostensibly, Neil LaBute balances the blame. But his Mamet-like refereeing tilts towards the rationality of men. In \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleanna_(play)/\">\u003ci>Oleanna \u003c/i>\u003c/a> David Mamet tried to temper his masculine posture with a he said/she said fairness, but his biases were clear. Likewise, LaBute gives us stereotypically aggressive Kent, but Greg is the brooding moral voice with authorial common sense. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>reasons to be pretty\u003c/i> has much more heart than the theatre of Mamet. With its strong cast and table-turning action, LaBute’s play keeps the audience fully attentive and open to his upcoming sequel, \u003ca href=\"http://www.mcctheater.org/shows/12-13_season/reasonstobehappy/index.html\">\u003ci>reasons to be happy\u003c/i>\u003c/a>. This play, opening next month at the MCC Theater in New York, will star \u003ci>The Office\u003c/i>‘s Jenna Fischer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What are the reasons to be pretty? The advantages may not outweigh the pitfalls. LaBute is mostly interested in revealing the damage our preoccupation with pretty can do. LaBute’s characters have shown that estrogen and testosterone may be magnets but inevitably they combust. In \u003ci>reasons to be pretty\u003c/i>, LaBute entertains without attacking, but ultimately he reveals the hopelessness of happiness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>reasons to be pretty\u003c/i> runs through May 11, 2013 at the SF Playhouse in San Francisco. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfplayhouse.org/season1213/reasons_to_be_pretty.php\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit sfplayhouse.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All photos by Jessica Palopoli.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Neil LaBute will probably never shake off his reputation as a misogynist. His notoriously brow- and ire-raising works — \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119361/\">\u003ci>In The Company of Men\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119517/combined\">\u003ci>Your Friends and Neighbors\u003c/i>\u003c/a> and other taut dramas revealed unbridled male cruelty towards women. Alternatively, \u003ci>The Shape of Things\u003c/i> showed the treachery women are capable of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ci>reasons to be pretty\u003c/i>, which opened March 26, 2013 at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfplayhouse.org/\">SF Playhouse\u003c/a>, LaBute, presents a more melancholy take on impasse between men and women. The war between the sexes is still in full throttle, but it’s now a cold war, not a blood sport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SF Playhouse’s co-founder Susi Damilano directs this appealingly crisp and smart production. Even without LaBute’s established inflammatory tone, the play captures attention with lively dialogue and its tense depiction of abrasive relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The play, which ran on Broadway in 2008, is part of LaBute’s “trilogy” of plays about physical appearance. Previous installations of the trilogy, \u003ci>The Shape of Things\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Fat Pig\u003c/i>, explore societal attitudes about standards of beauty. In \u003ci>reasons to be pretty\u003c/i>, no one rejects anyone for being a fat pig, but the description of a woman’s face as simply “regular” becomes fighting words. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/07/reasons2.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lauren English plays Steph, a young woman who concludes that her boyfriend doesn’t find her pretty enough. The curtain goes up on Steph in a tantrum of hysterics, allegations, and castigations. She’s leaping on the bed, cursing up a storm, demanding that her boyfriend Greg (Craig Marker) confess to what she says she knows that he feels. She wants to thrash it out, he side-steps. He flounders in her tidal wave of vitriol and meets it with inept sputters. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If men are from Mars, in LaBute’s cosmic view, then women are from planet psycho. English and Marker perform this domestic battle with shrewd humor. But the cards are stacked in his favor. He may display typical male-pattern detachment but clearly this chick’s a whack-job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this four character play of two couples, one dude’s an jerk, one’s a decent guy; LaBute positions himself to be an equal opportunity observer of bad behavior in both of the sexes. Or perhaps he’s an equal opportunity caricaturist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kent, Greg’s buddy and fellow shift worker in a packing plant, is a textbook misogynist. His disrespect for women, including his wife, is broadly conceived. Still, Patrick Russell’s crude performance is skin-crawlingly accomplished. His wife Carly, played by Jennifer Stuckert, evolves from manipulative troublemaker to emotionally insecure victim. Steph also evolves into a less angry, sadder version of herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/07/reasons1.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s Greg who occupies more of a gray area. We know he’s a good egg because he spends his lunch hour reading 19th-century novels and trying to stay out of trouble. But try as he might to do the right thing, Steph is a wild card — summoning an audience at the mall’s food court to verbally flog him. Nickie Braucher’s set swivels from bedroom to factory lunch room to mall as months pass and relationships erupt and fade. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ostensibly, Neil LaBute balances the blame. But his Mamet-like refereeing tilts towards the rationality of men. In \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleanna_(play)/\">\u003ci>Oleanna \u003c/i>\u003c/a> David Mamet tried to temper his masculine posture with a he said/she said fairness, but his biases were clear. Likewise, LaBute gives us stereotypically aggressive Kent, but Greg is the brooding moral voice with authorial common sense. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>reasons to be pretty\u003c/i> has much more heart than the theatre of Mamet. With its strong cast and table-turning action, LaBute’s play keeps the audience fully attentive and open to his upcoming sequel, \u003ca href=\"http://www.mcctheater.org/shows/12-13_season/reasonstobehappy/index.html\">\u003ci>reasons to be happy\u003c/i>\u003c/a>. This play, opening next month at the MCC Theater in New York, will star \u003ci>The Office\u003c/i>‘s Jenna Fischer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What are the reasons to be pretty? The advantages may not outweigh the pitfalls. LaBute is mostly interested in revealing the damage our preoccupation with pretty can do. LaBute’s characters have shown that estrogen and testosterone may be magnets but inevitably they combust. In \u003ci>reasons to be pretty\u003c/i>, LaBute entertains without attacking, but ultimately he reveals the hopelessness of happiness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>reasons to be pretty\u003c/i> runs through May 11, 2013 at the SF Playhouse in San Francisco. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfplayhouse.org/season1213/reasons_to_be_pretty.php\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit sfplayhouse.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All photos by Jessica Palopoli.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Telling Time with Christian Marclay's 'The Clock'",
"headTitle": "Telling Time with Christian Marclay’s ‘The Clock’ | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is preparing to shut its doors to begin work on a major expansion that is set to last three years, with a completion date scheduled for early 2016. So naturally the staff has become pre-occupied with time. Packing up and leaving behind a building the museum has inhabited since 1995 is no small feat, given the delicate accommodation most artworks require. According to Rudolf Frieling, SFMOMA’s curator of media arts, there is no better work of contemporary art to express an obsession with the relentless passage of time than Christian Marclay’s \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i>. As the museum counts down the hours to its closure, Marclay’s 24-hour video masterpiece marks the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marclay was born in San Rafael, raised in Switzerland and became a New York art star in the early 1980s with his witty, \u003ca href=\"http://www.mutanteggplant.com/vitro-nasu/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/bonolargeCh.marclay.jpg\">beautiful\u003c/a> and often brilliant turntable performances, collages and installations that molded used vinyl into funny, touching, sometimes biting and satirical \u003ca href=\"http://momaps1.org/slideshows/ChristianMarclay/2822%20Records%20by%20Christian%20Marclay_photo%20by%20Mark%20Lentz_5Z9A6703.jpg\">works of all shapes and sizes\u003c/a>. From a gorgeous 10-foot column made out of a stack of LPs (\u003ca href=\"http://hammer.ucla.edu/image/818/450/450.JPG\">\u003ci>Endless Column\u003c/i>\u003c/a>) to a series of \u003ca href=\"http://www.migrosmuseum.ch/typo3temp/pics/6ad63e9c97.jpg\">album cover mashups\u003c/a> that elegantly exploded the record industry’s \u003ca href=\"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IE2z9uWqWhQ/SZld7S3WNeI/AAAAAAAAALo/tp3nbJZFRIo/s400/marclay2.jpg\">dominant visual tropes\u003c/a>, Marclay has built a world of wonderful surprises using the detritus of popular film and music culture as his raw material. Yes, I am a fan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a press conference last Wednesday, April 3, 2013, Frieling pointed out Marclay’s significant connection to SFMOMA, noting that the museum commissioned one of the artist’s more famous pieces, \u003ci>Video Quartet\u003c/i> (2001), which recently concluded a revival at the Cantor Arts Center in Palo Alto. The piece is a 4-screen music composition built out of clips from Hollywood films.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VmXoeZir7A\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few years back, while working on another project, Marclay went searching for a film sequence depicting a particular time of day. That was when the idea for \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> began to take shape. After three years of research — with a little help — and editing, \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> premiered in 2010 at \u003ca href=\"http://whitecube.com/artists/christian_marclay/\">White Cube\u003c/a> in London and then went on to win the Golden Lion at the 2011 Venice Biennale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-128740\" alt=\"theclock2\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock2.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock2.jpg 500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock2-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock2-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i>, as a title, carries multiple meanings. First and most obvious, the piece itself is a clock that you can use to tell the time. It’s a 24-hour movie digitally synchronized to local time. You know that it is time for lunch when the clock strikes twelve. But it’s also noon across film time. Each hour plays out over decades with clips ranging the whole of film history, from the silent era right up to the period just preceding \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i>‘s completion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, the subject of most of the shots is a timepiece of some kind — shapes and sizes vary from a zoom-in to London’s Big Ben to the time-stamp on a piece of fictional surveillance footage to the hands moving on the face of a watch. \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> is a clock made of shots of clocks, and even though we are watching time tick away, we can still feel the film medium’s elastic effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock3.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-128741\" alt=\"theclock3\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock3.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock3.jpg 500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock3-400x224.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock3-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most films work through the compression of a period of time — sometimes days or weeks, sometimes decades — that flow seamlessly by over the course of a couple hours. Scenes unfold in “real time” in front of our eyes, while the time between scenes magically disappears, unnoticed. Films carry us from time to time and move us from one location to another, erasing the time and trouble it takes to travel between scenes. Marclay’s movie makes us hyper aware of time unfolding onscreen and the time spent viewing, while still humorously and sometimes poetically putting to use the ineffable quality of film that allows us to accept jumping between different times and places in the blink of an eye. \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> quickly time travels through eras and locations — an effervescent river of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock4.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-128742\" alt=\"theclock4\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock4.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock4.jpg 500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock4-400x224.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock4-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early in one hour Meryl Streep arrives in one of her more recent roles, a mature woman. Later on, she shows up again much younger in one of her early films. Same with Anthony Hopkins who first arrives as the old butler in \u003ci>The Remains of the Day\u003c/i> winding a clock or checking his watch. Later he is a young man in what looks like a bad TV movie. Through these brief appearances, Hopkins goes from being an established star backward in time to a struggling actor trying to catch a break. Streep goes from being the mature actress who has proven herself as one of the all-time greats and can now let her hair down and have some fun in a less serious role to the new girl onscreen just beginning to make her mark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During any given passage we travel through screen history. The crackling image of an ancient clock from the silent era is followed by Dana Andrews and Vincent Price in \u003ci>Laura\u003c/i> (1944), Sean Connery as James Bond (1960s), Roger Moore as Bond (1970s), Joan Crawford in \u003ci>What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?\u003c/i> (1962), Leo McKern in \u003ci>The Day the Earth Caught Fire\u003c/i> (1961), the clock stops for Max von Sydow in \u003ci>The Exorcist\u003c/i> (1973), \u003ci>Run Lola\u003c/i> runs across the screen (1998). Five minutes have passed. First a sundial from a historical costume drama, then a clock tower, then a digital watch. Robocop (1987). Some piece of time from the future — a time that hasn’t happened yet, but just went by. All times unfolding at the same time and then a poetic flight of film fancy. It begins to rain around 11:40am and the rain continues in various locations across the globe. And then the clock strikes twelve. \u003ci>High Noon\u003c/i> (1952). Gary Cooper. Classic Hollywood. Time for lunch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock5.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-128743\" alt=\"theclock5\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock5.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock5.jpg 500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock5-400x224.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock5-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One imagines that different parts of day will have different rhythms. Will everyone start drinking at 5pm? Will they have dinner at eight? Does life get a lot spookier at midnight? Do inexplicable things happen around 2am? Will the rooster crow at dawn? Once you become enmeshed in \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i>, it is hard to extricate yourself. But eventually you must yield. I don’t want to tell you about \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> even though I just did; I want to keep it to myself, which is an impossible wish. Like all films it is made to unfold in a shared group experience, and like all films it creates an incredibly personal experience in a group setting. Take the time to watch time go by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-128744\" alt=\"theclock1\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock1.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock1.jpg 500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock1-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christian Marclay’s \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> runs April 6 through June 2, 2013 at SFMOMA, counting down the hours until the museum’s current era comes to an end. The museum will be open for 24 hours every Saturday in May, 2013. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/exhibitions/513\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfmoma.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All images: Christian Marclay, video still from \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i>, 2010; courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is preparing to shut its doors to begin work on a major expansion that is set to last three years, with a completion date scheduled for early 2016. So naturally the staff has become pre-occupied with time. Packing up and leaving behind a building the museum has inhabited since 1995 is no small feat, given the delicate accommodation most artworks require. According to Rudolf Frieling, SFMOMA’s curator of media arts, there is no better work of contemporary art to express an obsession with the relentless passage of time than Christian Marclay’s \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i>. As the museum counts down the hours to its closure, Marclay’s 24-hour video masterpiece marks the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marclay was born in San Rafael, raised in Switzerland and became a New York art star in the early 1980s with his witty, \u003ca href=\"http://www.mutanteggplant.com/vitro-nasu/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/bonolargeCh.marclay.jpg\">beautiful\u003c/a> and often brilliant turntable performances, collages and installations that molded used vinyl into funny, touching, sometimes biting and satirical \u003ca href=\"http://momaps1.org/slideshows/ChristianMarclay/2822%20Records%20by%20Christian%20Marclay_photo%20by%20Mark%20Lentz_5Z9A6703.jpg\">works of all shapes and sizes\u003c/a>. From a gorgeous 10-foot column made out of a stack of LPs (\u003ca href=\"http://hammer.ucla.edu/image/818/450/450.JPG\">\u003ci>Endless Column\u003c/i>\u003c/a>) to a series of \u003ca href=\"http://www.migrosmuseum.ch/typo3temp/pics/6ad63e9c97.jpg\">album cover mashups\u003c/a> that elegantly exploded the record industry’s \u003ca href=\"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IE2z9uWqWhQ/SZld7S3WNeI/AAAAAAAAALo/tp3nbJZFRIo/s400/marclay2.jpg\">dominant visual tropes\u003c/a>, Marclay has built a world of wonderful surprises using the detritus of popular film and music culture as his raw material. Yes, I am a fan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a press conference last Wednesday, April 3, 2013, Frieling pointed out Marclay’s significant connection to SFMOMA, noting that the museum commissioned one of the artist’s more famous pieces, \u003ci>Video Quartet\u003c/i> (2001), which recently concluded a revival at the Cantor Arts Center in Palo Alto. The piece is a 4-screen music composition built out of clips from Hollywood films.\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/9VmXoeZir7A'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/9VmXoeZir7A'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>A few years back, while working on another project, Marclay went searching for a film sequence depicting a particular time of day. That was when the idea for \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> began to take shape. After three years of research — with a little help — and editing, \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> premiered in 2010 at \u003ca href=\"http://whitecube.com/artists/christian_marclay/\">White Cube\u003c/a> in London and then went on to win the Golden Lion at the 2011 Venice Biennale.\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/2/2013/04/theclock2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-128740\" alt=\"theclock2\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock2.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock2.jpg 500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock2-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock2-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i>, as a title, carries multiple meanings. First and most obvious, the piece itself is a clock that you can use to tell the time. It’s a 24-hour movie digitally synchronized to local time. You know that it is time for lunch when the clock strikes twelve. But it’s also noon across film time. Each hour plays out over decades with clips ranging the whole of film history, from the silent era right up to the period just preceding \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i>‘s completion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, the subject of most of the shots is a timepiece of some kind — shapes and sizes vary from a zoom-in to London’s Big Ben to the time-stamp on a piece of fictional surveillance footage to the hands moving on the face of a watch. \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> is a clock made of shots of clocks, and even though we are watching time tick away, we can still feel the film medium’s elastic effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock3.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-128741\" alt=\"theclock3\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock3.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock3.jpg 500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock3-400x224.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock3-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most films work through the compression of a period of time — sometimes days or weeks, sometimes decades — that flow seamlessly by over the course of a couple hours. Scenes unfold in “real time” in front of our eyes, while the time between scenes magically disappears, unnoticed. Films carry us from time to time and move us from one location to another, erasing the time and trouble it takes to travel between scenes. Marclay’s movie makes us hyper aware of time unfolding onscreen and the time spent viewing, while still humorously and sometimes poetically putting to use the ineffable quality of film that allows us to accept jumping between different times and places in the blink of an eye. \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> quickly time travels through eras and locations — an effervescent river of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock4.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-128742\" alt=\"theclock4\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock4.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock4.jpg 500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock4-400x224.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock4-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early in one hour Meryl Streep arrives in one of her more recent roles, a mature woman. Later on, she shows up again much younger in one of her early films. Same with Anthony Hopkins who first arrives as the old butler in \u003ci>The Remains of the Day\u003c/i> winding a clock or checking his watch. Later he is a young man in what looks like a bad TV movie. Through these brief appearances, Hopkins goes from being an established star backward in time to a struggling actor trying to catch a break. Streep goes from being the mature actress who has proven herself as one of the all-time greats and can now let her hair down and have some fun in a less serious role to the new girl onscreen just beginning to make her mark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During any given passage we travel through screen history. The crackling image of an ancient clock from the silent era is followed by Dana Andrews and Vincent Price in \u003ci>Laura\u003c/i> (1944), Sean Connery as James Bond (1960s), Roger Moore as Bond (1970s), Joan Crawford in \u003ci>What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?\u003c/i> (1962), Leo McKern in \u003ci>The Day the Earth Caught Fire\u003c/i> (1961), the clock stops for Max von Sydow in \u003ci>The Exorcist\u003c/i> (1973), \u003ci>Run Lola\u003c/i> runs across the screen (1998). Five minutes have passed. First a sundial from a historical costume drama, then a clock tower, then a digital watch. Robocop (1987). Some piece of time from the future — a time that hasn’t happened yet, but just went by. All times unfolding at the same time and then a poetic flight of film fancy. It begins to rain around 11:40am and the rain continues in various locations across the globe. And then the clock strikes twelve. \u003ci>High Noon\u003c/i> (1952). Gary Cooper. Classic Hollywood. Time for lunch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock5.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-128743\" alt=\"theclock5\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock5.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock5.jpg 500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock5-400x224.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock5-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One imagines that different parts of day will have different rhythms. Will everyone start drinking at 5pm? Will they have dinner at eight? Does life get a lot spookier at midnight? Do inexplicable things happen around 2am? Will the rooster crow at dawn? Once you become enmeshed in \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i>, it is hard to extricate yourself. But eventually you must yield. I don’t want to tell you about \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> even though I just did; I want to keep it to myself, which is an impossible wish. Like all films it is made to unfold in a shared group experience, and like all films it creates an incredibly personal experience in a group setting. Take the time to watch time go by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-128744\" alt=\"theclock1\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock1.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock1.jpg 500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock1-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/04/theclock1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christian Marclay’s \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> runs April 6 through June 2, 2013 at SFMOMA, counting down the hours until the museum’s current era comes to an end. The museum will be open for 24 hours every Saturday in May, 2013. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/exhibitions/513\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfmoma.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All images: Christian Marclay, video still from \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i>, 2010; courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Center Cannot Hold: 5 to Watch",
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"content": "\u003cp>In most American cities, the annual film festival sucks up all the air for the month. The other venues for serious and/or alternative movies — the arthouse cinemas, indie/underground theaters and museums — scale back their programming in recognition that there simply isn’t sufficient audience or media coverage to sustain everyone. We extend our sympathies. April in the Bay Area, like the other 11 months, is crammed with special events, retrospectives and one-off oddities. The \u003cb>SF International Film Festival\u003c/b> (opening April 25) isn’t so much a 600-pound gorilla hovering near the family china as a sundae-with-everything after a satisfying meal. So dig in, but save room for dessert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Cinematheque, the venerable keeper of the flame of experimental film and video, unveils \u003cb>Crossroads\u003c/b>, its fourth annual immersion of new work from around the country, April 5-7 at the Victoria Theatre. Artistic Director Steve Polta has curated eight programs of visionary short films under such irresistible rubrics as “As if clinging could save us,” “On the beach (at night)” and “…in which the players in the great mystery vanish into spectacle!” Treat your senses, and imagination, to the visions of the amazing Janis Crystal Lipzin, Paul Clipson, Kelly Sears, Scott Stark (presenting the world premiere of \u003ci>The Realist\u003c/i> at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 7), Malic Almaya and Michael Robinson, among others. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfcinematheque.org/#/calendar/201304050/\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfcinematheque.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/02/headshot.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003cbr>\u003ci>Headshot\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joel Shepard’s globe-trotting expeditions have made the film programming at Yerba Buena Center For the Arts a crucial if underappreciated strand of the local tapestry. This month’s coup is an appearance by master mood-maker Pen-ek Ratanaruang in conjunction with the retrospective, \u003cb>Thai Dreams: The Films of Pen-ek Ratanaruang\u003c/b>. The director will be on hand Thursday, April 4 with his latest work, \u003ci>Headshot\u003c/i> (2011), winningly described as a “Buddhist neo-noir,” and Sunday, April 7 with the mysterious relationship/nature drama \u003ci>Nymph\u003c/i> (2009). The six-film series, replete with confounding and mind-blowing scenes, continues through April 21. For \u003ca href=\"http://ybca.org/thai-dreams-films-pen-ek-ratanaruang\">more information\u003c/a> visit ybca.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/02/theclock.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003cbr>\u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How come no one ever thought of this before? They did, no doubt, but lacked the obsessiveness and fortitude to pull it off. \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> is a miraculous 24-hour collection of a gazillion shots from only-God-knows-how-many films that serves as a real-time, running clock — and a study of time in the movies (and in our lives, by the by). Christian Marclay’s world-famed compilation, completed in 2010, unspools at SFMOMA between April 6 and June 2. Make a reservation, buy a ticket, and set your alarm. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/events/2286\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfmoma.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/02/hohb.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003cbr>\u003ci>Hands on a Hard Body\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the great “competition” documentaries of all time — make that one of the great documentaries, period — RJ Binder’s \u003ci>Hands on a Hard Body\u003c/i> has been essentially unseen since its 1998 debut. Oh, there was a VHS release (old copies now command a small fortune), but the film was never made available on DVD or online. The doc is back in the spotlight thanks to the New York premiere a few weeks ago of a stage musical adapted from Binder’s portrait of a Texas dealer’s marathon endurance contest for a new pickup truck. In an example of the kind of uncommon treats that regularly dot the Roxie schedule, \u003ci>Hands on a Hard Body\u003c/i> screens Monday and Tuesday, April 8 and 9 at 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. The doc’s blend of rootsy Americana, economic desperation, and wackadoodle tragicomedy still hits the bulls-eye 15 years on. For \u003ca href=\"http://roxie.com/events/details.cfm?EventID=F33A3C10-FD5B-9E70-93A2C623CC2A087D&View=weeklist&linkDate=%7Bts%20%272013%2D04%2D05%2000%3A00%3A00%27%7D\">more information\u003c/a> visit roxie.com.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Countless filmmakers, from Bruce Conner to Chris Marker to Oliver Stone, have used found or archival footage as the basis for films that recontextualize and reconsider the past. French filmmaker Jean-Gabriel Périot goes even further, constructing multilayered narratives (underscored by carefully-chosen sound effects and music) that propel the viewer to look at history, and the present, from a fresh perspective. Périot’s work is neither strictly documentary nor resolutely experimental but an invigorating hybrid; you can imagine how thrilling the blurring of fact, fiction, experience, and political passion can be in the hands of an ace filmmaker and top-drawer thinker. Artists Television Access hosts the director, making his first U.S. tour with a program of nine short works, “We Are Winning, Don’t Forget,” on Friday, April 19. Consider it the final appetite-whetter for the SFIFF. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.atasite.org/2013/04/we-are-winning-dont-forget-short-works-by-jean-gabriel-periot/\">more information\u003c/a> visit atasite.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In most American cities, the annual film festival sucks up all the air for the month. The other venues for serious and/or alternative movies — the arthouse cinemas, indie/underground theaters and museums — scale back their programming in recognition that there simply isn’t sufficient audience or media coverage to sustain everyone. We extend our sympathies. April in the Bay Area, like the other 11 months, is crammed with special events, retrospectives and one-off oddities. The \u003cb>SF International Film Festival\u003c/b> (opening April 25) isn’t so much a 600-pound gorilla hovering near the family china as a sundae-with-everything after a satisfying meal. So dig in, but save room for dessert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Cinematheque, the venerable keeper of the flame of experimental film and video, unveils \u003cb>Crossroads\u003c/b>, its fourth annual immersion of new work from around the country, April 5-7 at the Victoria Theatre. Artistic Director Steve Polta has curated eight programs of visionary short films under such irresistible rubrics as “As if clinging could save us,” “On the beach (at night)” and “…in which the players in the great mystery vanish into spectacle!” Treat your senses, and imagination, to the visions of the amazing Janis Crystal Lipzin, Paul Clipson, Kelly Sears, Scott Stark (presenting the world premiere of \u003ci>The Realist\u003c/i> at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 7), Malic Almaya and Michael Robinson, among others. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfcinematheque.org/#/calendar/201304050/\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfcinematheque.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/02/headshot.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003cbr>\u003ci>Headshot\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joel Shepard’s globe-trotting expeditions have made the film programming at Yerba Buena Center For the Arts a crucial if underappreciated strand of the local tapestry. This month’s coup is an appearance by master mood-maker Pen-ek Ratanaruang in conjunction with the retrospective, \u003cb>Thai Dreams: The Films of Pen-ek Ratanaruang\u003c/b>. The director will be on hand Thursday, April 4 with his latest work, \u003ci>Headshot\u003c/i> (2011), winningly described as a “Buddhist neo-noir,” and Sunday, April 7 with the mysterious relationship/nature drama \u003ci>Nymph\u003c/i> (2009). The six-film series, replete with confounding and mind-blowing scenes, continues through April 21. For \u003ca href=\"http://ybca.org/thai-dreams-films-pen-ek-ratanaruang\">more information\u003c/a> visit ybca.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/02/theclock.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003cbr>\u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How come no one ever thought of this before? They did, no doubt, but lacked the obsessiveness and fortitude to pull it off. \u003ci>The Clock\u003c/i> is a miraculous 24-hour collection of a gazillion shots from only-God-knows-how-many films that serves as a real-time, running clock — and a study of time in the movies (and in our lives, by the by). Christian Marclay’s world-famed compilation, completed in 2010, unspools at SFMOMA between April 6 and June 2. Make a reservation, buy a ticket, and set your alarm. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/events/2286\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfmoma.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/04/02/hohb.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003cbr>\u003ci>Hands on a Hard Body\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the great “competition” documentaries of all time — make that one of the great documentaries, period — RJ Binder’s \u003ci>Hands on a Hard Body\u003c/i> has been essentially unseen since its 1998 debut. Oh, there was a VHS release (old copies now command a small fortune), but the film was never made available on DVD or online. The doc is back in the spotlight thanks to the New York premiere a few weeks ago of a stage musical adapted from Binder’s portrait of a Texas dealer’s marathon endurance contest for a new pickup truck. In an example of the kind of uncommon treats that regularly dot the Roxie schedule, \u003ci>Hands on a Hard Body\u003c/i> screens Monday and Tuesday, April 8 and 9 at 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. The doc’s blend of rootsy Americana, economic desperation, and wackadoodle tragicomedy still hits the bulls-eye 15 years on. For \u003ca href=\"http://roxie.com/events/details.cfm?EventID=F33A3C10-FD5B-9E70-93A2C623CC2A087D&View=weeklist&linkDate=%7Bts%20%272013%2D04%2D05%2000%3A00%3A00%27%7D\">more information\u003c/a> visit roxie.com.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Countless filmmakers, from Bruce Conner to Chris Marker to Oliver Stone, have used found or archival footage as the basis for films that recontextualize and reconsider the past. French filmmaker Jean-Gabriel Périot goes even further, constructing multilayered narratives (underscored by carefully-chosen sound effects and music) that propel the viewer to look at history, and the present, from a fresh perspective. Périot’s work is neither strictly documentary nor resolutely experimental but an invigorating hybrid; you can imagine how thrilling the blurring of fact, fiction, experience, and political passion can be in the hands of an ace filmmaker and top-drawer thinker. Artists Television Access hosts the director, making his first U.S. tour with a program of nine short works, “We Are Winning, Don’t Forget,” on Friday, April 19. Consider it the final appetite-whetter for the SFIFF. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.atasite.org/2013/04/we-are-winning-dont-forget-short-works-by-jean-gabriel-periot/\">more information\u003c/a> visit atasite.org.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003caside class=\"aligncenter\">\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/82235312″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Jane Kim is a politician currently serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 6. She is one of the CAAMFest jurors for this year’s Emerging Filmmaker Award. Hear what she has to say about CAAMFest2013, which runs March 14-24, 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"aligncenter\">\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”100%”' height='”300″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/82235312″&visual=true&”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true”'\n title='”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/82235312″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Jane Kim is a politician currently serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 6. She is one of the CAAMFest jurors for this year’s Emerging Filmmaker Award. Hear what she has to say about CAAMFest2013, which runs March 14-24, 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In 2004, amid the latest \u003ci>Harry Potter\u003c/i>, \u003ci>Shrek\u003c/i>, and \u003ci>Spider-Man\u003c/i>, themoviegoing public was shocked to discover they could actually see an American filmmade for grownups. In an era of widespread pandering to the child-in-us-all, criticslauded Alexander Payne’s comedy-drama \u003ci>Sideways\u003c/i> for its adult themes andcharacters. As the \u003ca href=\"http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2004/10/24/life-isa-cabernet.html\">critic David Ansen put it\u003c/a>, “…Sideways stays resolutely life-size.And that, in this age of hype and hyperventilation, may be the most radical thing aboutit.” In addition to the financial achievement of grossing $110 million worldwide on aproduction budget of $16 million, \u003ci>Sideways\u003c/i> has to be one of the best films evermade about wine; those who have seen it are probably doomed to hear the echo ofPaul Giamatti’s \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideways#Impact_on_wine_industry\">brief tirade against Merlot\u003c/a> whenever they consider that varietal on a menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film was Payne’s third in an escalating triptych of delving into middle-aged maleangst. In his dryly satirical semi-cult fave \u003ci>Election\u003c/i>, the main character wascomically and blissfully unaware of his extreme American ordinariness, and his descentinto loserdom barely chipped away at an unrelenting optimism bordering on delusion.\u003ci>About Schmidt\u003c/i>, a low-key star vehicle for Jack Nicholson, upped the self-awarenesslevel a notch, as the lifelong folly of a superannuated executive’s life slowlyseeped into his — and the audience’s — consciousness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/08/sideways1.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in \u003ci>Sideways\u003c/i>, Paul Giamatti, playing a guy who looks like Paul Giamatti, isalready in full-blown rueful mode when the film begins. The movie tracks a one-weekvacation in which his character, Miles, heads to the wine country of Santa Ynez Valley,in Santa Barbara County, with his pal Jack (Thomas Haden Church) on the eve ofJack’s wedding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miles is a junior high school English teacher, divorced three years and still pining for hisex. He’s also a talented but failed novelist, dependent on anti-depressants, and anabuser of wine. Jack is an actor who hit his peak as a regular on a soap opera but hasnow been relegated to commercials (“mostly nationals”). The two, of course, areopposites: Jack is a puerile loose cannon who effuses frequent bursts of cockeyedoptimism; Miles over-thinks everything and projects only doom. Jack is shallow, Miles anintellectual. Jack is confidently oversexed; Miles looks like he’d rather be anywhere elsewhen the lights are low. Jack is getting into a marriage he seems to not really want;Miles is out of one he still wants to be in. In short, Jack’s all id, Miles depressed superego. For Miles, the long-planned trip is a chance to school his buddy on the one thinghe’s still got a confident purchase on: wine. Jack, on the other hand, despite (or due to)his imminent nuptials, has the sole goal of getting laid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/08/sideways7.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So that’s where the fun begins, as they used to say in sitcom promos. But despite someuproarious high jinks, the action really lies in the nuances of the characters’ interactionswith each other, as well as their different approaches to all things, big and small. Jack,for his part, is an inveterate bullshitter, the kind of guy whose magnetism will carry youalong to places you wouldn’t have normally dared — until you finally realize you’re inway over your head. Among several comically horrific plot points are Jack’s immediateinsinuation into the life of Stephanie (Sandra Oh), a woman he picks up on the trip.Within a day, he’s advanced the relationship to the stage of calling her, quite sincerely,”honey,” while she refers to him as Uncle Jack when he puts her daughter to bed. (Ohhas a fabulous scene in which she physically attacks him like a cartoon whirlwind afternews of his impending marriage leaks out.) \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All I know is that I’m an actor,” Jack says to Miles, explaining his thoughts aboutaborting his wedding in favor of this new relationship. “All I have is my instinct. You’reasking me to go against it… She smells different, she tastes different, she f***sdifferent.” This is both hilarious and horrifying: hilarious to hear a 40-something man saythose words as if he’s just hit upon an undiscovered truth; horrifying to hear such a thinrationalization for a form of semi-sociopathic behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/08/sideways4.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miles, on the other hand, is all head. Payne paints his portrait in a few quick strokesearly on: reading on the toilet, ordering a spinach croissant with coffee, doing the Timescrossword while driving. But he’s also right on the border of being a prig. (He hits peakpretentiousness through use of the word “absolument.”) He’s also the kind of wine snoball but a true enophile would rather not hear from. “There’s the faintest soupcon ofasparagus and there’s just a flutter of like a nutty edam cheese,” he pronounces afterdipping his nose deep into a glass of red.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, when meeting up with the soulful waitress Maya (Virginia Madsen), Miles’spersonality blooms. Suddenly he is downright cogent, even poetic. A fellow winecognoscente, she asks him about his deep affinity for Pinot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/08/sideways2.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early,” he replies, speaking of the grape. “It’snot a survivor like Cabernet, which can just grow anywhere and even when it’sneglected. No, Pinot needs constant care and attention…and only the most patient andnurturing of growers can do it, really only somebody who really takes the time tounderstand Pinot’s potential can then coax it into its fullest expression. And then it’sflavors are just the most haunting and brilliant and thrilling and subtle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He has, of course, just described the best version of himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sideways\u003c/i> is one of those films that moves seamlessly from humor to existentialdesolation without stumbling over bathos. There’s an uproariously funny scene, forexample, of Jack giving chase to Miles, scrambling precariously down a steep hill whilestealing swigs from a wine bottle after he’s learned his ex-wife is getting remarried. Theflip side of that comedy: Paul Giamatti’s face as a portrait of poorly suppressed,crumbling despair when his ex tells him at Jack’s wedding that she’s pregnant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/08/sideways3.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s that poignancy brought to the character by Giamatti that pushes the film beyond thebounds of its comedic structure. Filled with self-loathing, Miles is always a hair triggeraway from what looks to be a total collapse. In one of the more memorably downbeatsequences I’ve seen on film, Miles and Jack pay a surprise trip to Miles’s mother on herbirthday. Only it becomes clear that he has made the detour in order to raid her secretstash of money so he can pay for the trip. As he does, he catches a glimpse of photosof himself, representing better days. He then sees his reflection in a mirror, where he isconfronted with just who he has become. That’s powerful enough, but Payne smoothlylayers on a related scene. The theft complete, Miles returns downstairs to find hismother in conversation with Jack, cooing over some inane commercials he’s appearedin. Coming right after Miles’s self-humiliation, it’s a nice connective moment betweentwo types of middle-aged defeat. Because if Miles reeks with the stench of unfulfilledpromise, Jack has a whiff of it himself. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, even given this kind of character depth, the film may have played out as merely anentertaining clash of opposites if not for Payne’s ability to thoroughly capture theemotional texture of certain moments and psychological states: the conviviality of analcohol-infused dinner; the tension of a first date eased by the sudden surprise ofconnection; the pain of missing the moment for a first kiss; and the loneliness of beingabandoned by a buddy. In this last sequence, Payne gives us a series of quick solitaryshots: Miles cutting his toenails, grading papers in a pool, calling voicemail devoid ofmessages, eating alone — small moments, still lifes, almost, adding up to a portrait ofbleakness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/08/sideways9.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another standout scene, in which Miles “drunk dials” his ex-wife, shots ofhim thinking about making the call are intercut with the actual event, amplifying thetension between conception and execution of a truly bad idea. Here, the drunkenagitation of Miles’s state is captured with tight closeups shifting in and out of focus, as ifthe camera itself is half-drunk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near the finish, the film cuts its comedy cord completely and goes to an even darkerplace. At the end of his tether, Miles surreptitiously steals sips from the pride of his winecollection while eating alone at a fast food restaurant. He was saving this particularbottle for a special occasion, and its premature opening represents the death of allhope. But the movie doesn’t end there. Like every vintage wine, Miles may yet have hismoment to peak. The last scene is open-ended, and with characters as rich as these,whatever happened next might have made a fine sequel.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In 2004, amid the latest \u003ci>Harry Potter\u003c/i>, \u003ci>Shrek\u003c/i>, and \u003ci>Spider-Man\u003c/i>, themoviegoing public was shocked to discover they could actually see an American filmmade for grownups. In an era of widespread pandering to the child-in-us-all, criticslauded Alexander Payne’s comedy-drama \u003ci>Sideways\u003c/i> for its adult themes andcharacters. As the \u003ca href=\"http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2004/10/24/life-isa-cabernet.html\">critic David Ansen put it\u003c/a>, “…Sideways stays resolutely life-size.And that, in this age of hype and hyperventilation, may be the most radical thing aboutit.” In addition to the financial achievement of grossing $110 million worldwide on aproduction budget of $16 million, \u003ci>Sideways\u003c/i> has to be one of the best films evermade about wine; those who have seen it are probably doomed to hear the echo ofPaul Giamatti’s \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideways#Impact_on_wine_industry\">brief tirade against Merlot\u003c/a> whenever they consider that varietal on a menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film was Payne’s third in an escalating triptych of delving into middle-aged maleangst. In his dryly satirical semi-cult fave \u003ci>Election\u003c/i>, the main character wascomically and blissfully unaware of his extreme American ordinariness, and his descentinto loserdom barely chipped away at an unrelenting optimism bordering on delusion.\u003ci>About Schmidt\u003c/i>, a low-key star vehicle for Jack Nicholson, upped the self-awarenesslevel a notch, as the lifelong folly of a superannuated executive’s life slowlyseeped into his — and the audience’s — consciousness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/08/sideways1.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in \u003ci>Sideways\u003c/i>, Paul Giamatti, playing a guy who looks like Paul Giamatti, isalready in full-blown rueful mode when the film begins. The movie tracks a one-weekvacation in which his character, Miles, heads to the wine country of Santa Ynez Valley,in Santa Barbara County, with his pal Jack (Thomas Haden Church) on the eve ofJack’s wedding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miles is a junior high school English teacher, divorced three years and still pining for hisex. He’s also a talented but failed novelist, dependent on anti-depressants, and anabuser of wine. Jack is an actor who hit his peak as a regular on a soap opera but hasnow been relegated to commercials (“mostly nationals”). The two, of course, areopposites: Jack is a puerile loose cannon who effuses frequent bursts of cockeyedoptimism; Miles over-thinks everything and projects only doom. Jack is shallow, Miles anintellectual. Jack is confidently oversexed; Miles looks like he’d rather be anywhere elsewhen the lights are low. Jack is getting into a marriage he seems to not really want;Miles is out of one he still wants to be in. In short, Jack’s all id, Miles depressed superego. For Miles, the long-planned trip is a chance to school his buddy on the one thinghe’s still got a confident purchase on: wine. Jack, on the other hand, despite (or due to)his imminent nuptials, has the sole goal of getting laid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/08/sideways7.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So that’s where the fun begins, as they used to say in sitcom promos. But despite someuproarious high jinks, the action really lies in the nuances of the characters’ interactionswith each other, as well as their different approaches to all things, big and small. Jack,for his part, is an inveterate bullshitter, the kind of guy whose magnetism will carry youalong to places you wouldn’t have normally dared — until you finally realize you’re inway over your head. Among several comically horrific plot points are Jack’s immediateinsinuation into the life of Stephanie (Sandra Oh), a woman he picks up on the trip.Within a day, he’s advanced the relationship to the stage of calling her, quite sincerely,”honey,” while she refers to him as Uncle Jack when he puts her daughter to bed. (Ohhas a fabulous scene in which she physically attacks him like a cartoon whirlwind afternews of his impending marriage leaks out.) \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All I know is that I’m an actor,” Jack says to Miles, explaining his thoughts aboutaborting his wedding in favor of this new relationship. “All I have is my instinct. You’reasking me to go against it… She smells different, she tastes different, she f***sdifferent.” This is both hilarious and horrifying: hilarious to hear a 40-something man saythose words as if he’s just hit upon an undiscovered truth; horrifying to hear such a thinrationalization for a form of semi-sociopathic behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/08/sideways4.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miles, on the other hand, is all head. Payne paints his portrait in a few quick strokesearly on: reading on the toilet, ordering a spinach croissant with coffee, doing the Timescrossword while driving. But he’s also right on the border of being a prig. (He hits peakpretentiousness through use of the word “absolument.”) He’s also the kind of wine snoball but a true enophile would rather not hear from. “There’s the faintest soupcon ofasparagus and there’s just a flutter of like a nutty edam cheese,” he pronounces afterdipping his nose deep into a glass of red.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, when meeting up with the soulful waitress Maya (Virginia Madsen), Miles’spersonality blooms. Suddenly he is downright cogent, even poetic. A fellow winecognoscente, she asks him about his deep affinity for Pinot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/08/sideways2.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early,” he replies, speaking of the grape. “It’snot a survivor like Cabernet, which can just grow anywhere and even when it’sneglected. No, Pinot needs constant care and attention…and only the most patient andnurturing of growers can do it, really only somebody who really takes the time tounderstand Pinot’s potential can then coax it into its fullest expression. And then it’sflavors are just the most haunting and brilliant and thrilling and subtle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He has, of course, just described the best version of himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sideways\u003c/i> is one of those films that moves seamlessly from humor to existentialdesolation without stumbling over bathos. There’s an uproariously funny scene, forexample, of Jack giving chase to Miles, scrambling precariously down a steep hill whilestealing swigs from a wine bottle after he’s learned his ex-wife is getting remarried. Theflip side of that comedy: Paul Giamatti’s face as a portrait of poorly suppressed,crumbling despair when his ex tells him at Jack’s wedding that she’s pregnant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/08/sideways3.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s that poignancy brought to the character by Giamatti that pushes the film beyond thebounds of its comedic structure. Filled with self-loathing, Miles is always a hair triggeraway from what looks to be a total collapse. In one of the more memorably downbeatsequences I’ve seen on film, Miles and Jack pay a surprise trip to Miles’s mother on herbirthday. Only it becomes clear that he has made the detour in order to raid her secretstash of money so he can pay for the trip. As he does, he catches a glimpse of photosof himself, representing better days. He then sees his reflection in a mirror, where he isconfronted with just who he has become. That’s powerful enough, but Payne smoothlylayers on a related scene. The theft complete, Miles returns downstairs to find hismother in conversation with Jack, cooing over some inane commercials he’s appearedin. Coming right after Miles’s self-humiliation, it’s a nice connective moment betweentwo types of middle-aged defeat. Because if Miles reeks with the stench of unfulfilledpromise, Jack has a whiff of it himself. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, even given this kind of character depth, the film may have played out as merely anentertaining clash of opposites if not for Payne’s ability to thoroughly capture theemotional texture of certain moments and psychological states: the conviviality of analcohol-infused dinner; the tension of a first date eased by the sudden surprise ofconnection; the pain of missing the moment for a first kiss; and the loneliness of beingabandoned by a buddy. In this last sequence, Payne gives us a series of quick solitaryshots: Miles cutting his toenails, grading papers in a pool, calling voicemail devoid ofmessages, eating alone — small moments, still lifes, almost, adding up to a portrait ofbleakness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/08/sideways9.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another standout scene, in which Miles “drunk dials” his ex-wife, shots ofhim thinking about making the call are intercut with the actual event, amplifying thetension between conception and execution of a truly bad idea. Here, the drunkenagitation of Miles’s state is captured with tight closeups shifting in and out of focus, as ifthe camera itself is half-drunk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near the finish, the film cuts its comedy cord completely and goes to an even darkerplace. At the end of his tether, Miles surreptitiously steals sips from the pride of his winecollection while eating alone at a fast food restaurant. He was saving this particularbottle for a special occasion, and its premature opening represents the death of allhope. But the movie doesn’t end there. Like every vintage wine, Miles may yet have hismoment to peak. The last scene is open-ended, and with characters as rich as these,whatever happened next might have made a fine sequel.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>We considered saving the headline for April, when the San Francisco International Film Festival brings the cream of recent world cinema and a bevy of filmmakers to town. To tell the truth, though, Bay Area filmgoers are treated to a host of visiting filmmakers pretty much every month. March offers a singularly tantalizing selection of films and directors from places that are usually under the radar and off the beaten path. Make the most of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who’d have guessed that Marin County, once the land of peacock feathers and hot tubs, is filled with fans of the International Buddhist Film Festival Showcase? (Uh, everyone.) No fewer than nine films screen this weekend, March 1-3, at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. With luck, director Dafna Yachin will be in the house along with \u003ci>Digital Dharma\u003c/i> (Saturday, March 1 at 6:15 p.m.), her record of the late Gene Smith’s incredible, inspiring campaign to preserve thousands of volumes of Tibetan literature. Yerba Buena Center For the Arts repeats three of the selections next weekend (March 9-10) plus \u003ci>Tokyo Waka\u003c/i> (Sunday, March 10 at 4:00 p.m.), a sublime, crow’s-eye view of Japanese city life by local documentary makers par excellence John Haptas and Kris Samuelson, who will be in attendance. For more information visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.%20www.cafilm.org/rfc/films/1846.html\">cafilm.org/rfc\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"www.ybca.org/international-buddhist-film-fest-2013\">ybca.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[vimeo 30316496 w=480 h=270]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Digital Dharma\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Buddhist-themed films can often be said to have a meditative, timeless quality. The opposite impulse — urgent timeliness — defines the selections in the annual touring Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. Mai Iskander will be here to open the series with \u003ci>Words of Witness\u003c/i> (Thursday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m.) her touching portrait of a modern young Egyptian woman who dives into social media and the movement for political change and, regrettably, loses her idealism. The fest unspools on Thursdays this month at YBCA; for \u003ca href=\"http://ybca.org/2013-human-rights-watch-international-film-festival\">more information\u003c/a> visit ybca.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival has reinvented itself as CAAMFest, expanding the festivities to encompass live music and food-oriented events. Movies are still at the heart of the program, which runs March 14-24 and attracts numerous directors to the Bay Area with their latest work. Filipino writer-director Ron Morales is slated to appear with his profoundly harrowing kidnap drama \u003ci>Graceland\u003c/i> (Friday, March 15 and 22, New People Cinema in SF), as is Nicholas Bonner with his one-of-a-kind romantic comedy shot in North Korea, \u003ci>Comrade Kim Goes Flying\u003c/i> (Saturda, March 16; Sunday, March 23; and Sunday, March 24). Imagine the stories they’ll have to tell. For \u003ca href=\"http://caamfest.com/2013/\">more information\u003c/a> visit caamfest.com.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/01/graceland.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003cbr>\u003ci>Graceland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A brief segment on a newscast is typically the only glimpse we get of other countries. If the subject is Africa, it’s more like a snippet — and one that fits our narrow, pre-existing perceptions. For any kind of in-depth perspective, we rely on independent filmmakers such as Olivia Wyatt, whose interest in Ethiopian music led to \u003ci>Staring Into the Sun\u003c/i>, a one-hour film record of tribal rites and songs (accompanied by a CD of recordings). The Mission District bastion of underground film, Other Cinema, hosts the Northern California premiere of Wyatt’s work on Saturday, March 16, along with Mark Brecke and his mélange of newsreels and original footage about Somalia past and present. For \u003ca href=\"http://%20www.othercinema.com/calendar/index.html\">more information\u003c/a> visit othercinema.com.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[vimeo 9468566 w=480 h=270]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Staring Into the Sun\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she began her career in the 1970s with stunningly frank shorts that challenged all previous screen portrayals of lesbians, San Francisco State-educated filmmaker Barbara Hammer was exploring a subculture as foreign to most Americans as, well, Ethiopian tribes. Four decades of groundbreaking experimental and documentary work hasn’t quite edged the New York-based filmmaker into the mainstream, but she is no longer the lone radical. \u003cb>Made in SF: Films by Barbara Hammer\u003c/b> (Thursday, March 21 at SFMOMA) revives a pair of works she made during various residencies hereabouts. Hammer once described her sex-positive 1974 short \u003ci>Dyketactics\u003c/i> as “a lesbian commercial,” while her 1992 documentary \u003ci>Nitrate Kisses\u003c/i> goes even further in rescuing queer sex from the celluloid closet. Hammer, curiously, isn’t scheduled to attend, but the audience for this show can be counted on to bring their own experiences into the theater. For \u003ca href=\"www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/events/2256\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfmoma.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>We considered saving the headline for April, when the San Francisco International Film Festival brings the cream of recent world cinema and a bevy of filmmakers to town. To tell the truth, though, Bay Area filmgoers are treated to a host of visiting filmmakers pretty much every month. March offers a singularly tantalizing selection of films and directors from places that are usually under the radar and off the beaten path. Make the most of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who’d have guessed that Marin County, once the land of peacock feathers and hot tubs, is filled with fans of the International Buddhist Film Festival Showcase? (Uh, everyone.) No fewer than nine films screen this weekend, March 1-3, at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. With luck, director Dafna Yachin will be in the house along with \u003ci>Digital Dharma\u003c/i> (Saturday, March 1 at 6:15 p.m.), her record of the late Gene Smith’s incredible, inspiring campaign to preserve thousands of volumes of Tibetan literature. Yerba Buena Center For the Arts repeats three of the selections next weekend (March 9-10) plus \u003ci>Tokyo Waka\u003c/i> (Sunday, March 10 at 4:00 p.m.), a sublime, crow’s-eye view of Japanese city life by local documentary makers par excellence John Haptas and Kris Samuelson, who will be in attendance. For more information visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.%20www.cafilm.org/rfc/films/1846.html\">cafilm.org/rfc\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"www.ybca.org/international-buddhist-film-fest-2013\">ybca.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Digital Dharma\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Buddhist-themed films can often be said to have a meditative, timeless quality. The opposite impulse — urgent timeliness — defines the selections in the annual touring Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. Mai Iskander will be here to open the series with \u003ci>Words of Witness\u003c/i> (Thursday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m.) her touching portrait of a modern young Egyptian woman who dives into social media and the movement for political change and, regrettably, loses her idealism. The fest unspools on Thursdays this month at YBCA; for \u003ca href=\"http://ybca.org/2013-human-rights-watch-international-film-festival\">more information\u003c/a> visit ybca.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival has reinvented itself as CAAMFest, expanding the festivities to encompass live music and food-oriented events. Movies are still at the heart of the program, which runs March 14-24 and attracts numerous directors to the Bay Area with their latest work. Filipino writer-director Ron Morales is slated to appear with his profoundly harrowing kidnap drama \u003ci>Graceland\u003c/i> (Friday, March 15 and 22, New People Cinema in SF), as is Nicholas Bonner with his one-of-a-kind romantic comedy shot in North Korea, \u003ci>Comrade Kim Goes Flying\u003c/i> (Saturda, March 16; Sunday, March 23; and Sunday, March 24). Imagine the stories they’ll have to tell. For \u003ca href=\"http://caamfest.com/2013/\">more information\u003c/a> visit caamfest.com.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/03/01/graceland.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003cbr>\u003ci>Graceland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A brief segment on a newscast is typically the only glimpse we get of other countries. If the subject is Africa, it’s more like a snippet — and one that fits our narrow, pre-existing perceptions. For any kind of in-depth perspective, we rely on independent filmmakers such as Olivia Wyatt, whose interest in Ethiopian music led to \u003ci>Staring Into the Sun\u003c/i>, a one-hour film record of tribal rites and songs (accompanied by a CD of recordings). The Mission District bastion of underground film, Other Cinema, hosts the Northern California premiere of Wyatt’s work on Saturday, March 16, along with Mark Brecke and his mélange of newsreels and original footage about Somalia past and present. For \u003ca href=\"http://%20www.othercinema.com/calendar/index.html\">more information\u003c/a> visit othercinema.com.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Staring Into the Sun\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she began her career in the 1970s with stunningly frank shorts that challenged all previous screen portrayals of lesbians, San Francisco State-educated filmmaker Barbara Hammer was exploring a subculture as foreign to most Americans as, well, Ethiopian tribes. Four decades of groundbreaking experimental and documentary work hasn’t quite edged the New York-based filmmaker into the mainstream, but she is no longer the lone radical. \u003cb>Made in SF: Films by Barbara Hammer\u003c/b> (Thursday, March 21 at SFMOMA) revives a pair of works she made during various residencies hereabouts. Hammer once described her sex-positive 1974 short \u003ci>Dyketactics\u003c/i> as “a lesbian commercial,” while her 1992 documentary \u003ci>Nitrate Kisses\u003c/i> goes even further in rescuing queer sex from the celluloid closet. Hammer, curiously, isn’t scheduled to attend, but the audience for this show can be counted on to bring their own experiences into the theater. For \u003ca href=\"www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/events/2256\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfmoma.org.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ci>Safe\u003c/i> opens with a point-of-view drive up a San Fernando Valley road at dusk,the street lamps looming like ritualistic torches, unwelcoming mansions on either sideforming a gauntlet of initiation into some sort of emotional or even societal decline. Asthe car rolls into a gated community, composer Ed Tomney’s score is pregnant withforeboding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pitch-perfectly disturbing tone never lets up. I’ve been trying to convince friends foryears that Todd Haynes’ 1995 film is one of the great American films, but watching itcan be a difficult, perplexing experience. Few, however, would deny that in its slow,methodical building of tension and the creeping terror it instills, the movie rivals apowerhouse horror vehicle like \u003ci>Rosemary’s Baby\u003c/i>. In \u003ci>Safe\u003c/i>, however, themonster is so omnipresent, it’s barely identifiable. In fact, after this moody masterpiecehas wormed its way into your head for a couple of hours, you’re not quite sure exactlywhat it is that’s planted within you — the kind of anxiety and fear normally evoked byclinging nightmares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes the film so frightening? A synopsis would seem to provide few clues. CarolWhite (Julianne Moore), a San Fernando Valley housewife in a well-heeled, cloisteredcommunity circa 1987, spends her days decorating and errand-hopping until shedevelops an intolerable sensitivity to airborne toxic substances and householdchemicals. Her condition worsens, and after several attacks, a seizure that sends her tothe hospital, and the failure of her doctor to find any physical cause, she stumbles ontothe concept of \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=ww#hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_rn=2&gs_ri=hp&tok=COX9ZCUT77nbDoZY6piIeQ&cp=16&gs_id=ek&xhr=t&q=environmental+illness\">environmental illness\u003c/a>, meeting others who have become”chemically sensitive.” She decides to enroll in a program designed to treat this self-diagnosedcondition, a rural, chemical-free retreat called Wrenwood that is run by acharismatic author with HIV. There, she hopes to get “clear” and reduce her “load” oftoxic chemicals, in the parlance of the community. While in the program, however, hercondition worsens, and she takes to a “safe” house, a small, barren igloo designed tokeep all harmful substances at bay. The film then ends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes2.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While this plot might merit little more than a movie-of-the-week logline, Haynes’technique imbues even the smallest event with an element of dread. Carol’s first bigcrisis is actually non-chemical — an enormous couch is delivered, but it’s the wrongcolor: black. Amid the surrounding antiseptic decor, it sits like a poisonous harbinger ofwhat’s to come and a symbol of Carol’s estrangement from her surroundings. Thatsense of alienation, we soon learn, is a constant presence, seeping through in thedirector’s blocking and shot selection. Distance, disconnection, and depersonalizationare part and parcel of the movie’s style, which owes much to Stanley Kubrick, perhapsless to Robert Altman (see \u003ci>3 Women\u003c/i>), and even Ingmar Bergman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This dehumanization is partly achieved by giving architecture and interiors primacy overpeople. In an early long shot of Carol and her husband, Greg (Xander Berkeley),Haynes drops them into a small space in the frame, where they are dwarfed by theirhome and the surrounding landscape. Later, a wide-angle shot of a friend’s houseseems to swallow Carol up as she approaches. Long shots, overhead shots, shots withlots of headroom between Carol and the top of the frame — they all serve to minimizeher personhood. In one set-up, she is shot at the edge of the frame and at the samelevel as the furniture, like just another object in a house that already looks entirelyunlived-in. This head-on look imagines the room as a tasteless dollhouse. The only realorganic tinge to the decor is lent by a pair of off-putting, egg-shaped lamps that couldhave wandered off a David Cronenberg set, and are all the more creepy for lookingmore animate than the lone human in the frame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes3.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carol’s connection to people is as tenuous as her connection to her surroundings. Haynesmaximizes the space between her and other individuals, creating a literal distancebetween them. People talk to each other from far away or even from different rooms,which we sometimes see separated by a wall. Twice we see Carol talking to men — herhusband and a potential love interest that never materializes (James LeGros) — whenthe speakers have their backs to each other. In the case of her husband, the shot isreflected in a mirror, a double distancing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If face-to-face communication is scarce in \u003ci>Safe\u003c/i>, actual physical contact is evenrarer. And when it does occur, it’s conspicuous for its oddity. At the very start of the filmwe see Carol and her husband having sex, shot from overheard. As he pumps away ather, she evinces a tolerant-at-best look, as if abiding an animal or small child engagedin a reflexive compulsion. Later, after a business dinner during which she has fallenasleep, her husband puts his arm around her as they walk, but it looks hopelesslyawkward as they lurch forward with a zombie-like gait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes10.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t really own our own lives,” someone says during a locker room conversation atthe gym. True enough, here. Joyless sex, a stepson whom she doesn’t get along with,the wrong couch — all those are nothing compared to the estrangement Carol feels fromherself. “That’s fine. He’s fine. They’re fine,” Carol reports on family life to her motherover the phone. There is so much papering over — with no facility for naming what’s wrong, shebecomes a cipher, taking on an increasingly pallid, rag doll mien as the filmprogresses. At night she wanders alone in her garden, where earlier she was seentending to dying flowers. Adrift, vigorless, in possession of nothing truly her own, Carol,uncomfortable in her own skin, is someone who barely casts a shadow. In one shot, shecloses a mirrored bathroom door and her image is completely wiped out across thescreen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You do not sweat,” a fellow gym patron observes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Southern California Dystopia\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are reasons provided for this self-nullification, but Haynes almost neverforegrounds them, instead knitting them into the fabric of the film. Though he portraysaffluent, Reagan-era Southern California as a kind of soul-sucking dystopia with anomnipresent patriarchy, it is seen entirely through Carol’s perspective and is thusnormalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Who told you to go to this?” Greg asks Carol after she attends an informational sessionon environmental illness, without even a nod to the possibility of autonomy. Greg, who isplayed by Berkeley as a kind of brutish, oddly robotic man-child, is the kind ofguy you could see going on a rampage out of repressed rage. Other sexist slights arebaked into Carol’s experience. One of Greg’s colleagues tells a crude joke centeredaround a woman’s anatomy; her own medical doctor, in the middle of recommending apsychiatrist, hands the referral to Greg instead of to her; that psychiatrist sits behind alarge wooden desk, both physically inaccessible and emotionally remote as he leansback in his chair interrogating Carol, fully exposed on a small couch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes5.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This mix of male entitlement, dismissiveness, and condescension is mostly embeddedin scenes with more overt story purposes. Therefore the effect, unlike, say, in \u003ci>MadMen\u003c/i>, isn’t didactic, but rather a true reflection of how the ebbing of female powermight play out in this kind of closed cultural system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haynes spreads more of these scenes-from-the-’80s throughout, using a technique ofmisdirection to create an almost unconscious not-quite-right effect. A typical encounter:At the dinner table, Carol’s stepson, Rory, reads a school report he wrote about “blackand Latino gangs,” filled with racist assumptions and white-fear fantasies. The viewer,though, might easily overlook the content of what’s being said, because not only does itplay as secondary to a conversation between Carol and Greg, but the scene and theattitudes of all the participants are completely familiar if not iconic: a kid proudly rattlingoff something he wrote while his parents half-listen, then offer obligatory, perfunctorypraise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s like looking closely at a Norman Rockwell and discovering it was actually painted byFrancis Bacon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Toxicity\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The core motif, though, is toxicity, of both the body and soul. The film is lit in hazy/pukeytones that lend an unhealthy glow to everything. One signature shot shows rowsand rows of cars moving slowly down the 405, headlights flaring in the polluted dusk,haunting music punctuating a sense of extreme isolation and environmentaldegradation. It’s an indelible image, one that might have been conceived by T.S. Eliot:masses of people shut into their cars, herded toward some dismal destination. Thefeeling conveyed here is that something has gone dreadfully wrong, something nowineluctable, unappeasable, final.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s just the first half! What makes \u003ci>Safe\u003c/i> so doubly insidious is the way itsubverts audience expectations and perceptions in Act II, when Carol takes upresidence at Wrenwood to purge the toxins her system can no longer handle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes14.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haynes says on the DVD commentary that audiences have often mistaken his intentionas debunking \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=multiple+chemical+sensitivity\">chemical sensitivity\u003c/a>, which has been controversial as a diagnosisbecause it contends that someone can become sick from exposure to substances atlevels that medical science considers safe. But I would say a close reading of the filmshows him to be cagey on this score, in that a physical condition doubles as metaphor\u003ci>and\u003c/i> real-world consequence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meaning: a social toxicity is loose in the culture, just as a chemical toxicity is loose in the air.Thus, the film several times marries Carol’s hypersensitivity to chemicals with the denialof her own psychology. In one scene, for instance, her husband hugs her the morningafter a fight over her sexual disinclination to him, only to have her throw up. He has justapplied deodorant as well as hair gel and spray. But is she allergic to those substancesor to Greg himself? This is reprised later, at the retreat, when Greg attempts to embraceher and she pulls away, repulsed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it might be your cologne,” she says.\u003cbr>“I’m not wearing cologne,” he replies.\u003cbr>“Maybe in your shirt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It seems unlikely, but Haynes isn’t tipping his hand. Likewise, is it the actual exhaust ofthe trucks in front of her that triggers Carol’s choking fit, or the talk-radio discussion ofRonald Reagan’s religion she’s been listening to? Is it something in the air at a friend’sbaby shower that causes her seizure? Or the cold efficiency of the event, the emptinessand conventional talk that go hand-in-hand with the ritual?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes12.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What we know — and what the film seems to say — is that it’s much easier to latch ontoan environmental cause than to examine a life. When Carol’s doctor, after her seizure,frustratedly implies she’s a head case, her husband asks her, “What would cause you toactually bleed?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The chemicals,” she says, in the childish tone of any scapegoater reducing all theworld’s ills to one word. In this way, the film seems to wander around that nebulousintersection where real physical ailments meet psychosomatic tendencies and quackery,where an allergy doctor who diagnoses a genuine reaction also counsels a patient onthe phone to “continue the red-fruit diet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this second half, too, Haynes uses audience presumptions to dissemble thesignificance of what’s being said behind the familiarity of a conversational attitude.Carol’s first experience with the subculture of chemically sensitive people comes duringa discussion among a group of women who complain about the lack of legitimacy theircondition has been granted by traditional medicine. Says one in defense of the reality ofthe disease:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How does a ten-year-old say it’s psychosomatic? How does he make his eyes swellshut? Why would he want to do that? He can’t go into Chunky Cheese anymore. Hecan’t go into showbiz. Why would he do that to himself?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes11.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She has, of course, answered her own question, and also espoused the centralmetaphorical principle of the film: that physical illness is a concomitant of a disease ofthe soul. But because the woman is so self-assured and because a more conventionalstory structure would demand at this point a transition to a second-half resolution, mostaudiences will skip over the meaning of that dialogue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Wrenwood scenes further confuse things by mixing in self-help shibboleths withwhat turn out to be the harmful tenets of something akin to a cult. Yet the film may lull certain audiences into a state of acceptance, the same way it does its maincharacter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At her arrival, for example, Carol is welcomed by two women, officials of the center, onea warm and effusive earth-mother type who is the very opposite of the repressed,conventional individuals Carol is used to, and the other an African American woman –another antonym in her world. The latter tells her that Peter Dunning, the center’sdirector, is a “chemically sensitive person with AIDS, so his perspective is incrediblyvast.” That revelation stands out in marked contrast to the earlier shame displayed by afriend who couldn’t bring herself to say the name of that disease aloud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes15.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So… a gay man unabashed by a condition that at the time stoked much fear; a blackwoman; an emotionally open female who provides Carol with the film’s first healthyphysical contact; a chemical-free haven for suffering individuals — the signs all point to acorrection of her previous situation. This subversive game continues at orientation,where Dunning preaches several seemingly progressive psychological principles.”We’ve left the judgmental behind, and the shaming condition that kept us locked up inall the pain,” he says to the group. He cites “multiculturalism” and “environmentalism” aspositive things happening in the world. He is self-deprecating. And he also inoculateshis followers against the true nature of the center by communicating it as a joke. “Closeyour eyes…” he starts a guided meditation, “and pass your valuables to the front.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In group therapy, Dunning focuses on maintaining a positive attitude. As applied here,however, this is a dictate, not a principle. The solace he’s offering is edgy andconfrontational, but one again has to listen closely to what’s being said to cut throughthe poses that Haynes foregrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why did you become sick?” he asks one woman.\u003cbr>“Because I hated myself,” she says, without much conviction because she is parroting aprecept. After someone in the community commits suicide, Dunning bitterly instructs thegroup, “Let’s throw away every negative, self destructive thought we might have andlook around ourselves with love…” But he finishes it with, “I tried to teach him this.” Inanother session, a woman insinuates she was a victim of incest, and he tells her shebecame sick because she did not forgive her abuser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes16.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is group therapy in hell, because not all of it is nonsensical, and the egotism isinterspersed with some truths. But Dunning’s the kind of a guy who will ask you aquestion and then interrupt with the answer; the kind of guy who will hold court at dinnerregaling his female acolytes with the intricate details of an inspirational dream he justhad. His treatment, a mix of new age bromides, wishful thinking, and personal hostility,is the crowning toxic brew of the entire film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, when Carol’s husband visits, he points to a mansion on the hill and says: “whosehouse is that?”\u003cbr>“It’s Peter’s,” says Carol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That moment slips by like so many others — uncommented on by the film yet thereto gnaw at your perceptions. The true horror in \u003ci>Safe\u003c/i> is that Carol has left oneoppressive system only to immerse herself in another that masquerades as the healingpower of love. In this environment, where the victims are blamed for their own illness,she worsens. She is forced to tote around an oxygen tank, becomes ever more pallidand thin, and develops an expanding sore on her forehead. She goes into furtherisolation, taking to the small igloo built and formerly occupied by the man who hascommitted suicide. The film ends with her looking in a mirror and saying to herreflection, “I love you.” Many have called this final scene ambiguous, but I think it’spretty clear that this is where Carol is going to die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes18.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Todd Haynes' 1995 film 'Safe' is a Southern California nightmare about the toxicity loose in the air as well as the culture.",
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"description": "Todd Haynes' 1995 film 'Safe' is a Southern California nightmare about the toxicity loose in the air as well as the culture.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ci>Safe\u003c/i> opens with a point-of-view drive up a San Fernando Valley road at dusk,the street lamps looming like ritualistic torches, unwelcoming mansions on either sideforming a gauntlet of initiation into some sort of emotional or even societal decline. Asthe car rolls into a gated community, composer Ed Tomney’s score is pregnant withforeboding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pitch-perfectly disturbing tone never lets up. I’ve been trying to convince friends foryears that Todd Haynes’ 1995 film is one of the great American films, but watching itcan be a difficult, perplexing experience. Few, however, would deny that in its slow,methodical building of tension and the creeping terror it instills, the movie rivals apowerhouse horror vehicle like \u003ci>Rosemary’s Baby\u003c/i>. In \u003ci>Safe\u003c/i>, however, themonster is so omnipresent, it’s barely identifiable. In fact, after this moody masterpiecehas wormed its way into your head for a couple of hours, you’re not quite sure exactlywhat it is that’s planted within you — the kind of anxiety and fear normally evoked byclinging nightmares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes the film so frightening? A synopsis would seem to provide few clues. CarolWhite (Julianne Moore), a San Fernando Valley housewife in a well-heeled, cloisteredcommunity circa 1987, spends her days decorating and errand-hopping until shedevelops an intolerable sensitivity to airborne toxic substances and householdchemicals. Her condition worsens, and after several attacks, a seizure that sends her tothe hospital, and the failure of her doctor to find any physical cause, she stumbles ontothe concept of \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=ww#hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_rn=2&gs_ri=hp&tok=COX9ZCUT77nbDoZY6piIeQ&cp=16&gs_id=ek&xhr=t&q=environmental+illness\">environmental illness\u003c/a>, meeting others who have become”chemically sensitive.” She decides to enroll in a program designed to treat this self-diagnosedcondition, a rural, chemical-free retreat called Wrenwood that is run by acharismatic author with HIV. There, she hopes to get “clear” and reduce her “load” oftoxic chemicals, in the parlance of the community. While in the program, however, hercondition worsens, and she takes to a “safe” house, a small, barren igloo designed tokeep all harmful substances at bay. The film then ends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes2.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While this plot might merit little more than a movie-of-the-week logline, Haynes’technique imbues even the smallest event with an element of dread. Carol’s first bigcrisis is actually non-chemical — an enormous couch is delivered, but it’s the wrongcolor: black. Amid the surrounding antiseptic decor, it sits like a poisonous harbinger ofwhat’s to come and a symbol of Carol’s estrangement from her surroundings. Thatsense of alienation, we soon learn, is a constant presence, seeping through in thedirector’s blocking and shot selection. Distance, disconnection, and depersonalizationare part and parcel of the movie’s style, which owes much to Stanley Kubrick, perhapsless to Robert Altman (see \u003ci>3 Women\u003c/i>), and even Ingmar Bergman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This dehumanization is partly achieved by giving architecture and interiors primacy overpeople. In an early long shot of Carol and her husband, Greg (Xander Berkeley),Haynes drops them into a small space in the frame, where they are dwarfed by theirhome and the surrounding landscape. Later, a wide-angle shot of a friend’s houseseems to swallow Carol up as she approaches. Long shots, overhead shots, shots withlots of headroom between Carol and the top of the frame — they all serve to minimizeher personhood. In one set-up, she is shot at the edge of the frame and at the samelevel as the furniture, like just another object in a house that already looks entirelyunlived-in. This head-on look imagines the room as a tasteless dollhouse. The only realorganic tinge to the decor is lent by a pair of off-putting, egg-shaped lamps that couldhave wandered off a David Cronenberg set, and are all the more creepy for lookingmore animate than the lone human in the frame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes3.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carol’s connection to people is as tenuous as her connection to her surroundings. Haynesmaximizes the space between her and other individuals, creating a literal distancebetween them. People talk to each other from far away or even from different rooms,which we sometimes see separated by a wall. Twice we see Carol talking to men — herhusband and a potential love interest that never materializes (James LeGros) — whenthe speakers have their backs to each other. In the case of her husband, the shot isreflected in a mirror, a double distancing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If face-to-face communication is scarce in \u003ci>Safe\u003c/i>, actual physical contact is evenrarer. And when it does occur, it’s conspicuous for its oddity. At the very start of the filmwe see Carol and her husband having sex, shot from overheard. As he pumps away ather, she evinces a tolerant-at-best look, as if abiding an animal or small child engagedin a reflexive compulsion. Later, after a business dinner during which she has fallenasleep, her husband puts his arm around her as they walk, but it looks hopelesslyawkward as they lurch forward with a zombie-like gait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes10.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t really own our own lives,” someone says during a locker room conversation atthe gym. True enough, here. Joyless sex, a stepson whom she doesn’t get along with,the wrong couch — all those are nothing compared to the estrangement Carol feels fromherself. “That’s fine. He’s fine. They’re fine,” Carol reports on family life to her motherover the phone. There is so much papering over — with no facility for naming what’s wrong, shebecomes a cipher, taking on an increasingly pallid, rag doll mien as the filmprogresses. At night she wanders alone in her garden, where earlier she was seentending to dying flowers. Adrift, vigorless, in possession of nothing truly her own, Carol,uncomfortable in her own skin, is someone who barely casts a shadow. In one shot, shecloses a mirrored bathroom door and her image is completely wiped out across thescreen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You do not sweat,” a fellow gym patron observes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Southern California Dystopia\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are reasons provided for this self-nullification, but Haynes almost neverforegrounds them, instead knitting them into the fabric of the film. Though he portraysaffluent, Reagan-era Southern California as a kind of soul-sucking dystopia with anomnipresent patriarchy, it is seen entirely through Carol’s perspective and is thusnormalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Who told you to go to this?” Greg asks Carol after she attends an informational sessionon environmental illness, without even a nod to the possibility of autonomy. Greg, who isplayed by Berkeley as a kind of brutish, oddly robotic man-child, is the kind ofguy you could see going on a rampage out of repressed rage. Other sexist slights arebaked into Carol’s experience. One of Greg’s colleagues tells a crude joke centeredaround a woman’s anatomy; her own medical doctor, in the middle of recommending apsychiatrist, hands the referral to Greg instead of to her; that psychiatrist sits behind alarge wooden desk, both physically inaccessible and emotionally remote as he leansback in his chair interrogating Carol, fully exposed on a small couch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes5.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This mix of male entitlement, dismissiveness, and condescension is mostly embeddedin scenes with more overt story purposes. Therefore the effect, unlike, say, in \u003ci>MadMen\u003c/i>, isn’t didactic, but rather a true reflection of how the ebbing of female powermight play out in this kind of closed cultural system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haynes spreads more of these scenes-from-the-’80s throughout, using a technique ofmisdirection to create an almost unconscious not-quite-right effect. A typical encounter:At the dinner table, Carol’s stepson, Rory, reads a school report he wrote about “blackand Latino gangs,” filled with racist assumptions and white-fear fantasies. The viewer,though, might easily overlook the content of what’s being said, because not only does itplay as secondary to a conversation between Carol and Greg, but the scene and theattitudes of all the participants are completely familiar if not iconic: a kid proudly rattlingoff something he wrote while his parents half-listen, then offer obligatory, perfunctorypraise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s like looking closely at a Norman Rockwell and discovering it was actually painted byFrancis Bacon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Toxicity\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The core motif, though, is toxicity, of both the body and soul. The film is lit in hazy/pukeytones that lend an unhealthy glow to everything. One signature shot shows rowsand rows of cars moving slowly down the 405, headlights flaring in the polluted dusk,haunting music punctuating a sense of extreme isolation and environmentaldegradation. It’s an indelible image, one that might have been conceived by T.S. Eliot:masses of people shut into their cars, herded toward some dismal destination. Thefeeling conveyed here is that something has gone dreadfully wrong, something nowineluctable, unappeasable, final.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s just the first half! What makes \u003ci>Safe\u003c/i> so doubly insidious is the way itsubverts audience expectations and perceptions in Act II, when Carol takes upresidence at Wrenwood to purge the toxins her system can no longer handle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes14.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haynes says on the DVD commentary that audiences have often mistaken his intentionas debunking \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=multiple+chemical+sensitivity\">chemical sensitivity\u003c/a>, which has been controversial as a diagnosisbecause it contends that someone can become sick from exposure to substances atlevels that medical science considers safe. But I would say a close reading of the filmshows him to be cagey on this score, in that a physical condition doubles as metaphor\u003ci>and\u003c/i> real-world consequence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meaning: a social toxicity is loose in the culture, just as a chemical toxicity is loose in the air.Thus, the film several times marries Carol’s hypersensitivity to chemicals with the denialof her own psychology. In one scene, for instance, her husband hugs her the morningafter a fight over her sexual disinclination to him, only to have her throw up. He has justapplied deodorant as well as hair gel and spray. But is she allergic to those substancesor to Greg himself? This is reprised later, at the retreat, when Greg attempts to embraceher and she pulls away, repulsed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it might be your cologne,” she says.\u003cbr>“I’m not wearing cologne,” he replies.\u003cbr>“Maybe in your shirt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It seems unlikely, but Haynes isn’t tipping his hand. Likewise, is it the actual exhaust ofthe trucks in front of her that triggers Carol’s choking fit, or the talk-radio discussion ofRonald Reagan’s religion she’s been listening to? Is it something in the air at a friend’sbaby shower that causes her seizure? Or the cold efficiency of the event, the emptinessand conventional talk that go hand-in-hand with the ritual?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes12.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What we know — and what the film seems to say — is that it’s much easier to latch ontoan environmental cause than to examine a life. When Carol’s doctor, after her seizure,frustratedly implies she’s a head case, her husband asks her, “What would cause you toactually bleed?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The chemicals,” she says, in the childish tone of any scapegoater reducing all theworld’s ills to one word. In this way, the film seems to wander around that nebulousintersection where real physical ailments meet psychosomatic tendencies and quackery,where an allergy doctor who diagnoses a genuine reaction also counsels a patient onthe phone to “continue the red-fruit diet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this second half, too, Haynes uses audience presumptions to dissemble thesignificance of what’s being said behind the familiarity of a conversational attitude.Carol’s first experience with the subculture of chemically sensitive people comes duringa discussion among a group of women who complain about the lack of legitimacy theircondition has been granted by traditional medicine. Says one in defense of the reality ofthe disease:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How does a ten-year-old say it’s psychosomatic? How does he make his eyes swellshut? Why would he want to do that? He can’t go into Chunky Cheese anymore. Hecan’t go into showbiz. Why would he do that to himself?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes11.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She has, of course, answered her own question, and also espoused the centralmetaphorical principle of the film: that physical illness is a concomitant of a disease ofthe soul. But because the woman is so self-assured and because a more conventionalstory structure would demand at this point a transition to a second-half resolution, mostaudiences will skip over the meaning of that dialogue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Wrenwood scenes further confuse things by mixing in self-help shibboleths withwhat turn out to be the harmful tenets of something akin to a cult. Yet the film may lull certain audiences into a state of acceptance, the same way it does its maincharacter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At her arrival, for example, Carol is welcomed by two women, officials of the center, onea warm and effusive earth-mother type who is the very opposite of the repressed,conventional individuals Carol is used to, and the other an African American woman –another antonym in her world. The latter tells her that Peter Dunning, the center’sdirector, is a “chemically sensitive person with AIDS, so his perspective is incrediblyvast.” That revelation stands out in marked contrast to the earlier shame displayed by afriend who couldn’t bring herself to say the name of that disease aloud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes15.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So… a gay man unabashed by a condition that at the time stoked much fear; a blackwoman; an emotionally open female who provides Carol with the film’s first healthyphysical contact; a chemical-free haven for suffering individuals — the signs all point to acorrection of her previous situation. This subversive game continues at orientation,where Dunning preaches several seemingly progressive psychological principles.”We’ve left the judgmental behind, and the shaming condition that kept us locked up inall the pain,” he says to the group. He cites “multiculturalism” and “environmentalism” aspositive things happening in the world. He is self-deprecating. And he also inoculateshis followers against the true nature of the center by communicating it as a joke. “Closeyour eyes…” he starts a guided meditation, “and pass your valuables to the front.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In group therapy, Dunning focuses on maintaining a positive attitude. As applied here,however, this is a dictate, not a principle. The solace he’s offering is edgy andconfrontational, but one again has to listen closely to what’s being said to cut throughthe poses that Haynes foregrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why did you become sick?” he asks one woman.\u003cbr>“Because I hated myself,” she says, without much conviction because she is parroting aprecept. After someone in the community commits suicide, Dunning bitterly instructs thegroup, “Let’s throw away every negative, self destructive thought we might have andlook around ourselves with love…” But he finishes it with, “I tried to teach him this.” Inanother session, a woman insinuates she was a victim of incest, and he tells her shebecame sick because she did not forgive her abuser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/26/safehaynes16.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is group therapy in hell, because not all of it is nonsensical, and the egotism isinterspersed with some truths. But Dunning’s the kind of a guy who will ask you aquestion and then interrupt with the answer; the kind of guy who will hold court at dinnerregaling his female acolytes with the intricate details of an inspirational dream he justhad. His treatment, a mix of new age bromides, wishful thinking, and personal hostility,is the crowning toxic brew of the entire film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, when Carol’s husband visits, he points to a mansion on the hill and says: “whosehouse is that?”\u003cbr>“It’s Peter’s,” says Carol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That moment slips by like so many others — uncommented on by the film yet thereto gnaw at your perceptions. The true horror in \u003ci>Safe\u003c/i> is that Carol has left oneoppressive system only to immerse herself in another that masquerades as the healingpower of love. In this environment, where the victims are blamed for their own illness,she worsens. She is forced to tote around an oxygen tank, becomes ever more pallidand thin, and develops an expanding sore on her forehead. She goes into furtherisolation, taking to the small igloo built and formerly occupied by the man who hascommitted suicide. The film ends with her looking in a mirror and saying to herreflection, “I love you.” Many have called this final scene ambiguous, but I think it’spretty clear that this is where Carol is going to die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Depending on your point of view, Joe Swanberg is either the worst young filmmaker in America — someone who makes “self indulgent vomit,” to quote one critic — or the most promising young filmmaker in America — someone who, in the words of \u003ci>The New Yorker\u003c/i>, makes “powerful and modern” small-budget dramas comparable to the work of iconic Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. So which one is it? Which one is Joe Swanberg? You can decide for yourself starting Friday, when the Roxie begins a three-day Joe Swanberg film festival that spotlights twelve of his most noteworthy films, from 2006’s \u003ci>LOL\u003c/i> (starring a young Greta Gerwig) to last year’s \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At age 31, Swanberg has made almost 20 films, many of which have been labeled “mumblecore” — a tag applied to Swanberg and other early-stage directors who use young actors in scenes where the dialogue can be hard to understand. There’s lots of sex in Swanberg’s movies, and lots of characters in relationships that are on edge. The Roxie has titled its retrospective \u003cb>Sexual Politics: The Occasionally Autobiographical and Always Personal Films of Joe Swanberg\u003c/b>. In a phone interview from his home in Chicago, Swanberg talked about the mumblecore genre, his reasons for depicting real sex scenes, why he no longer reads reviews of his work, how fatherhood has changed his filmmaking approach, and why big Hollywood budgets might — just might — be in the offing for him. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First things first, though: Swanberg says it’s easy to make films for a few thousand dollars. You cast yourself and your friends; make yourself the director, screenwriter, and producer; and film in your apartment or the apartment of a friend. Since the people in your films are playing characters who are basically themselves — people in their twenties and thirties searching for answers (and sex) — the scenes can be done quickly and efficiently. That was the Joe Swanberg way, and it worked for him. But Swanberg is changing. He’s a father now, and he’s getting bigger budgets. Joe Swanberg say he’s a new Joe Swanberg. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/18/JaneAdamsinAlltheLight.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003cbr>Jane Adams in \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i>\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Q:\u003c/b> In \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i>, the central character is a middle-aged actress played by 46-year-old Jane Adams, who co-wrote the screenplay. She’s in search of love and a big career break — and has trouble finding either one. She doesn’t have kids, but she mentors a niece who’s trying to make a Hollywood career. It seems you’re already making films about people who’ve moved beyond their twenties and thirties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A:\u003c/b> That movie feels really different to me from the movies I made right before it, like \u003ci>Silver Bullets\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Art History\u003c/i>. Jane Adams and I talked a lot about her feelings about whether she should have had kids or not, and how she always thought she’d have kids, and what that means. Me being a parent really changed the way she and I talked about the movie and what its subject matter would be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Q:\u003c/b> In fact, \u003ci>Variety\u003c/i>, called \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i> your most “accessible work to date” — that it would garner audiences beyond “the mumblecore ghetto.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A:\u003c/b> I agree that \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i> is my most accessible film. I certainly made a conscious effort to tell a linear story in a cinematic fashion, in a way that wasn’t going to challenge an audience in a way that perhaps I purposefully antagonized or challenged with other movies. But what’s interesting about that review is that, by then, I had already made \u003ci>Drinking Buddies\u003c/i> (about two coworkers at a brewery who, despite being in relationships with other people, consider cheating with each other). It has a much bigger budget. It has movie stars (like Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick). It’s certainly even more accessible than \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i>. So it’s one reason I’ve stopped reading reviews. They’re not very helpful, and they’re inherently behind the times. \u003ci>Variety\u003c/i>‘s reviewer is watching and responding to a movie that I had made a year earlier, and already so many new things have happened in my life that this reviewer would have no way of knowing. That reviewer is both right and wrong. It’s not \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i> that’s opening doors. Those doors were already opening. And I had already walked through them before the reviewer saw \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/18/SilverBullets1.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003cbr>Kate Lyn Sheil in \u003ci>Silver Bullets\u003c/i>\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Q:\u003c/b> Your son was born in 2010. How has being a parent influenced your filmmaking?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A:\u003c/b> I certainly feel different now that I’m a parent. There’s no way that it’s not informing the work. Since the very beginning, I’ve been telling stories that are autobiographical in some form or another. Now that my wife and I have a child, it’s definitely going to be present over the next couple of years. It’s unavoidable. And as friends of mine start having kids, that theme will be more and more present. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, one of the things that really changed after I had a kid was getting a little more realistic about the fact that making movies was my job as well as something I was passionate about doing artistically. The industry has changed a lot, too. There was a period of time between \u003ci>Hannah Takes the Stairs\u003c/i>, which came out in 2007, and my film \u003ci>Autoerotic\u003c/i>, which I sold to IFC in 2011, where IFC was buying really small, challenging movies and releasing them to a pretty huge audience, especially through their buy-on-demand platforms. It looked like I was going to be able to make a living doing really small challenging movies. And that ended about a year ago. IFC restructured itself and started distributing bigger films and going back to a more theatrical model, with buy-on-demand supplementing that. The kinds of movies I was making — I could continue to make them but they weren’t going to have a home the way the earlier ones had. So making the transition to \u003ci>Drinking Buddies\u003c/i> — it’s very much a 90-minute romantic comedy with some relationship drama, and is certainly accessible and ready to open up in movie theaters. I’d had the option to do movies like this since \u003ci>Hannah Takes the Stairs\u003c/i> came out. That was the one that connected to a bigger audience and agents. The interest remained there until I was ready to do something like that. Even making \u003ci>Drinking Buddies\u003c/i> and starting to entertain those ideas came from having a kid and buying a house and also from a personal desire to connect with people. It’s challenging to work for seven years making a lot of movies and just see that those movies are connecting with a super small cinephile audience. I was kind of burnt out on doing the very small stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/18/hannah.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003cbr>\u003ci>Hannah Takes the Stairs\u003c/i>\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Q:\u003c/b> Some people know your work as an actor. You’re in many of your own films, and you’re also in such recent horror movies as \u003ci>You’re Next\u003c/i> and \u003ci>A Horrible Way to Die\u003c/i>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A:\u003c/b> In fact, the biggest experience came for me as an actor in \u003ci>You’re Next\u003c/i>. Adam Wingard, who directed that movie, is a friend of mine. Adam collaborated on a lot of the movies that are going to be shown at the Roxie retrospective. He co-directed \u003ci>Autoerotic\u003c/i> with me. He was the cinematographer on \u003ci>Caitlin Plays Herself\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Marriage Material\u003c/i>. He acted in and was the cinematographer on \u003ci>Art History\u003c/i>. He was someone who also came from the world of making movies for a few thousand dollars. During that big productive period when I made a lot of those movies, Adam was basically broke and sleeping on my couch for a month straight, and we were just making movies every day. Then he got the opportunity to do \u003ci>You’re Next\u003c/i>. I think it was like a $750,000 movie. And it’s a big action movie with a ton of stunts and a full-sized crew. And I went down for a month acting on that movie and it was amazing to see someone who came from the same super low-budget world as I did directing this big movie with a ton of moving parts. It was really exciting. And it was cool for me to see him step up into that role and start to get comfortable being that kind of director. I just realized that I could stay comfortable and safe and keep doing movies that I knew how to do, or I could try and do something bigger and see if I could step up to that level. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Q:\u003c/b> What were the budgets on your low-budget films? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A:\u003c/b> They fluctuated between $5,000 and $100,000. At the no-budget level, the difference between $5,000 and $100,000 is really huge. Some of the movies everyone got paid and they were done in a straightforward fashion, and on a few of them — like \u003ci>Caitlin Plays Herself\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Marriage Material\u003c/i>, which are showing together at the Roxie — no one got paid or will ever get paid. Those movies probably cost about $1,000 each. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/18/GretaGerwiginLOL.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003cbr>Greta Gerwig in \u003ci>LOL\u003c/i>\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Q:\u003c/b> So, how do you get actors to do sex scenes for free? You’ve said you don’t understand why realistic sex scenes are “taboo” in mainstream films. In your new filmmaking stage, is sex still important to portray in films?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A:\u003c/b> Realism is still a focus of my approach. But hooking up with people is so much less a part of anybody’s life now as people are getting into their thirties and having kids. So that stuff is going to be less in the movies for me. But I don’t like to see movies where the characters are having sex and the sheets are pulled over just above the lady’s breasts and the guy gets out of bed and the camera moves away specifically to avoid seeing his penis. It’s really silly. And it’s just a lot of jumping through hoops. So my attitude is to just plunk a camera down and show everything. I’m not making efforts to explicitly show things but it’s mostly avoiding making an effort to not show things. We’re not doing close-ups of penetration or anything like that. It’s shooting a sex scene the way you would shoot anything else and not treating it any differently. Because most filmmakers treat it so differently, when you see it filmed in a regular way it suddenly seems explicit. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sexual Politics: The Occasionally Autobiographical and Always Personal Films of Joe Swanberg\u003c/b> screens twelve of Swanberg’s films at the Roxie, February 22 – 24, 2013. For \u003ca href=\"http://roxie.com/events/details.cfm?eventID=1D4CB281-1143-DBB3-C67D29A36B18C3A6\">tickets and more information\u003c/a> visit roxie.com.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Depending on your point of view, Joe Swanberg is either the worst young filmmaker in America — someone who makes “self indulgent vomit,” to quote one critic — or the most promising young filmmaker in America — someone who, in the words of \u003ci>The New Yorker\u003c/i>, makes “powerful and modern” small-budget dramas comparable to the work of iconic Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. So which one is it? Which one is Joe Swanberg? You can decide for yourself starting Friday, when the Roxie begins a three-day Joe Swanberg film festival that spotlights twelve of his most noteworthy films, from 2006’s \u003ci>LOL\u003c/i> (starring a young Greta Gerwig) to last year’s \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At age 31, Swanberg has made almost 20 films, many of which have been labeled “mumblecore” — a tag applied to Swanberg and other early-stage directors who use young actors in scenes where the dialogue can be hard to understand. There’s lots of sex in Swanberg’s movies, and lots of characters in relationships that are on edge. The Roxie has titled its retrospective \u003cb>Sexual Politics: The Occasionally Autobiographical and Always Personal Films of Joe Swanberg\u003c/b>. In a phone interview from his home in Chicago, Swanberg talked about the mumblecore genre, his reasons for depicting real sex scenes, why he no longer reads reviews of his work, how fatherhood has changed his filmmaking approach, and why big Hollywood budgets might — just might — be in the offing for him. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First things first, though: Swanberg says it’s easy to make films for a few thousand dollars. You cast yourself and your friends; make yourself the director, screenwriter, and producer; and film in your apartment or the apartment of a friend. Since the people in your films are playing characters who are basically themselves — people in their twenties and thirties searching for answers (and sex) — the scenes can be done quickly and efficiently. That was the Joe Swanberg way, and it worked for him. But Swanberg is changing. He’s a father now, and he’s getting bigger budgets. Joe Swanberg say he’s a new Joe Swanberg. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/18/JaneAdamsinAlltheLight.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003cbr>Jane Adams in \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i>\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Q:\u003c/b> In \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i>, the central character is a middle-aged actress played by 46-year-old Jane Adams, who co-wrote the screenplay. She’s in search of love and a big career break — and has trouble finding either one. She doesn’t have kids, but she mentors a niece who’s trying to make a Hollywood career. It seems you’re already making films about people who’ve moved beyond their twenties and thirties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A:\u003c/b> That movie feels really different to me from the movies I made right before it, like \u003ci>Silver Bullets\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Art History\u003c/i>. Jane Adams and I talked a lot about her feelings about whether she should have had kids or not, and how she always thought she’d have kids, and what that means. Me being a parent really changed the way she and I talked about the movie and what its subject matter would be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Q:\u003c/b> In fact, \u003ci>Variety\u003c/i>, called \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i> your most “accessible work to date” — that it would garner audiences beyond “the mumblecore ghetto.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A:\u003c/b> I agree that \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i> is my most accessible film. I certainly made a conscious effort to tell a linear story in a cinematic fashion, in a way that wasn’t going to challenge an audience in a way that perhaps I purposefully antagonized or challenged with other movies. But what’s interesting about that review is that, by then, I had already made \u003ci>Drinking Buddies\u003c/i> (about two coworkers at a brewery who, despite being in relationships with other people, consider cheating with each other). It has a much bigger budget. It has movie stars (like Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick). It’s certainly even more accessible than \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i>. So it’s one reason I’ve stopped reading reviews. They’re not very helpful, and they’re inherently behind the times. \u003ci>Variety\u003c/i>‘s reviewer is watching and responding to a movie that I had made a year earlier, and already so many new things have happened in my life that this reviewer would have no way of knowing. That reviewer is both right and wrong. It’s not \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i> that’s opening doors. Those doors were already opening. And I had already walked through them before the reviewer saw \u003ci>All the Light in the Sky\u003c/i>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/18/SilverBullets1.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003cbr>Kate Lyn Sheil in \u003ci>Silver Bullets\u003c/i>\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Q:\u003c/b> Your son was born in 2010. How has being a parent influenced your filmmaking?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A:\u003c/b> I certainly feel different now that I’m a parent. There’s no way that it’s not informing the work. Since the very beginning, I’ve been telling stories that are autobiographical in some form or another. Now that my wife and I have a child, it’s definitely going to be present over the next couple of years. It’s unavoidable. And as friends of mine start having kids, that theme will be more and more present. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, one of the things that really changed after I had a kid was getting a little more realistic about the fact that making movies was my job as well as something I was passionate about doing artistically. The industry has changed a lot, too. There was a period of time between \u003ci>Hannah Takes the Stairs\u003c/i>, which came out in 2007, and my film \u003ci>Autoerotic\u003c/i>, which I sold to IFC in 2011, where IFC was buying really small, challenging movies and releasing them to a pretty huge audience, especially through their buy-on-demand platforms. It looked like I was going to be able to make a living doing really small challenging movies. And that ended about a year ago. IFC restructured itself and started distributing bigger films and going back to a more theatrical model, with buy-on-demand supplementing that. The kinds of movies I was making — I could continue to make them but they weren’t going to have a home the way the earlier ones had. So making the transition to \u003ci>Drinking Buddies\u003c/i> — it’s very much a 90-minute romantic comedy with some relationship drama, and is certainly accessible and ready to open up in movie theaters. I’d had the option to do movies like this since \u003ci>Hannah Takes the Stairs\u003c/i> came out. That was the one that connected to a bigger audience and agents. The interest remained there until I was ready to do something like that. Even making \u003ci>Drinking Buddies\u003c/i> and starting to entertain those ideas came from having a kid and buying a house and also from a personal desire to connect with people. It’s challenging to work for seven years making a lot of movies and just see that those movies are connecting with a super small cinephile audience. I was kind of burnt out on doing the very small stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/18/hannah.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003cbr>\u003ci>Hannah Takes the Stairs\u003c/i>\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Q:\u003c/b> Some people know your work as an actor. You’re in many of your own films, and you’re also in such recent horror movies as \u003ci>You’re Next\u003c/i> and \u003ci>A Horrible Way to Die\u003c/i>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A:\u003c/b> In fact, the biggest experience came for me as an actor in \u003ci>You’re Next\u003c/i>. Adam Wingard, who directed that movie, is a friend of mine. Adam collaborated on a lot of the movies that are going to be shown at the Roxie retrospective. He co-directed \u003ci>Autoerotic\u003c/i> with me. He was the cinematographer on \u003ci>Caitlin Plays Herself\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Marriage Material\u003c/i>. He acted in and was the cinematographer on \u003ci>Art History\u003c/i>. He was someone who also came from the world of making movies for a few thousand dollars. During that big productive period when I made a lot of those movies, Adam was basically broke and sleeping on my couch for a month straight, and we were just making movies every day. Then he got the opportunity to do \u003ci>You’re Next\u003c/i>. I think it was like a $750,000 movie. And it’s a big action movie with a ton of stunts and a full-sized crew. And I went down for a month acting on that movie and it was amazing to see someone who came from the same super low-budget world as I did directing this big movie with a ton of moving parts. It was really exciting. And it was cool for me to see him step up into that role and start to get comfortable being that kind of director. I just realized that I could stay comfortable and safe and keep doing movies that I knew how to do, or I could try and do something bigger and see if I could step up to that level. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Q:\u003c/b> What were the budgets on your low-budget films? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A:\u003c/b> They fluctuated between $5,000 and $100,000. At the no-budget level, the difference between $5,000 and $100,000 is really huge. Some of the movies everyone got paid and they were done in a straightforward fashion, and on a few of them — like \u003ci>Caitlin Plays Herself\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Marriage Material\u003c/i>, which are showing together at the Roxie — no one got paid or will ever get paid. Those movies probably cost about $1,000 each. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/02/18/GretaGerwiginLOL.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003cbr>Greta Gerwig in \u003ci>LOL\u003c/i>\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Q:\u003c/b> So, how do you get actors to do sex scenes for free? You’ve said you don’t understand why realistic sex scenes are “taboo” in mainstream films. In your new filmmaking stage, is sex still important to portray in films?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A:\u003c/b> Realism is still a focus of my approach. But hooking up with people is so much less a part of anybody’s life now as people are getting into their thirties and having kids. So that stuff is going to be less in the movies for me. But I don’t like to see movies where the characters are having sex and the sheets are pulled over just above the lady’s breasts and the guy gets out of bed and the camera moves away specifically to avoid seeing his penis. It’s really silly. And it’s just a lot of jumping through hoops. So my attitude is to just plunk a camera down and show everything. I’m not making efforts to explicitly show things but it’s mostly avoiding making an effort to not show things. We’re not doing close-ups of penetration or anything like that. It’s shooting a sex scene the way you would shoot anything else and not treating it any differently. Because most filmmakers treat it so differently, when you see it filmed in a regular way it suddenly seems explicit. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sexual Politics: The Occasionally Autobiographical and Always Personal Films of Joe Swanberg\u003c/b> screens twelve of Swanberg’s films at the Roxie, February 22 – 24, 2013. For \u003ca href=\"http://roxie.com/events/details.cfm?eventID=1D4CB281-1143-DBB3-C67D29A36B18C3A6\">tickets and more information\u003c/a> visit roxie.com.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>February is the month of couples, romance, and intimate passions. Mood-killer alert: It’s also the month when the Academy Awards are handed out (Sunday, February 24, 2013) in a ceremony that often has the unintended effect of reminding us that filmmakers and actors of previous generations far exceeded the current crop. If you’re a movie lover, you’ve learned to embrace the long view: Great works stand the unforgiving test of time, and our favorite screen stars are blessedly immortal. In other words, memory is a function of love (and resentment, yes, but we’re taking the high road here), and films help us remember — and reflect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with all the pink and red tributes to St. Valentine, February brings a celebration of black history. The African American Center of the San Francisco Public Library presents a trio of free Sunday afternoon screenings and discussions, beginning February 3 with contemporary Bay Area shorts and music videos curated and hosted by San Francisco documentary filmmaker Kevin Epps. Films about the visionary Marcus Garvey and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. anchor the February 10 program, with an adoring salute to the courageous and unyielding Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks, among other black women, slated for February 17. (In related news, keep an eye out later this year for \u003ci>Free Angela and All Political Prisoners\u003c/i>, Shola Lynch’s documentary about Angela Davis’s arrest and trial in the early 1970s.) For \u003ca href=\"http://sfpl.org/index.php?l=1&t=1&s=225&a=0&k=&m1=2&d1=2&y1=2013&m2=&d2=&y2=&m=month&orderby=name&pg=1100000001&action=calendar&lower-limit=&lang=1\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfpl.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LirWZDDAtLE&w=480&h=270]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we view enthusiasm as a manifestation of love, the rabid audiences for the annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival (February 7-21, 2013 at the Roxie, Shattuck and other venues) are perennially smitten. Their appetite for adventurous date flicks is rewarded this year with a raft of offbeat yarns including a pair of edgy narratives about couples with strangely fierce loyalties. British wunderkind Ben Wheatley (\u003ci>Kill List\u003c/i>) treats Bay Area filmgoers to the U.S. premiere of his eagerly anticipated and willfully discomfiting murder comedy \u003ci>Sightseers\u003c/i> (February 9 and 11 at the Roxie, February 12 at the Shattuck). Actress and producer Amy Seimetz — note that name for future reference — makes her feature directorial debut with \u003ci>Sun Don’t Shine\u003c/i> (February 15 and 16, Roxie), an intense road movie about Florida lovers on a mysterious mission. The world premiere of Gregory Hatanaka’s \u003ci>Blue Dream\u003c/i> (February 16 and 20, Roxie), starring James Duval as an L.A. journalist discombobulated at the end of an era, is another hot ticket. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfindie.com\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfindie.com.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/01/31/crazylove.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\">\u003cbr>Michio Okake, Still from \u003cem>Kurejii Rabn (Crazy Love)\u003c/em>, 1968.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Japan is not as placid, or passive, a society as it’s represented in the U.S. media. For an invigorating introduction to little-known artistic restlessness, check out one or all four of the programs comprising “Fragments of Japanese Underground Cinema 1960-1974” at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (February 14, 16, 21 and 28). The radical approaches and techniques on view are worlds away from Ozu’s calibrated deliberativeness and Kurosawa’s florid emotionalism, reflecting the artists’ roiling desire to forge new identities and voices. The Pacific Film Archive series, “Chronicles of Inferno: Japan’s Art Theatre Guild” (February 7-27), catalogs an even stronger rejection of Japan’s status quo during the same period. Highlights include lesser-known works by well-known rabble-rousers Shohei Imamura and Nagisa Oshima (who died in January). For \u003ca href=\"http://www.ybca.org/japanese-underground-cinema\">more information\u003c/a> on the YBCA series visit ybca.org and for \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/ATG\">more information\u003c/a> on the PFA series visit bampfa.berkeley.edu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/01/31/drucker.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\">\u003cbr>Zackary Drucker, Still from \u003cem>At Least You Know You Exist\u003c/em>, 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Can you imagine a room big enough to hold Liberace, Peter Berlin, Flawless Sabrina, and Joe Brainard? These four iconic self-creations of gay identity somehow share the screen in “Yesterday Once More,” a diverse quartet of cinematic portraits playing February 14 at SFMOMA. Compiled by the queer New York film collective Dirty Looks, the program has the “good” taste to reference the sequined pianist’s 1979 Valentine’s Day special as well as \u003ci>The Queen\u003c/i>, Frank Simon’s 1969 documentary about drag performer Sabrina. It’s a fair bet that the audience for this Valentine’s Night show will be a match for the entertainment. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/events/2234#ixzz2IpRDYcuc\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfmoma.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/01/31/56.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\">\u003cbr>Michael Apted, Still from \u003cem>56 Up\u003c/em>, 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Say what you will about sobering reality and invasion of privacy, Michael Apted’s \u003ci>Up\u003c/i> series is a profound act of unsentimental love. Apted worked as a researcher on \u003ci>Seven Up!\u003c/i>, a short documentary made for British television in 1964 that asked seven-year-olds from a range of backgrounds about their goals and dreams. He followed up with the kids seven years later and, incredibly, every seven years thereafter. (After they settled into the diminished expectations of adulthood, a few of the subjects chose not to re-up, so to speak, for the next installment in the series.) The eighth film in this multi-layered, one-of-a-kind record of a generation, \u003ci>56 Up\u003c/i>, opens February 15 at the Landmark theater and at the Smith Rafael Film Center. See it with someone who loves you, warts and all. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Films/films_frameset.asp?id=122648\">more information\u003c/a> visit landmarktheatres.com.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>February is the month of couples, romance, and intimate passions. Mood-killer alert: It’s also the month when the Academy Awards are handed out (Sunday, February 24, 2013) in a ceremony that often has the unintended effect of reminding us that filmmakers and actors of previous generations far exceeded the current crop. If you’re a movie lover, you’ve learned to embrace the long view: Great works stand the unforgiving test of time, and our favorite screen stars are blessedly immortal. In other words, memory is a function of love (and resentment, yes, but we’re taking the high road here), and films help us remember — and reflect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with all the pink and red tributes to St. Valentine, February brings a celebration of black history. The African American Center of the San Francisco Public Library presents a trio of free Sunday afternoon screenings and discussions, beginning February 3 with contemporary Bay Area shorts and music videos curated and hosted by San Francisco documentary filmmaker Kevin Epps. Films about the visionary Marcus Garvey and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. anchor the February 10 program, with an adoring salute to the courageous and unyielding Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks, among other black women, slated for February 17. (In related news, keep an eye out later this year for \u003ci>Free Angela and All Political Prisoners\u003c/i>, Shola Lynch’s documentary about Angela Davis’s arrest and trial in the early 1970s.) For \u003ca href=\"http://sfpl.org/index.php?l=1&t=1&s=225&a=0&k=&m1=2&d1=2&y1=2013&m2=&d2=&y2=&m=month&orderby=name&pg=1100000001&action=calendar&lower-limit=&lang=1\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfpl.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\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/LirWZDDAtLE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/LirWZDDAtLE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we view enthusiasm as a manifestation of love, the rabid audiences for the annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival (February 7-21, 2013 at the Roxie, Shattuck and other venues) are perennially smitten. Their appetite for adventurous date flicks is rewarded this year with a raft of offbeat yarns including a pair of edgy narratives about couples with strangely fierce loyalties. British wunderkind Ben Wheatley (\u003ci>Kill List\u003c/i>) treats Bay Area filmgoers to the U.S. premiere of his eagerly anticipated and willfully discomfiting murder comedy \u003ci>Sightseers\u003c/i> (February 9 and 11 at the Roxie, February 12 at the Shattuck). Actress and producer Amy Seimetz — note that name for future reference — makes her feature directorial debut with \u003ci>Sun Don’t Shine\u003c/i> (February 15 and 16, Roxie), an intense road movie about Florida lovers on a mysterious mission. The world premiere of Gregory Hatanaka’s \u003ci>Blue Dream\u003c/i> (February 16 and 20, Roxie), starring James Duval as an L.A. journalist discombobulated at the end of an era, is another hot ticket. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfindie.com\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfindie.com.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/01/31/crazylove.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\">\u003cbr>Michio Okake, Still from \u003cem>Kurejii Rabn (Crazy Love)\u003c/em>, 1968.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Japan is not as placid, or passive, a society as it’s represented in the U.S. media. For an invigorating introduction to little-known artistic restlessness, check out one or all four of the programs comprising “Fragments of Japanese Underground Cinema 1960-1974” at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (February 14, 16, 21 and 28). The radical approaches and techniques on view are worlds away from Ozu’s calibrated deliberativeness and Kurosawa’s florid emotionalism, reflecting the artists’ roiling desire to forge new identities and voices. The Pacific Film Archive series, “Chronicles of Inferno: Japan’s Art Theatre Guild” (February 7-27), catalogs an even stronger rejection of Japan’s status quo during the same period. Highlights include lesser-known works by well-known rabble-rousers Shohei Imamura and Nagisa Oshima (who died in January). For \u003ca href=\"http://www.ybca.org/japanese-underground-cinema\">more information\u003c/a> on the YBCA series visit ybca.org and for \u003ca href=\"http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/ATG\">more information\u003c/a> on the PFA series visit bampfa.berkeley.edu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/01/31/drucker.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\">\u003cbr>Zackary Drucker, Still from \u003cem>At Least You Know You Exist\u003c/em>, 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Can you imagine a room big enough to hold Liberace, Peter Berlin, Flawless Sabrina, and Joe Brainard? These four iconic self-creations of gay identity somehow share the screen in “Yesterday Once More,” a diverse quartet of cinematic portraits playing February 14 at SFMOMA. Compiled by the queer New York film collective Dirty Looks, the program has the “good” taste to reference the sequined pianist’s 1979 Valentine’s Day special as well as \u003ci>The Queen\u003c/i>, Frank Simon’s 1969 documentary about drag performer Sabrina. It’s a fair bet that the audience for this Valentine’s Night show will be a match for the entertainment. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/events/2234#ixzz2IpRDYcuc\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfmoma.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/01/31/56.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\">\u003cbr>Michael Apted, Still from \u003cem>56 Up\u003c/em>, 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Say what you will about sobering reality and invasion of privacy, Michael Apted’s \u003ci>Up\u003c/i> series is a profound act of unsentimental love. Apted worked as a researcher on \u003ci>Seven Up!\u003c/i>, a short documentary made for British television in 1964 that asked seven-year-olds from a range of backgrounds about their goals and dreams. He followed up with the kids seven years later and, incredibly, every seven years thereafter. (After they settled into the diminished expectations of adulthood, a few of the subjects chose not to re-up, so to speak, for the next installment in the series.) The eighth film in this multi-layered, one-of-a-kind record of a generation, \u003ci>56 Up\u003c/i>, opens February 15 at the Landmark theater and at the Smith Rafael Film Center. See it with someone who loves you, warts and all. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Films/films_frameset.asp?id=122648\">more information\u003c/a> visit landmarktheatres.com.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> has achieved a rare distinction: It’s a dramatic movie about Sub-Saharan Africa that stars black African actors who don’t speak English that is still attracting U.S. audiences. Think about it. Nearly every drama set in Sub-Saharan Africa that’s found a recent cinematic home in the West has a major white character (\u003ci> Hotel Rwanda\u003c/i>, \u003ci>The Last King of Scotland\u003c/i>, \u003ci>The Constant Gardner\u003c/i>), or has a black American portraying an African (\u003ci>Hotel Rwanda\u003c/i>, \u003ci>The Last King of Scotland\u003c/i>), or is so contrived that its African setting is incidental to the storyline (Bruce Willis in \u003ci>Tears of the Sun\u003c/i>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> is different. And it already has Oscar buzz, garnering a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film of 2012. The movie is screening Sunday, January 13, at the Rafael Film Center, as part of \u003cb>For Your Consideration\u003c/b>, the Center’s annual series of Oscar-submitted foreign-language movies. \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> tells the story of a 12-year-old girl named Komona who’s forced to be a child soldier. Kill or be killed — that’s her stark choice. In between the violence (her parents are the first victims) and sexual predation from the rebels’ leader, she couples up with another child soldier — a love pursuit that anchors the film’s middle passage. First-time actress Rachel Mwanza, a child of the streets who director Kim Nguyen found in a casting call in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, plays Komona, whose character narrates the film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What drew me to the story was the dramatic power of the story of child soldiers,” says Nguyen in a phone interview the day before a sold-out screening at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. “I thought it was very relevant for our times — a true Greek tragedy.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKXEh_kfPCY&w=480&h=270]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nguyen is Canadian, and it was Canada that submitted \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> for Oscar consideration, so Nguyen’s work is not a completely African film. Still, another riveting drama that’s screening at the Rafael Film Center, \u003ci>Nairobi Half Life\u003c/i>, was made by a native Kenyan — granted, with the assistance of the German director Tom Tykwer (\u003ci>Run Lola Run\u003c/i>), whose production company has Kenyan filmmakers workshop their movies. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reality for African cinema is that it needs help from the West – both in making films, and in presenting them to a wider audience. But that begs the question: How far should Western filmmakers intervene in telling Africa’s stories? Nguyen tells me he wrestled with a key moment in \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i>: Whether Komona pulls the trigger herself when she has to kill her parents with an automatic weapon, or whether the rebel soldiers commanding her should grip the trigger for her. In researching his film in Africa, Nguyen interviewed child soldiers who said they fired their weapons themselves. Tugged a bit by Western guilt at how to represent Africa, Nguyen debated whether to soften Komona’s first killing scene. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was thinking, ‘Maybe I should make the character not responsible,’ but the truth of the matter is that these kids are told to shoot their parents, and the real troubling thing is that they do — and no one pulls on the trigger for them,” says Nguyen. “It’s an example of how I wrote \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> just the way it is. I had to represent it the way it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/01/10/warwitch1.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The subject of child soldiers has been in the news for more than a decade, primarily in headlines from Africa but also from Asian countries like Myanmar, and it was a series of reports about Myanmar’s teenage soldiers that first prompted Nguyen to consider a movie that dramatized their lives. Around the world, tens of thousands of children under the age of 18 — some younger than 10 — fight with rebel groups or with government forces, according to the nonprofit group \u003ca href=\"http://www.child-soldiers.org/\">Child Soldiers International\u003c/a>. Scores of documentaries have chronicled the phenomenon, as have a few feature filmmakers, like France’s Jean-Stephane Sauvaire, whose 2008 drama, \u003ci>Johnny Mad Dog\u003c/i>, uses former child soldiers from Liberia to portray on-screen killers in an African country. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there’s a pattern to recent African films that have found an audience in the West, it’s that they all have bloody violence at their core. \u003ci>Tsotsi\u003c/i>, the South African drama that won the 2005 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, is a kaleidoscope of shooting, knifing, and other mayhem, though it’s also the story of a gang member discovering his humanity through a chance encounter with a baby. \u003ci>The Last King of Scotland\u003c/i> chronicles the violent reign of Uganda’s Idi Amin Dada, while \u003ci>Tears of the Sun\u003c/i> is Hollywood at its worst, with Willis-led forces rescuing a white female doctor from an intra-Nigerian bloodbath. The image of Africa as a continent of savages and uncontained people is one that cinema has perpetuated since the first Tarzan movies. The Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, best known for his \u003ci>Granta\u003c/i> essay \u003ca href=\"http://www.granta.com/Archive/92/How-to-Write-about-Africa/Page-1\">“How to Write About Africa,”\u003c/a> bemoans those who paint with stereotypical brushstrokes of the continent, who make Africa seem awash in violence, corruption, and other pandemics, without elucidating Africa’s many layers of normalcy. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wainaina’s criticisms could certainly be applied to other continents — America is certainly stereotyped through the cinema of other countries — and \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> dramatizes the nuanced lives of child soldiers, showing, for example, the way that teenage soldiers get both sickened by their killing sprees and also desensitized to them. Nguyen also shows the child soldiers playing around in their free time, and we get extended glimpses of everyday families that are just trying to make it through each day. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/01/10/warwitch2.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nguyen, who is 38, took 10 years to make \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i>, partly so he could get the screenplay right. The characters in \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> speak Lingala, a native language in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (where the film was shot), and also French, which was Congo’s colonial language and is still widely spoken there. The actors in \u003ci>Nairobi Half Life\u003c/i> speak Swahili. Director David Gitonga’s drama about a would-be actor who moves to the big city and takes part in gang violence to support himself is the first film that Kenya ever submitted for Oscar consideration. The movie is a successor to the long tradition of African cinema made by African filmmakers — a timeline that includes Senegal’s \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ousmane_Semb%C3%A8ne\">Ousmane Sembène\u003c/a>, “the father of African film,” who made critically acclaimed movies for 40 years until his death in 2007; Mali’s \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheick_Oumar_Sissoko\">Cheick Oumar Sissoko\u003c/a>, a similarly decorated director, whose 30-year career has included screenings at the San Francisco International Film Festival; and Senegal’s \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djibril_Diop_Mamb%C3%A9ty\">Djibril Diop Mambéty\u003c/a>, whose 1973 masterpiece \u003ci>Touki Bouki\u003c/i> won big at Cannes and in 2010 was named the 52nd-best film in World Cinema by the British film magazine \u003ci>Empire\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> has already won some big prizes. It won Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, which gave the Best Actress award to Mwanza, who won the same award at the Berlin International Film Festival. In the early stages of \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i>, one film distributor told Nguyen that his film couldn’t be sold in a country like Japan because audiences would never relate to main characters that are black Africans. Months later, Nguyen sent the distributor an email: A Japanese distributor had bought the rights to \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> and the film will be shown there. “That was the best sale ever,” Nguyen says. Still, Nguyen admits that as he sought financing for \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i>, he briefly debated whether to add a Western character to the script, to make the movie more marketable. “When I was in financing mode, I must admit that there was internal pressure to put a white character in the film,” Nguyen says. “Not as a savior, but perhaps a character who escapes from his own country and flees from his own torment and is living in Africa. It was the worst idea ever.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To me, \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> has a chance to make a lot of Best Film lists. Nguyen brings child soldiering right into the solar plexus in a way that newspaper stories and even documentaries could never approach. Nguyen’s characters are forced to make extreme choices that have immediate repercussions on their lives. What would we do if we were in their shoes? Africa is the backdrop to \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i>, but the continent has no monopoly on military abuse of children. \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> tells a story that people could label as “African,” but that label would only go so far. As Nguyen puts it, “These are human characters who live in a hermetic world. Within that world, you see the rest of the world.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> screens Sunday, January 13, 8:30pm at the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael as part of \u003cb>For Your Consideration\u003c/b>, the center’s annual series of Oscar-submitted foreign-language movies. \u003ci>Nairobi Half Life\u003c/i> screens Sunday, January 13, 6:30pm. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.cafilm.org/rfc/films/1801.html\">tickets and more information\u003c/a>, visit cafilm.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Recently garnering an Oscar nom for Best Foreign Language film, \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i>, a film about child soldiers in Africa, screens this Sunday at the Rafael Film Center in the \u003cb>For Your Consideration\u003c/b> program.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> has achieved a rare distinction: It’s a dramatic movie about Sub-Saharan Africa that stars black African actors who don’t speak English that is still attracting U.S. audiences. Think about it. Nearly every drama set in Sub-Saharan Africa that’s found a recent cinematic home in the West has a major white character (\u003ci> Hotel Rwanda\u003c/i>, \u003ci>The Last King of Scotland\u003c/i>, \u003ci>The Constant Gardner\u003c/i>), or has a black American portraying an African (\u003ci>Hotel Rwanda\u003c/i>, \u003ci>The Last King of Scotland\u003c/i>), or is so contrived that its African setting is incidental to the storyline (Bruce Willis in \u003ci>Tears of the Sun\u003c/i>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> is different. And it already has Oscar buzz, garnering a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film of 2012. The movie is screening Sunday, January 13, at the Rafael Film Center, as part of \u003cb>For Your Consideration\u003c/b>, the Center’s annual series of Oscar-submitted foreign-language movies. \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> tells the story of a 12-year-old girl named Komona who’s forced to be a child soldier. Kill or be killed — that’s her stark choice. In between the violence (her parents are the first victims) and sexual predation from the rebels’ leader, she couples up with another child soldier — a love pursuit that anchors the film’s middle passage. First-time actress Rachel Mwanza, a child of the streets who director Kim Nguyen found in a casting call in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, plays Komona, whose character narrates the film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What drew me to the story was the dramatic power of the story of child soldiers,” says Nguyen in a phone interview the day before a sold-out screening at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. “I thought it was very relevant for our times — a true Greek tragedy.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\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/BKXEh_kfPCY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/BKXEh_kfPCY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nguyen is Canadian, and it was Canada that submitted \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> for Oscar consideration, so Nguyen’s work is not a completely African film. Still, another riveting drama that’s screening at the Rafael Film Center, \u003ci>Nairobi Half Life\u003c/i>, was made by a native Kenyan — granted, with the assistance of the German director Tom Tykwer (\u003ci>Run Lola Run\u003c/i>), whose production company has Kenyan filmmakers workshop their movies. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reality for African cinema is that it needs help from the West – both in making films, and in presenting them to a wider audience. But that begs the question: How far should Western filmmakers intervene in telling Africa’s stories? Nguyen tells me he wrestled with a key moment in \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i>: Whether Komona pulls the trigger herself when she has to kill her parents with an automatic weapon, or whether the rebel soldiers commanding her should grip the trigger for her. In researching his film in Africa, Nguyen interviewed child soldiers who said they fired their weapons themselves. Tugged a bit by Western guilt at how to represent Africa, Nguyen debated whether to soften Komona’s first killing scene. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was thinking, ‘Maybe I should make the character not responsible,’ but the truth of the matter is that these kids are told to shoot their parents, and the real troubling thing is that they do — and no one pulls on the trigger for them,” says Nguyen. “It’s an example of how I wrote \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> just the way it is. I had to represent it the way it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/01/10/warwitch1.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The subject of child soldiers has been in the news for more than a decade, primarily in headlines from Africa but also from Asian countries like Myanmar, and it was a series of reports about Myanmar’s teenage soldiers that first prompted Nguyen to consider a movie that dramatized their lives. Around the world, tens of thousands of children under the age of 18 — some younger than 10 — fight with rebel groups or with government forces, according to the nonprofit group \u003ca href=\"http://www.child-soldiers.org/\">Child Soldiers International\u003c/a>. Scores of documentaries have chronicled the phenomenon, as have a few feature filmmakers, like France’s Jean-Stephane Sauvaire, whose 2008 drama, \u003ci>Johnny Mad Dog\u003c/i>, uses former child soldiers from Liberia to portray on-screen killers in an African country. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there’s a pattern to recent African films that have found an audience in the West, it’s that they all have bloody violence at their core. \u003ci>Tsotsi\u003c/i>, the South African drama that won the 2005 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, is a kaleidoscope of shooting, knifing, and other mayhem, though it’s also the story of a gang member discovering his humanity through a chance encounter with a baby. \u003ci>The Last King of Scotland\u003c/i> chronicles the violent reign of Uganda’s Idi Amin Dada, while \u003ci>Tears of the Sun\u003c/i> is Hollywood at its worst, with Willis-led forces rescuing a white female doctor from an intra-Nigerian bloodbath. The image of Africa as a continent of savages and uncontained people is one that cinema has perpetuated since the first Tarzan movies. The Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, best known for his \u003ci>Granta\u003c/i> essay \u003ca href=\"http://www.granta.com/Archive/92/How-to-Write-about-Africa/Page-1\">“How to Write About Africa,”\u003c/a> bemoans those who paint with stereotypical brushstrokes of the continent, who make Africa seem awash in violence, corruption, and other pandemics, without elucidating Africa’s many layers of normalcy. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wainaina’s criticisms could certainly be applied to other continents — America is certainly stereotyped through the cinema of other countries — and \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> dramatizes the nuanced lives of child soldiers, showing, for example, the way that teenage soldiers get both sickened by their killing sprees and also desensitized to them. Nguyen also shows the child soldiers playing around in their free time, and we get extended glimpses of everyday families that are just trying to make it through each day. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/01/10/warwitch2.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nguyen, who is 38, took 10 years to make \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i>, partly so he could get the screenplay right. The characters in \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> speak Lingala, a native language in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (where the film was shot), and also French, which was Congo’s colonial language and is still widely spoken there. The actors in \u003ci>Nairobi Half Life\u003c/i> speak Swahili. Director David Gitonga’s drama about a would-be actor who moves to the big city and takes part in gang violence to support himself is the first film that Kenya ever submitted for Oscar consideration. The movie is a successor to the long tradition of African cinema made by African filmmakers — a timeline that includes Senegal’s \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ousmane_Semb%C3%A8ne\">Ousmane Sembène\u003c/a>, “the father of African film,” who made critically acclaimed movies for 40 years until his death in 2007; Mali’s \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheick_Oumar_Sissoko\">Cheick Oumar Sissoko\u003c/a>, a similarly decorated director, whose 30-year career has included screenings at the San Francisco International Film Festival; and Senegal’s \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djibril_Diop_Mamb%C3%A9ty\">Djibril Diop Mambéty\u003c/a>, whose 1973 masterpiece \u003ci>Touki Bouki\u003c/i> won big at Cannes and in 2010 was named the 52nd-best film in World Cinema by the British film magazine \u003ci>Empire\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> has already won some big prizes. It won Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, which gave the Best Actress award to Mwanza, who won the same award at the Berlin International Film Festival. In the early stages of \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i>, one film distributor told Nguyen that his film couldn’t be sold in a country like Japan because audiences would never relate to main characters that are black Africans. Months later, Nguyen sent the distributor an email: A Japanese distributor had bought the rights to \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> and the film will be shown there. “That was the best sale ever,” Nguyen says. Still, Nguyen admits that as he sought financing for \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i>, he briefly debated whether to add a Western character to the script, to make the movie more marketable. “When I was in financing mode, I must admit that there was internal pressure to put a white character in the film,” Nguyen says. “Not as a savior, but perhaps a character who escapes from his own country and flees from his own torment and is living in Africa. It was the worst idea ever.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To me, \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> has a chance to make a lot of Best Film lists. Nguyen brings child soldiering right into the solar plexus in a way that newspaper stories and even documentaries could never approach. Nguyen’s characters are forced to make extreme choices that have immediate repercussions on their lives. What would we do if we were in their shoes? Africa is the backdrop to \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i>, but the continent has no monopoly on military abuse of children. \u003ci>War Witch\u003c/i> tells a story that people could label as “African,” but that label would only go so far. As Nguyen puts it, “These are human characters who live in a hermetic world. Within that world, you see the rest of the world.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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}
},
"baycurious": {
"id": "baycurious",
"title": "Bay Curious",
"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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"order": 3
},
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},
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"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/",
"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
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}
},
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"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
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"id": "city-arts",
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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},
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"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.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"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. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"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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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"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",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"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)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"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",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
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