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"content": "\u003cp>My cheery takeaway from \u003cem>Never Look Away\u003c/em>, Lucy Lawless’s hectic documentary about fellow New Zealander and late CNN cameraperson Margaret Moth, is that it is a wonderful and rare thing when people get to do the work they are meant to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Especially when that mission — in this case, racing to transmit war’s catastrophic impact on civilians to living rooms around the globe — is urgent and important. Moth embraced both the physical dangers and the existential dilemmas inherent in her job because of a profound need to give voice, saying, “The story has to be told.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Never Look Away\u003c/em>, which premiered one year ago at the Sundance Film Festival, screens Saturday, Feb. 8 at 12:15 p.m. as part of the \u003ca href=\"https://mostlybritish.org/all-films/\">Mostly British Film Festival\u003c/a> at the Vogue Theater. Lawless will make an appearance via Zoom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moth had a complicated personality, like many war correspondents and photojournalists. We are introduced to her in Houston circa 1980 by the 17-year-old who dropped by her apartment to sell her weed. At first sight, Jeff Russi thought the exotic 30-year-old was “a gypsy fortune-teller.” In fact, he learned, Moth was a party-hearty skydiver for whom nothing was out of bounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971438\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000.jpg\" alt=\"young white man shirtless at swimming pool\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1335\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971438\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000-1920x1282.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Russi in a still from ‘Never Look Away.’ \u003ccite>(Greenwich Entertainment)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They were lovers during Russi’s senior year and well beyond, even while Moth maintained relationships with other men at home and later on assignment. The lingering import of Russi’s poignant appearance in \u003cem>Never Look Away\u003c/em> isn’t his recitation of hedonistic excess and full-tilt boogies but the lifelong imprint that the free- and full-spirited Moth left on him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawless tosses the hard-edged rock of Heart’s \u003cem>Barracuda\u003c/em> on the soundtrack, a fitting sonic companion to Moth’s spiky black hairdo and heavy eyeliner. But that’s as far as she is willing to push the aesthetics to mirror her subject’s rebelliousness and defiance. Except for a few recreations and animated sequences, \u003cem>Never Look Away\u003c/em> conforms to the talking-heads-and-news-clips approach. While the doc is steeped fully in Moth’s passion for living on her own terms, I would have welcomed a more ragged and jagged style.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Very quickly, the picture of Moth as a fiercely strong-willed, completely autonomous woman comes into focus. Other lovers-slash-professional cohorts from the ’80s and ’90s, notably former CNN correspondent Stefano Kotsonis and French location-sound recordist Yaschinka (pop stars aren’t the only ones who go by one name, apparently), explain how Moth made a smooth transition from shooting staid corporate press conferences for CNN in Dallas to filming conflict zones in Bosnia, Rwanda, Iraq, Zaire and Lebanon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971439\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000.jpg\" alt=\"two men in military uniforms and a woman pose with peace signs and guns\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1394\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971439\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000-800x558.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000-1020x711.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000-768x535.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000-1536x1071.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000-1920x1338.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Margaret Moth (right) in a still from ‘Never Look Away.’ \u003ccite>(Greenwich Entertainment)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“At a certain point,” Russi recalls, “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t enough. War was the ultimate drug.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The perception in popular culture of war correspondents and image-makers is that they are 1) adrenaline junkies; 2) jaded about human suffering; and 3) cynical about human nature. The most recent example, Alex Garland’s 2024 provocation \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13955639/in-alex-garlands-potent-civil-war-journalists-are-americas-last-hope\">Civil War\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, centered on a seen-it-all photojournalist (Kirsten Dunst) heading to Washington, D.C. to snap the reactionary president before opposition forces can take him out. (An uneven blend of action flick and role-of-journalism inquiry, the film is even more relevant now than when it opened last April.) \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawless (known for the TV series \u003cem>Xena: Warrior Princess\u003c/em> and \u003cem>My Life is Murder\u003c/em>) isn’t interested in peddling the anything-for-a-rush stereotype. Through Moth’s black-ink drawings and interviews with her siblings, she reveals a traumatic childhood with a bullying, alcoholic father and an equally resentful mother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971442\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000.jpg\" alt=\"woman with one bloodshot eye and scar at corner of mouth\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1336\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971442\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000-1920x1283.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Margaret Moth after her injury and reconstructive surgery in a still from ‘Never Look Away.’ \u003ccite>(Greenwich Entertainment)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While the cameraperson wouldn’t talk about her past with anyone — born Margaret Wilson, she reinvented herself as Margaret Moth after fleeing New Zealand — the implication is she alchemized her upbringing into a determination to convey the plights of helpless innocents (especially children) in war zones. She got as close as she could with her camera, at great personal risk, to bear witness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The grievous injury that Moth incurred on assignment — she was shot in the jaw while riding in a press vehicle through Sarajevo’s so-called Sniper Alley in 1992 — can’t be attributed to foolhardy behavior, however. \u003cem>Never Look Away\u003c/em> devotes a considerable amount of time to her rehabilitation and recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moth survived and eventually returned to work, with perhaps even greater intensity. “She didn’t do less war after she got shot,” Kotsonis recalls. “She did more. She doubled down on war.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curiously, \u003cem>Never Look Away\u003c/em> doesn’t give us anywhere near as much of Moth’s voice as we expect or want. Lawless includes fleeting bits of audio in the film’s first half; the few clips after Moss’s injury and reconstructive surgery illustrate that she lost the ability to speak clearly and powerfully. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971440\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000.jpg\" alt=\"woman standing with hand on open door of car with 'TV' on side\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1404\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000-800x562.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000-1020x716.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000-768x539.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000-1536x1078.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000-1920x1348.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christiane Amanpour in a still from ‘Never Look Away.’ \u003ccite>(Greenwich Entertainment)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Interviews with female peers like longtime CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, producer Sausan Ghosheh and BBC camerawoman Susan Stein partially fill the void, and also offset the less-than-optimal experience of getting to know Margaret Moth through the main men in her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet our overall experience of her is a mediated one, filtered through other people’s eyes. If there’s anybody who you want to hear from directly, it’s the woman who smoked cigars with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf in the evening during the first invasion of Iraq.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, we get a taste of both the necessity and the futility of shooting news video of casualties of war. Moth felt obligated to show their faces, knowing full well that there would be another war in another place next year, and another, and another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“War is a tough job and we self-medicated,” Kotsonis says. “You walk away covered in suffering.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘Never Look Away’ plays Saturday, Feb. 8 at 12:15 p.m. as part of the \u003ca href=\"https://mostlybritish.org/all-films/\">Mostly British Film Festival\u003c/a> at the Vogue Theater (3290 Sacramento St., San Francisco).\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"headline": "War Videographer Margaret Moth Gets the Shot in ‘Never Look Away’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>My cheery takeaway from \u003cem>Never Look Away\u003c/em>, Lucy Lawless’s hectic documentary about fellow New Zealander and late CNN cameraperson Margaret Moth, is that it is a wonderful and rare thing when people get to do the work they are meant to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Especially when that mission — in this case, racing to transmit war’s catastrophic impact on civilians to living rooms around the globe — is urgent and important. Moth embraced both the physical dangers and the existential dilemmas inherent in her job because of a profound need to give voice, saying, “The story has to be told.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Never Look Away\u003c/em>, which premiered one year ago at the Sundance Film Festival, screens Saturday, Feb. 8 at 12:15 p.m. as part of the \u003ca href=\"https://mostlybritish.org/all-films/\">Mostly British Film Festival\u003c/a> at the Vogue Theater. Lawless will make an appearance via Zoom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moth had a complicated personality, like many war correspondents and photojournalists. We are introduced to her in Houston circa 1980 by the 17-year-old who dropped by her apartment to sell her weed. At first sight, Jeff Russi thought the exotic 30-year-old was “a gypsy fortune-teller.” In fact, he learned, Moth was a party-hearty skydiver for whom nothing was out of bounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971438\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000.jpg\" alt=\"young white man shirtless at swimming pool\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1335\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971438\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_JEFF-6_2000-1920x1282.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Russi in a still from ‘Never Look Away.’ \u003ccite>(Greenwich Entertainment)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They were lovers during Russi’s senior year and well beyond, even while Moth maintained relationships with other men at home and later on assignment. The lingering import of Russi’s poignant appearance in \u003cem>Never Look Away\u003c/em> isn’t his recitation of hedonistic excess and full-tilt boogies but the lifelong imprint that the free- and full-spirited Moth left on him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawless tosses the hard-edged rock of Heart’s \u003cem>Barracuda\u003c/em> on the soundtrack, a fitting sonic companion to Moth’s spiky black hairdo and heavy eyeliner. But that’s as far as she is willing to push the aesthetics to mirror her subject’s rebelliousness and defiance. Except for a few recreations and animated sequences, \u003cem>Never Look Away\u003c/em> conforms to the talking-heads-and-news-clips approach. While the doc is steeped fully in Moth’s passion for living on her own terms, I would have welcomed a more ragged and jagged style.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Very quickly, the picture of Moth as a fiercely strong-willed, completely autonomous woman comes into focus. Other lovers-slash-professional cohorts from the ’80s and ’90s, notably former CNN correspondent Stefano Kotsonis and French location-sound recordist Yaschinka (pop stars aren’t the only ones who go by one name, apparently), explain how Moth made a smooth transition from shooting staid corporate press conferences for CNN in Dallas to filming conflict zones in Bosnia, Rwanda, Iraq, Zaire and Lebanon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971439\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000.jpg\" alt=\"two men in military uniforms and a woman pose with peace signs and guns\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1394\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971439\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000-800x558.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000-1020x711.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000-768x535.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000-1536x1071.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-1_2000-1920x1338.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Margaret Moth (right) in a still from ‘Never Look Away.’ \u003ccite>(Greenwich Entertainment)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“At a certain point,” Russi recalls, “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t enough. War was the ultimate drug.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The perception in popular culture of war correspondents and image-makers is that they are 1) adrenaline junkies; 2) jaded about human suffering; and 3) cynical about human nature. The most recent example, Alex Garland’s 2024 provocation \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13955639/in-alex-garlands-potent-civil-war-journalists-are-americas-last-hope\">Civil War\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, centered on a seen-it-all photojournalist (Kirsten Dunst) heading to Washington, D.C. to snap the reactionary president before opposition forces can take him out. (An uneven blend of action flick and role-of-journalism inquiry, the film is even more relevant now than when it opened last April.) \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawless (known for the TV series \u003cem>Xena: Warrior Princess\u003c/em> and \u003cem>My Life is Murder\u003c/em>) isn’t interested in peddling the anything-for-a-rush stereotype. Through Moth’s black-ink drawings and interviews with her siblings, she reveals a traumatic childhood with a bullying, alcoholic father and an equally resentful mother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971442\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000.jpg\" alt=\"woman with one bloodshot eye and scar at corner of mouth\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1336\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971442\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_MM-5_2000-1920x1283.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Margaret Moth after her injury and reconstructive surgery in a still from ‘Never Look Away.’ \u003ccite>(Greenwich Entertainment)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While the cameraperson wouldn’t talk about her past with anyone — born Margaret Wilson, she reinvented herself as Margaret Moth after fleeing New Zealand — the implication is she alchemized her upbringing into a determination to convey the plights of helpless innocents (especially children) in war zones. She got as close as she could with her camera, at great personal risk, to bear witness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The grievous injury that Moth incurred on assignment — she was shot in the jaw while riding in a press vehicle through Sarajevo’s so-called Sniper Alley in 1992 — can’t be attributed to foolhardy behavior, however. \u003cem>Never Look Away\u003c/em> devotes a considerable amount of time to her rehabilitation and recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moth survived and eventually returned to work, with perhaps even greater intensity. “She didn’t do less war after she got shot,” Kotsonis recalls. “She did more. She doubled down on war.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curiously, \u003cem>Never Look Away\u003c/em> doesn’t give us anywhere near as much of Moth’s voice as we expect or want. Lawless includes fleeting bits of audio in the film’s first half; the few clips after Moss’s injury and reconstructive surgery illustrate that she lost the ability to speak clearly and powerfully. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971440\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000.jpg\" alt=\"woman standing with hand on open door of car with 'TV' on side\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1404\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000-800x562.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000-1020x716.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000-768x539.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000-1536x1078.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NLA_Christiane_2000-1920x1348.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christiane Amanpour in a still from ‘Never Look Away.’ \u003ccite>(Greenwich Entertainment)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Interviews with female peers like longtime CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, producer Sausan Ghosheh and BBC camerawoman Susan Stein partially fill the void, and also offset the less-than-optimal experience of getting to know Margaret Moth through the main men in her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet our overall experience of her is a mediated one, filtered through other people’s eyes. If there’s anybody who you want to hear from directly, it’s the woman who smoked cigars with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf in the evening during the first invasion of Iraq.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, we get a taste of both the necessity and the futility of shooting news video of casualties of war. Moth felt obligated to show their faces, knowing full well that there would be another war in another place next year, and another, and another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“War is a tough job and we self-medicated,” Kotsonis says. “You walk away covered in suffering.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘Never Look Away’ plays Saturday, Feb. 8 at 12:15 p.m. as part of the \u003ca href=\"https://mostlybritish.org/all-films/\">Mostly British Film Festival\u003c/a> at the Vogue Theater (3290 Sacramento St., San Francisco).\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "2025-sf-indiefest-independent-film-roxie-vogue-streaming",
"title": "Movies We’re Excited About at This Year’s SF IndieFest",
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"headTitle": "Movies We’re Excited About at This Year’s SF IndieFest | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The 27th \u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/welcome\">San Francisco Independent Film Festival\u003c/a> kicks off at the Roxie on Thursday, Feb. 6 with \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286b289d065228dc0069\">Pavements\u003c/a>\u003c/i> (an idiosyncratic ode to the legendary indie rock band), and keeps up the offbeat energy throughout its 13-day-long program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Live screenings at the Roxie and Vogue theaters \u003ci>and\u003c/i> \u003ca href=\"https://watch.eventive.org/sfindie2025\">online offerings\u003c/a> mean there’s a wealth of films from around the world to choose from (a total of 80 features and shorts). We know it can be tricky to prioritize in the face of such plenty, so here are seven movies we’re excited to see in this year’s festival. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971137\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000.jpg\" alt=\"Black family members smile in house decorated for party\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1336\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971137\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000-1920x1283.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from ‘Draft Night,’ playing in the shorts program Bay Area Tales pt 1. \u003ccite>(Dominic Bowker)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/6771cac98417b090e1957f79\">Draft Night\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 7, 8:45 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming\u003cbr>\nPart of \u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/schedule/6771ca750f74308d82410405\">Bay Area Tales pt 1\u003c/a>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ambitious in its scope, \u003cem>Draft Night\u003c/em> captures a single, nerve-wracking evening for a young man who’s waiting to find out if he’s made it into the NBA. Filmed in Oakland with a cast and crew with deep Bay Area ties, \u003ci>Draft Night\u003c/i> explores themes around mental health, wealth and the commodification of Black athletes by white team owners. This weighty tale, told in a slim 11 minutes, is part of a program filled with locally minded shorts. \u003ci>—Rae Alexandra\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971140\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06.jpg\" alt=\"Asian women in gowns and headdresses dance on stage with props\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971140\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘Meet Me in Chinatown.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SF IndieFest)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286c289d065228dc00d1\">Meet Me in Chinatown\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 8, 12 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming\u003cbr>\nPart of \u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/schedule/6772070e4b097fc265b559f7\">True Stories: Documentary Shorts\u003c/a>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to find a more charming guide to Chinatown’s nightlife of yore than Cynthia Yee. She started dancing professionally in the 1960s, joining Dorothy Toy’s dance troupe, touring around the world and winning the Miss Chinatown 1967 crown (with what sounds like a fairly risqué silhouette dance choreographed by Toy). Now in her 70s, Yee and her friends perform as the Grant Avenue Follies, dressing up in sparkles and feathers, donning serious amounts of makeup and generally having the time of their lives performing dance numbers on stage. We can only hope this is a proof of concept for a future full-length film. \u003ci>—Sarah Hotchkiss\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971141\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33.jpg\" alt=\"three women dressed in hot pink, seen from below\" width=\"1920\" height=\"817\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971141\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33-800x340.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33-1020x434.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33-160x68.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33-768x327.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33-1536x654.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nida Chowdhry in ‘Anxious.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SF IndieFest)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286c289d065228dc0083\">Anxious.\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 9, 4:15 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyone who’s experienced chronic anxiety knows how the mind can force one down ever-tightening corridors once an episode begins. (Not to mention the effort to then get loose from anxiety’s grip.) If the trailer for \u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286c289d065228dc0083\">\u003cem>Anxious\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is anything to go by, Pakistani American writer/director/actor \u003ca href=\"https://nidachowdhry.com/\">Nida Chowdhry\u003c/a> clearly understands the predicament.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chowdhry’s debut feature sees her character Ruby inside an anxiety attack, wandering through the recesses of her own brain, pursued by different (exquisitely well-dressed) versions of herself. Chowdhry, who has written for children’s TV shows on \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15050438/\">Max\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81093076\">Netflix\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/the-dandiya-dance-mystery-the-case-of-the-funky-fountain/umc.cmc.4ugplfobwe0n7msthwyynhxce\">Disney\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LAQPqmtf3I&t=822s\">PBS\u003c/a>, leans into surreality as a way of explaining something more clearly. \u003cem>Anxious\u003c/em> offers insights for folks who don’t suffer from the condition, and a heap of gorgeous relatability for those that do. \u003ci>—Rae Alexandra\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971138\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000.jpg\" alt=\"two women walk arm in arm smiling down street, news anchor tries to stop them\" width=\"2000\" height=\"836\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971138\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000-800x334.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000-1020x426.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000-768x321.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000-1536x642.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000-1920x803.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Britta Emmelstein and Mavie Hörbiger in ‘The Protected Men.’ \u003ccite>(Filmgalerie451)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286c289d065228dc007a\">The Protected Men\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 11, 8:30 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m all here for a story that takes an outlandish sci-fi concept and runs with it. What if men’s sexual violence didn’t hurt the objects of their desire, but themselves? In Irene von Alberti’s feature, men are suddenly stricken with a deadly disease brought on by their own arousal. Heads of state start dropping like flies. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The end of men is not a new premise by any means (see Joanna Russ’ excellent \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Female_Man\">The Female Man\u003c/a>\u003c/i> and the less excellent \u003ci>Y: The Last Man\u003c/i>). This movie follows both those seeking a cure, and the leaders of a feminist political party in Germany who seize power and establish a new social order. Satirical and goofy, this may just be the psychic release we need. \u003ci>—Sarah Hotchkiss\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971139\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie.jpg\" alt=\"zombie man with arms outstretched in field\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971139\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jett Shields as a vampire zombie in ‘Vampire Zombies…from Space!’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SF IndieFest)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286c289d065228dc008c\">Vampire Zombies…from Space!\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 12, 6:15 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13969867/nosferatu-movie-review-lily-rose-depp-bill-skarsgard-robert-eggers-remake-2025\">Nosferatu\u003c/a>\u003c/i> was a bit too serious for your taste, may I present this delightfully self-aware, black-and-white feature about a small town besieged by … well, the title says it all. Picture a requisite gang of misfits, including a \u003ci>Rebel Without a Cause\u003c/i>-type and a plucky young heroine, and plenty of practical effects (like rubber bats on very visible strings). An homage to — and send-up of — creature features of the 50s, this movie looks like it was exceedingly fun to make, which more often than not means it will be exceedingly fun to watch. \u003ci>—Sarah Hotchkiss\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971146\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000.jpg\" alt=\"animation of angel with wings flies over rubble\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971146\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘Among Neighbors.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SF IndieFest)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286b289d065228dc006b\">Among Neighbors\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 18, 6 p.m. at the Vogue Theater\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2016, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTzNkfgM1vE\">Tower\u003c/a>\u003c/em> — a documentary about the tragic 1966 mass shooting at the University of Texas in Austin — vividly brought an old story to life by combining enthralling first-person accounts and beautiful, low-key animation. Bay Area documentarian Yoav Potash has deployed a similar method for his film \u003cem>Among Neighbors\u003c/em>, an investigation into how neighbors in the Polish village of Gniewoszów turned on one another during World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The addition of animation is a departure for Potash, who previously earned praise for the 2011 documentary \u003cem>Crime After Crime\u003c/em>, and 2010’s \u003cem>Food Stamped\u003c/em>. The latter movie, following Potash and his wife’s attempts to survive on food stamps, won the Grand Jury Prize at SF IndieFest that year. \u003cem>Among Neighbors\u003c/em>, meanwhile, looks to be Potash’s most powerful work yet. \u003ci>—Rae Alexandra\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971142\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000.jpg\" alt=\"man and woman in Elizabethan garb, outrageous hair\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1389\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971142\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000-800x556.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000-1020x708.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000-768x533.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000-1536x1067.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000-1920x1333.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘Timestalker.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SF IndieFest)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286c289d065228dc0093\">Timestalker\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 18, 8:30 p.m. at the Vogue Theater and steaming\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the U.K., British actor, director and writer Alice Lowe is most recognized for her work in surreal comedies (including \u003cem>The Mighty Boosh\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace\u003c/em>) and her role in \u003cem>Horrible Histories\u003c/em> — an educational kid’s TV show that’s so hilarious, it has a healthy following of grown-ups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It makes sense, then, that with \u003cem>Timestalker\u003c/em>, Lowe has taken a gloriously bizarre concept, given it a historical backdrop and piled on layers of anarchic, dry humor. Here she plays Agnes, a woman who keeps falling for the same terrible man as the pair are repeatedly reincarnated across time periods. How many lives will it take before Agnes learns her lesson, breaks the cycle and stops sacrificing herself for love? And how transformative can an elaborate hairstyle truly be? \u003cem>Timestalker\u003c/em> has the answers — and the laughs. \u003ci>—Rae Alexandra\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The \u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/welcome\">San Francisco International Independent Film Festival\u003c/a> plays at the Roxie, Vogue and online Feb. 6–18, 2025.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Your guide to the annual independent film festival, screening Feb. 6–18 at the Roxie, Vogue and online.",
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"headline": "Movies We’re Excited About at This Year’s SF IndieFest",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The 27th \u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/welcome\">San Francisco Independent Film Festival\u003c/a> kicks off at the Roxie on Thursday, Feb. 6 with \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286b289d065228dc0069\">Pavements\u003c/a>\u003c/i> (an idiosyncratic ode to the legendary indie rock band), and keeps up the offbeat energy throughout its 13-day-long program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Live screenings at the Roxie and Vogue theaters \u003ci>and\u003c/i> \u003ca href=\"https://watch.eventive.org/sfindie2025\">online offerings\u003c/a> mean there’s a wealth of films from around the world to choose from (a total of 80 features and shorts). We know it can be tricky to prioritize in the face of such plenty, so here are seven movies we’re excited to see in this year’s festival. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971137\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000.jpg\" alt=\"Black family members smile in house decorated for party\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1336\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971137\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/DraftNight_2000-1920x1283.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from ‘Draft Night,’ playing in the shorts program Bay Area Tales pt 1. \u003ccite>(Dominic Bowker)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/6771cac98417b090e1957f79\">Draft Night\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 7, 8:45 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming\u003cbr>\nPart of \u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/schedule/6771ca750f74308d82410405\">Bay Area Tales pt 1\u003c/a>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ambitious in its scope, \u003cem>Draft Night\u003c/em> captures a single, nerve-wracking evening for a young man who’s waiting to find out if he’s made it into the NBA. Filmed in Oakland with a cast and crew with deep Bay Area ties, \u003ci>Draft Night\u003c/i> explores themes around mental health, wealth and the commodification of Black athletes by white team owners. This weighty tale, told in a slim 11 minutes, is part of a program filled with locally minded shorts. \u003ci>—Rae Alexandra\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971140\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06.jpg\" alt=\"Asian women in gowns and headdresses dance on stage with props\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971140\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-6-GAF_still06-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘Meet Me in Chinatown.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SF IndieFest)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286c289d065228dc00d1\">Meet Me in Chinatown\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 8, 12 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming\u003cbr>\nPart of \u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/schedule/6772070e4b097fc265b559f7\">True Stories: Documentary Shorts\u003c/a>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to find a more charming guide to Chinatown’s nightlife of yore than Cynthia Yee. She started dancing professionally in the 1960s, joining Dorothy Toy’s dance troupe, touring around the world and winning the Miss Chinatown 1967 crown (with what sounds like a fairly risqué silhouette dance choreographed by Toy). Now in her 70s, Yee and her friends perform as the Grant Avenue Follies, dressing up in sparkles and feathers, donning serious amounts of makeup and generally having the time of their lives performing dance numbers on stage. We can only hope this is a proof of concept for a future full-length film. \u003ci>—Sarah Hotchkiss\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971141\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33.jpg\" alt=\"three women dressed in hot pink, seen from below\" width=\"1920\" height=\"817\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971141\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33-800x340.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33-1020x434.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33-160x68.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33-768x327.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-8-Anxious_Still_33-1536x654.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nida Chowdhry in ‘Anxious.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SF IndieFest)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286c289d065228dc0083\">Anxious.\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 9, 4:15 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyone who’s experienced chronic anxiety knows how the mind can force one down ever-tightening corridors once an episode begins. (Not to mention the effort to then get loose from anxiety’s grip.) If the trailer for \u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286c289d065228dc0083\">\u003cem>Anxious\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is anything to go by, Pakistani American writer/director/actor \u003ca href=\"https://nidachowdhry.com/\">Nida Chowdhry\u003c/a> clearly understands the predicament.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chowdhry’s debut feature sees her character Ruby inside an anxiety attack, wandering through the recesses of her own brain, pursued by different (exquisitely well-dressed) versions of herself. Chowdhry, who has written for children’s TV shows on \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15050438/\">Max\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81093076\">Netflix\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/the-dandiya-dance-mystery-the-case-of-the-funky-fountain/umc.cmc.4ugplfobwe0n7msthwyynhxce\">Disney\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LAQPqmtf3I&t=822s\">PBS\u003c/a>, leans into surreality as a way of explaining something more clearly. \u003cem>Anxious\u003c/em> offers insights for folks who don’t suffer from the condition, and a heap of gorgeous relatability for those that do. \u003ci>—Rae Alexandra\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971138\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000.jpg\" alt=\"two women walk arm in arm smiling down street, news anchor tries to stop them\" width=\"2000\" height=\"836\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971138\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000-800x334.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000-1020x426.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000-768x321.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000-1536x642.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/KEY-STILL_britta_hammelstein_mavie_hoerbiger_in_die_geschuetzten_maenner_spielfilm_von_irene_von_alberti_2024_c_filmgalerie_451_2000-1920x803.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Britta Emmelstein and Mavie Hörbiger in ‘The Protected Men.’ \u003ccite>(Filmgalerie451)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286c289d065228dc007a\">The Protected Men\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 11, 8:30 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m all here for a story that takes an outlandish sci-fi concept and runs with it. What if men’s sexual violence didn’t hurt the objects of their desire, but themselves? In Irene von Alberti’s feature, men are suddenly stricken with a deadly disease brought on by their own arousal. Heads of state start dropping like flies. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The end of men is not a new premise by any means (see Joanna Russ’ excellent \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Female_Man\">The Female Man\u003c/a>\u003c/i> and the less excellent \u003ci>Y: The Last Man\u003c/i>). This movie follows both those seeking a cure, and the leaders of a feminist political party in Germany who seize power and establish a new social order. Satirical and goofy, this may just be the psychic release we need. \u003ci>—Sarah Hotchkiss\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971139\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie.jpg\" alt=\"zombie man with arms outstretched in field\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971139\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Photo-2-VZFS-Jett_Shields_as_a_Vampire_Zombie-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jett Shields as a vampire zombie in ‘Vampire Zombies…from Space!’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SF IndieFest)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286c289d065228dc008c\">Vampire Zombies…from Space!\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 12, 6:15 p.m. at the Roxie and streaming\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13969867/nosferatu-movie-review-lily-rose-depp-bill-skarsgard-robert-eggers-remake-2025\">Nosferatu\u003c/a>\u003c/i> was a bit too serious for your taste, may I present this delightfully self-aware, black-and-white feature about a small town besieged by … well, the title says it all. Picture a requisite gang of misfits, including a \u003ci>Rebel Without a Cause\u003c/i>-type and a plucky young heroine, and plenty of practical effects (like rubber bats on very visible strings). An homage to — and send-up of — creature features of the 50s, this movie looks like it was exceedingly fun to make, which more often than not means it will be exceedingly fun to watch. \u003ci>—Sarah Hotchkiss\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971146\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000.jpg\" alt=\"animation of angel with wings flies over rubble\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971146\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Among-Neighbors-main_image_2000-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘Among Neighbors.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SF IndieFest)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286b289d065228dc006b\">Among Neighbors\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 18, 6 p.m. at the Vogue Theater\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2016, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTzNkfgM1vE\">Tower\u003c/a>\u003c/em> — a documentary about the tragic 1966 mass shooting at the University of Texas in Austin — vividly brought an old story to life by combining enthralling first-person accounts and beautiful, low-key animation. Bay Area documentarian Yoav Potash has deployed a similar method for his film \u003cem>Among Neighbors\u003c/em>, an investigation into how neighbors in the Polish village of Gniewoszów turned on one another during World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The addition of animation is a departure for Potash, who previously earned praise for the 2011 documentary \u003cem>Crime After Crime\u003c/em>, and 2010’s \u003cem>Food Stamped\u003c/em>. The latter movie, following Potash and his wife’s attempts to survive on food stamps, won the Grand Jury Prize at SF IndieFest that year. \u003cem>Among Neighbors\u003c/em>, meanwhile, looks to be Potash’s most powerful work yet. \u003ci>—Rae Alexandra\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971142\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000.jpg\" alt=\"man and woman in Elizabethan garb, outrageous hair\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1389\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971142\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000-800x556.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000-1020x708.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000-768x533.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000-1536x1067.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Timestalker-First-Look-Still-Credit-LUDO-ROBERTS_2000-1920x1333.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘Timestalker.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SF IndieFest)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/films/676c286c289d065228dc0093\">Timestalker\u003c/a>’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Feb. 18, 8:30 p.m. at the Vogue Theater and steaming\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the U.K., British actor, director and writer Alice Lowe is most recognized for her work in surreal comedies (including \u003cem>The Mighty Boosh\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace\u003c/em>) and her role in \u003cem>Horrible Histories\u003c/em> — an educational kid’s TV show that’s so hilarious, it has a healthy following of grown-ups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It makes sense, then, that with \u003cem>Timestalker\u003c/em>, Lowe has taken a gloriously bizarre concept, given it a historical backdrop and piled on layers of anarchic, dry humor. Here she plays Agnes, a woman who keeps falling for the same terrible man as the pair are repeatedly reincarnated across time periods. How many lives will it take before Agnes learns her lesson, breaks the cycle and stops sacrificing herself for love? And how transformative can an elaborate hairstyle truly be? \u003cem>Timestalker\u003c/em> has the answers — and the laughs. \u003ci>—Rae Alexandra\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The \u003ca href=\"https://sfindie2025.eventive.org/welcome\">San Francisco International Independent Film Festival\u003c/a> plays at the Roxie, Vogue and online Feb. 6–18, 2025.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "jenni-olson-arthur-bressan-queer-film-bampfa-roxie-4-star",
"title": "Filmmaker Jenni Olson Is Bringing Landmark Queer Films Back to Screens",
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"headTitle": "Filmmaker Jenni Olson Is Bringing Landmark Queer Films Back to Screens | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Like most good stories about underappreciated artists, filmmaker Arthur J. Bressan Jr.’s revival begins with a pile of cardboard boxes. Specifically, crates of scripts, correspondence and film reels sitting in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.frameline.org\">Frameline\u003c/a> office in 1992. In that pile, Jenni Olson, Bay Area filmmaker, curator, archivist, online pioneer and then-Frameline festival co-director, discovered what would become one of her biggest undertakings: bringing Bressan’s work back to audiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13970047,arts_13970799']As with many tales of this kind, even after the physical media was rediscovered, copyright issues kept Bressan’s films in limbo for several more decades. Only recently has his powerful oeuvre begun to receive the praise it deserves, thanks to \u003ca href=\"https://bressanproject.wixsite.com/website\">The Bressan Project\u003c/a>, an ongoing effort by Olson and Bressan’s sister, Roe Bressan, to preserve, restore and distribute the work of the late filmmaker. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before he died of AIDS in 1987, at age 44, Bressan was a filmmaker’s filmmaker, creating a vivid range of work including documentaries, narrative-driven pornography, and his 1985 landmark feature, \u003cem>Buddies\u003c/em>, the first dramatic film to focus on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970983\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Buddies-color-production-still-with-Geoff-and-David_crop.jpg\" alt=\"man in hospital smock and mask looks down at man on hospital bed\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1124\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970983\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Buddies-color-production-still-with-Geoff-and-David_crop.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Buddies-color-production-still-with-Geoff-and-David_crop-800x599.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Buddies-color-production-still-with-Geoff-and-David_crop-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Buddies-color-production-still-with-Geoff-and-David_crop-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Buddies-color-production-still-with-Geoff-and-David_crop-768x575.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Arthur J. Bressan’s ‘Buddies,’ 1985, screening at the Roxie on Feb. 22, 2025 as part of ’40 Years of Queer.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Frameline)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He was very proud that he made all kinds of movies. He felt it was all part of filmmaking,” Olson explains. “All of his work is instilled with a gay liberation ethos, even the porn films.” In the adult film \u003cem>Passing Strangers\u003c/em>, the characters march down Polk Street in the real-life 1974 Gay Freedom Day parade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Bressan’s commitment to depictions of joyful queer life set in San Francisco, Olson has an antecedent. Her own multihyphenate career is as much about preserving and presenting the work of others as it is about creating what she describes as “urban landscape essay films,” most of which feature San Francisco or California history as a character all its own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always say my films are about a butch dyke pining over unavailable women, and some other topic,” she laughs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to spearheading Bressan’s revival, Olson is enjoying several retrospectives of her own work — both feature and short films — while curating multiple series on both sides of the Bay. Over the next few months, both filmmakers are getting their due, and local audiences are getting a chance to take in rare and important examples of queer cinema at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Roxie and 4 Star Theater. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970796\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000.jpg\" alt=\"portrait of person in plaid shirt with short gray hair, hand on chin\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2500\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970796\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-800x1000.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-1020x1275.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-768x960.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-1638x2048.jpg 1638w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-1920x2400.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Filmmaker, curator, archivist and online pioneer Jenni Olson is the force behind much of the queer cinema gracing Bay Area screens this winter and spring. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Queer film in the spotlight\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Through Feb. 23, BAMPFA is presenting the Olson-curated series \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/masc-ii\">Masc II: Mascs plus Muchachas\u003c/a>, a celebration of masc, butch, and trans-focused films (a follow-up to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13950600/bampfa-film-masc-trans-men-butch-dykes-gender-nonconforming-heroes\">last year’s Masc series\u003c/a>, co-curated by Olson). \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year’s lineup includes several remarkable rarities, including Shusuke Kaneko’s 1988 soft-focus fantasy \u003cem>Summer Vacation 1999\u003c/em>, a gender-bending melodrama that largely fell out of circulation in the past three decades. And screening in the Bay Area for the first time in 74 years, \u003cem>Muchachas de uniforme\u003c/em> is a 1951 Mexico remake of \u003cem>Mädchen in Uniform\u003c/em>, a cult classic considered the first openly lesbian film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, Feb. 24 — the day after the BAMPFA series wraps — the 4 Star Theater screens \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.4-star-movies.com/calendar-of-events/juice-7-pm-a-post-screening-discussion-with-queer-archivistfilmmaker-jenni-olson\">Juice\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, Bressan’s final adult film, to an audience 18 and over. (Yes, attendees will be carded.) Olson will introduce and then lead a post-screening discussion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970793\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004.jpg\" alt=\"a person in a uniform sits on a windowsill reading\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970793\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Shusuke Kaneko’s 1988 film ‘Summer Vacation 1999.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And starting Feb. 16 and spanning several months this spring, moviegoers have the opportunity to take in Olson’s exciting lineup, \u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/series/40-years-of-queer/\">40 Years of Queer\u003c/a>, co-curated with Roxie Executive Director Lex Sloan. Included in the program is Bressan’s \u003cem>Buddies\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Centered on two gay men who connect through an HIV hospice support program, \u003cem>Buddies\u003c/em> feels like both a time capsule and timeless. It’s a beautifully simple narrative film with an invaluable premise: We can and do change one another’s lives, especially when pandemics force us to face our own purpose and mortality. (If you miss the Roxie screening, \u003cem>Buddies\u003c/em> is currently on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/buddies\">Criterion Channel\u003c/a>, and the San Francisco Public Library has both the DVD and Blu-ray discs.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Roxie series is rounded out with April screenings of Olson’s own lyrical features, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/the-royal-road-2015-575-castro-st-2008/\">The Royal Road\u003c/a>\u003c/em> and \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/the-joy-of-life-2005-blue-diary-1998/\">The Joy of Life\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. Each is paired with a short film, \u003cem>575 Castro Street\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Blue Diary\u003c/em>, respectively, the latter featuring notable time markers such as sub-$2-a-gallon fuel prices and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=17_Reasons_Remembered\">17 Reasons Why! sign\u003c/a>, formerly located at 17th and Mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970981\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1435px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Blue-Diary-production-still-1-Copyright-1998-Jenni-Olson.png\" alt=\"San Francisco city street in shadow with '17 Reasons Why!' sign at center\" width=\"1435\" height=\"1075\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970981\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Blue-Diary-production-still-1-Copyright-1998-Jenni-Olson.png 1435w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Blue-Diary-production-still-1-Copyright-1998-Jenni-Olson-800x599.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Blue-Diary-production-still-1-Copyright-1998-Jenni-Olson-1020x764.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Blue-Diary-production-still-1-Copyright-1998-Jenni-Olson-160x120.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Blue-Diary-production-still-1-Copyright-1998-Jenni-Olson-768x575.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1435px) 100vw, 1435px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A production still from Jenni Olson’s short film ‘Blue Diary,’ 1998. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jenni Olson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A filmmaking conversation across time\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Olson has been shooting 16mm film in the Bay Area since 1997. Her films draw on a rich reservoir of hyperlocal landmarks and iconography, so similar to the way Bressan pulled from elements of queer life in real time. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My work is so anchored in the Bay Area, so I’m particularly excited for my films to show at the Roxie and BAMPFA and connect with audiences who appreciate this is the \u003cem>real\u003c/em> Bay Area,” Olson says. These screenings and Q&As may double as gentle promotion for her next feature, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://tellmeeverythingwillbeokay.weebly.com\">Tell Me Everything Will Be Okay\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, currently in the early stages of production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks to Olson’s stewardship, the contents of those once-neglected boxes found in the Frameline offices have joined proper archives, with Bressan’s papers now part of Cornell University’s \u003ca href=\"https://rare.library.cornell.edu/human-sexuality-collection/\">Human Sexuality Collection\u003c/a>, and his films preserved and restored by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cinema.ucla.edu\">UCLA Film and Television Archive\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://vimeo.com/444287121\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Increasingly, his films are moving onto digital platforms and reaching even more audiences. The Criterion Channel is currently streaming the restored documentary \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/gay-usa\">Gay USA\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, a 72-minute collage of 1977 Gay Freedom Day march footage from six cities, including evocative and delightful interviews set against San Francisco’s Market Street and Civic Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though they never met, Olson’s and Bressan’s films speak to each other. Both draw inspiration from Frank Capra melodramas, but their work commits to a sincerity that makes audiences feel deeply. Neither veers into maudlin territory. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My work is very engaged with vulnerability on a lot of levels, and in that way it is ambitious and courageous,” Olson explains. Similarly, Bressan’s films are boldly queer-positive and earnestly romantic, especially his plot-driven adult films. It’s no surprise that audiences, including Olson, connect deeply with his work. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Olson says, “I never knew Arthur, but I feel so close to him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/masc-ii\">Masc II: Mascs plus Muchachas\u003c/a>,’ a film series curated by Jenni Olson, continues at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive through Feb. 23. Arthur J. Bressan Jr.’s ‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.4-star-movies.com/calendar-of-events/juice-jenni-olson\">Juice\u003c/a>’ plays at the 4 Star Theater with a post-screening conversation with Olson on Feb. 24. ‘\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/series/40-years-of-queer/\">40 Years of Queer\u003c/a>’ plays at the Roxie Theater Feb. 16–April 8.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Like most good stories about underappreciated artists, filmmaker Arthur J. Bressan Jr.’s revival begins with a pile of cardboard boxes. Specifically, crates of scripts, correspondence and film reels sitting in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.frameline.org\">Frameline\u003c/a> office in 1992. In that pile, Jenni Olson, Bay Area filmmaker, curator, archivist, online pioneer and then-Frameline festival co-director, discovered what would become one of her biggest undertakings: bringing Bressan’s work back to audiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As with many tales of this kind, even after the physical media was rediscovered, copyright issues kept Bressan’s films in limbo for several more decades. Only recently has his powerful oeuvre begun to receive the praise it deserves, thanks to \u003ca href=\"https://bressanproject.wixsite.com/website\">The Bressan Project\u003c/a>, an ongoing effort by Olson and Bressan’s sister, Roe Bressan, to preserve, restore and distribute the work of the late filmmaker. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before he died of AIDS in 1987, at age 44, Bressan was a filmmaker’s filmmaker, creating a vivid range of work including documentaries, narrative-driven pornography, and his 1985 landmark feature, \u003cem>Buddies\u003c/em>, the first dramatic film to focus on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970983\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Buddies-color-production-still-with-Geoff-and-David_crop.jpg\" alt=\"man in hospital smock and mask looks down at man on hospital bed\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1124\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970983\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Buddies-color-production-still-with-Geoff-and-David_crop.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Buddies-color-production-still-with-Geoff-and-David_crop-800x599.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Buddies-color-production-still-with-Geoff-and-David_crop-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Buddies-color-production-still-with-Geoff-and-David_crop-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Buddies-color-production-still-with-Geoff-and-David_crop-768x575.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Arthur J. Bressan’s ‘Buddies,’ 1985, screening at the Roxie on Feb. 22, 2025 as part of ’40 Years of Queer.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Frameline)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He was very proud that he made all kinds of movies. He felt it was all part of filmmaking,” Olson explains. “All of his work is instilled with a gay liberation ethos, even the porn films.” In the adult film \u003cem>Passing Strangers\u003c/em>, the characters march down Polk Street in the real-life 1974 Gay Freedom Day parade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Bressan’s commitment to depictions of joyful queer life set in San Francisco, Olson has an antecedent. Her own multihyphenate career is as much about preserving and presenting the work of others as it is about creating what she describes as “urban landscape essay films,” most of which feature San Francisco or California history as a character all its own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always say my films are about a butch dyke pining over unavailable women, and some other topic,” she laughs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to spearheading Bressan’s revival, Olson is enjoying several retrospectives of her own work — both feature and short films — while curating multiple series on both sides of the Bay. Over the next few months, both filmmakers are getting their due, and local audiences are getting a chance to take in rare and important examples of queer cinema at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Roxie and 4 Star Theater. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970796\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000.jpg\" alt=\"portrait of person in plaid shirt with short gray hair, hand on chin\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2500\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970796\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-800x1000.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-1020x1275.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-768x960.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-1638x2048.jpg 1638w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Jenni-Olson_005_2000-1920x2400.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Filmmaker, curator, archivist and online pioneer Jenni Olson is the force behind much of the queer cinema gracing Bay Area screens this winter and spring. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Queer film in the spotlight\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Through Feb. 23, BAMPFA is presenting the Olson-curated series \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/masc-ii\">Masc II: Mascs plus Muchachas\u003c/a>, a celebration of masc, butch, and trans-focused films (a follow-up to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13950600/bampfa-film-masc-trans-men-butch-dykes-gender-nonconforming-heroes\">last year’s Masc series\u003c/a>, co-curated by Olson). \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year’s lineup includes several remarkable rarities, including Shusuke Kaneko’s 1988 soft-focus fantasy \u003cem>Summer Vacation 1999\u003c/em>, a gender-bending melodrama that largely fell out of circulation in the past three decades. And screening in the Bay Area for the first time in 74 years, \u003cem>Muchachas de uniforme\u003c/em> is a 1951 Mexico remake of \u003cem>Mädchen in Uniform\u003c/em>, a cult classic considered the first openly lesbian film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, Feb. 24 — the day after the BAMPFA series wraps — the 4 Star Theater screens \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.4-star-movies.com/calendar-of-events/juice-7-pm-a-post-screening-discussion-with-queer-archivistfilmmaker-jenni-olson\">Juice\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, Bressan’s final adult film, to an audience 18 and over. (Yes, attendees will be carded.) Olson will introduce and then lead a post-screening discussion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970793\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004.jpg\" alt=\"a person in a uniform sits on a windowsill reading\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970793\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Kaneko_Summer-Vacation-1999_004-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Shusuke Kaneko’s 1988 film ‘Summer Vacation 1999.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And starting Feb. 16 and spanning several months this spring, moviegoers have the opportunity to take in Olson’s exciting lineup, \u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/series/40-years-of-queer/\">40 Years of Queer\u003c/a>, co-curated with Roxie Executive Director Lex Sloan. Included in the program is Bressan’s \u003cem>Buddies\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Centered on two gay men who connect through an HIV hospice support program, \u003cem>Buddies\u003c/em> feels like both a time capsule and timeless. It’s a beautifully simple narrative film with an invaluable premise: We can and do change one another’s lives, especially when pandemics force us to face our own purpose and mortality. (If you miss the Roxie screening, \u003cem>Buddies\u003c/em> is currently on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/buddies\">Criterion Channel\u003c/a>, and the San Francisco Public Library has both the DVD and Blu-ray discs.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Roxie series is rounded out with April screenings of Olson’s own lyrical features, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/the-royal-road-2015-575-castro-st-2008/\">The Royal Road\u003c/a>\u003c/em> and \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/the-joy-of-life-2005-blue-diary-1998/\">The Joy of Life\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. Each is paired with a short film, \u003cem>575 Castro Street\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Blue Diary\u003c/em>, respectively, the latter featuring notable time markers such as sub-$2-a-gallon fuel prices and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=17_Reasons_Remembered\">17 Reasons Why! sign\u003c/a>, formerly located at 17th and Mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970981\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1435px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Blue-Diary-production-still-1-Copyright-1998-Jenni-Olson.png\" alt=\"San Francisco city street in shadow with '17 Reasons Why!' sign at center\" width=\"1435\" height=\"1075\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970981\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Blue-Diary-production-still-1-Copyright-1998-Jenni-Olson.png 1435w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Blue-Diary-production-still-1-Copyright-1998-Jenni-Olson-800x599.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Blue-Diary-production-still-1-Copyright-1998-Jenni-Olson-1020x764.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Blue-Diary-production-still-1-Copyright-1998-Jenni-Olson-160x120.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Blue-Diary-production-still-1-Copyright-1998-Jenni-Olson-768x575.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1435px) 100vw, 1435px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A production still from Jenni Olson’s short film ‘Blue Diary,’ 1998. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jenni Olson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A filmmaking conversation across time\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Olson has been shooting 16mm film in the Bay Area since 1997. Her films draw on a rich reservoir of hyperlocal landmarks and iconography, so similar to the way Bressan pulled from elements of queer life in real time. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My work is so anchored in the Bay Area, so I’m particularly excited for my films to show at the Roxie and BAMPFA and connect with audiences who appreciate this is the \u003cem>real\u003c/em> Bay Area,” Olson says. These screenings and Q&As may double as gentle promotion for her next feature, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://tellmeeverythingwillbeokay.weebly.com\">Tell Me Everything Will Be Okay\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, currently in the early stages of production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks to Olson’s stewardship, the contents of those once-neglected boxes found in the Frameline offices have joined proper archives, with Bressan’s papers now part of Cornell University’s \u003ca href=\"https://rare.library.cornell.edu/human-sexuality-collection/\">Human Sexuality Collection\u003c/a>, and his films preserved and restored by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cinema.ucla.edu\">UCLA Film and Television Archive\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Increasingly, his films are moving onto digital platforms and reaching even more audiences. The Criterion Channel is currently streaming the restored documentary \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/gay-usa\">Gay USA\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, a 72-minute collage of 1977 Gay Freedom Day march footage from six cities, including evocative and delightful interviews set against San Francisco’s Market Street and Civic Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though they never met, Olson’s and Bressan’s films speak to each other. Both draw inspiration from Frank Capra melodramas, but their work commits to a sincerity that makes audiences feel deeply. Neither veers into maudlin territory. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My work is very engaged with vulnerability on a lot of levels, and in that way it is ambitious and courageous,” Olson explains. Similarly, Bressan’s films are boldly queer-positive and earnestly romantic, especially his plot-driven adult films. It’s no surprise that audiences, including Olson, connect deeply with his work. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Olson says, “I never knew Arthur, but I feel so close to him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/masc-ii\">Masc II: Mascs plus Muchachas\u003c/a>,’ a film series curated by Jenni Olson, continues at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive through Feb. 23. Arthur J. Bressan Jr.’s ‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.4-star-movies.com/calendar-of-events/juice-jenni-olson\">Juice\u003c/a>’ plays at the 4 Star Theater with a post-screening conversation with Olson on Feb. 24. ‘\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/series/40-years-of-queer/\">40 Years of Queer\u003c/a>’ plays at the Roxie Theater Feb. 16–April 8.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Sergei Loznitsa smiles and laughs through our entire Zoom conversation, which I find extremely disconcerting. You see, his invaluable archival documentaries (\u003cem>The Natural History of Destruction\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Babi Yar. Context\u003c/em> and \u003cem>State Funeral\u003c/em>) revisit dark chapters in Eastern European history, while his unflinching fiction features (such as \u003cem>In the Fog\u003c/em> and \u003cem>My Joy\u003c/em>) are even more grim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13970047']The antithesis of the chain-smoking nihilist I expect, Loznitsa has the amiable bearing of a philosophy professor. That demeanor will play well when he returns Jan. 30 through Feb. 8 for a residence at the \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/sergei-loznitsa-filmmaker-residence\">Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive\u003c/a> near the UC Berkeley campus, especially if moviegoers welcome him as an emissary from one of the world’s hot spots, or as a journalist, instead of (or as much as) an artist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six of the eight films in the lineup were made since Loznitsa’s previous visit to Berkeley in 2017. \u003cem>The Invasion\u003c/em>, which premiered last May at Cannes, launches the series with a measured record of contemporary Ukrainian life during wartime. Employing a fixed, respectful camera, the doc observes older people queuing to refill water bottles, teachers guiding young students through difficult realities, a couple’s poignant marriage and a few heartrending funerals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, first of all, it was very important to make an archive,” Loznitsa says. “Everything which was shot, I will keep. Second, I would like to show how people survive in these circumstances, how ordinary people live everyday life. Third, I would like to share my pain with the spectators.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970896\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000.jpg\" alt=\"portrait of white man in suit and tie with gray hair\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2500\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970896\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-800x1000.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-1020x1275.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-768x960.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-1638x2048.jpg 1638w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-1920x2400.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berlin-based filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa appears at BAMPFA for a 10-day residency. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Loznitsa doesn’t use voice-over narration or conduct interviews, which lends his nonfiction work the veneer of objectivity. He forthrightly declares, though, that he’s not presenting the truth but providing his opinion and point of view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not a journalist, who has to share information. It’s not information, what I present. It is something which I built. This is my discourse. It’s my thought, which develops in my film, what I’m thinking about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most essayistic sequence in \u003cem>The Invasion\u003c/em> opens cryptically with a bookstore employee carrying bundles of used books left outside the front door. We come to see that the authors are Russian, including Pushkin and Dostoevsky, and so many books have been dropped off that a truck takes them away to be pulped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filmmaker takes the time to note this less-heralded casualty of war, namely the decline in understanding and empathy that accompanies demonizing and destroying cultural works. You won’t be surprised to learn that Loznitsa, who unambiguously opposes Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, criticized boycotts of Russian films and filmmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Loznitsa was born in Belarus when it was part of the Soviet Union, raised in Ukraine and — after a stint as a research scientist at an Estonian university — graduated with a degree in producing and directing from the Russian State Institute for Cinematography in Moscow. He and his family moved to Germany in 2001; he was speaking with me from Vilnius, Lithuania, where he also has a residence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So from the beginning of his career Loznitsa has been perfectly situated, by birth, geography and sensibility, to examine and chronicle seismic, far-reaching events. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970895\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000.jpg\" alt=\"overhead view of man in red-lined coffin surrounded by hundreds of flowers\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1520\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970895\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000-800x608.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000-1020x775.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000-768x584.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000-1536x1167.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000-1920x1459.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from Sergei Loznitsa’s ‘State Funeral,’ 2019, screening at BAMPFA on Feb. 1. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My films are about Soviet or Russian history, or about recent history, and I cannot say this is very light history. I know that I have a talent to make a comedy,” he says with a chuckle. Perhaps, he muses dryly, the films and topics he chooses for reflection are necessary for treating the material humorously in the future. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we understand what happened with us in the past, and what we repeat now, [we can recognize] what kind of circle we are just passing in our life. I found so many similarities between history that happened after the October Revolution — it wasn’t a revolution; it was a coup d’état, let’s say — and history which is still continuing now. If we are talking about this [current] Russian aggression against Ukraine, it happened already in 1918 when the Red Army came to Ukraine and occupied this territory in two years, or returned this territory to the Russian Empire and rebuilt the Soviet Union.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The BAMPFA series includes Loznitsa’s trilogy of mesmerizing docs constructed from acres of archival footage. \u003cem>State Funeral\u003c/em> (2019) immerses us in the national state of mind of a propaganda state through the reactions, rituals and rites following the 1953 death of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. \u003cem>Babi Yar. Context\u003c/em> (2021) situates a horrific war crime — the 1941 shootings of more than 30,000 Ukrainian Jews by Nazi units and Ukrainian police over two days — and recounts the long chain of events that enabled people to accept the mass murders of their neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000.jpg\" alt=\"man tears down giant image of a leader\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1520\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970897\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000-800x608.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000-1020x775.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000-768x584.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000-1536x1167.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000-1920x1459.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from Sergei Loznitsa’s ‘Babi Yar. Context,’ 2021, which screens at BAMPFA on Jan. 31. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From a structure and editing standpoint, \u003cem>The Natural History of Destruction\u003c/em> (2022) is arguably Loznitsa’s most complex and intriguing work. His ostensible subject is the bombing of civilians, by both Germany and the Allies, during World War II (which is brutally and cruelly echoed in Russia’s ongoing nightly drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the airplanes that dropped those bombs in WWII were built by civilians. It’s difficult to make the case that civilians shouldn’t be drafted into the war effort — especially since everyone involved believes they’re defending their homeland; no aggressors here! — just as it’s hard to argue that it’s fine for defenseless families to be annihilated from above.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps all war is total war, and it has been that way for 85 years. We are in the thicket of compelling moral questions, although we might table that discussion out of compassion for the people in Kharkiv, Gaza and elsewhere who are presently and continuously terrorized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970898\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000.jpg\" alt=\"woman holds hand to head as a building burns behind her\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1520\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970898\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000-800x608.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000-1020x775.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000-768x584.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000-1536x1167.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000-1920x1459.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from Sergei Loznitsa’s ‘The Natural History of Destruction,’ 2022, which plays at BAMPFA on Feb. 1. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Loznitsa has such a kind, genial way of talking about the heaviest themes that I am reminded that the very act of making art, even art about depressing topics, is life-affirming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is what I believe,” he concurs, “that very strong, deep emotion that people get after watching a film can push them to think, and can transform [them] a little bit, slightly move them toward the lighted part of the universe. To be more kind to people. Cry during the film and after that, be better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, as a student and chronicler of history, Loznitsa can imagine a scenario where his work could have practical applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe in my films I describe some situation which somebody in the future will face and will know how to be because he or she already has thought about that,” he says. “This is how art helps us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He laughs again, this time with an air of self-deprecation. “I think every artist is looking for a way in his work that can reconcile him with a very dangerous and not pleasant world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sergei Loznitsa will be the \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/sergei-loznitsa-filmmaker-residence\">filmmaker in residence\u003c/a> at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Jan. 30–Feb. 8, 2025, appearing in person at all screenings of his films.\u003c/i> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Sergei Loznitsa smiles and laughs through our entire Zoom conversation, which I find extremely disconcerting. You see, his invaluable archival documentaries (\u003cem>The Natural History of Destruction\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Babi Yar. Context\u003c/em> and \u003cem>State Funeral\u003c/em>) revisit dark chapters in Eastern European history, while his unflinching fiction features (such as \u003cem>In the Fog\u003c/em> and \u003cem>My Joy\u003c/em>) are even more grim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The antithesis of the chain-smoking nihilist I expect, Loznitsa has the amiable bearing of a philosophy professor. That demeanor will play well when he returns Jan. 30 through Feb. 8 for a residence at the \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/sergei-loznitsa-filmmaker-residence\">Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive\u003c/a> near the UC Berkeley campus, especially if moviegoers welcome him as an emissary from one of the world’s hot spots, or as a journalist, instead of (or as much as) an artist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six of the eight films in the lineup were made since Loznitsa’s previous visit to Berkeley in 2017. \u003cem>The Invasion\u003c/em>, which premiered last May at Cannes, launches the series with a measured record of contemporary Ukrainian life during wartime. Employing a fixed, respectful camera, the doc observes older people queuing to refill water bottles, teachers guiding young students through difficult realities, a couple’s poignant marriage and a few heartrending funerals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, first of all, it was very important to make an archive,” Loznitsa says. “Everything which was shot, I will keep. Second, I would like to show how people survive in these circumstances, how ordinary people live everyday life. Third, I would like to share my pain with the spectators.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970896\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000.jpg\" alt=\"portrait of white man in suit and tie with gray hair\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2500\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970896\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-800x1000.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-1020x1275.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-768x960.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-1638x2048.jpg 1638w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Portrait_Sergei-Loznitsa_002_2000-1920x2400.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berlin-based filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa appears at BAMPFA for a 10-day residency. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Loznitsa doesn’t use voice-over narration or conduct interviews, which lends his nonfiction work the veneer of objectivity. He forthrightly declares, though, that he’s not presenting the truth but providing his opinion and point of view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not a journalist, who has to share information. It’s not information, what I present. It is something which I built. This is my discourse. It’s my thought, which develops in my film, what I’m thinking about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most essayistic sequence in \u003cem>The Invasion\u003c/em> opens cryptically with a bookstore employee carrying bundles of used books left outside the front door. We come to see that the authors are Russian, including Pushkin and Dostoevsky, and so many books have been dropped off that a truck takes them away to be pulped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filmmaker takes the time to note this less-heralded casualty of war, namely the decline in understanding and empathy that accompanies demonizing and destroying cultural works. You won’t be surprised to learn that Loznitsa, who unambiguously opposes Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, criticized boycotts of Russian films and filmmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Loznitsa was born in Belarus when it was part of the Soviet Union, raised in Ukraine and — after a stint as a research scientist at an Estonian university — graduated with a degree in producing and directing from the Russian State Institute for Cinematography in Moscow. He and his family moved to Germany in 2001; he was speaking with me from Vilnius, Lithuania, where he also has a residence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So from the beginning of his career Loznitsa has been perfectly situated, by birth, geography and sensibility, to examine and chronicle seismic, far-reaching events. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970895\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000.jpg\" alt=\"overhead view of man in red-lined coffin surrounded by hundreds of flowers\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1520\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970895\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000-800x608.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000-1020x775.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000-768x584.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000-1536x1167.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_State-Funeral_002_2000-1920x1459.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from Sergei Loznitsa’s ‘State Funeral,’ 2019, screening at BAMPFA on Feb. 1. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My films are about Soviet or Russian history, or about recent history, and I cannot say this is very light history. I know that I have a talent to make a comedy,” he says with a chuckle. Perhaps, he muses dryly, the films and topics he chooses for reflection are necessary for treating the material humorously in the future. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we understand what happened with us in the past, and what we repeat now, [we can recognize] what kind of circle we are just passing in our life. I found so many similarities between history that happened after the October Revolution — it wasn’t a revolution; it was a coup d’état, let’s say — and history which is still continuing now. If we are talking about this [current] Russian aggression against Ukraine, it happened already in 1918 when the Red Army came to Ukraine and occupied this territory in two years, or returned this territory to the Russian Empire and rebuilt the Soviet Union.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The BAMPFA series includes Loznitsa’s trilogy of mesmerizing docs constructed from acres of archival footage. \u003cem>State Funeral\u003c/em> (2019) immerses us in the national state of mind of a propaganda state through the reactions, rituals and rites following the 1953 death of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. \u003cem>Babi Yar. Context\u003c/em> (2021) situates a horrific war crime — the 1941 shootings of more than 30,000 Ukrainian Jews by Nazi units and Ukrainian police over two days — and recounts the long chain of events that enabled people to accept the mass murders of their neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000.jpg\" alt=\"man tears down giant image of a leader\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1520\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970897\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000-800x608.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000-1020x775.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000-768x584.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000-1536x1167.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Babi-Yar-Context_003_2000-1920x1459.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from Sergei Loznitsa’s ‘Babi Yar. Context,’ 2021, which screens at BAMPFA on Jan. 31. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From a structure and editing standpoint, \u003cem>The Natural History of Destruction\u003c/em> (2022) is arguably Loznitsa’s most complex and intriguing work. His ostensible subject is the bombing of civilians, by both Germany and the Allies, during World War II (which is brutally and cruelly echoed in Russia’s ongoing nightly drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the airplanes that dropped those bombs in WWII were built by civilians. It’s difficult to make the case that civilians shouldn’t be drafted into the war effort — especially since everyone involved believes they’re defending their homeland; no aggressors here! — just as it’s hard to argue that it’s fine for defenseless families to be annihilated from above.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps all war is total war, and it has been that way for 85 years. We are in the thicket of compelling moral questions, although we might table that discussion out of compassion for the people in Kharkiv, Gaza and elsewhere who are presently and continuously terrorized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970898\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000.jpg\" alt=\"woman holds hand to head as a building burns behind her\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1520\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970898\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000-800x608.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000-1020x775.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000-768x584.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000-1536x1167.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Loznitsa_Natural-History-of-Destruction_001_2000-1920x1459.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from Sergei Loznitsa’s ‘The Natural History of Destruction,’ 2022, which plays at BAMPFA on Feb. 1. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Loznitsa has such a kind, genial way of talking about the heaviest themes that I am reminded that the very act of making art, even art about depressing topics, is life-affirming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is what I believe,” he concurs, “that very strong, deep emotion that people get after watching a film can push them to think, and can transform [them] a little bit, slightly move them toward the lighted part of the universe. To be more kind to people. Cry during the film and after that, be better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, as a student and chronicler of history, Loznitsa can imagine a scenario where his work could have practical applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe in my films I describe some situation which somebody in the future will face and will know how to be because he or she already has thought about that,” he says. “This is how art helps us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He laughs again, this time with an air of self-deprecation. “I think every artist is looking for a way in his work that can reconcile him with a very dangerous and not pleasant world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sergei Loznitsa will be the \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/sergei-loznitsa-filmmaker-residence\">filmmaker in residence\u003c/a> at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Jan. 30–Feb. 8, 2025, appearing in person at all screenings of his films.\u003c/i> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "negus-in-nature-documentary-emeryville-film-festival",
"title": "Oakland’s ‘Negus In Nature’ Goes From the Forest to the Big Screen",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finding space to create community isn’t a luxury readily afforded to large groups of young Black folks. But in Oakland, there’s a collective doing just that by stepping into the biggest venue of them all: nature. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since its founding in 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/negusinnature/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Negus In Nature (NIN)\u003c/a> has organized hikes and open mics in the redwoods, as well as community service programs, whale-watching adventures\u003c/span> and even a trip to Kenya to install solar panels. Just this week, they returned from Ouray, Colorado, where they went ice climbing for the third year in a row.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Following their travels via social media is inspiring, and people will soon be able to watch the collective’s story on the big screen in the \u003cem>Negus In Nature Documentary.\u003c/em> The 20-minute film, which highlights their travels and the lessons learned along the way, will premiere at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.rottencityculturaldistrict.com/events\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Emeryville Film Festival\u003c/a> at AMC Bay Street on Feb. 8. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970110\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13970110\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"A man in a black jacket, beige backpack and yellow knitted hat stops for a photo in front of a building.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-1920x1280.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Negus In Nature founder Langstyn Avery stops for a photo while attending this year’s Ouray Ice Festival in Colorado. \u003ccite>(Daghe)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Simply put, the film shows what NIN founder Langstyn Avery calls “tree-colored people” in nature, building an intentional community. Although each individual’s level of expertise differs, event attendees grow throughout the film as they try new things. In one scene, participants go from introductory scuba diving lessons at DeFremery pool in West Oakland to doing the real thing off the coast of Catalina Island.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The documentary features compelling footage of people learning to rock climb and kayak, intertwined with personal testimonies of triumph. Watching it unfold, it’s easy to become engrossed in their journeys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the film’s opening moments, Avery explains that the group’s name derives from “Negus,” the Amharic word for king or ruler. Sitting on a tree stump in a lush woodland area, Avery elaborates, “Amharic is one of the oldest languages.” Using his eyes to gesture \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">toward his surroundings, he continues, “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And we’re just tapping in with nature, with some of the oldest forms of life that we know.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970113\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13970113\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-800x1200.jpeg\" alt=\"A man climbing on ice.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-800x1200.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-1020x1530.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-160x240.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-768x1152.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-1024x1536.jpeg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-1366x2048.jpeg 1366w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725.jpeg 1707w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">West Oakland DJ and multimedia producer Daghe learns to ice climb with the NIN group in Ouray, Colorado. \u003ccite>(Eddy Choz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Avid NIN event attendee Delvon Hogg begins his interview in the documentary by asking a cawing crow in the distance to go back to sleep. The bird immediately hushes, and Hogg jokes that the interaction is proof of his “oneness with nature.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hogg adds, in a more sincere tone, that his experience with the group is a reminder that he truly is in tune with the natural world. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Beyond the cars, beyond the bills, beyond the hustle,” says Hogg, “I am of the birds and the bees… the squirrels and seeds.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hogg is a one of a handful of people — including Deej Letemps, Jenn Pfotenhauer, Phillip Lang, Shogun Shido and more — interviewed in the film. Many of the featured people are artists and creatives, and all of them share tales of flourishing in the great outdoors. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group started in 2020 during the racial reckoning and isolation of the pandemic’s early days. It began with a trip to the Yuba River with just 13 people; now the collective has \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/negusinnature/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a following of over 22,000 folks on Instagram\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970111\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13970111\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A group of four people walking through a lush green natural environment. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A snapshot from the Negus In Nature Half Moon Bay photo hike. \u003ccite>(Brandon Robinson )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During a phone call, Avery tells me that ultimately numbers aren’t important. Some events have a couple dozen attendees, and others have over 100. “Our success,” says Avery, “is when people are helping each other without permission.” He adds, “You don’t always need to be at your rock bottom in order for us to help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Too often it takes an unfortunate occurrence — a death in the family, a tragic car accident or somebody losing their house in a fire — for people to respond with a helping hand, Avery attests. “You might be in a good place, and I still want to help you,” he says. “It’s about building community and helping folks along the way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The goal of the film, much like the collective as a whole, is to show Black folks that they aren’t alone in their outdoor adventures. He acknowledges that the wilderness can be imposing to anyone, especially to a person who has been told that it’s not for them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the key is connecting that individual to a larger web of nature-loving people. He compares it to that of the mycelium network, the underground connection between forest fungi and plant roots that allows them to share resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970117\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13970117\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"People doing yoga outside. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Negus In Nature participants do yoga, along with rock climbing, kayaking, hiking and more. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Negus In Nature)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There’s so many people within our underground network,” says Avery, reflecting on his past five years of exploration. He says all around the world the group has planted seeds that are ready to sprout new relationships. “The connection is there, we just need to go out and find it,” says Avery.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And once those connections are well-established, says Avery, the vastness of the unknown becomes a lot less scary. “And it’s really fun too,” he adds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Negus In Nature Documentary will screen at the Emeryville Film Festival on Feb. 8. \u003ca href=\"https://www.rottencityculturaldistrict.com/events\">Details and tickets here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finding space to create community isn’t a luxury readily afforded to large groups of young Black folks. But in Oakland, there’s a collective doing just that by stepping into the biggest venue of them all: nature. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since its founding in 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/negusinnature/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Negus In Nature (NIN)\u003c/a> has organized hikes and open mics in the redwoods, as well as community service programs, whale-watching adventures\u003c/span> and even a trip to Kenya to install solar panels. Just this week, they returned from Ouray, Colorado, where they went ice climbing for the third year in a row.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Following their travels via social media is inspiring, and people will soon be able to watch the collective’s story on the big screen in the \u003cem>Negus In Nature Documentary.\u003c/em> The 20-minute film, which highlights their travels and the lessons learned along the way, will premiere at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.rottencityculturaldistrict.com/events\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Emeryville Film Festival\u003c/a> at AMC Bay Street on Feb. 8. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970110\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13970110\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"A man in a black jacket, beige backpack and yellow knitted hat stops for a photo in front of a building.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406688-1920x1280.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Negus In Nature founder Langstyn Avery stops for a photo while attending this year’s Ouray Ice Festival in Colorado. \u003ccite>(Daghe)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Simply put, the film shows what NIN founder Langstyn Avery calls “tree-colored people” in nature, building an intentional community. Although each individual’s level of expertise differs, event attendees grow throughout the film as they try new things. In one scene, participants go from introductory scuba diving lessons at DeFremery pool in West Oakland to doing the real thing off the coast of Catalina Island.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The documentary features compelling footage of people learning to rock climb and kayak, intertwined with personal testimonies of triumph. Watching it unfold, it’s easy to become engrossed in their journeys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the film’s opening moments, Avery explains that the group’s name derives from “Negus,” the Amharic word for king or ruler. Sitting on a tree stump in a lush woodland area, Avery elaborates, “Amharic is one of the oldest languages.” Using his eyes to gesture \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">toward his surroundings, he continues, “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And we’re just tapping in with nature, with some of the oldest forms of life that we know.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970113\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13970113\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-800x1200.jpeg\" alt=\"A man climbing on ice.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-800x1200.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-1020x1530.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-160x240.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-768x1152.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-1024x1536.jpeg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725-1366x2048.jpeg 1366w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/A7406823-scaled-e1736535640725.jpeg 1707w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">West Oakland DJ and multimedia producer Daghe learns to ice climb with the NIN group in Ouray, Colorado. \u003ccite>(Eddy Choz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Avid NIN event attendee Delvon Hogg begins his interview in the documentary by asking a cawing crow in the distance to go back to sleep. The bird immediately hushes, and Hogg jokes that the interaction is proof of his “oneness with nature.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hogg adds, in a more sincere tone, that his experience with the group is a reminder that he truly is in tune with the natural world. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Beyond the cars, beyond the bills, beyond the hustle,” says Hogg, “I am of the birds and the bees… the squirrels and seeds.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hogg is a one of a handful of people — including Deej Letemps, Jenn Pfotenhauer, Phillip Lang, Shogun Shido and more — interviewed in the film. Many of the featured people are artists and creatives, and all of them share tales of flourishing in the great outdoors. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group started in 2020 during the racial reckoning and isolation of the pandemic’s early days. It began with a trip to the Yuba River with just 13 people; now the collective has \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/negusinnature/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a following of over 22,000 folks on Instagram\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970111\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13970111\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A group of four people walking through a lush green natural environment. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-A7406178-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A snapshot from the Negus In Nature Half Moon Bay photo hike. \u003ccite>(Brandon Robinson )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During a phone call, Avery tells me that ultimately numbers aren’t important. Some events have a couple dozen attendees, and others have over 100. “Our success,” says Avery, “is when people are helping each other without permission.” He adds, “You don’t always need to be at your rock bottom in order for us to help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Too often it takes an unfortunate occurrence — a death in the family, a tragic car accident or somebody losing their house in a fire — for people to respond with a helping hand, Avery attests. “You might be in a good place, and I still want to help you,” he says. “It’s about building community and helping folks along the way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The goal of the film, much like the collective as a whole, is to show Black folks that they aren’t alone in their outdoor adventures. He acknowledges that the wilderness can be imposing to anyone, especially to a person who has been told that it’s not for them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the key is connecting that individual to a larger web of nature-loving people. He compares it to that of the mycelium network, the underground connection between forest fungi and plant roots that allows them to share resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970117\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13970117\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"People doing yoga outside. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Copy-of-DSC08337-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Negus In Nature participants do yoga, along with rock climbing, kayaking, hiking and more. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Negus In Nature)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There’s so many people within our underground network,” says Avery, reflecting on his past five years of exploration. He says all around the world the group has planted seeds that are ready to sprout new relationships. “The connection is there, we just need to go out and find it,” says Avery.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And once those connections are well-established, says Avery, the vastness of the unknown becomes a lot less scary. “And it’s really fun too,” he adds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Negus In Nature Documentary will screen at the Emeryville Film Festival on Feb. 8. \u003ca href=\"https://www.rottencityculturaldistrict.com/events\">Details and tickets here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "nickel-boys-review-artful-apparition-of-betrayed-black-youth",
"title": "‘Nickel Boys’ Is an Artful Apparition of Betrayed Black Youth",
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"headTitle": "‘Nickel Boys’ Is an Artful Apparition of Betrayed Black Youth | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Nickel Boys\u003c/em> (opening Friday, Jan. 3) is a slippery ghost story in which the dead and the living, the past and the present, and the real and the fictional, are intermingled. Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel \u003cem>The Nickel Boys\u003c/em>, RaMell Ross’ gorgeous, gossamer fable of 1960s racial injustice seems to slip through our fingers even as we’re watching it, such that its sleight-of-hand eludes us until after the lights come up. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That is not meant entirely as a compliment. When all the pieces finally click together, it feels like a jab rather than a gut punch. The cleverness of the storytelling, along with the beauty of the filmmaking, camouflages and dilutes the blow. That’s a serious miscalculation for a film whose underlying foundation is the systemic murders of young Black men in a state institution and the cover-up of those deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The place is the Nickel Academy, a segregated reformatory in southern Florida. The time is the mid-’60s, when the Civil Rights Movement and landing on the moon both seem like long-shot propositions. Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse), an honest, naïve teenager heading to college, is sent instead to Nickel for the crimes of being in the wrong place and being Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000.jpg\" alt=\"smiling Black woman holding white sheet, seen from below\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1508\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969914\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000-800x603.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000-1020x769.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000-768x579.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000-1536x1158.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000-1920x1448.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Hattie in ‘Nickel Boys.’ \u003ccite>(Orion Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We know Elwood is a straight arrow because we’ve spent the first 30 minutes growing up with him. In fact, Ross and director of photography Jomo Fray go so far as to shoot everything from Elwood’s point of view — literally — with the aim of putting us in his shoes, if not his skin. The strategy has an unfortunate counter-effect, however; by calling attention to itself, it distances us from the character rather than making us identify with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Impressionistic visuals conjure Elwood’s adolescent state of mind along with the summery state of the union: One sequence begins with a shot of an arm lazily extended in the grass, then the camera (i.e., the character) turns to look up at oranges dangling in the tree overhead. The plot is conveyed through brush strokes: ridges in his mother’s gold bracelet, pencils stuck in the ceiling of a classroom, a girl’s shy smile, his Nana Hattie’s cake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So many first-rate dramas about the Black experience (from \u003cem>12 Years a Slave\u003c/em> to \u003cem>Moonlight\u003c/em> to 2024’s \u003cem>Sing Sing\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Piano Lesson\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Exhibiting Forgiveness\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Blitz\u003c/em>) have been made in the last decade that one infers Ross felt free to embrace the ephemeral aesthetic of the arthouse instead of the pulp of melodrama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969917\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000.jpg\" alt=\"young Black man looks down at camera with trees above him\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1508\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969917\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000-800x603.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000-1020x769.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000-768x579.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000-1536x1158.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000-1920x1448.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brandon Wilson as Turner in ‘Nickel Boys.’ \u003ccite>(Orion Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In fact, the director’s inclusion of snippets from \u003cem>The Defiant Ones\u003c/em>, Stanley Kramer’s 1958 prison-escape flick with Sidney Poitier handcuffed to Tony Curtis, can be read as both plot foreshadowing and a mockery of the 20th-century notion that earnest mainstream movies can make us better people. (Another dig at Hollywood comes from Turner, whom we will meet at the Nickel Academy and says about running away, “You can’t wash the scent off. That’s only in movies.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the first 45 minutes or so of \u003cem>Nickel Boys\u003c/em> repeatedly alludes to the brutality of the Jim Crow South, it lacks a certain force because it’s filtered through the eyes of an innocent youth. When Elwood is shipped off to Nickel for being an unwitting passenger in a stolen automobile — on his way to college, irony of ironies — we don’t quite grasp the circle of hell he has entered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nickel (standing in for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162941770/floridas-dozier-school-for-boys-a-true-horror-story\">Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys\u003c/a>, where more than 50 unmarked graves were discovered in 2012) is a cloistered camp where the white kids laugh and play football, biding their time until their sentences are completed, while the Black kids are warehoused and any infraction (like fighting among themselves) is punished with a late-night whipping. Retribution is even more extreme if a Black internee does something, like failing to take a dive in the third round of a boxing match, that goes against the interests of the white men who run the joint. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969916\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000.jpg\" alt=\"Black woman's outstretched hands grasp another Black hand\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1508\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969916\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000-800x603.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000-1020x769.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000-768x579.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000-1536x1158.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000-1920x1448.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from ‘Nickel Boys.’ \u003ccite>(Orion Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Elwood lacks the experience and street smarts to navigate Nickel, but he catches a break when Turner (Brandon Wilson), a veteran inmate, befriends him. Turner cannily extricates Elwood from the routine of hard-labor jobs, arranging for the younger man to help him do some light painting at one of the low-level bosses’ houses and, pivotally, ride along when that underling sells pilfered Nickel supplies to local restaurants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As time goes on, \u003cem>Nickel Boys\u003c/em> turns and twists Elwood and Turner into, well, not brothers but twins, who merge and swap roles and identities. While the film nods at the dehumanizing idea that all young Black men are the same to white people, it’s primarily exploring the literary and symbolic and thematic implications of character transference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) comes to Nickel to visit Elwood, for example, she can’t get permission to see him but meets Turner by chance. Their conversation (filmed from Turner’s POV) is odd and portentous, and takes on a different meaning after all the events play out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hattie and Elwood, you see, are convinced that justice will reign and his sentence will be overturned. Turner, much more of a realist, knows their trust in the system is misplaced. And after the compromised boxer sees self-sacrifice as the only available form of protest, Turner resolves to escape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969919\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000.jpg\" alt=\"portrait of young Black man with building and trees in background\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1508\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969919\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000-800x603.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000-1020x769.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000-768x579.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000-1536x1158.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000-1920x1448.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ethan Herisse as Elwood in ‘Nickel Boys.’ \u003ccite>(Orion Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Elwood likewise concludes that he has to be the author of his own destiny. “No one else is gonna get me out of here,” he tells Turner. “It’s not an obstacle course. You can’t go around it, then you have to go through it. And walk with your head up no matter what they throw at you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alas, Elwood still believes in an objective notion of justice. He’s recorded every delivery, payoff and off-the-books chore in his notebook, a wire-bound volume he is convinced will expose Nickel and bring it crashing down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Nickel Boys\u003c/em> is a tragedy of promise and potential smashed by embedded injustice and individual betrayals. If the dead are ghosts, the living are zombies. Hollowed-out shells, scarred by the lawless suffering of their formative years, going through the motions of daily life with the help of drink, drugs or the tenuous hope that they might someday give testimony and justice may yet be served.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An optimist may see all the skill and beauty and art applied to \u003cem>Nickel Boys\u003c/em> as an affirmation of life and its possibilities. I, however, am stuck in space with the Nickel boys: Exit velocity is unattainable.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘Nickel Boys’ opens in Bay Area theaters on Jan. 3, 2025.\u003c/i> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "‘Nickel Boys’ Review: An Artful Tale of Betrayed Black Youth | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Nickel Boys\u003c/em> (opening Friday, Jan. 3) is a slippery ghost story in which the dead and the living, the past and the present, and the real and the fictional, are intermingled. Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel \u003cem>The Nickel Boys\u003c/em>, RaMell Ross’ gorgeous, gossamer fable of 1960s racial injustice seems to slip through our fingers even as we’re watching it, such that its sleight-of-hand eludes us until after the lights come up. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That is not meant entirely as a compliment. When all the pieces finally click together, it feels like a jab rather than a gut punch. The cleverness of the storytelling, along with the beauty of the filmmaking, camouflages and dilutes the blow. That’s a serious miscalculation for a film whose underlying foundation is the systemic murders of young Black men in a state institution and the cover-up of those deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The place is the Nickel Academy, a segregated reformatory in southern Florida. The time is the mid-’60s, when the Civil Rights Movement and landing on the moon both seem like long-shot propositions. Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse), an honest, naïve teenager heading to college, is sent instead to Nickel for the crimes of being in the wrong place and being Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000.jpg\" alt=\"smiling Black woman holding white sheet, seen from below\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1508\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969914\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000-800x603.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000-1020x769.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000-768x579.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000-1536x1158.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_0330_rgb_2000-1920x1448.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Hattie in ‘Nickel Boys.’ \u003ccite>(Orion Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We know Elwood is a straight arrow because we’ve spent the first 30 minutes growing up with him. In fact, Ross and director of photography Jomo Fray go so far as to shoot everything from Elwood’s point of view — literally — with the aim of putting us in his shoes, if not his skin. The strategy has an unfortunate counter-effect, however; by calling attention to itself, it distances us from the character rather than making us identify with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Impressionistic visuals conjure Elwood’s adolescent state of mind along with the summery state of the union: One sequence begins with a shot of an arm lazily extended in the grass, then the camera (i.e., the character) turns to look up at oranges dangling in the tree overhead. The plot is conveyed through brush strokes: ridges in his mother’s gold bracelet, pencils stuck in the ceiling of a classroom, a girl’s shy smile, his Nana Hattie’s cake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So many first-rate dramas about the Black experience (from \u003cem>12 Years a Slave\u003c/em> to \u003cem>Moonlight\u003c/em> to 2024’s \u003cem>Sing Sing\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Piano Lesson\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Exhibiting Forgiveness\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Blitz\u003c/em>) have been made in the last decade that one infers Ross felt free to embrace the ephemeral aesthetic of the arthouse instead of the pulp of melodrama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969917\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000.jpg\" alt=\"young Black man looks down at camera with trees above him\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1508\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969917\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000-800x603.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000-1020x769.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000-768x579.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000-1536x1158.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4710_rgb_2000-1920x1448.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brandon Wilson as Turner in ‘Nickel Boys.’ \u003ccite>(Orion Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In fact, the director’s inclusion of snippets from \u003cem>The Defiant Ones\u003c/em>, Stanley Kramer’s 1958 prison-escape flick with Sidney Poitier handcuffed to Tony Curtis, can be read as both plot foreshadowing and a mockery of the 20th-century notion that earnest mainstream movies can make us better people. (Another dig at Hollywood comes from Turner, whom we will meet at the Nickel Academy and says about running away, “You can’t wash the scent off. That’s only in movies.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the first 45 minutes or so of \u003cem>Nickel Boys\u003c/em> repeatedly alludes to the brutality of the Jim Crow South, it lacks a certain force because it’s filtered through the eyes of an innocent youth. When Elwood is shipped off to Nickel for being an unwitting passenger in a stolen automobile — on his way to college, irony of ironies — we don’t quite grasp the circle of hell he has entered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nickel (standing in for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162941770/floridas-dozier-school-for-boys-a-true-horror-story\">Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys\u003c/a>, where more than 50 unmarked graves were discovered in 2012) is a cloistered camp where the white kids laugh and play football, biding their time until their sentences are completed, while the Black kids are warehoused and any infraction (like fighting among themselves) is punished with a late-night whipping. Retribution is even more extreme if a Black internee does something, like failing to take a dive in the third round of a boxing match, that goes against the interests of the white men who run the joint. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969916\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000.jpg\" alt=\"Black woman's outstretched hands grasp another Black hand\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1508\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969916\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000-800x603.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000-1020x769.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000-768x579.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000-1536x1158.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_4580_rgb_2000-1920x1448.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from ‘Nickel Boys.’ \u003ccite>(Orion Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Elwood lacks the experience and street smarts to navigate Nickel, but he catches a break when Turner (Brandon Wilson), a veteran inmate, befriends him. Turner cannily extricates Elwood from the routine of hard-labor jobs, arranging for the younger man to help him do some light painting at one of the low-level bosses’ houses and, pivotally, ride along when that underling sells pilfered Nickel supplies to local restaurants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As time goes on, \u003cem>Nickel Boys\u003c/em> turns and twists Elwood and Turner into, well, not brothers but twins, who merge and swap roles and identities. While the film nods at the dehumanizing idea that all young Black men are the same to white people, it’s primarily exploring the literary and symbolic and thematic implications of character transference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) comes to Nickel to visit Elwood, for example, she can’t get permission to see him but meets Turner by chance. Their conversation (filmed from Turner’s POV) is odd and portentous, and takes on a different meaning after all the events play out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hattie and Elwood, you see, are convinced that justice will reign and his sentence will be overturned. Turner, much more of a realist, knows their trust in the system is misplaced. And after the compromised boxer sees self-sacrifice as the only available form of protest, Turner resolves to escape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969919\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000.jpg\" alt=\"portrait of young Black man with building and trees in background\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1508\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969919\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000-800x603.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000-1020x769.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000-768x579.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000-1536x1158.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/NB_FP_3470_R_rgb_2000-1920x1448.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ethan Herisse as Elwood in ‘Nickel Boys.’ \u003ccite>(Orion Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Elwood likewise concludes that he has to be the author of his own destiny. “No one else is gonna get me out of here,” he tells Turner. “It’s not an obstacle course. You can’t go around it, then you have to go through it. And walk with your head up no matter what they throw at you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alas, Elwood still believes in an objective notion of justice. He’s recorded every delivery, payoff and off-the-books chore in his notebook, a wire-bound volume he is convinced will expose Nickel and bring it crashing down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Nickel Boys\u003c/em> is a tragedy of promise and potential smashed by embedded injustice and individual betrayals. If the dead are ghosts, the living are zombies. Hollowed-out shells, scarred by the lawless suffering of their formative years, going through the motions of daily life with the help of drink, drugs or the tenuous hope that they might someday give testimony and justice may yet be served.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An optimist may see all the skill and beauty and art applied to \u003cem>Nickel Boys\u003c/em> as an affirmation of life and its possibilities. I, however, am stuck in space with the Nickel boys: Exit velocity is unattainable.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘Nickel Boys’ opens in Bay Area theaters on Jan. 3, 2025.\u003c/i> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Bob Dylan enters \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> (opening Christmas Day) in a taxi — a Greyhound bus, actually, off-screen — and exits on a motorcycle. And that, my friends, is the sum and total arc of James Mangold’s miraculous movie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure, the title slyly and wryly suggests a narrative through-line of a nobody blowing into town and blowing up (in the current lingo). If the conventions of musical biopics were to hold, breakthroughs and breakdowns would arrive on cue. (For a refresher, go back and listen to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSJWPw9EFxI\">amplified radio hit\u003c/a> whose lyrics the title is quoting.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yes, there is a kerfuffle late in this extraordinary musical biopic (which spans 1961 to 1965) when Dylan “rejects” solo acoustic (folk) music and crosses over to the bass-drums-electric guitar of rock ‘n’ roll band-dom at the Newport Folk Festival. To some fans and early supporters, this was (though not anymore; lot of water under the bridge, lot of other stuff, too) an apostasy, a blasphemy, a betrayal on par with Judas’. But \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> isn’t the story of an artist’s development or evolution or, for that matter, the creative process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969745\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000.jpg\" alt=\"man holds guitar outside stone house\" width=\"2000\" height=\"836\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969745\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000-800x334.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000-1020x426.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000-768x321.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000-1536x642.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000-1920x803.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edward Norton in ‘A Complete Unknown.’ \u003ccite>(Searchlight Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since I’m finding it easier to catalog what \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> is not, I’ll add that it isn’t a tale of sons impressing their fathers, then killing them. Woody Guthrie is the first singer we hear (on the soundtrack), and upon his arrival in New York City, Dylan immediately visits the terminally ill folksinger (wordlessly played by Scoot McNairy) in a hospital, where former Weaver Pete Seeger (Edward Norton, a likely Oscar nominee for Supporting Actor) is hanging out with him. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeger champions Dylan, listening to his in-progress songs, getting him onstage in front of an influential crowd and introducing him to producer John Hammond. By Newport ’65 Dylan has moved on from Seeger’s politely activist brand of folk music, but he doesn’t disrespect him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> encompasses these events and so many more — familiar to you if you are a reader of a certain age or a latter-day Dylanologist — it resists every impulse to shape them into a simple, straightforward distillation. Remarkably and radically, the film doesn’t explain its subject, or presume to explain. It doesn’t underline and italicize turning-point moments, or the incidents that have passed into the mythic realm. It doesn’t overreach for grand statements about the era in which it takes place, or what’s around the corner. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969743\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000.jpg\" alt=\"man in foreground at mic, woman smiles back at him against stage lights\" width=\"2000\" height=\"836\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969743\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000-800x334.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000-1020x426.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000-768x321.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000-1536x642.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000-1920x803.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro in ‘A Complete Unknown.’ \u003ccite>(Searchlight Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Incredibly, \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> doesn’t build to a moral or a resolution. The lengthy lead-up to and including Dylan’s third and final appearance at the Newport Folk Festival, which comprise a chunk of the film’s running time, doesn’t play as either a summation or a bookend (of the subject’s scruffy beginnings). It does feel like a climax, though, for a few brief moments until Mangold carefully turns it into an anti-climax, subverting the expectations of how an audience should feel when the credits roll.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet even without beat-and-repeat narrative imperatives, the movie keeps skipping forward, riding the restless energy of its chain-smoking, lyric-scribbling protagonist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Timothée Chalamet, who gives the performance of his life in the central role, has said his character is not supposed to be Bob Dylan. OK, then. Let’s place \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> alongside \u003cem>Inside Llewyn Davis\u003c/em> (which the Coen Brothers steeped and filtered through Dylan and Dave Van Ronk (who turns up at the beginning and end of \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em>) and Todd Haynes’ \u003cem>I’m Not There\u003c/em> (“inspired by false stories,” the trailer declared), which employed six actors portraying various Dylans at different stages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Chalamet’s performance, operating at a much, much deeper level than impersonation (it doesn’t hurt that he’s a native New Yorker), also contains too many mannerisms and phrasings and trademarks (the sunglasses) to be anyone but Bob Dylan. For the record, Chalamet beautifully sings and plays a slew of Dylan songs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969742\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000.jpg\" alt=\"woman behind man, both in sunglasses\" width=\"2000\" height=\"836\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969742\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000-800x334.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000-1020x426.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000-768x321.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000-1536x642.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000-1920x803.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Elle Fanning and Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unknown.’ \u003ccite>(Searchlight Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Furthermore, the film recreates too many moments — from the photo with girlfriend Suze Rotolo (named Sylvie Russo here, played by Elle Fanning) for the cover of \u003cem>The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan\u003c/em> to Al Kooper wandering into the “Like a Rolling Stone” sessions, finding the guitar spot taken by Mike Bloomfield and winding up at the organ — to be anything but a rendition of Dylan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> doesn’t explain Dylan, or even interpret him, what is it about? It’s not about the ’60s, at least not in the way so many movies set in that period try to be, wallowing in the magic and the messiness and the idealism and offering a clarity that’s only visible in hindsight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m tempted to call \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> a portrait of an artist becoming an artist. (His debut album contained only two original songs out of 13, as dictated by the record company; the rest are covers of standards. His second LP, \u003cem>The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan\u003c/em>, notably included just one cover.) Since the film doesn’t give us much insight into his creative process, however, it may be more accurate just to describe Dylan as a man on a mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did Dylan secretly want fame and influence, then recoil when it wasn’t on his terms? Or did he realize — consciously or not — popularity’s adverse effects on an artist? \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> never tells us what it thinks about these and other matters, leaving us to reach our own conclusions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969738\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000.jpg\" alt=\"figure in dark clothes crosses street in front of chelsea hotel\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1408\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969738\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000-800x563.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000-1020x718.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000-768x541.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000-1536x1081.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000-1920x1352.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unknown.’ \u003ccite>(Searchlight Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em>’s inspiration is to convey the world that coalesces around a driven, ambitious and fabulously talented person. Dylan is the willfully enigmatic maelstrom at the center of another maelstrom — ignited by celebrity, genius, money. It is easier for us to see the effect he has on everyone around him than to see him and the ways in which he changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag='film']For example, the movie conveys Dylan’s hatred for being recognized and mobbed in public, but is less direct about his reluctance to be adopted by everyone under the age of 30. Or as rocker Syd Straw, on her terrific 1996 album \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://sydstrawmusic.bandcamp.com/album/war-and-peace-1996\">War and Peace\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, described that particular Dylan legacy, “I don’t want to be the voice of this or any generation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the benefits of Mangold and co-screenwriter Jay Cocks’ narrative and stylistic approach is the movie almost never feels contrived — you rarely sense that a given scene is included to pay off with a specific point, which is highly unusual for a biopic — and seems more accurate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Accuracy is an illusion, of course, as with any film adapted from real life. \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> curiously omits Dylan’s concerns about racial injustice, save for a brief visit to a street protest. His 1965 U.K. acoustic tour is completely absent. (\u003cem>Dont Look Back\u003c/em>, D.A. Pennebaker’s record of that tour and a longtime documentary touchstone, is streaming for free through Jan. 1 on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/dont-look-back\">Criterion Channel\u003c/a> with or without a subscription.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The depictions of Sylvie and Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) — who Dylan bounces between — are uneven, though they do reveal a charming but self-obsessed young man more lovable than likable. Memorably, the film gives both Joan and Sylvie scenes where they declare their autonomy from Dylan and claim their own paths. Those moments are believable and effective, yet they do have a faint whiff of historical revisionism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there’s one thing I am sure of, it is that everything related to Dylan, every step of his life up to the present, is open to interpretation and debate. An unimaginably vast compendium of commentary exists. \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> is a worthy, entertaining and wondrously alive addition. \u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘A Complete Unknown’ opens in theaters on Dec. 25, 2024.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Bob Dylan enters \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> (opening Christmas Day) in a taxi — a Greyhound bus, actually, off-screen — and exits on a motorcycle. And that, my friends, is the sum and total arc of James Mangold’s miraculous movie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure, the title slyly and wryly suggests a narrative through-line of a nobody blowing into town and blowing up (in the current lingo). If the conventions of musical biopics were to hold, breakthroughs and breakdowns would arrive on cue. (For a refresher, go back and listen to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSJWPw9EFxI\">amplified radio hit\u003c/a> whose lyrics the title is quoting.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yes, there is a kerfuffle late in this extraordinary musical biopic (which spans 1961 to 1965) when Dylan “rejects” solo acoustic (folk) music and crosses over to the bass-drums-electric guitar of rock ‘n’ roll band-dom at the Newport Folk Festival. To some fans and early supporters, this was (though not anymore; lot of water under the bridge, lot of other stuff, too) an apostasy, a blasphemy, a betrayal on par with Judas’. But \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> isn’t the story of an artist’s development or evolution or, for that matter, the creative process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969745\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000.jpg\" alt=\"man holds guitar outside stone house\" width=\"2000\" height=\"836\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969745\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000-800x334.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000-1020x426.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000-768x321.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000-1536x642.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/007_020_ACompleteUnknown_Still007_2000-1920x803.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edward Norton in ‘A Complete Unknown.’ \u003ccite>(Searchlight Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since I’m finding it easier to catalog what \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> is not, I’ll add that it isn’t a tale of sons impressing their fathers, then killing them. Woody Guthrie is the first singer we hear (on the soundtrack), and upon his arrival in New York City, Dylan immediately visits the terminally ill folksinger (wordlessly played by Scoot McNairy) in a hospital, where former Weaver Pete Seeger (Edward Norton, a likely Oscar nominee for Supporting Actor) is hanging out with him. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeger champions Dylan, listening to his in-progress songs, getting him onstage in front of an influential crowd and introducing him to producer John Hammond. By Newport ’65 Dylan has moved on from Seeger’s politely activist brand of folk music, but he doesn’t disrespect him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> encompasses these events and so many more — familiar to you if you are a reader of a certain age or a latter-day Dylanologist — it resists every impulse to shape them into a simple, straightforward distillation. Remarkably and radically, the film doesn’t explain its subject, or presume to explain. It doesn’t underline and italicize turning-point moments, or the incidents that have passed into the mythic realm. It doesn’t overreach for grand statements about the era in which it takes place, or what’s around the corner. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969743\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000.jpg\" alt=\"man in foreground at mic, woman smiles back at him against stage lights\" width=\"2000\" height=\"836\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969743\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000-800x334.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000-1020x426.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000-768x321.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000-1536x642.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/005_018_ACompleteUnknown_Still006_2000-1920x803.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro in ‘A Complete Unknown.’ \u003ccite>(Searchlight Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Incredibly, \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> doesn’t build to a moral or a resolution. The lengthy lead-up to and including Dylan’s third and final appearance at the Newport Folk Festival, which comprise a chunk of the film’s running time, doesn’t play as either a summation or a bookend (of the subject’s scruffy beginnings). It does feel like a climax, though, for a few brief moments until Mangold carefully turns it into an anti-climax, subverting the expectations of how an audience should feel when the credits roll.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet even without beat-and-repeat narrative imperatives, the movie keeps skipping forward, riding the restless energy of its chain-smoking, lyric-scribbling protagonist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Timothée Chalamet, who gives the performance of his life in the central role, has said his character is not supposed to be Bob Dylan. OK, then. Let’s place \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> alongside \u003cem>Inside Llewyn Davis\u003c/em> (which the Coen Brothers steeped and filtered through Dylan and Dave Van Ronk (who turns up at the beginning and end of \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em>) and Todd Haynes’ \u003cem>I’m Not There\u003c/em> (“inspired by false stories,” the trailer declared), which employed six actors portraying various Dylans at different stages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Chalamet’s performance, operating at a much, much deeper level than impersonation (it doesn’t hurt that he’s a native New Yorker), also contains too many mannerisms and phrasings and trademarks (the sunglasses) to be anyone but Bob Dylan. For the record, Chalamet beautifully sings and plays a slew of Dylan songs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969742\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000.jpg\" alt=\"woman behind man, both in sunglasses\" width=\"2000\" height=\"836\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969742\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000-800x334.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000-1020x426.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000-768x321.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000-1536x642.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/004_16alt_ACompleteUnknown_Still005_2000-1920x803.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Elle Fanning and Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unknown.’ \u003ccite>(Searchlight Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Furthermore, the film recreates too many moments — from the photo with girlfriend Suze Rotolo (named Sylvie Russo here, played by Elle Fanning) for the cover of \u003cem>The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan\u003c/em> to Al Kooper wandering into the “Like a Rolling Stone” sessions, finding the guitar spot taken by Mike Bloomfield and winding up at the organ — to be anything but a rendition of Dylan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> doesn’t explain Dylan, or even interpret him, what is it about? It’s not about the ’60s, at least not in the way so many movies set in that period try to be, wallowing in the magic and the messiness and the idealism and offering a clarity that’s only visible in hindsight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m tempted to call \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> a portrait of an artist becoming an artist. (His debut album contained only two original songs out of 13, as dictated by the record company; the rest are covers of standards. His second LP, \u003cem>The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan\u003c/em>, notably included just one cover.) Since the film doesn’t give us much insight into his creative process, however, it may be more accurate just to describe Dylan as a man on a mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did Dylan secretly want fame and influence, then recoil when it wasn’t on his terms? Or did he realize — consciously or not — popularity’s adverse effects on an artist? \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> never tells us what it thinks about these and other matters, leaving us to reach our own conclusions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969738\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000.jpg\" alt=\"figure in dark clothes crosses street in front of chelsea hotel\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1408\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969738\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000-800x563.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000-1020x718.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000-768x541.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000-1536x1081.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/002_L1000460-3_rgb_2000-1920x1352.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unknown.’ \u003ccite>(Searchlight Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em>’s inspiration is to convey the world that coalesces around a driven, ambitious and fabulously talented person. Dylan is the willfully enigmatic maelstrom at the center of another maelstrom — ignited by celebrity, genius, money. It is easier for us to see the effect he has on everyone around him than to see him and the ways in which he changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For example, the movie conveys Dylan’s hatred for being recognized and mobbed in public, but is less direct about his reluctance to be adopted by everyone under the age of 30. Or as rocker Syd Straw, on her terrific 1996 album \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://sydstrawmusic.bandcamp.com/album/war-and-peace-1996\">War and Peace\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, described that particular Dylan legacy, “I don’t want to be the voice of this or any generation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the benefits of Mangold and co-screenwriter Jay Cocks’ narrative and stylistic approach is the movie almost never feels contrived — you rarely sense that a given scene is included to pay off with a specific point, which is highly unusual for a biopic — and seems more accurate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Accuracy is an illusion, of course, as with any film adapted from real life. \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> curiously omits Dylan’s concerns about racial injustice, save for a brief visit to a street protest. His 1965 U.K. acoustic tour is completely absent. (\u003cem>Dont Look Back\u003c/em>, D.A. Pennebaker’s record of that tour and a longtime documentary touchstone, is streaming for free through Jan. 1 on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/dont-look-back\">Criterion Channel\u003c/a> with or without a subscription.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The depictions of Sylvie and Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) — who Dylan bounces between — are uneven, though they do reveal a charming but self-obsessed young man more lovable than likable. Memorably, the film gives both Joan and Sylvie scenes where they declare their autonomy from Dylan and claim their own paths. Those moments are believable and effective, yet they do have a faint whiff of historical revisionism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there’s one thing I am sure of, it is that everything related to Dylan, every step of his life up to the present, is open to interpretation and debate. An unimaginably vast compendium of commentary exists. \u003cem>A Complete Unknown\u003c/em> is a worthy, entertaining and wondrously alive addition. \u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘A Complete Unknown’ opens in theaters on Dec. 25, 2024.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "‘Dirty Dancing,’ ‘Wrath of Khan’ Added to the National Film Registry",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s a most wonderful time of the year for classic film buffs and preservationists. The National Film Registry, which is part of the Library of Congress, announced on Tuesday the latest movies it plans to archive for posterity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, some of the best-known films being added include \u003cem>Dirty Dancing\u003c/em>, \u003ci>Beverly Hills Cop\u003c/i>, \u003ci>Uptown Saturday Night\u003c/i>, \u003ci>The Texas Chainsaw Massacre\u003c/i>, \u003cem>The Social Network\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Spy Kids\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13969527']Each year, 25 films are added to the registry. Usually, it’s a mixture of blockbusters, obscure-but-important independent films, and historical footage, all selected to highlight the depth and breadth of American film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Films reflect our nation’s history and culture and must be preserved in our national library for generations to come,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in a statement. “This is a collective effort in the film community to preserve our cinematic heritage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the first time, a Star Trek movie is joining the list, in part because of enthusiastic lobbying from fans. (Although selections are made by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/about-this-program/\">National Film Preservation Board\u003c/a>, nominations from the public are encouraged as part of the process.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan\u003c/em>, starring Ricardo Montalban as the titular villain, came out in 1982. In a press release, the Library of Congress pointed out that the film is often considered the best of the six original-cast Star Trek theatrical films. It’s also among five movies selected this year featuring prominent Hispanic artists or themes, including \u003cem>American Me\u003c/em>, \u003ci>Mi Familia\u003c/i>, \u003ci>Spy Kids\u003c/i> and the first Cheech & Chong movie to be added to the registry, \u003cem>Up in Smoke\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The level of improv that we brought to those movies is what gave it a spontaneity,” Cheech Marin, who is also in \u003cem>Spy Kids\u003c/em>, said in an interview with the Library of Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other selections reflect significant contributions by Black directors, including \u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em>, \u003ci>Ganja & Hess\u003c/i>, \u003cem>Uptown Saturday Night\u003c/em> and Zora Lathan’s student films. A little-seen 1981 movie \u003cem>Will\u003c/em> about a former basketball player struggling to overcome addiction, is “widely considered to be the first independent feature-length film directed by a Black woman, Jessie Maple, a trailblazing cinematographer and director,” according to the Library of Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And two movies this year represent Deaf culture and characters. Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft won Academy Awards for their roles as Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan in 1962’s \u003cem>The Miracle Worker\u003c/em>. And the 1999 movie \u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> was picked in part for its groundbreaking narrative approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Upon casting deaf actress Michelle A. Banks, director Zeinabu irene Davis and screenwriter Mark Arthur Chéry modified the film to incorporate sign language and title cards, making it accessible to both deaf and hearing audiences,” the Library of Congress said of \u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> in a statement. “The film’s relative silence and use of ornate title cards also function as an homage to Black filmmakers of the silent era, to which Davis nods when she sends the characters to the movies to see William Foster’s \u003cem>The Railroad Porter\u003c/em> (1913), thought to be the first fiction film by a Black filmmaker.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to qualify for the registry, films must be at least 10 years old. The National Film Registry was started in 1988, and now includes 900 films.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complete list of films selected for the 2024 National Film Registry, in chronological order, follows:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Annabelle Serpentine Dance\u003c/em> (1895)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>KoKo’s Earth Control\u003c/em> (1928)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Angels with Dirty Faces\u003c/em> (1938)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Pride of the Yankees\u003c/em> (1942)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Invaders from Mars\u003c/em> (1953)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>The Miracle Worker\u003c/em> (1962)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>The Chelsea Girls\u003c/em> (1966)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Ganja & Hess\u003c/em> (1973)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>The Texas Chainsaw Massacre\u003c/em> (1974)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Uptown Saturday Night \u003c/em>(1974)\u003cbr>\nZora Lathan Student Films (1975–76)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Up in Smoke\u003c/em> (1978)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Will\u003c/em> (1981)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan\u003c/em> (1982)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Beverly Hills Cop\u003c/em> (1984)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Dirty Dancing\u003c/em> (1987)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt\u003c/em> (1989)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Powwow Highway\u003c/em> (1989)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>My Own Private Idaho\u003c/em> (1991)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>American Me\u003c/em> (1992)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Mi Familia\u003c/em> (1995)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> (1999)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Spy Kids\u003c/em> (2001)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>No Country for Old Men\u003c/em> (2007)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>The Social Network\u003c/em> (2010)\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s a most wonderful time of the year for classic film buffs and preservationists. The National Film Registry, which is part of the Library of Congress, announced on Tuesday the latest movies it plans to archive for posterity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, some of the best-known films being added include \u003cem>Dirty Dancing\u003c/em>, \u003ci>Beverly Hills Cop\u003c/i>, \u003ci>Uptown Saturday Night\u003c/i>, \u003ci>The Texas Chainsaw Massacre\u003c/i>, \u003cem>The Social Network\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Spy Kids\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan\u003c/em>, starring Ricardo Montalban as the titular villain, came out in 1982. In a press release, the Library of Congress pointed out that the film is often considered the best of the six original-cast Star Trek theatrical films. It’s also among five movies selected this year featuring prominent Hispanic artists or themes, including \u003cem>American Me\u003c/em>, \u003ci>Mi Familia\u003c/i>, \u003ci>Spy Kids\u003c/i> and the first Cheech & Chong movie to be added to the registry, \u003cem>Up in Smoke\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The level of improv that we brought to those movies is what gave it a spontaneity,” Cheech Marin, who is also in \u003cem>Spy Kids\u003c/em>, said in an interview with the Library of Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other selections reflect significant contributions by Black directors, including \u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em>, \u003ci>Ganja & Hess\u003c/i>, \u003cem>Uptown Saturday Night\u003c/em> and Zora Lathan’s student films. A little-seen 1981 movie \u003cem>Will\u003c/em> about a former basketball player struggling to overcome addiction, is “widely considered to be the first independent feature-length film directed by a Black woman, Jessie Maple, a trailblazing cinematographer and director,” according to the Library of Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And two movies this year represent Deaf culture and characters. Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft won Academy Awards for their roles as Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan in 1962’s \u003cem>The Miracle Worker\u003c/em>. And the 1999 movie \u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> was picked in part for its groundbreaking narrative approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Upon casting deaf actress Michelle A. Banks, director Zeinabu irene Davis and screenwriter Mark Arthur Chéry modified the film to incorporate sign language and title cards, making it accessible to both deaf and hearing audiences,” the Library of Congress said of \u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> in a statement. “The film’s relative silence and use of ornate title cards also function as an homage to Black filmmakers of the silent era, to which Davis nods when she sends the characters to the movies to see William Foster’s \u003cem>The Railroad Porter\u003c/em> (1913), thought to be the first fiction film by a Black filmmaker.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to qualify for the registry, films must be at least 10 years old. The National Film Registry was started in 1988, and now includes 900 films.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complete list of films selected for the 2024 National Film Registry, in chronological order, follows:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Annabelle Serpentine Dance\u003c/em> (1895)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>KoKo’s Earth Control\u003c/em> (1928)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Angels with Dirty Faces\u003c/em> (1938)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Pride of the Yankees\u003c/em> (1942)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Invaders from Mars\u003c/em> (1953)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>The Miracle Worker\u003c/em> (1962)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>The Chelsea Girls\u003c/em> (1966)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Ganja & Hess\u003c/em> (1973)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>The Texas Chainsaw Massacre\u003c/em> (1974)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Uptown Saturday Night \u003c/em>(1974)\u003cbr>\nZora Lathan Student Films (1975–76)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Up in Smoke\u003c/em> (1978)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Will\u003c/em> (1981)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan\u003c/em> (1982)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Beverly Hills Cop\u003c/em> (1984)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Dirty Dancing\u003c/em> (1987)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt\u003c/em> (1989)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Powwow Highway\u003c/em> (1989)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>My Own Private Idaho\u003c/em> (1991)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>American Me\u003c/em> (1992)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Mi Familia\u003c/em> (1995)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> (1999)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Spy Kids\u003c/em> (2001)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>No Country for Old Men\u003c/em> (2007)\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>The Social Network\u003c/em> (2010)\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The swift passage of time is rarely a positive, but from a film-lover’s perspective, each year brings the gift of new titles entering the public domain. In 2025, \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_in_public_domain#United_States\">that list\u003c/a> includes 1929’s \u003ci>The Cocoanuts\u003c/i> (the first Marx Brothers film), Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí’s \u003ci>Un Chien Andalou\u003c/i>, and some of the earliest talkies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in order for films to survive long enough to make it into the public domain — or get restored back to something resembling their original glory — they need a lot of help along the way. Which is where operations like the \u003ca href=\"https://filmpreserve.org/\">San Francisco Film Preserve\u003c/a>, a brand new nonprofit dedicated to restoring, preserving and providing access to films, enters the scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13958735']“In our digital world, people don’t think of it, but these materials are very often one of a kind,” says Robert Byrne, Film Preserve’s board president. “And they are now often more than 100 years old. When they go, they go. If this work isn’t done, it’s gone forever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Film Preserve, just two months old, is actually an offshoot of the \u003ca href=\"https://silentfilm.org/\">San Francisco Silent Film Festival\u003c/a> (SFSFF), founded in 1996. Kathy Rose O’Regan started doing full-time restoration work for the SFSFF about three years ago; 43 titles have been restored under the festival’s umbrella.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But recently, the work of putting on an annual festival and restoring films year-round started to seem like two separate projects. “The amount of work we were doing kind of exploded,” O’Regan says. “We just got to a point where it was this endless stream of every conference we go to, every festival we’re at, we end up having conversations and being made more and more aware of all these films that are being unearthed and really need to be worked on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969530\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock.jpg\" alt=\"older man and young child on hillside, mountains in background\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1543\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock-800x617.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock-1020x787.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock-160x123.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock-768x593.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock-1536x1185.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock-1920x1481.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘The White Heather,’ 1919. \u003ccite>(San Francisco Film Preserve)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now, as the inaugural executive director of the San Francisco Film Preserve, she sees opportunities to expand on the work she was doing at SFSFF. The first title they’ll present to the public is \u003ci>The White Heather\u003c/i>, a 1919 silent film by Maurice Tourneur, which will have its “\u003ca href=\"https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10213\">world premiere\u003c/a>” on Jan. 24, 2025 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. (No one alive has seen this film, Byrne points out.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long thought lost, \u003ci>The White Heather\u003c/i> tells the story of a Scottish lord who seeks to annul his secret marriage to his housekeeper by destroying their marriage certificate — aboard a sunken yacht. Underwater scenes, technically groundbreaking for the time, ensue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film’s only surviving print was found in the Netherlands, which means part of Byrne’s job has been to work with a graphic designer to recreate the original intertitles in English, based on the remaining Dutch version.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, the Film Preserve has three other restorations in progress: \u003ci>Hula\u003c/i> (1927), \u003ci>Black Lightning\u003c/i> (1924), and \u003ci>You Remember Ellen\u003c/i> (1912). Much of their work comes from archives and museums unable to undertake a project themselves — perhaps it’s an American film found in another country’s national vault, or it doesn’t align with the mission of the institution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of O’Regan’s days involve sitting in front of a computer and digitally restoring a film frame by frame. “For \u003ci>The White Heather\u003c/i>,” she says, “it took quite a number of months because it was in pretty bad shape. It was decomposing, there was mold. It had been heavily used in its original run in 1919, so it’s covered in scratches.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969528\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969528\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat.jpg\" alt=\"man at two wheels on boat\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat-800x576.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat-1020x734.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat-768x553.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat-1536x1106.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat-1920x1382.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘The White Heather,’ 1919. \u003ccite>(San Francisco Film Preserve)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Both O’Regan and Byrne stress that there’s a real urgency to the work they do. Look no further than \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://silentfilm.org/preservation/now-were-in-the-air/\">Now We’re in the Air\u003c/a>\u003c/i>, a believed-to-be-lost 1927 silent film restored by the SFSFF. Of the six original reels, only portions of three were found in the Czech national film archive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the can were index cards that recorded the history of the film,” Byrne says. “They would do periodic inspections of the film and as parts deteriorated, they chop them off and throw them away because it just makes the rest of the film rot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13951535']Every 10 years, according to the index cards, the film got shorter and shorter. Now, only 20 minutes remain. Imagining all the other films sitting uncatalogued in archives or unknown in private collections, Byrne says, “There’s more work to be done than anyone can possibly do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For their first year of operation as an independent entity, the San Francisco Film Preserve has big plans: monthly online talks on film history and restoration; offering two travel grants to the Association of Moving Image Archivists conference; funding a student essay prize with Women and Film History International; and working on Blu-ray collections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the most immediate, they’re throwing \u003ca href=\"https://filmpreserve.org/event/sffp-launch-party/\">a launch party\u003c/a> on Dec. 18 at 518 Valencia St. in San Francisco. Unlike the SFSFF, they won’t need hundreds of volunteers to put on events, but Byrne says they would love to hear from people with niche skills and an interest in preserving film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to be a resource for the community because we live in a city that people say awful things about all the time, and I think we’re the luckiest people in the world,” O’Regan says. “You know, we have this thriving film community, people who are incredibly passionate about the arts and culture. I want us to be a significant and worthwhile part of that.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The swift passage of time is rarely a positive, but from a film-lover’s perspective, each year brings the gift of new titles entering the public domain. In 2025, \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_in_public_domain#United_States\">that list\u003c/a> includes 1929’s \u003ci>The Cocoanuts\u003c/i> (the first Marx Brothers film), Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí’s \u003ci>Un Chien Andalou\u003c/i>, and some of the earliest talkies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in order for films to survive long enough to make it into the public domain — or get restored back to something resembling their original glory — they need a lot of help along the way. Which is where operations like the \u003ca href=\"https://filmpreserve.org/\">San Francisco Film Preserve\u003c/a>, a brand new nonprofit dedicated to restoring, preserving and providing access to films, enters the scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“In our digital world, people don’t think of it, but these materials are very often one of a kind,” says Robert Byrne, Film Preserve’s board president. “And they are now often more than 100 years old. When they go, they go. If this work isn’t done, it’s gone forever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Film Preserve, just two months old, is actually an offshoot of the \u003ca href=\"https://silentfilm.org/\">San Francisco Silent Film Festival\u003c/a> (SFSFF), founded in 1996. Kathy Rose O’Regan started doing full-time restoration work for the SFSFF about three years ago; 43 titles have been restored under the festival’s umbrella.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But recently, the work of putting on an annual festival and restoring films year-round started to seem like two separate projects. “The amount of work we were doing kind of exploded,” O’Regan says. “We just got to a point where it was this endless stream of every conference we go to, every festival we’re at, we end up having conversations and being made more and more aware of all these films that are being unearthed and really need to be worked on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969530\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock.jpg\" alt=\"older man and young child on hillside, mountains in background\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1543\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock-800x617.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock-1020x787.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock-160x123.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock-768x593.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock-1536x1185.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Flock-1920x1481.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘The White Heather,’ 1919. \u003ccite>(San Francisco Film Preserve)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now, as the inaugural executive director of the San Francisco Film Preserve, she sees opportunities to expand on the work she was doing at SFSFF. The first title they’ll present to the public is \u003ci>The White Heather\u003c/i>, a 1919 silent film by Maurice Tourneur, which will have its “\u003ca href=\"https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10213\">world premiere\u003c/a>” on Jan. 24, 2025 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. (No one alive has seen this film, Byrne points out.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long thought lost, \u003ci>The White Heather\u003c/i> tells the story of a Scottish lord who seeks to annul his secret marriage to his housekeeper by destroying their marriage certificate — aboard a sunken yacht. Underwater scenes, technically groundbreaking for the time, ensue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film’s only surviving print was found in the Netherlands, which means part of Byrne’s job has been to work with a graphic designer to recreate the original intertitles in English, based on the remaining Dutch version.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, the Film Preserve has three other restorations in progress: \u003ci>Hula\u003c/i> (1927), \u003ci>Black Lightning\u003c/i> (1924), and \u003ci>You Remember Ellen\u003c/i> (1912). Much of their work comes from archives and museums unable to undertake a project themselves — perhaps it’s an American film found in another country’s national vault, or it doesn’t align with the mission of the institution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of O’Regan’s days involve sitting in front of a computer and digitally restoring a film frame by frame. “For \u003ci>The White Heather\u003c/i>,” she says, “it took quite a number of months because it was in pretty bad shape. It was decomposing, there was mold. It had been heavily used in its original run in 1919, so it’s covered in scratches.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969528\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969528\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat.jpg\" alt=\"man at two wheels on boat\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat-800x576.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat-1020x734.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat-768x553.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat-1536x1106.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/TheWhiteHeather_Boat-1920x1382.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘The White Heather,’ 1919. \u003ccite>(San Francisco Film Preserve)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Both O’Regan and Byrne stress that there’s a real urgency to the work they do. Look no further than \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://silentfilm.org/preservation/now-were-in-the-air/\">Now We’re in the Air\u003c/a>\u003c/i>, a believed-to-be-lost 1927 silent film restored by the SFSFF. Of the six original reels, only portions of three were found in the Czech national film archive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the can were index cards that recorded the history of the film,” Byrne says. “They would do periodic inspections of the film and as parts deteriorated, they chop them off and throw them away because it just makes the rest of the film rot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Every 10 years, according to the index cards, the film got shorter and shorter. Now, only 20 minutes remain. Imagining all the other films sitting uncatalogued in archives or unknown in private collections, Byrne says, “There’s more work to be done than anyone can possibly do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For their first year of operation as an independent entity, the San Francisco Film Preserve has big plans: monthly online talks on film history and restoration; offering two travel grants to the Association of Moving Image Archivists conference; funding a student essay prize with Women and Film History International; and working on Blu-ray collections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the most immediate, they’re throwing \u003ca href=\"https://filmpreserve.org/event/sffp-launch-party/\">a launch party\u003c/a> on Dec. 18 at 518 Valencia St. in San Francisco. Unlike the SFSFF, they won’t need hundreds of volunteers to put on events, but Byrne says they would love to hear from people with niche skills and an interest in preserving film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to be a resource for the community because we live in a city that people say awful things about all the time, and I think we’re the luckiest people in the world,” O’Regan says. “You know, we have this thriving film community, people who are incredibly passionate about the arts and culture. I want us to be a significant and worthwhile part of that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Oakland has never exactly been viewed as a filmmakers’ paradise. Despite the success of a handful of homegrown, Oakland-filmed standouts, like \u003ci>Fruitvale Station \u003c/i>and \u003ci>Sorry to Bother You\u003c/i>, Bay Area creatives with film or television aspirations usually face an inevitable choice: They have to go somewhere else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, the Oakland City Council unanimously passed a new initiative that was meant to help change that: The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13961266/oakland-film-initiative-rebate-program\">Oakland Film Initiative\u003c/a> would provide a \u003ca href=\"https://www.makeitbay.org/rebate\">10–15% refund\u003c/a> to filmmakers on qualified local spending on purchased or rented items, contracted services and wages for Oakland residents. The idea was to help subsidize the cost of shooting a movie in Oakland — and, in that way, provide an incentive for stories that take place in The Town to actually get filmed there, instead of in \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-embraces-Black-Panther-and-its-12620797.php\">Atlanta\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://montecristomagazine.com/arts/vancouver-shot-kung-fu-hip-hop-film-almost-cultural-sensation\">Vancouver\u003c/a> or elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rebate program was widely celebrated by Bay Area culture makers when it was first announced. But now, Oakland’s budget woes have put the program in peril before it ever had a chance to get off the ground. When \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2024/11/19/oakland-city-council-deficit-plan-2024/\">delayed payments on the sale of the Coliseum\u003c/a> triggered Oakland’s “contingency budget” — and a $63 million shortfall — earlier this fall, the film initiative was one of programs slated to be cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That would be a big mistake, say local film industry advocates like Sam Bempong, a lead organizer for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/MakeItBay/?__d=1\">East Bay Film Collective\u003c/a>, which helped craft the film rebate initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve already got productions that are willing to come here, businesses that want to relocate here. So we know that this [program] is revenue generating,” Bempong says. If the city reneges on its promise, not only would it be forfeiting the millions of dollars those film companies would have spent in the local economy, but Oakland’s reputation would also take a hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re going to lose face,” Bempong says, arguing that high-profile film and TV productions would be even less likely to want to work with the city in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Collective is asking supporters of the program — and of Oakland’s creative and cultural scenes — to contact their City Councilmember ahead of the City Council meeting on Monday, Dec. 9, when the future of the film initiative is expected to be on the agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13837233\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13837233\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C.jpg\" alt=\"Diggs and Casal play best friends who work together as movers.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal in 2018’s ‘Blindspotting,.’ which was shot in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Ariel Nava)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Bempong, the idea for the rebate program came about a couple of years ago when Bay Area creatives wanted to film a number of big-budget television series in Oakland but wound up deciding not to. The short answer for why, Bempong says, is that other cities offered much better financial incentives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to make it make sense from a financial production standpoint to get [filmmakers] to come here and spend their money,” Bempong says. “But once they’re here, you’re creating an inclusive cultural economy where creatives thrive, where they can use local catering services, dry cleaning services and truck drivers. It is an economy that creates jobs across multiple sectors and spreads money in a way that no other sector does.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But without any financial incentives, Bempong believes there’s no way for Oakland to build itself up as a vibrant filmmaking hub. And then all of the Bay Area’s own talented homegrown filmmakers and other creatives wind up moving away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13961266,arts_13968201,arts_13939974']\u003c/span>\u003c/span>That was the case for Grace Porras, who left the Bay Area to pursue a 15-year career as a television producer in New York and Los Angeles before finally returning to Oakland last year because, she says, “I really felt like there was a possibility for us to create a robust film scene here.” To help make that a reality, she co-founded the East Bay Film Collective along with comedian W. Kamau Bell, actor-producer Rafael Casal and others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quoting Oakland filmmaker \u003ca href=\"https://www.niemajordan.com/\">Niema Jordan\u003c/a>, Bempong says, “We all came together to say, ‘How do we make home an option?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film rebate initiative was one of the collective’s first big steps toward making that goal a reality. In the months since Oakland City Council approved the program, Porras and Bempong say they’ve been in active conversations with producers who are interested in filming in Oakland — assuming they’d be eligible for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.makeitbay.org/rebate\">rebate incentive\u003c/a>. “We’ve gathered letters of intent from producers and productions who would spend upwards of $10 million in our local economy,” Porras says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s money in hand. They want to spend it,” Bempong says. “Are we going to make it so they can spend it here?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bempong stresses that she understands the series of difficult choices Oakland faces now that the contingency budget has kicked in, \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2024/10/22/oakland-police-fire-budget-cuts-unavoidable-2024/\">including potential cuts to police and fire services\u003c/a>. “We don’t want the city to suffer,” she says. In fact, the rebate initiative’s supporters aren’t asking the city to fund the program out of the contingency budget. Instead, Bempong says, they’re just asking City Council to restore the program’s funding as soon as the money from the Coliseum sale comes through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not asking for any money that wasn’t already promised us, or isn’t already coming into the city, in a way that would stop it from being spent elsewhere,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, the East Bay Film Collective is asking supporters of Oakland’s creative scenes to call or email their City Councilmember in advance of the Council’s meeting on Monday, Dec. 9, at 9:30 a.m. — they’ve provided \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DDGAGHySAU1/?__d=1&img_index=2\">a script for callers and letter writers to follow\u003c/a>. Supporters can also go to City Hall (1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland) to attend that City Council meeting and offer a public comment in favor of the film rebate initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No matter what happens with the City Council meeting, though, the Collective isn’t giving up on the rebate program — or its ongoing work to build up the Bay Area film scene. “We’ll find another way to fund it,” Bempong says.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Oakland has never exactly been viewed as a filmmakers’ paradise. Despite the success of a handful of homegrown, Oakland-filmed standouts, like \u003ci>Fruitvale Station \u003c/i>and \u003ci>Sorry to Bother You\u003c/i>, Bay Area creatives with film or television aspirations usually face an inevitable choice: They have to go somewhere else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, the Oakland City Council unanimously passed a new initiative that was meant to help change that: The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13961266/oakland-film-initiative-rebate-program\">Oakland Film Initiative\u003c/a> would provide a \u003ca href=\"https://www.makeitbay.org/rebate\">10–15% refund\u003c/a> to filmmakers on qualified local spending on purchased or rented items, contracted services and wages for Oakland residents. The idea was to help subsidize the cost of shooting a movie in Oakland — and, in that way, provide an incentive for stories that take place in The Town to actually get filmed there, instead of in \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-embraces-Black-Panther-and-its-12620797.php\">Atlanta\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://montecristomagazine.com/arts/vancouver-shot-kung-fu-hip-hop-film-almost-cultural-sensation\">Vancouver\u003c/a> or elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rebate program was widely celebrated by Bay Area culture makers when it was first announced. But now, Oakland’s budget woes have put the program in peril before it ever had a chance to get off the ground. When \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2024/11/19/oakland-city-council-deficit-plan-2024/\">delayed payments on the sale of the Coliseum\u003c/a> triggered Oakland’s “contingency budget” — and a $63 million shortfall — earlier this fall, the film initiative was one of programs slated to be cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That would be a big mistake, say local film industry advocates like Sam Bempong, a lead organizer for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/MakeItBay/?__d=1\">East Bay Film Collective\u003c/a>, which helped craft the film rebate initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve already got productions that are willing to come here, businesses that want to relocate here. So we know that this [program] is revenue generating,” Bempong says. If the city reneges on its promise, not only would it be forfeiting the millions of dollars those film companies would have spent in the local economy, but Oakland’s reputation would also take a hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re going to lose face,” Bempong says, arguing that high-profile film and TV productions would be even less likely to want to work with the city in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Collective is asking supporters of the program — and of Oakland’s creative and cultural scenes — to contact their City Councilmember ahead of the City Council meeting on Monday, Dec. 9, when the future of the film initiative is expected to be on the agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13837233\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13837233\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C.jpg\" alt=\"Diggs and Casal play best friends who work together as movers.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/044Blindspotting_252_C-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal in 2018’s ‘Blindspotting,.’ which was shot in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Ariel Nava)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Bempong, the idea for the rebate program came about a couple of years ago when Bay Area creatives wanted to film a number of big-budget television series in Oakland but wound up deciding not to. The short answer for why, Bempong says, is that other cities offered much better financial incentives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to make it make sense from a financial production standpoint to get [filmmakers] to come here and spend their money,” Bempong says. “But once they’re here, you’re creating an inclusive cultural economy where creatives thrive, where they can use local catering services, dry cleaning services and truck drivers. It is an economy that creates jobs across multiple sectors and spreads money in a way that no other sector does.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But without any financial incentives, Bempong believes there’s no way for Oakland to build itself up as a vibrant filmmaking hub. And then all of the Bay Area’s own talented homegrown filmmakers and other creatives wind up moving away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/span>That was the case for Grace Porras, who left the Bay Area to pursue a 15-year career as a television producer in New York and Los Angeles before finally returning to Oakland last year because, she says, “I really felt like there was a possibility for us to create a robust film scene here.” To help make that a reality, she co-founded the East Bay Film Collective along with comedian W. Kamau Bell, actor-producer Rafael Casal and others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quoting Oakland filmmaker \u003ca href=\"https://www.niemajordan.com/\">Niema Jordan\u003c/a>, Bempong says, “We all came together to say, ‘How do we make home an option?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film rebate initiative was one of the collective’s first big steps toward making that goal a reality. In the months since Oakland City Council approved the program, Porras and Bempong say they’ve been in active conversations with producers who are interested in filming in Oakland — assuming they’d be eligible for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.makeitbay.org/rebate\">rebate incentive\u003c/a>. “We’ve gathered letters of intent from producers and productions who would spend upwards of $10 million in our local economy,” Porras says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s money in hand. They want to spend it,” Bempong says. “Are we going to make it so they can spend it here?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bempong stresses that she understands the series of difficult choices Oakland faces now that the contingency budget has kicked in, \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2024/10/22/oakland-police-fire-budget-cuts-unavoidable-2024/\">including potential cuts to police and fire services\u003c/a>. “We don’t want the city to suffer,” she says. In fact, the rebate initiative’s supporters aren’t asking the city to fund the program out of the contingency budget. Instead, Bempong says, they’re just asking City Council to restore the program’s funding as soon as the money from the Coliseum sale comes through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not asking for any money that wasn’t already promised us, or isn’t already coming into the city, in a way that would stop it from being spent elsewhere,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, the East Bay Film Collective is asking supporters of Oakland’s creative scenes to call or email their City Councilmember in advance of the Council’s meeting on Monday, Dec. 9, at 9:30 a.m. — they’ve provided \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DDGAGHySAU1/?__d=1&img_index=2\">a script for callers and letter writers to follow\u003c/a>. Supporters can also go to City Hall (1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland) to attend that City Council meeting and offer a public comment in favor of the film rebate initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No matter what happens with the City Council meeting, though, the Collective isn’t giving up on the rebate program — or its ongoing work to build up the Bay Area film scene. “We’ll find another way to fund it,” Bempong says.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Today, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema announced plans to expand beyond their San Francisco theater location and open two new theaters in the South Bay. The theaters, which will be located in Mountain View and Santa Clara, will open by the summer of 2025, marking the 10 year anniversary of Alamo’s presence in the Bay Area. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag='movie-theaters-we-have-lost']Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Theater opened in San Francisco in 2015 — the first new movie theater in the city since — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/11132205/new-kids-in-town-alamo-drafthouse-reopens-new-mission-theater\">our critic hazarded at the time\u003c/a> — 1999. In the years since, a number of beloved theaters and film programs have shut down across the Bay Area, even as audiences’ appetite for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13951535/screen-slate-sf-bay-area-film-listings-castro\">high quality in-person moviegoing\u003c/a> seems to have grown. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re always looking for new locations that feel like great fits,” said John Smith, Alamo Drafthouse’s West Coast marketing director. “It’s really awesome that we’re able to continue that momentum and head down to the South Bay.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new theaters will take over former ShowPlace ICON locations at The Village at San Antonio Center and Westfield Valley Fair. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today’s news comes six months after Sony Pictures Entertainment \u003ca href=\"https://variety.com/2024/film/news/sony-pictures-buys-alamo-drafthouse-cinemas-1236035292/\">purchased\u003c/a> the Alamo Drafthouse franchise. When asked if there would be changes to any of Alamo Drafthouse’s programming as a result of the new ownership, Smith offered reassurance that there’s no intention of implementing any major changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13968958\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair.jpg\" alt=\"movie theater name on glass facade with people entering lobby\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13968958\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rendering of Alamo Drafthouse Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Alamo Drafthouse)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to continue being the best place to see not just big blockbuster films like \u003ci>Wicked\u003c/i>, but mainstream specialties like \u003ci>Nosferatu\u003c/i>, independent films like \u003ci>The Substance\u003c/i>, [and] also to see the best films that have ever been made back on the big screen [like] \u003ci>Lord of the Rings\u003c/i>,” Smith told KQED. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That flexibility and ability to serve audiences that are in these communities with a great mix of film and experiences is essential to Alamo,” he added. “I don’t think anything’s going to change.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As in-person entertainment continues to bounce back from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Smith says the timing for Alamo Drafthouse’s new locations couldn’t be better. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Film is alive,” Smith said. “There’s audiences for all sorts of films, and … we’ll be there to reach out to them, and give them a sanctuary to come experience film.” \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Today, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema announced plans to expand beyond their San Francisco theater location and open two new theaters in the South Bay. The theaters, which will be located in Mountain View and Santa Clara, will open by the summer of 2025, marking the 10 year anniversary of Alamo’s presence in the Bay Area. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Theater opened in San Francisco in 2015 — the first new movie theater in the city since — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/11132205/new-kids-in-town-alamo-drafthouse-reopens-new-mission-theater\">our critic hazarded at the time\u003c/a> — 1999. In the years since, a number of beloved theaters and film programs have shut down across the Bay Area, even as audiences’ appetite for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13951535/screen-slate-sf-bay-area-film-listings-castro\">high quality in-person moviegoing\u003c/a> seems to have grown. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re always looking for new locations that feel like great fits,” said John Smith, Alamo Drafthouse’s West Coast marketing director. “It’s really awesome that we’re able to continue that momentum and head down to the South Bay.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new theaters will take over former ShowPlace ICON locations at The Village at San Antonio Center and Westfield Valley Fair. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today’s news comes six months after Sony Pictures Entertainment \u003ca href=\"https://variety.com/2024/film/news/sony-pictures-buys-alamo-drafthouse-cinemas-1236035292/\">purchased\u003c/a> the Alamo Drafthouse franchise. When asked if there would be changes to any of Alamo Drafthouse’s programming as a result of the new ownership, Smith offered reassurance that there’s no intention of implementing any major changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13968958\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair.jpg\" alt=\"movie theater name on glass facade with people entering lobby\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13968958\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/Alamo_Drafthouse_Valley_Fair-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rendering of Alamo Drafthouse Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Alamo Drafthouse)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to continue being the best place to see not just big blockbuster films like \u003ci>Wicked\u003c/i>, but mainstream specialties like \u003ci>Nosferatu\u003c/i>, independent films like \u003ci>The Substance\u003c/i>, [and] also to see the best films that have ever been made back on the big screen [like] \u003ci>Lord of the Rings\u003c/i>,” Smith told KQED. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Urban Life is a Beacon of Opportunity in Tender ‘All We Imagine as Light’",
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"content": "\u003cp>“There are eight million stories in the Naked City,” the narrator declared at the end of the late-’50s-early ’60s New York TV police procedural (as well as the 1948 movie that inspired it). “This has been one of them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s Cannes-awarded narrative feature debut, \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em>, is uninterested in crime and cops. A slow-burn journey from the prosaic to the profound, this much-needed balm for the soul follows four everyday people threading their way among Mumbai’s 21 million stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like every big city since forever, Mumbai attracts people from all over like moths to a flame with the promise of better-paying jobs. The movies, and real life to some extent, have taught us that cities are Meccas of endless possibilities, opportunities and destinies. In the Mumbai of \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em> (and the cities where I’ve lived) jobs do exist but relationships are intense and generally short-lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people call this the city of dreams, but I don’t,” an off-screen voice says while we watch trains traverse the sprawling nighttime landscape. “I think it’s the city of illusions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Kapadia drops in other anonymous first-person testimonies from time to time that feel like actual interviews. Her first feature film, \u003cem>A Night of Knowing Nothing\u003c/em>, was a documentary, so it’s a reasonable assumption.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13968470\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13968470\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03.jpg\" alt=\"woman in blue uniform leans back in chair at work\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03-1020x612.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03-1536x922.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light.’ \u003ccite>(Janus Films)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The three hospital staff who drive the film — strong, independent women of different generations who support themselves — have traded some of their dreams and all of their illusions for concrete reality. Ace head nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) has settled into a satisfying mid-career routine, but autonomy can’t conceal her loneliness — a yearning for being appreciated and valued outside the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then a chance for romance presents itself. A doctor conveys his attraction to Prabha in the most vulnerable way imaginable: He gives her a poem (that, significantly, suggests a non-native’s solitary experience of city life). “My dreams are made of everyday things, small and scattered, that I have left behind,” he writes. “My hope is just another casket of things I carry with me wherever I go / And now, you are there in a neighbor’s house like a burning lamp whose glow I watch to keep me warm at night.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prabha shares her apartment with a spirited young nurse, Anu (an exceptional Divya Prabha), whose determination to live her life on her terms is exhilarating. Anu is agog when a mysterious package arrives, containing a German-made rice cooker, and we learn that Prabha is married, and her husband has worked and lived abroad for many years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anu can’t imagine acceding to a marriage arranged by her father, as Prabha did. No surprise since her boyfriend is Muslim, which would not sit well with her traditional Hindu family “back home.” The film’s youngest characters are the most acclimated to their adopted city; the scenes of Shiaz and Anu sharing meals at outdoor food stands and making out on park benches vibrate with excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13968475\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13968475\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07.jpg\" alt=\"man and woman hold on to supports above their heads in crowded train \" width=\"1800\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07-1020x612.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07-1536x922.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light.’ \u003ccite>(Janus Films)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We ponder their future together when even long-term residents can be upended by unforeseen circumstances. The older hospital cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) is suddenly threatened with eviction after two decades in her apartment. Prabha finds her a lawyer, but he can’t help unless Parvaty locates some long-forgotten document.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The social commentary in \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em>, such as it is, illuminates the characters and provides texture, color and depth. It never feels as if Kapadia has hobbyhorses to ride, such as modernity over tradition, or the profiteering of developers, or family planning as the responsibility of women (the upshot of a hospital interaction between Anu and a young mother).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kapadia, like the late, great Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, immerses us with uncommon empathy in the rhythms and struggles of everyday life. Implicit in both directors’ films is the individual’s responsibility to adjust (though not necessarily conform) to and contribute to the fabric of society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet despite winning the Grand Prize at Cannes, \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em> was not chosen as India’s official submission for the Academy Award for Best International Film. The Film Federation of India selected \u003cem>Laapataa Ladies\u003c/em>, a charming, smart but more narratively and visually conventional film that’s streaming on Netflix. The FFI decision ignited a \u003ca href=\"https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/india-all-we-imagine-as-light-laapataa-ladies-oscars-controversy-explained-1236011778/\">controversy\u003c/a> that provoked its president to say about \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em>, “The jury said that they were watching a European film taking place in India, not an Indian film taking place in India.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13968471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13968471\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09.jpg\" alt=\"woman with headscarf and sunglasses holds onto post with flags\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09-1020x612.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09-1536x922.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light.’ \u003ccite>(Janus Films)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I grant that the soundtrack by Topshe lends the film a Western indie vibe. But the film also has a lovely dance duet to an Indian pop song that reminds us Bollywood is not far away. In any event, the FFI statement offers a singularly confining view of Indian cinema. At the same time, it’s a terrific endorsement for American fans of arthouse films.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Midway through the intoxicating \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em>, Prabha and Anu accompany Parvaty to her coastal village in Ratnagiri. Unbeknownst to them, quiet revelations await. Don’t worry, the movie doesn’t turn into a simplistic reverie about how the countryside is better — more down to earth, more authentic — than the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the tone does shift, from neorealism to magical near-realism. The fluid, frenetic movement of the city (exemplified by those ubiquitous trains) and the glare of nighttime lights evaporate in the rural setting. Unexpected possibilities emerge, if the characters will embrace them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Prabha reveals the existence of her absent husband, someone says, “When people go abroad, they can lose their minds, or their memory. That’s how it is.” It can also happen when someone migrates to a city. Or from one city to another. Or, for that matter, when they move home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a lifelong city dweller, I experienced \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em> as a generous gift. Share it widely.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘All We Imagine as Light’ plays \u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/all-we-imagine-as-light/\">Jan. 7–21 at the Roxie\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“There are eight million stories in the Naked City,” the narrator declared at the end of the late-’50s-early ’60s New York TV police procedural (as well as the 1948 movie that inspired it). “This has been one of them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s Cannes-awarded narrative feature debut, \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em>, is uninterested in crime and cops. A slow-burn journey from the prosaic to the profound, this much-needed balm for the soul follows four everyday people threading their way among Mumbai’s 21 million stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like every big city since forever, Mumbai attracts people from all over like moths to a flame with the promise of better-paying jobs. The movies, and real life to some extent, have taught us that cities are Meccas of endless possibilities, opportunities and destinies. In the Mumbai of \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em> (and the cities where I’ve lived) jobs do exist but relationships are intense and generally short-lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people call this the city of dreams, but I don’t,” an off-screen voice says while we watch trains traverse the sprawling nighttime landscape. “I think it’s the city of illusions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Kapadia drops in other anonymous first-person testimonies from time to time that feel like actual interviews. Her first feature film, \u003cem>A Night of Knowing Nothing\u003c/em>, was a documentary, so it’s a reasonable assumption.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13968470\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13968470\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03.jpg\" alt=\"woman in blue uniform leans back in chair at work\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03-1020x612.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_03-1536x922.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light.’ \u003ccite>(Janus Films)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The three hospital staff who drive the film — strong, independent women of different generations who support themselves — have traded some of their dreams and all of their illusions for concrete reality. Ace head nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) has settled into a satisfying mid-career routine, but autonomy can’t conceal her loneliness — a yearning for being appreciated and valued outside the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then a chance for romance presents itself. A doctor conveys his attraction to Prabha in the most vulnerable way imaginable: He gives her a poem (that, significantly, suggests a non-native’s solitary experience of city life). “My dreams are made of everyday things, small and scattered, that I have left behind,” he writes. “My hope is just another casket of things I carry with me wherever I go / And now, you are there in a neighbor’s house like a burning lamp whose glow I watch to keep me warm at night.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prabha shares her apartment with a spirited young nurse, Anu (an exceptional Divya Prabha), whose determination to live her life on her terms is exhilarating. Anu is agog when a mysterious package arrives, containing a German-made rice cooker, and we learn that Prabha is married, and her husband has worked and lived abroad for many years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anu can’t imagine acceding to a marriage arranged by her father, as Prabha did. No surprise since her boyfriend is Muslim, which would not sit well with her traditional Hindu family “back home.” The film’s youngest characters are the most acclimated to their adopted city; the scenes of Shiaz and Anu sharing meals at outdoor food stands and making out on park benches vibrate with excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13968475\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13968475\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07.jpg\" alt=\"man and woman hold on to supports above their heads in crowded train \" width=\"1800\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07-1020x612.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_07-1536x922.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light.’ \u003ccite>(Janus Films)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We ponder their future together when even long-term residents can be upended by unforeseen circumstances. The older hospital cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) is suddenly threatened with eviction after two decades in her apartment. Prabha finds her a lawyer, but he can’t help unless Parvaty locates some long-forgotten document.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The social commentary in \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em>, such as it is, illuminates the characters and provides texture, color and depth. It never feels as if Kapadia has hobbyhorses to ride, such as modernity over tradition, or the profiteering of developers, or family planning as the responsibility of women (the upshot of a hospital interaction between Anu and a young mother).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kapadia, like the late, great Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, immerses us with uncommon empathy in the rhythms and struggles of everyday life. Implicit in both directors’ films is the individual’s responsibility to adjust (though not necessarily conform) to and contribute to the fabric of society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet despite winning the Grand Prize at Cannes, \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em> was not chosen as India’s official submission for the Academy Award for Best International Film. The Film Federation of India selected \u003cem>Laapataa Ladies\u003c/em>, a charming, smart but more narratively and visually conventional film that’s streaming on Netflix. The FFI decision ignited a \u003ca href=\"https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/india-all-we-imagine-as-light-laapataa-ladies-oscars-controversy-explained-1236011778/\">controversy\u003c/a> that provoked its president to say about \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em>, “The jury said that they were watching a European film taking place in India, not an Indian film taking place in India.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13968471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13968471\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09.jpg\" alt=\"woman with headscarf and sunglasses holds onto post with flags\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09-1020x612.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/AllWeImagine_Key_09-1536x922.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light.’ \u003ccite>(Janus Films)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I grant that the soundtrack by Topshe lends the film a Western indie vibe. But the film also has a lovely dance duet to an Indian pop song that reminds us Bollywood is not far away. In any event, the FFI statement offers a singularly confining view of Indian cinema. At the same time, it’s a terrific endorsement for American fans of arthouse films.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Midway through the intoxicating \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em>, Prabha and Anu accompany Parvaty to her coastal village in Ratnagiri. Unbeknownst to them, quiet revelations await. Don’t worry, the movie doesn’t turn into a simplistic reverie about how the countryside is better — more down to earth, more authentic — than the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the tone does shift, from neorealism to magical near-realism. The fluid, frenetic movement of the city (exemplified by those ubiquitous trains) and the glare of nighttime lights evaporate in the rural setting. Unexpected possibilities emerge, if the characters will embrace them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Prabha reveals the existence of her absent husband, someone says, “When people go abroad, they can lose their minds, or their memory. That’s how it is.” It can also happen when someone migrates to a city. Or from one city to another. Or, for that matter, when they move home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a lifelong city dweller, I experienced \u003cem>All We Imagine as Light\u003c/em> as a generous gift. Share it widely.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘All We Imagine as Light’ plays \u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/all-we-imagine-as-light/\">Jan. 7–21 at the Roxie\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"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.",
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"mindshift": {
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"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>",
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"order": 12
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"perspectives": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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},
"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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