FilmClick

Several excellent films from the San Francisco Independent Film Festival make their way across the bay to the Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley, CA for an extended run this weekend. FilmClick recommends these films from local filmmakers which are playing this weekend in Berkeley:

“The Full Picture”

Bay Area filmmaker Jon Bowden’s feature “The Full Picture” plays on Sat. Feb 21 at 9:30 PM. The film is about unresolved family history and the lengths that people will go to keep uncomfortable secrets even in their closest relationships.  The main character, Mark, lives in San Francisco with his long-time girlfriend, Erika.  The couple is headed toward marriage, at least that’s what Erika thinks, but Mark has been keeping some secrets about his family’s sordid past.  A visit from Mark’s mother leads to some uncomfortable revelations for all involved.  This is a well-written film; I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Mark and his brother, Hal, played by Joshua Hutchinson. Hutchinson and Lizzie Ross, who plays Erika, stand out in this film for me.

“Harrison Montgomery”

Daniel Davila’s “Harrison Montgomery” plays on Fri. Feb 20, at 7:15 PM. This film follows an aspiring artist, Ricardo, played by Octavio Gómez Berríos, who lives and creates his art in San Francisco’s rough Tenderloin neighborhood. Ricardo deals drugs to get by.  He ends up in a tangle; owing money to his boss and forced to move into a room at the grimy Hotel Boyd.  At his new place, Ricardo meets single mother Margo and another Hotel Boyd tenant, Harrison Montgomery, played soulfully by Martin Landau.   Montgomery is an eccentric and aging shut-in, who may have won the lottery years before. I won’t go too much more into the story, but it’s a surprisingly inspirational film filled with solid performances.  Of note to me was the gritty production design and the beautiful cinematography of the rarely featured Tenderloin.

by Christopher Potter, FilmClick.com

Go to: www.sfindie.com for show times, more information and tickets.

Recognizing both national and international filmmakers alike, SF DocFest celebrates some of its bay area pride, both in content and creators. Always a haven for interesting documentary filmmakers, the bay area locals at Docfest this year present a wide variety of views and subjects for local audiences, many of them shot right at home.

HEAD TRIP (85 min), set at the beginning of the Iraq war, follows a bus-load of San Francisco characters as they crisscross across the USA on a quixotic/good-will journey to NYC. They drop in on noteworthy American monuments and oddball artists along the way with their own “roadside attraction”: three giant Doggie Diner Heads that they tow with them on their adventure.

Produced by Laughing Squid. John Law is an original Suicide Club member, charter member of the Cacophony Society and co-founder of Burning Man festival. Flecher Fleudujon is a film professional and co-founder of the Yard Dogs Roadshow & Revue.

Sunday, October 26 at 7:15 PM at Roxie Cinema

Monday, October 27 at 9:30 PM ROxie Cinema

GOING On 13 takes us on a four year ride of puberty, from Tweety Bird to Bow Wow, double dutch to chat rooms, Daddy’s girls to first deceptions, as we watch o Ariana, Isha, Rosie, and Esme let go of childhood and fumble - or sprint - toward an uncertain future. For each of these California girls of color, puberty is a whirlwind of change and new choices.

Meet Esmeralda, Mexican American, first to complete her daily schoolwork and first in her class to have a secret boyfriend; Ariana, African American, who goes from tomboy to popular girl as her family struggles to leave the poverty of West Oakland; Rosie, mixed race Latina, precocious and sunny at 9, but dangerously alienated as a pre-teen; and Isha, an immigrant from India, who despite her devotion to her traditional family, explores Internet teen chat-rooms with user names like ‘ghetto girl’ and ‘cutie pie.’

Going on 13 shows us a reality far more complex than what we are used to seeing in the media about pre-teen girls and urban girls of color. Through intimate interviews and cinema verite footage of the everyday drama of their changing lives, Isha, Rosie, Esme and Ariana remind us that it is the small moments of insight that usher us down the rough road from childhood to adulthood.

Saturday, October 18 at 5:00 PM at Roxie Cinema
Wednesday, October 22 at 7:15 PM at Roxie Cinema
Sunday, November 2 at 7:15 PM at Shattuck Cinema

B. Douglas Robbins’s DEBATE TEAM puts a whole new spin on the idea of competition as it explores the bizarre subculture of competitive college debate. Competitors battle at 360 words per minute, hauling around mountains of evidence called “cards” and nearly every debate ends in global nuclear annihilation.

In 2005, nearly 200 teams converged atSan Francisco State to compete in the National Championship. The documentary follows four teams, from Michigan State, Harvard, West Georgia, and Berkeley in their quest for the national title.

Exploring the potentially dangerous history of college debate teams, what emerges is not simply a chronicle of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, but a more disturbing examination into the nature of competition itself and the American fetish with championships and champions.

Sunday October 19 at 7:15 PM at Roxie Cinema
Tuesday October 21 at 7:15 PM at Roxie Cinema
Sunday November 2 at 9:30 PM at Shattuck Cinema

I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW focuses on two individuals, Jeff and Kelly, who claim in love with the 80’s pop singer Tiffany. Fifty-year-old Jeff Turner, a man from Santa Cruz, CA has been going to Tiffany concerts since 1988. Diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, he has never had a girlfriend. Jeff spends his days on the streets of Santa Cruz, striking up conversations with anyone who has a moment to spare. Kelly McCormick is a 35-year-old intersex person from Denver, CO, who claims to have been friends with Tiffany as a teenager and credits Tiffany as the shining star who been the motivation for everything in Kelly’s life.

Both Jeff and Kelly have been labeled stalkers by the media and other Tiffany fans. This film takes you inside the lonely lives these two characters, revealing the source of their clinging obsessions. This age-old story of unrequited love is a comedic and emotional trip through themes of desperation, isolation, and hope, illustrating that having something, or someone, to believe in can be more powerful than anything realit has to offer.

Friday, October 24 at 9:30 PM at Roxie Cinema
Wednesday, October 29 at 9:30 PM at Roxie Cinema
Saturday, November 1 at 7:15 PM at Shattuck Cinema

THE LONG HAUL shares the journey of a lesbian couple who journey cross-country on their move from New Jersey to California. As they attach their 1956 Airstream Caravan to a Ford F250 pickup, Martha and Lavonne, who have been together for almost two decades, test their patience athey navigate through the Deep South. Driving by day, drinking and camping by night, they show us that they’re like any other couple. Whether it’s sharing a plate of biscuits in South Carolina, bickering over map directions, or being devastated about church ladies shutting down their favorite bar in Louisiana—Martha and Lavonne try to ride it out for the long haul.

Thursday, October 30 at 9:30 PM at Roxie Cinema
Sunday, October 26 at9:30 PM at Roxie Cinema
Monday, November 3 at 7:15 PM at Shattuck Cinema

THE PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE: The Life & Times of Charles R. Garry

One of the most influential criminal defense attorneys of the 20th century, Charles R. Garry (1909-1991) became a household name during the 1960s with his defense of a host of revolutionary political icons, including Huey Newton and Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party. This documentary seeks to fill the gap Seale wrote about nearly thirty years ago in his autobiography Seize the Time: “We don’t know every detail of Charles’ life, but we can see that he is a man who is dedicated to the survival and the existence of the right to self-determination of human beings. We need a lot more history on Charles R. Garry so we can understand what motivates a man to be such a defender of the people’s human rights.” An outspoken advocate for the underdog, Garry’s career came to an unexpected and tragic halt in 1978, when his client, the Reverend Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple, led over 900 of his followers in mass suicide at Jonestown. This documentary recounts Garry’s life through the voices of those who knew him best—family, fellow attorneys and former clients. Interviewees include: Black Panther Party leaders Bobby Seale, Kathleen Cleaver, Ericka Huggins and David Hilliard; famed historian and civil rights activist Howard Zinn; and Jim Jones’s son Stephan Jones.

Friday, Oct 17 at 9:30 PM at Roxie Cinema
Wednesday, October 29 at 9:30 PM at Roxie Cinema
Monday November 3 at9:30 PM at Shattuck Cinema

East Bay Express 24 Hour Digital Film Festival
April 22, 2008
Berkeley, CA

Growing in popularity, “Iron Chef” style film competitions are springing up in major cities on a regular basis. The competitions usually involve a basic theme and/or common props that must be incorporated into the finished film and submitted under a tight deadline. The frenetic pace and common goal leads to a very fun, lively, yet stressful shoot. Perfect for friends to enjoy together. Local newspaper East Bay Express held one this weekend to commemorate Earth Day.

For the Earth Day theme, the filmmaking teams had to follow the general guidelines: 1. Film must be set in a dystopian future; 2. Five of the following items must be used: a vial, a picture of Bush, a gauze, a particle respirator, army men, a candle, and/or a VHS tape; 3. A line of dialogue from various films; and 4. An East Bay Express news rack.

Some teams incorporated the items into the plot of their films, while others used it as background. The ones that used the objects the best were those that incorporated it into the plot without making it the centerpiece. The films I liked most would standout on their own, seen separately from the context of the film fest.

Tone is also very important. Some films go for camp, some go for a more art house look, while others try to create more of a narrative. I’m a big fan of camp for these, as random, non-sequitur humor lends itself well to conditions like these.

Team The Collective’s How to Survive Climate Change, a send-up on old government public alert type films from the Nuclear Era scare, won the top prize and was an easy choice. It had a camp, but not overly camp tone with some well composed shots.

Team The Scruff’s Earthday 2012, a short involving dolls, took second. This probably had the darkest tone out of all the films shown; yet seeing it acted with puppets really lightened it. Having a spaceship also helped, and who can resist a film with spaceships and dolls anyway?

Team Smarmy Pedantic’s Earthday, took third. This was one of the most camp entries, involving three people in an enclosed area, lots of jump cuts to dialogue to keep it moving along, and was largely dialogue driven. I’m not sure how much was improv, but it feels like a fair bit.

Two films that didn’t get awards that I enjoyed were The Contingency Plan and a film that didn’t make it in on time but was shown anyway. The Contingency Plan created a drama with the most artistic shots and had the highest production value. The late film was the campiest entry, and received the best reaction from the audience.

In the end, these types of competitions are great at generating a creative atmosphere and a sense of fun. You can tell that the crews had a great time making these films. Watching these, you can’t help but think of the type of film you would make under similar conditions. I highly encourage anyone interested in film to enter these competitions.

By Courtney Sid, FilmClick Staff, csid@filmclick.com