May 15, 2002
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Extra Andrea
Nemerson's Norman
Solomon's nessie's Tom
Tomorrow's
PG&E and the California energy crisis Arts and Entertainment Electric
Habitat Tiger
on beat Frequencies
Culture Techsploitation
Without
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PERSONALS | MOVIE CLOCK | REP CLOCK | SEARCH
Script DoctorDIY DocFestLOCATION, LOCATION , location? At this point, it seems the crew that puts together S.F. Indiefest and its cousins, the Digital Underground festival, the Women+Independent+Film series, and this week's S.F. DocFest, could hold their screenings in public toilet stalls on Market Street and still get audiences. In five years the festivals have moved from venue to venue, and not the usual rep zones either. We're talking a church, a loft, and a children's museum, in addition to the Fine Arts, the Roxie, the Lumiere, and the Galaxy. This year's DocFest screenings take place at Studio Z, and festival founder Jeff Ross hopes to improve the comfort level for patrons who've only recently recovered feeling in their extremities after living through last year's on hard wooden church pews. "If you buy a serious pass," he informs me, "we're going to give you pillows for our folding chairs." After the festival's over, club promoter, bar manager, and tireless DIY movie-screening machine Ross starts a series of free screenings with more folding chairs at Jezebel's Joint on Larkin Street. Among the DocFest films that sound intriguing are a SXSW Jury Award winner on spelling bees and the strange worlds that surround them (Spellbound), celluloid commentary from a cast of sub-celebrity thousands on They Might Be Giants (Gigantic – A Tale of Two Johns), the story of Star Wars fans waiting in a six-week-long line to see Episode I (Starwoids), and one film I can truly vouch for: the puzzling, dramatic story of a Chicago independent/experimental filmmaker named Allen Ross, who vanished under mysterious circumstances (Missing Allen). The latter piece, by German filmmaker Christian Bauer, avoids the clichés of American movies on similar topics – the flow of tears is minimal, real, and deeply felt as the filmmaker muscles past police departments too busy or corrupt to actually investigate the case. Traveling from Illinois to Oklahoma to Wyoming in the process, dropping in on some of the country's stranger obsessions and fascinations, Bauer offers revelations about the United States that are as haunting as the sordid clues to his friend's disappearance. Pins, needles: that pillow should come in handy. For the full schedule and more information, see First Runs, in Film listings. (Susan Gerhard) Boy troubleIn 1995, Patti Smith wrote her ode to Kurt Cobain, "About a Boy," and in 1998, Nick Hornby wrote his. By the time Hornby's novel, About a Boy, makes it to the screen this week, Cobain has no part in it. It's about a boy, just not that one. "It's no longer 1994, and Kurt Cobain's suicide doesn't play a part in the movie," brothers and directors Paul and Chris Weitz tell me over the phone in the middle of a busy day of media interviews, before being interrupted by a call from Hugh Grant. "We have a whole new ending. We thought it was weird to do a period piece based only eight years ago." While you may not reach Nirvana the way you planned with it, I'm going to trust them. After their work in Chuck & Buck, meeting the psychosexual needs of a bizarre character who could have been created only by Mike White, they've earned it. Plus, even though their publicity materials state that they are of "third generation Hollywood pedigree" (their grandfather an agent, their parents a fashion designer-writer and actress), the two directors, who, between them, have worked with Woody Allen, Jackie Chan, and Chris Klein (!), tell me their true Hollywood connections all come from Wesleyan University. Clearly these guys can think on their feet. See Movie Clock, in Film listings, for show times. (Gerhard) |
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