THIS YEAR'S STRONG San Francisco Jewish Film Festival lineup brings together established heavy hitters (Chantal Akerman's Tomorrow We Move, a comic, commercial effort by the feminist experimental pioneer), box office sensations (the closing-night Nina's Tragedies, which recently swept the Israeli Academy Awards), and a program of shorts from the Sam Spiegel Film School, where directors such as Nir Bergman (Broken Wings) studied before making their feature-length debuts. Programmer Nancy Fishman has also made some obscure finds, such as Valery Fokin's Metamorphosis, based on the Kafka story, in which Fokin and lead actor Evgeny Mironov achieve a Cronenberg-level creep factor through camera angles and contortions rather than special effects. Another dark adaptation worth seeking out: Sidney Lumet's 1964 take on Edgar Lewis Wallant's unrelentingly grim (and undersung) novel The Pawnbroker.

The SFJFF gathers a potent array of documentaries, including perhaps the two best recent movies to examine Israel-Palestine border conflicts, Yoav Shamir's sober, rigorous Checkpoint (winner of the Golden Gate Award at this year's San Francisco International Film Festival) and Hany Abu-Assad's gregariously rebellious Ford Transit. From their viewpoints to their methodologies, Shamir and Abu-Assad's films – both of which were written about at length earlier this year in the Bay Guardian – provide an insightful study in contrasts.

The Fight (Barak Goodman, USA, 2003) Essential viewing for boxing buffs and pretty damn fascinating for everyone else, The Fight chronicles the two fateful matches between German Max Schmeling and American Joe Louis in the tense 1930s. Schmeling – the toast of the 1920s Berlin cabaret crowd – was officially Hitler's favorite boxer when he first met Louis in 1936. But Schmeling was actually a pretty complex guy; he was never a Nazi Party member, and The Fight suggests his alliance with Hitler was more an indication of his go-with-the-flow personality (even when the flow involved pure evil) than anything else. Meanwhile, Louis, the son of Southern sharecroppers who moved to Detroit in search of auto-industry jobs, used his incredible way with a punch to climb to the top of the outrageously racist boxing world; along the way, he became an African American folk hero and a beacon of light for the whole country at a time when the depression lingered and war was imminent. Remarkable vintage footage, along with contemporary interviews with friends, eyewitnesses, and historians, weave not just the play-by-play of the iconic fights but also the life stories of a pair of champs who couldn't have been more different yet remain forever linked in sports history. Sun/25, 6:45 p.m., Castro. Also Aug. 1, 11:30 a.m., Wheeler; Aug. 4, 6:30 p.m., Century; Aug. 8, 2:30 p.m., Rafael. (Cheryl Eddy)

Garden (Adi Barash and Ruthie Shatz, Israel, 2003) When handsome Nino isn't self-consciously swaggering, he displays the restlessness of a puppy. Dudu is a long-limbed teen with an old man's voice and a left arm covered with track marks connected to a hand that usually clasps a burning cigarette. This pair of hustlers from the Garden – a tricking and drug-dealing zone in Tel Aviv – try to call the shots in Adi Barash and Ruthie Shatz's documentary, if not in Israeli society, where their youth, sexuality, and Arab ethnicity are subject to unsympathetic systems of power. Stylish almost to a fault, Barash and Shatz's filmmaking approach allows Nino and Dudu plenty of time and space to dramatize and mythologize their lives, trusting that viewers will be able to discern the differences between what they claim and what the camera – which often seems just as drawn to the allure of the city at night, though not quite as allergic to the workings of bureaucracy – witnesses. July 28, 9:15 p.m., Castro. Also Aug. 2, 8:45 p.m., Wheeler. (Johnny Ray Huston)

Hitmakers: The Teens Who Stole Pop Music (Morgan Neville, USA, 2001) The incredibly fertile songwriting turf that was Times Square's Brill Building in the 1960s forms the backdrop of this upbeat doc, which showcases the talented, prolific, and alarmingly young crop of Brooklyn-bred Jewish kids who helped give birth to early rock 'n' roll. Old footage and new interviews featuring plenty of familiar faces – Carole King, Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, Don Kirshner, Dionne Warwick, Neil Sedaka, etc. – lend a you-are-there quality to Hitmakers: The Teens Who Stole Pop Music, which is stacked with familiar tunes so deeply ingrained in our culture (e.g., "Be My Baby," "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," "Chapel of Love") that it's hard to imagine anyone hearing them for the first time. Morgan Neville's doc explores the origins of these classic songs, featuring old demos sung by King and others and anecdotes on what inspired the writers to pen certain lyrics. Though the down years – caused by, among other things, the British Invasion, more socially conscious songwriters like Bob Dylan, and sweeping changes in the music biz – are also discussed, Hitmakers is mostly a fond stroll down nostalgia lane, with a soundtrack that testifies to the era's continuing significance. Thurs/29, 6 p.m., Castro. Also Aug. 1, 6 p.m., Century; Aug. 4, 4:30 p.m., Wheeler; Aug. 7, 6:30 p.m., Rafael. (Eddy)

I Like Killing Flies (Matt Mahurin, USA, 2003) Sometimes the subject makes the movie. Such is the case with Matt Mahurin's terrific, invigorating documentary. We may be only midway through 2004, but some kind of award for best all-around performance in a film has to go to Kenny Shopsin, owner of and chief cook at Greenwich Village restaurant Shopsin's. An anti-Emeril with a flair for swears and a mind for philosophy, Shopsin welcomes Mahurin into the idiosyncratic inner workings of his soul kitchen – no small thing, considering first-time customers are usually shown the door and parties of five are always kicked out on their asses. If Shopsin likes you, he just might solve your pancakes-or-macaroni-and-cheese quandary by making you a macaroni and cheese pancake, and that kind of ingenuity characterizes his amazing 900-item menu and his restaurant, which connects a tight-knit family to a community without any of the sanctimony such concepts usually contain. Whether likening egg whites to wet pussy or reminiscing about the one time he considered "Jew bastard" a compliment, Shopsin repeatedly proves screenwriters can't craft dialogue this good. As for the title phrase, in a typical passage, he extends an observation about high-flying insects into a commentary on political warfare that in turn becomes a statement about the human condition. I love I Like Killing Flies. July 29, 1 p.m., Castro. Also July 31, 9:15 p.m., Wheeler; Aug. 3, 4:15 p.m., Century. (Huston)