Reps Etc.

Times compiled from information available Tuesday; it's always advisable to call for confirmation. Price given is standard adult admission; discounts often apply for students, seniors, and members.

We're interested in your film or video event. Please send materials at least two weeks in advance to: Film Editor, SF Weekly, 185 Berry, Suite 3800, San Francisco, CA 94107. ARTISTS' TELEVISION ACCESS

992 Valencia (at 21st Street), 824-3890, www.atasite.org. $5 save as noted. This venue offers all manner of strange and unusual video and film. p> SATURDAY (Dec. 22): A program of new experimental works concludes the Other Cinema's fall season with such films as Rodney Ascher's Sparklehorse, Cade Bursell's Skate, Patrick Nguyen's Biker Dave, the premiere of Matt McCormick's Going to the Ocean, and many more 8:30 p.m.

CASTRO

429 Castro (at Market), 621-6120, www.thecastrotheatre.com. $7. Short-run rep in a spectacular 1922 Greco-Roman-themed palace designed by Timothy L. Pflueger. After a long absence a refurbished Castro, with new seats, reopens this week. Evening intermissions feature David Hegarty or Bill McCoy on the Mighty Wurlitzer.

WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY: Closed for remodeling.

MONDAY: The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus performs "Home for the Holidays," its 13th annual concert. Call 865-3650 for ticket availability. $15 5, 7, 9 p.m.

STARTS TUESDAY: A new print of John Waters' Female Trouble (1974), starring Divine; this remastered "special edition" screens through Jan. 1 2, 4:30, 7, 9:20 p.m.

FINE ARTS CINEMA

2451 Shattuck (at Haste), Berkeley, (510) 848-1143, www.fineartscinema.com. $7 save as noted. Berkeley's innovatively programmed art house puts on some of the most conceptually daring double bills in town.

WEDNESDAY: David Lynch tries out linear narrative in the well-made The Straight Story (1999; 7:30 p.m.), with an excellent performance, his last, by Richard Farnsworth. It screens with Jay Capela's cute short film Breathe and is followed by Chris Smith's American Movie (2000; 9:35 p.m.; also Sun 5:25 p.m.), a documentary about a man's desperate efforts to complete his no-budget horror film in Menomonee Falls, Wis.

THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY: The fifth annual Footage Dance Festival screens dance films from all over the world 7:30 p.m. Tony Gatlif's Gadjo Dilo (France, 1997; 9:15 p.m.; also Sun 5:35 p.m.), about a young ethnomusicologist who falls in with Romanian Gypsies.

STARTS MONDAY: Closed for the holidays, through Jan. 1.

FOREIGN CINEMA

2534 Mission (between 21st and 22nd streets), 648-7600, www.foreigncinema.com. Free with meal. This restaurant screens foreign films, usually in 35mm, on the back wall of its outdoor patio, with drive-in speakers available for the tables of those who want to watch while they dine. Closed Mondays and Christmas.

DAILY (save as noted): Richard Quine's Bell, Book and Candle (1958), starring James Stewart and Kim Novak the same year they teamed in Vertigo, also features Jack Lemmon in this glossy comedy of magic. Screens through Dec. 30 6, 8 p.m.

LUMIERE

1572 California (at Polk), 352-0810, www.landmarktheatres.com. This multiplex is only partly a "calendar house" rep theater; for the rest of the Lumiere schedule, see our Showtimes page. $7.50.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Veit Helmer's Tuvalu (Germany, 1999); see Ongoing for review 5, 7:10, 9:30 p.m.

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (Dec. 21-27): That Turnadot is fair play for Zhang Yimou and Zubin Mehta's collaboration on Rossini's opera is the burden of Allan Miller's documentary The Turandot Project (Italy/China, 2001). See Opening for review 5:10, 7:25, 9:45 p.m.; also Fri-Sun 12:30, 2:45 p.m.

PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE

2575 Bancroft (at Bowditch), Berkeley, (510) 642-1124, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. $7, second show $1.50. The East Bay mecca for film scholars, part of UC's Berkeley Art Museum, thrives at its on-campus location, up the steps on Bancroft between Telegraph Avenue and the Hearst Gym.

DAILY: Theater closed through Jan. 3.

PARKWAY

1834 Park (at Lake Merritt), Oakland, (510) 814-2400, www.picturepubpizza.com. $5 save as noted. Pizza, beer, and movies on two screens. Call theater for programs, booked a week in advance. The Parkway also offers occasional scheduled special programs.

THURSDAY (Dec. 20): Bob Clark's droll adaption of the late Jean Shepherd's A Christmas Story (1983) displays some of the childlike wit that might as well have been applied to Harry Potter. $6 6:30, 9:15 p.m.

SATURDAY (Dec. 22): The first annual Blackdot Ritual Film Festival screens two 35mm works in its inaugural year, films devoted to "the SPIRIT of different folks in the African Diaspora." Today, Sankofa (Haile Gerima, Burkina Faso, 1993), about a fashion model transported to the age of the slave trade while visiting modern Africa. For more info on this series call (510) 553-6629 or e-mail mommakofa@mac.com 3 p.m.

SUNDAY (Dec. 23): Free projection-TV screenings of afternoon NFL football games continue through Dec. 30 noon-4 p.m. Blackdot Festival - Two women are mysteriously bound in Maanagamizi (Martin Mhando and Ron Mulvihill, Tanzania/U.S., 2000), billed as a "spiritual journey" 3:30 p.m.

MIDNIGHT SHOW (Saturday): The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975) with live performance by Barely Legal. $6.

RAFAEL FILM CENTER

1118 Fourth St. (at A Street), San Rafael, 454-1222, www.finc.org. $8 save as noted. This three-screen repertory theater is operated by the Film Institute of Northern California. Programs are complex; check carefully and call for confirmation.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Charles Laughton's scary, faux-naif thriller The Night of the Hunter (1955) 7 p.m. The Business of Strangers (Patrick Stettner, 2001) 7:15, 9:15 p.m. The Endurance (George Butler, 2000) 9 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: The fifth annual Footage Dance Film Festival screens dance films from all over the world 7, 9:15 p.m.