Commentary by Gregg Rickman (greggr1@mindspring.com). 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.
21 GRAND
449B 23rd St. (between Telegraph and Broadway), Oakland, (510) 464-4640 and www.verticalpool.com for this program. $7-12 sliding scale.
SATURDAY (Sept. 27): Antero and Sylvi Alli's film poem Lily in Limbo (2001), from a poem by H.D., screens with three additional short videos by the prolific Antero, plus three other films (including Maddy Lederman's Mermaids of Brooklyn) and musical improvisations by Sylvi Alli and Andy Nathan 9 p.m.
111 MINNA GALLERY
111 Minna (between New Montgomery and Second streets), 864-0660 and www.microcinema.com for information on this program. $5.
MONDAY (Sept. 29): The "Autumnal Edition" of the monthly "Independent Exposure Screening Series" offers 15 films from four countries marking the season"s change, including Peter Suchecki's Convolute, Skye Thorstenson's Confessions of a Piggly Wiggly Cashier, and from Pakistan, Zarin Gul's Chorus of Death 8 p.m.
ACT ONE/TWO
2128 Center (at Shattuck), Berkeley, (510) 843-FILM, www.landmarktheatres.com. $6. This duplex offers a 10-week midnight movie series (plus "drawings for valuable and coveted prizes"). For additional screenings, see our Showtimes page.
SATURDAY (Sept. 27): Teenage computer hacking nearly causes World War III in the Reagan-era fable War Games (John Badham, 1983); nowadays they'd just be sued for downloading music midnight.
ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE
345 Bush (at Polk), 775-7755, www.afsf.com. French-language films shown on projected video. $5 donation.
WEDNESDAY (Sept. 24): A man's son is killed and the father vows This Man Must Die (Claude Chabrol, 1969) 7 p.m.
SATURDAY (Sept. 27): This Man Must Die 2 p.m.
ARTISTS' TELEVISION ACCESS
992 Valencia (at 21st Street), 824-3890, www.atasite.org for most programs, www.othercinema.com for Saturday evening programs. $5 save as noted. This venue offers all manner of strange and unusual video and film.
WEDNESDAY (Sept. 24): The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Kim Bartley and Donnacha O Briain, 2003) documents via footage shot inside the presidential palace the failed 2002 coup attempt on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. $5-15 sliding scale 8 p.m.
THURSDAY (Sept. 25): ATA's monthly "Open Screening" -- you supply the entertainment. $4 8 p.m.
FRIDAY (Sept. 26): The MadCat Women's International Film Festival offers "Out of the Past," a selection of shorts on overcoming bad times -- Alys Hawkins' Crying and Wanking (romantic breakup), Krescent Carasso's Bandaid (institutionalization), Frances Nkara's Downpour Resurfacing (childhood abuse). $7-20 8 p.m.
SATURDAY (Sept. 27): ATA's Other Cinema showcases a program of experimental digital production including "image/sound amalgams" by Invisible Objects and screenings and live performances by Bryan Boyce, Les LeVeque, Nomi Talisman, and others 8:30 p.m.
BAY AREA VIDEO COALITION
2727 Mariposa (at Bryant), Second Floor, 861-3282, www.bavc.org/mediamash/ for this event. $5.
FRIDAY (Sept. 26): "Media Mash, a Bay Area networking mixer, includes projections, screenings, DJ music, and door prizes 7:30-10:30 p.m.
CASTRO
429 Castro (near Market), 621-6120, www.thecastrotheatre.com, $8 save as noted. Short-run rep in a spectacular 1922 Greco-Roman-themed palace designed by Timothy L. Pflueger. Evening intermissions feature David Hegarty or Bill McCoy on the Mighty Wurlitzer.
WEDNESDAY: Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt's "The Animation Show" offers a generous program of shorts 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30 p.m.
THURSDAY: The seventh annual Cinemayaat Arab Film Festival opens here with a reception for author Jack Shaheen (Reel Bad Arabs) at 5 p.m. and his free lecture/demonstration 6 p.m. Nawfel Saheb-Ettaba's El-Kotbia (The Bookstore) at 8:30 p.m. followed by Opening Night party; film only $9, film and party $20. See our Night & Day page for more, or go to www.aff.org.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (Sept. 26-Oct. 2): Jacques Becker's crime thriller Touchez pas au Grisbi (Don't Touch the Loot, France, 1954), with Jean Gabin 7, 9:15 p.m.; also Sat, Sun, & Wed 2, 4:30 p.m.
CLAY
2261 Fillmore (at Clay), 267-4893, www.landmarktheatres.com; www.8tales.com for this series. A weekend midnight movie series continues. For the rest of the Clay"s schedule, see our Showtimes page. $5.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY (Sept. 26 & 27): Holy mediocrity! Popular culture has never looked flatter than this movie spinoff of the then-popular TV version of Batman (Leslie H. Martinson, 1966). But imagine if it had been directed by McG? Saturday night features a Bomb Disposal Marathon midnight.
DANGER & DESPAIR KNITTING CIRCLE
182 Second St. (at Howard), Third Floor, 552-1533 or e-mail darkmarc@msn.com to reserve seats. Free with reservation; don't come without one. A "16mm Noir" series presented by the Danger & Despair Knitting Circle screens in this new location every Thursday, with round-table discussion to follow. Come at 7 p.m. for no-host bar; lobby doors locked at 8:15 p.m.
THURSDAY (Sept. 25): A "Film Noir Bad Girls" series screens The Come-On (Russell Birdwell, 1956), with Anne Baxter as a con artist who falls for her mark 8 p.m.
EL RIO
3158 Mission (at Precita near Cesar Chavez), 282-3325. The MadCat Women's International Film Festival screens programs here on Tuesdays through September on this venue's outdoor patio (or indoors if it rains). $7-20 sliding scale.
TUESDAY (Sept. 30): "Clear Visions, Silent Filmmakers" presents two shorts by pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché, Canned Harmony (1912) and the cross-dressing Officer Henderson (1913), plus three of Maya Deren's landmark inner investigations, Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946), At Land (1944), and Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). Live music by the instrumental trio Secrets of Family Happiness. Free barbecue 6:30 p.m. Films 8:30 p.m.
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