Reps Etc.

TUESDAY (March 30): The S.F. Jewish Film Festival opens a 12-week series with a movie about the liturgical music Chaazanut, Chants of Sand and Stars (Nicolas Klotz, France, 1997). $9, series tickets available 8 p.m.

LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER

3105 Shattuck (at Prince), Berkeley, (510) 849-2568, www.lapena.org.

THURSDAY (March 25): The International Latino Film Festival offers monthly screenings here. Tonight, Queen of the Gypsies, a Portrait of Carmen Amaya (Jocelyn Ajami, U.S./Spain, 2002), a documentary about the revolutionary flamenco dancer of the 1920s and '30s. $8 7:30 p.m.

MECHANICS' INSTITUTE LIBRARY

57 Post (near Market), 393-0100 and www.milibrary.org for information; phone or e-mail rsvp@milibrary.org for reservations. $5. This cultural asset of long standing screens films on projected video, with salon-style discussions to follow.

FRIDAY (March 26): "Cinema Lit" continues a month of Marlene Dietrich films with Dietrich and Gary Cooper socko in Josef von Sternberg"s Morocco (1930), the moody, studio-bound piece that made Dietrich an American star 6:30 p.m.

MONDAY (March 29): "The Contemporary Documentary," a film screening and discussion series hosted by SF Weekly contributor Michael Fox, offers Journeys With George (Aaron Lubarsky and Alexandra Pelosi, 2002), an inside record of the 2000 Bush campaign. $7 7 p.m.

PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE

2575 Bancroft (at Bowditch), Berkeley, (510) 642-1124, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. $8, second show $2. The East Bay mecca for film scholars, part of UC Berkeley's Art Museum, thrives at its on-campus location, up the steps on Bancroft between Telegraph Avenue and the Hearst Gym.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Closed for Spring Break.

FRIDAY: A Chantal Akerman series screens the Belgian formalist feminist's The Captive (2000), a version of Proust about a jealous young man, his mistress, and his allergies 7 p.m. A woman takes two lovers (nocturnal and diurnal, Jack and Joseph) in Night and Day (1982) 9:10 p.m.

SATURDAY: A Pavel Jurácek series continues with the Jurácek-scripted post-human science-fiction The End of August in the Hotel Ozone (Jan Schmidt, Czechoslovakia, 1967) 7 p.m. Jurácek's free adaptation of Jonathan Swift, A Case for the Young Hangman (1969) 8:50 p.m.

SUNDAY: Two more works of Pavel Jurácek-scripted imagination, The Jester's Tale (Karel Zeman, 1964; 3:40 p.m.), an animated farce about a lad trying to avoid the Thirty Years' War, and the dark science-fictional Ikarie XB-1 (Jindrich Polák, 1963; 5:30 p.m.).

MONDAY: Theater closed.

TUESDAY: Chantal Akerman's border-patrolling A Voice in the Desert (2003), and a portrait of a cellist, With Sonia Wieder-Atherton (2003) 7:30 p.m.

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.

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.cafilm.org. $9 save as noted. This three-screen repertory theater, now officially the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, is operated by the California Film Institute. Programs are complex; check carefully and call for confirmation.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: The Tracker (Rolf de Heer, Australia, 2002) 6:45, 8:45 p.m. Touching the Void (Kevin MacDonald, U.K., 2003) 7, 9:05 p.m. Kitchen Stories (Bent Hamer, Norway, 2003) 6:30 p.m. Balseros (Carles Bosch and Josep Domènech, Spain, 2002) 8:30 p.m. See Ongoing for reviews.

STARTS FRIDAY: György Pálfi's Hukkle (Hungary, 2002); see Opening for more. The Tracker, Kitchen Stories, and Touching the Void continue. Call for times.

RED VIC

1727 Haight (at Cole), 668-3994, www.redvicmoviehouse.com. $7 save as noted. There's a spot on the couch for you at this collectively owned rep house.

WEDNESDAY: Gus Van Sant's bowling for Elephant (2003) 2, 7:15, 9:15 p.m.

THURSDAY: Ben Coccio's Zero Day (2003), another Columbine-inspired film, the purported video diary of two teens preparing a rampage 7:15, 9:30 p.m.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY: Satoshi Kon's humorous animated remake of the oft-filmed western Three Godfathers, Tokyo Godfathers (Japan, 2003) 7:15, 9:15 p.m.; also Sat, 2, 4 p.m.

SUNDAY & MONDAY: A woman's dealing with 13 difficult adopted children is documented in My Flesh and Blood (Jonathan Karsh, 2003) 7:15, 9:15 p.m.; also Sun 2, 4 p.m.

TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY (March 30 & 31): A loser recoups in Wayne Kramer's Vegas-retro The Cooler (2003) 7, 9:15 p.m.; also Wed 2 p.m.

ROXIE

3117 16th St. (at Valencia), 863-1087, www.roxie.com. $8 save as noted. Short-run repertory in one of the most adventurously programmed theaters in the USA.

DAILY: The course of human folly is followed in the documentary Stupidity (Albert Nerenberg, 2004), screening through April 1. See Ongoing for review 6:15, 8, 9:45 p.m.; also Sat, Sun, & Wed 2, 4 p.m.

SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE

800 Chestnut (at Jones), 822-2885, www.sfcinematheque.org. $7 save as noted. The San Francisco Cinematheque specializes in avant-garde, historical, and experimental films at venues around the Bay Area, including the Yerba Buena Center and here, its home base.

THURSDAY (March 25): A two-day program of the films of Gordon Matta-Clark records his performance art -- hanging from nets in Tree Dance, setting fire to rubbish in Fire Child. Artist's widow, Jane Crawford-Matta-Clark, in person with a documentary on Matta-Clark at work, Office Baroque 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY (March 26): Matta-Clark's restaurant Food is documented in Food; a Harold Lloyd-like climb of a skyscraper is documented in Clockshower. Panel discussion to follow 7:30 p.m.

STANFORD

221 University (at Emerson), Palo Alto, (650) 324-3700, www.stanfordtheatre.org. $6. This handsomely restored neighborhood palace usually (but not always) screens pre-1960 Hollywood fare in the best available prints, with excellent projection. This spring's series emphasizes James Stewart, detective films, and Hollywood 1934-38. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.