Repertory Film Listings

Commentary by Gregg Rickman (greggr2006@yahoo.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. For additional Reps Etc. listings, go to sfweekly.com.

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.

THURSDAY (May 3): To mark International Workers' Day, Travis Wilkerson's fascinating documentary about the IWW and its legacy, An Injury to One (2002) screens on 16 mm, with filmmaker in person. $6 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY (May 4): Mountainfilm on Tour Film presents a program devoted to "Urban Sustainability" including an anthropological look at The Lost People of Mountain Village (Neal Marlens, Carol Black, 2005), demonstrating "Why Bad Things Happen to Bad Civilizations." The life of metropolitan hens is told in Chickens in the City (Christie Herring, 2004). Light refreshments are promised — tea and coffee, but will there be water? $6 7 p.m.

SATURDAY (May 5): Dispatches from Rebel Mexico, Other Cinema's Cinco de Mayo program, offers films by Jill Friedberg and firsthand reportage by Caitlin Manning on the ongoing Oaxaca rebellion, plus Greg Berger and the collective Canal Seis de Julio on other developments there 8:30 p.m.

BALBOA
3630 Balboa (at 38th Avenue), 221-8484, www.balboamovies.com. $8.50 save as noted. This great neighborhood house shows films of all sorts.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Domestic Import (Kevin Connor, 1996) 12:30, 2:40, 4:50, 7, 9:10 p.m. On the Balboa's second screen, Amazing Grace (Michael Apted, U.K., 2006; 1, 5, 8:55 p.m.) and Miss Potter(Chris Noonan, U.K., 2006; 3:10, 7:10 p.m.STARTS FRIDAY: Call for films and times. CASTRO
429 Castro (near Market), 621-6120 and www.thecastrotheatre.com for regular programs, (925) 866-9559 and www.sffs.org for the San Francisco International Film Festival, here off and on all week. $10 regular programs, $12 SFIFF programs save as noted. Short-run rep in a spectacular 1922 Greco-Roman-themed palace designed by Timothy L. Pflueger. Evening intermissions feature David Hegarty on the Mighty Wurlitzer.

WEDNESDAY: The 50th San Francisco International Film Festival resumes here with the Directing Award recipient, Spike Lee, who'll be honored with clips, an on-stage interview from ex-Ex film critic Wesley Morris (now with the Boston Globe, a somewhat more prestigious sheet), and a screening of Acts II and III of Lee's worthy Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke (2006). $25 7:30 p.m.

THURSDAY: A Big Gay Movie Night presentation of Steel Magnolias (Herbert Ross, 1989), all about tough southern belles — a "gay favorite." $7 admission goes in part to benefit the LGBT Mental Health non-profit, New Leaf. 7 p.m.

FRIDAY: SFIFF's Peter J. Owens Award, for a career of acting, goes to Robin Williams, honored in person with clips, onstage interview with Armistad Maupin, and a screening of the Holy Grail tale The Fisher King (Terry Gilliam, 1991). What, no Bicentennial Man? $25 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: SFIFF — "Notes to a Toon Underground," a program of animation with live music. $20 8:30 p.m.

SUNDAY: It's Reaganism gone mad with an "Indiana Jones" triple bill of Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981; 2, 9 p.m. ), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Spielberg, 1984; 4:10 p.m. ) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Spielberg, 1989; 6:30 p.m. ). Where's the Shia LeBoeuf? $10 for all three.

MONDAY: SFIFF — Manitoba madman Guy Maddin's latest Brand Upon the Brain! (Canada, 2006), with an original score performed live, plus Foley artists, a benshi and a "castrato" (don't be too sure about the quote marks, publicists — this guy revives silent films by making silent films. If he wants to revive certain musical traditions, what's to stop him?). $20 8 p.m.

TUESDAY: Theater closed.

CLAY
2261 Fillmore (at Clay), 267-4893, www.landmarktheatres.com. In addition to its regular films, and occasional special programs, a midnight movie series starts this weekend. $9.75.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY (May 4 & 5): Even when watching it back in 1984, W. D. Richter's The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension looked like it had been designed to be a "midnight movie" — the object of a cult, rather than either achieved art or an evening's entertainment. This tale of scientist superhero plays like an in-joke you're not in on. Join the cult at midnight.

DARK ROOM THEATRE
2263 Mission (between 18th and 19th "between the pawn shop and the laundromat"), 401-7987, www.darkroomsf.com. Live cabaret, plus regular film screenings with audience cat-calling encouraged. $5 save as noted.

SUNDAY (May 6): "Bad Movie Night" screens Razzie nominees for Worst Picture of 2006 this month. Tonight, the winner — Basic Instinct 2 (Michael Caton-Jones, U.K.) 8 p.m.

FOREIGN CINEMA
2534 Mission (between 21st and 22nd streets), 648-7600), www.foreigncinema.com. Free with meal. This restaurant screens foreign films, usually in 35 mm, 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.

DAILY: The great Philippe Noiret is Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, in exile in Il Postino (Michael Radford, Italy, 1994), through May 27 "Starts at dusk."

LUMIERE
1572 California (at Polk), 352-0810, www.landmarktheatres.com. This multiplex is only partly a "calendar house" rep theater. $9.75.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Diggers (Katherine Dieckmann, 2006) 5, 7:30, 9:55 p.m.