Cinema on Ice

You probably haven't heard of Matt Archbold, and here’s why: He was a surf phenom from San Clemente, way down in Orange Country, 20 years ago. So why is Henry Rollins narrating a documentary about him? Could be the tats — Archbold is drenched in ink. More likely it’s the drugs and alcohol, which appealed to the young man as only those things can. The doc Archy chronicles the surfer who should have been the missing link between legends Tom Curren and Kelly Slater but wasn’t. Still, he never quit the sport — he spent many of his hazy years on Hawaii's North Shore — and lasting fame in the surfing world very rarely concerns career wins. The film kicks off the Frozen Film Festival tonight, followed by RFK — Personal Quests for Truth, which probes the mysteries of Robert Kennedy's assassination, as well as a shorts program that includes The Ghost in the Material, a doc about imprisoned artist William Noguera, who narrates the film by cell (heh) phone. Saturday's highlights include "nerd documentaries" (the history of Slurpee, geek-rap) and El Señor Presidente, a feature from Venezuela based on the 1946 novel by Nobel laureate Miguel Angel Asturia, the filming of which so displeased Hugo Chavez that he banned the movie and set about shutting down the TV station that funded production. The festival closes Sunday with a quirky doc about Lee Kazimir, who took to heart Werner Herzog's famous quote about how young filmmakers should skip film school and instead take a long walk — Kazimir did so for six months through seven countries in Europe.

It starts tonight with Archy at 5:30 at the Roxie New College Film Center (3117 16th St. (at Valencia)), 3117 16th St. (at Mission), S.F.
July 11-13, 2008