GGA: Documentaries
Always in Season
Directed by Jacqueline Olive
USA | Documentary | 89
Description:
Juxtaposing an investigation of the recent mysterious death of teenager Lennon Lacy, found hanging from a swing set in North Carolina, against the little-known ritual of present-day lynching reenactments, first-time feature director Jacqueline Olive presents harrowing proof of how little has changed in terms of justice and jeopardy for Black men and women. Narrated by Danny Glover and featuring Osei Essed’s haunting score, Always in Season is a forceful, unforgettable investigative documentary that shatters the notion that racial violence is a thing of the past.
Kabul, City in the Wind:
Directed by Aboozar Amini
Afghanistan | Documentary | 88
Description:
The deep-seated effects of decades of conflict in Afghanistan are memorably revealed through the lives of three Kabul residents in Aboozar Amini’s mesmerizing observational documentary. In this deeply personal and resonant film, the resilience of Abas, a sensitive yet oppressed bus driver whose meager livelihood is jeopardized when his vehicle breaks down, is juxtaposed with two young brothers, Afshin and Benjamin, who are thrust into assuming the roles of providers when their father flees to Iran. Winner of the Special Jury Award at IDFA.
The Seer and the Unseen
Directed by Sara Dosa
USA | Documentary | 86
Description:
The volcanic rock that covers most of Iceland is not just beautiful and protected in the Nature Conservation register, it is also purportedly the home to elves, trolls, and other hidden people. When a new road is set to be built through a lava field, environmentalists including Ragnhildur “Ragga” Jónsdóttir—a “seer” who can communicate with the elves—must fight to preserve the sacred rock while combating Iceland’s push to grow economically in this magically real fable by Sara Dosa (The Last Season, Festival 2014).
Midnight Family
Directed by Luke Lorentzen
USA | Documentary | 81
Description:
The Ochoa family runs a hair-raisingly frenetic private ambulance service in Mexico City. Director Luke Lorentzen captures the madness of their curbside negotiations—the service they provide is an add-on to Mexico’s under-resourced public health system—and the truly life-and-death drama of their everyday existence in a thrilling vérité style. Most of all, we become part of the remarkable Ochoa clan, with their big hearts, business savvy, and a remarkable sense of humor in the face of their chosen harrowing profession.
Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America
Directed by Tom Shepard
USA | Documentary | 84
Description:
Powerfully and heartbreakingly detailing the challenging process that LGBTQ refugees must go through to find safety and security while starting over in the US, Tom Shepard’s (Scout’s Honor, 2001) inspiring new documentary profiles four people who have come to San Francisco to save their own lives. Over the course of this unforgettable group portrait, Subhi (from Syria), Junior (from Congo), and Mari and Cheyenne (from Angola) experience roadblocks and triumphs as they reflect on their respective histories and try to create a home for themselves in an environment that is not always welcoming.
Midnight Traveler
Directed by Hassan Fazili
USA | Documentary | 87
Collaborations:
SFFILM presents a collaboration with the essential NGO Human Rights Watch, a global leader in research and advocacy around human rights topics. While Midnight Traveler touches on many concerns, the freedom of artists is top of mind and will kick off our conversation with Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director, Middle East and North Africa Division, at Human Rights Watch.
Description:
When the Taliban forces filmmakers and married couple Hassan Fazili and Fatima Hussaini to flee Afghanistan with their two daughters, they begin filming their time on the road, which includes running across borders, sleeping on roadsides, interacting with smugglers, and staying at multiple refugee camps along the way. Poetically shot entirely on three cell phones, Midnight Traveler immerses viewers in the ongoing and heartbreaking refugee crisis, capturing the family at their most desperate and yet most loving, as they try to stay hopeful without a place to call home.
Pahokee
Directed by Patrick Bresnan, Ivete Lucas
USA | Documentary | 112
Description:
In their feature debut, award-winning documentarians Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan intimately share the lives and aspirations of four high-school seniors of color as they anxiously prepare for life outside Pahokee High School. In a rural, tight-knit town in Southern Florida, their high school is like none other, with an undefeated football team uniting the community and a prom that brims with gowns, tuxedos, and vintage cars. Lucas and Bresnan employ a graceful, poetic approach to their material that grants the many emotional moments in the film great authenticity.
Over the Rainbow
Directed by Jeffrey Peixoto
USA | Documentary | 71
Description:
“Easy to criticize a religion when you’re outside it,” says one of the subjects in Jeffrey Peixoto’s mesmerizing debut film, a poetic examination of the Church of Scientology that focuses on its fringes. Weaving together accounts of alien abductions, art dealing, E-meters, and the Sea Organization with interviews from active and inactive members of the Church, Over the Rainbow is a moody and absorbing film that, without passing judgment, approaches the religion thoughtfully and with care, revealing unexpected nuances of the relationship of humans to their faith.
The Hidden City
Directed by Víctor Moreno
Spain | Documentary | 80
Description:
Prepare to journey underground, where darkness drapes the screen and only slivers of light from machines and headlamps lead the way. Cavernous, damp, and mesmerizing, Victor Moreno’s The Hidden City observes a world being built underneath Madrid’s feet, one that immerses the viewer in blackness, where the only interactions are between the powerful machines that are working their way through dense rock, builders working in complete solitude, and the creatures that dare to venture that far underneath the surface.
Honeyland
Directed by Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov
Macedonia | Documentary | 85
Description:
The surprise hit at Sundance, where it won three awards, including the World Cinema Documentary Grand Prize, Honeyland is a visually stunning human portrait that has something sweet for everyone. Hatidze lives with her ailing mother in the mountains of Macedonia, making a living cultivating honey using ancient beekeeping traditions. When an unruly family moves in next door, what at first seems like a balm for her solitude, becomes a source of tension when they, too, want to practice beekeeping, while disregarding her advice.
GGA: New Directors
Debt
Directed by Vuslat Saraçoglu
Turkey | Fiction Feature | 95
Description:
The travails of a duty-bound husband and father who works in an economically struggling print shop are conveyed with humor and pathos in this beautifully performed Turkish film. Tufan is basically a kindhearted fellow who takes in a neighbor with emphysema and helps his daughter nurse a wounded bird. But as tensions at work rise and the increasingly sickly houseguest begins to strain his marriage, Tufan begins to wonder if trying to live a life that is just and good is worth the trouble. Winner Best Film, Istanbul Film Festival.
Moments
Directed by Beata Parkanová
Czech Republic | Fiction Feature | 93
Description:
Anezka has some serious family issues—her mom is relentlessly judgmental, her dad’s a know-it-all, and her grandmother has cancer—but tries to remain sanguine about the resulting demands placed on her. Lovely and down to earth, she seems to offer everyone in her life, including her married lover, what they need from her, but what is she doing about her own future? This journey of self-discovery becomes the pivot for the small points of reckoning that Parkanová’s film depicts with such tenderness and nuance, abetted by Jenovéfa Boková’s gracious and generous performance in the lead role.
Suburban Birds
Directed by Qiu Sheng
China | Fiction Feature | 118
Description:
Repeating motifs—sleep, birdwatching, buildings in decay—weave together two distinct storylines in Qiu Sheng’s mysterious, atmospheric debut. In one story, land surveyors investigate a tilting building, while in the other a group of kids searches for their friend who has vanished from school. Though both feature a character named Xiahao, the narratives intersect in ways that only deepen the mystery of what is taking place and when. With nods to the work of Hong Sang-soo and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Suburban Birds crafts a tale where the past seems to literally invade the present.
The Sound of Silence
Directed by Michael Tyburski
USA | Fiction Feature | 87
Description:
Peter Lucian (Peter Sarsgaard) holds the keys to Manhattan—at least to how it sounds. He is a house tuner, hiring himself out to people who are uneasy in their apartments, but his real life’s project is mapping the city according to the note each neighborhood possesses. Unfortunately, his need for scientific recognition threatens to further ostracize him into the realm of crackpot. Sarsgaard is quietly commanding as the obsessive Peter, and he’s surrounded by an impressive Dolby Atmos soundscape in which a toaster’s hum can be the linchpin to a good night’s sleep.
The Load
Directed by Ognjen Glavonić
Serbia | Fiction Feature | 98
Description:
Though rarely spoken of, the unseen contents of a plain, white cargo van are at the center of Ognjen Glavonić’s tense and moving political drama about moral responsibility during times of war and conflict. Leon Lucev plays Vlada, a driver for hire for the Serbian government, transporting a vehicle from Kosovo to Belgrade, whose journey takes him into unexpected territory, both physical and ethical. Glavonić’s absorbing film occasionally departs from Vlada’s trip, following secondary characters and moments, details that subtly underline the omnipresent circles of moral culpability and their impact.
The Chambermaid
Directed by Lila Avilés
Mexico | Fiction Feature | 102
Description:
Twenty-four-year-old Evelia cleans rooms at an upscale Mexico City hotel while taking advantage of its adult education program in her off hours. Though introverted and task-focused, she becomes drawn into the lives of several guests and coworkers, trading duties with Minitoy, an outgoing and ribald woman, and shyly flirting through glass with a handsome window washer. Set exclusively within the hotel, its rooms (both before and after Evelia’s handiwork) and back corridors, The Chambermaid perfectly and poignantly details its protagonist’s life and work with deft cinematography and a script that makes every word count.
The Harvesters
Directed by Etienne Kallos
South Africa | Fiction Feature | 104
Description:
Sensitive teenager Janno’s parents are deeply invested in religion, Afrikaner solidarity, and their farm, while the boy’s interests lie elsewhere. When his parents bring a troubled but charismatic kid named Pieter into the household, a struggle for dominance ensues, and the film powerfully examines masculinity in white South African culture. As Pieter slyly draws various family members under his spell, Janno begins to sense possibilities in his displacement as favored son. Etienne Kallos’s debut is a strong and pitiless drama about the intersection of familial and cultural dynamics.
The Little Comrade
Directed by Moonika Siimets
Estonia | Fiction Feature | 96
Description:
In 1950 Estonia, the Soviets are working to suppress a fledgling resistance movement that has arisen in the countryside. Six-year-old Leelo can’t quite understand exactly why her mom has been arrested or why her father is disappointed to hear her championing the “young pioneers” she sees marching at school. With a deft balance of humor, tension, and empathy, Siimets’s debut shows how the evils of authoritarianism can come cloaked in appealing guise for those too young or gullible to know better.
Paper Flags
Directed by Nathan Ambrosioni
France | Fiction Feature | 102
Description:
Displaying a mature style and sensibility despite his age, Paper Flags director Ambrosioni (at 19, one of cinema’s youngest directors of a full-length feature ever) offers a complex and compelling story of sibling tensions. Vincent (shape-shifting character actor Guillaume Gouix), recently released from prison, immediately heads to his sister Charlie’s (Noémie Merlant) modest home. The film carefully tracks Charlie’s sense of unease around her brother’s return—she pretends he’s just an acquaintance when she’s out with friends —until a visit from their father causes their simmering resentments to boil over.
Global Visions
Belmonte
Directed by Federico Veiroj
Uruguay | Fiction Feature | 75
Description:
A moody Uruguayan artist who paints nudes, Belmonte is facing a midlife crisis while preparing for an exhibition. As his ex-wife prepares for motherhood with her new lover, he seeks a closer relationship with his precocious daughter Celeste and feels an urge to come to terms with other relationships both past and present. Director Federico Veiroj, as he’s done in prior Festival films The Apostate (2015) and A Useful Life (2010), presents a doleful and obsessive middle-aged protagonist, wringing pathos and humor out of Belmonte’s struggles with life and career.
Central Airport THF
Directed by Karim Aïnouz
Germany | Documentary | 97
Description:
Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport ceased operations in 2008, but reopened in 2015 as an emergency refugee camp. Tackling the refugee crisis in a brand-new way, director Karim Aïnouz (Madame Sata, Festival 2003) covers a year of life at Templehof, capturing the day-to-day experiences and struggles of residents and aid workers with rare intimacy and empathy. Though the documentary is deeply humanistic, Aïnouz is also alert to the remarkable topography and unique architecture of the airport and the irony of its status as a holding place for people who have nowhere to go. Winner of the Amnesty International Film Prize at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival.
Asako I & II
Directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Japan | Fiction Feature | 119
Description:
Amid a fireworks display, love hits Baku and Asako with a bang. Dreamy and distracted, Baku mysteriously disappears six months later, and a devastated Asako moves from Osaka to Tokyo, where she meets her former beau’s exact lookalike who claims his name is Ryohei and has no knowledge of Baku. Taking a cue from Vertigo‘s doppelganger scenario but changing the gender dynamics, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s (Happy Hour, Festival 2016) new film immersively explores his heroine’s shifting emotional tides, with stellar performances by Erika Karata as Asako and Masahiro Higashide as Ryohei and Baku.
Core of the World
Directed by Nataliya Meshchaninova
Russia/Lithuania | Fiction Feature | 124
Description:
A mild-mannered vet named Egor is caught between a group of animal rights activists and the proprietors of the dog-training farm where he works in this complex naturalistic drama. Plunging deeply into her characters’ lives, Nataliya Meshchaninova’s second feature portrays Egor attempting to find his moral center in an environment where the distinction between what’s right and wrong isn’t always easy to grasp. Viewers with a sensitivity to animal mistreatment may find some scenes challenging, but the director’s compassion towards her characters, whether two- or four-legged, is evident throughout.
Florianópolis Dream
Directed by Ana Katz
Argentina | Fiction Feature | 106
Description:
A beach holiday turns into a wry romantic roundelay as an Argentinian couple and their kids are taken under the wing of a randy and vivacious Brazilian man who offers them his family’s home to rent. As the two different broods come to know one another, partaking of local karaoke, bodysurfing, and seaside walks, a variety of dalliances and separations arise. Deftly juggling characters of different ages, generations, and amorous expectations, Florianópolis Dream perfectly captures those vacations where the days are breathtakingly full of possibility. At Karlovy Vary, the film won the FIPRESCI Prize, a Special Jury Prize, and the Best Actress Award for the radiant Mercedes Morán.
Bloodroot
Directed by Douglas Tirola
USA | Documentary | 97
Description:
Douglas Tirola’s (Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon, Festival 2015), latest documentary traces the evolution of feminism through the lives of two exceptional women, Noel and Selma, who came of age in the ’50s when women were relegated to the roles of wives and mothers. During the height of the women’s movement, Noel, a former teen model and Playboy bunny, meets and falls in love with Selma, a tough, outspoken radical feminist. Both women choose to leave their comfortable, yet unsatisfying marriages and children to come out as lesbians. The two share a love of cooking and gardening and, in the ’70s, open Bloodroot, the first vegetarian collective restaurant and bookstore in Bridgeport, Connecticut. By interspersing archival footage and clips from The Stepford Wives, Tirola affectionately chronicles the cultural shifts of the last 40 years as Noel and Selma attempt to keep Bloodroot open as an indispensable gathering spot for progressive women.
Colewell
Directed by Tom Quinn
USA | Fiction Feature | 79
Description:
In tiny Colewell, Pennsylvania, the residents gather at the post office for mail and gossip, while the days pass quiet and serene. That is until news comes that the office is to close, and beloved clerk Nora (a marvelous Karen Allen) is left to fight for her job and reflect on the choices she has made that kept her in Colewell for so many years. Touching, with a hint of melancholy, Tom Quinn’s eloquent film is an ode to small-town life and the quiet emotions that come with nostalgia and memories of the past.
What We Left Unfinished
Directed by Mariam Ghani
Afghanistan | Documentary | 71
Description:
From 1996-2002, the negatives of the Afghan Film Archive were bricked up behind a poster of Mullah Omar. In 2013, director Mariam Ghani gained access to this archive and found several unfinished films made between 1978 and 1991. From the literal buried treasures of the films themselves – excerpts from which whet the appetite for more – to interviews with the filmmakers, who tell stories of using real bullets and dangerous explosives, this astute, entertaining, and illuminating documentary tracks a portion of Afghan film history through the lens of the country’s complicated political history.
Rojo
Directed by Benjamín Naishtat
Argentina | Fiction Feature | 110
Description:
Set in 1975 Argentina, Benjamin Naishtat’s (History of Fear, Festival 2014) noirish drama tells the story of a morally compromised lawyer. Claudio is being investigated over a shady real estate deal in the months leading up to the right-wing coup that ousts Isabel Perón. With a style reflective of the 1970s, from the grainy visual palette to the use of zooms, slow motion, and deep focus, Rojo adroitly captures a deeply unsettled time in Argentina when a corrupt political system encouraged a general lawlessness and moral vacuity among its populace.
Nothing Fancy: Diana Kennedy
Directed by Elizabeth Carroll
USA | Documentary | 85
Description:
Reflecting on her life’s work as one of the globe’s authorities on Mexican cuisine, 95-year-old Diana Kennedy says, “Always get a recipe.” Whether hosting cooking classes in her Michoacán home (“If anyone says they don’t like cilantro, please don’t invite them”), driving back roads in her weathered Nissan, or providing a noteworthy example of sustainable living, Kennedy and her reminiscences and irascible persona show how passion and appetite made a career. Though the film remains focused indelibly on Kennedy, Bay Area food luminaries Alice Waters and Gabriela Cámara offer penetrating insights of their own. Winner, Special Jury Recognition for Excellence in Storytelling, SXSW.
Winter’s Night
Directed by Jang Woo-jin
South Korea | Fiction Feature | 92
Description:
While stranded overnight in a remote temple town, middle-aged couple Eun-ju and Heung-ju are cast adrift with strangers in a mysterious environment. The objective of the couple’s visit was to try and capture the spark of their younger years but it instead unfolds as an inquiry into the current state of their relationship, in the conversational vein of master directors Hong Sang-soo and Abbas Kiarostami. The evocative wintry setting and enigmatic origins of the subsidiary characters add just the right element of Shakespearean magical realism to Jang Woo-jin’s intimate, moving story.
When I’m a Moth
Directed by Zachary Cotler, Magdalena Zyzak
USA | Fiction Feature | 91
Description:
With sensitivity and a dreamy visual style, When I’m a Moth fictionalizes a moment in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s life when different paths could have been taken, while others seem destined. In the summer of 1969, Hillary (a brilliant Addison Timlin) finds herself working at a cannery in Alaska. When she meets two Japanese fishermen—Ryohei (TJ Kayama) and Mitsuru (Toshiji Takeshima)—and strikes up an intimate friendship with one of them, she experiences anxiety about her immediate future, while remaining sure of her ambition for public office.
Ramen Shop
Directed by Eric Khoo
Singapore | Fiction Feature | 90
Description:
After his father’s death, bicultural chef Masato heads to Singapore to find out more about his mother and the culinary bounty that has made the island city-state such a foodie destination. Guided by food blogger Miki, Masato seeks the perfect recipe for his mom’s pork rib soup, little knowing that the secret could reside with his extended family. Without ignoring the hostilities that still simmer from the Japanese occupation, Singaporean director Eric Khoo gives mouthwatering evidence to the idea that food can not only satisfy the stomach, it can heal the heart.
We Believe in Dinosaurs
Directed by Clayton Brown, Monica Long Ross
USA | Documentary | 99
Description:
Williamstown, Kentucky, is home to the Ark Encounter – a “life-size” creationist museum of Noah’s Ark, filled with all of the creatures that traveled in its hull, including dinosaurs. With incredible access to the park leading up to its opening, filmmakers Clayton Brown and Monica Long Ross expose the larger system behind the creationist movement, piecing together the many factors that have led to the museum presenting its information as historical fact, and the people who are fighting to set the scientific record straight.
Premature
Directed by Rashaad Ernesto Green
USA | Fiction Feature | 89
Description:
The tender, heartbreaking, and complicated nature of young love is delicately and sensually captured in Rashaad Ernesto Green’s (Gun Hill Road) latest film. Ayanna is a talented poet spending her final summer in Harlem before leaving for college. When she meets the southern-born Isaiah (handsome newcomer Joshua Boone) and falls in love, complications arise that challenge their relationship and her future. Anchored by an incredible performance by co-writer and lead actress Zora Howard, Premature spotlights love and the tiny obstacles that add up to make or break a partnership.
In My Room
Directed by Ulrich Köhler
Germany | Fiction Feature | 119
Description:
What if the apocalypse happens not with a bang but with a whimper? And what if you were the only survivor yet didn’t have an affinity for life in the first place? These are some of the issues explored with droll humor in Ulrich Köhler’s (Sleeping Sickness, Festival 2012) latest film. After falling asleep in his car, Armin awakens to find that everyone around him has vanished. What it means for him to be truly alone, and whether he actually is, are but two of the many revelations the film has in store.
The Innocent
Directed by Simon Jaquemet
Switzerland | Fiction Feature | 113
Description:
A take-no-prisoners deep dive into religious belief, Simon Jaquemet’s daring and devious second feature profiles Ruth, an evangelical woman who works in an animal testing facility and believes her former lover has mysteriously returned. As the past invades the present, Ruth’s orderly life becomes tumultuous, and she pinballs from prayer camps to sex clubs while trying to understand if her old boyfriend is more than a figment of her imagination. The Innocent is bold and adventurous fare, filmed in cool tones but fired by Judith Hoffmann’s extraordinary performance in the central role.
The Beast in the Jungle
Directed by Clara van Gool
Netherlands | Fiction Feature | 87
Description:
This unique film combines rich cinematography, breathtaking landscapes, and arresting moments of contemporary dance to explore the inner worlds of two star-crossed lovers in a ravishing adaptation of a Henry James short story. Accomplished dancers Dane Jeremy Hurst and Sarah Reynolds race through time, from the Victorian era to the present day, unable to find in words what their bodies convey through, at first, paroxysmic movements of pain and then lyrical evocations of the loneliest fears within us all.
Tehran: City of Love
Directed by Ali Jaberansari
Iran | Fiction Feature | 102
Description:
Three Tehran residents, unlucky in love, make attempts to change their solo status in this wistful and poignant film. A bodybuilder, a funeral singer, and a woman who works in a beauty clinic – each character finds that the pursuit of their respective dreams puts them in sight of a real emotional connection, yet something intervenes. By examining the circumstances that derail his protagonists within the larger context that Tehran’s title implies, writer/director Jaberansari provides a pointed take on contemporary Iranian society.
Show Me the Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall
Directed by Alfred George Bailey
USA | Documentary | 92
Description:
Iconic images of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and just about every legendary music act of the 1960s and ’70s defined the career of San Francisco photographer Jim Marshall. Behind the scenes, a pugnacious personality and appetites for drugs and guns made him his own worst enemy. This riveting documentary includes rich archival Marshall interviews and contemporary observations from subjects, colleagues, loved ones, and friends, putting a towering talent and his life into perspective while showcasing the prodigious work that made him immortal.
Mothers’ Instinct
Directed by Olivier Masset-Depasse
Belgium | Fiction Feature | 97
Description:
Best-pal neighbors and moms Céline and Alice see their friendship take a darker turn when a devastating accident hits one of their households in this delightfully twisty period thriller that combines the tense thematic perversities of Alfred Hitchcock and an eye-popping sense of color and decor that recalls the Technicolor best of Douglas Sirk or Pedro Almodóvar. Skillfully uncovering the fault lines of 1950s suburban niceties, Belgian director Masset-Depasse finds the sinister side of maternal devotion as Céline and Alice move from martini glasses and cubed cheese to knives and chloroform.
Well Groomed
Directed by Rebecca Stern
USA | Documentary | 88
Description:
Feast your eyes on the world of competitive dog grooming, where dogs are the canvas and the awards go to the wildest, most vibrant, and imaginative use of animal hair. In Rebecca Stern’s must-see-to-believe debut, groomers and their show-stopping pooches prepare to compete at the world’s largest show, the Groom Expo. Well Groomed shows how a dog can represent ET, Jurassic Park, or an entire farm.
Recommended for ages 10 and up. Furry friends are welcome at the April 21 screening; dogs must be registered and sit on the floor, but do not need a separate ticket!
The Edge of Democracy
Directed by Petra Costa
Brazil | Documentary | 108
Description:
“Our democracy was founded on forgetting,” states filmmaker Petra Costa, an ever-present narrator guiding us through Brazil’s political history, one that has been rife with an incredible amount of controversy. Examining her native country’s democracy from when it began in 1985, focusing on Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva and Dilma Rousseff’s careers, Costa interweaves the personal and political to show just how fragile a people’s government can be when information is kept from the public and those in power refuse to operate in the best interests of the masses.
Jawline
Directed by Liza Mandelup
USA | Documentary | 99
Collaborations:
Join us after the April 19 screening for a special conversation around authenticity and the effects of social media with the filmmakers and special guest Jeff Handcock, Professor of Communication and Founding Director of the Stanford Social Media Lab, who is a world leading expert on the psychology of social media, including how it affects our emotions, thoughts, and relationships.
Description:
Handsome 16-year-old Austyn Tester dreams of parlaying his moderate social media following into fame, as a way to escape his life in Tennessee and become a star. Garnering enough attention online to get management, he finds out firsthand how difficult it is to remain connected with his followers. Following Austyn, talent managers, and other influencers, filmmaker Liza Mandelup delves into the world of video blogging, from emotionally fraught IRL meet-and-greets to behind-the-scenes discussions of “authenticity,” and shows what happens to the talent in the fleeting industry of social media.
Golden Gate Award Competitions
Suburban Birds, Kabul, City in the Wind, The Seer and the Unseen, The Sound of Silence, Midnight Family, Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America, Midnight Traveler, Pahokee, Over the Rainbow, Always in Season, The Load, Moments, The Littke Comrade, Paper Flags, Debt, The Hidden City, The Chaimbermaid, Honeyland…
Shorts 4: Animation
Description:
This wildly eclectic, international collection of animated short films showcases the brilliance and innovation of filmmakers who push the boundaries of the form. Discarded materials, germs, and creatures imaginary and otherwise are presented in a vast array of styles to entrance and beguile all who appreciate the power of animation to create visually incandescent and narratively imaginative worlds.
Total running time 75 min
Titles are listed alphabetically rather than in order of play. All films are in competition.
Bless You!
This whimsical short depicts a world where sneezing and the spread of germs transform and mutate in surprising ways.
(Paulina Ziólkowska, Poland 2018, 5 min)
Cold Pudding Settles Love
This abstract animated short uses multiple styles of animation and elliptical narrative to tell a vividly imagined story about order and disorder.
(Urszula Palusińska, Poland 2018, 19 min)
Confidence Game
Bay Area experimental filmmaker Kathleen Quillian’s latest work artfully examines the art of deception for personal gain.
(Kathleen Quillian, USA 2018, 6 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Don’t You Forget About Me
Artist Lydia Ricci’s amazing miniatures of vintage appliances and discarded objects made from scrap materials are celebrated in this delightful tribute to the mundane.
(Lydia Ricci, USA 2018, 4 min)
Fest
An ingenious and audacious short featuring a cacophony of sound, imagery, and outrageous abandon, takes us to the site of a wild festival.
(Nikita Diakur, Germany 2018, 3 min)
From Under Which Rock Did They Crawl Out
Striking black-and-white animation traces the expansion of creatures from land, sea, and air.
(Daniel Šuljić, Croatia 2018, 6 min)
I’m OK
Bold colors, broad painterly brushstrokes, and a dramatic operatic score accentuate this historical romance between Alma Mahler and Expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka.
(Elizabeth Hobbs, Canada 2018, 6 min)
Maniac Landscapes
Flowers reanimate in this hypnotic, surreal work set within an environment saturated in varying shades of red and blue.
(Matthew Wade, USA 2018, 8 min)
Mitya’s Love
Based on the story by Boris Shergin, Mitya’s Love is an impressionistic, romantic tale of fleeting love using images of Russian avant-garde artists.
(Svetlana Filippova, Russian Federation 2018, 14 min)
Selfies
A hysterical lampoon and pointed critique of our overwhelming obsession with selfies.
(Claudius Gentinetta, Switzerland 2018, 4 min)
Shorts 2
Description:
The perfect party goes comically awry when the help decides not to show up. Scared and worried callers flood a hotline in San Francisco looking for more information on their rights when confronted by ICE. A Native American teen competes in the fast-paced sport of indigenous relay racing. These are just a few of the provocative and timely scenarios explored in in this collection of narrative and documentary shorts.
Total running time 89 min
Titles are listed alphabetically rather than in order of play. All films are in competition.
Director’s Commentary
What starts as director’s commentary to the film of the same title, begins to take on new life as the characters, the commentators, and the narrative devolve into a blurred reality of the film it thought it was and the dance film it wanted to be.
(Jonn Herschend, USA 2018, 10 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Dunya’s Day
All Dunya wants to do is throw the absolute perfect graduation party to impress her rival “friends,” but things start to unravel quickly.
(Raed Alsemari, USA/Saudi Arabia 2018, 14 min)
Enforcement Hours
A San Francisco rapid response hotline tries to help anyone involved in an ICE raid, as calls range from worried individuals who are unsure if they are a target to xenophobic messages that are trying to hold up the process, in the newest film from Paloma Martinez (Crisanto Street, Festival 2018).
(Paloma Martinez, USA 2018, 12 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Fast Horse
Siksika Nation lead horseman, Cody Big Tobacco, is training a new horse and hoping to win an upcoming Calgary Stampede in this fast-paced, dynamic look at the extreme sport of Indian relay racing.
(Alexandra Lazarowich, Canada 2018, 14 min)
Lost World
As millions of tons of sand from Cambodia are being cultivated and shipped to build new land mass in Singapore, livelihoods and natural surroundings are being slowly impacted in devastating ways.
(Kalyanee Mam, USA/Cambodia 2018, 16 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
The Slows
The Slows are the last humans that give birth and age naturally in a world that has almost erased all suffering. When a researcher enters into their territory, she sees the beauty of motherhood and learns that science does not have to be the only way, but it may be too late for the Slows.
(Nicole Perlman, USA 2018, 23 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Shorts 6: Family Films
Description:
Sometimes the key to growing up is staying young at heart. These inventive and touching stories imagine unsuspecting friendships and clever innovations, while capturing the joy and sadness universal to all. Travel with the whole family to Brazil, the moon, and even your own backyard in this lively and heartwarming collection of stories. Works range from new student work to Academy Award and Emmy-nominated shorts, represented by noted studios like Cartoon Saloon and Google Spotlight Stories.
Recommended for ages 5 and up.
Total running time 66 min
Titles listed alphabetically rather than in order of play. All films are in competition.
Back to the Moon
A charming illusionist, an adventurous queen of hearts, and an evil green man journey through early cinema, celebrating the artistry and magic of Georges Méliès.
(FX Goby, Hélène Leroux, USA 2018, 3 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Belly Flop
Penny, a fearless young girl learning to dive, is unperturbed by a talented diver who keeps stealing the spotlight.
(Jeremy Collins, Kelly Dillon, South Africa 2018, 5 min)
In Bloom (Fé Bhlàth)
Tending to the last thing his love gave him, a man toils to make a delicate flower flourish and grow.
(Ross Stewart, Ireland 2018, 5 min) In Gaelic.
Lost & Found
In this touching short, two stuffed animal pals put it all on the line in the name of friendship.
(Andrew Goldsmith, Bradley Slabe, Australia 2018, 8 min)
One Small Step
A dream that took seed in Luna’s heart when she was young takes on new meaning with experience and age in this Oscar-nominated short.
(Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas, USA/China 2018, 8 min)
The Pen Licence
Share in this heart-warming journey as Tiana and her classmates struggle to survive a coming-of-age ritual experienced by every Australian child.
(Olivia Peniston-Bird, Australia 2018, 9 min)
The Pig on the Hill
When Duck moves in next door to the reclusive Pig, he learns not only how to become friends, but how to build bridges. (John Helms, Jamy Wheless, USA 2018, 6 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Pre-School Poets: A Poem About All Different Things
Written by a four-year old poet, this hand-crafted animation opens a portal into the real world of the limitless imagination of kids.
(Nancy Kangas, Josh Kun, USA 2018, 2 min)
Right on Tracks – It’s All Family
Exploring timely topics through music, this song broaches all the different types of families, welcoming us all to practice kindness and cheer.
(Johny Kelly, UK/USA 2019, 2 min)
Rooftop Kiters
Children living in the tough favelas of Brazil find moments of joy and respite in flying beautiful kites from their rooftops.
(Daniel Ribeiro de Castro Paiva, Brazil 2018, 5 min) In Portuguese with English subtitles.
Sam’s Dream
A small mouse relies on his cleverness and his friends to make his crazy dream of flying with swallows come true.
(Nölwenn Roberts, France 2018, 7 min)
Slurp
A boy finds a simple solution to help his grandmother slurp her soup.
(Florent Hill, France 2018, 4 min) In French with English subtitles.
Shorts 7: Youth Works
Description:
See the world as interpreted by today’s teen filmmakers. From South Korea to Israel, with stops in the Bay Area, take in an exciting collection of ideas, genres, styles, and new voices in this collection of short films made entirely by youth. Sit back and hold tight, you are about to experience the beginning of a cinematic revolution. Recommended for ages 12 and up.
Total running time 74 min
Titles listed alphabetically rather than in order of play. All films are in competition.
All Down the Road
Two runaways grapple with the pangs of missing home and the unbearable burden of total freedom.
(Sarah Jones, USA 2018, 12 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Boba
Slurp! Splat! Squish! A tapioca pearl refuses the fate of its peers and goes on the adventure of a lifetime to save itself from peril.
(Kristina ‘Krispy’ Tran, USA 2018, 2 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Car Thieves
A couple recalls the best apartment they’ve ever lived in, with the worst neighbors next door.
(Olive E. Starfas, USA 2018, 3 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Charley Horse
A young woman faces the tough choice between what tradition expects of her and her punk artist lifestyle. Change, while painful, might ultimately be best. In Hebrew with English subtitles.
(Luna Garcia, USA/Israel 2018,10 min)
Element
A young couple deals with the denial of their love in a world that continues to shut out those who are different.
(Taeseong Choi, South Korea 2018, 10 min) In Korean with English subtitles.
Farewell
A recent high-school graduate recollects simple pleasures from her childhood before she moves away for college.
(Tyler Davis, USA/Ireland 2018, 3 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
I Am Alive
A group of young vampires experiments with love, belonging, and coming of age.
(Miles Potter, USA 2018, 6 min) In English and French with English subtitles.
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
The Last Straw
Explore the complex issues behind ocean pollution through the views of both youths and professionals alike, learning about the causes, effects, and harms of oceanic pollution. The film offers a unique perspective from the point of view of today’s teens who will soon inherit this massive problem.
(Julian Jordan, USA 2018, 12 min).
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Meeting at Half Past Five
There is no doubt that the world is cruel and corrupt. One evening Philip gets another proof of this.
(Daria Litvichenko, Russian Federation 2018, 4 min)
Mistaken Love
A nonfiction short that takes on the ever-troubling social issue of sexual harassment, the #MeToo movement, and what it means to love and respect each other.
(Jamahl Edwards, USA 2018, 5 min).
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
This House Has Eyes
An eyeball living inside the walls of a house watches over a father and son who anxiously face the end of the world.
(Theo Taplitz, USA 2018, 7 min)
Shorts 5: New Visions
Description:
Each of these new experimental works explores the influence of pop culture on the physical form of our bodies. In the attempt to re-evaluate our cultural perceptions, memory becomes distorted but the material remains. Pop singers, soap operas, and media re-enactments twist the original patterns of our memories, senses, and flesh.
Total running time 88 min
Titles are listed alphabetically rather than in order of play. All films are in competition.
The Labyrinth
Led through the lush greenness of the Colombian jungle, a man divulges the bizarre connection between a notorious drug lord and the soap opera Dynasty, crafting a journey of lunacy, credibility, and survival.
(Laura Huertas Millán, Colombia/France 2018, 21 min)
Life After Love
Stationary loneliness, anxieties, and automatic responses permeate the lives of individuals in a parking lot.
(Zachary Epcar, USA 2018, 8 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Mixed Signals
Amid the serenity of the sea, nautical codes convert into auxiliary messages of physical and sensory damage.
(Courtney Stephens, USA/United Arab Emirates 2018, 9 min)
Now and There, Here and Then
The digital frame is both accessible and distorted as a girl confides to her mother 5000 miles away – a virtual portrait of distance and generations.
(Sun Park, UK/South Korea 2018, 12 min)
Pelourinho, They Don’t Really Care About Us
The words of W.E.B Du Bois reference a disturbing past, while echoes of Michael Jackson’s music haunt the streets, in Owusu’s (Mahogany Too, Festival 2018) latest work that searches for meaning of Black skin, discrimination, and self-consciousness in Brazil.
(Akosua Adoma Owusu, USA/Ghana 2018, 9 min)
That Woman
Using original transcripts and source material, this sardonic recreation starring George Kuchar as Barbara Walters, reimagines the Monica Lewinsky interview, thus reframing a media spectacle that plays with seductive performativity while sharply questioning women’s roles in the media.
(Sandra Davis, USA 2018, 22 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Traces with Elikem
A literal corporal imprint of the skin, beautifully expressing the layers of history and identity.
(Ariana Gerstein, USA 2018, 7 min)
Shorts 1
Description:
Travel to a quartet of far-flung locales with this eloquently cinematic program of documentary and narrative short films. From refugee children in Sweden beset by a mysterious illness to a remote mountain schoolhouse in Kyrgyzstan to a faith-healing session in Kashmir, these works offer extraordinarily compassionate views of families and individuals facing internal and external hardships with grace and humor.
Total running time 93 min
Titles are listed alphabetically rather than in order of play. All films are in competition.
Ad Astra
There’s no such thing as a snow day in Kyrgyzstan as a teacher and her students together forge a path to the schoolhouse in this stunningly shot observational documentary.
(Aisha Sultanbekova, Kyrgyzstan 2018, 20 min)
Brotherhood (Ikhwène)
Tensions arise between a Tunisian father and his sons when the elder returns from Syria with a mysterious new wife.
(Meryam Joobeur, Canada/Tunisia 2018, 25 min)
The Dispossessed
A Xerox technician in Kashmir moonlights as a faith healer renowned for ridding people of spirits that are overwhelming them. From the director of Valley of Saints (Festival 2012).
(Musa Syeed, India 2018, 8 min)
Life Overtakes Me
The strange and sad illness known as Resignation Syndrome, where children of asylum seekers withdraw completely to the point of catatonia, is delicately and movingly profiled in three separate cases by Bay Area filmmakers Haptas and Samuelson.
(John Haptas, Kristine Samuelson, USA/Sweden 2018, 40 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Shorts 3
Description:
The personal becomes political in this selection of narrative and documentary films. From a musical extravaganza about loving your neighbor to a hair-raising portrait of medics on the frontline in Venezuela to the provocative story of a young woman pushing her boyfriend’s sexual boundaries, these films tackle their topics in bold and vibrant fashion.
Total running time 85 min
Titles are listed alphabetically rather than in order of play. All films are in competition.
Eat the Rainbow
This effervescent musical from director/producer Brian Benson, featuring a Bay Area all-star cast, shows us what the world could be if we all celebrated our differences and “lived our life in Technicolor.”
(Brian Benson, USA 2018, 19 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.
Edgecombe
The personal stories of three Black residents reveal the persistent practice of Jim Crow discrimination laws in Crystal Kayiza’s poetic documentary portraying life in a small North Carolina town.
(Crystal Kayiza, USA 2018, 15 min)
Fuck You
Young, hip, and gorgeous Alice, who can get any boy in town, challenges her loving but conservative boyfriend to explore a new sex aid.
(Anette Sidor, Sweden 2018, 14 min)
Green
The extraordinary risks of undocumented workers are dramatically depicted in this compelling film about two Turkish pedicab drivers living clandestinely in New York City. Winner of the Sundance Shorts Jury Award for US Fiction.
(Suzanne Andrews Correa, USA 2018, 13 min)
Scenes from a Dry City
A visually stunning documentary illustrating how the water crisis in Cape Town mirrors the lasting racial and class division between white and Black South Africans.
(Simon Wood, François Verster, USA/South Africa 2018, 13 min)
Where Chaos Reigns
In 2017, Venezuelans around the country took to the streets after years of oppression. This visceral short documents the fearlessness and patriotism of several doctors and a devoted medical student who defy the corruption in their country by choosing to remain and serve.
(Braulio Jatar, Anaïs Michel, USA/Venezuela 2019, 10 min)
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