Ask yourself:

1) Do I LOVE Zombies?
2) Would I like to support local filmmakers?
3) Do I absolutely NEED to see a movie where a free puke bag is handed out?

IF you answered yes, Yes, YES!!! Then please proceed to the Victoria Theater at 16th and Mission for a limited theater release of RETARDEAD!

Retardead is a sequel to the heart-warming “Monsturd”. This movie has everything: an evil doctor, some mentally and mortally-challenged flesheaters, and the sexy Living Dead Girlz.

As I mentioned, they are handing out a limited amount of puke bags, which you may actually need in a few parts.

Last night they had a question and answer after the show.

When I asked how much blood was used, they said about 15 gallons. Now that’s art!

The number of things to do this weekend is mind-blowing. What shall it be?

Awesome local rockers 20 Minute Loop, whose new album Famous People Marry Famous People is filled with power-pop goodness reminiscent of Letters to Cleo, performs tonight at Bottom of the Hill.

The Porchlight reading series celebrates its 6th anniversary with a show on the Seven Deadly Sins, 8:00 pm at the Swedish American Hall. And tomorrow Ishmael Reed and Mistress Morgana headline Writers with Drinks at 7:30 pm at the Makeout Room.

CineKink, a program of alternative erotic films written up this week by the unsinkable Violet Blue, plays tonight at 7:00 pm at YBCA. And for the less carnally minded, Artists Television Access has The Monastery, about an old guy who buys a castle with the idea that it will some day become a spiritual retreat, and the nuns who take him up on it.

Or just hit the beach. It’s nice and cool out there today.

[Above, Harold Lloyd with a cute monkey, and Colleen Moore with a cute haircut. (The guy’s not bad either.) All featured this weekend at the Castro Theatre.]

On Friday night the San Francisco Silent Film Festival will fire up the 35mm projectors once more for a solid weekend of film at the Castro, bringing forgotten (and often, formerly lost) works back to the big screen, with live musical accompaniment. On the second night last year, the line stretched around the block and way, way down the street. And it wasn’t even opening night! I had to ask myself: is this line really for a movie that was originally released in 1928? Yes, it was, and it was awesome. I expect that this year will be just as riotous, as opening night features none other than Harold Lloyd in The Kid Brother. In case you’ve never seen one of his films, let me explain something: he’s amazingly hilarious.

Another highlight of the festival is The Man Who Laughs, starring the principal from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in the role that inspired the appearance of a certain creepy character from the Batman comics. And of course there are nine other films, all worth checking out, including one that may well have inspired Monty Python. Or not.

Tickets run from $14-$20; they’re a little cheaper for San Francisco Silent Film Society members. They also have festival passes for $140, if you’re determined to see every minute and hear every note. Get your tickets here.

Tonight and Monday mark the only two theatrical screenings of The Gits Movie in the Bay Area.

The film explores the saga of one of the better punk bands I’ve ever had the chance to see in action, whose career was cut tragically short not by the usual mix of lethargy and substance abuse, but by the singer’s horrific rape and murder as she walked home from the Comet Tavern 15 years ago this week. The startling crime sent shockwaves through the Seattle rock scene, stopped a brilliant band in it’s tracks, and suspicions and rumors ran amok for 10 years until DNA testing eventually revealed the culprit. Now a whole new generation has been discovering The Gits through their records ( including the newly issued Best Of The Gits and You Tube videos like the one below.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyCXmaRj0Wg

The film documents the faces of the post grunge era, including interviews with the band, and their friends and supporters who include Joan Jett, Kathleen Hanna, and many local SF residents including Broken Rekids label honcho (and now Rainbow Grocery beer & wine buyer) Mike Millet.

The San Francisco screening is on Monday July 7th at The Landmark Embarcadero Cinema with a special post screening Q&A with members of Seven Year Bitch.

The Oakland screening at the Uptown tonight on Saturday July 5th offers the added opportunity to see The Gits drummer Steve Moriarty now a local resident, in action with a new band he’s just started with Dead Kennedy’s bassist Klaus Flouride.

For more info see the links

7/5 Uptown Oakland or 7/7 Landmark Embarcadero in SF

With a shoulder that feels ripped apart courtesy of Chrome (that sounds very Valencia Corridor-esque), I’ve been looking for something to carry my items around SF in that won’t require Ibuprofin. That’s right: a backpack. No more shoulder bags; this time around, it’s an off-to-third grade two strap style. I noticed a heavy duty one from Freight Baggage at Freewheel, but the white would last about a week before I tried to leave for work with coffee before getting caught off guard by a stop sign.

I spent an embarrassing amount of time yesterday afternoon trying to track down Freight Baggage’s creator, Travis Poh. An online search for freightbaggage.com turned up one of those pages with a photo of a random lady and an offer to buy the URL. Uninterested in freight shipping quotes as well, I started asking strangers and messengers. “Oh yea,” one told me. “Travis. You can find him on Vallejo toward North Beach. By that cafe. Tell him Frank sent you.”

My fault for not getting enough information (or maybe the fact that it sounded a bit too much like a drug transaction). A Freight Baggage MySpace page says Mr. Poh is 100 years old–no big shock there. I was also told that he’s elusive and overworked. I could order one through a bike shop but it could take more than a month to arrive. Is it so wrong to want to end my search and find the maker in our seven-by-seven mile city?

All I want is a backpack, preferably in primary colors and within the range of my tax refund check. It doesn’t have to be big enough for me to fit in. You can stick that logo with a train car anywhere you want on it. But please, let’s end the search.

New College of California, a 37-year-old alternative school in the Mission District that offered undergraduate degrees as well as graduate degrees in psychology and law, will close its doors for good tomorrow after graduating its final class.

The school was stripped five months ago of its accreditation and hasn’t paid its staff since November. Professors volunteered their services to finish the school year for the students who didn’t transfer to other local schools such as John F. Kennedy Univeristy in the East Bay.

The future of the Roxie Theater, owned by the school since 2006, is in doubt. A New College graduate took over operation of the theater last year and is trying to put together the funds to purchase it, the Examiner reported.

Flickr photo by Steve Rhodes

By chance the other day I met Kevin Gordon, the filmmaker behind the 11-minute documentary Tellin’ It Like It Is: The Work of Elouise Westbrook. Mrs. Westbrook has been active on behalf of the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood since she moved there in 1949, and it’s clear that even at the age of 92 she remains a force to be reckoned with. She was thrust onto the national stage when, in 1973, city officials failed to get the release of allocated federal funds to tear down the old barracks at Hunter’s Point and build housing there. In response, Mrs. Westbrook took a delegation to Washington, determined not to leave without getting the funding her neighborhood was due. Eventually she succeeded, and the city received its $30 million for the project.

However, Mrs. Westbrook’s greatest ongoing success probably lies in the clinic she helped to found, the South of Market Health Center, which now has three active facilities. A fourth facility is in development, with plans to break ground in the fall: Westbrook Plaza. The Plaza honors Mrs. Westbrook’s vision of affordable healthcare and affordable housing for all, by combining the two in a single development.

The short screens tonight at 9:00 at the Kabuki, and opens for the feature Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans. Tickets available at the theater.

Earlier this afternoon I got Mr. Gordon on the phone and we talked a bit about this film and his aims as a filmmaker. Our Q&A starts below and continues after the jump.

So, how did you learn about Mrs. Westbrook in the first place?

Well, I totally lucked out: I was actually approached with the film. Another filmmaker I’d just met called me about how the South of Market Health Center wanted a tribute made for their founder, and that she (the other filmmaker) was too expensive for them, but thought I might do it for a lot cheaper. Of course, that was the case. But when I met Mrs. Westbrook, I knew that I had no choice but to make the movie. She struck me immediately as an amazing person and an amazing subject, but it wasn’t until I was really into the research that I realized how significant she really was. So everything kind of happened backwards to how you’d normally expect it to happen.
(more…)

In case you couldn’t get to the Late Show screening of Big Man Japan last Friday (see my earlier post about it here), I just noticed that you can catch it today at the Clay Theater at 4:15 PM, and tomorrow at 5:15 at the Kabuki.

It’s one of the most hilarious movies I’ve seen in a long time: it simultaneously sends up giant-monster movies like Godzilla, superhero stories, profile documentaries, athletic endorsements, anime series, and even the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. “Future cult classic” is actually a spot-on description. It’s well worth seeing.

Here’s the festival page about it. Tickets for today’s show are available at the Clay; a limited number of rush tickets will be available just before tomorrow’s show, at the Kabuki. Get in line early for the best chance at getting in.

At 1:00 tomorrow at the Clay Theater, Kevin Kelly (Senior Maverick of WIRED Magazine) will give the State of Cinema Address at the SF International Film Festival. The address is titled “Beyond Moving Pictures: Possibilities for the Future of Film.” It promises to be very interesting. I got him on the phone yesterday, and he revealed some of the ideas he plans to explore in his talk. The Q&A begins below and continues after the jump.

You’ve said that your book in progress is about “what technology wants.” What might this mean for the future of film?

Well, that’s the subject of this talk on Sunday, which is “Listen to the Technology.” Because what does technology want film to be? One of the metaphors I may use, is that technology wants film to be a new language. It wants to be something similar to writing.

To give you an example of what I mean by that: right now I’m sure, no matter where you’re sitting, if you looked around, you could probably identify 15, 20, maybe hundreds or thousands of examples of text in your environment. It’s actually very hard for us, in our built environment, to escape from text, from words. They’re printed on everything we make, they’re on walls, we carry it around. The technology is ubiquitous, and it has kind of permeated our entire culture. In fact, it’s impossible to imagine our culture without text. It has shaped the very foundation of our culture and our identity.
(more…)

Tonight’s late show at the Kabuki is Big Man Japan. Here’s the synposis, by Rod Armstrong:

Things aren’t going so well for Mr. Daisato (cowriter/director Hitoshi Matsumoto), employee at the Department of Baddie Prevention. Speaking to a documentary film crew about his mundane life, he bemoans the estrangement of his wife and daughter, the increasing dementia of his formerly famous grandfather and the low ratings of his televised battles with baddies. See, our (super)hero is a sixth-generation member of the Dainipponjin (“The Great Japanese”), a rarefied breed who defend Japan from various villains scourging the land. Whether it’s saving the land from the stink clouds of Smelly Baddie or the dangerous projectile eyeball of Mean Look Baddie, it’s in Daisato’s job description. As his health starts to suffer from the high voltage exposure he needs to attain fighting stature, however, criticisms of his efforts increase. Locals blame him for destroying property and getting fat and throw rocks through his office window. So when a truly vicious bad guy hits Japan, it’s anyone’s guess whether or not Daisato will be up for the job. Director Matsumoto, a superstar comedian in his native land, showers Big Man Japan with color and verve, satirizing talking head–style documentaries, the omnipresence of sponsor placement and the ephemeral nature of popular culture along the way. Referencing Japanese monster movie classics while reveling in amusingly juvenile humor, and building to an unforgettable climax populated with numerous baddies and heroes, Matsumoto has created an immensely pleasurable, amusingly outrageous future cult classic.

The event is sponsored by Stella Artois, which means one very important thing: they start pouring free beer at 10:30.

The screening starts at 11:00; tickets are $12.50. Tickets are only available at the theater, so get yours early for the best chance at getting in!