Tuesday, August 31, 2010

****new release list no.283


Guess what, it is the 7th ANNUAL BERNAL HEIGHTS OUTDOOR CINEMAL Festival this week! Three cheers to Leslie and Anne for continuing to provide Bernal Heights with one of the coolest film festivals in the city.

This year’s festival should be terrific as usual. Opening night is this Thursday at Kingmond Young Photography (416 Cortland). Kingmond and Mary have an amazing space, perfect for community events like this one. The program will start at 6:30 with a party and acoustic jazz and swing in the vein of Django Rheinhardt. Then there will be an hour long film program (7:30-8:30) which will include shorts by local surrealist poetic filmmaker Adrian Arias (ELEMENTOS) and my old next-door neighbor Tomas Wischerath (CAPOEIRA CLARION) Country music and blue-grass (both kinds of music!) will follow. This should be a super fun kick-off for the festival, please come and join.

On Friday, a new twist to the festival will be a Film Crawl. The party will begin at 6:30pm at Inclusions Gallery, where there will be music and treats. Then, five different locations (including ours) will be hosting mostly multiple programs at 7:30 and 8:30pm. You are encouraged to wander around your neighborhood and experience film everywhere that evening. The four locations? Four Star Video/Succulence, Inclusions Gallery, the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, Bernal Yoga and the Bernal Library. You can read all about the programs here.

On Saturday evening, the festival moves to one of its most iconic spots, on Folsom street at the top of Bernal Hill. Tucked down against the hill, with the city spread out in all its splendor, if you haven’t watched a movie up here, you really should check it out. Bundle up, bring blankets, and head up the hill! From 6:30-9:30 there will be movies, hot beverages and more. Again, here is the link to read about the movies.

On Sunday night, the festival will have its finale (although there is another event planned in October) at Precita Park again from 6:30-9:30. London Street will play music for the first hour or so, then there will be two programs featuring lots of great films, including works by Tiffany Graham and Jamie Meltzer.

This festival is one of the things that makes our neighborhood so wonderful. It is a no-profit, community event put on by the sheer will power and strength of your neighbors strictly for the enjoyment of the human population of planet earth. Yes, occasionally it is chilly at these events, but that is all the more reason to curl up with some friends or loved ones and watch a movie outside. I hope to see you at one of these events.

Slightly conflicting with this schedule, but actually much later on Saturday night, my band, The Dont’s, is playing a Deli SF Presents show at The Rickshaw Stop. There will be four bands, and we go on third, probably around 11ish. For us, this show will be the beginning of our week long NW tour, where we will be playing in Eugene, Seattle, Bremerton, Moscow (Idaho, on my 41st birthday!), and Klamath Falls. Should be pretty fun for some old men in a van rocking out together!

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

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............//NEW RELEASES//............

DREAM BOY.
Drama/LGBT.
Stephan Bender/Randy Wayne.
Directed by James Bolton.
* Well-acted film about two gay teenagers growing up in the south in the 1970’s.

HARRY BROWN.
Drama/Suspense/Crime/Thriller.
Michael Caine/Emily Mortimer.
Directed by Daniel Barber.
* Michael Caine turns in another dominant performance as a retired civil worker whose best friend is brutally murdered. When he sees that justice will not be taking care of the situation, he decides to take care of it himself, vigilante-style.

MARMADUKE.
Family.
Owen Wilson/George Lopez.

MACHINE GUN MCCAIN.
Action.
John Cassavetes/Britt Ekland.
Directed by Guiliano Montaldo.
* This 1970 film finds Hank McCain (no confirmation that he is related to John) at odds with the mafia boss who forbids him to rob a casino. McCain will do what he wants (like his brother John) and not even the threat of death can make him change his mind.

OSS 117: LOST IN RIO.
Comedy/Adventure/Spy/Foreign (French).
Jean Dujardin.
Directed by Michel Hazanavicius.
* OSS 117, the best spy in the biz, is back in this entertaining and period-perfect spy comedy in which he is tracking a Nazi through Brazil. This is the second of these films, and they are very well done.

RED RIDING TRILOGY.****BD****
Drama/Suspense.
Directed by Julian Jarrold and Anand Tucker and James Marsh.
* From the IFC film company: Sure to be one of the cinematic events of the year, RED RIDING is a mesmerizing neo-noir epic based on factual events and adapted for the screen by Tony Grisoni (FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS) from David Peace's electrifying series of novels. An official selection of the Telluride, New York, Chicago and AFI Festivals, and acclaimed by critics an eminent accomplishment, the trilogy follows several characters in intertwining storylines united by the horror wrought by the "Yorkshire Ripper," a serial killer who terrorized northwest England in the 1970s and '80s.

The three films are directed by three notable filmmakers--Julian Jarrold (BRIDESHEAD REVISITED), Academy-Award(R)-winner James Marsh (MAN ON WIRE) and Anand Tucker (SHOPGIRL). Each boasts a stellar British cast that includes Andrew Garfield (THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS), Sean Bean (LORD OF THE RINGS), Paddy Considine (DEAD MAN'S SHOES), Rebecca Hall (VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA), and Peter Mullan (TRAINSPOTTING).

WAITING ROOM.
Drama/Romance.
Anne-Marie Duff.
Directed by Roger Goldby.
* Two strangers have a chance meeting that changes there concepts of themselves.

WHY DID I GET MARRIED, TOO.
Comedy.
Tyler Perry/Janet Jackson/Jill Scott.
Directed by Tyler Perry.
* Four couples on vacation spend time analyzing their marriages…don’t analyze too much, though. Especially not if you are happy.

............//DOCUMENTARY/............

FOR MY WIFE.
Drama.
Directed by David Rothmiller.
* Intense doc about a woman, Charlene Strong, who was denied access to her wife in a Seattle hospital as she was dying and who, subsequently, became an activist for equal-rights for same-sex couples. This film shows how sometimes our lives take paths we can’t expect, or escape.

LEGENDS OF THE CANYON: CLASSIC ARTISTS.
Documentary/Musical Performance.
* Lots of epic musical performances from 60’s and 70’s era bands.

WATER WARS.
Documentary.
Narrated by Martin Sheen.
Directed by Jim Burroughs.
* From the imdb: This timely documentary uncovers critical water issues facing humanity. It takes the viewer from the floods and droughts in Bangladesh, to dam building in India, water management in the Netherlands and the latest wake-up call in America: the Katrina disaster and the drought in the Southwest. Future wars will be fought over access to fresh water, unless we come together to face this global crisis. Without water there is no life.

WHO KILLED NANCY?
Documentary/Music/Mystery.
Directed by Alan G. Parker.
* Do you know much about Sid and Nancy? He was the drug addict bass player of The Sex Pistols and she was his American tramp girlfriend. In 1978, at the height of the Pistols fame, Nancy was found stabbed to death. Although public opinion seemed clear that Sid was to blame, his overdose on heroin less than six months later kept the mystery unsolved. Sid’s mom never believed that he could have done it, and at her request, Parker began re-interviewing everyone involved in the case. Sid’s mom died herself of suicide in 1996. Finally now, Parker has finished his personal investigation into this murder and presents his results.

............//TELEVISION/............

HOUSE: SEASON SIX.
Television/Dramady.
Hugh Laurie.
* Puzzling, borderline (and sometimes not so borderline) super natural cases are no problem for Dr. House, a superfreak himself who specializes in the truly bizarre.

MARPLE: SERIES FIVE.
Television/BBC/Suspense/Mystery.
* Agatha Christie’s character continues to gain new life, and track down those who would take lives in this next season of mysteries.

SONS OF ANARCHY: SEASON TWO.
TV/Drama.
Charlie Hunnam/Ron Perlman.
* Season two in this popular new series from FX about a young dad who also happens to be in a motorcycle gang.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON.
Blood-suckers/Drama/Fantasy/Etc.
Paul Wesley/Ian Somerhalder/Nina Dobrev.
* To be sung: Torn between two vampires, branded: a fool. What will they say? Monday at school.

............//FAMILY/............

ANGELINA BALLERINA: LOVE TO DANCE.

GO DIEGO GO: DIEGO’S ULTIMATE RESCUE TEAM.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE: BERRYWOOD HERE WE COME.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE: THE GLIMMERBERRY BALL MOVIE.

............//NEW ON BLUE/............

THE EVIL DEAD.
* Classic Sam Raimi movie, that guy is so versatile…did you know he wrote THE HUDSUCKER PROXY? Yup, it’s true.

****

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