Max Goldberg: IOHTE

The San Francisco Bay Area is still home to a rich cinephilic culture nurtured in large part by a diverse array of cinemas, programmers and moviegoers. I'm honored to present a selection of favorite screenings experienced by local cinephiles in 2015. An index of participants can be found here.

IOHTE contributor Max Goldberg lives in Oakland and collects his writings on film at mgoldberg.net.

Yugoslav Avant-Garde Cinema, 1950s-1980s: Ex-Film from an Ex-Land (Series at Pacific Film Archive, March)
I had no idea.

Visages d’enfants, dir. Jacques Feyder (San Francisco Silent Film Festival at the Castro Theatre, May 30)
 I was completely unprepared for this exacting portrayal of a child’s grief and subsequent coming of age.

Out of the Blue, dir. Dennis Hopper (Castro Theatre, June 3)
A one-of-a-kind, end-of-the-line film with Neil Young’s voice shakier than usual echoing in the Castro. Hopper’s update of Rebel Without a Cause offers a final flameout ahead of the Reagan years.

Only Yesterday, dir. John Stahl (Pacific Film Archive, June 20)
All the evidence you would ever need to dispel the simplistic opposition of “melodrama” and “realism.” A deep bow to Margaret Sullavan’s performance—her debut, amazingly.

Screen capture from Music Box Films DVD: The Story of Film

Mirror, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky (Pacific Film Archive, July 11)
When I last saw this film projected, it was in an empty theatre. The PFA, by contrast, was turning people away all throughout its Tarkovsky retro. I continue to find the Russian auteur's cult a little baffling but must admit that it was quite moving to watch such a personal film in a sold-out house.

Nightfall, dir. Jacques Tourneur (Castro Theatre, September 3)
Cinephiles often glorify the theatrical experience for the quality of the image, but Nightfall was a case where seeing it on the big screen really brought home the insidious logic of the cutting. This film has a marvelous way of stitching disparate spaces together into its cracked vision of Fifties America.

Amy Halpern Canyon Cinema Salon (New Nothing Cinema, October 5)
It's always refreshing to see an experimental filmmaker creating work with extraordinary technical chops, and that is certainly the case with Halpern’s films.

The Boys from Fengkuei, dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien (SFFS Taiwan Film Days at the Embarcadero, October 13)
How considerate for SFFS to have programmed this for a chaser to The Assassin. I only wish some of those people turned away from the Tarkovsky films might have filled more of the seats at the Embarcadero.

Pinoy Sunday, by Adam Hartzell

Last Thursday the Mill Valley Film Festival opened, and with it a run of forty-five straight days of the thus-far foreseeable future where there will be a minimum of one film festival happening somewhere here on Frisco Bay every single day. According to the running list on this blog's right-hand sidebar, on most days there will be three or four festivals running somewhere in the area, and on a few as many as six or seven! It's a testament to the vitality of Frisco Bay audiences for movies outside the usual multiplex offerings that so many festivals can co-exist year after year in the same month-and-a-half period. But tickets sell briskly for many of these festivals, and it's worth obtaining them in advance if there's a particular film you're set upon seeing. There are still (pricey) tickets available for the MVFF closing night film gala The Artist this Sunday. I've seen it, and though it couldn't possibly live up to my expectations after its triumphantly successful screenings in Cannes and Toronto, I do think it will charm just about anybody else who watches it, and I'm not alone in hoping will function as an evangelizing force for the authentic silent film art that I so dearly love. Unfortunately, tickets to an MVFF feature I liked even better have been at "rush status" for over a week: tonight's screening of Pina, which is the best Wim Wenders film in in years if not decades. At least in my case, it's definitely an evangelizing force for choreographer Pina Bausch, who I previously knew next to nothing about, and for 3-D presentation of great dance. I'd certainly pay to see full versions of some of the works excerpted in Pina on a local 3-D screen.

Next to open are this weekend's Arab Film Festival (Jonathan Curiel has an article on Muslim lesbian drama Three Veils), the South Bay's Poppy Jaspar Short Film Festival, and the 10th annual edition of DocFest, which is called "SF's quirkiest festival" in Cheryl Eddy's new Guardian preview. And the San Francisco Film Society's Fall Season enters its next phase with Taiwan Film Days. I understand that the sf360 website is going to publish my writing buddy Adam Hartzell's preview of this mini-festival's selections imminently. In the meantime he has generously offered a piece on a film playing this Saturday and Sunday,Pinoy Sunday, for Hell On Frisco Bay. Here's Adam:

Ho Wi-ding's Pinoy Sunday is one of those films I watch while preparing a festival primer that has me itching to write more about it than a primer will allow. It isn't a brilliant film, but it is a fairly entertaining one that touches on issues I wish more films explored, in this case, the lives of migrant workers. And considering it's a Taiwanese film, (although with production help from the Philippines, Japan, and France, and a Malaysia-born director), I'm particularly happy to see the film highlight migrant issues unique to Taiwan, specifically the lives of Filipino migrant laborers in Taiwan. Along with the particular, Pinoy Sunday also enables more general discussion of the lives of migrants regardless of where they toil.
　
Pinoy Sunday follows two Filipino migrant laborers, Dado (played by Bayani Aqbayani) and Manuel (Jeffrey Quizon). Dado has a family back home but a girlfriend in Taiwan, posing an ethical quandary he seeks to resolve early on in the film. Manuel is the wanna-be playboy who puts up a good front to survive the romantic rejection he receives. He also is a bit of a player when it comes to the rules of the factory where he works, particularly the factory's curfew. Arriving on occasion just after the curfew, he is able to finagle his way around possible deportation from such violations of his contract by slipping the Taiwanese guard some betel nut for his troubles.
　
Besides his playboy dreams, Manuel has another simpler dream. He wants a couch, a sofa, (or what my grandmother called a davenport), for the top of their factory dormitory where they can sit and drink beer after a long day of manual labor. As Manuel and Dado recover from opposite ends of romantic rejection (Manuel the rejected, Dado the rejecter) in a public park, they stumble on an abandoned sofa. They begin their journey to take this sofa back to their dorm before curfew, a journey that has them at each others throats as well as discovering a deeper bond. They find kindness where it wasn't expected, along with finding themselves mistaken for heroes, thieves, and Indonesians.
　
Since Hell on Frisco Bay caters to the San Francisco Bay Area, most readers here are likely familiar with the slang term 'Pinoy'. Some may also be familiar with some of the controversy around the term. North Americans of Filipino descent often use the term affectionately, but some from the Philippines still hear the term tied up to ridicule from U.S. soldiers before and during World War II. In this film, as evidenced on his t-shirt worn early on in the film, Manuel wears the moniker with pride. (This same scene where the t-shirt is introduced also underscores a class/race transportation divide in that all the Filipino migrant workers are riding bicycles, perhaps made at the very factory where Dado and Manuel work, in contrast to the ubiquitous presence of the motorized scooter ridden by many, many Taiwanese.) The 'Sunday' in the title represents to the single day of the week many migrant factory workers in Taiwan tend to get off. The key words there are 'factory workers', since domestic laborers, mostly female and many Filipina, often do not get their Sundays off, or any day off at all. In Pinoy Sunday, Dado's girlfriend Anna, (played by Meryll Soriano), underscores this point in a nicely nuanced way. At first, you might assume she gets her Sundays off too because she and Dado meet up every Sunday at church. But then why is the elderly woman for whom Anna is a caretaker always with her? As much as Anna might get to do what she wants on Sunday, she still has to bring her ward with her. The ward is portrayed as mute, rather than demanding and difficult, partly as a means to contain the plot. But I find the nuanced portrayal here poignant. It hints at the conditions and differences between how gender is policed in the lives of migrant laborers rather than pummeling us over the head with it. (For those who want to explore that particular issue in more detail, check out an article from National Taiwan University professor Pei-chin Lan's available as a pdf here.)
　
Besides wrapping up issues faced by Filipino migrant laborers in a tight little title, there are other scenes particular to the transience of the migrant experience. There is the mall specifically catering to needs of Filipinos/Filipinas. These malls are often only open on the weekends. In these malls you will find restaurants serving Filipino food and the ubiquitously Filipino balakbayan box stores that send goodies back to families in the Philippines. A couple other issues the film highlights are the serious ramifications of violating curfew and the moment they are mistaken for Indonesian. According to Lan, the Council of Labor Affairs "dictates that a migrant worker can work for only one particular employer during a stay in Taiwan." There are some specific exceptions to this, but failure to make curfew at the factory could result in being sent back to The Philippines, and this strict policing of bodies is demonstrated at the very beginning of the film, when Dado runs into a fellow Filipino washing his face in the airport bathroom while still in handcuffs, escorted all the way to the airport gate to be sure he is deported. Such policing also confronts Manuel when a colleague is caught while on the lam. Another matter detailed in Lan's article is how Indonesian and Filipino migrant workers are played off each other in media stereotypes of fabricated essential natures. This makes the moment in Pinoy Sunday when the media mistake Dado and Manuel for Indonesian a much more layered critique, and the peppering of accusations upon brown bodies all the more poignant, as the film helps the political medicine go down by playing up the comedy involved in such outlandish media theatre.

One of my problems with Pinoy Sunday is the ending. But for spoiler-avoidance I won't go into how the ending ignores global economic realities otherwise prominent in the film. I understand this film doesn't want to be a serious downer. It wants to entertain, to show respect for migrants who too often go ignored. So I won't harp on Pinoy Sunday too much since it does bring to the attention of Taiwanese audiences some of the plights of those brought into Taiwan in order to make their economy work in ways more privileged citizens demand.
　
In its portrayal of present Taiwan (Film) day reality, Pinoy Sunday avoids being The Help. As Noy Thrupkaew so expertly critiques in The American Prospect, The Help may "peep into the past" of American injustices, but without any hint that that past is still with us in the present treatment of domestic workers in the U.S. (now more likely Latina than African-American). But it takes a movie like this to inspire a great (yet underappreciated) writer like Thrupkaew to school us on the lives of domestic workers in the U.S. today, so I'm glad The Help is out there hoping viewers smitten by it might stumble onto Thrupkaew's online history lesson. Pinoy Sunday may not confront all the issues of Filipino migrant laborers in Taiwan, but it confronts nonetheless, while staying more entertaining than didactic, which might make all the difference regarding its ability to reach folks who sequester themselves off from facing up to economic realities.

Exhilarating Sadness

More than ten years ago, the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, then still located in Golden Gate Park, hosted a retrospective of the work of Taiwanese master filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien. I was preparing an extended trip abroad myself at the time, and missed the entire cycle, but upon my return I often heard Hou's name spoken in hushed tones by local moviegoers, and determined to seek his work out. I began with a viewing of Flowers Of Shanghai, starring Tony Leung as a nineteenth-century opium den father in that port city. I was absolutely entranced by its calm power, even though I was watching it on a videocassette tape. I loved it, but knew I would have loved it even more if shown on a beautiful new print. Helped along by assurances of cinephile friends, I was convinced I had been exposed to one of the great living artists of the medium, and I vowed that I would see any film of his that screened in town in a good 35mm print.

Since then, Hou has completed four newer films (Millenium Mambo, Cafe Lumiere, Three Times, and The Flight of the Red Balloon), and I have been sure to see each of them in Frisco cinemas, more than once if I could. Only one film from his back-catalogue has made it onto local screens during this time: Goodbye South, Goodbye, which the since-departed Manny Farber selected to be screened alongside his appearance at the 2003 San Francisco International Film Festival, where the legendary critic received the Mel Novikoff Award and was interviewed on the stage of the Kabuki Theatre in an intimate afternoon event. It was great, but that was the end if my exploration of Hou's pre-Flowers of Shanghai work.

Until now. The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts has brought a glorious new print of Hou's 1989 film City of Sadness, also starring Tony Leung, this time as a deaf man named Wen-ching, for a pair of twentieth-anniversary screenings this weekend. Of all of Hou's films, City Of Sadness is the one that is often favorably compared to The Godfather, that most often perches atop lists of the great Chinese-language films of all time, and that gets spoken of with perhaps the most reverence. It's all deserved. I attended last night's screening, and I cannot urge my readers strongly enough to make sure to be at the venue's second and final showing on Sunday afternoon. Especially if you have seen City of Sadness only on imported or bootlegged video before (it has never had a commercial release of any kind in this country) you will surely be astonished by the beauty of the print YBCA is showing.

Last night's viewing was introduced by Manfred Peng of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, who gave a brief but helpful explanation of the political backdrop of City of Sadness. It's considered the first of Hou's "history trilogy" continuing with The Puppetmaster and Good Men, Good Women, all three of which were set against historical events in Taiwan. City of Sadness is set in that late-1940s period between the end of World War II and Japan's relinquishment of the island as one of its colonies, and the 1949 founding of the People's Republic of China. The film was made just a few years after the lifting of Taiwan's ban on mentioning the defining political event of that period, the "228 Incident" or "228 Massacre", still a contentious topic to this day.


I hope that any American politicians or diplomats now involved in relations with Taiwan and China understand the interrelations between various parties involved in 228 and its aftermath well enough to easily identify how all the characters in Hou's film are connected to the event on a single viewing. Even with Mr. Peng's aid, I could not, though I think with more reading on the matter and viewings of the film everything would fall into place for me. However, I do not think City of Sadness demands complete understanding of the events, as it is more about people tragically and capriciously impacted by 228 than it is about the event itself. Hou seems to have made a film where characters' perspectives on the political situation in Taiwan at the time matter less than the effects it has on their lives and those of their loved ones, and so we in the audience do not need to fully comprehend the history in order to comprehend the motivations and the emotions of the film's main players.

Every shot in the film is impeccably framed and lit, each scene impeccably staged, often in a way that stresses the relationship between the weight of history and the ordinary life of citizens living it. For example. As a group of students or intellectuals sit and debate politics, Wen-ching and pretty, young Hinomi (played by Xin Shufen) sit to the side of the room, exchanging notes with each other while a folk song plays on the phonograph. Hou situates his camera in the space between the table of students and the clearly smitten couple. It could be a point-of-view shot from the position of one of the debaters, but that seems unlikely. The students are swept up in their discussion and do not seem to be paying attention to the room's other occupants and their activities. No, this shot isolates the spirited discussion from the would-be lovers' attempts to lead a normal life unhindered by the intrusions of politics. At least for this moment, the two are able to exist in their own world; this sense is accentuated as the sound of the conversation subtly drops out and all we hear are sonorous musical notes as they are released from the record grooves. Wen-ching explains the origin of his deafness at age eight, and how it happened to him so young that it didn't feel like a tragedy.

Hou's own political perspective may be evident throughout the film as well, at least to someone knowledgeable on Taiwanese history. For those of us who are not, we can appreciate his form and technique. He is a master at expressing contrasts of energy, such as the way a violent scene spills out onto a quiet morning street. A scene starts as an interior, as two young men confront each other in a bathroom. Anger escalates until the pair are embroiled in a knife fight, chasing each other down hallways. Hou cuts to an exterior long shot of the town nestled below forested hills. For several seconds there is a decided pause in the violence and the viewer may wonder if it may have ended, but suddenly the combatants are now out on the street, bringing their chaos out into the public sphere. This is not the only scene staged along these lines. The film often gives the viewer opportunities like this to understand how the bloodshed of 228 affected day-to-day life on the island.

I'd be very curious to learn about the production history of City Of Sadness. If it was completely taboo to speak of 228 publicly in Taiwan until just a few years before the film was made (a situation that, by the end of the film, seems symbolically represented by Wen-ching's deafness), then was it Hou himself who chose to be the first filmmaker in his country to take on the topic, or was he approached on the basis of his critically successful earlier films (A Time To Live And A Time To Die, etc.) to apply his sensitive sensibility? These questions and others may be answered as I read more about the film. (Because I want to alert readers to the opportunity to see this new print as quickly as I can, I'm writing this piece relatively "cold", that is, without the benefit of delving into other articles as I usually am wont to do.)

I hope to revisit this film again many times in my life. The second screening at the YBCA is this Sunday, and should take precedence over any other film events happening in town for anyone who has not seen City of Sadness before, no matter their previous experience with Hou or Taiwanese cinema. However, this weekend coincides with Taiwan Film Days at the Opera Plaza, which provides Frisco Bay cinephiles with opportunities to see seven more recent films from the island. And with the Chinese American Film Festival coming to town later this month (featuring John Woo's Red Cliff 2, the allegedly superior sequel to the film opening at Landmark Theatres in November as well), this month is a boon for anyone interested in expanding their understanding of Chinese-language cinema.

October Fests

This month is absolutely crammed with film festivals here on Frisco Bay. At least eleven, too many for one cinephile to attend. Or to write about with much care and detail. So I'm just going to make a list with pertinent facts and a few highlighted titles. To minimize hyperlink fatigue, I'm only directly linking venues not already found linked to on my sidebar.

2nd Dead Channels Film Festival of the Fantastic
When? Currently showing films through October 9th with a wrap-up party on the 10th.
Where? Mostly at the Roxie here in Frisco, but Thursday night there's a screening at Oakland's Parkway Theatre too.
Have I been before? I just got back from my first Dead Channels screening. A 35mm print of the 1972 Western Cutthroats Nine, shot in the Spanish Pyrenees by director Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, it features a gruesomely dwindling cast, highly entertaining dub jobs, and a poor grasp of metallurgy. In other words, a fun time for all. Like most films in the festival, this was a one-show-only screening.
I have seen and can recommend: None, other than the above-mentioned film that won't be screening again.
I'm curious to see: Well, there's unfortunately not much of the festival left to anticipate, but I'm certainly curious about Nicolas Roeg's new Fay Weldon adaptation Puffball which plays Thursday night in Oakland. Also tomorrow night but here in Frisco, Surveillance, Jennifer Lynch's long-awaited (or is that long-dreaded) follow-up to Boxing Helena, plays the Roxie.
More coverage by: Michael Guillén of the Evening Class, Dennis Harvey at sf360, Jason Watches Movies, and Carl Martin at the new(-ish) Film on Film Foundation blog.

31st Mill Valley Film Festival
When? Running right now, through October 12th.
Where? All venues in Marin County: the Rafael Film Center, the Sequoia and others.
Have I been before? I try to cross the bridge and at least a program or two every year. It's a homey, relaxed festival considering all the big names it annually attracts.
I have seen and can recommend: The Betrayal, a tour-de-force documentary about a Laotian immigrant family's Poetic, personal, and beautifully shot, it was co-directed by Ellen Kuras (cinematographer for Spike Lee, Michel Gondry and many others) and one of the film's subjects, Thavisouk Phrasavath. I wrote more on it here. Happy-Go-Lucky is probably director Mike Leigh's cheeriest film and a good companion (or antidote?) to his 1994 film Naked. I Just Wanted To Be Somebody is a Jay Rosenblatt short that plays in front of a new feature documentary (that I have not seen) on the making of and social impact of the musical Hair. The Rosenblatt video focuses on Anita Bryant, and seeing it now might be a good warm-up to the highly-anticipated upcoming release of Gus Van Sant's Milk.
I'm curious to see: Well, I've never seen Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly before, and seeing it screened with its star Harriet Andersson in attendance for a tribute has got to be considered one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. I'm also excited about Kelly Reichardt's latest Wendy and Lucy but its final screening is at RUSH status- no more tickets to buy unless you want to wait in line. Luckily the film has been picked up for distribution, and probably will screen here early next year. The previously-mentioned Surveillance plays this festival as well.
More coverage by: Michael Hawley and Michael Guillén at the Evening Class, Keaton Kail from indieWIRE, Dennis Harvey in the SF Bay Guardian and at sf360, Tony An, and Lincoln Spector of Bayflicks.

French Cinema Now
When? Technically October 8-12, but there will also be San Francisco Film Society-presented screenings of 1960s French classics Belle Du Jour and the Umbrellas of Cherbourg at the same venue from October 13-16.
Where? The Clay Theatre in Frisco.
Have I been before? No, this is the first year I'm aware of the SFFS presenting a French series. Hopefully it will be a rousing success and lay the groundwork for future editions!
I have seen and can recommend: Only Belle Du Jour, which I can't recommend highly enough if you've never seen it.
I'm curious to see: Where to start? Pretty much the entire program looks appealing. I'm most drawn to the opportunity to catch up with hot auteur Arnaud Desplechin's lesser-known films Life of the Dead and My Sex Life...Or How I Got Into an Argument. His latest, a Christmas Tale opens the festival tonight well in advance of an upcoming commercial release, and he is expected to appear in person. Two screenings of the French New Wave omnibus Six in Paris look to be another highlight.
More coverage by: Max Goldberg at sf360, Jonathan Kiefer at KQED's Arts blog, and though I've linked it already it's worth a second look, Michael Hawley at the Evening Class.

7th Oakland International Film Festival
When? October 9-16
Where? The venerable Grand Lake Theatre.
Have I been before? No.
I have seen and can recommend: None.
I'm curious to see: It looks like a good, diverse line-up, and maybe this is finally when I'll get to Passion and the Power: the Technology of Orgasm.
More coverage by: Angela Woodall of the Oakland Tribune/Contra Costa Times.

3rd CounterCorp Anti-Corporate Film Festival
When? October 15-17
Where? Brava Theatre in Frisco
Have I been before? No.
I have seen and can recommend: None.
I'm curious to see: The shorts program entitled The True Cost of Oil intrigues.
More coverage by: Not seeing much yet. Uh, wikipedia?

2008 Taiwan Film Festival
When? October 16-18
Where? At USF in Frisco and Cubberly Auditorium down in Palo Alto.
Have I been before? Yes, last year at the PFA was a fun time. Perhaps the best thing about this touring festival is the price: free!
I have seen and can recommend: None this year.
I'm curious to see: Secret, since I missed it at the SFIFF this year.
More coverage by: sanfranciscochinatown.com.

4th Annual Classic Horror Film Festival: Shock It to Me!
When? October 17-18
Where? Castro Theatre
Have I been before? Embarrassingly, no. I've always found myself too busied by my own Halloween preparations to make it, but I hope to find a way to squeeze it in this time.
I have seen and can recommend: Of course, Night of the Living Dead. Also the great Hammer horror Curse of Frankenstein, which I've never seen before on the big screen.
I'm curious to see: Spider Baby with Sid Haig in attendance, and the Horror of Dracula- major gaps to be filled in my classic horror resume!
More coverage by: Nate Yapp at Classic-Horror.com.

11th United Nations Association Film Festival
When? October 19-26
Where? The Aquarius, the Eastside Theatre and Stanford University's Annenberg Auditorium down the peninsula, and the Roxie here in Frisco.
Have I been before? No, but with Roxie screenings co-presented with DocFest (see below) I hope to rectify that.
I have seen and can recommend: Les Blank's documentary All In This Tea is a terrific selection, as is the cine-centric short film Salim Baba. I wrote a bit on each here and here.
I'm curious to see: San Francisco: Still Wild at Heart appeals to my nature-loving, city-dwelling duality. Megalopolis sounds fascinating as well. Freeheld comes with an impressive award-winning pedigree (considering it beat the lovely Salim Baba to the Best Documentary Short Oscar.)
More coverage by: Agnes Varnum, who will be appearing on a panel at the festival. added 10/8: Leah Edwards of Ecolocalizer.

12th Annual Arab Film Festival
When? October 16-28
Where? the Castro, Clay, Delancey Screening Room, Alliance Française and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in Frisco, Camera 12 in San Jose, Shattuck and Parkway in the East Bay, and even screenings in Santa Cruz and Los Angeles
Have I been before? Yes- I found it a well-run, well-attended festival when I sampled it in 2006.
I have seen and can recommend: With reservations, Recycle, an artistic but perhaps overly-ambiguous documentary about a recycler in Zarqa, Jordan. I wrote a bit more on it here.
I'm curious to see: Opening night film Waiting For Pasolini, Sundance favorite Captain Abu Raed, which also plays this weekend at the Mill Valley Film Festival.
More coverage by: Lincoln Spector of Bayflicks. Added 10/13: Michael Fox at sf360.

7th San Francisco International Documentary Festival
When? October 17 through November 6th
Where? Roxie Cinema in Frisco, Shattuck in Berkeley
Have I been before? No, though I've been to other IndieFest-produced events like Another Hole in the Head and the annual generalist festival in February.
I have seen and can recommend: Officially, none. Although IndieFest is also presenting a set of Japanese midnight movies at the Roxie this month entitled Midnight Circus. I can cautiously recommend Takashi Miike's punishing Ichi the Killer and the exuberantly gory 2008 digital feature the Machine Girl if you're into that sort of thing. More here.
I'm curious to see: Along with the aforementioned UNAFF co-presentations, there's the Melody Gilbert retrospective and the Slamdance hit I Think We're Alone Now.
More coverage by: Susan Gerhard at sf360. added 10/9: Michael Hawley at the Evening Class.

17th Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival
When? October 26 through November 19
Where? Camera 12 in San Jose and Cubberly Community Theatre in Palo Alto
Have I been before? Honestly, this is the first year I've been aware of it.
I have seen and can recommend: None.
I'm curious to see: Refusenik sounds fascinating.
More coverage by: Jason Watches Movies.