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Documentaries and a handful of narrative shorts dominate the Bay Area film festival scene this week as the United Nations Association Film Festival, the Green Film Festival and Doc Stories get underway. Here are some recommendations, including events that complement film screenings.
The United Nations Association Film Festival
Dates: Oct. 17-27
Where: Mitchell Park Community Center, 3700 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto; Eastside College Preparatory School (Eastside Theater), 1041 Myrtle St., East Palo Alto; Stanford University (check online for specific locations); Delancey Screening Room, 600 Embarcadero, San Francisco
Highlights: This 27th program, themed Shared Humanity," offers 60 documentaries on a range of issues along with free panel discussions.
Potent panel topics are: "Environment Under Siege" (2:50 p.m. Oct. 20 at Mitchell Park Community Center); "Freedom and Justice" (6:10 p.m. Oct. 21 at Mitchell Park Community Center); "Addressing Health Crises" (6:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at Stanford University, School of Medicine Conference Center at Li Ka Shing Center, 291 Campus Drive, Room 120); "Promotion of Universal Respect" (7 p.m. Oct. 24 at Stanford University, Green Library, Hohbach Hall Presentation Palace, 557 Escondido Mall); "From War to Peace" (6:20 p.m. Oct. 25 at Mitchell Park); and "Transformative Power of Art" (4:40 p.m. Oct. 26 at Mitchell Park).
Opening night, starting with a 5:30 p.m. Oct. 17 reception at Mitchell Park, includes a proclamation from Palo Alto Mayor Greer Stone and remarks from actor-activist-environmentalist Matthew Modine, screening his short "Ripple Effect." The program also features Bay Area director Will Parrinello's documentary "Water for Life" about water rights struggles in Central and South America and the U.S. premiere of "Zucchero Sugar Fornaciari," a documentary about Italian rock and blues performer Zucchero Fornaciari.
On closing night, Berkeley filmmakers Jen Bradwell and Todd Boekelheide's eye-opening documentary about wage inequities for California daycare workers and preschool workers "Make a Circle," screens at 3:40 p.m. Oct. 27 at Mitchell Park, followed at 5:20 p.m. by the enlightening documentary "Tax Wars," which sheds light on global tax abuse by multinationals and wealthy individuals.
Tickets: Free for students with ID; $17 general; $240 general pass; $70 seniors 62+ pass; $70 opening and closing nights
Full lineup: https://www.unaff.org/2024/schedule.html
What to see: With the programming divided into sections, audiences may be introduced to new subjects.
Stanford filmmaker Pam Martinez's impressionistic eight-minute black & white short "As I Witness" uses bodies as canvases on which names of Palestinians are written as audio from Gaza plays in the background. The powerful sensory statement premieres at 4 p.m. on Oct. 24 in a free program in Stanford University's Green Library. Later that day, the life of late San Francisco-based folk singer Faith Petric, a whirlwind force who sang and strummed for change and civil rights, is covered in "Singing for Justice." The 60-minute film by directors Estelle Freedman of Noe Valley and the Bay Area's Christie Herring receives a world premiere at 8:10 p.m. Oct. 24.
Oakland documentary maker Abby Ginzberg is featured several times in the festival. Her 26-minute "Judging Juries," which explores why juries are not diverse because payment for doing this civic duty is so low and details a Bay Area program giving jurors a bigger paycheck, screens at 4:10 p.m. Oct. 21 at Mitchell Park. The program also offers at 4:40 p.m. the Ginzberg-produced documentary "A Double Life," about a lawyer trying to clear his name after being accused of committing a crime that led to bloodshed in San Quentin. Ginzberg served as consulting producer on Berkeley director Denise Zmekhol's personal documentary "Skin of Glass," at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 26 at Mitchell Park, in which the filmmaker tries to reconcile why her late architect father's celebrated 24-story glass skyscraper in Brazil has become occupied by homeless people.
The Green Film Festival
Dates: Oct. 17-27
Where: 4 Star Theater, 2200 Clement St., and Balboa Theater, 3630 Balboa St., San Francisco; online at sfindie.com
Non-film highlight: "Forest Bathing in the Redwoods," a 90-minute "guided forest immersion" at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 20 (tickets are $25) is spearheaded by the team behind Larkspur director Lisa Landers' "Giants Rising," a gorgeous, immersive overview of the stoic trees as well as threats they have faced historically and today. Note: Comfortable footwear is recommended.
Tickets: $15 in person; $10 virtual; $75-$95 for passes
Full lineup: www.sfindie.com
What to see: An intriguing batch of quirky shorts and full-length documentaries often spotlight Bay Area filmmakers and Bay Area people. And, with Halloween lurking around the corner, crafty programmers bundled five freaky tales in "Eco-Horror Shorts," at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the 4-Star, from the U.S. (including San Jose director Maxfield Biggs' "Out of Plastic"), Germany, Norway and Korea.
Two full-length documentaries by San Francisco filmmakers should not be missed.
Stephen B. Lewis' "Arthur Tress: Water's Edge" introduces San Francisco shutterbug-multimedia artist Tress, a talented, innately curious Bay Area figure whose vast, diverse work includes shots of Vallejo's Mare Island and striking homoerotic images that have caught the attention of Los Angeles' Getty Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Stanford University. Lewis clearly gained Tress' trust in a detailed portrait of this "magician with a camera" screening at 4:15 p.m. Oct. 19 at the 4-Star and streaming.
Ben Judkins' "The Cigarette Surfboard" follows Santa Cruz entrepreneur and surfer Taylor Lane, who made a surfboard out of cigarette butts to inform others about the amount of litter choking our beaches. The novelty item and invention initially encountered rough waters, but eventually was embraced by a once-wary surfing community. After creating the board, Lane traveled the globe for his own enlightenment and to meet other environmentally concerned surfers. Their dedication is celebrated in the film, which has majestic shots of surfers from the Bay Area and beyond, screening at 5:15 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Balboa and streaming.
Doc Stories
Dates: Oct. 17-20
Where: Vogue Theatre, 3290 Sacramento St.; SFFILM's FilmHouse, 455 Ninth St., San Francisco
Non-film highlights: Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the fest offers two talks. "Building Solutions With Audience Demographics" at 3 p.m. Oct. 18 at the Vogue features former Sundance Institute CEO Keri Putnam; and "A Call to Action: Non-Fiction Leaders in Dialogue" at 4:15 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Vogue features Laura Kim, Carrie Lozano, Justine Nagan and Putnam sharing insights on present and future of documentary filmmaking. A two-hour workshop on documentary filmmaking and activism for teens led by Berkeley filmmaker Jalena Keane-Lee ("Standing Above the Clouds") starts at 1 p.m. Oct. 19 at SFFILM FilmHouse.
Ticket cost: $20 general; $19 for seniors and students; $11 for ages 14 and under
Full lineup: https://sffilm.org/year-round-programming/doc-stories/
What to see: The 10-feature slate, which includes shorts, opens with "One to One: John & Yoko" at 7 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Vogue; it looks at John Lennon and Yoko Ono's first 18 months in the United States. The fest ends with "Suburban Fury" at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Vogue. It is anchored on an interview with Sara Jane Moore, who in 1975 took shots at President Gerald Ford as he left a San Francisco hotel.
Director Benjamin Ree's touching "The Remarkable Life of Ibelin" at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Vogue centers on Mats Steen, whose vibrant life within the World of Warcraft gaming community was far removed from his reality of being confined to a wheelchair due to a degenerative disease. Acclaimed filmmaker Raoul Peck's "Ernest Cole: Lost and Found" at 11 a.m. Oct. 19 at the Vogue powerfully unites perfectly in-sync voice narration from actor LaKeith Stanfield with historical, iconic images the South African photographer took during apartheid and afterward.
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