As the Mill Valley Film Festival wraps up this week, more movies hop aboard to surf October’s local film festival monster wave. This week, we recommend one or two gems from each lineup, as well as a scary movie marathon in San Francisco and a San Francisco-shot-and-set indie at the Roxie.
Silicon Valley African Film Festival
Dates: Oct. 10-13
Where: Hoover Theatre, 1635 Park Ave., San Jose; Montgomery Theater, 271 S. Market St., San Jose
Number of films: 85 films from 38 countries, 50 percent world or North American premieres
Highlights in addition to the movies: African fashion show and African market on Oct. 12-13; the African Film Summit “Identities and Representations in African Cinema,” a co-presentation with the Office of the President of San Jose State University in SJSU’s Student Union Theatre on Oct. 10; and Cultural Icon awards at 6 p.m. Oct. 13. Recipients are groundbreaking filmmaker and professor Julie Dash (1991’s “Daughters of the Dust”), South African actor and writer John Kani (2016’s “Captain America: Civil War” and 2018’s “Black Panther”); heralded Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé, whose 13th-century-set epic “Yeelen” is considered a classic, and award-winning Nigerian actor and former journalist Richard Mofe-Damijo, aka RMD (“Black Book,” now on Netflix).
Tickets: $35 to $175
Full lineup: www.svaff.org
Our pick: Now in its 15th year, this South Bay buried treasure opens with the gripping, award-winning Ugandan thriller “Makula” making its North American premiere at 8 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Hoover Theatre. Star, screenwriter and co-director Nisha Kalema’s sex slavery-themed drama makes audiences’ blood boil as Makula falls prey to the charms of a too-good-to-be-true guy (male model/actor Housen Mushema) who shows his true nature when he brings her to his “mother’s” sprawling home. Makula discovers she is among many women who entered the lair and must do everything in her power to escape. Kalema is slated to attend a post-screening conversation; the evening begins at 5:30 p.m. with opening night ceremonies and a red carpet.
Cine+Mas San Francisco Latino Film Festival
Dates: Oct. 11-Nov. 3, in-person and online
Where: Roxie Theatre (Oct. 11-13 and Oct. 20); Artists’ Television Access (Oct. 12, Oct. 15-17; Oct. 29-30); KQED (Oct. 22); La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley (Oct. 25 and Oct. 27); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (Oct. 18, Oct. 31-Nov. 3) and SPARK Social (Nov. 1)
Number of films: 44 films
Tickets: $10-$16 in-person; $50 for virtual fest pass; $8 single virtual
Full lineup: cinemassf.org
Our pick: The 16th Cine+Mas San Francisco Latino Film Festival opens with the personal, relatable documentary “Prodigal Daughter.” San Francisco filmmaker-artist Mabel Valdiviezo revisits painful events from her childhood and teen years spent in Peru; she hasn’t returned to visit her birthplace for 16 years. Her reunion with relatives brings tears, but moments of clarity and deeper understanding as well. She shares a traumatic episode in her life with her gruff dad and her more sensitive and understanding mother, also an artist. Valdiviezo’s candor about her tough transition fleeing a repressive, corrupt government and settling into an uncertain life in San Francisco (she was a stripper and got involved in drugs) fuels this beautiful documentary that reminds us you can go home again—and find healing. It screens at 6:30 pm. Oct. 11 at the Roxie and at 2 p.m. Nov. 2 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. On the lookout for a narrative feature? Don’t miss director Alejandro Gerber Bicecci’s exceptional black-and-white drama “Dead Man’s Switch” at 2:15 p.m. Oct. 13 in the little Roxie. It’s an artful trance-like sensory experience about one woman’s search for her missing husband. (Cine+Mas, in upcoming weeks, offers a free family-friendly outdoor screening of the 2014 animated treat “The Book of Life” in the Mission.)
Albany Film Festival
Dates: Oct. 10, Oct. 12-13; Best of the Fest at 10 a.m. Oct. 19
Where: Rialto Cinemas Cerrito, 10070 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito
Number of films: Three programs of shorts: Albany GreenFest at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10; Living on Earth at 10 a.m. Oct. 12; Connections at 10 a.m. Oct. 13)
Tickets: $13 per program; $30 pass
Full lineup: albanyfilmfest.org
Our pick: Priced at a bargain, this community-minded festival proves that smaller can sometimes be better. For evidence of that, check out Richmond filmmaker Ryan George Kittleman’s kooky, delightful, nearly-2 ½-minute ode to gravy and the essential gravy boat, “Edson’s Gravy” in the Oct. 13 Connections program. Based on Russell Edson’s poem, it’s a perfect prelude to the holiday season.
Graveyard Shift Horror Movie Marathon
Date: 9:15 p.m. Oct. 11 through 6:45 a.m. Oct. 12
Where: Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St., San Francisco
Number of films: Five, including “Donnie Darko,” “Spider Baby,” “Blood for Dracula” (aka “Andy Warhol’s Dracula”), “Rabid” and a mystery film. There’s a drag show, too.
Tickets: $15.62 general for “Donnie Darko”; $36.66 for all films, plus unlimited popcorn, coffee and a few surprises; do you get it?
Purchase tickets: roxie.com/film/the-graveyard-shift-horror-movie-marathon/
Our pick: So many options; we’re flummoxed over which film to select! However, hard pressed, I’ll recommend Jack Hill’s wild-sounding “Spider Baby,” which I have not seen. The bizarro, B-horror schlockfest stars Lon Chaney Jr. (famous for the 1941 horror classic “The Wolf Man”) as a chauffeur taking care and cleaning up after three adult siblings afflicted with a condition that makes them act like rambunctious kids. With a 94 percent, 16-review Rotten Tomatoes rating, it’s an insta-watch in my book.
“Sneaking Around”
Dates: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9; 9:30 p.m. Oct. 10; 4:40 p.m. Oct. 11; 3:40 p.m. Oct. 12; 12:30 p.m. Oct. 13; 9:15 p.m., Oct. 14; 8:30 p.m. Oct. 15
Tickets: $12.62-$15.62 at roxie.com/film/sneaking-around
Where: Little Roxie, 3117 16th St., San Francisco
Details: Bay Area native Emily A. Meehan plumbs desires, startups and the challenges of living in pricey San Francisco with her dramedy “Sneaking Around.” Mb Weider stars as Frances, a San Francisco go-getter, mother and wife who is not feeling exactly satisfied with her cheatin’ hubby. She finds herself drawn to younger women who don’t welcome her need for control.
The post Pass the Remote: Silicon Valley African, Cine+Mas, Albany film fests, and more appeared first on Local News Matters.