Greek movies, new movies, and statuettes are on the slate today.
The San Francisco Greek Film Festival launches its 23rd annual edition — eight days of movies by Greek and Cypriot filmmakers — Saturday. Screenings take place at the Delancey Screening Room, in San Francisco, and online. Created to celebrate and increase appreciation of Greek culture and history. the festival is showing eight narrative features, each paired with a short film, and 16 documentaries.
Saturday’s main attraction is “Broken Vein,” director Yannis Economides’ drama about a loanshark-pursued businessman who takes desperate action to save his home. The film has been described as a contemporary Greek tragedy. On Sunday, look for Nicholas Dimitropoulos’ “Don’t Laugh, They’ll See You,” an enjoyable dramedy about an unexpectedly pregnant 40ish woman who accepts her choices and is able to laugh regardless of what others think.
Additional selections include “The Great Massacre of Alimos,” a drama about an LGBTQ+ crew making a documentary about an explosion that killed 70 retirement-home seniors; “Rooster,” a satire about a janitor who enrolls his 6-year-old in an elite private school to give the boy the life he himself was denied; “7 Summits,” a documentary about two mountaineers attempting to become the first Greek women to conquer Everest; and “True to Our Inner Daemon,” a doc about ecstatic rituals of Greek paganism.
Proceeds from the festival benefit the locally based Modern Greek Studies Foundation. Visit grfilm.com for tickets and more information.
It’s overlong and overblown, but the Oscars show on Sunday, March 15 remains embarrassingly irresistible for many a movie fan. It will be on movie screens at the Alameda Theatre in Alameda, the Opera Plaza, Balboa, Presidio and Roxie theaters in San Francisco, New Parkway in Oakland, Rialto Cinemas Cerrito in El Cerrito; Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael and Vine Cinema and Alehouse in Livermore; advance reservations are required for Livermore at vinecinema.com. Several cinemas have styled their awards night events as benefit fundraisers for a range of organizations.
The ceremony begins at 4 p.m. Tickets may sell out quickly, and festivities vary from site to site. Contact theaters directly regarding ticket availability and other specifics.
Two boys elatedly visit Lagos with their often-absent dad as a political crisis looms for their country in “My Father’s Shadow,” British Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr.’s powerful, poetic debut feature opening Friday at the Roxie. Cowritten by Davies and his brother, Wale Davies, the drama transpires on June 24, 1993. On that real-life day, Nigeria’s military regime annulled the country’s presidential election when the results overwhelmingly showed that opposition candidate Moshood Abiola had won.
The movie begins when Folarin (Sope Dirisu), a factory worker with mysterious nosebleeds and a personal secret, makes a rare visit to his countryside home and takes his two young sons (played by brothers Godwin Egbo and Chibuike Marvellous Egbo) with him to the big city, where he plans to ask his supervisor for the wages he’s long been owed. Lagos — a character itself in the movie — is a wonderland for the kids, who enjoy a bus ride, bustling streets, and an amusement park. They delight in meeting their father’s acquaintances and fellow Abiola supporters. The boys aren’t fazed by fuel shortages or newspaper headlines about a military massacre. Joy becomes disbelief when a TV broadcast announces the election annulment, crushing hopes for democratic change and triggering chaos and violence.
Bringing Charlotte Wells’ somewhat thematically similar “Aftersun” to mind, the film is less about plot (though it has some of that, too) than about atmosphere, setting, and feeling. As such, it’s a gem. The award-winning Dirisu is textured and poignant as a father trying to provide the sons he’s neglected with love and guidance. His compassion is movingly evident in a beach scene that suggests “Moonlight.” The Egbo brothers are wonderfully natural and believable as Dirisu’s kin.
Chiding himself for neglecting advice to “get a colonoscopy!” San Francisco nonconformist Andre Ricciardi, 52, decides to chronicle his terminal-cancer journey with honesty, irreverence, and humor. In “Andre Is an Idiot,” a documentary presented in the wildly creative spirit of its subject, director Tony Benna guides viewers through Ricciardi’s final chapter.
An advertising-world offbeatnik with crazy hair and a hyperactive mind, Ricciardi vividly describes his unpleasant medical procedures and crafts goofy puppets from the hair he’s shed. He’s consistently upbeat and jokey when discussing his condition with his brother, his therapist, his best friend, and, most substantially, his supportive wife, Janice, and their two daughters.
Andre and Janice’s relationship, which began as a green-card marriage (Janice is Canadian) and grew into something real, gives the film its necessary heart. Janice embraces her husband’s die-laughing approach to death, but knows that the two will soon have to face the inevitable. As this occurs, Ricciardi’s reflections, while as outrageous as ever, become deeper and more thoughtful. Stop-motion animation entertainingly accompanies Ricciardi’s zany and audacious stories. Not all of his humor is hilarious, but spending 88 minutes with Andre Ricciardi is a kick and a trip.
The film opens Wednesday at the Roxie and Friday at the Smith Rafael Film Center. Some shows are already sold out. Visit roxie.com or rafaelfilm.cafilm.org.
The post Movies: SF Greek film fest, Oscars viewing, ‘My Father’s Shadow,’ ‘Andre Is an Idiot’ appeared first on Local News Matters.