SFFS Cinema by the Bay Nov. 22-14 2013

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The San Francisco Film Society's series, Cinema by the Bay, comprises new films made in the San Francisco area or by filmmakers from the area. I will review some this year. Links to the Festival Coverage reviews here and an open thread for any responses.

Holy Ghost People
Mitchell Altieri
Mitch Altieri, one half of directing duo the Butcher Brothers, presents this unnerving descent into a cult tucked away in the Appalachian mountains. Charlotte is bent on finding her missing sister and believes that she has joined a church that includes snake handling ceremonies and speaking in tongues. She receives the help of alcoholic veteran Wayne in infiltrating the group, as they pose as initiates in order to gain information on Charlotte's sister's possible whereabouts. As they sink deeper into the social structure of the church, stakes, dangers and suspicions are continuously ratcheted up, making for exquisitely tension-filled viewing. Friday, November 22, 7:00 and 9:30, Roxie Theater

The Genius of Marian
Banker White, Anna Fitch
In this personal ode to familial ties and legacy, Banker White (Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars) chronicles his mother Pam's struggle with progressive dementia, and the result is a moving portrait of memory and loss. When Pam is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's and it becomes too difficult to continue writing a memoir about her artist mother -- Marian Williams Steele, who herself suffered from Alzheimer's -- White films her remembrances as a way to keep her working on the project. Working with codirector Anna Fitch, White has crafted an intimate documentary that is an exploration not only of the devastating effects of illness, but also of two influential and compelling women. Eebuted at Tribeca April 2013. Saturday, November 23, 12:00, Roxie Theater, 86 mins.

Redemption Trail
Britta Sjogren (USA 2013)
In this new film by local filmmaker Britta Sjogren, two powerful yet troubled women flee a past that haunts them. Debuted 6 October 2013 at Mill Valley Film Festival. Saturday, November 23, 2:15 pm, Roxie Theater

American Vagabond
Susanna Helke (Finland/Denmark 2013)
The burgeoning community of homeless gay youths in San Francisco is dramatically brought to life in Susanna Helke’s poetic and evocative documentary. " American Vagabond [shows that] homosexuality is still so demonized in some communities that some parents are ready to abandon their children over it. One out of every four young people who are coming out to their parents is kicked out of the house. 20 to 40 percent of homeless youth are estimated to belong to sexual minorities in the United States" (IMDb blurb for the film). Saturday, November 23, 4:30 pm, Roxie Theater

Along the Roadside
Zoran Lisinac (Pored Puta, USA and Serbia 2013)
In this modern road movie, a San Francisco–based graphic designer flees his stable life and career when his girlfriend reveals to him that she is pregnant, and crosses paths with an untethered German tourist as he makes his way out of town towards southern California. "Road movie about two young people from different parts of the world, their vastly different cultures and their journey of self-discovery during the drive to the largest music festival in California" (IMDb blurb). Saturday, November 23, 6:45 pm, Roxie Theater, 108 mins.

Street Smarts: YAK Films’ Dance Then and Now
YAK Films is an international media production team whose work with urban dance began with the legendary Turf Feinz crew in Oakland, CA, innovators of the Turf dancing style. This shorts program will trace YAK’s origins in the Bay Area and present some of their newest, unseen international works. Saturday, November 23, 9:30 pm, Roxie Theater

The SF State of Cinema: Shorts from SFSU Alumni
The Cinema Department at SFSU is an enduring educational institution that has played a critical role in defining the history of cinema in the Bay Area. This program of short films made by SFSU alumni barely scratches the surface of the great work being fostered amidst the fog at the end of 19th Avenue. Sunday, November 24, 12:00 pm, Roxie Theater

The Other Side of the Mountain
In Hak Jang (North Korea and USA 2012)
"A North Korean nurse and a South Korean soldier fall in love during a tumultuous time of the Korean War, and experience lifetimes of consequences, separation and pain, with the hope of reuniting one day" (IMDb blurb). "The first U.S./North Korea coproduction ever, this film is a dazzling, epic melodrama depicting the relationship between a South Korean man and a North Korean woman separated by political conflict (SFFS blurb). Sunday, November 24, 2:15 pm, Roxie Theater

The Illness and the Odyssey
Berry Minott (USA, 2013)
Local filmmaker Berry Minott takes us on an epic journey to find the cause -- and perhaps the cure -- of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS and other neurological disorders. Her investigation begins on the Pacific island of Guam, where following the end of WWII, the indigenous Chamorro people were afflicted with Alzheimer's -- like symptoms from a disease called Lytico-Bodig. For years renowned scientists descended on this small village to detect the source of this mysterious illness-was it hereditary, environmental or dietary? This engaging and edifying documentary features rare archival footage and candid interviews with author/neurologist Oliver Sacks, New Yorker columnist Jonathan Weiner and many other noted scientists. Sunday, November 24, 7:00 pm, Roxie Theater, 75 mins.

Dear Sidewalk
Jake Oelman (USA 2013)
Gardner, a 24-year old mailman, adheres to the comfort of his routine, rigidly cultivating obsessions that keep him in his small-but-safe world. This changes when he meets Paige, a newly relocated divorcee on his route, and Gardner's quarter-life crisis collides with Paige's mid-life one. Sunday, November 24, 9:15 pm, Roxie Theate

Banker White, Anna Fitch: The Genius of Marian (2013)

Banker White, a filmmaker based in San Francisco, and his girlfriend, then wife, Anna Fitch, have made a very personal, familial documentary about his mother's Alzheimer's that may serve as a softer, warmer, more intimate and feminine appendix to Alan Berliner's searching, detailed study of the long mental decline of brilliant writer and intellectual Edwin Honig, First Cousin, Once Removed.

Susanna Helke: American Vagabond (2013)

In this unsettling, hard to watch documentary about homeless gay youth, James flees from Chico, CA with his boyfirend and goes to San Francisco when he is rejected by his parents for being homosexual and their flight leads to hunger, homelessness, and eventually jail. The Filmmaker and production are Finnish.

Zoran Lisniac: Along the Roadside (2013)

A little indie road movie with dialogue that tries too hard. It better fits a series that would be called "Cinema Away from the Bay" because the two who hit the road leave San Francisco at the outset, and don't come back.

Britta Sjogren: Redemption Trail (2013)

In this indie film set in Sonoma County, California, two women seeking refuge from traumas join together for a while on the farm one maintains for a rich Englishman. The filmmaker is a professor in the Department of Cinema of San Francisco State. This is her third feature.

In Hak Jang: The Other Side of the Mountain (2012)

A platonic romance between a North Korean nurse and a South Korean soldier during the Korean war. The dialogue is trite and propagandistic but the production is remarkable, the first US-North Korean coproduction, the first sync sound North Korean film, made under very rugged conditions yet with war scenes (explosions, stuff like that). Also remarkable is that he script is by 76-year-old producer Joon Bai, who has lived in the US most of his life.

Berry Minott: The Illness and the Odyssey (2013)

"I was tremendously impressed by your film, encyclopedic in scope and beautifully woven together" says Oliver Sacks, the author and neurologist. He's in the film, but only in a modest capacity. Sacks is the most famous person featured as a talking head in this standard but informative info-mentary about the series of rejected theories for the cause of lytigo-bodig disease among the Chamorro people on Guam. Their once extremely high incidence of this neurodegenerative disease has led to constant study on the island by neurologists and an ethnobotonist because if the cause of lytigo-bodig could be found, which the high incidence might facilitate, this might provide the key to the whole family of neurodegenerative illnesses, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, ALS, etc., which are the cause of death of a fourth of the world's population, according to the film. The filmmaker is based in the Bay Area.

Jake Oelman: Dear Sidewalk (2013)

An Austin, Texas mailman on the cusp of 25 meets a just-relocated older divorcee on his route and neglects postal duties to hang out. A cute film but with some casting, writing, and post-production issues. Oelman's may have rushed through this film because he's at work on something more personal and perhaps visually awesome, a doc about his father who migrated from Boston to Colombia, South America in the Nineties and has abandoned a career as a psychiatrist to become a professional photographer of tropical insects. Jake is based in LA (Bay Area ties?).

Not quite the success one might have hoped for, but a welcome change after films about: (1) the Korean war and (2) neurodegenerative disease.