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Roxie Cinema 2/11/2007 4:30PM

Rozie Cinema  2/17/2007 12PM

This ground-breaking documentary reveals the struggles and victories of South Africa's women from the perspectives of three major performers in South Africa’s hip-hop scene.

Roxie Cinema 2/15/2007 9:30PM

Victoria Theater 2/17/2007 12PM

This verité documentary shows a day in the life at Levels, a bustling barbershop located in the heart of Harlem. The film shows the vital role community barbershops play as a forum for black men to discuss any topic, whether controversial or banal, sacred or profane, political or personal. And with the increasing gentrification of the area, a number of diverse clients (including a white gay man) occasionally enter the mix. Topics discussed in the film include HIV/AIDS, infidelity, gay marriage, greedy preachers, Bill Clinton, the world's sexiest actresses, and more.

Roxie Cinema 2/15/2007 7PM

2/17/2007 2:15PM

Animation Amalgamation

You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll cringe.

The Waif of Persephone

Nick Cross

Canada, 2006, 13 min

www.pyatyletka.blogspot.com

Windows, Masks, Doors

Sarah Orenstein

USA, 2006, 5 min

Kuro Kumo

Jesse Norton

Japan/ USA, 2006, 6 min

Cry From the Past

Susan Stamp

Australia, 2006, 6 min

Ara's Flight

Hagop Kaneboughazian

Roxie Theater 2/11/2007 9:30PM

Victoria Theater 2/17/2007 2:15PM

Roxie Cinema 2/19/2007 9:30 PM

Nothing makes the IndieFest crew happier than discovering new artists, and presenting the world premiere of a local filmmaker's debut feature film is a particular pleasure. Cyrus Amini's stunning 25-Cent Preview is a gritty cinema-verite-style drama that journeys headlong into San Francisco's dark underbelly.

Director/editor Amini's balanced, brutally honest film is a sympathetic yet unflinching portrait of two young guys cruising lower Polk—and the brutal reality of their hard-drug & sex-for-pay lifestyle. Marcus (Merlin Gaspers), a white, jagged-edge pretty-boy, is the protégé of a more seasoned black street hustler “DotCom” (Dorian Brockington). They join forces to self-medicate, turn tricks, deal with the power-plays and random violence that come with the lifestyle, and to find basic solutions to their common problems of daily survival.

Victoria Theater 2/11/2007 7PM

2/17/2007 4:30PM

“Dear San Francisco Independent Film Festival Programmer:

‘Rolling’ is a film that explores a subject that other films only touch upon. (The use of) MDMA (Ecstasy) is, without question, one of the most significant drug phenomena in human history. Despite this, there has yet to be a fictional film that focuses on the drug or, more specifically, the users’ experiences with the drug. It is our belief that audiences are long overdue for a film that fully explores Ecstasy. …Thank you, in advance, for your consideration, The Rolling Team.”

Roxie Cinema    2/14/2007    12PM

                          2/17/2007    4:30PM

“[Nick Peterson] is one of the best young filmmakers I have come across in a long time. His unity of vision is rare and gives me hope for the next generation of American filmmakers.” - Gus Van Sant

“Yellow,” an indie-musical-romanti-drama, marks the debut feature of award-winning filmmaker Nick Peterson. Interweaving rich-yet-realistic artistic direction, delicately balanced cinematography, and notably earnest acting is a feat in itself. “Yellow,” however, goes one step beyond, with Eric Schopmeyer’s lyrical compositions periodically highlighting the humor, self-awareness and thorny honesty found throughout this tale of sexual-wows and woes.

Victoria Theater 2/10/2007 2:15PM

2/17/2007 7PM

Thrill to the strange adventures of Tex Kennedy after the great nation formerly known as the United States collapses completely. By the year 2097, history has begun to unfold again in New America. The survivors are re-emerging from the ashes to take (by any means necessary) their rightful places as the founding fathers of a brutal and bizarre new nation.

Kennedy, driven by his passionate (and more than a little delusional) objective to sew together the tattered remnants of the old world with principles of liberty and freedom, journeys to the deadly future capital of New America, notoriously known as the Threshold of Hell. Standing by Tex’s side are his two robot companions and the legendary 'Cannibal Sue'. As Tex’s epic journey progresses, we learn how a young appointed king, his murderously jealous cousin, a giant sea snake, the great, great, great grandson of Fidel Castro, a powerful communication radio tower, and the spawn of Satan himself, all hold a vital presence in the New American mythology.

Roxie Cinema 2/15/2007 4:30PM

Roxie Cinema 2/17/2007 7PM

Dionysius Zervos’ first feature is based on a true event. As recounted to him by a lifeguard, the story goes that a young mother and her child regularly came to the beach, until one day the child disappeared and the mother never saw her again.

Roxie Cinema 2/9/2007 11:45PM

Victoria Theater 2/17/2007 9:30PM

“...Plunges its audience into a violent abyss of extremities so potent that a person fainted during its World Premiere.” - FantAsia film festival program note

Roxie Cinema 2/12/2007 4:30PM

Roxie Cinema 2/17/2007 9:30PM

California Theater-Berkeley 2/15/2007 9:30PM

This is a big true story of the long ago time and the time before that. A story within a story with spears and humor, goose eggs, wives, more wives, and perhaps too many wives. Ten men set out in canoes into the Arafura Swamp to collect goose eggs and an elder notices the youngest member of the clan is making eyes at his brother’s youngest wife. To divert him the elder tells the story of ten men setting out in canoes to collect eggs and how a young member of the clan covets his brother’s youngest wife.

Primitive Screwheads and Tossing Alice

Victoria Theater

2/9/2007 11:45PM

2/10/2007 11:45PM

2/16/2007 11:45PM

2/17/2007 11:45PM

The Primitive Screwheads, along with their friends Tossing Alice, present “The Crazy Go Nuts Show;” a late night comedy/horror variety program that harkens back to the glory days of The Donnie and Marie Show and Creature Features.

California Theater-Berkeley 2/12/2007 9:30PM

Roxie Cinema 2/14/2007 9:30PM

Roxie Cinema 2/17/2007 11:45PM

USA Premiere

“Unholy Women” is an omnibus film—three stories by three directors. Each tells the horrific tale of a woman, who for one reason or another, becomes very very scary.

Victoria Theater 2/10/2007 7PM

Victoria Theater 2/18/2007 12PM

“Mojave Phone Booth is a rebellion against the Hollywood philosophy and all the bloat it stands for. I believe that a compelling story can be told without it costing an arm and leg.” - Director John Putch

Roxie Cinema 2/10/2007 4:30PM

Roxie Cinema 2/18/2007 12PM

California Theater-Berkeley 2/14/2007 9:30PM

Oliver Meyrou’s Beyond Hatred is a calm and moving cinema-verite documentary about moving past anger and revenge. François Chenu, a young gay man, was beaten by three skinheads and thrown in a pond to die in Rheims, France.

Roxie Cinema 2/10/2007 2.15PM

2/18/2007 2:15PM

All The Lonely People

Where don’t they all come from?

Happiness

Sophie Barthes

USA, 2006, 11 min

A woman working in a condom factory tries to buy happiness.

My Name is Wallace

Bob Pondillo

USA, 2006, 18 min

A lonely man falls in love with a sex-line operator.

Dissolution

Nilesh Bell-Gorsia

UK, 2006, 15 min

Confrontig common perceptions of Islam daily.

Night Becomes Day

Victoria Theater 2/16/2007 7PM

2/18/2007 2:15PM

World Premiere

It's off-season in a small resort town where virginal 22 year-old Sam works nights at an empty hotel. Already completely alienated from his Bible-thumping minister father and his drug-addicted friends, he is alone and starved for companionship. Sam is further marginalized by an epileptic sleep paralysis that plagues him with terrible half-waking nightmares. However his fear of sleep makes him a perfect candidate for the graveyard shift – and his crystal meth habit keeps him awake all night anyway.

California Theater 2/12/2007 7PM

Roxie Cinema 2/13/2007 7PM

Roxie Cinema 2/18/2007 4:30PM

Millions of people believe in him. Thousands claim to have seen him. But only one man, Dr. Lloyd Darrow, self-proclaimed 'Santa-ologist', is actively attempting to prove his existence. Acclaimed actor/singer/author William Shatner discovered Dr. Darrow's research on the internet and asked to provide the narration for this important overview of his ground-breaking work.

Victoria Theater 2/13/2007 4:30PM

Victoria Theater 2/18/2007 4:30PM

Bring an extra pair of underpants.

4U
Ehren Koepf
USA, 2006, 4 min
www.shortfilm4u.com
A man in a secluded cabin has a long list of people he's been wanting to knock off.

Victoria Theater 2/10/2007 4:30PM

2/18/2007 7PM

"LOL is a witty mini-satire of post-collegiates trying to connect romantically and erotically… in a tangle of up-to-the-minute technology." - Gerald Peary, The Boston Phoenix

Roxie Cinema 2/18/2007 7PM

“I wanted to explore melodrama, social satire, comedy, boy-and-his-dog films, and the zombie film—all within a 1950s-style Technicolor world.” - Director Andrew Currie

Our Closing Night event is a great zombie film: it delivers absolutely everything you want from a walking dead flick: action, scares, comedy, mad scientists—and it's a very clever satirical romantic comedy.

Roxie Cinema 2/9/2007 7PM

Roxie Cinema 2/18/2007 9:30PM

California Theater-Berkeley 2/13/2007 7PM

USA Premiere

“I am reworking old sexploitation movies from the 60s and early 70s from a woman's point of view. Vintage sexploitation films interest me because they revolve around fantasies of a woman's power over the male, her beauty, her desirability, her sex appeal.” - Writer/Director/Star Anna Biller

Roxie Cinema 2/10/2007 11:45PM

Victoria Theater 2/18/2007 9:30PM

“Why would anybody watch a scum show like Videodrome?” - Barry Convex

Do you want to watch S&MAN?

Roxie Cinema 2/19/2007 7PM

 

John Brown's Bunny

A brilliant documentary shows how animal-rights activists may be killing free speech.

BY AARON MESH | amesh at wweek dot com

 

[December 6th, 2006] It seems congratulations are in order to In Defense of Animals: Nearly a year of picketing, spitting and paint-throwing outside Schumacher Furs has achieved results (for more on this story, see page 15). The store, which had allegedly battled back with signs and threats of its own, is finally hightailing it out of downtown. No longer will Southwest 10th Avenue be tarnished by the peddling of animal skins. Of course, some other location will now be tarnished by the peddling of animal skins. So downtown Portland loses a merchant, and Schumacher gets a parking lot. No price is too high for such progress.

Roxie Theater 2/11/2007 9:30PM

Victoria Theater 2/17/2007 2:15PM

Roxie Cinema 2/19/2007 9:30 PM

Nothing makes the IndieFest crew happier than discovering new artists, and presenting the world premiere of a local filmmaker's debut feature film is a particular pleasure. Cyrus Amini's stunning 25-Cent Preview is a gritty cinema-verite-style drama that journeys headlong into San Francisco's dark underbelly.

Director/editor Amini's balanced, brutally honest film is a sympathetic yet unflinching portrait of two young guys cruising lower Polk—and the brutal reality of their hard-drug & sex-for-pay lifestyle. Marcus (Merlin Gaspers), a white, jagged-edge pretty-boy, is the protégé of a more seasoned black street hustler “DotCom” (Dorian Brockington). They join forces to self-medicate, turn tricks, deal with the power-plays and random violence that come with the lifestyle, and to find basic solutions to their common problems of daily survival.

Roxie Cinema 2/20/2007 7PM

Forgiving the Franklins is the sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic story of a repressed God-fearing southern family who undergo a radical spiritual change, putting them at odds with the conservative values of their community. The Franklins are a stereotypical North Carolina family: Frank is a lawyer, Betty is a homemaker, and the high school-age kids Caroline and Brian are a cheerleader and a football star, respectively. An auto accident turns their world upside down—in a state somewhere between life and death, Frank, Betty and Brian meet Jesus who, for reasons known only to himself, removes them from the burden of Original Sin. Left out of the equation is Caroline who, in the throes of adolescence and pain from her injuries, must figure out why her family has suddenly embraced their repressed sexuality.

Victoria Theater 2/9/2007 7PM

Victoria Theater 2/11/2007 12PM

Roxie Cinema 2/20/2007 9:30PM