Report

Thoughts on the aughts: best/worst trends of the year and decade

A decade as odd as this one, with George Bush and Barack Obama as its bookends, deserves to be examined. While the U.S. moved from rebuilding decimated skyscrapers to the rebuilding of an entire economy, film moved from the multiplex to the mailbox to the cell phone. But did the pictures really get small? We tried to find out by surveying Bay Area film-industry professionals as well as everyday fans on the trends that moved them. We found love for animation and hate for the ascendancy of the first-person narrator-star in documentary films. We saw pleas for more collaboration and less ego. We encountered disdain for CGI and hope for independent exhibitors and filmmakers. The comments below were selected from many we received; needless to say, we couldn’t publish everything. If you feel we missed anything in particular, we encourage you to issue a few opinions of your own in the "comments" box at story’s end.

topics: activism, actors, animation, bay area, cinephiles, critics, critics year end polls, digital distribution, digital filmmaking, directors, distributors, diy, documentary film, drama, environmental films, gay lesbian cinema, genre films, tv, world cinema, youth

Experience

After Sept. 11, 2001, a decade found its way

On September 13, 2001, I stood in a small park in downtown Toronto, shocked but confident, and spoke to Canadian television: From now on, movies would not be the same, Hollywood and indie films would change completely. Everything would be different. It had to be, didn’t it?

Well, no, as it turned out.

I was wrong.

[Editor’s note: SF360.org is devoting this and the following week to coverage of the year and decade in film.]

topics: activism, argentine cinema, audiences, authors, bay area, critics, critics year end polls, curators, digital distribution, digital filmmaking, directors, distributors, diy, documentary, drama, dramatic films, dvd, exhibitio, tv, web, women, women filmmakers, world cinema, youth

In Production

Bay Area narrative filmmakers are thriving in doc capital in '09

When I received the proposal last January to write a weekly “In Production” column for SF360.org, I had no concerns about finding sufficient material—that is, local works in various stages of progress. As you well know, the Bay Area is the only place in the country outside of the industry town of Los Angeles and the megalopolis of New York that could sustain a weekly column on independent filmmaking. The challenge I expected was (un)covering a halfway respectable number of narrative features to balance the famously overwhelming output of documentary makers. But as the year unfolded, the trickle of fiction films built to, well, not a flood but a very healthy stream—in the middle of a depressing recession. While I’m not quite ready to anoint the Bay Area as Indiewood North (or West), I have found that something’s certainly going on.

topics: activism, actors, bay area, digital distribution, digital filmmaking, directors, distributors, diy, documentary, features, filmmakers, frameline, independent film, mill valley film festival, narrative feature filmmaking, san fra, san francisco international film festival

In Production

Filmmakers stuff "Bag!" with self-distribution dreams

Oren Jacob was out with friends one night when the conversation turned to high school summer jobs. “I used to be a grocery bagger,” one person recalled, “but never made it out to the regionals.” Oren phoned his wife on the way home. “I know what our next film is about,” he said. Justine Jacob had just completed her debut with Alex D. da Silva, Runners High, about inner-city teens training for a marathon, and figured Oren had stumbled on a lighter, quirkier variation of the sports doc. Instead, “we found a competition that has been going on for over 20 years, an organization (the National Grocers Association) with a purpose to advocate for independent grocers that cater to their communities, and an industry filled with integrity where individuals love their jobs and serving their customers,” Justine says. “We knew we had more than a competition film.” Three years later, the filmmakers are rolling out Ready, Set, Bag! themselves. Rule No. 1: Crushables go on top.

topics: bay area, directors, distributors, diy, documentary film

Experience

Feast your eyes: a holiday film preview

I don’t know about you, but I know what I want for Christmas (and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, for that matter): Some decent movies. Hope springs eternal, especially at this time of year. It’s Hollywood custom now to reserve the majority of its prestige titles for an annual late onslaught, the idea being that award-bestowing organizations’ voters naturally gravitate toward whatever is freshest in their memories. In the indie sector, too, there are some goodies timed for holiday gifting.

So, here’s a glancing, far-from-exhaustive preview of what we’ve got to look forward to between now and New Year’s Day.

topics: activism, actors, animation, art film, awards, bay area, castro theatre, children's issues, comedy, critics, critics year end polls, cult cinema, directors, distributors, documentary film, dramatic films, music, musicals, roxie, world cinema

Avoiding Disaster

A challenge to filmmakers

Usually I use this column to address specific legal problems that come up when producing a film. I’m not going to address a legal concern this time, but instead, speak to a larger issue that I feel is rarely discussed: the lack of quality independent filmmaking today.

topics: authors, bay area, distributors, diy, film festivals, filmmakers, independent film, legal issues

Platform

"Sorry, Thanks" lavishes love on the Mission

From the steep slope of 22nd Street down to La Taqueria, from the Attic to Boogaloos, Dia Sokol and Lauren Veloski’s droll and charming Sorry, Thanks showcases the Mission to glowing advantage. Veloski (producer and co-writer) was born and raised in the Bay Area and knows the territory, while Sokol (director and co-writer) mapped the terrain of seriocomic relationship movies as producer of Andrew Bujalski’s Beeswax and Mutual Appreciation. Sorry, Thanks follows the dating stutter-steps of a young woman (Kenya Miles) unattached for the first time in eons, and the amusing antics of a passive underachiever (Wiley Wiggins) barely present in his long-term relationship. Talky without being pretentious—or precious—the film glides gradually from gently absurd comedy into a poignant look at commitment and responsibility. We caught up with the filmmakers via email ahead of the Bay Area screenings of Sorry, Thanks October 11 and 12 in the Mill Valley Film Festival, and October 24 in the first annual SFFS Cinema by the Bay festival in San Francisco.

[Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in advance of the film’s MVFF screening.]

topics: bay area, cinephiles, directors, distributors, film festivals, independent film, mill valley film festival