Experience

Will 'The Thrill' Viharo's 'Thrillville' turns 11

One man’s camp is another man’s trash. Or maybe it’s the other way around. In any event, this is the endless, bruising debate among cinephiles: What “distinguishes” the painfully bad stuff—the misfires of talented artists, the hack work of lesser mortals, the by-the-numbers cookie-cutter crap—from the low-rent gems, the bizarre one-offs, the twisted genre riffs, the pinnacles of unintentionally hilarious bad taste? With the latter we have entered the exalted province of Will “The Thrill” Viharo, the fez-festooned impresario of the monthly East Bay cult-movie extravaganza “Thrillville.” In anticipation of his 11th anniversary show April 10 at the Cerrito Speakeasy, featuring the 1958 chiller “It! The Terror From Beyond Outer Space” (whose plot was ripped off by “Alien,” it’s widely maintained), we hobnobbed with Viharo over a mug of joe. “Garbage to me is anything with Tom Cruise,” he explained. “Trash to me is anything with Tura Satana. Trash is something you keep and recycle; garbage is something you use then throw away. I prefer trashy films; they have a longer life.”

topics: cerrito speakeasy, cult cinema, directors, exhibitions, genre films

The List

Seven from the Sonoma Valley Film Festival

There are few things in the Bay Area more adventurous and relaxing than being able to take off a day or two and head to Wine Country. The mere fact that driving less than 30 miles north of San Francisco and Alameda counties warrants taking off a “day or two” is testament both to spring fever and the siren song of Sonoma’s hospitality, the lure of the vineyards and riverbanks.

The Sonoma Valley Film Festival, which runs April 9-13, has gone to great lengths to enfold the event in its surroundings. Complimentary food tastings prepared with fresh, regional ingredients will be offered before every single screening. The festival sommelier has chosen over 30 locally produced wines to pair with each food selection. It’s no surprise that the opening night gala at Jacuzzi Winery is sponsored by Food & Wine magazine.

topics: bay area, directors, documentary, exhibitions, film festivals, sonoma

Experience

Earthdance Short-Attention-Span Environmental Film Festival

Who says it’s not easy being green? If you ask the folks behind the Bay Area-based Earthdance Short-Attention-Span Environmental Film Festival, engaging films with positive and eye-opening ecological themes can not only be easy but high fun. And they’ve been proving it since 2004, with an annual spate of short films covering a gamut of environmental subjects and stylistic approaches while studiously avoiding the doomy.

“We’re living at a time when we need stories that connect people, bring them together and inspire hope,” explains festival director and founder Zakary Zide. “We wanted to reach out and be more inclusive.” Doing so meant highlighting the humor, adventure and sheer wonder of the natural environment and the place of human beings in it. Rather than targeting single issues like global warming or the coming water crisis, EarthDance aims to be a bridge between art, nature and science. In that sense, says Zide, “It’s not even political.”

topics: environmental films, exhibitions, experimental film, film festivals, oakland museum of california

Report

SF Int'l announces its 51st program and year-round screen

The San Francisco International Film Festival announced not only its 2008 program today at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, but also the June 13 launch of its year-round programming on one screen at the Sundance Kabuki.

San Francisco Film Society Executive Director Graham Leggat told the assembled that the Film Society has been working very hard since he arrived to turn its programming into a “year-round operation,” and that the SFFS screen will feature international independent and documentary features with limited U.S. distribution.

[Editor’s note: SF360.org is published by SFFS.]

Most of the event was devoted to unveiling the work inside the 51st Festival, which runs from April 24 through May 8. It opens with Catherine Breillat’s The Last Mistress, starring Asia Argento—one of three films in the Festival’s opening weekend featuring the actress, who Leggat spoke of as “alluringly vulpine. And that’s a compliment.” The International’s closing night is an Alex Gibney documentary with roots in San Francisco publishing, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Jonathan Levine’s Sundance hit The Wackness is the Centerpiece presentation.

topics: documentary, environmental films, exhibitions, french cinema, genre films, independent film, international film, italian cinema, midnight movies, san francisco film society, san francisco international film festival, sundance film festival, sundance kabuki, technology

Take Two

"Shelter"

I’ve no idea how many gay surfers there are—does anyone?—but for sure a whole lot of gay men have long fantasied about shootin’ the curl (ahem) with a surfie. What’s not to like? Laird Hamilton, for example, is a world-class sex object by any standard. Just ‘cuz he’s married with kids doesn’t mean a dude can’t dream.

While gay porn flicks have dubiously mined the surfer fantasy since their inception—at the least exploiting the stereotype of athletic California blonds—non-X-rated films have been much more hesitant. You sure didn’t see gay characters in Hollywood’s takes on surf culture (from Frankie & Annette to Point Break), nor in the never-ending documentaries that flowed from 1966 landmark The Endless Summer to the latest DIY effort at SF’s Red Vic Movie House.

topics: exhibitions, film festivals, gay lesbian cinema, independent film, reviews

Experience

'A Genuine Tribute to Peter Bogdanovich'

There’s a scene a third of a way into Peter Bogdanovich’s debut film Targets (1968) in which the director seems to directly address his future critics. The film, an early mash-up of serial killing and cinematic reflexivity made under Roger Corman’s watch, stars an aging Boris Karloff as a romanticized version of himself. A slick-haired Bogdanovich stands in to play the part of…the young celluloid-mad director trying to revive the Karloff character’s star with a couple of quickies for an independent producer. I’m not sure even the Coen Brothers would be arch enough for such a ploy, but Bogdanovich plays it beautifully in a scene in Karloff’s hotel room. One of the old actor’s first films, The Criminal Code (1931, directed by Howard Hawks), plays on television, and Bogdanovich’s director is immersed within moments. Before long, he’s shushing the real actor in favor of his black-and-white likeness.

topics: castro theatre, critics, directors, dvd, exhibitions

Found

SF Indiefest diary

I tend to overbook myself and 50 percent of the time, it prevents me from getting anything done. Case in point: Last night I decided I was going to take in a triple feature at the Roxie for purposes of Indiefest coverage. It made sense at the time.

A sucker for music documentaries of all kinds, I showed up at “Electric Heart — Don Ellis,” at 5 p.m. to begin my six-hour movie-watching marathon. Ellis immediately reminded me of a 1970s Peter Gabriel. Specifically pre-“So” Peter Gabriel, when he had officially broken away from Genesis but not yet had huge commercial success, when he was experimenting with complete abandonment using the sounds and limitations of the instruments at his disposal, with tones, with electronics, and heavily influenced by world music.

topics: cult cinema, exhibitions, film festivals, independent film, music, sf indiefest