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

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

Insider

"Last for One:" SFIAAFF's Taro Goto, moving on

As the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival draws to a close, it says goodbye to one of its loyal and gracious gentlemen, Taro Goto. Goto began as the Festival’s Print Traffic Coordinator in 2000, first thinking of the position as a temporary means to stay in touch with the film community. But he stayed eight years, and leaves as the Festival’s Associate Director. As he puts it, “[The job] became an obsession.” He gave notice that this would be his last Festival one year ago, and judging by this year’s success, he is going out in style. SF360.org asked Goto to give us a personal look at what makes him happiest about this last year of his tenure.

topics: asian american cinema, asian cinema, film festivals

Take Two

Q&A: Brillante Mendoza

It is clear from the very first interaction with Brillante Mendoza that he is an extremely gracious man. This, even after the substantial acclaim he had been garnering for three feature films he unveiled this past year. In the most obvious ways, the two of his films playing at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, Foster Child and Slingshot, couldn’t be more different. The first of these films centers on the adoption day of Jon-Jon, a darling 3-year old, from a loving foster family. The latter examines the criminal underworld and its corrupt government counterpart in a dark and labyrinthine Manila. Still, as Mendoza makes clear, these films share a basic approach to the world, one that engenders respectful understanding through a desire to depict and see things as they really are. In part, because of filmmakers like him, Filipino independent cinema has enjoyed a renaissance in this first decade of the 2000s. Mendoza was in San Francisco for the first time recently for his screenings, when he took time to speak with SF360.org.

topics: asian cinema, critics, directors, documentary, film festivals, q&a

Platform

Daniel Wu

Last year, when Daniel Wu came back to his native Bay Area with his directorial debut, “The Heavenly Kings,” which screened at the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival, SF360.org contributor Jennifer Young reminded us of the joke that had been circulating online—that a Chinese law exists requiring Daniel Wu to be featured in every Hong Kong film. Still one of Hong Kong’s most prolific actors, Wu is visiting the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival this week with Alexi Tan’s “Blood Brothers.” Young got a chance to visit again with the actor when the film screened at the Castro this past Friday.

topics: asian american cinema, asian cinema, bay area, castro theatre, center for asian american media, critics, cult cinema, film festivals

The List

Judy Stone's San Francisco Int'l Asian American Film Festival picks

A name familiar to longtime readers of the San Francisco Chronicle, where she once worked, Judy Stone came out with Not Quite a Memoir two years back, offering audiences conversations on film from around the world. This week, she offers SF360.org readers her top picks for the SFIAAFF’s collection of films from around the world—films screening at the Sundance Kabuki as you read this. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Ramparts, for over 40 years, and Stone has two other books out as well, Eye on the World: Conversations with International Filmmakers and The Mystery of B. Traven.

topics: asian cinema, authors, critics, film festivals, filmmakers