Monday, the Roxie screens the debut feature of Lithuanian filmmaker Laurynas Bareiša, Pilgrims, Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, and continues Hong Kong Cinema Classics with A Better Tomorrow, Now, Voyager and Peter Pan are at the Lark, Drafthouse Valley Fair (VF) has 30th anniversary screenings of Toy Story, and Play Dirty is at the Alamo Drafthouses New Mission (NM) and Mountain View (MV) with a livestreamed Q&A with director Shane Black.
Tuesday, Welcome to the Dollhouse is at the New Parkway, Heaven's Gate is at the Balboa, Ghoulies II is at the Drafthouse NM, and Kurosawa's High and Low and another HK Classic reprise of A Chinese Ghost Story are at the Roxie.
Wednesday, BAMPFA's long-running experimental film series Alternative Visions continues with a selection of films (all on 16mm) by Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger, and Sidney Peterson (if the latter is a less familiar name, Peterson founded the film program at the California School of Fine Arts, which would become the SF Art Institute, the home of Studio 8, which is, coincidentally, being celebrated in our featured program this week), Neo Saura's Happyend continues at the Roxie, where you can also join the San Francisco Community Land Trust for "Reclaiming Home," a one-night event that includes a screening of NYC housing justice and community ownership doc Rabble Rousers, Point Blank is at the Drafthouse NM, An Actor's Revenge is at the Balboa, and Guys and Dolls (repeats Thursday) is at the Vogue.
Thursday, the Stanford's first double feature of the week is the twin pinnacles of pre-Code musicals, Gold Diggers of 1933 and Footlight Parade (repeating Friday, both on 35mm), Kelly Reichardt's clafoutis caper First Cow and cult classic Party Monster are at the New Parkway, Frameline presents The Half of It with director Alice Wu in person at the 4 Star, BAMPFA kicking off a new Cheryl Dunye Selects series with an already-at-rush screening of Dunye's The Watermelon Woman with the director in person, Roman Holiday, The Lovers On The Bridge (repeating this weekend), and The Killer are at the Roxie, Werner Herzog's Stroszek is at the Balboa, the Orinda has a free screening of The Majestic, soda-tax doc Between the Sun and the Sidewalk is at the Rialto Cerrito, and the Drafthouses Valley Fair and Mountain View are celebrating the end of their first summer with an absolutely overloaded weekend of free(-ish) screenings.
Friday, Shapeshifters Cinema kicks off our feature this week, the Studio 8 Film Festival, the Roxie has director Dag Johan Haugerud is in person to present the Golden Bear-winning third part of his Oslo Trilogy, Dreams, and opens Animalusa SF 2025, a selection of Portuguese animation shorts, as well as the Quay Brothers' latest stop-motion feature, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (both through the weekend), BAMPFA screens Brazilian documentary Yõg ãtak: My Father, Kaiowá and, continuing the Cities & Cinema: Shanghai series, Lou Ye's Suzhou River, Bring It On (repeats Sunday) is at the Drafthouse NM, The Warriors (repeats Saturday) is at the Vogue, actor Jane Levy is in person to present A Little Prayer at the Smith Rafael, The Hunger is at Opera Plaza, tiki bar doc The Donn of Tiki is at the Orinda, and the complete Dreams-Sex-Love Oslo Trilogy and Walk Hard are at the Lark
Saturday, Dag Johan Hauergad appears at the Lark for a screening of Dreams, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum screens F. W. Murnau's City Girl (on 16mm), BAMPFA screens Yi Yi (at rush) and continue their Roy Andersson series with Songs from the Second Floor, the Stanford's weekend double feature is The African Queen and The Quiet Man (repeating Sunday, both on 35mm), The Matrix (on 35mm), Ikiru (repeats Sunday), and more Studio 8 Film Festival are at the Roxie, Wes Craven's New Nightmare is at the Drafthouse NM, the Balboa has surf doc Thomas Campbell's new surf doc Yi-Wo, flimmaker John C. Aliano presents his photography doc Being Adolph Glasser at the Smith Rafael, Other Cinema has a double feature of Walled Off, a doc about Banksy's hidden Palestinian museum, and No Other Land, and The Princess Bride (repeats Sunday), My Dinner with Andre (repeats Sunday), and Tunnel Vision with Stuart S. Shapiro for a Q&A are at the 4 Star.
Sunday, BAMPFA has more Anderson with About Endlessness, a reprise of Mikio Naruse's Yearning (on 35mm), and another Cheryle Dunye selection in the Ida Lupino-starring Women’s Prison (on 35mm), the Roxie has the Bay Area International Children's Film Festival in program one and program two and one more reprise of 1960s doc Drugs in the Tenderloin, the Studio 8 Film Festival wraps up at SFMOMA with Lawrence Jordan in person, Claire Denis's 35 Shots of Rum is at the Balboa, Media Meltdown Movie Madhouse presents Virgin Beasts at the 4 Star, Iranian bureaucratic comedy Terrestrial Verses and John Carpenter's They Live are at the New Parkway, and Artists' Television Access has a workshop on hand processing 16mm film.
