Mission Mission

It’s called The Birth of Big Air and it contains scenes like this. See that litle dude on a bike about a 300 feet above the lip of that ramp? That’s Mat Hoffman, BMX superstar and star of the film, which looks at how the rad world of BMX got even radder.

Jeff Tremaine of Jackass is director, and Spike and Johnny Knoxville are producers, and it’s screening Saturday at the Victoria Theater as part of this year’s Bicycle Film Festival. (What’s that? You still haven’t been inside the Victoria Theater? Tsk tsk.)

Here’s the invite with a few more pertinent details:

And here’s the trailer:

To win a pair of tickets, leave a comment below relating your best BMX-related story. We will pick a winner based on merit. Contest closes Friday at noon.

Or you can always just buy tickets here.

Gifted kindergartner David Enos has produced a stunning animated history of the Doors. The narration, as you can see, is straightforward but haunting, and the depictions of Jim and the gang (and the supernatural oddities they encounter) will leave you breathless.

Watch it below now, or wait and see it on the big screen at next week’s San Francisco International Animation Festival.

(more…)

Who doesn’t love this guy?

Anyway, he’s got a new movie out soon, and tonight he’s previewing it at the Roxie AND teaching some kind of filmmaking master class! Which starts in like an hour!

The details:

This master class will focus on emerging trends in technology and how they will affect the way indie filmmakers create and distribute their films. The class will cover all aspects of the independent film value chain, with special emphasis on financing and distribution.

Tickets will be available at the door, $20 or less, cash only.

Here’s the trailer for the new movie, which screens at 7:30:

Artists’ Television Access wants to give you two passes to the program of your choice at this year’s ATA Film and Video Festival. Tonight is a shorts program called “Human Nature,” and tomorrow night is a shorts program called “Lo-Fi Future.”

Leave a comment below explaining which one you want to attend and why, and we will pick a winner based on merit. Contest ends at 5pm today.

Note that there’s a special hands-on workshop on Saturday, and special installations in the ATA window all month long.

View the trailer for the event below, and peruse the full press release after the jump:

(more…)

FutureStates series.

Things are all coming together for the shoot, but there is still an open item . . . mine. I’m looking for people who want to be extras, people to populate our city of the future. We’re looking for people to fill out scenes shooting this coming Wednesday afternoon and night and this Saturday afternoon and night. We still need some kids, ages 6-13 for both days, as well as people ages 30-65. Both shoots are in SF. As a background actor you wouldn’t be required to say any lines or anything, but we’re hoping to feature many of the extras on camera and want to have some fun with ad-libbing.

If you or someone you know is interested and can commit to both days, please send me an e-mail at eviloars(at)yahoo(dot)(com) with your contact info as soon as possible and I’ll send you more information.

It will be a lot of fun. Movies are fun!

(original photo via Telstar Logistics)

In the comment section of the Cinema Latino / Crown Theater article, reader “like a fox” brings us this interesting tidbit in my response to my plaintive wail, “Could you imagine something like Oakland’s The Fox in the Mission?”

Your wish is granted. The *other* theater across the street – New Mission – is slated to become a music venue – with the Fox being the model. Unfortunately, the New Mission doesn’t have the architectural splendor of the Fox. Don’t know how the funding or permitting is going, sorry.

Gus Murad’s club and height limits are well known, but the idea of a Fox-like entity in the Mission is a new one to me.  Any readers with more information?

(More Mission Street theater history porn here, and more pictures inside of New Mission here.)

Hey, hey! Now’s your chance! Remember the way Phil Bronstein compared it to Milk? Epic. Can’t wait to watch it again.

Anyway, what I’m most thrilled about is now I can watch the opening two seconds over and over and over any time I want. (Before, I said three seconds, but I think they might’ve trimmed a beat for the home video release.)

Looks like Medjool’s Gus Murard has been falling behind on payments for the dilapidated New Mission Theater and GIANT VALUE building and is possibly facing foreclosure from the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees.

According to the article, Murard planned to eventually convert the site to “affordable housing”. If this is true, he’ll totally save money on signage by just slapping “APARTMENTS” under “GIANT VALUE”.

Get the full scoop at the über-1337 M!$$!0n L0c@l.

Well, it probably won’t be quite as good as this rad poster, but the Roxie, as you can see, is screening a double feature of Wet Hot American Summer and One Crazy Summer on Sunday night, July 4th, presumably to celebrate our nation’s independence.

AND you can win a pair of tickets right here, right now!

Everybody loves Wet Hot American Summer, so tell us why you love it even more than everyone else. And it can’t just be because you really really love Paul Rudd’s butt. Tell us a tale, weave us a yarn. In the comments section below.

Mission Mission and maybe Roxie staff will pick the best one and that person will get two tickets.Contest ends Friday at 5pm.

✌

By the way, last year I interviewed some members of the State, and one of the things David Wain talked about was the downside of having made something so genius:

The typical meeting with a studio or production company would be them saying, “Wet Hot American Summer is the greatest movie ever made. We love it. We watch it every day. Now can you do something that has absolutely nothing to do with that kind of sense of humor, and make sure that there’s not a shred of your voice in it, and then we can work together?”

Bummer, right? Read on.

This is a still from Jordan’s Hand, a new film by David Enos and Mishell Stimson. Watch it if you love San Francisco, acting, news reports, British accents, fashion or prosthesis.