Mission Mission

Before we got a bunch of our friends together and built The Secret Alley, Noel Von Joo and I got a bunch of our friends together and spent a number of years making a strange post-zombie-apocalypse movie, When Gravity Changes. It’s about a loner who is stuck on his roof while zombies swarm beneath him, the sun has stopped rising and his only companion is a talking raccoon . . . until he finds a city of fetuses hidden in a tree. It was shot on a roof in Santa Cruz, an attic in Sacramento and a gutter on our very own Capp Street.

[Noel in the fetus city set]

The movie will be showing as part of Here & Far, curated by Sarah Flores, at The Roxie this Wednesday night. Our movie will follow a bunch of other local shorts, Vacation (2014) Written and Directed by Tracy Brown, As Long as There is Plenty (2013) Written and Directed by Kenneth Vaughn, Chaos Directed by Natalie Eakin, Bequeath the Heart By Zack Von Joo & Million Year Check-up By Davenzane Hayes.

The show starts at 7pm and The Roxie Theater is at 3117 16th St., near Valencia. You can purchase tickets in advance here.

Tonight Oddball Films presents Elswhere: Gypsies, Vagabonds and Refugees, a series of archival short films all about what really gets people moving.

[frame of Buster Keaton in Railrodder]

The Hitch-Hiker (1950), a rather racy instructional film on how to get a ride; Railrodder (1965), wherein an aging Buster Keaton traverses the Canadian National Railway in style; Madeline and the Gypsies (1959), the film adaptation of the classic tale by Ludwig Bemelman; The Greenie (1942) a touching bit of WWII propaganda about a young polish refugee; San Francisco Earthquake and Fire (1906), or how Oakland got its start; Thumbs Down (1974), a cautionary educational film featuring real-life Los Angeles hitchers; Story of the Hungarian Refugees (1956), a U.N.-produced piece regarding the perils of border-crossing; and Riff Raffy Daffy (1948), on one unlucky duck’s run-ins with the Pigs! …Plus: Newsreels, Wobblies, Navajos, + “Wild & Bully.”

Arrive early for Clowns, Henry Miller in Paris, Donuts and special surprises!

Sounds pretty cool. The show is tonight (Thursday, July 31st) at 8:00pm. Oddball Films is at 275 Capp Street (btwn 17th & 18th). Admission is $10 and you can RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Frameline38 starts tonight! The organizers made us this handy list of Mission-related offerings:

THE BENCH
Directors: Haley DerManouelian, Rosie Katz & Bo Brown
8 Minutes, Short
Three lost San Franciscans combat a tech worker in search of space in Dolores Park.
Film takes place in the Mission.

MISSION IMPROMABLE
Director: Clio Gevirtz
5 Minutes, Short
A comedy about closeted boyfriends who outdo themselves trying to ask a girl to prom. They are in for a big surprise!
Film was produced in the Mission.

EYE CANDY
Director: Alexis Spraic
10 Minutes, Short
A look at the beloved Jason Mecier, a fine artist fashioning famous likenesses from Tina Fey to Phyllis Diller out of everything from old toothbrushes to turkey basters.
Film subject Jason Mecier lives in the Mission.

OVERFLOW
Director: Ruby Drake
7 Minutes, Short
Two girls try to work through an unexpected crisis in their friendship.
The film was created by the San Francisco Art & Film For Teenagers located in the Mission.

Get tickets and explore the festival more here.

Also:

Summertime means movies in the park! Here’s basically all you need to know:

• Ghostbusters, June 14th
• Clueless, August 2nd

If you want more info, SFist has the full schedule (along with drink pairing recommendations).

[Ghostbusters photo via this post; Clueless pic via this post]

Happy Easter/4-20, ya’ll!

He mentions that he rides the Google Bus right off the bat. So you know it’s gonna get good.

Watch:

[via Courtney Trouble]

Here’s the skinny on tonight’s opening night program:

One of the world’s “coolest film festivals” according to MovieMaker Magazine, The Disposable Film Festival premieres its 7th annual competitive shorts program here in San Francisco before screening it around the world. Be the first to see this year’s collection of the best disposable films made on everyday devices like cell phones, pocket cameras, and webcams.

The party is tonight 8-10pm at the Castro! Get tickets!

The Roxie rules, am I right? Here’s the deal:

On the eve of the release of his eighth picture, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, the Roxie is proud to present a mostly complete retrospective of Wes Anderson.  Melding influences like Charles Schutlz, Francois Truffaut, and the Kinks (to name but a few), Anderson’s meticulous, gorgeous and often melancholy menageries of sight and sound have deeply influenced a generation of moviegoers.

As an added bonus, Zissou Society Members (membership free with tickets to any of the other shows) get to see a special sneak preview of a very exciting new movie on Thursday, March 13…

Boom. Get tickets here.

Our good pal Roger Hill recently came back from the Gaza Strip where he worked with local children to help them create a movie about some of the things they do to cope with the harsh realities they face, and it’s being shown at 7pm this Wednesday night at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts!

Flying Paper is the uplifting story of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip on a quest to shatter the Guinness World Record for the most kites ever flown. It showcases the creative resilience of these children making and flying kites despite the difficult realities they face in their daily lives. The film has been co-produced with young Palestinians in Gaza trained by the filmmakers through a youth media program called Voices Beyond Walls.

http://vimeo.com/flyingpaper/short-trailer

Check out all the details here.

And the techies complained for years.

New promo from the newest ape planet movie.