Mission Mission

Our buddy, local filmmaker Sean Gillane recently completed his first feature film, shot mostly in the Mission (in apartments, Lone Palm, Dolores Park, etc.). CXL premieres Saturday 11/11 at 8:30pm at Cinema by the Bay.

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This poignant and darkly comedic debut feature from Sean Gillane focuses on Nolan, an aspiring writer who feels stuck. He is frustrated with his career, his relationships, the world and ultimately with himself. Unable to keep from displaying his considerable disdain, he focuses on everything wrong in his life as he treads the same dissatisfying paths. When he meets the stunning and unpredictable Cassie, she invites him to let down his guard and enjoy the world around him. Nolan slowly gives in to Cassie’s exuberance, but just as he begins to change his perspective, circumstances conspire to throw his already fragile psyche into turmoil. Turning even more deeply inward, Nolan attempts escape, but must ultimately face his life as he has made it.

It’s election season, and even though we take it for granted around here that California is gonna vote Obama, it’s not necessarily that simple in other states around the country.  In some places (ahem, Florida), new voter restriction measures have even made it more likely that many citizens (a high proportion of which are minorities) may not be able to get their votes counted.

The only way to move towards preventing these kind of shenanigans is to educate ourselves, and the best way to get started on that is to come out to Artists Television Access on Valencia this Friday to watch Struggle, a film by Roger Hill about what happens in U.S. elections when the forces of racism, corruption, technological manipulation and old fashioned ballot-box stuffing coalesce to deny Americans their right to vote and steal elections.

RSVP and invite your friends here, and check out all the details including the trailer below:

Struggle is a case study of the 2004 Presidential Election in Ohio, the deciding swing state which delivered the presidency once again to George W. Bush.  Diligently researched by the key contributors to the film, Struggle is a bold film that challenges the legitimacy of that Presidential Election and brings the entire U.S. electoral process into question.

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Just a great photo by Softly Ultra:

Hustle and bustle!

Local cinephile David Enos offers a remembrance:

In 2007 I saw Blade Runner here for the first time – I’d never been interested, it looked too boring when I was growing up.  They had the re-release for a couple weeks.  Anyway, a memorably good time.   It was freezing cold outside, and during the movie it started raining loudly on the panels of the ceiling. [link]

Sad beans! Beasts of the Southern Wild opens there tomorrow; shall we? Here’s everything else that’s playing.

Also, let’s all go patronize the Roxie a bunch before they have to shutter too.

Back in 2008 I took a trip to Los Angeles and tweeted about what a good time I was having and got into a Twitter feud about whether or not my excitement would impact my “Mission cred” or something. I wrote a post about the ordeal, and one of the things I mention as I’m ticking off great things about LA is Wayne White and his paintings (such as the one above). Well, turns out he’s got a lot of other talents too, and somebody just made a movie about him:

Part biography, part live performance, BEAUTY IS EMBARRASSING tells the irreverent and inspiring story of this one-of-a-kind visual artist and raconteur. The film traces White’s career from an underground cartoonist in the East Village to his big break as a designer, puppeteer and voice-over actor on Pee Wee’s Playhouse for which he won three Emmy’s. It follows Wayne’s success designing and animating for other children’s shows like Beakman’s World and The Weird Al Show and music videos for Peter Gabriel (“Big Time”) and Smashing Pumpkins (“Tonight, Tonight”) through a dark period of struggle and self-reflection before emerging in his present-day incarnation as a respected painter and performer. The film, like White, embraces the ragged edges and messy contradictions of life, art, and family with rabid humor and honesty. Dir: Neil Berkeley. Featuring Wayne White, Mimi Pond, Mark Motherbaugh, Todd Oldham, Matt Groening, Gary Panter and Paul Reubens. 2012. Digital. 87 mins. Nightly at 7pm & 8:45pm, plus Sun. at (3:15pm) & 5pm.

Get tickets!

Local filmmaker Jay Francisco Lopez recently completed his first feature, Sin Padre, which premieres this Friday at the opening night of the San Francisco Latino Film Festival.

I first met Jay on the set of Peter and Benjamin Bratt’s 2009 film, La Mission. He was a background actor and I was doing the behind-the-scenes. Since then he starred in a short feature that I co-wrote at BAYCAT, The Invisible City, about a group of friends in Hunters Point. After that he raised funds himself to write, produce and direct his own feature film about a Honduran teenager getting by in the Mission, where Jay himself was born to Honduran immigrants.

Jay’s film screens at The Victoria Theater (on 16th at Capp) on 9/14. The show is sold out, but according to Sin Padre’s Facebook page:

Due to popular demand and the high ticket sales Just added a 2nd screening of SIN PADRE this Sunday Sept 16 5:15pm at the Opera Plaza Cinema Theater 601 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 you can buy tickets at http://sinpadre2.bpt.me/

Before Sunday screening there well be a meet and greet with the director and the cast from 2pm to 4pm at the Verizon Wireless store [at] 2654 Mission St.

Jay’s film looks good, check it out when you can.

P.S. I also have a film in the SF Latino Film Festival, Miles Away, a short I co-directed with Jose Alfaro, will be screening at the Opera Plaza Theater this Saturday at 1:00pm.

Our pal Lily lays it bare in a caption to the above pic:

Maybe the reason I didn’t like that movie Inception is cuz San Francisco just looks like all the “cool” effects already. Or maybe it was cuz that movie is stupid and boring. [link]

Or a little bit of both?

Such lovely posters! The yellow one will be for sale at the screening tonight, fyi.

Now let’s have a little flashback to another time LCD Soundsystem made Mission Mission. It was Treasure Island Music Festival 2010, the band was on tour behind “This Is Happening,” and it was real cold out:

“I’m used to there being a partially nude man next to me on stage,” Murphy says, referring to drummer Pat Mahoney’s penchant for short shorts. Last night on Treasure Island, where it was cold as grim death, Mahoney wore jeans, to the chagrin of short-shorts fans the island over.

Read on for more on the show and a pic of Murphy gesturing at a fully clothed Mahoney.

More importantly, tonight the LCD Soundsystem movie Shut Up and Play the Hits screens again at the Roxie, 11pm. And there’s yet another pre-party too, beginning at 9pm at Dalva. THERE WILL BE DANCING IN THE AISLES.

Also, SFist made a big nice post about all of this, so you might want to get advance tickets.

Finally, if you’re like me and having a hard time waking up right now, this is dedicated to you:

Thanks, Matt!

Basically I was like, “These screenings are at 11pm on a Friday and Saturday night in the Mission. You guys need to have an official pre-party at a nearby bar so people can gather and get warmed up and then pack the place and DANCE IN THE AISLES!” So, here’s the info:

Dawson from Noise Pop is gonna take over the music and play nothing but LCD Soundsystem and related acts. Dalva has a great beer selection and killer fancy cocktails in the back room. THERE WILL BE DANCING IN THE AISLES.

Seen here in the flesh at the theater, featuring some memorable imagery from the movie. Quite nice. The rest of the limited edition of high quality posters will be for sale this weekend at the screenings.

Read about the movie and buy advance tickets here. (And it looks like they added a September 1st screening too!) THERE WILL BE DANCING IN THE AISLES.

Now let’s rock out to an oldie: