They're everywhere! Despite the fact that it's not quite in San Francisco (most of it takes place at the Smith Rafael Film Center in Marin), the Mill Valley Film Festival does perhaps the best job of any locally based film festival when it comes to showcasing local talent.
So much so that you might be right next to one of the filmmakers whose work is showing right now… and not even know it. We've put together an interactive Google map of the San Francisco-based features, shorts, and directors. Click through to the interactive map or use the picture (above) as your guide to see what's going on in your neighborhood!
The Mill Valley Film Festival runs through October 13th. Tickets and showtimes showings for the films listed can be found on the MVFF website:
A. 3020 Laguna St. in Exitum
Filmed in a site-specific installation, 3020 Laguna St. is a short film that explores the art created of a condemned home.
B.At the Bar
At the Bar combines multiple shorts about two guys meditating on life, language, and drinking.
C.Finding Hillywood
Set amongst the hills of Rwanda, Finding Hillywood chronicles one man's road to forgiveness, his effort to heal his country, and the realization that we all must one day face our past. A unique and endearing phenomenon film about the very beginning of Rwanda's film industry and the pioneers who bring local films to rural communities, on a giant inflatable movie screen.
D.The Trouble with Bread
A gluten intolerant filmmaker’s quest for the perfect loaf leads to unexpected discoveries about modern bread.
E.Sweet Blue: A Film About Mike Bloomfield
Sweet Blues is about Michael Bernard "Mike" Bloomfield, an American musician, guitarist, and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrumental prowess. Respected for his fluid guitar playing, Bloomfield knew and played with many of Chicago's blues legends even before he achieved his own fame, and was one of the primary influences on the mid-to-late 1960s revival of classic Chicago and other styles of blues music. In 2003 he was ranked at number 22 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."
F.China In Three Words
Author Yu Hua is one of the only honest writers to survive in China, as Ian Johnson recently described him. This makes him not only a rarity, but also an inspiration. This short documentary takes its cue from an interview with Yu Hua about his latest book, "China in Ten Words," focusing in on three of his words, "Leader," "Revolution," and "Disparity," with a fourth bonus word, "Bamboozle," thrown in with a wink to its meaning.
G.John Brown's Body at San Quentin Prison
Inmate-actors reflect on their lives, their crimes, their three-year commitment to mount a production of a classic piece of American literature, "John Brown's Body", and the lasting, even transformative effect the experience had on each. Intercutting between the performance of the play and the men's lives reveals surprising connections.
H.Slomo
Depressed and frustrated with his life, Dr. John Kitchin abandons his career as a neurologist and moves to Pacific Beach. There, he undergoes a radical transformation into Slomo, trading his lab coat for a pair of rollerblades and his IRA for a taste of divinity.
I.The Illness and the Odyssey
Illness is an epic, medical mystery "whodunit", which tracks the decades long pursuit of scientists competing each other to find the cause of a mysterious neurological disease affecting the native Chamorro population on the island of Guam. The stakes are high because the answer will lead to cures for Alzheimer's and other related diseases.
J.Toxic Hot Seat
Chemical flame-retardants are everywhere. Our furniture. Our homes. Our bodies. Yet flame-retardants don’t seem to stop fires. They do, however, seem to make us sick. So why do we use them? To answer that question, Toxic Hot Seat takes deep into a shadowy nexus of money, politics and power – and a few brave citizens who are willing to stand their ground.
K.Keep a Tidy Soul
Flyn has lost her soul. Please help her find it.
