Fantasy Land

It all began, says Bruce Fletcher, at the drive-in. “My parents took me to a marathon of all five Planet of the Apes movies—it changed my life.” Thanks to that summer evening in Alberta, Canada, back in 1974, SF’s cinematic landscape has been morphing too. After six years as director of programming for SF Indiefest—and helping to launch its sci-fi/horror spin-off, Another Hole in the Head—Fletcher is striking out on his own this month with Dead Channels: The SF Festival of Fantastic Film. That’s “fantastic” as in fantasy, though many of the flicks are also fantastic as in good. Of course, not everyone agrees. Fletcher, who has the looks and laugh of Philip Seymour Hoffman, says, “I’ve stood outside the theater and had audience members come up and go, ‘That was the worst film!’” I’m like, ‘Yeah, but was it interesting?’ I’d rather play a film that is flawed but memorable than a competent something-I’ve-seen-before.”

What this will translate into, starting August 9, is anything from Uwe Boll’s Postal (“the most controversial film you will ever see,” promises Fletcher—Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi plays Osama bin Laden) to Welcome Home Brother Charles (a blaxploitation classic about a killer with a prehensile penis) to the little-seen David Cronenberg short Crimes of the Future. (The festival’s name is itself an homage to Cronenberg’s Videodrome.) But why focus on fantasy? “It’s a neglected genre that is perhaps the most important in the history of film,” Fletcher says. “My artsy-fartsy comrades don’t see it that way: ‘The Matrix, what a piece of trash’…well, no, it’s a gnostic examination of reality, thank you very much. Fantastic films rule our popular imagination and help shape the culture.”

Fletcher’s working hard to imprint his view on the next generation. “I was the guest lecturer at Creepshow Camp”—a summer children’s program run by the SoMa theater troupe Thrillpeddlers. “I said to the kids, ‘Movies shouldn’t be seen on TV—they should be seen in theaters. Does anybody know why?’ And one of the kids said, ‘Because it’s a shared experience?’ And I was like, ‘Dude, you are one brilliant little 11-year-old and you’re gonna have a long career in the arts.’” Look for his film festival, coming in 2040 to a theater near you.

Dead Channels: The San Francisco Festival of Fantastic Film, Aug. 9-16, Castro Theatre and The Roxie New College Film Center.