Cancel your cable or Direct-TV,
seriously this San Francisco Documentary Festival (Roxie Theatre, October 14th
through the 28th) offers a variety and quality of reality TV that
puts the 500 channel universe to shame. Sometimes the titles alone provide hard
clues: I’m in to seeing Miss Landmine where Stan Feingold focuses on an
only in Cambodia “Miss Landmine pageant.” (10-16 & 18) or OC87: The
Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger’s Movie (10-16 &
20) – how could this movie possibly disappoint! For those films whose titles
don’t sell them sight unseen, here’s a guide to some of my personal favorites.
As is usually the case with the folks at SF Indie Fest there are special
parties and film after drink-a-thons galore. Info: www.sfindie.com
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May I Be Frank: “When I found drugs, I thought
this was the secret they were keeping from me. ‘Holy shit, this is how you get
through life!’ I thought I’d feel like John Wayne, but I didn’t, I felt like
Gumby.” Brace yourselves for a “feel good” doc that earns its good
vibrations. This is the hard to believe, heartfelt story, of how a grotesquely
overweight, multiple addicted, divorced, fifty-four-year-old, born in Brooklyn
wreak of a guy finds salvation at a SF vegan restaurant under the watchful eyes
of four twenty-something sweethearts: Conor Gaffney, Gregg Marks, Cary Mosier
and Ryland Engelhart. This quartet of amigos operate the Café Gratitude, where
to their surprise and delight one Frank Ferrante stumbled in out of the sun,
needing a total makeover. “The Boys” loved Frank for his hyper-profane Sicilian
influenced wit. The Boys had an offer Frank didn’t refuse: empty his fridge,
toss out his microwave and eat all meals for forty-two days at the café – plus
agree to a daily, twelve step style affirmation that alone would have kicked in
Frank’s gag reflex if the morning glass of slimy green stuff didn’t do the
trick.
Forty-two days later and one
hundred ten pounds lighter, Frank, the brutally candid star of his own
recovery, has kicked hepatitis C, undergone three colonics and found
forgiveness from his long suffering family. It’s not all sunshine and lollypops
but May I Be Frank definitely succeeds in portraying the vegan lifestyle
as something beyond the punch line to a new age joke. (Roxie 10-17, 22 &
25)
Adam Blank Gets a Vasectomy: This Jewish doc
maker concludes that three kids is enough and decides to treat his frau and us
to the blow-by-blow account of getting his sperm ducts snipped – believe me we’re
spared nothing including a buddy’s description of the turbo charged orgasms
he’s experiencing after the change. From the All Kinds of Love program
(Roxie 10-17 & 20)
Family Affair: Chico David Colvard turns a
harsh light on the issues of molestation and pedophilia that have affected two
generations of his family. This is a not to be missed modern classic that’s
sure to be tough viewing for survivors of hard core dysfunctional families.
Colvard’s family is an especially
pertinent model because of its unique composition. It begins when an
African-American GI weds a German woman and they proceed to have a large
family. Colvard finds a unique hook into his story in the most memorable
moment from his childhood when he accidentally shoots one of his sisters with
one of his ex-soldier dad’s guns. The resulting tumult reveals a shameful
family secret: that dad has been serially molesting his three girls since each
was about five. The ensuing scandal puts dad in jail for a year, but the
fallout convinces mom that her daughters are bizarrely attached to her
husband’s dastardly affections. Mom abandons the family and three decades later
David returns home with his camera and a determination to track the story of
his clan’s downfall, however painful. A story that unflinchingly tackles race,
abuse and family in a manner that you’ll appreciate once you’ve recovered from
the queasy feelings evoked. (Roxie 10-15 & 18)
Eat the Sun: This thorough, if at times shaggy
dog study of the strange network of folks who live to gaze straight into the
sun, benefits from its cast of compelling oddballs. Doc maker Peter Sorcher
likes to tease us with possibly unreliable statements before catching some of
his witnesses in the logical contradictions of their solar worship.
Compellingly shot but I wouldn’t abandon conventional wisdom on this subject
just yet. (Roxie 10-14, 18 & 20)
Dreamland: The fall of Iceland – including the
destruction by the Alcoa Company of some of the world’s most valuable, if least
viewed natural spaces -- due to homegrown greed and corruption is imaginatively
and exhaustively explored in a lyrical doc from Thorfinnur Gudnason & Andri
Snaer Magnason. (Roxie 10-24 & 27)
Requiem for Bobby Fischer: Bobby, we hardly
knew ya. Igor Stevanovic provides a Serbian spin on the infant terrible late
American chess champ, Illustrated with newly uncovered archival footage of
Fischer, during his brief heyday, you may tire of the format as I did, but the
sincerity of these aging Serb chess veterans is palpable. Also there’s much to
be said for their belief that Bobby Fischer was a victim of cold war politics
whose legacy includes making chess the big money world game it is today. (Roxie
10-24 & 25)
American: The Bill Hicks Story: Matt Harlock
and Paul Thomas’ UK doc explores the late “outlaw” American comic with
performance footage, animation and chats with friends and fans. (Roxie 10-15
& 19)
Bas! Beyond the Red Light: Wendy Champagne probes the
lives of thirteen girls shgaring a dorm after being removed from Mumbai
brothels, reputedly the world’s largest red light district.
(Roxie 10-23 & 25)
Coming Back for More: Dutch doc maker Willem Alkema
achieves his dream: spotlighting the now reclusive one time Bay Area rock star
Sy Stone, who agrees to his first interview in more than twenty years. (Roxie
10-17 & 28)
Giants: Jim Dever gets you closer than you may have
wanted to get to those record breaking pumpkins in Half Moon Bay.
(Roxie 10-21, 24 & 27)