(NOT) IN MY BACKYARD: DOCUMENTS OF BAY AREA DISPLACEMENT, EVICTION, AND HOMELESSNESS is a series of short films about gentrification, displacement, and the Bay Area housing crisis.

Following our program of short films, the Coalition on Homelessness’ Homeless Speakers Bureau will discuss the present day housing challenges facing San Francisco. The Homeless Speakers Bureau is a group of powerful speakers who have all experienced homelessness, and are therefore experts on the crisis.

In ¡Alambrista!, a Mexican farmworker sneaks across the border to California to make money to send to his family back home. It is a story that happens every day, told here in an uncompromising, groundbreaking work of realism from American independent filmmaker Robert M. Young. Vivid and spare where other films about illegal immigration might sentimentalize, Young’s take is equal parts intimate character study and gripping road movie, a political work that never loses sight of the complex man at its center. ¡Alambrista!, winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s inaugural Caméra d’Or in 1978, remains one of the best films ever made on this perennially relevant topic.

Directed by Robert M. Young. USA. 96 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. HD Digital.

Awards ceremony for Aggregate Space's Animated Film Festival.

Teens roll back the curtain on what matters most to them! Watch as our talented youth filmmakers tackle challenging topics of community and coming of age such as immigration, gentrification, and a lyrical exploration of racism.

This showcase features the best short films from Bay Area Video Coalition Youth Filmmaking Programs.

Cheech Marin writes, directs and stars in Born in East L.A., a hip, outrageous comedy that's based on his best-selling record parody. The story follows Rudy (Marin), an American of Hispanic descent, whose south-of-the-border looks show him no mercy during an immigration raid in a migrant worker factory. As his luck goes, he is caught with neither money nor his ID and is deported to Mexico - without speaking a word of Spanish! Unable to contact his vacationing family or his newly immigrated cousin (played by comedian Paul Rodriguez), Rudy is in for a crazy ride as he tries every legal - and illegal - scheme he can think of to get back home to the States. He finds himself in jail, in love, and practically in-sane! Trouble follows him everywhere as he runs from la migra in this case of mistaken - or rather misplaced - identity.

"Beautiful Borders," as Chulas Fronteras translates, is a zesty introduction to Norteña music and culture that exists along the Texas-Mexico border. This culture is distinct, having its own Spanish dialect, Tejeño, and music that is a fusion of traditional Mexican harmonies, German dancehall rhythms, and a little something extra. From soulful, lively dance tunes to political work songs, Musica Norteña has evolved since the turn of the century into a unique Mexican-American hybrid. Featured are such "traditionalists" as Narciso Martinez, Flaco Jimenez, Los Alegres de Teran, and Lydia Mendoza. Filmmaker Blank links the music's spirit and vitality to the strong family bonds of the Tejeños. The plight of migrant workers adds a sobering backbeat to a generally joyous film.

Conceived, Produced by Chris Strachwitz. Photographed, Edited by Les Blank. 1976, 58 mins, Color, 16mm.

This meditation on cinema’s past from Decasia director Bill Morrison pieces together the bizarre true history of a long-lost collection of 533 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s. Located just south of the Arctic Circle, Dawson City was settled in 1896 and became the center of the Canadian Gold Rush that brought 100,000 prospectors to the area. It was also the final stop for a distribution chain that sent prints and newsreels to the Yukon. The films were seldom, if ever, returned. The now-famous Dawson City Collection was uncovered in 1978 when a bulldozer working its way through a parking lot dug up a horde of film cans. Morrison draws on these permafrost-protected, rare silent films and newsreels, pairing them with archival footage, interviews, historical photographs, and an enigmatic score by Sigur Rós collaborator and composer Alex Somers. Dawson City: Frozen Time depicts the unique history of this Canadian Gold Rush town by chronicling the life cycle of a singular film collection through its exile, burial, rediscovery, and salvation.

A young Iranian couple gets divorced after eight years of marriage. But they decide to continue living together in the same apartment to hide the news from the wife’s religious parents who won’t tolerate the idea. As time passes, keeping the parents in the dark becomes more challenging, as they happen to live one floor above this divorced couple in the very same building. After a year, the couple realizes things can no longer continue like this. They still keep their divorce a secret, however, as revealing the truth might entail something worse.

MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS presents: a very special one-night-only screening of two classic 1990s road films, both shown in glorious 35mm!

"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" Double Bill

7:15PM - BEAViS AND BUTT-HEAD DO AMERiCA (1996)

9:00PM - NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994)

"A sharply observed and poignant parable" - Hollywood Reporter

When a married couple decides to move to France with their young daughter for a few months, they ask a distant cousin, Martín, to housesit and take care of their cat. At 40 years old, Martín has no kids, no wife, and no job. Despite Martín’s brooding and strange demeanor, the family dismisses any doubts they have and leave the house in his care. Left to his own devices, Martín spends his days indoors chain-smoking, looking through their belongings, trying on their clothes, and moving the furniture around how he likes. Slowly, Martín becomes seduced by the idea of family life, treating the house as if it’s his own.

One day, the cat goes missing. Martín goes out searching for him and falls for Pachi, an attractive single mother. He brings her to the house and wins her over by posing as a divorcee who doesn’t get to see his daughter because of his vindictive ex-wife. Before long, Pachi is bringing her young son over to the house, turning their casual fling into domestic bliss. As the imminent return of the real family gets closer and closer, Martín’s pseudo-family begins to unravel.

Best Film Award at Miami Film Festival 2017. Official selection Sundance Film Festival 2017.

Directed by Cristián Jiménez and Alicia Scherson. 2017. Chile. 81 min. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Using only one page script and the memory of his stage production, director Alejandro Jodorowsky blended surreal beauty and savage imagery to fashion this bizarre tale of corrupted innocence, sadomasochistic love, and unattainable paradise. Considered lost for over 30 years, Jodorowsky’s visionary first feature premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, inciting a riot that “forced the director to flee for his life. In the ensuing scandal, the film was banned. Jodorowsky was branded a heretic and forced to stand trial and nearly deported”. 1968. 96 mins.

Beautiful new 4K restoration! Long unavailable in the U.S., director Toshio Matsumoto’s shattering, kaleidoscopic masterpiece is one of the most subversive and intoxicating films of the late 1960s: a headlong dive into a dazzling, unseen Tokyo night-world of drag queen bars and fabulous divas, fueled by booze, drugs, fuzz guitars, performance art and black mascara. No less than Stanley Kubrick cited the film as a direct influence on his own dystopian classic A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. An unknown club dancer at the time, transgender actor Peter (from Kurosawa’s RAN) gives an astonishing Edie Sedgwick/Warhol superstar-like performance as hot young thing Eddie, hostess at Bar Genet — where she’s ignited a violent love-triangle with reigning drag queen Leda (Osamu Ogasawara) for the attentions of club owner Gonda (played by Kurosawa regular Yoshio Tsuchiya, from SEVEN SAMURAI and YOJIMBO).

A fascinating and moving account of the romantic and creative partnership of storyboard artist Harold Michelson and film researcher Lillian Michelson: two unsung heroes of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Harold and Lillian worked on hundreds of renowned films including THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE APARTMENT, THE BIRDS, WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, THE GRADUATE, ROSEMARY’S BABY, FIDDLER ON THE, SCAREFACE, FULL METAL JACKET and many more.

Although the couple was responsible for some of Hollywood’s most iconic examples of visual storytelling, their contributions remain largely uncredited. Through an engaging mix of love letters, film clips and candid conversations with Harold and Lillian, Danny DeVito, Mel Brooks, Francis Ford Coppola and others, this deeply engaging documentary from Academy Award®-nominated director Daniel Raim chronicles their remarkable marriage and extraordinary careers through six decades of movie-making history.

Written and Directed by Danial Raim. Executive Producer Danny Devito. 2016. USA. 94 mins. DCP.

“A passionate and beguiling movie-love documentary that shines a light on two of the unsung artisan heroes of Hollywood“.

– Owen Gleiberman, Variety.

“As the documentary makes clear, both Harold and Lillian made integral contributions to some of the most iconic movies in Hollywood history. Rating: B+.”

– Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

Cult classic pairs Cort as a dead-pan disillusioned 20-year-old obsessed with suicide and a loveable Gordon as a fun-loving 80-year-old eccentric. They meet at a funeral, and develop a taboo romantic relationship, in which they explore the meaning of life with a fresh perspective.

Isaac Lachmann has seen better days. His acting career is tanking, while his colleagues succeed; his blind girlfriend of 10 years plans to leave him; and his own family singles him out as a constant disappointment at their latest reunion. Even as he takes a chance on new romance, Isaac struggles to define his place in a world that has seemingly turned against him.

Director Janicza Bravo (Gregory Go Boom, 2014 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Award winner) returns to the Festival with her description-defying debut feature that promises to delight and unsettle audiences in equal measure with its unique brand of discomforting humor. Bravo unflinchingly strips down her stellar lead and co-writer, Brett Gelman, to appalling levels of vulnerability, emphasized by idiosyncratic supporting turns from Michael Cera, Judy Greer, Nia Long, Martin Starr, and Gillian Jacobs. Bursting with meticulous unease and loving contempt, Bravo questions what it means to truly unravel. Directed by Janicza Bravo. Written by Janicza Bravo & Brett Gelman. US. HD Digital. 85 mins.

Rare 16mm films from the collection of Barry Siegal features the greats in Rock N' Roll.

ROOTS OF ROCK N' ROLL traces part of the history of rock from Rhythm and Blues of the ‘40’s to early Rock ‘N Roll pioneers of the 50’s thru the British Invasion of the 60’s.

Musical artists include Louie Jordan, The Flamingos, Bill Haley and his Comets, Little Richard, The Treniers, Elvis Presley (plus a parade of Elvis wannabes trying to out-perform the King on a TV show from 1956 called “Country Music Caravan”), Johnny Burnette, The Beach Boys, James Brown, The Dave Clark Five, Rolling Stones, and the Beatles performing live in London in 1964. Included is a rare newsreel of a Beatles record burning in 1966 after John Lennon commented that they were more popular than Jesus. (He later stressed that he was only remarking on how other people viewed and popularized the band.)

A lurid Oedipal masterpiece, SANTA SANGRE marked Jodorowsky's shockingly audacious return to cinema after a long absence following THE HOLY MOUNTAIN. Squatting smack dab on the intersection between art film and (ghastly) horror movie, this visually ravishing, viscerally unhinged spectacle mingles drama, romance, surrealism & violence in a way that, at the time of its release, had writers referencing Hitchcock’s PSYCHO, by way of Buñuel. The tale opens with a young man (Axel Jodorowsky) who’s been confined in a mental hospital for years. We watch him in flashback, traumatized as a child, when he and his family were circus performers, and he witnessed his philandering father, the knife thrower, cut off the arms of his mother, a religious fanatic and leader of the heretical church of Santa Sangre ("Holy Blood"), before committing suicide. Mother persuades her son to act as her arms in her bizarre nightclub act, and soon after has him performing a variety of murders, killing every female in sight. Scripted by Jodorowsky and Claudio Argento (brother of Dario), SANTA SANGRE is a truly disturbing psychedelic provocation. “I am reminded by Alejandro Jodorowsky that true psychic horror is possible on the screen--horror, poetry, surrealism, psychological pain and wicked humor, all at once. … Jodorowsky has fearlessly married magical realism to Freud”. - Roger Ebert. NC-17. 123 mins.

Join UnCommon Law as they host the Bay Area premiere of Skidrow Marathon.

When a criminal court judge starts a running club on LA's notorious skid row and begins training a motley group of its inhabitants to run marathons, lives begin to change.

SKID ROW MARATHON follows four runners as they rise from the mean streets of LA to run marathons around the world, fighting the pull of homelessness and addiction at every turn.

Their story is one of hope, friendship, and dignity.

Join Ars Citizen in celebrating French conceptual artist Sophie Calle in an anthology of her film No Sex Last Night (1992) and two documentaries about her: Untitled (2012) & Contacts (1997).

Contacts - Sophie Calle, 1997, 12m. a documentary by Jean-Pierre Krief about Sophie Calle's early career. With voice over of Sophie Calle unveiling and commenting her contact sheets.

No Sex Last Night, 1992, 72m. A road movie across the United States by and with Sophie Calle and Greg Shephard before getting married at a drive-in window in Las Vegas.

Untitled, 2012, 52m. A documentary by Victoria Clay Mendoza on Sophie Calle that includes the purchase of a gravesite in the cemetary of Bolinas where she took her first photograph in the late 1970s.

Brand new 2K restoration from original 35mm elements! Producer Jim Newman in person! Don't miss the sci-fi, blaxploitation free jazz epic!

In SPACE IS THE PLACE, space-age prophet, Pharaonic jester, shaman-philosopher and avant-jazz keyboardist/bandleader Sun Ra lands his spaceship in Oakland, having been presumed lost in space for a few years. With Black Power on the rise, Ra disembarks and proclaims himself "the alter-destiny." He duels at cards with The Overseer, a satanic overlord, with the fate of the black race at stake. Ra wins the right to a world concert, which features great performance footage of the Arkestra.

Arjang (Reza Attaran) was born before the revolution happened in Iran. Since childhood he has been in love with Roya (Mahnaz Afshar). Now forty years past, Arjang is 50 and still in love with Roya but Roya has given him nothing but troubles. In his life time, he has experienced a revolution, a war, a divorce, poverty and prosperity. Finally after all this, Roya returns to his life and says yes to his proposal but things are not supposed to get any easier!

Writer/Director/Producer: Saman Moghadam. Cast: Reza Attaran, Mahnaz Afshar, Vishka Asayesh & Hessam Navab-Safavi. Iran. 93 min. DCP. In Farsi with English subtitles.

Argento's classic, from the Chicago Cinema Society's beautiful, uncut, 98-minute Italian 35mm print! Don't miss this rare opportunity!

Suzy (Jessica Harper) travels to Germany to attend ballet school. When she arrives, late on a stormy night, no one lets her in, and she sees Pat (Eva Axén), another student, fleeing from the school. When Pat reaches her apartment, she is murdered. The next day, Suzy is admitted to her new school, but has a difficult time settling in. She hears noises, and often feels ill. As more people die, Suzy uncovers the terrifying secret history of the place.

Please note: because SUSPIRIA will be shown from a rare Italian print, we will provide English subtitles via "soft subtitling" below the screen.

Bay Area Premiere!

Symbols of Resistance explores the history of the Chican@ Movement as it emerges in the 1970s with a focus on events in Colorado and Northern New Mexico. It focuses on the struggle for land, the student movement, and community struggles against police repression highlighting the significance of the Chicano@movement and its relevance to struggles for social justice today. For more information www.freedomarchives.org

Followed by a reception at 518 Valencia St.

A working girl tears through Tinseltown on Christmas Eve searching for the pimp who broke her heart.

Spoke Art and MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS present a transcendental 35mm double bill directed by Martin Scorsese/scripted by Paul Schrader. Find the mirroring between taxi driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) and paramedics driver Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cag

The 60s counterculture overturned American politics, but it also radically transformed the practice of religion in America. On Wednesday, July 26th, at 7:00 PM, local author, cultural historian, and PhD Erik Davis will explore the many facets of hippie religion. The talk will draw on a kaleidoscopic array of clips from local outfit Oddball Films’ vast archive of 60s and 70s era stock footage, amateur films, home movies, pro documentaries, and experimental films. James Whitney’s celebrated visionary short “Lapis” will get us in the mood for a spiritual carnival ranging from Dionysian Acid Tests to Alan Watts’ Zen, Jesus Freaks to Satanic Masses, rock star gurus to Pentagon marches, Sufi Dances to Jewish Renewal hoedowns. Today we continue to live in the shadow of the hippie mystics, from celebrity yoga to corporate mindfulness to the current psychedelic Renaissance.

A banned film by Kianoosh Ayyari

Presented by Sheed Film in collaboration with Diaspora Arts Connection & The Roxie

WATCHING THIS MOVIE, IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR CHILDREN UNDER AND 16 YEARS OLD

Eighty years ago, for some moral issues, a man, together with his own son, kills his own daughter and buries her at the basement of their house. This hidden grave is simply tied to the next generations of the whole family and turns to be a restraining factor.

Young mother Alejandra is a working housewife, raising two boys with husband Angel in a small city. Her brother Fabian works as a nurse in a local hospital. Their provincial lives are upset with the arrival of mysterious Veronica. Sex and love can be fragile in certain regions where strong family values, hypocrisy, homophobia, and male chauvinism exist. Veronica convinces them that in the nearby woods, inside an isolated cabin, dwells something not of this world that could be the answer to all of their problems. Something whose force they cannot resist and with whom they must make peace or suffer its wrath.

From a small fishing village on the Sea of Cortez, Magdiel is a 23-year-old composer who writes songs about the fishermen who have turned their pangas (fishing boats) into drug trafficking vessels. The economic crisis in the fishing industry forces Magdiel, a fourth generation fisherman, to seek another way of life. His two choices: to traffic drugs to the “gringos” in his fishing boat or to leave his hometown behind and become another of an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.* When Magdiel meets a coyote (illegal border crossing guide) who agrees to cross him for free in exchange for a corrido song praising the adventures of the coyote himself, Magdiel begins composing and prepares for the journey.

Al Otro Lado begins in Sinaloa, the drug capital of Mexico and birthplace of Los Tigres del Norte and Chalino Sanchez, two of the most famous corrido musicians. From the Sierra Mountains where opium and marijuana grow in abundance, down to the Sea of Cortez, where contraband is trafficked north in fishing boats, we look at the economic crisis that forces so many like Magdiel to turn to drug trafficking, or to risk their lives crossing the border illegally into the United States. Through the regional corrido music that takes its roots from medieval ballads and has the edgy grit of gangsta rap, we travel from Sinaloa north across the border to the streets of South Central and East L.A., the same journey taken by millions of illegal immigrants, tons of narcotics and even corrido music.

“el corrido es la el diario, el archivo de la vida del hombre y mientras el hombre camina va seguir habiendo corridos.”

(the corrido is the diary, the archive of the life of man and while men are walking there will always be corridos)

Paulino Vargas, composer

A documentary film by Natalia Almada. Featuring LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE, CHALINO SANCHEZ, JENNI RIVERA, JESSIE MORALES (EL ORIGINAL DE LA SIERRA).70 min. 2005. HD Digital. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Director Finn Taylor in person Saturday, 8/26 and Sunday 8/27!

Emma (Kate Micucci) is a brilliant but awkward app designer who moves to San Francisco after her boyfriend betrays her. Fate magically strikes when she soon discovers that her beloved cat and dog have somehow transformed into two seemingly perfect men.

Gain new tools to master health, wealth, and persuasive communication in a fun, supportive, and interactive environment.

** The first 150 women through the door will receive a gift bag valued at over $300 **

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: GINA GRAHAME

- Presentation Skills Workshop -

The ability to engage, educate, and move any audience is critical to your success in business. Gina teaches you how to excel with confidence while addressing the different, and higher, standard faced by women in the workplace.

GUEST SPEAKER: DR. KRYSTAL DRWENCKE DC

- Health & Wellness -

She will be covering:

• Mental & Physical health as it relates to the brain

• Goal Setting and how to stick to health and exercise goals

• Recognizing the rise and falls of mental dexterity in yourself and how to fight it

GUEST SPEAKER: CAROL DIVITA

- Learn How Money Works -

Since 1989, has helped individuals & families earn more income, become properly protected and financially independent.

SPECIAL GUEST: JENNIFER DARLING

- Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work For You -

Jennifer will review your LinkedIn Profile onsite and give suggestions to help improve your professional branding.