Two long-running, nationally recognized, locally based film festivals are taking place in San Francisco this week. CAAMFest, the annual showcase for Asian American cinema, presents its 44th edition Thursday through Sunday, with more than 60 movies on the bill. The festival is presented by the Center for Asian American Media. Venues are the AMC Kabuki 8, Koho Creative Hub and New People Cinema, in Japantown; plus the San Francisco Main Library and Asian Art Museum.
“The A-List: 15 Stories From Asian and Pacific Diasporas” is the opening feature. Athlete-activist Schuyler Bailar, Senator Tammy Duckworth, surfer-scientist Cliff Kapono, comedian-actor Kumail Nanjiani and actor Sandra Oh are among the Asian American norm-busters and trailblazers profiled in this documentary directed by Eugene Yi.
“Traces of Home” closes the festival. Filmmaker Colette Ghunim chronicles her effort to reunite her parents with their childhood homes in Palestine and Mexico, which they were forced to flee decades ago, in this documentary about trauma, displacement, and family.
Featured narrative films include “Honeyjoon,” Lilian T. Mehrel’s Persian-flavored mother-daughter story set on the Azores islands; and “Forge,” Jing Ai Ng’s Miami-set crime thriller about two siblings who are ace art forgers. Additional selections include “Mouse,” a thriller about a lonely petty thief who registers for a penpal service; “About Face: Disrupting Ballet,” a documentary about dance artists who are challenging prominent ballet companies to avoid Asian stereotypes in their productions; and “Seat at the Table,” a doc about South Asian Americans in U.S. politics. Also look for a “Hong Kong Cinema Showcase,” talks and conversations, and short-film programs.
Visit caamfest.com for more information.
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival’s 29th edition is set for Wednesday through Sunday at the festival’s recently reopened longtime home, the Castro Theatre. A fun event that debunks the perception of silent movies as overacted, unsophisticated and dinosauric, the festival is showing more than two dozen films from cinema’s pre-talkie era this year, chosen by artistic director and local programming treasure Anita Monga. Live music accompanies all screenings.
“Queen Kelly” (1929) directed by Erich von Stroheim opens the festival. Gloria Swanson, Walter Byron, and Serena Owen star in this drama about illicit and obsessive love. Composer Eli Denson, conducting the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra, provides musical accompaniment.
Closing the fest is “The Crowd” (1928), King Vidor’s influential drama examining the American dream through the experiences of a couple living in an impersonal metropolis. Music is by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
“Janko the Musician” (1930) directed by Ryszard Ordynski is based on the Polish novella about a music prodigy born into poverty. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival Award for commitment to the preservation and presentation of silent cinema will be presented to Elzbieta Wysocka of Poland’s Filmoteka Narodowa at the program.
Additional selections include “Blazing Days” (1927), an early western directed by William Wyler; “So This Is Paris” (1926), Ernst Lubitsch’s Jazz Age romantic comedy; Carl Dreyer’s “Love One Another” (1922), featuring a Jewish girl experiencing antisemitism in a Russian village; “Hula” (1927), a romantic comedy directed by Victor Fleming and starring Clara Bow; and “Laurel and Hardy: Their Silent Best” (1927-1929), a program of short films by the comedy duo.
Visit silentfilm.org for more information.
While the title of “Erupcja” refers to eruptions both emotionally and geologically volcanic, it is the down-to-earth performances and quieter bursts of passion in this 71-minute dramedy that account for its surprising impact, is now showing in Bay Area Theaters. Director Pete Ohs (“Jethica”), cowriting with his primary cast, follows a handful of characters dealing with relationships and realizations.
Londoners Bethany (played by pop star Charli xcx) and Rob (Will Madden) arrive in Warsaw for a romantic getaway, but Bethany prefers the company of Nel (Lena Gora), a Polish florist with whom she has long shared a passionate friendship. While not so much as a kiss occurs between the two women, their affection for each other is so exciting that a volcano erupts — Mount Etna this time — whenever they get together, they say. The arrival of Ula (Agata Trzebuchowska), an ex for whom Nel still has romantic feelings, thickens the situation. There’s not much plot in this movie, in which conflict takes the form of unanswered phone calls or a forgotten theater date. The volcano theme wears thin.
However, the characters and performances have an engaging genuineness that keeps us absorbed and charmed. Charli xcx, who is charismatic and natural, and the equally captivating Gora share a winning chemistry that is chaste, but red-hot, and Madden makes us feel for Rob, a decent guy, as his hopes for a future with Bethany collapse. A DIY look and a spontaneous energy add to the film’s low-budget indie appeal. “Erupcja” is slight but sparkling.
Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel (“La Cienaga,” “Zama”) examines the 2009 killing of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar in her debut documentary, “Our Land,” which is playing at the Roxie Theater. Combining courtroom scenes, cell-phone footage, drone camerawork, crime reenactments and interviews with indigenous community members, Martel sharply and eloquently addresses land theft, indigenous erasure and the troubling effects of colonialism in Latin America.
Mountains on Stage, an international program of films about mountain adventures, brings its 2026 summer edition to San Francisco’s Marina Theatre on Wednesday. Four short and mid-length films —“Patagonian Chimeras,” “Cherry on the Cake,” “Why I Fly,” and “The Queen Swing” — will screen, beginning at 7 p.m. Visit mountainsonstage.com for more information.