Outdoor movies, Oakland stories, Hollywood musicals and Twin Peaks make for a wide range of festival fare this week. Also noteworthy: a new indie from the Philippines.
Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema — three days of free screenings in public spaces in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood — presents its 23rd edition Thursday through Saturday. Dozens of locally created short films will screen at the event, which is designed to bring attention to Bay Area film artists and celebrate the Bernal Heights community. Two indoor film crawls and one big outdoor festival and film screening are the primary components. First up is a Mission Street film crawl, on Thursday, from 7 to 10 p.m. The Magic Patio, STEMful, Cafe Seventy8, and Studio45 are participating venues. A Cortland Avenue film crawl follows on Friday from 7 to 10 p.m. Inclusions Gallery, Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, Baukunst, Bernal Heights Library and Progressive Grounds Coffee House are the venues. On Saturday, from 6 to 9:30 p.m., Precita Park becomes an outdoor cinema for the annual Under the Stars celebration. Pre-screening festivities include picnicking, musicians, family-friendly games, and community tables. The screening features more than a dozen short films. Visit bhoutdoorcine.org.
The 24th Oakland International Film Festival opens Wednesday, presenting dozens of films and related events over 11 days. Venues include the Grand Lake Theatre and Northeastern University Oakland. Oakland stories, global cinema and independent voices are the focus of the festival, which is presented by the Oakland Film Society. Films include “The Bill Patterson Story,” a short documentary about the civic leader who dedicated seven decades to public service in Oakland; “Comparsa,” a feature-length documentary about two sisters in Guatemala who, through art and performance, help violence survivors to heal; “Brewin’ Stew,” a short doc about Bay Area jazz-guitar giant Calvin Keys; “Set Her Free,” a documentary about trauma, incarceration and how the system fails to protect domestic-violence survivors; and “What We Dreamed of Then,” a drama about a swim coach who keeps his homelessness a secret. Visit https://oiff.org/.
Twin Peaks Fest will take over the Balboa Theater Friday through Sunday, presenting a marathon of episodes from David Lynch and Mark Frost’s surreal, genre-blending TV series and pop-culture sensation. The lineup consists of episodes from the original “Twin Peaks” series; episodes from “Twin Peaks: The Return”; and the feature film “Fire Walk With Me.” A live performance of “Twin Peaks” music provided by San Francisco–based Marc Capelle of Red Room Orchestra is set for 7 p.m. Saturday. Visit www.balboamovies.com.
“September Musicals” is the theme of a six-film series at Palo Alto’s Stanford Theatre featuring Movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age. Here’s the lineup: On Sept. 11-13, it’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1938) and “Tin Pan Alley” (1940); on Sept. 18-20, “Moon Over Miami” (1941) and “Down Argentine Way” (1940); and Sept. 25-27, “Sun Valley Serenade” (1941) and “Orchestra Wives” (1942). Visit stanfordtheatre.org.
The San Francisco Science Fiction Short Film Showcase presents its third annual edition on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Marina Theatre. Award-winning sci-fi short films, online videos, and TV episodes screen, with some featured filmmakers in attendance. Visit lntsf.com/marina-theatre for more information.
Filmmaker Rafael Manuel uses a posh golf-course setting to satirize capitalism and colonialism in his native Philippines in his dryly comic, quietly scathing debut feature, “Filipiñana,” now playing at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Manuel’s class-themed coming-of-age tale begins on the sweltering streets of Manila, where water is being rationed. Then there’sa contrasting picture: a country-club golf course where sprinklers are liberally watering the greens, keeping them verdant for wealthy, elite clientele. Seventeen-year-old Isabel (Jorrybell Agoto, who holds the screen) is a “tee girl” — a ludicrous job that involves teeing up balls for entitled golfers. Isabel, who comes from the rural north, is enticed by the country club’s luxurious interiors and fancy dessert spreads. She’s especially curious about Dr. Palanca (Teroy Guzman), the patriarchal club’s president. Instructed to bring Palanca his misplaced golf club, Isabel, while searching for him, discovers unsavory truths about the golf course, Palanca, and his link to her family’s traumatic history, memories of which she’s suppressed. Additional characters include Clara (Carmen Castellanos), an expatriate visiting her industrialist uncle (Carlitos Siguion-Reyna) and troubled by how the club disrespects its workers. The movie’s unhurried pacing and lack of dramatic thrust may frustrate some, but Manuel doesn’t seem interested in standard suspense-building. Instead, he immerses viewers in an artificial, soulless, creepy environment and presents capitalist mindsets and class divides — represented by golf courses, which date back to the Philippines’ American colonial period — with absurdism and drollness in scenes with synchronized movement, of workers stacking chairs and golfers swinging clubs, for example. At the same time, the movie is dead-serious and hard-hitting about the Philippines’ history and national identity, complete with a disquieting ending. (Don’t leave the theater too soon.)
A debt-plagued grandson travels from China to Thailand to find his long-absent, reportedly rich grandfather, and discovers decades of secret devotion and sacrifice, in “Dear You,” directed by Lan Hongchun (“Back to Love”). A major hit in China, the drama contains themes of family, migration and the Chinese tradition of qiaopi letters. It is currently in Bay Area theaters.