Transgender stories, small festivals, and a coming-of-age gem are coming to indie screens this week.
The 29th annual San Francisco Transgender Film Festival opens Thursday with in-person screenings through Saturday at the Roxie Theater, followed by an online component Nov. 16-22. Created to increase the representation of transgender and gender-nonconforming people onscreen, the festival is presenting six programs of short films this year.
“Comedy” is the theme of program one. Films include “Cockroach,” a darkly humorous tale about sex, identity, and survival, starring John Cameron Mitchell. A “Documentary” lineup includes “Hustleween,” exploring a Black, transgender, and queer event that raises funds for transmasculine people. A “Horror” package includes “Dread,” about a South African transmasculine Uber driver whose car becomes supernaturally possessed. A “Grab Bag” screening consists of nine thematically and tonally different shorts. “Speculative Fiction” offerings include “Las Cosas Que Brillan,” about a curious transgender mermaid. “Adult” is a program of intimate stories for ages 18 and up only.
Visit sftff.org for more information.
The San Francisco Underground Short Film Festival, celebrating independent local filmmaking, has been revived with a new edition screening Saturday at the 4-Star Theater. Promising the “weirdest and wildest the Bay has to offer,” the event features overlooked, underrated, experimental, subversive, and off-the-wall short films.
Four different programs are scheduled:
· Program 1: 2:15 to 4:15 p.m.
· Program 2: 5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m.
· Program 3: 8 to 10 p.m.
· Program 4 (for ages 18+ only): 10:45 p.m. to midnight.
Visit 4-star-movies.com for more information.
The Culture and Diversity Film Festival takes place at 4 p.m. Monday and Tuesday at the 4-Star Theater in San Francisco. Four programs of short films make up the two-day bill with themes of love, food, sports, music, and “mystic journeys.”
Visit 4-star-movies.com for more information.
“Mouse,” opening Friday in Bay Area theaters, is a coming-of-age dramedy directed by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, collaborators on “Ghostlight” and “Saint Frances.” Once again, the filmmakers have delivered a pleaser in which protagonists experience personal jolts that lead them to examine who they are and what they want from life. Set in 2002 Arkansas, O’Sullivan’s screenplay follows 17-year-old Minnie (Katherine Mallen Kupferer), an introvert who exists in the shadow of her best friend, Callie (Chloe Coleman), a charismatic, talented drama student.
After tragedy removes Callie from the picture, Minnie begins spending time with Callie’s mother, Helen (Sophie Okonedo), an elegant, cultured pianist, at Helen’s spacious home. Minnie prefers the company of Helen to that of her own mother, Barbara (Tara Mallen), a coarsely plainspoken veterinary technician who Minnie incorrectly thinks doesn’t care about her. Minnie and Helen meaningfully connect, each devastated by Callie’s loss. Helen takes a motherly interest in Minnie and gives her singing lessons to help her prepare for a role in a school play that she is sadly wrong for. Minnie also finds comfort, and romance, with Kat (Iman Vellani), a video-store employee.
While the plot itself — loss, first love, mean girls, an intergenerational bond — is unextraordinary, the filmmakers keep the emotion real and the tone affectingly humane. Sterling moments abound, from Minnie’s sweetly awkward first kiss to a scene in which Barbara and Minnie comfort and euthanize an ailing dog.
Mallen Kupferer is believable and relatable in the role of Minnie. Her joyful rapport with Coleman’s Callie contains essential spark. Standing out, though, is Okonedo, whose portrayal of the deeply hurting Helen is emotionally complex and quietly riveting. The Helen-Minnie interactions are the highlight of this touching film about female bonds and teenage self-discovery.
“Soul Patrol,” a documentary about the Vietnam War’s first Black special-operations team, screens in Bay Area theaters Thursday, Veterans Day. Director J.M. Harper focuses on surviving members of the unit as they reunite at a hotel, 50 years after the war. As the men look back at their time in Vietnam, the film addresses the contradictions of fighting for one’s country overseas while experiencing inequality at home.
Yim Soon-rye, one of South Korea’s leading female auteurs, appears in person at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at 4 p.m. Friday and 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Yim will present “Waikiki Brothers” (2001) and “Little Forest” (2018), described as two of her most heartfelt, resonant films. She will participate in conversations after both screenings.
Visit bampfa.org for more information.
To commemorate the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, Congregation Sherith Israel and the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center will present “Three Brothers in Shanghai,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at 2266 California St., San Francisco. Directed by Nick Andrus, the 17-minute documentary centers on three Jewish brothers who escaped Nazi-controlled Austria as children and found refuge in Shanghai— one of the only places that Jewish refugees could enter without visas. A conversation with Andrus and Ron Glait, director of community education at the JFCS Holocaust Center, follows the screening.
Visit sherithisrael.org for more information.
The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco is hosting a sneak preview of “Judges Under Fire,” a short documentary by Bay Area–based filmmakers Abby Ginzberg and Ken Schneider, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The film examines the substantial role that U.S. District Court judges play in upholding constitutional limits, judicial independence, and the rule of law. A conversation with the filmmakers and Judge Suzanne Ramos Bolanos, co-chair of the Retired Judges Initiative, follows the screening.
Visit commonwealthclub.org for more information.