An ahead-of-its-time drama about an African American professor and her troubled marriage, a searing Iranian award-winner about life-and-death issues that had to be smuggled out of the country and a restoration of a seminal Melvin Van Peebles romantic drama. Each is available to stream via select independent Bay Area theaters. They top our list of what to watch in this week’s Pass the Remote, which also delivers the intel on a summer Stanford University course that is based on San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle’s recently released book, “Dream State: California in the Movies.”