Jason previews upcoming events--Santa Cruz Film Festival, Holehead, and stuff at the PFA

SFIFF winds down tonight. I'll finally sleep well, but here are some things that will keep me awake soon.

If I were truly, truly crazy, tomorrow night the Santa Cruz Film Festival starts. I'll sleep rather than going to opening night. Then Saturday there's a Quakes game, so that's out. Possibly I'll go Sunday. During the week it's a bit of a trek to go down to Santa Cruz, but there's always the possibility I'll go for the closing weekend. But just because I won't be there, it doesn't mean you shouldn't. There are some great movies playing there. Here's a rundown of the ones that jumped out at me (mostly because I've seen them before):
"2nd Verse: The Rebirth of Poetry" plays Sat, May 10, 4:30 at the Riverfront. Great doc I saw at Indiefest.
"Abie Nathan--As the Sun Sets" Fri, May 16, 1:00 at the Riverfront. Haven't seen it, but it's co-presented by the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival
"The Art of Travel" Sat, May 10, at the Del Mar. One of my favorites from Cinequest
"Fantasie in Bubblewrap" part of the Animazing! shorts program. Fri, May 9 2:00 at the Riverfront. You'll never look at bubblewrap the same.
"Jetsam" Thu, May 15 8:45 pm at the Riverfront. Cool little low-budget thriller I saw at Indiefest.
"Les Paul--Chasing Sound" Fri, May 16, 8:00 at the Rio. Good doc on Les Paul from Cinequest.
"The Metrosexual" Mon, May 12, 9:15 at the Riverfront. I actually missed this when it played at Cinequest. Any of my readers know if it's worth the drive to SC on a weeknight?
"Row Hard, No Excuses" Fri, May 9, 4:30 at the Riverfront. Amazing doc I saw at Indiefest, about a rowboat race across the Atlantic.
"Shuteye Hotel" also part of the Animazing! shorts program. Fri, May 9 2:00 at the Riverfront. I haven't seen it, but it's a Plymptoon, so it's gotta be cool.
"Sliding Liberia" Fri, May 16, 9:00 at the Cayuga Vault. Excellent social issues/surfing doc. My surprise hit of Indiefest.
"The Village Barbershop" Sun, May 11, 9:15 at the Del Mar. Good funny movie, one of the hits of Cinequest.
"Summer Scars" Fri, May 9, 9:15 at the Riverfront. I know nothing about this, other than it's by Julian Richards and I've liked his previous work.

In fact, "Summer Scars" would almost get me to come to SC on Friday when I should be sleeping off SFIFF. I was temped...seriously tempted...and then I was saved when the schedule came out for Holehead.

Holehead (or more appropriately, "Another Hole in the Head") is Indiefest's genre program, and it plays June 5-21. Since I saw "Starslyderz" last night (I'll post on that event soon), I've now seen everything that's played at Holehead since it started in 2004 (or 2003, if you count the all-genre weekend of Indiefest as the first Holehead).

I don't spend a lot of time researching the schedule, since I'll just see everything anyway. I am, as I explained above, excited about Julian Richards' "Summer Scars". I also met Robert Pratten, the director of "MindFLESH" at the "Starslyderz" experience last night, so now I'm excited about his movie. So apparently I'm really looking forward to the British horror this year. Neat!

A little note about the Holehead schedule. It's two weeks long, but the second week is all repeat screenings. You can see everything in the first week, which is good for me because I'll be out of town for the second week (up in WA to see my little bro' graduate, followed by a week-long family reunion). It's also a win for my local readers, as you'll be able to read what I like and what I didn't in time to catch the repeat screenings. It'll be interesting to see if attendance is up during the second week from word-of-mouth or if horror fans don't really care what other people think (which is kind of my suspicion).

On final note. If you buy the pass to see everything at Holehead, the new policy is that it only gets you in for the first week (through June 12). The repeat screenings are not included in the pass. This is new this year, and I expect people to be confused/not notice until it's too late. So I'm trying to do my part to spread the word (and biting my tongue about my opinion of this policy).

While that's going on, there's also some cool stuff happening at the Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley. Most exciting is the Johnnie To series--cool Hong Kong action flicks. I'm definitely going to as much of that as possible (some screenings conflict with Holehead and with my vacation). There's a couple of other cool things I'll try to check out. "Berlin Alexanderplatz" I'll miss, since I can't make all of it--a 16 hour epic in 13-14 parts? No thanks, at least not if I'll only catch half. I know nothing about Zeki Demirkubuz, but I might at least try a taste and see if I want to see more. The punk series "Louder, Faster: Punk in Performance" looks cool, as does the Joan Blondell series. In fact, I'll mark it down right now: June 26th Joan Blondell in "Nighmare Alley" followed by the canonical punk doc "The Decline of Western Civilization" (and Penelope Spheeris is scheduled to be there)

And finally, I keep mentioning I saw the "Starslyderz" experience last night at the Hypnodrome. Well, that's a sneak peak at a Dead Channels summer series of White Hot Wild Wednesdays (or something like that). The series kicks off June 18th with "Socket" (in honor of gay pride month). They showed the trailer before "Starslyderz" and it looks to be a twisted queer story of people who shock themselves with electricity for kicks. Some even grow electrical plugs out of their wrists and plug in to their partners "sockets." I'm so sad I'll miss it for my family reunion. Yeah...sorry to miss that.

Anyway, that's what's coming up soon in the world of indie and weird films in the bay area.