See you Sunday vitalsignsfilms.substack.com/p/july-5-mar...

Jonathan Kiefer (@kieferama.bsky.social) is programming the monthly Vital Signs Film Series in Oakland ! www.criterion.com/current/post...

"Shot beautifully on 16mm, it serves as the perfect cinematic antidote to technological burnout." --Lucy Peters, Little White Lies magazine MARE'S NEST, a film by Ben Rivers 2pm Sunday, July 5 tickets: bit.ly/MaresNestOakland

You know I love a film series, especially one billed as "slightly strange, noncommercial, very boutique." How Vital Signs Film Series (@kieferama.bsky.social) and Shapeshifters Cinema teamed up to show 'Revelations of Divine Love' this Sunday — with more to come! www.kqed.org/arts/1399079...

2pm Sunday May 3: Come appreciate nature by sitting inside appreciating cinema. •WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU (Hong Sangsoo) •CITY OF NATURE (Kota Ezawa) vitalsignsfilms.substack.com/p/may-3-what...

At this free 4/4 screening in SF, I'll be moderating a q&a with Daniel Freeman about his great road movie Teddy, Out of Tune: open.substack.com/pub/vitalsig... @vitalsignsfilms.bsky.social

Bay Area food-enjoying friends: Greenhearts Family Farm, which feeds us every week and is consistently excellent, needs some new subscribers. Give them a go! greenheartsfamilyfarm.com

Worthy GoFundMe Alert: Support Shapeshifters Cinema, Brewery & Café www.gofundme.com/f/support-sh...

Wrote about San Francisco (the movie) for Screen Slate www.screenslate.com/articles/san...

"thin places" are locations where the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds is said to be particularly thin.

Our film’s on Letterboxd, and, if you are too, we'd love for you to log/rate/review/list/love/loathe/destroy/defend it on there. Available as a Vimeo rental, but you can hit us up now through Valentine’s Day for a code to watch for free. letterboxd.com/film/around-...

Well, to take your mind off it, how about an arguably under-appreciated Wenders film playing in SF tonight? I wrote up Notebook on Cities and Clothes for @screenslate.bsky.social: www.screenslate.com/articles/not...

The majority of organizing happening in Minnesota isn’t just peaceful, it’s INVISIBLE. Moms showing up who won’t be interviewed on TV, people whose ICE patrols don’t turn into viral video. The grocery runs, the donations, the people filming bc they happen to be there. Please remember this.

Thank you, Sarah.

Today's tone-setter for 2026: David Runciman's discussion of Wallace Shawn's play The Designated Mourner www.ppfideas.com/episodes/fil...

all these fucks are like bro you don't understand how precise this operation was bro no one's ever done this bro it was epic, expecting us to be like oh well in that case

And so again came the time of writing down the titles of movies (for @screenslate.bsky.social)

The bird takes its revenge on the kings in The Thieving Magpie (1964), dir. Emanuele Luzzati and Giulio Gianini Federico Fellini loved this film: "it makes me furious that I don't know how to draw so I could resolve my films in the same way"

Nice to see The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye is free to watch on Le Cinema Club this week. I reviewed it back in the day, and a rewatch seems in order: kieferama.substack.com/p/the-ballad...

Hi, I’ll be moderating a couple of Q&As at the Roxie this week. Tomorrow evening: Kathleen Chalfant, who stars, most recently, in FAMILIAR TOUCH Sunday afternoon: Sezin Devi Koehler, discussing her book Much Ado About Keanu: A Critical Reeves Theory, and in particular, SPEED Join us! #movies

Good idea variety.com/2025/film/ne...

Convinced his job is to make Congress even more hesitant to dump Trump.

Another bracing good read from Estelle Artus estelleartus.substack.com/p/jokes-on-you

Happy Easter!

Good conversation www.interviewmagazine.com/film/david-c...

Important news alert: Franco Piavoli’s enduringly beautiful film The Blue Planet is free to watch on Le Cinéma Club this week. www.lecinemaclub.com/now-showing/...

With your help, the people who run the Roxie can actually buy the Roxie: roxie.com/forever/

there he is

Happily I'll be back at the Roxie in person moderating a Q&A with Leslie Buchbinder about her film WESTERMANN this Sunday, March 16, and one with Jenni Olson about her films THE ROYAL ROAD and 575 CASTRO ST. on Tuesday, April 1. Please join us — tickets at Roxie.com.

Guillermo del Toro likes the classics. It's always a pleasure to hear how he expresses his passion and taste: www.youtube.com/watch?v=74NV...

from the trailer for Matías Piñeiro’s You Burn Me

Volodymyr Zelensky's Oval Office visit ended early when Donald Trump and JD Vance began angrily yelling at him. Here's why women like Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton are too emotional to be president.

it’s true the grotesque spectacle Trump & Vance performed in the Oval Office today was unprecedented — but it’s false to say they revealed themselves in any new way: these are the abominable characters & positions & attitudes & allegiances they have always proclaimed & embodied

Aw, this reminds me of my early lonely days in San Francisco as a misfit with modest but arty movie ambitions — one source of solace was Cafe Zoetrope with its huge beautiful Tati poster on the wall, clearly a beacon for Francis himself.

The great Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé has passed away. After seeing his award-winning film YELEEN (1987), Martin Scorsese called it: “one of the great revelatory experiences of my moviegoing life.” Read more about this incredible cinematic voice: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/m...

‘You Can’t Let This Happen,’ Says Fundraising Email From Sitting U.S. Congressperson

Yes. "It's embarrassing, destructive, and looks like shit: AI-generated art is the perfect aesthetic form for the far right." newsocialist.org.uk/transmission...

"He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to." --Kyle MacLachlan on #DavidLynch

"How many shoppers scrolling for Prime Day deals recognized a mind at work?" Great piece from @taracheesman.bsky.social on the new collection of Kevin Killian's "Selected Amazon Reviews" www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/kevi...

More great why-things-look-like-that analysis, from @vickyacab.bsky.social all-cats-are-beautiful.ghost.io/image-withou...

Will Tavlin runs a diagnostic on "the first studio in Hollywood history to consistently make daylight look bad." www.nplusonemag.com/issue-49/ess...

Here, as gathered in a Screen Slate list, are some movies I like! screenslate.com/articles/bes...

Worthy crowdfund alert: The wonderful and dedicated Brenda Avila-Hanna's documentary LIBERTAD, nearly 8 years in the making and as timely as ever. seedandspark.com/fund/liberta...

Wonderful project, much appreciated

Call me conservative but I respect traditions, such as the apparently annual ladybug orgy in Redwood Regional Park

It’s Small Business Saturday, so here are some other boutique labels having sales on their sites, please support! Cinema Guild Arbelos Grasshopper Films Icarus Films Oscilloscope Flicker Alley Cult Epics Grindhouse Releasing Severin Cauldron

Well I love this, of course. www.screenslate.com/articles/nic... from @nicolasrapold.bsky.social

Rebecca Green's Dear Producer newsletter on the Hollywood product, once again telling it like it is. www.dearproducer.com/p/but-hes-di...