MVFF Marin Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to the 41st
M ILL VALLE Y FIL M FE STIVAL
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Welcome
MARIN MAGAZINE
MVFF
Show Time
ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE 41ST MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL
It’s our fifth year of partnering with the California Film Institute and the Mill Valley Film Festival, and we are excited to present this guide to the event and whet your appetite for thrilling cinema. In these pages, founder/ executive director Mark Fishkin and director of programming Zoë Elton reveal what they value and anticipate most about MVFF today. Our regular writers Bernard Boo and Peter Crooks join Zack Ruskin, Kirsten Jones Neff and Emilie Rohrbach to bring stories on movies that showcase nature, are inspired by beloved books, give a glimpse of the future or feature music in a starring role. There’s also an intriguing piece on documentary film, a challenging quiz on local cinematic landmarks, a Q&A with Paul Dano and, of course, a complete schedule of every film to be screened. We hope you enjoy this guide to the festival’s 41st year as it celebrates the power of the silver screen. — marin magazine staff editors
18 SWEET SOUNDS Concerts
who helped make this guide a success.
that pair with MVFF films.
20 BOOKS ON FILM Five popu10 BEHIND THE SCENES Zoë Elton and Mark Fishkin talk about the 41st fest.
12 SPOTLIGHT MVFF Award
lar adaptations put to the test.
26 MVFF SCHEDULE It’s quite a lineup: when and where to see this year’s films.
31 INTO FOCUS Movies that may 14 LAND, SEA, SKY Films
have predicted the future.
EDITOR
Mimi Towle MANAGING EDITOR
Daniel Jewett ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Kasia Pawlowska COPY EDITOR
Cynthia Rubin CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Bernard Boo, Peter Crooks, Kirsten Jones Neff, Emilie Rohrbach, Zack Ruskin
Art ART DIRECTOR
Rachel Griffiths PRODUCTION MANAGER
Alex French
Debra Hershon
36 DOCLANDS A new festival has become a big success.
40 MOVIES AND MUSIC These films really have the beat.
42 FUN FACTS How much do you know about the MVFF?
filmmakers love the MVFF spotlight and red carpet.
about Mother Nature.
34 MOVIE QUIZ How many Bay 16 HIGHLIGHTS Special
Editorial
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
44 STARGAZING Actors and
recipient Paul Dano.
Nikki Wood
Advertising
Contents 8 CONTRIBUTORS The writers
PUBLISHER / EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Area films do you know?
features, programs and music.
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
Michele Geoffrion Johnson SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGERS
Leah Bronson Lesley Cesare ACCOUNT MANAGER
Dana Horner ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR
Alex French
Administration/Web OFFICE MANAGER
Hazel Jaramillo DIGITAL EDITOR
With special thanks to our sponsor.
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One Harbor Drive, Suite 208 Sausalito, CA 94965 MARINMAGAZINE.COM
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Contributors Peter Crooks Cinema’s Crystal Ball What movies have you enjoyed the most this year? My favorite film of 2018, thus far, is Ari Aster’s spectacularly scary Hereditary. After that: Alex Garland’s Annihilation, Paul Schrader’s First Reformed, Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. It has been a good year for Oakland on screen with Sorry to Bother You, Blindspotting and Black Panther. What was the most challenging part of this assignment? I was able to think of a number of films that were prescient in their political content or used the sciencefiction genre to comment on things to come. The challenging part was knowing if I was picking the best examples for the article. Where has your work appeared before? I’m a longtime senior editor at Diablo magazine and my first book, The Setup: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TV, has been optioned for a feature film adaptation.
Kirsten Jones Neff Doclands What’s your earliest film memory? My first memorable movie experience was watching The Shaggy D.A. (the sequel to The Shaggy Dog) on the big screen, munching from a brown bag of homemade popcorn. I thought it was the perfect comedy, the perfect popcorn, and an all-around perfect night. I’ve been a movie fiend ever since. Biggest movie theater pet peeve? I hate it when people let their phones light up, buzz, vibrate and ring in the theater. The other night we were in the luxury loungers and the guy next to me took a call. Where has your work appeared before? Besides Marin Magazine, my recent work has appeared in Edible Marin & Wine Country, Modern Farmer, Stanford Magazine, Ms. Magazine, GreatSchools.org, and Grown and Flown, among other print and digital publications.
Zack Ruskin Paul Dano; Book vs. Movie; Test Your Film IQ Do you have an MVFF memory that stands out in particular? So many contenders, but I’ll always remember seeing Spotlight in 2015 and instantly knowing with complete certainty that I’d just seen the film that would win that year’s Academy Award for Best Picture. My intuitions were correct. What’s your favorite movie that features the Bay Area? While it’s hard not to go with Vertigo, I’m extremely partial to the 1997 David Fincher film The Game. What could possibly top Michael Douglas plunging into the San Francisco Bay while trapped in a taxicab? Where has your work appeared before? My writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, Billboard, the San Francisco Chronicle, Paste, Bandcamp, San Francisco Weekly, Maxim, Uproxx, Everfest, and more. Follow me on Twitter @zackruskin. 8
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Behind the Scenes
Roll Film
Mill Valley Film Festival founder/executive director Mark Fishkin and director of programming Zoë Elton, on curating the signature MVFF experience. BY BERNARD BOO
MVFF always features wonderful special guests. Who comes to mind as one of your favorites? Zoë: The first year we sort of officially did our “Mind the Gap” program [which focuses on women in film], we were honoring Sir Ian McKellen. He said, “But I’m a man! I think it’d be good to do something about women I’ve worked with.” He did just that, and it was extraordinary. Can the excitement surrounding some of your higher-profile guests sometimes get out of hand? Mark: Things have changed, and we do get more protective [of our guests]. People want to take photographs, but we still try to create an easygoing atmosphere and make it as enjoyable for the guest as it would be for the audience.
Zoë Elton and Mark Fishkin
Your “Mind the Gap” initiative has been one of your most successful innovations. How has that program been coming along? Zoë: As a program director, I’ve always been driven by really wanting to make sure that we have programming that encompasses a lot of different sensibilities, a lot of different geographies. Throughout our history, making sure that women are [included] has been important, and it really became more compelling several years ago when we did a panel with Stacy Smith [of USC’s Annenberg School of Communication], who coined the phrase “inclusion rider,” which you may have heard at the Oscars this year. One of the ways of making change is to translate that into what you do in your work and in your life. Then, we can start to push things forward. What conversations and themes do you see bubbling to the surface at this year’s festival? Zoë: Race in America is definitely front and center [this year]. We’ve seen a number of films addressing black issues in America on the festival circuit. We’ve also consciously started looking for films that address a young adult audience, the same kind of audience you would see reading YA novels. Mark: There was a film we showed last year called Life and Nothing More, and we’re distributing that film now. It highlights race in America but also represents films with nonprofessional casts, which may develop into a focus as well.
TOMMY LAU
How do you maintain the festival’s unique low-key vibe while also introducing cutting-edge ideas and adapting to an ever-evolving market? Mark: From the [festival’s] inception, we said we wanted to be professional but unpretentious. Change is a really important part of what we do. We have to focus on the present and the future. Zoë: I think that also epitomizes what the Bay Area is. There’s a welcoming sensibility, but there’s also an inquisitiveness about who we are, what we are, and what we’re doing.
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8/27/18 12:36 PM
Paul Dano
The actor discusses how Richard Ford’s novel Wildlife inspired him to step behind the camera for the first time.
W
BY ZACK RUSKIN HEN PAUL DA NO first discovered Richard Ford’s Wildlife, he was sim-
ply looking for a good book to read on the subway. What he found was the inspiration for his directorial debut. An acclaimed actor known for his work in Little Miss Sunshine, Love & Mercy and There Will Be Blood, the 34-year-old Dano has long harbored the desire to helm a film. After he found himself revisiting Ford’s short novel numerous times over the course of a year, Dano finally mustered up the courage to write Ford and express his interest in adapting the author’s work. “I wrote him a letter,” Dano recalls, “and he got back to me. He told me that his book was his book, and that my picture was my picture, and that I needed to do me. That was so important to hear from him, because that is what I wanted. I was looking to put myself through this material, but to have a writer that you admire so much give you that permission was a really important thing to hear.” Dano set to work writing a draft of the screenplay. He confesses he secretly thought his first effort was “pretty good,” but then he asked his longtime girlfriend, the actress and screenwriter Zoe Kazan, to read it and she returned the script with notes on every page. “She tore it apart,” he says, laughing. “We tried to go through it, and we maybe got five pages in before she said, ‘Why don’t you just let me do a pass on it?’ Then she took it and just made it a lot better.” Having optioned the rights to Ford’s novel on their own, Dano and Kazan were under no deadlines and relished the opportunity to tinker with the screenplay to their satisfaction. At one point the couple even re-created the road trip in which the Brinson family travels from Idaho to their current residence in Great Falls, Montana. Starring Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal as the parents of Joe — played by Ed Oxenbould (a strikingly talented young actor from Australia) — Wildlife is a sparse and quiet portrait of a boy in 1960 forced to realize that our mothers and fathers are 12
as flawed as the rest of us. The setting of Montana almost serves as an auxiliary character; as Dano observes, the state’s stunning geography, captured vividly by cinematographer Diego García, serves dual purposes in the story. “It is so magnificent,” he says of the landscapes that serve as Wildlife’s backdrop. “I think that was an important precipice to be on, because you could either view it with a sense of hope and possibility, or you could view it with this sense of desolation and despair that I think comes with being somewhere so much bigger than you.” With only three main characters anchoring the film, casting the right actors was of utmost importance. Kazan had previously worked with Mulligan on a Broadway play, and Dano felt the Oscar-nominated actress might enjoy the chance to change things up by playing the character of Jeanette, whom he accurately describes as “messy.” Dano first met Gyllenhaal at Mulligan’s wedding and the two later worked together on the 2013 film Prisoners. He is thrilled that Wildlife represents the first time the two esteemed actors (and friends) have co-starred in a film. The final product is an expertly crafted debut for Dano, who is now eager to return to the director’s chair. “I can’t wait to make another film,” he says. “I don’t know what it’s going to be, but I want to make different films. However, I would be surprised if I didn’t come back to that sense of family somehow. It’s just something that’s always spoken to me — in writing, in film, in art, and in my life.” The film won the first MVFF Award of 2018, and Paul Dano and Carey Mulligan will appear for a live onstage conversation on October 5.
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Land, Sea, Sky
Cinema’s Wild Side These films are all about interacting with Mother Nature. BY BERNARD BOO
Into the Wild (2007) The mysterious real-life story of Christopher McCandless, a privileged college grad who sold everything to trek across the country and up into Alaska, is infused with poetic nuance in this bracing, sorrowful film. Starring Emile Hirsch as McCandless and directed by Sean Penn with music by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, it paints a breathtaking picture of a man fading away into nature, holding on to the ones he loves until his very last gasp.
Wild (2014) Step by step, we follow Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) braving the elements on a 1,100-mile hike of the Pacific Crest Trail while confronting emotional fallout from the recent death of her mother and the dissolution of her marriage. Witherspoon (Oscar-nominated for her performance) and director
Into the Wild
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LAND
The Homesman (2014) Hilary Swank made quite an impression when she kicked off MVFF’s 37th year with this film on opening night. It’s an American frontier tale, depicting the unlikely attempt by Mary Bee Cuddy (Swank) to transport three mentally ill women across the unforgiving Nebraska Territories by covered wagon, aided by a scruffy hired drifter (Tommy Lee Jones, who also directs). A bizarre, beautiful portrait of female independence whose haunting, harsh vistas echo the protagonist’s internal strife.
PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
One of the many things that makes the Mill Valley Film Festival special is the fact that you can go for a walk in the woods, stare out at the ocean, and take in that big blue California sky — all in between screenings. Here are some MVFF standouts from years past that showcase nature on the big screen itself.
another survivor: a hungry Bengal tiger. After winning a lifetime achievement award at MVFF in 2007, Taiwanese director Ang Lee returned to the festival in 2012 with this movie, which brought his second Best Director Oscar win. The dazzling scenes at sea are a spectacular display of CGI wizardry and a shining example of visual effects and story working as one.
SKY
Jean-Marc Vallée are in top form in this powerful, intimate character study based on Strayed’s memoir, framed evocatively by the trail’s arid expanses and spiny mountain ranges.
SEA
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PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
All Is Lost (2013) Robert Redford plays a man adrift at sea on a damaged yacht, amid tempests and sharks, fighting to survive and searching the open ocean for a beacon of hope. A powerhouse cinematic experience with enveloping sound and gritty imagery, the film wowed audiences in the festival’s 36th year. Director J.C. Chandor was in attendance to discuss the film and joined Bay Area director Ryan Coogler and several other filmmakers for a special panel discussion. Breaking the Waves (1996) A wide-eyed young woman (Emily Watson) is dragged into a dark world of carnal and spiritual turmoil when her husband (Stellan Skarsgård) is paralyzed from the neck down in an accident on an oil rig. The chorus of the crashing waves near the couple’s coastal Scottish village acts as a sort of infernal soundtrack to this twisted romance from preeminent arthouse auteur Lars Von Trier. Life of Pi (2012) After surviving a shipwreck, Pi (Suraj Sharma) is thrust into a fantastical adventure at sea, forging an unlikely bond with
Arrival (2016) For ages human beings have looked to the sky for answers, All Is Lost and few films suggest the mystery and temptation of the cosmos better than Arrival, Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-winning sci-fi drama. Amy Adams plays Louise, a linguist recruited by the military to communicate with an alien race who have scattered a dozen ominous, hovering spaceships across Earth for reasons unknown. Sci-fi movies don’t often tug on the heartstrings, but there weren’t many dry eyes in the theater when this gem screened at MVFF 39. The Wind Rises (2013) The exhilaration of flying high above the clouds is bottled perfectly in mastermind auteur Hayao Miyazaki’s final and arguably best film. Based on the life of Jiro Horikoshi, an aeronautical engineer who designed fighter planes during World War II, The Wind Rises soars with flowing imagery and a dreamlike sensibility that makes the heart flutter with delight. Hand-drawn animation is a rarity in movies these days, but MVFF attendees were lucky enough to catch Miyazaki’s artistry on the big screen. Up in the Air (2009) Ten million frequent flyer miles. That’s the goal of professional downsizer Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) in Jason Reitman’s jet-setting romantic drama, featured in MVFF’s 32nd lineup. In a time when lost souls can choose to spend most of their time sitting in a chair detached from humanity, this Oscar winner examines one man’s fear of grounding himself, both figuratively and literally.
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Highlights
Coming Soon Special features and programs not to be missed. BY KASIA PAWLOWSKA
Tribute to Pawel Pawlikowski Friday, October 5 Oscar-winning director Pawel Pawlikowski’s latest feature, Cold War, will be screened, followed by a conversation onstage. Loosely based on his parents’ lives, the film details a stormy relationship between a composer and a singer in mid-20th-century Poland. Spotlight: Wildlife Friday, October 5 The creative collaboration between writer/director Paul Dano and actress Carey Mulligan will be acknowledged
with an MVFF award. The two will have an onstage conversation that explores the director-actor relationship and how they work together to achieve great performances. California Premiere of Beautiful Boy Saturday, October 6 Filmed in San Francisco and Marin, Beautiful Boy is director Felix Van Groeningen’s adaptation of the bestselling memoirs of father and son David and Nic Sheff. Actors Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet play father and son in this feature about a family’s grappling with addiction. Chalamet and the director will be at the screening. North American Premiere of The Parting Glass Saturday, October 6 After the unexpected death of their youngest sister, three siblings embark on an apprehensive road trip with their father and the sister’s estranged husband. Starring Anna Paquin, Cynthia Nixon, Melissa Leo and Denis O’Hare,
the film is also the directorial debut of True Blood’s Stephen Moyer. Jarvis Cocker at the Sweetwater Saturday, October 6 Best known as the frontman for the band Pulp, musician, actor and author Jarvis Cocker has been making music for two-thirds of his life. In this time, he has gone from being the quintessential outsider to being one of the most recognized figures in British music. Spotlight: Boy Erased Sunday, October 7 Directed by Joel Edgerton, Boy Erased portrays a teenage son of a preacher who finds himself in a gay conversion camp after being outed to his family by a fellow student. Based on true accounts, the film stars Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Lucas Hedges. MVFF Centerpiece: Roma Monday, October 8 The program will feature an onstage talk with director Alfonso Cuarón, a screening of Roma, and a presentation of the MVFF Award. In a cinematic love letter to the Mexico City of his youth, the Oscar-winning director depicts the life of a family in 1970 and a housekeeper who is its emotional anchor. Special Event: Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait Wednesday, October 10 In this new live music and film piece, musician Jenny Scheinman shows the captivating work of fillmmaker and photographer H. Lee Waters, who documented over 118 small towns in the Southeast between 1936 and 1942. Scheinman and filmmaker Finn Taylor have re-edited the footage and scored it with Scheinman’s music.
TOMMY LAU
Opening Night: A Private War Thursday, October 4 Based on a Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner, the biographical drama tells the story of Marie Colvin, a celebrated war correspondent at the front lines of conflicts across the globe. Directed by Academy Award nominee Matthew Heineman, A Private War boasts an all-star cast including Rosamund Pike, Jamie Dornan and Stanley Tucci.
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Sweet Sounds
Sweetwater Music Hall This community gem hosts concerts that tie into MVFF films. BY BERNARD BOO
FTER A SCREENING at the Sequoia theater on
Throckmorton Avenue at this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival, there’s a good chance that when you step outside you’ll hear the faint sound of rockin’ live music and a whole lot of people having a really good time just down the street at the legendary Sweetwater Music Hall, which hosts MVFF’s music program every year. If you do happen to hear that sweet, sweet sound, do yourself a favor: walk down the street and join the fun. The original Sweetwater opened in Mill Valley in 1972 and served as a clubhouse of sorts for the likes of Bob Weir, Aaron Neville, Elvis Costello, Townes Van Zandt, Carlos Santana, Van Morrison, John Hiatt and Etta James, whom would often take the stage for intimate, rare performances. This tradition continues at the venue’s current incarnation at 19 Corte Madera Avenue, which opened in 2012 and still carries the aura of all of those once-in-a-lifetime jam sessions that happened just two blocks away at the original location for over 30 years. With its velvet couches, elegant drapery and mood lighting, the venue feels of another time, in a delightful, nostalgic way, and there is nothing like watching a live band let loose on its stage. Bob Weir acts as both investor and “spiritual leader” for the current establishment, says current Sweetwater general 18
manager Aaron Kayce: “He hand-picked a million-dollar Meyer Sound system and laid the foundation for what just might be the nicest 300-person venue in the nation.” The venue’s audio presentation is indeed pristine, which is only fitting considering some of the talents it has drawn: Joe Satriani, members of Metallica, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Huey Lewis have all been featured as a part of MVFF’s concert programs here. “There has always been a huge amount of synergy between film and music,” Kayce notes of Sweetwater’s festival connection. “The goal is to provide concerts that complement films and films that complement music. Sometimes there is a documentary about a musician and then we have that musician perform, or perhaps we do a tribute to that musician.” While the music schedule for this year’s MVFF isn’t set just yet, Kayce says filmgoers will have plenty to appreciate if they break up their binge-watching with a live show or two. “We are excited to have Michael Franti on the lineup this year. We also have Jarvis Cocker, leader of the band Pulp, who has done voice work and musical scores for director Wes Anderson. And we are working on several other exciting shows that we just aren’t ready to announce,” he adds. “Regardless of the specifics, it’s always about creating a unique, heightened experience for the patron where film and music blend, creating a once-in-a-lifetime evening.”
JAY BLAKESBERG
A
Rodrigo y Gabriella with Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo of Metallica in 2014
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Books On Film
Book vs. Movie Five popular adaptations put to the test. BY ZACK RUSKIN
A
S HOLLY WOOD CONTINUES to search far and wide for the fodder that will bring Oscar gold and box office blockbusters, the written word remains its most popular source for inspiration. Even cinema’s first “talkie” — the 1927 Al Jolson film The Jazz Singer — is based on a short story by the writer Samson Raphaelson. While many films have failed to surpass their literary counterparts, some have risen to the challenge. Few would claim Mario Puzo’s 1969 pulp mafia novel is superior to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece The Godfather, although James Franco’s 2013 take on William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying would arguably have been better left for dead. In some cases, like Jaws, entire subplots are eliminated to help the film swim along. Thank goodness — who would want to see Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) sleeping with police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider)’s wife when they have a shark to catch? If readers and film fans can agree on one thing, it’s that the debate over which is better — the book or the movie — will outlive us all. As we celebrate the annual return of the Mill Valley Film Festival, we’ve put five films with Bay Area ties to the test against their source material. May the best medium win.
1
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) vs. Alias Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine Before Robin Williams donned oversize glasses and a blonde wig to win back the affections of his children, author Anne Fine first introduced British audiences to Madame
Doubtfire in her 1987 novel for young adults. While Fine’s work was short-listed for the Guardian Children’s Fiction and the Whitbread Children’s Book Award, it has largely been forgotten in favor of Williams’ iconic performance as a San Francisco father willing to go to any lengths to keep his kids by his side. Fine’s novel is no slouch, but it also doesn’t include a scene where Robin Williams plays two characters at once thanks to a face covered in frosting. If only because the phrase “Doubtfire” will forever conjure the visage of Williams, nose dripping with confection, boisterously greeting an unexpected guest (“Oh, hello!”), the movie version takes the cake here. Winner Movie
2
The Maltese Falcon (1941) vs. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett Hammett’s 1930 novel had already been adapted for the screen twice before Humphrey Bogart stepped into the shoes of private detective Sam Spade. Those earlier attempts — in 1931 and 1936, respectively — failed to capture the spirit of Hammett’s hard-drinking, eagled-eyed protagonist, but in 1941 Bogart made the role his own. Regarded today as a triumph of film noir and one of the best films ever set in the fair city of San Francisco, The Maltese Falcon is a rare bird indeed: both the novel and the 1941 film adaption are brilliant. To choose between them seems as foolish as trusting Miss Brigid O’Shaughnessy at her word, but any book that merits three adaptations in just over a decade is truly impressive stuff. Part of that is likely due to some overzealous filmmakers eager to make a buck, but it’s also thanks to Hammett’s impeccable knack for spinning a hard-boiled yarn like no other. Winner Book
The Maltese Falcon
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Vertigo (1958) vs. D’entre les Morts by Boileau-Narcejac As Vertigo continues to be hailed as perhaps the greatest film of all time, many remain unaware of the 1954 French crime novel upon which it was based. Written by Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud (aka Thomas Narcejac) and credited to the portmanteau Boileau-Narcejac, Among the Dead actually establishes many of the themes that so fascinated Hitchcock in Vertigo and other films, like doppelgangers and the madness that comes from guilt. Some critics have even begun to argue that this source material deserves more credit for the film it would ultimately inspire. Against a lesser opponent, Boileau-Narcejac’s novel would more than
CINECLASSICO/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
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Marianne Kolb: I Am Here October 2 - October 31, 2018 Reception for the Artist Saturday, October 6, 5:30 - 7:30
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Moneyball
4
“While many films have failed to surpass their literary counterparts, some have risen to the challenge.”
Moneyball (2011) vs. Moneyball by Michael Lewis If Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane knew his gambit of gauging players’ talents using statistics would one day lead to Brad Pitt playing him in a major motion picture, he might’ve started the strategy sooner. Beane’s baseball innovations were first featured in the 2003 book Moneyball, in which writer Michael Lewis takes readers on a deep dive into the concept of sabermetrics — the valuing of certain stats to supplement a scout’s evaluation of a player’s potential. While the film Moneyball enjoyed several Oscar nominations — including Best Picture and a Best Actor nod for Pitt — the true guts of what Beane and his team devised cannot be distilled in the movie’s 133-minute run time. The beauty of baseball makes for some captivating visuals — you can never have too many shots of an empty diamond awaiting the athletic drama to come — but for those
22
eager to get a full grasp of what made the 2002 Oakland Athletics so special, they’ll need to go through Lewis. Winner Book
5
Zodiac (2007) vs. Zodiac by Robert Graysmith Director David Fincher has an eye for the Bay Area like few others. His 1997 thriller The Game sent Michael Douglas loose on a deranged puzzle hunt across San Francisco, while 2007’s Zodiac focuses on one of the most infamous serial killers of the past century. Inspired by Robert Graysmith’s book of the same name, Zodiac features Jake Gyllenhaal as Graysmith, a San Francisco Chronicle writer obsessed with ascertaining the madman’s true identity. Graysmith’s account is an enjoyable read, but in Fincher’s hands, the atmosphere of the Bay Area in the late 1960s and early 1970s becomes a character all its own. The risk of making a mystery film that everyone knows cannot have a satisfying conclusion (the Zodiac’s identity remains undetermined to this day) renders Fincher’s work all the more intriguing: how do you offer a climax without rebuking history? The answer is one of several reasons the film is able to best Graysmith’s own written account of a truly harrowing chapter in Bay Area history. Winner Movie
PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
hold its own, but doing battle against the icy blonde Kim Novak, the camera tricks used to convey Jimmy Stewart’s terror of heights, and the unforgettable setting of Mission San Juan Bautista is a tall order. There’s simply no topping Hitchcock’s masterpiece, which takes the decisive victory. Winner Movie
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STINSON BEACH Sometimes, life is like a movie. Film yours at the beach. Stinson Beach.
Seadrift AT STINSON
415.868.1791 www.seadrift.com
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MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL GUIDE 2018 MARIN MAGAZINE
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MARIN EDITION
NEVER OUT OF STYLE. A L W A Y S O N T H E F O R E F R O N T. _ Year-to-date Top Producers. Back Row: Andrew Galbraith, Daniel Patrick Duffy, Renee Brunner, Chelsea E. Ialeggio (Sales Manager, Middle Row: Lori Saia Odisio, Julia Elkington, Christine Christiansen, Anna Frost, Vance Frost, Rachel Percival, Hannah Tai, Allison Salzer,
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Vangua Kathryn
anager, n Salzer,
SMART, SOP H I STI CATED , L OCAL LY-O WN E D , AN D H ERE TO STAY.
Vanguard Properties Marin), Kevin Kearney, Jennifer Bowman, Bitsa Freeman, David Doyle Kathryn Ellman, Janey Kaplan. Front Row: Ken Dara, Tyler Stewart, Matt Francis.
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Master Plan
Festival Schedule: October 4–9 THURSDAY THURSDAY OCT 4 OCT 4
FRIDAYFRIDAY OCT 5 OCT 5
SATURDAY SATURDAY OCT 6 OCT 6
S E Q U OS IEAQ U O I A
S E Q U OS IEAQ U O I A
S E Q U OS IEAQ U O I A
SEQUO
7:00pm Green 7:00pm Book Green 155 Book min 155 min
3:00pm The 3:00pm Guardians The Guardians 104 min 104 min
11:00am It’s 11:00am a Girls’ It’sWorld a Girls’ 92 World min 92 min
11:00am 5@
R A F A ERL A F A E L
6:00pm Everybody 6:00pm Everybody Knows 132 Knows min 132 min
2:00pm ...As 2:00pm If They ...As Were If They Angels Were87Angels min 87 min 2:30pm B
7:00pm A Private 7:00pm A War Private 131 min War 131 min
L A R K SLPAURRK S P U R 7:30pm Green 7:30pmBook Green 130 Book min 130 min
7:45pm A 7:45pm Private AWar Private 106 min War 106 min
4:00pm Little 4:00pm Woods Little105 Woods min 105 min 7:00pm Wildlife 7:00pm 134 Wildlife min 134 min
9:00pm Art 9:00pm Paul of ArtPlayboy: Paul of The Playboy: Man The Man
Behind the Behind Bunnythe 73Bunny min
73 min
12:00pm Charm 12:00pmCity Charm 106 min City 106 min
4:00pm The 4:00pm Favourite The Favourite 121 min 121 min
6:45pm The 6:45pm Parting The Glass Parting 120 Glass min 120 min 7:00pm Widows 7:00pm 128 Widows min 128 min
R A F A ERL A F A E L
9:30pm Everybody 9:30pm Everybody Knows 132 Knows min 132 min
3:00pm The 3:00pm Independents The Independents 97 min 97 min
R A F A ERL A F A E L
3:30pm Joseph 3:30pm Pulitzer: Joseph Voice Pulitzer: of the Voice of the
People 89People min
89 min
6:15pm Pet 6:15pm Names Pet76Names min 76 min 6:30pm 3 6:30pm Faces 100 3 Faces min 100 min
7:00pm Cold 7:00pm War Cold 118 min War 118 min 8:45pm Two 8:45pm Plains Two & aPlains Fancy& 89 a Fancy min 89 min
11:30am A 11:30am Ton o’ Toons A Ton o’ 73 Toons min 73 min
11:45am The 11:45am Independents The Independents 97 min 97 min 12:00pm Free 12:00pm SoloFree 97 min Solo 97 min
2:30pm The 2:30pm GreatThe Buster Great102 Buster min 102 min 3:00pm Beautiful 3:00pm Boy Beautiful 136 min Boy 136 min 5:00pm Art 5:00pm Paul of ArtPlayboy: Paul of The Playboy: Man The Man
Behind the Behind Bunnythe 73Bunny min 73 min 7:00pm 227:00pm July 137 22 min July 137 min L A R K TL H AE RA K TTEH RE A T E R 7:30pm The 7:30pm Silence TheofSilence Othersof96Others min 96 min 6:00pm Worlds 6:00pm ofWorlds Ursula of K. Ursula Le Guin K. 67 Lemin Guin 67 min 8:00pm Little 8:00pm Woods Little105 Woods min 105 min 8:15pm The 8:15pm Silence TheofSilence Othersof96Others min 96 min 6:00pm Obey 6:00pm96 min Obey 96 min
3:00pm H
70
5:30pm Th
6:00pm Bo
9:00pm W
9:00pm 5@5 9:00pm Come 5@5 to Come the Sunshine to the Sunshine 69 min 69 min
L A R K SLPAURRK S P U R
11:45am M
L A R K TL H AE RA K TTEH RE A T E R
9:15pm T
R A FA E
11:00am C
11:15am To
1:30pm Fr
2:00pm M
2:15 pm W 3:30pm
5:00pm 5:30pm
6:15pm 2:30pm Something 2:30pm Something Is Happening Is Happening 101 min 101 min 8:00pm
5:00pm Shoplifters 5:00pm Shoplifters 121 min 121 min
8:15pm 8:15pm All8:15pm TheseAll Small These Moments Small Moments 92 min 92 min 9:00pm 8:30pm Something 8:30pm Something Is Happening Is Happening 101 min 101 min 6:15pm 5@5 6:15pm Circle 5@5 Game Circle 69 Game min 69 min 8:45pm Charm 8:45pmCity Charm 106 min City 106 min
L A R K SLPAURRK S P U R
O L D MOI LL LD PM A IRLKL P A R K
5:00pm Pet 5:00pm Names Pet76Names min 76 min
7:00pm Zootopia 7:00pm Zootopia 108 min 108 min
B T T T D G A E
LARK
5:15pm The 5:15pm Guardians The Guardians 104 min 104 min
8:00pm Joseph 8:00pm Pulitzer: Joseph Voice Pulitzer: of the Voice of the
People 89People min 89 min 8:15pm 3 8:15pm Faces 100 3 Faces min 100 min
12:45pm E
3:30pm Pi
6:00pm W
8:45pm A
OUTDO OO U RT DAORO T RC LAUR B T CLUB 10:00am PANEL: 10:00amMind PANEL: theMind Gap Summit the Gap Summit
pt. 1 240 min pt. 1 240 min 2:00pm PANEL: 2:00pm Mind PANEL: theMind Gap Summit the Gap Summit pt. 2 240 min pt. 2 240 min
LARKS
4:00pm W
4:30pm B
7:00pm Tw
7:30pm A
OUTDO TDB
PA
THE H
2:00pm W
Sc
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min
SUNDAY SUNDAY OCT 7 OCT 7
MONDAY MONDAY OCT 8 OCT 8
S E Q U OS IEAQ U O I A
S E Q U OS IEAQ U O I A
11:00am 5@5 11:00am The 5@5 Way The It Is Way 95 minIt Is 95 min
11:30am Free 11:30am SoloFree 97 min Solo 97 min
WEDNEW
S E Q U OS IEAQ U
12:00pm Art 12:00pm Paul of ArtPlayboy: Paul of The Playboy: Man The Man Behind the Behind Bunnythe 73Bunny min 73 min 12:00pm Worlds 12:00pmofWorlds Ursula of K. Ursula Le Guin K. 67 Lemin Guin 67 min 12:15pm Joseph 12:15pmPulitzer: Joseph Voice Pulitzer: of the Voice of the 2:00pm Beautiful 2:00pm Beautiful Boy 111 min Boy 111 min
11:15am The 11:15am Fron
12:30pm Effortles 12:30pm Bias 2:30pm 88 min Bias 88 min 2:15pm The 2:15pm Favo People 89People min 89 min 3:00pm Holly 3:00pm Near: Holly Singing Near:for Singing Our Lives for Our Lives3:00pm Cold 3:00pm WarCold 88 min War 88 min 3:30pm Birds 3:30pm of 2:30pm The 2:30pm SilentThe Revolution Silent Revolution 111 min 111 min 70 min 70 min 6:00pm Stay 6:00pm Human Stay 94 Human min 94 min 6:00pm One 6:00pm Voi min 3:00pm Boy 3:00pm Erased Boy114 Erased min 114 min 5:30pm The 5:30pm Hate The U Give Hate 155 Umin Give 155 min 8:45pm The 8:45pm Lost The City Lost of the City Monkey of the God Monkey God 6:30pm Destroye 6:30pm 6:00pm The 6:00pm Front The Runner Front 113 Runner min 113 min 100 min 100 min 6:00pm Boy 6:00pm Erased Boy 139 Erased min 139 min 2 min 8:15pm Non-Fic 8:15pm 6:15pm Swimming 6:15pm Swimming with Menwith 96 min Men 96 min 9:00pm Bushwick 9:00pm Bushwick Beats 83 min Beats 83 min 9:00pm What 9:00pm They What HadThey 101 min Had 101 min 8:45pm 228:45pm July 137 22min July 137 min R A F A ERL A F A R A F A ERL A F A E L 9:15pm The 9:15pm Hi DeThe HoHi Show De Ho 100Show min 100 min 9:15pm Daughter 9:15pm Daughter of Mine 97 ofmin Mine 97 min 10:30am Earth, 10:30am O 10:15am Moving 10:15am Stories Moving98Stories min 98 min Environm min R A F A ERL A F A E L R A F A ERL A F A E L 12:30pm Obey 12:30pm 96 min Obey 96 min 12:00pm Sergio 12:00pm a 11:00am Coco 11:00am 105 Coco min 105 min 10:15am The 10:15am Big Bad TheFox... Big Bad 88 min Fox... 88 min 2:15pm Widows 2:15pm 128 Widows min 128 min 2:30pm Burning 2:30pm min 11:15am Too 11:15am Late Too to Die Late Young to Die 110 Young min 110 min 12:30pm Yomeddine 97 min 97 min 3:15pm Holly 3:15pm Near: Holly Singing Near:for Singing Our Lives for Our Lives12:30pm Yomeddine 2:45pm Swimmin 2:45pm 1:30pm From 1:30pm Mexico, FromCon Mexico, Amor Con 72 min Amor 72 min 3:00pm Shoplifters 3:00pm Shoplifters 121 min 121 min 70 min 70 min 3:00pm Yomedd 3:00pm 2:00pm Museo 2:00pm 115 Museo min 115 min 3:30pm All3:30pm Square All93Square min 93 min 3:15pm Who 3:15pm Killed Who Lt. Killed Van Dorn? Lt. Van 78 Dorn? min 78 min The Man 6:00pm Border 6:00pm 1 min 2:15 pm WORKSHOP: 2:15 pm WORKSHOP: Crowdfunding Crowdfunding to to 6:00pm Roma 3:30pm Pity 3:30pm 99 min Pity 99 min 6:00pm 160Roma min 160 min 6:15pm The 6:15pm Silen Build Independence Build Independence 120 min 120 min 6:00pm Chained 6:00pm for Chained Life 92for minLife 92 min 6:30pm Wild 6:30pm DaZe Wild 102DaZe min 102 min 3:30pm The 3:30pm Parting TheGlass Parting 95 min Glass 95 min 6:30pm Can 6:30pm You s 96 min 6:30pm Angst 6:30pm100Angst min 100 min 9:15pm 5@5 9:15pm Eastern 5@5Rain Eastern 77 min Rain 77 min 5:00pm The 5:00pm GreatThe Buster Great102 Buster min 102 min 9:00pm Sir 9:00pm 96 min 6:45pm Earth, 6:45pmOur Earth, Home: Our The Home: NewThe New 5:30pm Time 5:30pm for Ilhan Time 89 formin Ilhan 89 min Environmentalists Environmentalists 91 min 91 min 9:15pm Chained 9:15pm L A R K TL H AE RA K TTEH RE A T E R 6:15pm Daughter 6:15pm Daughter of Mine 97 ofmin Mine 97 min 8:45pm Seder-Masochism 8:45pm Seder-Masochism 78 min 78 min 6:00pm Seder-Masochism 6:00pm Seder-Masochism 78 min 78 min L A R K TL H AE RA K min ning 101 min 8:00pm Grit 8:00pm 80 min Grit 80 min 9:00pm Wildlife 9:00pm 104 Wildlife min 104 min 8:30pm Museo 8:30pm 115 Museo min 115 min 6:30pm Kannapo 6:30pm 8:15pm All8:15pm Square All93Square min 93 min 9:15pm 5@5 9:15pm Coyote 5@569Coyote min 69 min 63 min ents in 92 min 9:00pm El9:00pm L A R K SLPAURRK S P U R ángel 126 El ángel min 126 min 8:45pm Kannapo 8:45pm L A R K TL H AE RA K TTEH RE A T E R 6:00pm Grit 6:00pm 80 min Grit 80 min 63 min L A R K TL H AE RA K TTEH RE A T E R 6:00pmand Sergio Sergei and93Sergei min 93 min 6:15pm 5@5 6:15pm Come 5@5 to Come the Sunshine to the Sunshine 69 min 69 min6:00pm Sergio 12:45pm Effortless 12:45pm Effortless French 104 French min 104 min 8:45pm Los 8:45pm adioses Los 85 adioses min 85 min 8:30pm Working 8:30pm Working Woman 93 Woman min 93 min L A R K SLPAURRK n 3:30pm Pity 3:30pm 99 min Pity 99 min 8:45pm El8:45pm ángel 126 El ángel min 126 min 11:00am It’s 11:00am a Gir L A R K SLPAURRK S P U R e of the 6:00pm Working 6:00pm Working Woman 93 Woman min 93 min 6:00pm Moving 6:00pm 6:00pm 5@5 6:00pm Eastern 5@5Rain Eastern 77 min Rain 77 min 8:45pm All8:45pm TheseAll Small These Moments Small Moments 92 min 92 min 6:15pm Coy 6:15pm The 6:15pm Lost The City Lost of the City Monkey of the God Monkey God6:15pm 5@5 8:30pm Wild 8:30pm DaZ L A R K SLPAURRK S P U R 100 min 100 min B 8:45pm Long 8:45pm Tim 8:30pm Time 8:30pm for Ilhan Time 89 formin Ilhan 89 min 4:00pm Who 4:00pm Killed Who Lt. Killed Van Dorn? Lt. Van 78 Dorn? min 78 min Baseball p Summit 8:45pm In8:45pm the Aisles In the 125Aisles min 125 min 4:30pm Bushwick 4:30pm Bushwick Beats 83 min Beats 83 min 7:00pm Two 7:00pm Plains Two & aPlains Fancy& 89 a Fancy min 89 min p Summit 7:30pm Ash 7:30pm Is Purest Ash White Is Purest 150White min 150 min
gels n
11:45am Moving 11:45am Stories Moving98Stories min 98 min
TUESDAY TUESDAY OCT 9 OCT 9
S E Q U OS IEAQ U O I A
87 min 2:30pm
OUTDO OO U RT DAORO T RC LAUR B T CLUB TDB
PANEL: TDB State PANEL: of the State Industry of the Industry
THE HT I VHEER Y HIVERY 2:00pm WORKSHOP: 2:00pm WORKSHOP: From Scene From to Scene to
Screen for Screen Teensfor 180Teens min
180 min
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Master Plan
Festival Schedule: October 10–14 9
WEDNESDAY SEQUOIA
he Man
in
of the
111 min
96 min
2:30pm Bathtubs Over Broadway 87 min
2:45pm Chris the Swiss 90 min
2:00pm H
3:30pm Birds of Passage 125 min 6:00pm One Voice 64 min
8:15pm Non-Fiction 108 min
2:45pm
3:00pm
6:00pm 6:15pm
Environmentalists 91 min Sergio and Sergei 93 min Burning 148 min Swimming with Men 96 min Yomeddine 97 min Border 111 min The Silent Revolution 111 min
6:30pm Can You Ever Forgive Me? 132 min
in
min
9:00pm Sir 96 min
9:15pm Chained for Life 92 min
L A R K T H E AT E R 6:30pm Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait 63 min
8:45pm Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait 63 min
min
n
onkey God
SEQUO
2:15pm The Favourite 121 min
2:30pm
New
OCT 12
11:30am I
12:00pm
78 min
FRIDAY SEQUOIA
11:45am Transit 101 min
10:30am Earth, Our Home: The New
min
OCT 11
11:15am Burning 148 min
12:30pm Effortless French 104 min
R A FA E L
in
THURSDAY SEQUOIA
11:15am The Front Runner 113 min
6:30pm Destroyer 148 min
min
rn?
OCT 10
11:45am Little Woods 105 min 6:15pm Supa Modo 78 min
6:30pm The Whistleblower of My Lai 65 min
8:30pm Transit 101 min
8:45pm Peterloo 154 min
R A FA E L 12:00pm Los adioses 85 min
2:00pm The Hate U Give 130 min
2:30pm ...As If They Were Angels 87 min 3:00pm Sir 96 min
6:00pm Moving Stories 98 min
6:15pm Woman at War 101 min
9:15pm 5@5 Boho Dance 79 min
L A R K T H E AT E R 6:00pm Becoming Astrid 123 min 9:15pm Border 111 min
LARKSPUR 10:30am From Mexico, Con Amor 72 min
8:30pm Birds of Passage 125 min 8:45pm Sofia 80 min
5:00pm T
8:00pm T
9:00pm Weed the People 94 min
8:15pm C
R A FA E L
R A FA E
10:30am A Ton o’ Toons 73 min
11:15am N
3:00pm Long Time Coming: A 1955
12:00pm M
12:15pm In the Aisles 125 min
6:00pm
9:00pm World of Facts 97 min
3:00pm 5
5:30pm U
8:45pm Collisions 82 min
6:30pm Maria by Callas 113 min
6:15pm 5@5 Circle Game 69 min
11:00am It’s a Girls’ World 92 min
6:00pm Ben Is Back 103 min
3:15pm
6:15pm Amalia the Secretary 91 min
12:15pm W
3:15pm Swimming with Men 96 min
6:00pm Ernesto 125 min
6:00pm Northern Wind 91 min
LARKSPUR
12:30pm Stay Human 94 min
3:30pm
6:30pm
Baseball Story 87 min TBA Non-Fiction 108 min Rafiki 82 min The Whistleblower of My Lai
11:30am C
J
2:00pm F
2:15pm O
2:30pm B
4:30pm A
C
65 min
6:45pm The Kindergarten Teacher 127 min 8:30pm Too Late to Die Young 110 min
4:45pm A
5:30pm S
9:00pm 5@5 Daisy Summer Piper 74 min
7:15pm V
L A R K T H E AT E R
8:30pm T
2:00pm Becoming Astrid 123 min
7:30pm C
LARK
6:00pm Virus Tropical 96 min 8:45pm Ernesto 125 min
11:30am T
LARKSPUR
5:30pm B
2:00pm B
12:00pm 5@5 The Way It Is 95 min
8:00pm M
6:15pm 5@5 Coyote 69 min
2:00pm World of Facts 97 min
8:45pm Long Time Coming: A 1955
6:00pm When the Trees Fall 100 min
12:30pm T
8:45pm Lemonade 88 min
3:45pm It
8:30pm Wild DaZe 102 min
Baseball Story
87 min
3:00pm Amalia the Secretary 91 min
LARKS
6:15pm 5@5 Boho Dance 79 min
3:00pm W
9:00pm The Parting Glass 95 min
5:30pm W
6:30pm W
8:00pm R
9:00pm T
TENNE
10:00am A
MART
2:00pm T
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SATURDAY SATURDAY OCT 13OCT 13
SEQUO S IEAQ U O I A
11:30am I Am 11:30am Maris I Am 80 Maris min 80 min
11:00am Ash 11:00am Is Purest Ash Is White Purest 150 White min 150 min
2:00pm Harvest 2:00pm Season Harvest87 Season min 87 min
2:15pm From 2:15pmBaghdad From Baghdad to The Bay to The 68 min Bay 68 min
12:15pm Weed 12:15pm theWeed People the94People min 94 min
n 96 min
in
min
n
A 1955
SUNDAY SUNDAY OCT 14OCT 14
SEQUO S IEAQ U O I A
11:30am Virus 11:30am Tropical Virus Tropical 96 min 96 min
3:00pm 5@5 3:00pm Daisy 5@5 Summer Daisy Summer Piper 74 min Piper 74 min 2:30pm Supa 2:30pm Modo Supa 78Modo min 78 min 5:00pm The 5:00pm Sweet The Requiem Sweet Requiem 91 min 91 min 5:30pm Use 5:30pm YourUse Delusion Your Delusion 90 min 90 min 8:00pm TBA 8:00pm TBA
8:15pm Capernaum 8:15pm Capernaum 121 min 121 min
R A F A ERLA F A E L 11:15am Northern 11:15am Northern Wind 91 min Wind 91 min
5:00pm If Beale 5:00pmStreet If Beale Could Street Talk Could 132 min Talk 132 min 8:00pm Ben 8:00pm Is Back Ben103 Is Back min 103 min 8:15pm TBA 8:15pm TBA
M A R T IM N ACRO T IUNN C TR OYU N MTARRYT M A R T 2:00pm The 2:00pm Hoopla! The Hoopla! 120 min 120 min
Doors open –Doors 8:00pm open – 8:00pm Show starts –Show 9:00pm starts – 9:00pm
SATURDAY SATURDAY OCT 6 OCT 6 Doors open –Doors 7:30pm open – 7:30pm Show starts –Show 8:30pm starts – 8:30pm
11:00am TBA 11:00am TBA
SUNDAY SUNDAY OCT 7 OCT 7
CONCERT CONCERT - Holly Near - Holly Near
Journey Onscreen Journey Onscreen 90 min 90 min 1:45pm Destroyer 1:45pm Destroyer 123 min 123 min 2:00pm From 2:00pm Baghdad From Baghdad to The Bay to The 68 min Bay 68 min 2:00pm Lemonade 2:00pm Lemonade 88 min 88 min 2:15pm One 2:15pm Voice One 64 Voice min 64 min 5:00pm If Beale 5:00pmStreet If Beale Could Street Talk Could 142 min Talk 142 min 2:30pm Becoming 2:30pm Becoming Astrid 123Astrid min 123 min 8:00pm Peterloo 8:00pm Peterloo 154 min 154 min f My Lai 4:30pm An 4:30pm Afternoon An Afternoon with Eleanor with Eleanor CoppolaCoppola and Allieand Light Allie Light 90 min 8:15pm Maria 90 min 8:15pmby Maria Callasby 113Callas min 113 min 4:45pm the Alifu Prince/ss the Prince/ss 96 min 96 min 8:15pm Mug 8:15pm 91 min Mug 91 min min cher 127 min 4:45pm Alifu 5:30pm Judy Saint 106 Judy min 106 min ng 110 min 5:30pm Saint L A R K LT A HR EK A TTEHRE A T E R 7:15pm Viper 7:15pm Club Viper 109 Club min 109 min min Piper 74 min 11:45am A11:45am Ton o’ A Toons Ton o’ 73Toons min 73 min 7:30pm Chris 7:30pm theChris Swissthe 90 min Swiss 90 min 2:15pm Alifu 2:15pm the Alifu Prince/ss the Prince/ss 96 min 96 min 8:30pm The 8:30pm Hi De The HoHiShow De Ho 100Show min 100 min 5:00pm Viper 5:00pm Club Viper 109 Club min 109 min min L A R K LT A HR EK A TTEHRE A T E R 7:45pm Use 7:45pm YourUse Delusion Your Delusion 90 min 90 min 11:30am The 11:30am Kindergarten The Kindergarten Teacher Teacher 97 min 97 min L A R K SLPAURRK S P U R 2:00pm Bias 2:00pm 88 min Bias 88 min 11:30am I Am 11:30am Maris I Am 80 Maris min 80 min 5:30pm Bathtubs 5:30pm Bathtubs Over Broadway Over Broadway 87 min 87 min 12:00pm Collisions 12:00pm Collisions 82 min 82 min min 8:00pm Mug 8:00pm 91 min Mug 91 min 2:15pm The 2:15pm Sweet The Requiem Sweet Requiem 91 min 91 min L A R K SLPAURRK S P U R 2:45pm Harvest 2:45pm Season Harvest 87 Season min 87 min 91 min 12:30pm The 12:30pm Big Bad The Fox... Big Bad 83 min Fox... 83 min 5:15pm Woman 5:15pm at Woman War 101 atmin War 101 min 100 min 3:00pm Woman 3:00pm at Woman War 101 at min War 101 min 5:30pm Saint 5:30pm Judy Saint 106 Judy min 106 min min 3:45pm It’s 3:45pm a Girls’ It’sWorld a Girls’ 92World min 92 min 7:45pm 5@5 7:45pm Festival 5@5Faves Festival 100Faves min 100 min 5:30pm Wild 5:30pm DaZe Wild 102DaZe min 102 min 8:00pm TBA 8:00pm TBA min 6:30pm When 6:30pmtheWhen Treesthe FallTrees 100 min Fall 100 min OUTDO OO UR T DAORO T RC A LU RB T CLUB 8:00pm Rafiki 8:00pm82 min Rafiki 82 min 2:00pm WORKSHOP: 2:00pm WORKSHOP: Graphic Novel Graphic Novel 9:00pm TBA 9:00pm TBA Writing for Writing Teensfor 120Teens min 120 min T E N N ETSESNENE E V SA SE L LE E V YATLRL A EY IL TRAIL 10:00am Active 10:00amCinema Active Hike Cinema 120 min Hike 120 min
FRIDAYFRIDAY OCT 5 OCT 5
CONCERT CONCERT - Freddy -Jones Freddy Band Jones Band
CONCERT CONCERT - Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis Cocker
R A F A ERLA F A E L
11:15am TBA 11:15am TBA 11:30am Can 11:30am You Can Ever You Forgive EverMe? Forgive 107 min Me? 107 min11:30am Sofia 11:30am 80 min Sofia 80 min 12:00pm MASTER 12:00pm MASTER CLASS: The CLASS: Heroine’s The Heroine’s 1:30pm Capernaum 1:30pm Capernaum 121 min 121 min
S W ESEW TW E EAT TW E RAT E R M U SM I CU H S IACL LH A L L
Doors open –Doors 5:30pm open – 5:30pm Show starts –Show 6:30pm starts – 6:30pm
MONDAY MONDAY OCT 8 OCT 8
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FRIDAYFRIDAY OCT 12 OCT 12
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SATURDAY SATURDAY OCT 13 OCT 13
3:00pm PANEL: 3:00pmMedical PANEL: Marijuana Medical Marijuana 4:20pm PANEL: 4:20pm The PANEL: Waldos The420 Waldos 420
CannabisCannabis - Podcast- Podcast
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Into Focus
Network
Cinema’s Crystal Ball Filmmaker Adam McKay offered an interesting discussion topic on Twitter recently. “Which movie was most ahead of its time and prophetic?” tweeted McKay (@GhostPanther) to just over a million followers. McKay, who won an Academy Award for his screenplay adaptation of Michael Lewis’ book The Big Short, should know a thing or two about being ahead of the curve: the movie, which he also directed, is a dark comedy about a handful of prescient investors who were able to cash in on the collapse of the U.S. mortgage market during the end of the George W. Bush administration. While that film, as well as McKay’s upcoming Dick Cheney biographical drama Backseat (which he also wrote and directed), provide context for recent events that few understood as they were happening, on Twitter he was asking about an even more specialized category: movies that accurately envisioned future events, cultural shifts and political movements before they occurred in real life. McKay’s own pick was Network, the brilliant satire about a low-rated TV news program that juices its ratings by staging coverage to fit a sensational agenda. Writer Paddy Chayefsky won an Oscar for his original screenplay and Faye Dunaway and Peter Finch (posthumously) received Best Actress and Best Actor awards for their respective roles as an amoral news producer and a mentally disturbed anchor ranting about corruption, consumerism and cultural malaise.
When the film hit theaters in 1976, there was no Fox News, no Glenn Beck, no Alex Jones. I remember seeing the film in a communications class in college in the early 1990s, the same day Geraldo Rivera had his nose broken by a white supremacist during a daytime talk show — a very Network moment. Years later, I ran into Faye Dunaway at a Bay Area film festival and I asked her about the film. “When you were making that movie, did it feel like what it predicted could actually happen someday?” “Not in a million years,” Dunaway replied. “It was just such wonderful writing, but it was so outrageous that it might as well have been happening on Mars. But it all came true.”
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From time to time, movies have eerily predicted the future. BY PETER CROOKS
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SATIRE AND SCI-FI
Idiocracy makes its points by combining political satire with science fiction, two genres that lend themselves to foretelling. The top-shelf example of this one-two punch is Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, one of cinema’s darkest-ever comedies, which tapped into Cold War fears by showing a geopolitical landscape governed by bureaucratic incompetents and conspiracy theory paranoiacs. The film is just as funny and chilling today as it was in 1964 — let’s just hope that final punch line never comes true. Peter Sellers, who appears in another film on this list, plays multiple roles as the U.S. president, a British attaché on a military base, and the titular Strangelove, a military adviser with a very dark past. Another satirical sci-fi film is John Carpenter’s 1988 cult classic They Live, in which Roddy Piper plays a drifter who uncovers an alien conspiracy to
make humans docile and subservient via subliminal brainwashing. Carpenter, a former North Bay resident, uses the sci-fi alien invasion plot to take wicked jabs at American consumerism. They Live’s themes and images inspired the work of street artist Shepard Fairey, who rented the movie for $1 when he was struggling to make ends meet, long before he designed the famed stylized “Hope” poster for Barack Obama. “The film, though it is somewhat silly, has a rather profound concept, which is that people don’t realize that they are being manipulated because they are so caught up in consumption and the rat race — the drag of day-to-day life,” Fairey says in a YouTube interview. “They don’t realize that they are being controlled by aliens, who are the authoritarians.” Of course, science fiction films have been artistically and thematically forward-looking since the earliest days of cinema. In the 1927 silent Metropolis, director Fritz Lang dazzled audiences
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Idiocracy, McKay’s runner-up for most predictive movie, is even more disturbing. As he points out, Mike Judge’s comedy imagines a future world in which the most average man from 2005 is by far the most intelligent person in 2505. The film, released in a handful of theaters in 2006, earns wince-inducing laughs for its satiric jabs at an American society that elects a professional wrestler as president, lets garbage pile to skyscraper heights, waters its crops with sports drinks, scarfs fried food from fully automated fast food franchises, and enjoys latte bars that double as brothels. Just 10 years after the film’s release, a fast-food corporation announced that it was exploring fully automated stores, a brothel/cafe opened in Switzerland, and a former reality TV star with ties to professional wrestling is the leader of the free world. “I guess there are things I didn’t exaggerate nearly enough,” Judge told Fast Company in 2016.
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Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
“It was so outrageous that it might as well have been happening on Mars. But it all came true.”
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with images of a futuristic city while commenting on the enormous gulf between the wealthy few and the hardworking masses. During the 1950s, Invaders From Mars and Invasion of the Body Snatchers invoked the totalitarian possibilities of communism by portraying a diabolical takeover of parents and friends by alien oppressors. Movies like Them! and The Naked Mantis played on fear of nuclear bombs by enlarging ants and bugs into skyscraper-size terrorists. But the King Kong of nuclear nightmare movies was Godzilla, created by Japanese director Ishiro Honda in 1954. In the 1960s and ’70s, many sci-fi thrillers were environmental cautionary tales, with Charlton Heston as tour guide to the apocalypse. Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man featured Heston resisting apes and mutants, respectively, on a futuristic Earth, while Soylent Green addressed overpopulation and food supply. Another classic from that period was 1972’s Silent Running, in which Bruce Dern, groundskeeper of an outerspace biodome, is charged with taking care of plant specimens saved from an
uninhabitable Earth. Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) and Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 (2017) envisioned a near-future Los Angeles as an ecologically devastated dystopia inhabited by rich, poor and synthetic humans. No science fiction film was more influential than Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. The 1968 film predicted space stations, commercial space travel, flat-screen televisions, FaceTime and the complications posed by artificial intelligence. Celebrating a 70 mm re-release in theaters for its 50th anniversary this year, 2001 is worth seeing for myriad reasons, including groundbreaking special effects, spectacular marriage of music and imagery, and its uncanny depictions of human life in the near future and beyond.
POLITICAL WARNINGS
Plenty of earthbound films have been prescient as well, particularly about our political media landscape. For example, in Elia Kazan’s 1957 drama A Face in the Crowd, Andy Griffith plays Lonesome Rhodes, a rabble-rouser who gets people’s
The Manchurian Candidate
attention over the radio and, though corrupt to the core, quickly becomes a national superstar. Griffith here is nothing like the nice-guy hero of his eponymous sitcom; he’s pure evil, power hungry and extremely compelling. It’s not a stretch to say the film could be convincingly remade in the era of so-called “fake news.” Two subsequent political thrillers, The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and The Parallax View (1974), also foretold today’s events: the former, based on one of President John F. Kennedy’s favorite novels (legend has it JFK was influential in getting United Artists to greenlight the film), is, eerily, about a political assassination. But even more indelibly relevant is its titular candidate — the brainwashed tool of a foreign power who is carefully placed into government to do damage from within. In The Parallax View, Warren Beatty, a news reporter investigating the assassination of a U.S. senator, uncovers a conspiracy involving a powerful multinational corporation pulling the strings of world affairs. It’s a murky, haunting film that’s just as pertinent now as it was in the Nixon era. Director Alan J. Pakula’s next film was All the President’s Men, one of the all-time great journalism films, although, like The Big Short, it concisely interprets recent events rather than forecasting later ones. Political comedies in past decades have been remarkably prophetic too, including Wag the Dog, Barry Levinson’s 1997 comedy with Robert DeNiro as adviser to an unnamed president embroiled in a sex scandal. DeNiro’s character consults a Hollywood producer, played by Dustin Hoffman, who uses movie magic to create an elaborate smoke-and-mirrors distraction. Another gem is Being There, director Hal Ashby’s beloved film about Chance, a simple-minded gardener who becomes a presidential adviser due to a series of misunderstandings. The main character, “Chauncey Gardiner” — who is like an alternate-universe version of Lonesome Rhodes — was Peter Sellers’ final great role.
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Movie Quiz
Test Your Film IQ In celebration of the 41st Mill Valley Film Festival this month, we’ve put together a movie quiz with a Bay Area twist that will put your local silver screen savvy to the test. BY ZACK RUSKIN 1 Which former James Bond famously played the only man to ever successfully escape from Alcatraz, in 1996’s The Rock? ❑ A) Pierce Brosnan ❑ B) Roger Moore ❑ C) Sean Connery ❑ D) George Lazenby 2 In a 2014 remake of Godzilla, the lizard monster terrorizes San Francisco. When was the original Japanese Godzilla released? ❑ A) 1947 ❑ B) 1954 ❑ C) 1962 ❑ D) 1970 3 In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, what Marin locale was used as a stand-in for the German countryside? ❑ A) Mount Tamalpais State Park ❑ B) Samuel P. Taylor Park ❑ C) Muir Woods ❑ D) Stinson Beach
4 The George Lucas film American Graffiti had a number of scenes shot at the original Mel’s Diner on Van Ness Avenue in S.F. When did that diner first open? ❑ A) 1947 ❑ B) 1955 ❑ C) 1968 ❑ D) 1972
5 While Alfred Hitchcock’s infamous Bodega Bay thriller The Birds has no musical score, which famed Hitchcock composer and collaborator does the film credit as a “sound consultant”? ❑ A) John Williams ❑ B) Leonard Bernstein ❑ C) Jerry Goldsmith ❑ D) Bernard Herrmann
6 Emeryville’s Pixar Animation Studios has quite the Oscar trophy case. Which of the following Pixar films did not win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature? ❑ A) Finding Nemo (2003) ❑ B) Cars (2006) ❑ C) Ratatouille (2007) ❑ D) Brave (2012)
7 In the 1947 noir Dark Passage, Humphrey Bogart’s character escapes from San Quentin before falling in love with which actress? ❑ A) Betty Grable ❑ B) Ginger Rogers ❑ C) Lauren Bacall ❑ D) Ingrid Bergman
8 The Bay Area proudly claims Academy Award winner Tom Hanks as a native son. In fact, Hanks has performed in two film adaptions of which beloved local writer’s work? ❑ A) Michael Chabon ❑ B) Daniel Handler ❑ C) Jack London ❑ D) Dave Eggers
9 In the 1996 thriller The Fan, Wesley Snipes is an all-star athlete targeted by an obsessive stalker. Which Bay Area team does Snipes’ Bobby Rayburn play for? ❑ A) Oakland Raiders ❑ B) San Francisco Giants ❑ C) San Francisco 49ers ❑ D) Oakland Athletics
10 Which of the following action films does not feature a scene in which the Golden Gate Bridge is destroyed? ❑ A) Independence Day (1996) ❑ B) Pacific Rim (2013) ❑ C) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) ❑ D) San Andreas (2015)
11 The 1997 film Gattaca settled on which Marin building to serve as the near-future locale of the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation? ❑ A) Mission San Rafael Arcangel ❑ B) Marin Civic Center ❑ C) Osher Marin JCC ❑ D) Bay Area Discovery Museum 12 Which film finds Woody Allen and Diane Keaton spending a few moments traipsing across Stinson Beach? ❑ A) Stardust Memories (1980) ❑ B) Radio Days (1987) ❑ C) Play It Again, Sam (1972) ❑ D) Deconstructing Harry (1997) 13 In Vertigo, the mysterious Madeleine returns day after day to view the “Portrait of Carlotta” at what landmark San Francisco museum? ❑ A) Legion of Honor ❑ B) de Young ❑ C) SFMOMA ❑ D) Exploratorium
14 In The Disaster Artist, James Franco plays real-life director Tommy Wiseau. What is the name of Wiseau’s infamous 2003 cult film “set” in San Francisco? ❑ A) The Promise ❑ B) You’re Tearing Me Apart ❑ C) My Best Friend Johnny ❑ D) The Room
15 Which James Bond film famously ends with a battle on the Golden Gate Bridge? ❑ A) A View to a Kill (1985) ❑ B) Thunderball (1965) ❑ C) Live and Let Die (1973) ❑ D) GoldenEye (1995)
1. C, 2. B, 3. A, 4. A, 5. D, 6. B, 7. C, 8. D, 9. B, 10. A, 11. B, 12. C, 13. A, 14. D, 15. A
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P R O M OT I O N
the DISH EAT, DRINK AND BE ENTERTAINED
bar and grill
RangeCafe Bar and Grill, located on the course at Peacock Gap Golf Club, offers a delicious array of dining options. Enjoy weekend brunch and seasonal specials or stop in for Happy Hour drinks and appetizers. All our dishes are prepared fresh and sourced from local ingredients. RANGECAFE
333 Biscayne Drive, San Rafael, CA 415.454.6450 rangecafe.net
Come enjoy local, organic, non-gmo Italian cuisine and handcrafted libations from the full bar in our family-owned restaurant open since 1995. We also feature an extensive wine list, a robust happy hour and two private dining areas as well as patio dining. Located just off Highway 101. FRANTOIO RISTORANTE
152 Shoreline Highway, Mill Valley, CA 415.289.5777 frantoio.com
Open since 1994, Left Bank continues to be a destination for folks from all over the Bay Area to enjoy a casual snack on the sunny terrace, a glass of wine or hand crafted cocktail at the lively bar, or an elegant dining experience near the fireplace. At Left Bank, you are sure to capture the true feeling of the Rive Gauche in Paris. LEFT BANK BRASSERIE
507 Magnolia Ave, Larkspur, CA 415.927.3331 leftbank.com
Craving local, fresh-caught seafood and stunning views of the harbor? Look no further than the award-winning Seafood Peddler! Call to make reservations or stop by for the best happy hour in Marin, every day from 4-7pm. SEAFOOD PEDDLER
303 Johnson Street, Sausalito, CA 415.332.1492 seafoodpeddler.com
Once a counter-culture mecca for musicians, actors and artists, today’s Trident welcomes guests from near and far to its landmark waterfront location to enjoy locally-sourced fare for casual meals or celebratory feasts, served indoors or out against a backdrop of stunning bay views. THE TRIDENT
558 Bridgeway, On the Water, Sausalito, CA 415.331.3232 thetrident.net
Luna Blu is a seafood-focused Italian restaurant in contemporary digs with a gorgeous harbor view and deck dining. Luna Blu is the best place to enjoy great Italian seafood and fresh pasta in a romantic and tranquil environment. They serve mouthwatering dishes with all fresh ingredients prepared by a master chef. LUNA BLU RESTAURANT
35 Main Street, Tiburon, CA 415.789.5844 lunablurestaurant.com
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True Tales
Doclands A festival built solely on documentary films has become a big success. BY KIRSTEN JONES NEFF
“He said, ‘You know what I want to do, I want to start a documentary film festival.’ ”
of the night, a donor had stepped up to offer Teddy Kane funding to go into Serenity Knolls treatment and rehabilitation center in Forest Knolls. According to Bathrick, Kane is thriving in the treatment program and will have housing and job support when he graduates. “With this film we want to humanize folks behind bars. We want viewers to stop and say, ‘Wow, these are real people with real stories. They are trying and are imperfect and deserve a second chance,’ ” Bathrick says. Having witnessed the power of this film, he feels a greater responsibility to develop a distribution plan aimed at education — in high schools, jails, police departments — and at fundraising for prison-reform nonprofits. Joni Cooper, Doclands director of programming, has been producing or programming documentary films for 20 years, but she still gets chills and shivers at screenings, as she did at this one. “This is the power of documentary,” she says. “Although I love narrative films, these are amazing real stories about real superheroes.” Cooper, who was executive director at Doxa Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver and director of the Banff Mountain Film Festival, had worked on and off with the Mill Valley Film Festival when, in 2015, MVFF founder/executive director Mark Fishkin approached her with an idea. “He said, ‘You know what
16 Bars
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I
T IS CLOSING night of the Doclands Documentary Film Festival, May 2018, and 16 Bars, a film about the United States incarceration system, has just had its world premiere in a packed Smith Rafael theater. The film, featuring Arrested Development singer-songwriter Speech Thomas and four inmates in a Richmond, Virginia, jail, weaves a big-picture story of the addiction, mental health, race and class issues that lead to imprisonment. Teddy Kane, a former inmate and central figure in the film who is living homeless on the streets of Miami, has been flown to San Rafael for the opening. After the film, Kane takes the stage to recite a poem he has written. When he finishes, the audience stands in ovation. Then it is time for questions, and the room is silent. All eyes turn toward a woman holding the microphone, preparing to ask a question. But no words come, only tears. “She just stood there crying,” says 16 Bars director Sam Bathrick. “The Doclands screening opened our eyes to the power of this film, and the power of what can happen in a room with a live audience.” By the end
“On location” in Mill Valley and Marin
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True Tales
especially in Marin county where, from Cooper’s perspective, a significant number of people do not have interest in blockbusters or even narrative films, but love documentaries. Already Cooper and Fishkin’s instincts have proven correct; in 2018, the festival’s second year, attendance increased by 50 percent. Doclands features films in three categories: Art of Impact, The Great Outdoors, and Wonderland. Impact films, such as 16 Bars, are pointedly aimed at inspiring public engagement, but all three categories can move audiences toward change and action. “The Great Outdoors films offer inspiration, which compels us to help save our environment. And the Wonderland documentaries are so important because they lift our spirits and give us hope, which strengthens us and helps us to act,” Cooper points out. Doclands has featured several films with unconventional distribution models meant to fuel activism and fundraising. Victoria Sloan Jordan and her partner, photographer Chris Jordan, spent eight years making Albatross, documenting the albatross population on
Albatross
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“The Doclands screening opened our eyes to the power of this film, and the power of what can happen in a room with a live audience.”
Midway Atoll, a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific. An environmental tragedy unfolds as thousands of young birds lie dead, their stomachs opening in decay to reveal plastic items, the legacy of our single-use plastic lifestyle. “It is not a film that preaches, preaches. Instead it shows you the facts in beautiful cinematography and you cannot help but be affected,” Cooper says. “I personally will never use single-use plastics again. And now I speak up about it.” The Albatross team eschewed traditional distribution channels and instead offered free streaming on June 8, 2018, World Oceans Day, and ongoing free access for education and fundraising purposes. They have partnered with ocean conservation and anti– plastic pollution organizations such as Audubon, Sea Shepherd and Friends of Midway Atoll, and they’ve received requests to screen Albatross from countries around the globe, including India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Chile and Australia. “People want to host screenings because there is value in watching the film as a community,” Victoria Jordan says. “They come together and understand that their grief about what we are losing is not a dark hole of despair. It is a process we need to go through to galvanize ourselves and take action.” Soon after the Mill Valley Film Festival 2018 wraps, Cooper will begin receiving new submissions for Doclands 2019, and right now she has one concern: too many great films. “Each year more and more powerful documentaries are being made and are coming to us. Trying to pick and choose between these films, oh my God, it is a struggle.”
CHRIS JORDAN
I want to do, I want to start a documentary film festival,’ ” Cooper recalls. “And I immediately said, ‘OK, let’s do it!’ ” Although the MVFF has an excellent documentary program, Valley of the Docs, both felt certain there was room for an entire festival built on documentaries,
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Movies and Music
Listen Up Movies that find the music in us all. BY EMILIE ROHRBACH
DOCUMENTARIES
20 Feet From Stardom This fascinating film, about the lives and aspirations of backup singers like Darlene Love and Judith Hill, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2014 and the Grammy for Best Music Film in 2015. Amy From the opening sequence where she sings “Happy Birthday” at a fellow teenager’s party, there is a sense of foreboding: what is going to happen to this pint-size girl with the superstar voice? Amy Winehouse’s rise and fall and her untimely death at 27 are heartbreakingly explored in this film that won both Best Documentary Oscar and the Best Music Film Grammy award in 2016. Buena Vista Social Club In the 1990s, Ry Cooder went to Havana to help produce a record by legendary Cuban musicians, a project that wound up reviving the music of their pre-revolutionary past. The seamless soundtrack includes Cooder’s son Joachim along with Rubén González and Ibrahim Ferrer. Director Wim Wenders’ Oscar-nominated film won 20 awards and was nominated for 10 others worldwide. Gimme Shelter This 1970 counterculture artifact, co-directed by Charlotte Zwerin and Albert and David Maysles, records the run-up to and action at the free Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway 40
in Tracy, where a fan was killed after the audience became violent and Hells Angels were acting as security. Scratch Produced in 2001, this was one of the first feature-length documentaries about the hip-hop DJ and turntable movement, from its inception in the South Bronx of the ’70s to its rise in San Francisco. Interviews with artists help illuminate the differences between rap and hip-hop and DJs and MCs. Searching for Sugar Man Two Cape Town fans explore whether rumors of the death of musician Rodriguez — obscure in his native U.S. but a sensation in South Africa, unbeknownst to him — are true. Both the plot and Honorable the all-Rodriguez Mentions soundtrack are Anvil: The Story haunting, and the of Anvil It Might Get Loud film won the Best Tupac: Documentary Oscar Resurrection in 2013. Long Strange Trip No Direction Home: Bob Dylan Don’t Look Back Woodstock Beatles: Eight Days a Week Dig! Imagine: John Lennon Shut Up & Sing This Is It Rattle and Hum
Some Kind of Monster “This is not a concert film,” the trailer begins. “... This is something else.” The movie goes behind the scenes with heavy-metal band Metallica as they
grapple, through group therapy, with 20 years of emotional history. The Devil and Daniel Johnston Home movies, performances, audiotapes, and interviews are interwoven to tell the story of Daniel Johnston, a singersongwriter who, while revered by the likes of David Bowie and Kurt Cobain, spent time in psychiatric institutions, struggling with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The 2005 film won a Documentary Directing award at the Sundance Film Festival. The Last Waltz Scorsese’s film is about much more than the Band’s farewell show at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom on November 25, 1976 — it includes interviews tracing their 17-year history, plus performances by Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton and many more. What Happened, Miss Simone? This 2015 Netflix movie about “high priestess of soul” Nina Simone debuted at the Sundance Film Festival; afterward, John Legend did a tribute performance. The film, which includes previously unreleased footage and interviews with family and friends, was nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Academy Award.
MOVIES ABOUT MUSIC
8 Mile The title evokes the divide between Detroit the city and its suburbs — and the distance white rapper B-Rabbit (Eminem) wants to bridge to make it in a predominantly African American music genre. Almost Famous Based loosely on Cameron Crowe’s experience as a teenage writer for Rolling Stone, this semi-autobiographical 2000 film portrays
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Music can be much more than background, and the Mill Valley Film Festival has long acknowledged that, by showing movies where song and instruments play starring roles. In this year’s lineup, for instance, composer-violinist Jenny Scheinman presents Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait, which melds string music with Depression-era footage from America’s small towns; she’ll appear at the festival on October 10 along with musical collaborators Robbie Gersoe and Robbie Fulks. To set the mood for that and other treats, here are examples of musical treasures from cinema’s past.
Gimme Shelter
a young journalist coming of age while on tour with a famous band in the 1970s. Crazy Heart Inspired by Thomas Cobb’s 1987 novel, the movie stars Jeff Bridges as country singer Bad Blake, trying for one last shot at love and redemption.
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High Fidelity The 2000 adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel is a love song to vinyl, as played by John Cusack in the role of Chicago record store owner Rob Gordon. Mr. Holland’s Opus Glenn Holland takes a temporary high school music teaching job as he tries to compose an unsurpassable original piece that will stand as his legacy. The all-star cast includes Glenne Headley, Olympia Dukakis and William H. Macy, with Richard Dreyfuss in the title role. Once The story in this megahit is simple: in Dublin, Ireland, a vacuum cleaner repairman and a flower-selling Czech immigrant are musicians who
collaborate — and find lovely music and a kind of love as a result. With a $150,000 budget, the movie grossed $23.3 million; it also skyrocketed Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová to fame, with a Grammy soundtrack nomination and an Oscar win for the song “Falling Slowly” in 2008. Straight Outta Compton The 2015 biographical drama traces the rise and fall of gangsta rap group N.W.A. Three key members — Eazy E, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre — were involved in the production, which grossed over $200 million on a budget of $50 million, and Ice Cube is played by his real-life son. The Doors Oliver Stone’s 1991 take on the famed ’60s rock band portrays lead singer Jim Morrison, played flawlessly by Val Kilmer, as he struggles with addiction on his way to stardom. The Visitor An undocumented immigrant helps a seemingly washed-up professor
Honorable Mentions Ray Walk the Line Inside Llewelyn Davis Tommy
find his soul through playing the drums. Richard Jenkins was nominated for Best Actor in the 2009 Academy Awards.
Dreamgirls
This Is Spinal Tap This classic 1984 Love and Mercy Rob Reiner comedy Still Crazy about fictional band Spinal Tap was dubbed “the funniest rock movie ever made” and brought mockumentary to another level. Who can forget the miniature Stonehenge or the band getting lost backstage? The Commitments
Whiplash A gripping story about a young jazz drummer (Miles Teller) at a music conservatory who is challenged to the breaking point by his hardened instructor (J.K. Simmons). Simmons’ performance won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
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Fun Facts
A Proud History Everything you ever wanted to know about the past 40 years of the Mill Valley Film Festival. BY KASIA PAWLOWSKA
The first festival (1978) was three days long. The festival grew longer incrementally, going to 11 days in 1992. THE 1985 MVFF TRAILER WON THREE CLIOS, ALONG WITH A GOLDEN LION AT CANNES.
NOTABLE PREMIERES
Northern Lights The Wanderers Stand and Deliver The Brother from Another Planet My Bodyguard My Left Foot Cinema Paradiso Strictly Ballroom Like Water for Chocolate The Book Thief
The festival dates moved from August to September to October due to the success of Jaws and Star Wars. With these films, the “summer blockbuster” was born, and MVFF was rescheduled accordingly.
MILL VALLEY ARTIST ALICE CORNING CREATED THE MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL AWARD FIGURINE IN 2007. THE FIRST RECIPIENT WAS ANG LEE.
The late actor Harry Dean Stanton played his first public music show at Sweetwater Music Hall at the 1987 MVFF. NEW PROGRAMS ADDED 1996
5@5 1999
NOTABLE EVENTS
In 1987, the MVFF premiered Walking on Water — later titled Stand and Deliver — with Edward James Olmos in the starring role. Olmos said the festival started his career.
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FIVE OF DIRECTOR ANG LEE’S FILMS HAVE BEEN SHOWN AT MVFF: LUST, CAUTION; PUSHING HANDS; LIFE OF PI; THE ICE STORM; AND RIDE WITH THE DEVIL. THERE WAS ALSO A SPECIAL SCREENING OF BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN AT THE SMITH RAFAEL FILM CENTER.
Official Premiere Selection 2000
Valley of the Docs 2001
US Cinema 2001
World Cinema
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MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL GUIDE 2018 MARIN MAGAZINE
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Stargazing
Shining Bright The red carpet is full of stars at the Mill Valley Film Festival. KASIA PAWLOWSKA
Since its inception in 1978, the Mill Valley Film Festival has built a reputation based on its high-quality selections and is now one of the more prestigious and longest-running film festivals in the country. But aside from an Oscar harbinger, it’s also a prime spot for stargazing in October. From Greta Gerwig and Sean Penn to Andrew Garfield and Aaron Sorkin, here are some of the famous faces seen in Marin last year.
TOMMY LAU
Clockwise from top left: Zoë Elton, Catherine Hardwicke and Connie Nielsen; Greta Gerwig; Kristin Scott Thomas; Aaron Sorkin; Sean Penn.
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MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL GUIDE 2018 MARIN MAGAZINE
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Stargazing
TOMMY LAU
Clockwise from top left: Dee Rees; Simon Astaire and Danny Hudson; Andrew Garfield; Holly Hunter; Huey Lewis.
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MARIN MAGAZINE 2018 MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL GUIDE
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Compass is a real estate broker licensed by the State of California and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. License Number 01527235. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale or withdrawal without notice. No statement is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. This is not intended to solicit property already listed. Nothing herein shall be construed as legal, accounting or other professional advice outside the realm of real estate brokerage.
Proud sponsor of the Mill Valley Film Festival Traveling through Marin County’s photographic landscape can feel like you are on a movie set. However, beyond its big views, Marin’s rich and diverse arts community, award-winning schools, desirable weather, and culture savvy population are the reasons we feel there is “No place like home.”
Let us take you on a tour.
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