SFIFF52: Next Frame Picks for 5/1
[My Suicide.]
Today’s picks, two at the Kabuki and a special event at the Castro:
3:45 My Neighbor, My Killer. This is the last festival screening of an extraordinary portrait of “a small village in Rwanda where, since 1999, government trials called the Gacaca have attempted to move toward reconciliation and healing in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where Hutus killed Tutsis on a mass scale using machetes and makeshift weapons. The Gacaca are open-air trials; perpetrators of the genocide are released from jail and move back to the neighborhoods where family members of their victims still live. Here, citizen judges try their cases and the women whose families have been destroyed are asked to find forgiveness for the murderers.”
6:00 My Suicide. This is the first festival screening of a very unusual comedy: a teen announces to his film class that he’s going to kill himself on camera, and then has to deal with the fallout — which naturally leads to a kind of love story, with some serious moments (that aren’t always terribly convincing, it must be said). The story plays out through a generally madcap mix of HD video, animation, vintage clips and home movies. Gabriel Sunday is great in the lead role. In addition to tomorrow’s screening, there are two others at the Kabuki: May 5th at 1:00, and May 6th at 9:00.
Over at the Castro, the Film Society is going to present the Founder’s Directing Award to Francis Ford Coppola at 7:30. The event page describes the agenda thus: “Coppola will be joined onstage by Carroll Ballard, George Lucas, Walter Murch and Matthew Robbins. In a moderated discussion with director James Gray, the group of old friends and collaborators will discuss all manner of subjects, cinematic and otherwise. Film clips, including the new Tetro trailer, and extended audience Q&A will conclude the first part of the evening.” After that, they’ll screen his 1969 picture, The Rain People: a very rare opportunity to see this key Coppola film on the (really) big screen at the Castro.
posted: 09 April 30
under: The Next Frame