David Lewis May 5, 2021Updated: May 9, 2021, 1:18 am
The Smith Rafael Film Center will be hosting this year’s in-person, indoors DocLands Documentary Film Festival. Photo: Smith Rafael Film Center
For 14 months, Bay Area film festivals have made do during the COVID-19 pandemic with streaming, drive-in showings and virtual Q&As with filmmakers and stars.
To be sure, outdoor screenings offer their own charms and festival streaming is here to stay. But some still clamor for the intimacy, community and power that only a theatrical festival experience can provide.
Well, the wait appears to be over. On Friday, May 7, the DocLands Documentary Film Festival in San Rafael is set to become the first Bay Area festival to take the leap, scheduling two-a-day indoor screenings until it wraps up May 16. DocLands will also feature a few in-person Q&As after select screenings.
G. Allen Johnson April 28, 2021Updated: April 28, 2021, 4:42 pm
Children watch “Toy Story 2” at the Balboa Theater, where guests are treated on the weekends to a jazz show and movie at their parklet. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle
On a recent sunny Sunday afternoon, the sounds of live jazz wafted up and down Balboa Street in the Outer Richmond District as a small crowd sipped beer, munched on popcorn and moved with the rhythm.
During the final set from Danny Brown and the Noise All-Stars in front of the closed entrance to the Balboa Theater, Emily Bridwell and her two young children arrived. As the musicians packed up their instruments, workers wheeled a big-screen TV out to the theater’s parklet, where Bridwell’s children plopped down to watch a free showing of “Toy Story 2.”