OUR RIGHT TO GAZE: BLACK FILM IDENTITIES
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In this collection of six shorts, filmmakers gaze at themselves and their world, attempting to make sense of what they see reflected back. From gripping drama to heart-warming comedy, Our Right to Gaze: Black Film Identities features timely stories from Black artists that take us outside of the ordinary. Runtime: 82 mins.
The Paradox of Expectation .it s the idea that wanting to rid yourself of expectations is a paradox - literally the expectation of no expectation. In these six films from emerging Black filmmakers, what the protagonists experience as the world they woke up to is not the one from which they re now appearing. Are they lying to themselves about who they are, or is the truth just not what they expect, but what they deserve? - Curtis Caesar John, The Luminal Theater, curator.
G. Allen Johnson February 16, 2021Updated: February 18, 2021, 7:35 am
Hoi (Ben Yuen, left) and Pak (Tai-Bo) are two older gay men who find each other in Ray Yeung’s Hong Kong film “Twilight’s Kiss.” Photo: Strand Releasing
Hong Kong is not known for its vibrant LGBTQ cinema, and for good reason: It wasn’t until recent generations that it was OK to come out of the closet, and even now, there’s not quite the same level of acceptance as there is in much of the Western world.
So, men like 65-year-old retiree Hoi and 70-year-old taxi driver Pak wonder if it’s time, near the end of their lives, to finally live as their true selves.
G. Allen Johnson February 5, 2021Updated: February 11, 2021, 3:03 pm
Jimmie Fails (left) and Jonathan Majors star in “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” Photo: David Moir, A24
With the Sundance Film Festival in its rearview mirror, Fort Mason Flix announced its schedule for the rest of February, including Black History Month events such as “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” family animated favorites such as “Shrek” and “Cars,” and recent films such as “Tenet” and “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).”
The schedule through Sunday, Feb. 14, has already sold out, but tickets, priced at $49 per carload, for programs from Feb. 16 (“Shrek,” “Back to the Future”) through Feb. 28 (“The Princess and the Frog,” “Creed”) are available at fortmason.org/flix.
G. Allen Johnson February 5, 2021Updated: February 11, 2021, 1:08 pm
“CODA” plays on the opening night of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival at Fort Mason Flix in San Francisco. . Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle
They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and this year’s Sundance Film Festival might be the beginning of an evolutionary period for one of the most important events on the world’s film calendar.
“We need to make sense of this festival that just happened,” said Tabitha Jackson during a wrap-up event on Feb. 3, the final day of her first Sundance as festival director. “A festival is a gathering, a conversation, a celebration contained within a moment. It is ephemeral. That’s part of the magic of Sundance.
Bob Strauss February 4, 2021Updated: February 6, 2021, 8:46 pm
“Hand With Reflecting Sphere” by M.C. Escher Photo: M.C. Escher Company
The Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher’s prints of interlocking lizards, stairs that defy gravity and other impossible but somehow mathematically correct wonders have inspired other artists, scientists and people who like to get high for generations.
Strange that it’s taken this long, but a definitive documentary on the man and his work is finally coming out. “M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity” opens Friday, Feb. 5, at Bay Area virtual cinemas, and it is appropriately a trip.
Robin Lutz, director of “M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity.” Photo: Piet Jacobson