Mission Mission

Special report by Malcolm McMillan:

Thousands of Dolores Park denizens threw down blankets, taped their buns together, and broke out the bubbly (tallboys) for the first Saturday edition of Film Night in the Park – a free screening of John Hughes’ clique-busting, run-punching 1985 gesamptkunstwerk, The Breakfast Club.

The fun-jump screen handily conveyed Judd Nelson’s glorious rhinostrils to the tippy top of the hill before a back drop of falling stars, distant fireworks, and mobile “I lost me to meth” billboards driving up and down Dolores. [Can we not enjoy our picnic baskets full of project propellant in peace, for Pete's sake?] A cumulus of ganj billowed up right on cue with the onscreen sesh, and the echoing bowl lent a propaganda rally flare to the movie’s spazz prancing subversiveness.

Film Night in the Park: What was that?
Me: Eat. My. Shorts.
Film Night in the Park: You just bought yourself another Saturday.
Me: What can I say? I’m THRILLED!!

Stay tuned for O Brother, Where Art Thou @ Dolores Park, 9/20/08 (dusk)

Thanks, Malcolm!

[Photo by Malcolm too. Click to enlarge.]

Yesterday, in my summer intensive, I met Erin, the Special Event Director for the 48 Hour Film Project. We bonded over living/working in the Mission.

The 48 Hour Film Project is where a team of people are required to make a movie in 48 hours based on a given line, prop, and character. The films that are being shown this week were made locally and submitted on Sunday night. Here was the info given to the various teams:

Character: Gus or Gloria Lorenz, Trade Expert

Prop: A ticket for a bus, plane, or train

Line of Dialogue: ” Forget it, I already have.”

The remaining films are being shown at the Roxie tonight and Monday with showtimes at 7:00 and 9:30pm.

We’re going to the 9:30 show tonight, and I heard that if you present your ticket at Dalva, you get $1 off drinks before and after the event. The whole thing sounds fun!

The Water Front screens tonight at the Roxie as part of Laborfest‘s International Working Class Film & Video Festival. Some publicist was supposed to drop off a screener, but they didn’t, so here’s the boilerplate:

This powerful film by Liz Miller tells the story of the destruction of Highland Park, Michigan, the birthplace of mass production and good paying union jobs for hundreds of thousands of workers. The destruction of this industrial powerhouse leads to corporate schemes to save the city by privatizing the water system. Homeowners start receiving bills for thousands of dollars and face the shutoff of this basic necessity. Some bills reach $10,000. The film follows Vallory Johnson who turns her anger into organizing a grass roots campaign for affordable water as a basic human right.

The literal criminal destruction of tens of thousands of homes in the Detroit area is a stain on the history of the United States. Obviously there is no oil in Detroit, just human beings.

Link to official site. [via funcheapSF]

Move over Straw Dogs — I’ve found my new favorite movie!

Friday, after sitting in Dolores Park and gorging on beer and snacks, I felt particularly nostalgic for a 1970s San Francisco movie. I decided to watch a film that I’ve heard about through my father-in-law who lived in the Mission in the ’70s. He always tells the story of how he saw the filming of the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers in North Beach one balmy day (balmy like Friday … dun dun dun!)

Although it was filmed entirely in San Francisco, there’s no sign of the Mission District. Which I wasn’t expecting anyway because most blockbusters that are set in SF don’t really show the Mission. So when I watch a movie set in San Francisco, it feels foreign to me. Does anyone else feel the same?

Anyway, the movie is AWESOME. When it was finished, I walked around the dark apartment, scared that I would hear the pod-piercing scream from the open windows. It also didn’t help that someone was lying in bed, pod-person-like, recuperating from an achey belly.

Also, the film has the most romantic kiss I’ve ever seen. And it’s currently in the free movies section on Comcast OnDemand.

Hmm… this wasn’t in the film, but: