Mission Mission

On April 26th over a hundred local filmmakers took their cameras to the streets to document life in San Francisco over a 24 hour period. It was part of a new doc series from the people who made the feature length documentary One Day on Earth. One Day in SF was produced by local filmmaker Winnie Wong, and on the same day filmmakers in ten other cities around the US were participating simultaneously. I was out there with the BAYCAT crew, interviewing people in front of the Roxie and at The Secret Alley. The One Day on Earth team is putting all the pieces together for a 3-part documentary series that we’ll be hearing more about later in the year. You can see the locations of everyone’s videos and watch them on the interactive map, and I’ve included some selections below, mostly Mission-based.

Riding along with an ambulance for the night. Great night shots, and nice profiles of the EMTs:

Kind of has a perfect opening line:

(more…)

Our pal Chris Garcia, soon to be ex-local comedian, stars in this new short as the titular bass instructor giving an . . . interesting lesson to a young musician. Really nice chemistry between these two. Shot in Secret Studios.

Chris is leaving us to move to some other place in California that supposedly has a better film scene, or whatever. His final show up here before moving is July 23rd at The Punchline. I’ve seen him live a couple times, check him out if you haven’t.

I’ve been watching a lot of horror movies lately. Good ones, bad ones, old ones, new ones. A common element has been that they’re generally 90 minutes long and only about 20 of those minutes are good — filled with zombies, gore and action. The other 70 minutes tend to involve talking, exposition, or irrelevant things like romance and character development.

Meter Maid Me Massacre (by local auteur Cecil B. Feeder) is 20 minutes long, and almost all 20 minutes are packed with artfully crafted gore, serious martial arts action, and topless zombie girls. The characters are paper-thin, the story is ludicrous (who drives a car in this city anyway?), and while there is a romantic subplot, it takes up all of about 30 seconds.

Early scenes take place at Zeitgeist, and the climactic final act takes place in and around Speakeasy Ales & Lagers, so be on the lookout for your favorite bartenders and brewmasters. The film screens today at 5pm as part of Another Hole in the Head at the Roxie.