San Francisco Documentary Festival 2009

PRESS FOR DOCFEST

This tasty tour takes off with the birth of the iconic rock poster, when artists like Stanley Mouse and Victor Moscoso put the SF scene on the map. But the art didn't end with the psychedelic '60s'it's been ripped off, cut up and Xeroxed, and now re-imagined for the best bands in the world. As Becker discovers, we're in the midst of a 21st-century rock poster art movement: designers everywhere are silk-screening posters inspired by their local scene, the music of our time, and the spirit of our era. With Bay Area luminaries Chris Shaw, Winston Smith, Chuck Sperry, Ron Donovan and many more.

By the director of the award-winning Children (Kosovo 2000), the film Another Planet follows the lives of the world's exploited children: the little cigarette and chewing-gum vendor in Ecuador, the street urchin in Congo, the child-prostitute, the painfully small workers in a brick factory in Cambodia'seven stories in all. Using a fictional framing story, haunting music, and beautiful imagery to create a global message, Another Planet is evocative of films like Baraka and Genesis. Shot on four continents, it presents the hidden face of our planet and the general and moral crisis of our world.

John Perkins is a self-confessed economic hit man, reformed and repentant. From 1971 to 1981 he was employed as an economist by consulting firm, Chas T Main. His job: To structure huge international loans to Third World countries for massive construction projects that would funnel the money back to US contractors, enriching the ruling elite at the cost of national self-sufficiency and independence. Arguably, the US has turned the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund into tools of empire, and economics'not intelligence'is where the real cloak and dagger stuff happens.

A star of the festival circuit, with tons of awards and sizeable buzz, this paean to the craft of paper folding is a best bet for science geeks and art lovers alike. Called 'A rare delight for the senses,' and 'filmmaking at its most wondrous,' Between the Folds chronicles the stories of ten fine artists and theoretical scientists who have abandoned careers and scoffed at hard-earned graduate degrees to forge unconventional lives as modern-day paperfolders. Together, they reinterpret the world in paper, creating a wild mix of art, science, creativity, and meaning.

Margo finds that caring for her three cats fills the void of profound loneliness. Jenny, a real estate agent, uses her 16 cats as an excuse for not getting out there and finding love. Diane, a once-successful banker, fills her schedule by rescuing abandoned cats' But how many is too many? Callan-Jones presents the delicate balance of the 'cat lady' psyche, taking us beyond stereotypes to explore the extreme edge of pet ownership and deeply felt emotions. Might we all be just one 'cat' away from our own obsessive addiction? 'Silverdocs

It was a cautionary tale invented to keep them out of the abandoned buildings that remained of the Willowbrook Mental Institution. Cropsey was supposedly an escaped patient who would come out late at night and snatch children off the streets'sometimes with a hook for a hand, other times with a bloody ax. But in 1987, Jennifer Schweiger, a 13-year-old with Down syndrome, disappeared from their community. For Zeman, Brancaccio, and the other kids of Staten Island, their urban legend became real. 'The reality [the filmmakers] uncover in this uniquely hair-raising documentary is more terrifying than any urban legend. --David Kwok, Tribeca Film Fest

Drums Inside Your Chest is a performance poetry concert film offering a raucous new vision of contemporary America poetry. Inspired by the spontaneity and energy of rock concert films, Drums beats with the humor, dirt, song and fire of seven award-winning poets and a vaudevillian magician'host. Featuring Amber Tamblyn, Beau Sia, Buddy Wakefield, Derrick Brown, Jeffrey McDaniel, Mindy Nettifee, Bucky Sinister & Rob Zabrecky. Stay after the screening for readings/performances by some of the poets from the film!

Here in the Bay Area, it's hard to remember that Burning Man is supposed to be a counter-cultural event. Bonin starts at the beginning with fantastic original and unseen footage of '70s and '80s Cacophony Society events and of the early years at Baker Beach and the Black Rock Desert. Dust & Illusions takes a lovingly critical look at Burning Man with interviews with John Law, Larry Harvey, The Flaming Lotus Girls, Chicken John, Pepe Ozan, and many more influential collaborators and artists. From the philosophies that fueled its creation to the present-day challenges of producing the largest 'counter-cultural' event in North America, Dust and Illusions argues that the true meaning of the festival is still up for grabs.