“This is Banned Books Week,” a sign on the front door of San Rafael’s Rebound Bookstore reads. “All the books in our window are banned or challenged somewhere in the USA.”
The 10-year-old sanctuary of books, located on Fourth Street, is full of cozy reading nooks, warm light and quirky touches—like the chirping Australian Zebra Finches (named Gilbert and Sullivan) and the bookshelf note that reads, “You will soon be receiving sound spoken advice. Listen!”
The sound advice for today? Fans of the written word will want to flock to Litquake San Rafael—sister event of San Francisco’s popular Litquake—on Sunday, October 11.
“The buzz is getting to indicate that it’s going to be very successful,” says Joel Eis, co-owner of Rebound with his wife Toni, of the second-annual, all-day festival that attracts well-known writers to a corridor of cafes, restaurants and shops.
There will be everything from a “Launch Your Adventure: Travel Writers” reading at Rebound, to a “The Morning After: Stories of Dish and Revenge” event at Willow Salon, to “Erotic Relationships: What Makes the Heart Grow?” at Pleasures of the Heart.
Litquake San Rafael began, Eis says, following a poetry reading series on houseboats in Sausalito—a joint event with San Francisco’s Litquake. “I mean, how Marin can you get,” he says with a laugh.
Happy with how the reading went, organizers of the city’s Litquake called on Rebound for more. “Which to us indicated that we had arrived,” Eis says. “So we said, ‘Heck yeah.’ And we did it.”
Support came from the Marin Poetry Center and the Downtown San Rafael Business Improvement District, among other partners.
Eis says that he’s most excited about the fact that Litquake San Rafael now has its own reputation. “The first year you do something, you figure it’s lucky, the second year you’re good and the third year you’re an institution,” he says proudly. “It’s sort of taken off on its own. It’s like watching your kid walk for the first time.”
Matthew and Astrid Hoffman, founders of The Living Seed Company, are dismayed by the fact that as much as 94 percent of different vegetable and flower varieties have been lost due to hybridization. They want to bring back the genetic diversity that used to exist before conventional agriculture began impacting growing methods by developing ways to produce food that could travel far, have a long shelf life and look good—sometimes at the risk of losing a perfectly delicious fruit or vegetable.
“We have a desire to bring back heirlooms because it puts the beauty and mystery of gardening back into the hands of the gardener,” Matthew explains. It is the impetus behind the Wisconsin native’s time-consuming seed selection process where he focuses on how his crops taste and is not worried about the commercial viability of an ingredient.
The Hoffmans started The Living Seed Company more than four years ago and claim to be “planting the seeds of world peace.” On less than an acre, the couple has planted trial gardens overlooking the Nicasio Reservoir. In addition, Table Top Farm—comprising small organic farm plots on the Point Reyes Mesa and Black Mountain Ranch in West Marin—serve as breeding grounds for cultivating the company’s seeds of change. The majority of their seeds are certified organic and all are open-pollinated (no mechanical pollinating).
Looking for vegetable varietals that will thrive in the Bay Area also tops the list of objectives for the Hoffmans. They hope to bring back seeds that can respond well to organic gardening methods and not rely on pesticides and other non-organic inputs. This thoughtful process is time-consuming, and while the company is growing, it is still quite small.
Along with several seed collections that include up to 22 different varieties, the company also sells plenty of individual seed packets of everything from arugula to fresh herbs and flowers.
The budding entrepreneurs also offer Seed to Table dinners in Point Reyes for up to 20 people at a time. Matthew prepares the dinners with ingredients grown mere footsteps away, and diners not only get to enjoy the fresh-grown bounty, but they also leave with a greater understanding of the seed company’s mission. “Our dinners are a way to bring what we do full-circle,” says Matthew, who wants to show others how food can be grown differently—and better.
The Living Seed Company’s seed packets can be found at Fairfax Lumber and Healdsburg’s SHED, among other local retailers. They ship their packets via their website, and folks can reserve a seat at a Seed to Table dinner—the next one is coming up on November 7.
Editor’s note: This story is under review following reports of challenges to the veracity of Joseph Mayton’s reporting for other publications.
Vacationers seeking out unique two- or three-night stays in short-term rentals in Sausalito and Tiburon will now be forced to look elsewhere, after the cities passed new zoning ordinances this summer that bar residents from renting their house or apartment for limited periods—which could hamper house-sharing companies like Airbnb from extending their footprint across the Bay Area.
Tiburon approved the Town Council measure despite Mayor Frank Doyle and Vice Mayor Erin Tollini criticizing and dissenting the move. The decision will have far-reaching consequences for those currently renting on the two most popular house-sharing sites: Airbnb.com and vrbo.com.
“I hate to see everyone get punished for one or two bad apples,” Doyle told the council in August.
Despite growing concerns that companies like Airbnb are beginning to dominate the “sharing economy” and manifest little more than a new moneymaking scheme, many knowledgeable about the sector are focused on the equality and equity that sharing is having in communities. Nikki Silvestri, executive director of Green for All, argues that the sharing economy is key to changing the social and economic status quo in the United States.
“We have too many communities right now not participating in the sharing economy, whether that be online or offline,” Silvestri says. “People need to be educated on how they can connect with others to form an alliance and begin the process.”
For Sausalito resident Mary, a mother of two who says that her family has rented out their house for weekends and days when they are not present, bringing in extra cash has helped with the kids’ needs.
“I understand the reason for banning short rentals because some companies are abusing the system and buying properties just to rent out and that hurts the market, but the ban will hurt our ability to have that little extra income,” she says.
She adds that while each city has “good intentions” with the ordinances, “it is going to really limit our ability to spend extra money where we had been.”
As economic difficulties persist, particularly among communities of color facing higher levels of economic discrimination, Jose Quinonez of San Francisco’s Mission Asset Fund says that as long as those working in collectives and other sharing economy endeavors maintain a sense of equity, a new model is possible.
“What we are witnessing is a massive movement away from traditional means of functioning in the economy and society, and this has resulted in a push toward sharing,” Quinonez says. For him, the issue is about understanding current restrictions and problems facing people across the country as a result of economic disparity—specifically, the overwhelming access that the upper classes have to capital.
As the CEO of the Fund, Quinonez seeks to create more access and greater economic power for those who need it, by connecting them directly with individuals and groups capable of delivering that assistance.
The bans are part of the latest moves across the Bay Area to limit investment companies and property investors from purchasing buildings and using the units solely for short-term rentals.
For example, in San Francisco—home to the most expensive rental market in the country with the median price for a one-bedroom currently running more than $3,500—a petition signed by more than 15,000 people is calling for greater oversight of the sector, as well as the introduction of new regulations for the market.
Advocates ofAirbnb, though, counter that restricting it just hurts middle class owners who use it to rent out spare rooms, and that it’s the bigger players in the rental market outside the home-sharing sites who are causing the high costs.
Currently Airbnb hosts can offer rentals for 90 days a year when not present at the home or as many as 265 days when they are there. The petition, however, proposes a 75-day limit on hosting, quarterly reports from platforms offering services, and civil court options if the planning department does not react to complaints in a timely manner.
The petition comes after Mayor Ed Lee’s announcement of a newOffice of Short Term Rental Administration and Enforcement aimed at registering hosts and investigating violations. The city has already passed an ordinance limiting rentals to 120 days annually. It coincided with letters sent to 15 hosts for allegedly making residential units into 73 full-time hotels.
But for families like Mary’s and others in Tiburon and Sausalito, the ordinances are a hindrance to maintaining their current standards of living. Christopher Nulty, a public affairs representative with Airbnb and a spokesman for the company’s San Francisco for Everyone campaign, agrees that the middle class is being hurt by these proposals in San Francisco and in Marin.
“This is a Trojan horse proposal designed to effectively ban home-sharing and make it harder for middle class families to stay in the city they love,” Nulty says. “San Francisco already has common sense reforms that were put in place this year by the mayor and the board of supervisors. The poorly written measure is full of loopholes and language intended to trick voters, including provisions that would outlaw in-law unit rentals, create different rules for different communities and make San Francisco the first city in the country to encourage neighbors to spy on their neighbors.”
Airbnb declined to detail the number of rentals that are on offer in Marin and the number of large investment and property managers who have purchased units for short-term rentals, citing privacy issues. However, in New York, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenaed Airbnb to release statistics, and it showed that six percent of hosts were responsible for nearly 40 percent of Airbnb’s revenue from 2010 through 2014.
“I think the council made the correct decision,” Tiburon Councilman Jim Fraser says in response to questions about the ordinance’s efficacy and goals. “We’re a residential community … commercializing a neighborhood town is not something, I think, we should be doing.”
And if residents continue to rent, they will be fined $462 a day for every day rented or even advertised to rent. Sausalito and Tiburon are not the first California cities to ban short-term rentals. Hermosa Beach, Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach have already passed bans, and Laguna Beach in Southern California joined the list in August.
Despite the issues raised by some in Marin, residents like William Chong believe that the moves will be better for the area in the long run. “This is something that I am sure is not going to end in terms of a debate in the near future, and I would bet town councils will again visit these measures, but right now I agree with the moves,” Chong says. He believes that it will give more middle class families the ability to rent spaces.
“At the end of the day, we will have to decide as communities who is most important,” Chong says, “and I believe that the council’s decisions are positive in that they recognize who is needed here more than the big companies abusing a system.”
Autumn and the Mill Valley Film Festival are upon us, and like Wagner’s Valkyries, the ladies are about to storm into town, take over the big screen and practically commandeer the 38th annual event with their own style of cinematic thunder and lightning. (OK, we got that one out of our system—now let’s take a look at what the El Niño of Marin events has brewing from October 8-18.)
There are films by women, for women and about women. No less than 40 percent of the features credit female directors. Three Spotlight evenings shine on auspicious actresses Sarah Silverman, Brie Larson and Carey Mulligan, who is already a headliner; there is fanfare for Catherine Hardwicke, best known for directing the teen vamp flick Twilight; five of nine panel discussions will be run exclusively by women or focus on women’s issues; there are two exhibitions—one honoring the legendary actress Ingrid Bergman, the other an exploration of how females are depicted in movies; two special premieres with female leads; and a closing night film about women fighting for the right to vote. Indeed so much feminine energy is on the scene that even this year’s Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne plays a woman. In one of two Opening Night offerings, he takes on the title role in The Danish Girl (Oct. 8, 7pm and 7:15pm), the true story of an artist, who
Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne stars in ‘The Danish Girl.’
underwent transgender surgery 85 years ago, and her enduring romance with another woman.
Silverman, who is openly candid about her lifelong struggle with depression, turns from stand-up comedy to portray a depressed wife and mom and one of the most psychologically dysfunctional creatures we never want to meet in I Smile Back (Oct. 9, 7pm).
Sacramento’s Larson, seen recently in Trainwreck and The Gambler, is generating Oscar buzz for her role in Room (Oct. 14, 7pm) as a young woman imprisoned with her 5-year-old by her kidnapper-rapist. Both actresses will chat with audiences following screenings of their films. Mulligan’s Spotlight (Oct. 17, 6pm) will feature clips of her numerous roles and an onstage conversation. The following evening, she’ll be featured in Suffragette, with Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep. The closing night film screens at 5pm and 5:15pm.
Hardwicke’s tribute (Oct. 10, 7:30pm) includes an onstage conversation and screening of her latest, Miss You Already, a drama about lifelong girlfriends whose trajectories are catapulting in opposite directions.
The two femme-focused special premieres feature Jena Malone as a young wife in Victorian England haunted by the supernatural and, egad!, barred from making love to her husband; and Taryn Manning (an Orange is the New Black girl) as a college-bound co-ed who has to choose between enrolling at her out-of-town dream campus or taking care of her nightmare bipolar mom. Malone freaks out in Angelica (Oct. 10, 8pm; Oct. 11, 8pm) and Manning sweats it out in A Light Beneath Their Feet (Oct. 10, 8:15pm, Oct. 12, 11:45am, Oct. 14, 2:45pm).
Somewhat remarkably, the emergence of women at the helm of narrative features at this MVFF has soared to 33 percent (40 percent including documentaries and topping 44 percent of the shorts), figures that have never had much in common with Hollywood, where the mere seven percent of films assigned to female directors has not changed in 20 years.
“We created this program to recognize the role of women, not only stories directed by women, but stories driven by women’s perspective,” explains Executive Director Mark Fishkin, whose program director, two senior programmers, director of development, director of finance and director of communications are all female. Coincidence? “There has always been a large percentage of women filmmakers here and, now with the help of an NEA grant, it’s stepped up by intention and design.”
Program Director Zoe Elton says, “We started looking at the way stories are told and applied the Bechdel Test: ‘Are there two women in a film who talk to each other about something other than a man?’ And to that we added, ‘Are they characters who act rather than react?’”
* * *
In case someone hasn’t noticed, there are two women running for president and one Donald Trump, who denigrates them while cleverly hiding his hairpiece and his ignorance about world affairs in the process. He could begin a foreign policy education with Vanessa Hope’s All Eyes and Ears, an illuminating documentary on “the delicate, intersecting layers of history, ideology and politics at play” in U.S.-China relations. Through former Ambassador Jon Huntsman, his adopted Chinese teenage daughter Gracie Mei, blind rights activist Chen Guangcheng, and the director’s feminist perspective, a political puzzle is pieced together of how the two countries grapple over women’s issues, national security, economic growth and human rights.
“Part of the trick of foreign policy (in both the U.S. and China) is keeping people in the dark so they can’t speak up,” Hope says. “They’re unaware and uninformed. I wanted to dig into abuses of power in the relationship and investigate whether it was working to serve the people.”
The filmmaker, who divided her time between San Francisco and Los Angeles this year and whose short film, China in Three Words, played at MVFF in 2013, studied and worked in China and is fluent in the language. That did not stop authorities from stalking her like a spy and harassing her and camerawoman Magela Crosignani, depriving them of food and sleep, and blocking them from shooting, she says, particularly when they set out for Tibet.
Hope says she wants to prod more women to enter the field of foreign policy and quotes author-analyst Dr. Valerie Hudson as saying, “There cannot be peace between nations until there is peace between men and women.” Oh, sister! If that’s the case, please grab the Xanax—we’re about to have a panic attack.
* * *
The fest has again courted those films that not only tell it like it is but show it like it oughtta be, issue-oriented cinema that threatens to wake the dormant activist in each of us.
Oakland filmmaker Elizabeth Sher’s Penny (Oct. 10, 2pm and Oct. 16, 11:45am) is a smart, brash, left-wing, lesbian legal eagle and avid collector of art (by women only) whom, she describes as being “at the center of profound changes in society from the 1940s to the present.” Working in the public defender’s office during the height of the Vietnam War, Penny Cooper recalls her own story of planning to march in solidarity with protesters and was told by her boss to back off. “For exercising my civil rights?” Penny exclaimed. She quit and threw up her own shingle in Berkeley, just in time to represent defendants in the People’s Park demonstrations.
To be sure, she has also gone to court on behalf of some dubious clients: Hell’s Angels, a murderer who escaped life in prison, a defendant known as the crossbow killer. But she says, “You judge a society by how it treats its worst, and constitutional rights are meaningless unless they apply to the worst of society.” All right then, lawyers for mosquitoes!
On the same program, Berkeley filmmaker Marlene “Mo” Morris, a onetime attorney herself, creates an intimate portrait of another tough but compassionate female, African-American muralist Edythe Boone, in A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe Boone. Born into humble beginnings in Harlem and later raised in an Orthodox Jewish family, the 73-year-old Boone’s massive, iconic murals are to be discovered enhancing
Carey Mulligan, who stars in ‘Suffragette,’ will be featured in an onstage Spotlight conversation.
buildings and streets of San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland. When she is not climbing scaffolds with a paintbrush in hand, she teaches underserved youth and seniors, encouraging them to use art to grapple with feelings about violence and racism in the community.
“On our first day of production at West Oakland Middle School,” Morris says, “the students were reeling after a weekend shooting incident (that killed) a 13-year-old classmate in the crossfire. Edy’s wise and loving response that day revealed her enormous capacity for channeling anger and fear into creative and positive directions.”
Then, just after the last day of filming in July 2014, Edy’s nephew, Eric Garner, a Staten Island father of six, was killed with an illegal chokehold by a New York City cop. After the grand jury failed to indict the officers involved, Edy spoke at a public event in support of Black Lives Matter.
“It wasn’t until I’d known (this lady) for 10 years, when the City of Berkeley named an annual day in her honor,” Morris says, “that I learned just how deeply her art and activist social justice values had enriched the lives of Bay Area residents.”
Tiburon’s Robin Hauser Reynolds mounts a pretty strong case exposing gender discrimination in the tech world. What else could anyone think when Harvard President Larry Summers purportedly came out with a claim that women are underrepresented in the field because of an innate inferiority in their genes. Obviously no one informed him that computer system components communicate via motherboards, not fatherboards. “My daughter was studying computer science in college … and was one of only two women in a class of 35 and she felt alienated,” Reynolds recounts. “The White House issued a report that said by the year 2020 there would be 1 million unfilled jobs in computer science and related fields. I wanted to know why we were missing half the population.”
Code: Debugging the Gender Gap (Oct. 9, 6pm; Oct. 14, 3:30pm; Oct. 17, 2pm) “examines why more women don’t pursue computer science and explores how stereotypes, pipeline hurdles and sexism play roles.”
It exposits with some nifty animation to enhance an entertaining, polished, well-paced doc on a topic that, otherwise, might have put many tech guys into a coma. The only thing missing here are interviews with male engineers telling us what they think of women coders.
“We heard (their) crazy theories,” Reynolds says, “but none of them would go on camera.”
* * *
So where does this leave the men? Sleeping on the sofa, of course. Well, maybe not—there are some heavyweight gents coming to town with some wizardry of their own, none more obvious than British actor Ian McKellan. Recently seen in the title role of Mr. Holmes—but more iconically recalled as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings—McKellan was twice nominated for acting Oscars and has won 18 major acting awards. He’ll be on stage to receive a lifetime achievement award without his wizard’s hat, his staff or his sword and for an
Sir Ian McKellan will receive a lifetime achievement award at this year’s MVFF.
interview enhanced by reminiscences following clips from a career spanning more than 50 years. McKellan will also be giving a special talk titled, “Women I’ve Filmed With,” during which he’ll share his favorite moments working with some of cinema’s most legendary actresses (Oct. 12, noon).
In the wake of Pope Francis’ rock stardom in America, and as further evidence that men can’t be ignored completely, Opening Night’s second feature, Spotlight (Oct. 8, 7pm and 7:15pm), has nothing to do with the aforementioned Spotlights or, for that matter, women. An ensemble cast featuring Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo throws some harsh light on the Catholic Archdiocese as the Boston Globe breaks the shocking news in 2001 of widespread child molestation by priests.
Academy Award-winning French director Marcel Ophuls is also booked for a tribute and on-stage interaction with the audience. His seminal documentary The Sorrow and the Pity (the film Woody Allen considers the greatest ever made), about the collaboration between the Vichy government and Nazi Germany during World War II, screens Oct. 16 at noon. At 260 minutes, it is the Mount Everest of movies, but nonetheless a mesmerizing experience once you get to the top—one that promises to remain in your brain for weeks, if not longer. Born in Germany, escaping to France following the rise of Nazism, then to the U.S. after the Nazis invaded France, the director’s own life could be a movie with a local twist: He was once a student at UC Berkeley. Ophuls’ tribute, on the boards for Oct. 15 at 7pm, includes a screening of Ain’t Misbehavin,’ a movie of, well, his own life.
Along with The Sorrow and the Pity come three more entries with roots in World War II: Cannes’ Grand Prix winner Laszlo Nemes’ Son of Saul, Iranian-born Swiss-German director Barbet Schroeder’s Amnesia and Marin filmmakers Eli Adler and Blair Gershkow’s Surviving Skokie.
Son of Saul, 38-year-old Hungarian director Nemes’ startling first feature, is the grim tale of a concentration camp prisoner forced to prepare corpses for incineration when, in the throes of a plot against the Nazis, he discovers a body he believes to be his son. The film screens Oct. 11 at 4pm and Oct. 12 at 5:15pm. It’s a stunner, but don’t expect to go home whistling “Sound of Music.”
Culled from events in his mother’s life, Schroeder’s centerpiece film Amnesia, probes a woman repulsed by Nazi atrocities who has fled her native Germany, disavowed her past and settled into life as a recluse on Ibiza, undisturbed—until a young German moves next door. The director will attend the U.S. premiere and engage with festivalgoers on Oct. 13 at 7pm. A still striking Marthe Keller, now 70, is cast in the lead.
In Surviving Skokie, San Anselmo’s Adler and San Rafael’s Gershkow pooled their talents to tell the story of Eli’s father Jack, interned in a concentration camp and the only member of his family to survive. “He came to the U.S. as a war orphan and was fostered by a family in Chicago,” says Gershkow, whose in-laws are also Holocaust survivors. “(He) married and moved his own family to the suburb of Skokie, where thousands of other Holocaust survivors also settled. A threatened Neo-Nazi march rocked them to their core and led to a remarkable turn in the lives of Jack and Eli.” One truly unsettling turn in the film pits father and son against a neo-Nazi leader whose own father was a German Jew imprisoned in Dachau. Screens Oct. 11 at 11:30am and Oct. 16 at 5:45pm.
* * *
Although he has made a number of films with the gritty street people of the city’s Tenderloin, even Berkeley filmmaker Rob Nilsson’s latest entry, Permission to Touch, dials in on the female. Reprising his role as war photographer Mel Hurley from Heat and Sunlight, Nilsson explores with some surprising departures a model’s personal vision of the erotic, employing visual, verbal and visceral layers of expression.
The 75-year-old director, who has piloted more than 40 features with his own style of improvisational filmmaking and has been around almost as long as the Sequoia (the theater, not the trees), expounds, “The film starts out with an art project, requires a voyage into darkness and then a gradual move upward toward … a moment of attraction, vulnerability and empathy.”
Although the film was shot in a single day with no retakes, he says, “There are two scenes in there that are my best ever.” Find out which ones on Oct. 14 at 8:45pm or Oct. 17 at 7:45pm.
Almost as ubiquitous at the fest as Nilsson are Marinites Will Parrinello and John Antonelli, whose annual output of work about environmental crises around the globe makes us wonder if there is any place on earth that doesn’t need an ecological transfusion. Antonelli’s Roots of ’Ulu explores a spirited movement in Hawaii to revive 60- to 80-foot breadfruit trees after “Western contact took its toll,” the Mill Valley director says. Sea Change, his second film in The New Environmentalists program (Oct. 9, 2pm and Oct. 14, 8pm), hails a heroine and her struggle against a government plan to dam up a river that half a million tribal natives in Ethiopia and Kenya rely on.
On the same slate, Sausalito director Parrinello’s From Myanmar to Scotland tracks a photojournalist’s fight in Myanmar to block a Chinese-backed dam from being built on a river that sustains 75 percent of the population. Damn those dams. In both cases, authorities do not take kindly to filmmakers and so each came in under the radar, posing as tourists simply enthralled by the scenery. In other words, they snuck in.
If you just can’t get enough of Myanmar—and director Brian Perkins is one who can’t—check out Golden Kingdom (Oct. 13, 5pm and Oct. 15, 2:30pm), the story of four very young Buddhist monks, boys really, left on their own by the head abbot in the rich yet ghostly jungle mountains. “The narrative film bridges spirit, cinema and traditional Burmese storytelling to open a view onto an unseen world,” says the former UC Berkeley post-grad student. “Two days before principal photography even began … a spy had informed the military something was going on up at the top of the mountain. They were on their way to investigate. My cinematographer stayed behind, as she had a valid visa, but mine had expired and I had to flee the mountains and hide in the local town.” In other words, he snuck in.
Golden Kingdom moves at the pace of a morning meditation, lovingly shot and atmospheric, with four charismatic kids who were never before a camera acting as if they were born in front of one.
Kids of a different stripe are front and center in Vicki Abeles’ Beyond Measure and in James Redford’s Paper Tigers. Abeles’ film visits students who have had it with “an education system that promotes rote learning, competition and one-size-fits-all success over creativity, depth and individuality,” while Redford’s documentary carves out a one-year chronicle of six troubled youths whose tendencies were to create havoc in the school, cut classes, abuse drugs and act out anger and resentment from childhood trauma.
“With Beyond Measure (Oct. 11, 11:45am and Oct. 17, 5:15pm), we wanted to challenge the assumption that solving our education problems lies mainly in the hands of policymakers,” Abeles says. “We found a revolution brewing in public schools at the local level … communities innovating from the inside, subverting our high-stakes education culture and putting forth a much richer, engaging and purposeful vision.”
The Lafayette filmmaker’s Race to Nowhere, a companion piece that screened at the festival in 2009, shone light on stories of several teens who came close to breakpoint by relentless pressure to achieve.
“Paper Tigers takes an intimate look into the lives of students at Lincoln High (in Walla Walla, Washington), an alternative school that specializes in educating traumatized youth,” Redford says. A noble pursuit, though they didn’t exactly welcome him with trumpets and marshmallows. “Most of the kids were understandably wary. And as is often the case, those with the most interesting stories avoided us like the plague. Then I decided to invite them into making the film with me (witnessing the ups and downs of their lives)—to give them cameras so they could feel ownership over their own stories. That was a game changer.”
By abandoning punitive responses to behavioral issues, Lincoln showed a 90 percent decline in suspensions and a 75 percent decline in the number of fights, while graduation rates increased five-fold.
“This is a movement that is showing great promise in healing youth struggling with the dark legacy of adverse childhood experiences,” says the veteran Fairfax producer-director, who targets social and environmental issues through his nonprofit Redford Center.
From Paper Tigers in the classroom to mountain lions in the streets. Actor and Palo Alto native James Franco’s short stories about his childhood form the basis for first-time director Gabrielle Demeestere’s Yosemite (Oct. 16, 8:45pm and Oct. 18, 11:45am). Franco plays the father of one of three fifth-grade boys in Palo Alto during the fall of 1985 when the threat of a cougar roaming the streets turned the community into a frantic herd of nail-biters. Producer Clara Aranovich, originally from Palo Alto as well, also has a short in the fest titled Primrose. She calls it “a slightly surreal love story between two creatures.”
We find more beastly appreciation in the unpredictable, poetically eloquent, gorgeously filmed Icelandic comedy Rams, a sheep’s tale about brothers who despise one another but have to work together to save their flock, doomed by a local edict after an outbreak of a fatal animal disease. Rams won the Cannes’ festival’s Un Certain Regard Award, one of its most important accolades. Screens Oct. 16 at 5:30pm and Oct. 18 at 5pm.
Some of the hottest entries come from some of the coldest countries. For the first time in our admittedly snowy memory, every Scandinavian country has sent a digital ambassador to Mill Valley. (Yes, we know purists consider only Sweden, Norway and Denmark the real Scandinavia, but we love Icelanders and the Fins, so they’re in.) On the cloven hooves of Rams and last year’s sleeper hit The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared comes Here Is Harold (Oct. 11, 1pm; Oct. 13, 8:30pm; Oct. 15, 12:15pm), a Norwegian laugher about a high-end furniture dealer whose business is threatened by IKEA and who kidnaps its founder to force him to apologize to the world for substandard products.
In Virgin Mountain, Iceland and Denmark team up for yet another Nordic comedy (who knew those Vikings were such a band of knee-slappers?). Winner of Tribeca’s best film and best actor awards, it’s a heart-tugging, humor-and-pathos story of a late bloomer and his first love. Screens Oct. 14 at 5:30pm and Oct. 15 at 5pm.
Less for laughs is Denmark’s Bridgend, a slightly creepy, but haunting thriller in a Welsh valley where strange forces draw dozens of young adults, with full lives ahead of them, to suicide. Presumably based on fact, with Hannah Murray (Game of Thrones) in the lead, the film screens Oct. 11 at 8:45pm and Oct. 13 at 3pm.
As a companion to the aforementioned Saga of Ingrid Bergman exhibition at 1020 B Street, San Rafael (Oct. 9-Oct. 22), Sweden chips in with the masterful Stig Bjorkman documentary Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words (Oct. 12, 8pm), enhanced by passages from her diary and read by Ex Machina star Alicia Vikander, who plays Redmayne’s lesbian lover in The Danish Girl.
Finland’s The Girl King dramatizes the life of the radical, anti-conservative Queen Kristina who rose to power at the age of six in 17th century Sweden, while The Girl in the Book recounts a young book editor’s agonizing bitterness toward a best-selling author who, 15 years earlier, stole her innocence and her adolescence. Girl King goes up on Oct. 9 at 7:30pm, Oct. 10 at 1:45pm and Oct. 15 at 2pm. You can catch Girl in the Book Oct. 10 at 4:45pm, Oct. 12 at 8:15pm and Oct. 15 at 11:15am.
If we haven’t overwhelmed you yet, we’ll keep trying. For those with short attention spans, there are 76 shorts among eight programs scattered about the 11-day feast of film from your Bay Area neighbors and your neighbors around the globe. David Bornstein’s A King’s Betrayal is an amusing five-minute piece about the last day in the life of a piñata, told from the piñata’s point of view. Meg Smaker’s 15-minute Boxeadora follows the training of a Cuban woman who risks defying Fidel Castro’s ban on female boxing to pursue a dream of competing in the Olympics. A boxer herself from Oakland, Smaker says she “applied for 38 grants—and got denied for 38 grants. One of them actually told me this film ‘could never be made, especially by a woman.’” Boxeadora won the SXSW Jury Award for best documentary short.
* * *
In addition to an Opening Night Gala at Marin Country Mart, parties and receptions with free-flowing spirits follow the tributes, the Spotlights, the special premieres, the centerpiece program, the closing night film and even one of the panels. Over the years, it is HD-clear that part of the fest philosophy is that music takes a rear projection to no one, but this year it is close to becoming a marathon in itself as nine nights of live rock, pop, gospel, folk and fusion erupt from the halls at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley. The lineup includes Stroke 9 (a band formed in 1990 as a school senior project at Marin Academy), The Brothers Comatose, Michael Walden, Tommy Igoe, Olive & the Dirty Martinis, The Mother Truckers and more—and can you imagine just how delirious the early-risers in that sleepy little town are over this?
By now, we’re pretty sure you’ve got the picture—the 38th MVFF has been changed forever—morphing into the nation’s first Wine, Women and Song Festival. And we only scratched the surface (digitally speaking, we can’t possibly scratch the film). So turn off your cell phones please, sit back and enjoy the birth of America’s New Wave.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The next seven weeks will NOT be a favorable time to fool around with psychic vampires and charismatic jerks. I recommend you avoid the following mistakes, as well: Failing to protect the wounded areas of your psyche; demanding perfection from those you care about; and trying to fulfill questionable desires that have led you astray in the past. Now I’ll name some positive actions you’d be wise to consider: Hunting for skillful healers who can relieve your angst and aches; favoring the companionship of people who are empathetic and emotionally intelligent; and getting educated about how to build the kind of intimacy you can thrive on.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You may have seen websites that offer practical tips on how to improve your mastery of life’s little details. They tell you how to de-clutter your home, or how to keep baked goods from going stale, or why you should shop for shoes at night to get the best fit. I recently came across a humorous site that provides the opposite: Bad life tips. For instance, it suggests that you make job interviews less stressful by only applying for jobs you don’t want. Put your laptop in cold water to prevent overheating. To save time, brush your teeth while you eat. In the two sets of examples I’ve just given, it’s easy to tell the difference between which tips are trustworthy and which aren’t. But in the coming days, you might find it more challenging to distinguish between the good advice and bad advice you’ll receive. Be very discerning.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): On a windy afternoon last spring I was walking through a quiet neighborhood in Berkeley. In one yard there was a garden plot filled with the young green stems of as-yet unidentifiable plants. Anchored in their midst was a small handwritten sign. Its message seemed to be directed not at passers-by like me but at the sprouts themselves. “Grow faster, you little bastards!” the sign said—as if the blooming things might be bullied into ripening. I hope you’re smart enough not to make similar demands on yourself and those you care about, Gemini. It’s not even necessary. I suspect that everything in your life will just naturally grow with vigor in the coming weeks.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): “I am rooted, but I flow,” wrote Virginia Woolf in her novel The Waves. That paradoxical image reminds me of you right now. You are as grounded as a tree and as fluid as a river. Your foundation is deep and strong, even as you are resilient in your ability to adapt to changing circumstances. This is your birthright as a Cancerian! Enjoy and use the blessings it confers. (P.S. If for some strange reason you’re not experiencing an exquisite version of what I’ve described, there must be some obstacle you are mistakenly tolerating. Get rid of it.)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Should I offer my congratulations? You have corralled a gorgeous mess of problems that are more interesting and provocative than everyone else’s. It’s unclear how long this odd good fortune will last, however. So I suggest you act decisively to take maximum advantage of the opportunities that your dilemmas have cracked open. If anyone can turn the heartache of misplaced energy into practical wisdom, you can. If anyone can harness chaos to drum up new assets, it’s you. Is it possible to be both cunning and conscientious, both strategic and ethical? For you right now, I think it is.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Let’s say you have walked along the same path or driven down the same road a thousand times. Then, one day, as you repeat your familiar route, a certain object or scene snags your attention for the first time. Maybe it’s a small fountain or a statue of the Buddhist goddess Guanyin or a wall with graffiti that says, “Crap happens, but so does magic.” It has always been there. You’ve been subconsciously aware of it. But at this moment, for unknown reasons, it finally arrives in your conscious mind. I believe this is an apt metaphor for your life in the next week. More than once, you will suddenly tune in to facts, situations or influences that had previously been invisible to you. That’s a good thing! But it might initially bring a jolt.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The 20th century’s most influential artist may have been Pablo Picasso. He created thousands of paintings, and was still churning them out when he was 91 years old. A journalist asked him which one was his favorite. “The next one,” he said. I suggest you adopt a similar attitude in the coming weeks, Libra. What you did in the past is irrelevant. You should neither depend on nor be weighed down by anything that has come before. For now, all that matters are the accomplishments and adventures that lie ahead of you.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): A windbreak is a line of stout trees or thick bushes that provides shelter from the wind. I think you need a metaphorical version: Someone or something to shield you from a relentless force that has been putting pressure on you; a buffer zone or protected haven where you can take refuge from a stressful barrage that has been hampering your ability to act with clarity and grace. Do you know what you will have to do to get it? Here’s your battle cry: “I need sanctuary! I deserve sanctuary!”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Your fellow Sagittarian Walt Disney accomplished a lot. He was a pioneer in the art of animation and made movies that won numerous Academy Awards. He built theme parks, created an entertainment empire and amassed fantastic wealth. Why was he so successful? In part because he had high standards, worked hard and harbored an obsessive devotion to his quirky vision. If you aspire to cultivate any of those qualities, now is a favorable time to raise your mastery to the next level. Disney had one other trait you might consider working on: He liked to play the game of life by his own rules. For example, his favorite breakfast was doughnuts dipped in Scotch whisky. What would be your equivalent?
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): October is Fix the Fundamentals month. It will be a favorable time to substitute good habits for bad habits. You will attract lucky breaks and practical blessings as you work to transform overwrought compulsions into rigorous passions. You will thrive as you seek to discover the holy yearning that’s hidden at the root of devitalizing addictions. To get started, instigate free-wheeling experiments that will propel you out of your sticky rut and in the direction of a percolating groove.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Have you made your travel plans yet? Have you plotted your escape? I hope you will hightail it to a festive playground where some of your inhibitions will shrink, or else journey to a holy spot where your spiritual yearnings will ripen. What would be even better is if you made a pilgrimage to a place that satisfied both of those agendas—filled up your senses with novel enticements and fed your hunger for transcendent insights. Off you go, Aquarius! Why aren’t you already on your way? If you can’t manage a real getaway in the near future, please at least stage a jailbreak for your imagination.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Pablo Neruda’s Book of Questions consists entirely of 316 questions. It’s one of those rare texts that makes no assertions and draws no conclusions. In this spirit, and in honor of the sphinx-like phase you’re now passing through, I offer you six pertinent riddles: 1. What is the most important thing you have never done? 2. How could you play a joke on your fears? 3. Identify the people in your life who have made you real to yourself. 4. Name a good old thing you would have to give up in order to get a great new thing. 5. What’s the one feeling you want to feel more than any other in the next three years? 6. What inspires you to love?
Homework: Send testimonies about how you’ve redeemed the dark side. FreeWillAstrology.com.
Hero: Pope Francis chose to visit New York over Marin, but he needed our divine bread to go with that big apple. Rustic Bakery, based in Marin, provided olive oil and sel gris flatbread and rosemary pan forte crostini for the pontiff and his aides during flights to their U.S. destinations. The organic crostini was baked in a stone hearth oven in downtown Larkspur, while the artisan flatbread came from the Novato location. How in heaven’s name did the Vatican know about Rustic Bakery? The bakery supplies its favorite fares to an airline caterer, which sent the goods to the papal chef. We like to think that the pope noshed on crackers and bread handcrafted in Marin as he discussed the need to curtail climate change and immigration.
Zero: Pray for the welfare of the ocean’s creatures, especially the Pacific leatherback sea turtle. The body of a dead leatherback was discovered off the coast of Marin in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary by a marine biologist aboard a whale watching boat. Entangled in crab fishing gear, the gentle giant’s neck was encircled in ropes and polystyrene floats. Though the crab season ended in June, equipment is often left behind, threatening the existence of endangered animals, including the rare Pacific leatherback sea turtle. The largest of the seven types of sea turtles, it dives deeper and travels farther than the others. We can help these magnificent beings by reporting sightings and donating to The State of the World’s Sea Turtles. Learn more at seaturtlestatus.org.
Got a Hero or a Zero? Please send submissions to ni***************@***oo.com.
Q: I’m very attracted to my co-worker—a self-described “happily married man.” We are “friends,” but he always has a warm hug, an interesting YouTube video or a poem or short story he’s written to share with me. He has taken me to lunch and has done work for me gratis. If I have car trouble, he connects me to a mechanic and sees that I get great work for a great price. Twice he’s told me, “I love you.” The second time, I responded, “I love you, too, and if you weren’t married, I’d take you on!” He then responded, “Previous commitment!” I’m confused as to what’s going on in his head. There has been no sex, and he hasn’t asked for any.—Huh?
A: Nothing says, “I want to make mad, passionate love to you” like a referral to a skilled and honest auto mechanic.
The guy seems to be having a “flirtationship” with you—which is to say, this stuff he’s doing is foreplay to foreplay that’s unlikely to happen. There seems to be some evolutionary psychology bubbling up here—specifically, a facet of “error management theory.” This is the mouthful of a way that researchers Martie Haselton and David Buss explain how, when we might make an error in judgment, we evolved to make the least costly error. And though women engage in flirtationships, men seem to have evolved to err on the side of not missing a possible mating opportunity. And yes, that’s true even when they aren’t technically free to “mate”—like when a guy has taken (and seems to adhere to) those pesky vows to grow old with some lady, and not just in between sex romps with some other lady.
That’s where flirting comes in. Interpersonal communications researcher David Henningsen points out that the essence of flirting is ambiguity, leading the target to “suspect that sexual interest is being expressed” but not allowing them to really be sure. As for a flirt’s goal, predictably, for many in Henningsen’s and others’ research, it’s about “getting some.” But some flirting, called “instrumental” flirting, is about getting something else—like getting a discount, getting some free help or getting out of a ticket by flashing a lady cop one’s man boobs.
As for what may be going on here, Henningsen notes that some flirting is just about having fun, or is a way for a person to feel good about themselves. (“She’s all over me like ants on a croissanwich!”) There’s also what Henningsen calls the “exploring” motivation: Safely testing what a relationship with somebody new might be like (in case the wife runs off with the census taker).
Chances are, this guy is into you but is clinging to fidelity like a shipwrecked rat on driftwood. Maybe try to enjoy this for what it is: Free lunch, free work and referrals to the amazing Carlos at Numero Uno Auto. And try to be grateful for all that he shares with you, like the poetry and short stories that his wife probably (wisely) refuses to read. As for a companion to take you to that dark place with satin sheets, you’ll have to find somebody unmarried and available. If this guy is looking to make his wife cry, it seems he’ll stick to low-grade relationship misdemeanors, like forgetting her birthday or, when they’re in bed, calling her by an old girlfriend’s name. Or by the dog’s.
Q: I just discovered that my boyfriend of a year not only is married but has two young kids. I broke it off immediately and texted his wife. I made it clear that I had no idea he was married. But now his wife keeps contacting me, wanting to meet for lunch. I’m not sure what she wants from me.—Go Away, Lady
A: When somebody just can’t let go after a relationship, you don’t expect it to be your married boyfriend’s wife. You can’t seem to get it through her head: “I’m out of his life, and I’d really like to be out of yours.”
She’s probably just looking for answers—sadly, to questions like, “How pretty are you?” “How big are your boobs?” and “How the heck did you get him to go to the dermatologist?” But the only answer you really need to give her is a definitive no: No calls. No texts. No more contact. Meanwhile, review any signs you may have overlooked that this guy wasn’t the single, available man he made himself out to be, and go into future relationships wanting to find out rather than wanting to believe. This should keep you from having scorned wives hitting you up for lunch dates and from the charming offers that might ensue: “Whaddya say—if I treat you to tiramisu, would you help me dump his body in the ravine?”
This week, we’re happy to introduce Rob Brezsny, resident of San Rafael and writer of Free Will Astrology, to the Pacific Sun as a weekly contributor. Free Will Astrology is a syndicated column that has appeared in more than 100 publications all over the world for more than 20 years. Brezsny is also the author of the bestselling book Pronoia is the Antitode for Paranoia. Check out his work at freewillastrology.com. Welcome, Rob!
Legalization is not a simple matter [‘Legalization realization,’ Sept. 23]. As Kevin Sabet points out, how this issue impacts our youth is critical. The marijuana of today is not the same as 20 years ago—the THC levels are 20 to 30 percent—10 times more potent than when I was in high school. The access is easy and perception of harm is non-existent. Yet, the reality is that marijuana is extremely harmful to a developing teen brain. It changes the brain permanently.
My concern is by making marijuana legal we send a huge message to youth that marijuana is not harmful. Are we willing to pay the cost for this error? It will be substantial. Parents aren’t aware of the harm and impact—making them aware is the responsible thing to do. What a 30-year-old does in their free time is their business, but I care too much about our teens to suggest that legalization is a good thing. As a responsible society let’s do more work around this issue before we make more mistakes. Colorado is not a good example of what to do. More research and regulation is needed before California should consider putting our youth at risk.
by Molly Oleson
“This is Banned Books Week,” a sign on the front door of San Rafael’s Rebound Bookstore reads. “All the books in our window are banned or challenged somewhere in the USA.”
The 10-year-old sanctuary of books, located on Fourth Street, is full of cozy reading nooks, warm light and quirky touches—like the chirping Australian Zebra Finches (named Gilbert...
by Tanya Henry
Matthew and Astrid Hoffman, founders of The Living Seed Company, are dismayed by the fact that as much as 94 percent of different vegetable and flower varieties have been lost due to hybridization. They want to bring back the genetic diversity that used to exist before conventional agriculture began impacting growing methods by developing ways to produce...
by Joseph Mayton
Editor's note: This story is under review following reports of challenges to the veracity of Joseph Mayton's reporting for other publications.
Vacationers seeking out unique two- or three-night stays in short-term rentals in Sausalito and Tiburon will now be forced to look elsewhere, after the cities passed new zoning ordinances this summer that bar residents from renting their...
by Mal Karman
Autumn and the Mill Valley Film Festival are upon us, and like Wagner’s Valkyries, the ladies are about to storm into town, take over the big screen and practically commandeer the 38th annual event with their own style of cinematic thunder and lightning. (OK, we got that one out of our system—now let’s take a look at...
by Rob Brezsny
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The next seven weeks will NOT be a favorable time to fool around with psychic vampires and charismatic jerks. I recommend you avoid the following mistakes, as well: Failing to protect the wounded areas of your psyche; demanding perfection from those you care about; and trying to fulfill questionable desires that have led...
By Nikki Silverstein
Hero: Pope Francis chose to visit New York over Marin, but he needed our divine bread to go with that big apple. Rustic Bakery, based in Marin, provided olive oil and sel gris flatbread and rosemary pan forte crostini for the pontiff and his aides during flights to their U.S. destinations. The organic crostini was baked in...
For more trivia questions (and answers!), see Howard Rachelson's Trivia Café every week in the Pacific Sun.
Answer: “Weird Al” Yankovic; it was Allan Sherman who had three No. 1 hit albums in 1962-1963.
By Amy Alkon
Q: I’m very attracted to my co-worker—a self-described “happily married man.” We are “friends,” but he always has a warm hug, an interesting YouTube video or a poem or short story he’s written to share with me. He has taken me to lunch and has done work for me gratis. If I have car trouble, he connects...
Editor’s note
This week, we’re happy to introduce Rob Brezsny, resident of San Rafael and writer of Free Will Astrology, to the Pacific Sun as a weekly contributor. Free Will Astrology is a syndicated column that has appeared in more than 100 publications all over the world for more than 20 years. Brezsny is also the author of the bestselling...
It’s complicated
Legalization is not a simple matter . As Kevin Sabet points out, how this issue impacts our youth is critical. The marijuana of today is not the same as 20 years ago—the THC levels are 20 to 30 percent—10 times more potent than when I was in high school. The access is easy and perception of harm is...
