Festive Friends:

I’ve now run into about half the people I know on planet earth at screenings for the San Francisco International Film Festival. Suzan is volunteering this year which means I’ve procured a few tickets. And seen more than a few friends and acquaintences.

Just today, on my way out of a screening of the documentary Girl Hood, I ran into my buddies Jane and Doug. They had scored tickets to some Philip Seymour Hoffman movie whose name I’ve forgotten. Hence, they will both miss Monday Night at ‘Moklers, my monthly film evening and April’s feature film, Xanadu. Heckling is expected, which I plan to fill them in on.

By the way, if Girl Hood is passing through your town anytime soon, see it. This is a magnificant documentary about two teenagers passing through the juvenile justice system. Like Liz Garbus’s (my favorite kind of hero, a documentarian with a conscience) earlier film The Farm (about a Louisiana maximum security prison), it covers our creeking, failing justice system from the inside out, revealing just how empty promises of rehibilitation really are.

• Category: Cinematically Speaking...