Cinema by the Bay October 24, 2009

Cinema by the Bay celebrates the passion, innovation and diversity of Bay Area filmmaking, the intelligence and probing spirit of local directors and the incredible depth and breadth of America’s film and media frontier. The four-day festival will feature new work produced in or about the San Francisco Bay Area and provide a compelling window into Bay Area film culture and practice at its best. CBTB includes features, shorts, narratives, documentaries and live performances from well-known and emerging local talent, and explores the rich experimental traditions of the Bay Area by copresenting the San Francisco Cinematheque’s tribute to one of its key figures: Chick Strand.

Saturday, October 24
Landmark’s Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore Street
2:00 pm Shorts Program: The Bay in Depth
The Bay Area has long been a hotbed of short film production. Featuring works by several of our most compelling filmmakers, this program is a testament to the incredible depth and breadth of America’s film and media frontier.
4:15 pm Sons of a Gun
Evicted from his home and forced to move to a cramped hotel in Alameda, an ex-LAPD hostage negotiator struggles to keep his alcohol problem in check as he care for his "sons," three middle-aged schizophrenic men.
6:30 pm Why Isn’t Chris von Sneidern Famous?
Do you know CVS? Why not? Kathleen McNamara's documentary is a candid portrait of an aging artist eyeing fame from a distance.
9:00 pm Sorry, Thanks
In this hipster odyssey set in the Mission, Max (Wiley Wiggins of Dazed and Confused) cheats on his girlfriend with someone who has just gone through a brutal breakup, setting off on a lazy bildungsroman of modest self-discovery.

Sunday, October 25
Landmark’s Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore Street
11:30 am FilmHouse Presents
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to get a sneak preview of some of the diverse and dynamic work being created by residents of the San Francisco Film Society’s FilmHouse program with the filmmakers in attendance. This program is generously supported by the San Francisco Film Commission.
2:00 pm Ghostbird
The search for the spectacular (and likely extinct) ivory-billed woodpecker leads straight to a small town capitalizing on the mere specter of the bird's reemergence in Scott Crocker's documentary.
4:30 pm Shorts Program: It’s All True
It’s no secret that over the years San Francisco has produced some of the world’s most compelling nonfiction films. Whether straight-ahead documentaries, experimental works or fiction/nonfiction hybrids, these shorts reveal Bay Area filmmaking at it best and most diverse.
6:30 pm Etienne!
When his dwarf hamster gets diagnosed with cancer, a young SF hotel worker takes the little guy on one last bike trip down the coast, riding the precarious line between melodrama and camp.
9:00 pm The Anne McGuire Show
In this live variety show, McGuire’s rare genius will be on full display as she draws from her extensive catalogue for an eclectic and pleasurable evening featuring some of her most famous videos, live performances, recent works, a guest MC and several surprises

Official Website: http://www.sffs.org/screenings-and-events/fall-season/cinema-by-the-bay.aspx