Noe Valley resident Rashmi directed the
short My Inner
Turmoil, which will be shown at two venues
this month.
Queers on a Boat is a three-minute parody
by Dara Sklar. It will screen twice in the San Francisco
International Film
Festival June 14-24. Photos courtesy
Frameline36
From an animated love
story to a documentary on LGBT foster youth, films made by Noe
Valleyans take
center stage this month.
Three of the films will be screened at
Frameline36, the San
Francisco International LGBT Film Festival. The 11-day event
features
documentaries, films, and shorts centering on the lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and
transgender communities.
First up in June is My Inner
Turmoil by Church
Street resident Rashmi, a film about an Indian immigrant
struggling with gender
identity, immigration status, and family acceptance.
It is a multi-layered film, says Rashmi, who has
lived in the
neighborhood for a little over a year. “Gender is just a
miniscule part of it.”
The nine-minute film was shot in Noe Valley,
though most of it
takes place indoors, Rashmi says.
My Inner Turmoil will have its world
premiere Friday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m., at the Queer Women of
Color Film Festival
at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard St. Then it can
be seen in
Frameline36’s “Transtatic” program on Thursday, June 21, 7
p.m., at the
Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th St.
Shani Heckman’s America’s Most
Unwanted takes a
candid look at foster care, in an effort to expose homophobia
in the system.
“These are kids who are non-straight-identified
being harassed
physically, mentally, and verbally while in state-funded
care,” says Heckman,
who made the 21-minute film as her thesis project for a
master’s degree in film
production from San Francisco State University.
The film is not all heavy, she says. She includes
foster youth
like herself who have defied statistics and stayed off the
street and out of
jail. A 10-year resident of Noe Valley, Heckman conducted a
lot of the
interviews in her yard on 28th Street. She also is showing the
film at
conferences, community centers, and group foster homes.
America’s Most Unwanted will screen at
Frameline36 in “Bay Area Buffet,” a program starting at 11
a.m. on Sunday, June
17, also at the Victoria Theatre.
Queers on a Boat, by Noe Valley’s Dara
Sklar, is a three-minute parody of a parody that will be shown
twice: in the
shorts program “Bay Area Buffet” on June 17, and in the shorts
program “Bi
Candy” on Wednesday, June 20, at 9:30 p.m. Both screenings
happen at the
Victoria Theatre.
Learn more about Frameline36, including how and
where to buy
tickets, by visiting its website at www.frameline.org or
calling
415-703-8655. Running June 14 to 24, the festival promises
you’ll see
“the best of the best” from over 600 films submitted for 2012.
Free Flicks for Kids
You can soak in the neighborhood’s stardom for
free at Upper Noe
Recreation Center, 295 Day St., Saturday, June 16, with Sita
Sings the
Blues (2008),an animated classical
Indian tale set in
contemporary Noe Valley, written by local filmmaker Nina
Paley.
The movie is an interpretation of the Indian epic
poem The
Ramayana, says Paley.
“I focus on the relationship between Sita and
Rama, who are gods
incarnated as human beings, and even they can’t make their
marriage work,” she
says.
Her own divorce is told in the context of the
epic, but the
playful blend of animation belies the film’s serious content.
Cartoons, shadow
puppets, and collage are set against a backdrop of
Indian-style music and the
mournful melodies of jazz-age great Annette Hanshaw.
The 6 p.m. showing of Sita will
be preceded by
cartoons at 4:30 p.m. and a ribbon-cutting at 4 p.m. for the
rec center’s new
sandbox cover. You can also view renderings of a proposed
outdoor classroom for
the Sanchez Street side of the building. Like the popcorn and
movie, the
sandbox cover celebration comes courtesy of Friends of Noe
Valley Recreation
Center. The event is open to all—all, that is, except cats.
