Interest: Politics + Civic Engagement

The Perfect Candidate

Saudi Arabia has one of the least satisfactory records with respect to women’s rights, but Haifaa Al Mansour’s latest film reminds us that great change…
Paris Calligrammes

Ottinger’s latest film begins from the perspective of autobiography. It describes her experiences as a young artist living in Paris in the 1960s, when she…
Promising Young Woman

Carey Mulligan is nothing short of sensational as a one-time med student reduced to slinging coffee in Emerald Fennell’s (Killing Eve‘s executive producer) brilliant pitch-black…
Suk Suk

The challenges facing aging gay men are dramatized with great warmth in Ray Yeung’s Hong Kong-set portrait of a new love affair. Hoi and Pak…
Truth to Power: Barbara Lee Speaks for Me

Oakland residents have long considered Barbara Lee to be their fierce and visionary champion for social justice equity, but it was her historic “no” vote…
Workforce

Issues of inequalities in income and housing are at the heart of this powerful film. When an accident happens on the construction site of an…
Collective

A shattering exposé of systemic corruption, Collective depicts the woeful response to the victims of a Bucharest nightclub fire and the brave and resourceful journalists…
Coded Bias (SFFILM Festival)

This revelatory documentary exposes the ways that AI systems have developed algorithms that can infringe on our privacy and threaten civil rights.
Balloon

Tibet’s leading director, Pema Tseden (Old Dog, Festival 2012), continues his masterful chronicles of family life on the steppes with this humorous, touching, and ribald…
Zana

Lume has nightmares – cow heads and flayed feet populate her dreams – leading her to wonder if they’re why she can’t get pregnant. They…
Opening Night Film + Party: “Boys State”

Filming a group of Texas teens selected to participate in the titular highly respected program, Boys State masterfully observes as they engage in a weeklong…