Out There :: Close Encounters with Arts & Culture

In the whirlwind of Out There's very full life attending cultural events night after night, sometimes a few lines from a play or a movie will haunt us long after the show. One such line came from playwright Theresa Rebeck's "Seminar," a tight little play about the emotional violence that erupts in writers' workshops, in which the lead female character, after enduring her male colleagues' relentless narcissism for a good long spell, blurts out, "Boys, boys, boys! Do you ever get enough of yourselves?"

Another memorable line came during a screening of filmmakers Dan Geller & Dayna Goldfine's documentary "The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden," which explores the dastardly deeds that transpire when a small number of adventurous Europeans leave the "civilized world" behind in the 1930s to settle in a remote corner of the world. As any member of a small town or community -- say, a gay commune -- knows, gossip and conflict are hothouse flowers that bloom in close quarters. Still, one of the settlers is flummoxed: "I don't understand why we can't get along. After all, we're all Germans!" The amused reactions from several audience members were pure gratification.

But we're here to recount some terrific cultural events we attended last week. The 57th San Francisco International Film Festival, presented with style and panache by the San Francisco Film Society, crossed the finish line after two weeks of screening over 168 films. Out There was in the house last Wednesday night as SFFS announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Award and New Directors Prize competitions at a reception held at Rouge nightclub and its culinary neighbor Nick's Crispy Tacos. This year the Festival awarded nearly $40,000 in prizes to emerging and established filmmakers from 13 countries around the world. These are honors that recognize films as works independent of any commercial concerns, a nice departure from the usual template.

The awards dispensed that night included the New Directors Prize, given to Argentine director Benjam'n Naishtat for his "History of Fear"; the Golden Gate Award for Documentary Feature to "The Overnighters" (director Jesse Moss); the Golden Gate Award for Bay Area Documentary Feature to "The Last Season" (director Sara Dosa); and more prizes given to filmmakers from the Bay Area and beyond for shorts, animation, and works by youth.
Veteran star of stage and screen Don Johnson appeared at the closing night of the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theatre.

Thursday night we attended the festive SFIFF57 closing night at the Castro Theatre as actor Chris Messina's directing debut "Alex of Venice" screened, with the director and cast members in the house. The Venice of the film's title turned out to be not the stately, waterlogged Italian city, but rather the ragged, bohemian Venice Beach on the Southern Californian shore. Messina's film is a small-scale independent affair following the trials and travails of a young mother (the excellent Mary Elizabeth Winstead) whose husband flies the coop, and whose life becomes a series of complications. Among the responsibilities that land on her shoulders is the care of her forgetful dad (Don Johnson), who shows early signs of Alzheimer's as he prepares for his role in a community theatre production of Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard."

There's quite a bit of willing suspension of disbelief involved (especially as environmentalist lawyer Alex falls for and pursues a sexual affair with the evil developer whom she's battling in court), but the movie's heart is in the right place. Its attractions include pot-smoking, ecstasy-popping, and a kick-ass, uncredited cameo from screen goddess Jennifer Jason Leigh. Johnson proves he's more than the answer to a 1980s pop-culture trivia quiz. The audience roared when he appeared onstage with other cast members and director for the post-screening Q&A. Drinks at the afterparty, held at The Chapel on Valencia, were as refreshing and revivifying as the unexpected late-night rain.

The next night we were at our second home, the War Memorial Opera House, for San Francisco Ballet's eighth and final program of the 2014 season. The bill of fare, reviewed in this week's issue, was superb, going from strength to strength and climaxing in a grand finale. George Balanchine's "Agon" (1957) is set to Stravinsky as a postmodern masterpiece for 12 dancers. Balanchine's "Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet" was also created for New York City Ballet (1966), set to the Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25, by Johannes Brahms, and orchestrated by Arnold Schoenberg in 1937. We chatted with a balletgoer who had seen these works at NYCB, and conveyed to us how truly avant-garde they were at their inception. For our part, OT loved the "Agon" score long before we even knew what 12-tone music was.

The program concluded with the rhythms and energy of Jerome Robbins' "Glass Pieces," set to a pulsing score by Philip Glass. A small digression, with a word from a dance-world maven: "Robbins understood royalties, he started getting them early, and he assigned a hefty amount to creating a dance collection at the New York Public Library, which is now one of the greatest resources for dance critics in the world and unparalleled in this hemisphere. Now you can see lots of these materials online, as the NYPL has digitized thousands of hours of its videos in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division Moving Image Archive. Not sure that they've got their best stuff up yet, but hopefully it's a promising development!"

Then last Sunday night we were back in house seats in premium orchestra as the SFB celebrated the dynamic careers of principal dancers Ruben Martin Cintas and Damian Smith in their final performance with the company. The program included excerpts from SFB artistic director Helgi Tomasson's "The Fifth Season," Hans Van Manen's "Variations for Two Couples," "The Man I Love" from Balanchine's "Who Cares?," the pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon's "After the Rain," two short film screenings honoring RMC and DS, and Robbins' "In the Night." An outstanding and memorable end to a helluva ballet season. Bravi!

All Jazzed Up

We dedicate this last item to the naysayers who don't believe there is any gangle (LGBT angle) to the world of jazz music. Au contraire, mon frere. The William Way LGBT Community Center has announced the debut of OutBeat: America's First Queer Jazz Festival, set to take place on the final days of summer (Sept. 18-21) in Philadelphia, the original City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection. In this brand-new cultural festival, Philly will play host to critically acclaimed LGBT jazz artists across a broad musical spectrum, including vocalist Andy Bey, Grammy Award-winning pianist Fred Hersch, the Patricia Barber Quartet and drummer Bill Stewart. Additional headliners and further details will be announced throughout the spring. Our jazz-loving heart rejoices.