San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
REEL LOCAL NEWS By Pam Grady
Watching “End Game” is a moving experience, as it follows the choices made for hospice care; making the film was moving in its own way.
“It was intense,” says Jeffrey Friedman, who, along with Rob Epstein, directed the documentary. “It was sad. It was also moving and very beautiful. There’s so much love and caring in the interactions, not only among the family, but between the practitioners and the patients and the families.”
“End Game,” which is currently streaming on Netflix, delves into end-of-life issues through the work of the UCSF palliative care unit, San Francisco’s Zen Hospice Center and B.J. Miller, a doctor who faced his own serious health issues and a triple amputation after an accident when he was 19.
Epstein and Friedman embedded themselves with these caregivers as they tended to their terminal patients. Come Sunday, Feb. 24, the directors will find out whether their film also moved the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters.
The movie is up for an Oscar in the documentary short subject category. The nomination marks the first time the San Francisco filmmakers will return to the Oscars since they won the best documentary feature award in 1990 for “Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.” (Epstein also won the documentary feature Oscar in 1985 for “The Times of Harvey Milk.”)
“It’s really a wonderful honor to get that endorsement from our peers, because to get to the point of being nominated, the voting is all within the documentary branch,” Epstein says. “It’s really a wonderful validation.”
Friedman hopes that the “End Game” nomination will bring more exposure to the film and spark conversations on the issues with which it grapples. Asked what an Oscar win would mean, Epstein is circumspect.
“I’m Jewish, so I don’t even let myself think about it,” he laughs. “I don’t want to curse it. But it’s an incredible honor. It’s the grand poobah of awards.”
Celebrating Merce Cunningham
at 100: The San Francisco Dance Film Festival honors dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham at his centenary, with two programs on May 4, at San Francisco’s Delancey Street Screening Room.
One program is a screening of “Assemblage,” capturing the Cunningham dance company in a 1968 performance in Ghirardelli Square with a score by John Cage. A panel discussion moderated by dance critic Claudia Bauer with choreographers Margaret Jenkins, Karen Attix, Charles Moulton and “Assemblage” editor Bill Yahraus follows.
Second is “If the Dancer Dances,” a 2018 documentary in which three former Cunningham dancers teach his 1968 “RainForest” dance to members of the Stephen Petronio Company. Following the screening, Bay Area choreographer Hope Mohr will discuss plans to create a new work honoring Cunningham’s legacy. www.sfdancefilmfest.org
JFI seeks youth jurors: The Jewish Film Institute is accepting applications from Bay Area high school students to serve on its inaugural San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Youth Jury, which will award a prize for best short film at SFJFF 2019. March 11 is the application deadline. https://jfi.org
Oscar parties around the bay: The 91st Academy Awards air at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24, on ABC. Several Bay Area theaters will host viewing parties. Among them: San Francisco’s Roxie Theater’s annual “Up the Oscars” bash promises beer, snacks and no commercials, with the ads replaced by offbeat shorts, music videos and more. 3:30 p.m., $16. www.roxie.com In Oakland, the New Parkway Theater’s party includes all-you-caneat appetizers. 4 p.m., $23-$25. www.thenewparkway.com Champagne, popcorn, a red carpet, contests and more are part of Awards Night at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. 3 p.m., $25/$55. https://rafaelfilm.cafilm.org Film critic Jan Wahl and auctioneer Chad Carvey host the awards night gala at the Lark Theater in Larkspur. The theme is “glamour and glitz,” and the event includes wine, hors d’oeuvres, dinner bowls, a costume contest and more. 4 p.m., $95. http://larktheater.net
Film clips
Director James Ivory appears Wednesday-Saturday, Feb. 20-23, at Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive for screenings of his films “Autobiography of a Princess” (1975), “Shakespeare-Wallah” (1965) and “The Guru” (1969). https://bampfa.org Late Bay Area filmmaker Marlon Riggs’ experimental documentary “Tongues Untied” returns to the Roxie Theater for a 30th anniversary screening, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20. www.roxie.com