Reverse Angle:
The “Hole in the Head” film festival.
The 14th Another Hole in the Head film festival opens Wednesday, Oct. 25, “celebrating horror, sci-fi, fantasy and a broad spectrum of related cinema from the SF Bay Area and across the globe,” according to organizers.
The festival will take over the New People Cinema in Japantown through Nov. 8 with 28 features and more than 85 shorts. It opens with the War of 1812-set “Mohawk,” billed as a “historical thriller” or an “action horror” movie. Most of the films won’t be familiar to most moviegoers. But among the betterknown titles are “Dark Star,” “Fantastic Planet,” the first two “Halloween” movies and “Natural Born Killers.”
The local talent on display includes Levni Yilmz, a San Francisco filmmaker and artist, whose animated YouTube series, “Tales of Mere Existence,” has three selections presented next Sunday, Oct. 28.
Christopher Coppola (brother of Nicolas Cage), whose “Bloodhead” was part of HoleHead’s inaugural festival, is back with “Christopher Coppola’s Art Film Trilogy & ‘GMen From Hell.’ ” He made the films of the trilogy while attending the San Francisco Art Institute in the ’80s.
Local artist and Adobe engineer Bhautik Joshi applies graphics filters to film clips to interpret “2001: A Space Odyssey” as Picasso might have, “Blade Runner” through van Gogh’s eyes, and Donald Trump as rendered through “images of everyday objects.” “2001: A Picasso Odyssey” shows Nov. 7.
And anime fans will be interested in “Akira,” the closing-night film, which also will feature live music from San Francisco “electronic musical design duo” the Firmament.
Go to www.ahith.com for details.
Critics Documentary Award nominations
The leading nominee at the second annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards is the stray-catsin-Turkey story, “Kedi,” with four nods and one of the honors awarded in a noncompetitive category. And, as usual in documentary competitions, the Bay Area is represented.
“Kedi” is nominated for best documentary, best first documentary, most innovative documentary and best director. It is also one of the honorees for compelling living subject (the cats of Istanbul) (not Constantinople).
Five other films received three nominations. Meanwhile, 16 are up for best documentary.
Among the best-known titles this year: “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” received a best documentary nod; “Chasing Coral’s” nominations include best doc and best song (performed by Kristen Bell); and the Michelle Obama-endorsed “Step” is nominated for first documentary and song.
The Al Gore-starring “An Inconvenient Sequel,” directed by San Francisco’s Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, is nominated for political documentary and song, as well as a compelling living subject honor.
Among other local nominees is Berkeley’s Amir Bar-Lev, for directing the Grateful Dead doc, “Long Strange Trip,” for best music documentary. The pride of Stockton, workers’ rights activist Dolores Huerta is being honored as one of the most compelling living subjects, and the documentary on her life, “Dolores,” is up in the political category.
Even the multiply nominated “California Typewriter” sprang from the keys of the titular shop on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley.
Nominated televised/streaming docs include “The Defiant Ones,” “Five Came Back” and the series “30 for 30” and “Vice,” among others.
Trivia question
Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” is the highest-grossing documentary, with $119 million. “March of the Penguins” is No. 2 with $77 million. But what is No. 3, according to Box Office Mojo? Hint: It came out in 2011 and made $73 million.
Box office nuggets
“It” has become the highestgrossing R-rated horror movie with more than $600 million worldwide and the highest-grossing horror release at the international box office (more than $300 million).
For all the hand-wringing over “Blade Runner 2049’s” $32 million domestic opening, it picked up $50 million internationally to surpass the halfway mark of its $150 million budget. An R-rated drama with stellar reviews, it could have legs.
Trivia answer
“Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.”
Michael Ordoña is a Los Angeles freelance writer. Twitter: @michaelordona