Topic: Day to Day
Hmmm...I've gotten so far behind on this blog. Oy...
I'll start filling in here...
Christopher Gray and his lady Lee Jacobson were back visiting from Rhode Island. I had lunch with them on Monday the 29th at a pub in Berkeley.
On Tuesday the 30th I BARTed to the Mission is S.F. to the Artists' Television access, where a retrospective of Lee's late sister's films. Her sister, Sara, died from cancer back in February. I sat through both programs of her work. The first was a series of her short films, starting with one made in High School and culminating in a cinema vérité* piece in which the filmmaker goes bra shopping with her mother. The second was her $12K feature film "Mary Jane's Not A Virgin Any More". Of the program I liked the cinema vérité pieces the best. The early work was self-conscious in a way. I liked that "Mary Jane" was about teenage sexuality without being exploitive. What I didn't like was the way it was shot. I realize it was made for next to nothing, but the camera work felt really boxed in. The whole film felt weirdly claustrophobic.
I met Christopher and Lee again on Friday, joining them and others for drinks and pizza put on Clement Street. I had to BART into SF and then take a bus to the Avenues because some nutcase was standing on the Bay Bridge, causing and 11 hour traffic jam! I particularly miss Christopher, whom I met my first day living in the Bay Area. It was great to be able to spend some time with him.
*-If you don't know what cinéma vérité means, CLICK HERE!
Posted by molyneaux
at 3:57 PM PDT
Updated: Tuesday, 19 May 2009 11:53 PM PDT
