A Man Named Pearl (Shadow Distribution)

Last week I wrote about Reading Gaslamp wanting to bring more indie, foreign and art house films to San Diego on a regular basis. They continue to make good on their word with the opening of A Man Named Pearl on August 22. The documentary portrait of self-taught South Carolina topiary artist Pearl Fryar comes on the heels of Reading Gaslamp's engagement of another documentary portrait, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. A Man Named Pearl is a more lightweight film both in terms of its subject matter and its style. But while the Polanski doc left you frustrated by the legal system and angry at the media, A Man Named Pearl offers a thoroughly feel-good experience.

The 9th Annual San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition

Prepare for a breathtaking view of a submerged world with the 9th Annual San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition. The Exhibition will be held at Qualcomm Hall's big screen auditorium in San Diego on Friday and Saturday evenings, August 22 and 23. The venue boasts state of the art digital projection (what else would you expect from Qualcomm) for its showcase of digital video, including many in high definition. There will be a different program of fifteen short films each night beginning at 7:00 PM. Each work clocks in at no longer than five minutes with subjects ranging from sharks to shipwrecks to colorful marine creatures, and each shot in exotic underwater locales across the globe and in our own backyard. The films celebrate the incredible beauty and visual splendor of life in the ocean. But the films also make us aware of how fragile this world is and how important it is to protect it. The clips made available in advance of the festival didn't identify the filmmakers or titles of the works, but one involving a playful seal and another involving a mesmerizing squid were particularly impressive.

Tickets are $15 per evening and are available online at sdufex.com, and at various San Diego dive shops, dive clubs and organizations.

The San Diego Women's Film Festival will be screening the music documentary The Gits as a fundraising event Wednesday August 20 at 9pm at the Whistle Stop Bar (2236 Fern Street, 619-284-6784). Entering its sixth year, SDWFF will kick off its 2008 festival on October 2. But the Festival, like so many non-profits this year, needs your help in raising funds so that it can continue to build on its past successes. The Gits will have its San Diego sneak preview at the Whistle Stop and will have its theatrical premiere at the Festival in October.

Directed by Kerri O'Kane, The Gits is the rousing and heartbreaking story of Seattle band The Gits, whose promising start was cut short by the tragic murder of lead singer Mia Zapata (who was rumored to have been descended from Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata).The documentary mixes musical history with murder mystery as it weaves a tale about a punk band that was beginning to distinguish itself.

Tickets are a suggested $5 donation (of course you can always give more!). I have served on the SDWFF selection committee since the Festival's inception and I value the work it has done to highlight films by women so I hope you will come out and support the festival and quality films by women by coming out to the Whistle Stop. You will also be supporting the Festival's new, dynamic curator Holly Jones whose passion for film has already been proven with her Citizen Video store. Com'on, it'll be like going to see the band play live at a bar -- you couldn't ask for a more perfect setting for a film like this.

The new documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired opens August 15 at the Reading Gaslamp Theaters. I just want to take a brief moment to say something about the change of ownership down at Gaslamp, which had been a Pacific Theater. When I asked publicist Jo Ellen Brantferger about the new owners and their seeming commitment to showing indie, foreign or art house films on at least one screen, here's the statement I got back: "Since Reading operates the Angelika Film Center in New York City, our film programmers are very familiar with the variety of art, independent, and foreign films that are available theatrically to U.S. audiences. Reading intends to continue showing first run commercial films at the Gaslamp 15, but hopes to enhance its programming with some art, independent or foreign films that otherwise might not have come to San Diego. In fact, in the next few weeks, Reading is opening both Man from Pearl and Sixty Six." That sounds like good news and the fact that they are finally bringing the Polanski documentary (which aired on HBO) to the big screen in San Diego is definitely a plus.

Directed by Marina Zenovich, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired recounts the scandalous events of 1977 involving Roman Polanski and a 13-year-old girl who accused the famous director of giving her alcohol and Quaaludes and then raping her. All that most Americans remember about the case is that Polanski fled the U.S. to avoid punishment but the film reminds us that the circumstances of his flight were a little more complicated than that -- he actually did serve prison time and had entered into a plea bargain but fled when the judge became more interested in publicity than justice.

Listen to our KPBS Film Club of the Air discussion of the new documentary Man on Wire (opening August 8 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas). The film chronicles the obessions of Philippe Petit who, on August 7th 1974, walked across a wire illegally rigged between New York's Twin Towers, which were at that time the world's tallest buildings. The film's title is taken from the police report that used the phrase "man on wire" to describe the incident. Filmmaker James Marsh documents -- with an amazing amount of archival footage -- Petit's dream project.  Petit himself is a bundle of energy, passion, and enthusiasm as he describes his dreams and the nuts and bolts details of achieving it. Marsh lets the story play out like a heist film. Without ever mentioning 9/11, Marsh invokes the tragedy as he shows the towers being built and the awe they inspired. The fact that Petit and his crew could sneak into those building with bows and arrows and huge cables, and essentially be able to walk away because their prank was deemed to be not malicious reveals a kind of innocence that we may never be able to recapture. The film has a very bittersweet tone as it almost delivers an elegy to a bygone, more innocent time. Just as Petit after his famous stunt seems unable to recapture that drive and enthusiasm we don't seem able to go back and recapture something from our collective past either. Man on Wire is definitely worth checking out.

The 1985 poster for The Breakfast Club and the initial poster designed for American Teen (Paramount Vantage)

The new documentary American Teen (opening August 8 at select theaters) is something of a real life Breakfast Club (you remember that John Hughes film about "a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel, and a recluse..."). American Teen focuses on five teens representing such school cliques as jocks, geeks, and the popular set. I spoke with director Nanette Burstein about capturing contemporary teen life for her film. You can listen to my radio feature or read the extended interview.

We all remember that iconic and epic film The Breakfast Club. Either you were born watching it or your parents got you into it or even the latest fad of being retro required you to have a large knowledge of whether you were a princess, a brain, a criminal, etc. So when you walked down the theatre aisle and saw this new movie poster for the latest documentary directed by Nanette Burstein, American Teen, you probably had to take a second look, to make sure that it isn't a remake. This documentary has been compared to the most famous 80s movie, but this film is most definitely not a remake. This movie, being a documentary, takes a world that has been displayed in fiction, and in over-dramatic television "reality" shows, and it offers a more in depth and sincere look at the lives of the modern high school teen. The film includes the cliques, struggling to graduate, and teen heartbreak. Overall this film is a great model of what preteens have to look forward to, what teenagers have to live through, and what adults have successfully survived. After I had seen this film I had the great opportunity of meeting and interviewing the director, Nanette Burstein. In the way she spoke of her subjects, I saw the love she had for them and it assured me that this director only had the truest intentions in what that life is like, and I was grateful that this woman chose to deliver this message.

-- Candace Kavanagh just graduated from Mount Miguel High School. She spends her life absorbing celluloid images. She loves every type of film from so-called "chick flicks" such as My Fair Lady and Legally Blonde, to mind bending thrillers like Mulholland Drive and Hard Candy -- with every zombie movie, action flick, musical, and comedy in between.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Magnolia Pictures)

Alex Gibney has had his hand in some of the best recent documentaries on politics and hot button issues. Working as producer, writer and/or director, Gibney has been involved in The Trials of Henry Kissinger, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Who Killed the Electric Car?, No End in Sight, and Taxi to the Dark Side. Gibney's latest documentary is Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. This time out, Gibney serves as writer, director, and producer as he paints a portrait of the iconoclastic journalist and author who thought -- and proved -- that writers could be like rock stars.

Encounters at the End of the World or Herzog Goes to the South Pole (Discovery Films)

German filmmaker Werner Herzog is becoming known for more than just his art house films. The man who directed such stellar works as Aguirre, Wrath of God and the recent Rescue Dawn is also starting to get recognized for his appearances in documentaries about him. Burden of Dreams chronicled his obsession to make Fitzcarraldo in the jungle, and in Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe the director makes good on a bet and does precisely what the title says. In those documentaries, Herzog displays a dour, anal-retentive, and thoroughly obsessive persona that would be mocked in the faux documentaries Incident at Loch Ness and The Grand. What makes Herzog so entertaining is that he's so serious and he seems completely unaware of how funny that is. In both Loch Ness and The Grand, he acts as if he doesn't realize it's all a joke. In his documentaries, Herzog becomes as much of a character as the people he films. Although he doesn't generally appear on camera in his documentaries, he contributes voiceover narration and asks questions off screen as he pursues people who are as obsessive as he is. Little Dieter Needs to Fly gave us a man obsessed with becoming a pilot and Grizzly Man focused on a man whose passion for bears eventually led to his death. Now Herzog heads down to the South Pole for Encounters at the End of the World, a documentary about the odd collection of folks at the bottom of the world.

The Media Arts Center's Teen Producers Project will host a free screening of its' latest videos this Friday, June 27th at 6:30PM at Crawford High Educational Complex Auditorium (4191 Colts Way, SD, 92115). Student filmmakers from San Diego neighborhoods produced a trio of compelling short documentaries that examine immigration policy, community violence, and the experiences of refugees and immigrants pursuing the American Dream. Working with MACSD instructors, teen filmmakers interviewed, researched, and produced socially conscious works about issues that impact their lives and the lives of people in their communities. After the screening, youth filmmakers and MACSD artists will hold a Q&A with the audience about the making of these videos. Discussion to be facilitated by University of San Diego Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, Jesse Mills.

The films to be screened are: Perspectives of the American Dream, in which teens compare and contrast the experiences of individuals from two San Diego communities; I Want My Parents Back, which focuses on the issue of immigration by highlighting the story of a local San Diego family; and Fighting Community Violence, which documents the effects gang violence has on former gang members, emphasizing the consequences of joining a gang as well as providing positive alternatives to participating in gang activity.

The MACSD press release states: "Youth who participated in the Teen Producers Project this past year and produced these three documentaries, were excited about the process of learning about their community and at the same time learning to be video producers." Steve Garcia, a Teen Producer who worked on Fighting Community Violence, says, "Video is a good way to tell a lot of people what's going on; at Teen Producers Project, I can make friends and see how people help each other." Argenis Herrera, Teen Producer who worked on I Want My Parents Back, adds, "I believe documentary films are a great way of getting a message to the world and have it seen and heard."

For more information about the Teen Producers Project and the upcoming screening, please call 619-230-1938 x 101 and/or visit www.mediaartscenter.org.