Cinequest, San Jose’s annual film festival celebrating mavericks and independent filmmakers, draws to its close this weekend, but it’s going out with a bang. Besides the numerous remaining screenings, there are a number of events you won’t want to miss. If you’re an aspiring screenwriter, the Writers Celebration on Friday, March 9 is a must. [...]
Read more →
Director: Bing Bailey Cast: Geraldine Mcalinden, Rory Mullen, Todd Fletcher, Gerry Shanahan, Patrick Murphy, Steven Neeson, Sara Eavans, Sonya o Donoghue, Paul O’Bryan, Ciaran Davies Country: Ireland “Portrait of a Zombie” is one of those films that really ought to be fantastic, but doesn’t quite make it. These aren’t uncommon at Cinequest, but they’re always [...]
Read more →
Director: Paul Bunnell Cast: Will Keenan, Creed Bratton, De Anna Joy Brooks, Reggie Bannister, Les Williams, Jed Rowen, Kate Maberly, Paul Williams, Kevin McCarthy Country: United States There’s a certain kind of audacity that makes a film likable, regardless of its technical abilities. “The Ghastly Love of Johnny X” is a big love song to [...]
Read more →
Director: Diego Rougier Cast: Fele Martinez, Javiera Contador, Sergio Hernandez, Patricio Contreras, Gonzalo Valenzuel, Luis Dubo Country: Chile, Spain Language: English, Spanish with English subtitles Filmmakers love to make movies about making movies, and “Salt” is the kind of film we get as a result. It wanders a bit, unsure of its purpose and footing [...]
Read more →
Every spring, the Cinequest Film Festival takes over downtown San Jose, filling it with film lovers and film makers from all over the globe. This year is the twenty-second for the festival, which focuses on encouraging and empowering maverick filmmakers.
Read more →
Movies like “Sunflower Hour” are why I love Cinequest so much. It’s well-made, nothing like the movies Hollywood turns out, and frequently made me gape at the screen before collapsing in astonished laughter.
Read more →
Computers are ubiquitous in today’s culture — we use them to get our news, buy everything from books to groceries to clothes, keep in touch with friends, do our banking, and countless other tasks. Because every interaction with a computer is essentially data that can be stored, hackers have an unprecedented trove of data to mine. “Code 2600″ looks at the history of hacking, starting with phone phreaking and following it to the kinds of international hacking going on today.
Read more →
The story of the boy who runs away to join the circus is an old one, but how about the girl who ran away to join the pro-wrestling tour?
Read more →Cinequest, San Jose’s maverick film festival, may be wrapping up this weekend but it’s not coasting to the finish line. There are films showing on multiple screens downtown up to the last minutes of the fest, and there are several events packed into these last few days. Friday brings us the Day of the Writer [...]
Read more →3/11, 2:45 PM Camera 12 Peter Stormare (“Fargo”) is almost unrecognizable in this character-driven film. He plays Walter, a once-violent, now born-again police chief in a small Mennonite town in Ontario. When a woman’s body is found, his new life is at risk — the prime suspect is the new squeeze of his ex-girlfriend, an [...]
Read more →3/11, 9:30 PM Camera 12 This is the kind of film that makes me love Cinequest. Set in a Swiss town with a large Tamil population, this cross-cultural Bollywood-style romance is incredibly endearing. Devan escaped the violence in his homeland when he came to Switzerland as a teenager, but much of the culture remains the [...]
Read more →3/11, 12:30 PM Camera 12 Some Cinequest movies are likely to provoke either love or hate, and “New York Decalogue” is one of those. This is a quiet film, mostly without dialog, which paints brief but revealing portraits of several very different New Yorkers whose lives are more interconnected than is obvious at first. I [...]
Read more →