This week, we take a look at the East Bay-focused PBS collection “The Class,” the twenty second San Francisco Greek Movie Competition and well timed documentaries concerning the state of American journalism and a bunch of Israelis and Palestinians in search of peace.
The insightful six-part PBS docuseries “The Class” describes the unprecedented challenges going through six college students from Deer Valley Excessive College in Antioch throughout COVID, when stultifying Zoom courses started. Govt produced by Oakland renaissance man Daveed Diggs, the collection concentrates on the graduating seniors, their school adviser, and, to a lesser extent, mother and father and faculty officers as they wind their approach via the tumultuous, unsure 2020-21 college time period. A brilliant gentle shining via the collection is the inspiring, decided adviser, an East Oakland native who graduated from Deer Valley Excessive, who clearly understands and empathizes with the teenagers as he helps them fulfill their dream to go to school. The collection receives a red-carpet premiere at 11 a.m. March 16 on the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. The screening of the primary episode additionally features a Q&A with Diggs, directors-producers Jaye and Adam Fenderson and folks from Deer Valley Excessive. Tickets value $10-$13, and college students might be admitted without cost with a sound ID. To register, go to kqed.org/occasion.
“The Class” does a masterful job of depicting the disrupted, burdened lives of Deer Valley Excessive college students Ahmad, Ebei, Emily, Javonte, Kadynce and Raven throughout a time many wish to neglect. One teen can’t play and apply basketball, even whereas making an attempt to get an athletic scholarship; one other works on the neighborhood Chipotle as an important employee to financially assist her household. The collection additionally illustrates how the long-delayed reopening of the varsity created extra complications and obstacles
The Fendersons, who’re married, catalog all of it, carrying on their explorations of the schooling system in 2011’s “First Generation” and 2019’s “Unlikely.” They embrace knowledge factors all through, such because the surge within the variety of Fs college students earned on the nationwide degree throughout COVID. In addition they survey how adjustments in the price of Antioch actual property turned the area right into a magnet for households; and the way nimbyism performed out with their arrival. Whereas “The Class” focuses on the six seniors, it additionally finds a hero within the persistent and compassionate Mr. Cam, who stays in contact with the scholars and helps them meet deadlines for school purposes. It additionally factors to the necessity for extra motivators like Mr. Cam who actually join and relate to college students. “The Class” airs on KQED 9 at 8 p.m. Fridays, beginning March 21; at 6 p.m. Saturdays, beginning March 22; and at 9 p.m. Mondays, beginning March 24. It is going to be on KQED Plus at 8 p.m. Sundays beginning March 23. Go to pbs.org/present/the-class.
In its twenty second iteration, the San Francisco Greek Movie Competition (March 15-22 in particular person and March 15-April 5 on-line) unpacks 29 movies. Eight are narrative options, 9 are brief narratives and 12 are documentaries.
The comedy-drama “Greek Mothers Never Die” opens the San Francisco Greek Movie Competition on March 15 on the Delancey Screening Room. (Courtesy Angelica Perez-Castro)
Screenings are at San Francisco’s comfortable Delancey Screening Room at 600 The Embarcadero. This system kicks off at 6 p.m. March 15 with the genre-diverse “Greek Mothers Never Die,” a comedy-romance-fantasy-drama partly impressed by a real story. Director Rachel Suissa’s story finds a 36-year-old girl reacquainted with a former love as she offers with the presence of her strong-willed mom’s ghost. It’s paired with the 16-minute narrative brief “The Cardinal.”
Ghosts and grief determine into director Yorgos Zios’ “Arcadia,” a drama a few couple grappling with each following a deadly automobile crash. It screens at 7 p.m. March 16, paired with the 33-minute, award-winning drama “The Chaos Left Behind.” Director Sofia Exarchou’s detailed character research “Animal” describes how issues take a dramatic flip within the lifetime of a feminine dancer who entertains vacationers at a middling Greek island resort. It screens at 7 p.m. March 18 with the coming-of-age brief “Numb.”
Followers of Greek tragedy will wish to see “Meat” by filmmaker Dimitris Nakos at 7 p.m. March 21. With a up to date setting, it’s a few patriarch who faces a fateful resolution involving his son and the boy he raised after a longstanding feud escalates to homicide. It screens at 7 p.m. March 21 with the brief “The Tooth and the Rock.” In-person screenings conclude with Penny Panayotopoulou’s hard-hitting drama “Wishbone” at 6 p.m. March 22. Praised for its award-winning cinematography and authenticity, it focuses on how shifting private tasks positioned on a barely scraping by hospital safety guard (Giannis Karampampas) lead him to think about a proposal that would have severe repercussions. It’s paired with the brief “Abel.” Screenings value $15 (however $65 on opening and shutting night time), and $155 for a move. Streaming prices are $10 for narratives and documentaries over an hour and $5 for brief movies. For tickets and the schedule, go to grfilm.com.
After a string of sold-out Bay Space screenings, “Stripped for Parts” returns. It’s being proven at an SF Public Press fundraiser at 6 p.m. March 13 on the Roxie in San Francisco; 7 p.m. March 13 on the Hillside Membership in Berkeley; 7:30 p.m., March 20 on the Smith Rafael Movie Heart; 6:45 p.m. March 27 on the Orinda Theatre and a couple of p.m. March 29 on the Pleasanton Library, 400 Outdated Bernal Ave. A digital nationwide screening is at 5 p.m. March 29. For info and tickets, go to strippedforpartsfilm.com.
Combatants for Peace seems at binational demonstration of Israelis and Palestinians within the West Financial institution in a scene from the documentary “There Is Another Way,” screening in March on the Smith Rafael Movie Heart in San Rafael and the Roxie in San Francisco. (Video nonetheless by Ghassan Bannoura)
One other well timed documentary additionally with rays of hope is Stephen Apkon’s “There Is Another Way.” It’s about Combatants for Peace, a bunch of Palestinians and Israelis advocating for a peaceable decision to the disaster in Gaza and past. It focuses on two girls, Iris Gur and Mai Shahin, as they tirelessly lead an effort towards a path apart from the one being taken. “There Is Another Way,” govt produced by James Cameron, screens at 7 p.m. March 13 on the Smith Rafael Movie Heart, with a Q&A with Apkon, Gur and Shahin. The movie additionally screens on the Roxie in San Francisco at screenings at 6:30 p.m. March 14, 3:40 p.m. March 16 and 6:30 p.m. March 19, some with appearances by pertinent events.
