4-Star Theatre. Chinese American Film Festival: Founded in 2005, this cross-cultural cinefest brings its 10th annual program to San Francisco, with the nine films in this year's festival including period pieces (The Golden Era), neo-western thrillers (No Man's Land), romances (Beijing Love Story), and more. Nov. 19-25. $8-$10 per program. lntsf.com/10th-annual-chinese-american-film-festival.html. 2200 Clement, San Francisco, 666-3488, lntsf.com/4-star-theatre.html.
Artists' Television Access. Periwinkle Cinema: The queer film and video art series celebrates the Transgender Day of Remembrance with screenings of trans/genderqueer/non-binary works by J'vlyn d'Ark, Silas Howard, Tobi Hill Meyer, Lorin Murphy, Sam Ripinsky, and Xara Thustra. Wed., Nov. 19, 8 p.m. $7-$10. periwinklecinema.com. Other Cinema: A Civil Africa: Filmmaker and photographer Mark Brecke shows pictures (of both the moving and still varieties) documenting his experiences in Africa, including his documentary on the history of the film industry in Somalia. Sat., Nov. 22, 8:30 p.m. $7. othercinema.com. 992 Valencia, San Francisco, 824-3890, atasite.org.
Castro Theatre. Peaches and Heklina's High School Reunion: Peaches Christ, San Francisco's premier drag cineaste, screens the classic 1997 comedy Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, preceded by a live drag extravaganza. Sat., Nov. 22, 8 p.m. $30-$60. peacheschrist.com. 429 Castro, San Francisco, 621-6120, castrotheatre.com.
Clay Theatre. Whiplash: Drumming well is the best revenge. Or so we learn from being schooled by Damien Chazelle's thrilling litany of mind games and physical punishments, which features a dynamic movie duet between Miles Teller as a driven young conservatory jazz drummer and J.K. Simmons as his unreasonably abusive teacher. Daily. 2261 Fillmore, San Francisco, 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Dark Room Theater. Bad Movie Night: Salt: Hosts Jim Fourniadis, Mike Spiegelman, and Rose Lacy are back with another dubious Angelina Jolie blockbuster, this time submitting themselves to the 2010 espionage thriller that — despite its fistfights, car chases, and international intrigue — is ho-hum enough that it might as well have been called Slug. Sun., Nov. 23, 8 p.m. $6.99. 2263 Mission, San Francisco, 401-7987, darkroomsf.com.
Embarcadero Center Cinema. Birdman: In Alejandro González Iñárritu's bold comment on the uncertain new frontier of performing arts, Michael Keaton plays the wounded, ambitious, has-been star of a superhero-movie franchise, now mounting his own Raymond Carver adaptation on Broadway. Daily. Citizenfour: The centerpiece of Laura Poitras' new documentary about Edward Snowden is Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald interviewing Snowden in June of 2013, where Snowden explains just how thoroughly our government violates the world's privacy. Though he disappears for much of the second half to go into exile, his presence remains — and if the film ends abruptly, that's only because the real-life story is still far from over. Daily. The Theory of Everything: In director James Marsh's gauzy and chastely reverential movie, Eddie Redmayne relishes the physically challenging role of young astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, bending himself through a progression of wheelchairs from 1960s Cambridge toward the gnarled, impish, computer-voiced transglobal keynoter we all know and love today. Daily. The Homesman: Packed with top-notch actors who probably didn't need to hear more than "a western directed by Tommy Lee Jones" to be convinced to play small roles, The Homesman is less of a revisionist western than it is a tone poem on just how unfair, miserable, and downright rapey life was on the frontier. Starting Nov. 21. Daily. 1 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Exploratorium. Off the Screen: The Handcrafted Cinema of Richard Tuohy: San Francisco Cinematheque hosts the experimental Australian "film alchemist" and celluloid manipulator as he presents a series of short avant-garde works. Wed., Nov. 19, 7 p.m. $5-$10. sfcinematheque.org. Saturday Cinema: Weekly thematic film screenings presented in the Kanbar Forum by the Exploratorium's Cinema Arts program. Saturdays. Free with museum admission. Pier 15, San Francisco, 528-4444, exploratorium.edu.
Opera Plaza Cinemas. The Way He Looks: This sensitive (sometimes gratingly so) and sunny coming-of-age film from Brazil follows the blossoming affection that Leonardo, a blind teenager, feels for the cute new boy in class. Daily. Force Majeure: Ruben Östlund's film pulls off the remarkable trick of being a disaster movie that largely skips the disaster: A married couple goes on a skiing holiday, but when a false-alarm avalanche causes the husband to freak out and run, his panicked reaction causes permanent damage to their relationship. Östlund conveys the fragility of the mountain surroundings, making it feel like less like a vacation spot and more like a war zone — which is exactly what it becomes. Daily. Low Down: True stories of drug-addled hepcats in downward spirals aren't exactly rare in movies. But in the aptly named Low Down, director Jeff Preiss strips one such story of all bathos, refusing bullshit exaltation in favor of poignant day-to-day banality, with John Hawkes inhabiting the muted mid-1970s anguish of bop pianist and heroin addict Joe Albany. Daily. The Better Angels: A.J. Edwards' artfully oblique and dreamy film focuses on Abraham Lincoln's hardscrabble childhood with a game young Braydon Denny in the role of our proto-hero. Starting Nov. 21. Daily. 601 Van Ness, San Francisco, 777-3456, landmarktheatres.com.
Roxie Theater. Bad Turn Worse: The post-wave of Tarantino-wannabe films in the mid-'90s was one of the bleaker periods in indie film history, and Simon and Zeke Hawkins' crime thriller dips into that well a few too many times. The story itself is simple enough — Sue's none-too-bright boyfriend Billy Joe pulls her into a life of heists and double-crosses — but it often feels less like a cohesive movie and more like a display reel of the Hawkins boys' influences. Through Nov. 20. Festival of the Moving Image: City College of San Francisco students wring out their blood, sweat, and tears and slap it on the screen for our enjoyment at the fourth annual showcase of work by members of the CCSF cinema and broadcasting departments. Thu., Nov. 20, 7 & 8:45 p.m. $6.50-$10 per program (or $10-$15 for both). facebook.com/festivalofthemovingimage. Rocks in My Pockets: Signe Bauman's animated feature tells the story of five women in her extended Latvian family, examining not only the stigma of mental illness but also how rough women have had it in more conservative cultures, even without throwing suicidal thoughts into the mix. Yet the picture is also often very funny, because as Bauman knows, the only way to truly defeat demons is to laugh at them. Nov. 21-27. Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek: Filmmaker Leah Mahan presents her documentary about the struggles of a small black community to save its ancestral Mississippi land from the forces of environmental destruction, corporate power, and racial politics. Sat., Nov. 22, 7 p.m. $7.50-$10. Legends of Ska: If mentions of the word "ska" bring to mind 2 Tone roster mainstays like The Specials, Madness, and The [English] Beat — or, if you're younger, third wave groups like Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, and (heaven help you) No Doubt — then this documentary should provide a historical rectification about the genre's pre-reggae roots in mid-'60s Jamaica. The film's centerpiece is a weekend-long concert from 2002 featuring original scene singers like Prince Buster, Derrick Morgan, Winston Samuels, Doreen Shaffer, Lord Creator, and more performing with the All-Star Skatalite Orchestra. Sat., Nov. 22, 9:30 p.m. $10. legendsofska.com. 3117 16th St., San Francisco, 863-1087, roxie.com.
Vogue Theatre. New Italian Cinema: The San Francisco Film Society serves up a taste of the latest productions from Italy, including works by Edoardo Ponti, Paolo Virzì, Asia Argento, and several young first- and second-time directors. Nov. 19-23. sffs.org. 3290 Sacramento, San Francisco, 346-2288, voguesf.com.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Exposed: NYC trash cinema veteran Beth B turns her dirty lens onto practitioners of the New Burlesque scene to create a documentary that will surely be eye-opening for some and perhaps not transgressive enough for others. Nov. 20-22, 7:30 p.m. $8-$10. 701 Mission, San Francisco, 978-2787, ybca.org.
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