4-Star Theatre. The Sisterhood of Night: When three high school students go offline, forsaking social media and digital communication to form the titular Sisterhood, a rejected blogger starts writing horrible things about them online, whipping the town into a Salem-witch-trial-like panic about the lesbianic and/or satanic things the Sisterhood may be doing at night in the woods. Through April 16. 2200 Clement, San Francisco, 666-3488, lntsf.com/4-star-theatre.html.
Artists' Television Access. Citizen Kino #44: The Bitmaker's Afterlife: The XLterrestrials have landed their cinematic cybership once more, and this time their program of mixed-and-mutated video focuses on the digital dystopia that's rewiring the city in the name of Big Data and its neoliberal conspirators. Thu., April 16, 8:30 p.m. $7-$10. xlterrestrials.org. Out with Drought: Submerge your mind in an exhibition of short film and video meditations on the importance of H2O. Fri., April 17, 8 p.m. $7-$10. Other Cinema: Stereo-Scopophilia: Experimental animations and live projections (both new and old) by Oskar Fischinger, Fleshtone Hacking, Len Lye, Kelly Sears, Craig Baldwin, and more. Sat., April 18, 8:30 p.m. $7. othercinema.com. 992 Valencia, San Francisco, 824-3890, atasite.org.
Clay Theatre. Wild Tales: A cornucopia of comeuppance, this exuberant pulp anthology from Argentine writer-director Damián Szifrón would like to point out how ready and willing humans still are to act like animals. The tales include a perhaps deservedly unlucky assembly of airplane passengers; a dish of revenge best served at a late-night diner; a bribery spiral spinning out of control from a drunken rich kid's hit-and-run; an elaborate road-rage duel that'll be the envy of Tarantino; a demolitionist getting his own blow-up button pushed by parking-enforcement bureaucracy; and one catastrophically tacky wedding. Daily. 2261 Fillmore, San Francisco, 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Embarcadero Center Cinema. What We Do in the Shadows: In this mockumentary written and directed by two Flight of the Conchords guys, Vladislav, Viago, Deacon, and Nick are vampires of varying antiquity who cohabitate in a grungy flat in New Zealand. Followed by a documentary crew, they go on about the business of both being undead (if foppish) ghouls who feed on the blood of humans to survive, as well as being a bunch of straight men living together, which means the dishes and other basic chores tend to go undone. Daily. The Salt of the Earth: Wim Wenders' spellbinding new documentary, a deep survey of economist-turned-photographer Sebastião Salgado's career (co-directed with the photographer's son Juliano), necessarily contains many harrowing images of human suffering — indeed, famine and war are Salgado specialties — but the effort to make and collect these images registers here as the opposite of exploitation. Through his life's work, Salgado has earned the authority to advocate for a less destructive, more cherishing engagement with nature, which includes trees and animals and, especially, human beings. Daily. 3 Hearts: Benoît Jacquot's romantic melodrama comes across as something like An Affair to Remember meets Your Sister's Sister, sans both the sweeping glamour of the former and the latter's easygoing modern charm. Instead it has what seems like a calculatedly broad "French movie" appeal, with pedigreed stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Chiara Mastroianni, and Catherine Deneuve arranged like rigid bowling pins on a slick, flat surface of plot, and Benoît Poelvoorde as the hapless semi-homely man in their midst, the gutterball. Daily. Effie Gray: In Richard Laxton's lushly photographed period piece, Victorian-era art critic John Ruskin (Greg Wise) marries young Effie Gray (Dakota Fanning) and promptly sets about ignoring her, leaving Effie confused and struggling to find her role in the world — and for possible means of escape at a time when divorce was not a thing, especially for women. Daily. White God: A sort of Euro-miserablist cross between The Birds and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but with dogs, Kornél Mundruczó's White God shows us modern Hungary as a joyless society defined — and done in — by zero tolerance of mongrels. Daily. Clouds of Sils Maria: Much of Oliver Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria is a terrific two-hander between successful-but-aging actress Maria (Juliette Binoche) — who has reluctantly agreed to participate in a revival of the play that made her famous 20 years prior, with her original role now assayed by a troubled, tabloid-bait starlet — and her assistant Val (Kristen Stewart), who runs lines with Maria while engaging in occasionally fourth-wall-pushing philosophical debates about innocence versus maturity, what it means to have integrity as a celebrity in modern Hollywood, and everything in between. Starting April 17. Daily. 1 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Exploratorium. 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.
Kadist Art Foundation. A Journal of the Plague Year: Saturday Screenings: To augment its art show of the same name, Kadist shares a series of feature films in which racialized depictions of Asians — whether heroic like Charlie Chan or sinister like Fu Manchu — lead to pervasive cultural stereotypes and subsequent xenophobia. Sat., April 18, 3 & 5 p.m. 3295 20th St., San Francisco, 738-8668, kadist.org.
Main Library, Koret Auditorium. Earth Day Film Series: The SFPL's Green Stacks initiative presents a trio of free documentaries in honor of Earth Day: Angel Azul, the 2014 exploration of artist Jason de Caires' subaquatic sculptural creations (noon Tuesday, April 21); A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet, a tribute to the history of the environmental movement (5 p.m. Tuesday, April 21); and Speciesism: The Movie, which questions the sense of superiority humans feel versus animals in order to make factory farming seem ethically justified (5:45 p.m. Thursday, April 23). Tue., April 21, 12 & 5 p.m.; Thu., April 23, 5:35 p.m. Free. 100 Larkin, San Francisco, 557-4595, sfpl.org.
Multiple San Francisco Locations. The Earth Day Film Fest: Forty-five years after the birth of Earth Day comes the first ever "official" Earth Day film festival, which pairs environmental documentaries and short films with nature walks, fitness events, and more. Screenings take place at Artists' Television Access (992 Valencia), Roxie Theater (3117 16th St.), Merchants of Reality (285 Ninth St.), and an outdoor screening location TBA. April 18-24. earthdayfilmfest.org. Multiple addresses, San Francisco.
Opera Plaza Cinemas. Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter: One of the best movies of 2015 so far, David and Nathan Zellner's black comedy stars the mesmerizing Rinko Kikuchi as a desperate Tokyo "office lady" who hates everything about her life, so she travels to North Dakota, certain that Joel and Ethan Coen's Fargo was a true story, and that the money is still buried by that one fence. Daily. Kill Me Three Times: Australian director Kriv Stenders has described his own dark comedy thriller as a cross between Blood Simple and Rashomon, but it's more like a tarnished relic sprung from some time capsule buried during the grim Tarantino-wannabe wars of the mid-1990s: all muscle cars and glib gunmen and nonlinear, non-interesting storylines that supply a twisty slog for stars Teresa Palmer, Luke Hemsworth, Alice Braga, and Simon Pegg. Daily. The Wrecking Crew: If you've heard any pop music recorded in California in the 1960s or early 1970s, you've heard the work of the Wrecking Crew, a free-floating collective of studio musicians who played without credit on tens of thousands of songs. Danny Tedesco's joyous documentary is a personal, heartfelt tribute to those unsung heroes, who were just happy to get paid to do what they loved. Daily. Black Souls: Brothers Luigi and Rocco are drug-running Mafiosi in Southern Italy, while the third and eldest brother Luciano is happy to live a simpler life, herding goats. Not so content with the goat-herding is Luciano's hotheaded son Leo, who, as the saying goes, has wanted to be a gangster for as far back as he can remember. Things go sideways when Leo tries to prove his Mafia worth with a gun, dragging his uncles and eventually his father into a deeply messy situation. Starting April 17. Daily. 601 Van Ness, San Francisco, 777-3456, landmarktheatres.com.
Roxie Theater. Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed: Sixties nostalgia isn't just for Berkeley Baby Boomers, which this lighthearted, multiple Goya Award-winning Spanish film makes clear as it follows a John Lennon-obsessed school teacher and two young students on a 1966 road trip to try and meet the Beatle (and maybe, y'know, learn something about themselves along the way). Through April 16. The Reconstruction of William Zero: A family tragedy leads a grief-stricken geneticist to experiment with human cloning in this Carruthean indie sci-fi drama from writer/director Dan Bush. Through April 16. Marfa Girl: Director Larry Clark takes his usual cinematic interests (skinny amateur actors, teenage sex, disrespect for authority) and plops them down in the dead-end border town of Marfa, Texas. Through April 16. Third Annual Food & Farm Film Fest: With the specter of drought and doom looming over the state, this annual series of documentaries about the hidden systems that operate behind the public face of global food production and consumption would seem more relevant than ever. Needless to say, these three days will be filled with films that favor sustainable agriculture and local sourcing over factory farms and corporate greenwashing, with a few more playful films about favorite dishes (e.g., The Search for General Tso) rounding out the bill. April 17-19. foodandfarmfilms.com. Cheatin': The latest creation from one-man animation powerhouse Bill Plympton plumbs the dark corners of love when, through a bizarre transmogrification, a heartbroken newlywed is able to embody her husband's many lovers. Plympton appears in person for the 9:30 p.m. show on Friday, April 17. April 17-23. 3117 16th St., San Francisco, 863-1087, roxie.com.
Vogue Theatre. Love Thy Nature: It's being promoted as a documentary, but Sylvie Rokab's Love Thy Nature is more of a New Age tract full of finger-wagging about how you – yes, you – should be outside enjoying the Earth more than you are. If the film's ultimate message is to go outside and play, hopefully a special dispensation will be given to those of us who have to stay inside watching movies that exhort them to go outside and play. April 17-23. 3290 Sacramento, San Francisco, 346-2288, voguesf.com.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The Cry of Jazz: New Documentaries: Never mind Ken Burns' bebop hagiographies. These docs dig deeper beneath the surface, taking a closer look at some of the lesser known figures of the genre — including pianist James Booker (Bayou Maharajah, April 2); saxophonists Frank Morgan (Sound of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story, April 9 & 11) and Rahsaan Roland Kirk (The Case of the Three Sided Dream, April 16); and percussionist Kahil El'Zabar (Be Known, April 18) — and concluding with a paint-splattered blast from the past that mixes footage of NYC's legendary old subway graffiti with music by Charles Mingus (Stations of the Elevated, April 23). Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., April 18, 7:30 p.m. Continues through April 23. $8-$10. Dark Horse: Film Noir Westerns: The YBCA hosts a month of Sunday double features that explore the darkness lurking at the heart of select old oaters, including Blood on the Moon and The Tall T (April 5), The Ox-Bow Incident and Pursued (April 12), Ramrod and The Gunfighter (April 19), and The Searchers and Winchester '73 (April 26). Sundays, 2 p.m. Continues through April 26. $8-$10. 701 Mission, San Francisco, 978-2787, ybca.org.
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