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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.
The Knockout. Cyberpunk Cinema: Thrillhouse Records presents a classic sci-fi flick every month, preceded by an episode of Cowboy Bebop. Second Monday of every month, 6:30 p.m. Free. cyberpunkcinema.tumblr.com. 3223 Mission, San Francisco, 550-6994, theknockoutsf.com.
Multiple San Francisco Locations. SF Dance Film Festival: Mia: A Dancer's Journey screens at the festival kick-off event on Monday, Oct. 5, at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. The program includes International Shorts 1, Rare Birds, International Shorts 2, Dance Film Forum, Renewal Through Dance, Art and Science Collide, My Mother Loved Dance, International Shorts 3, Let's Get the Rhythm, Feelings Are Facts, and Co-Laboratory & Local Shorts. Screenings run through Sunday, Oct. 11. Thu., Oct. 8, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., Oct. 9, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 10, 10:30 a.m., 2, 4:30, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 11, 2, 4:30 & 7 p.m. $20-$250. www.sfdancefilmfest.org/. Multiple addresses, San Francisco.
Opera Plaza Cinema. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution: Change was coming to America and the fault lines could no longer be ignored—cities were burning, Vietnam was exploding, and disputes raged over equality and civil rights. A new revolutionary culture was emerging and it sought to drastically transform the system. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of that change. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the first feature length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple) goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it. Daily. Shout Gladi Gladi: Narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep, Shout Gladi Gladi celebrates the extraordinary people who rescue African women and girls from obstetric fistula, a medical condition that can turn them into reviled outcasts. Filmed in Malawi and Sierra Leone, this documentary spotlights the quest of Ann Gloag, the indefatigable philanthropist and former nurse who drives the movement to save these vulnerable women, and presents the patients as they tell stirring tales of their struggles and triumphs. Everything culminates with the exuberant Gladi Gladi ceremony, a singing and dancing blowout that marks the day the women and girls return home cured. Starting Oct. 9. Daily. Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon: Spawned at an Ivy League school in the 1970s by the wonderfully warped minds of Douglas Kenney and Henry Beard, National Lampoon rose from a counterculture rag to a revered comic institution. Bound by a passion for the absurd and a mistrust of authority, Lampoon's irreverence spanked nearly every available social taboo from weak-kneed politics to heated racial tensions. This unique cocktail of high satire and gallows humor exploded onto America's cultural consciousness, attracting visionary talents such as Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Bill Murray and Chevy Chase, whose comedic force helped expand the magazine's spirit to stage and film. Director Douglas Tirola unearths never-before-seen archival footage and brilliantly weaves it together with the magazine's beautiful and often shocking art, reliving National Lampoon's meteoric rise from go-to magazine of the counterculture to a brand synonymous with Hollywood's biggest comedies. Energetic, revolutionary, gently perverted and often hilarious, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead elevates nostalgia to a roof-raising experience. Starting Oct. 9. Daily. Phoenix: A spellbinding mystery of identity, illusion and deception unfolds against the turmoil of post-World War II Germany in the stunning new film from acclaimed writer/director Christian Petzold (Barbara, Jerichow). Berlin, 1945: Nelly (Nina Hoss, A Most Wanted Man), a German-Jewish, ex-nightclub singer, has survived a concentration camp. But, like her country, she is scarred, her face disfigured by a bullet wound. After undergoing reconstructive surgery, Nelly emerges with a new face, one similar but different enough that her former husband, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld), doesn't recognize her. Rather than reveal herself, Nelly walks into a dangerous game of duplicity and disguise as she tries to figure out if the man she loves may have been the one who betrayed her to the Nazis. Submerged in shadowy atmosphere and the haunted mood of post-war Berlin, Phoenix weaves a complex, Hitchcockian tale of a nation's tragedy and a woman's search for answers as it builds towards an unforgettable, heart-stopping climax. (Partially subtitled) Daily. 601 Van Ness, San Francisco, 267-4893, www.landmarktheatres.com/market/SanFrancisco/OperaPlazaCinema.htm.
Roxie Theater. Finders Keepers: Finders Keepers, a documentary about a man whose amputated leg is mistakenly sold at auction. Through Oct. 8. $7.50-$10. 863-1087. roxie.com. 3 Still Standing: For one bright, shining moment, three San Francisco standup comics seemed poised for the big time. Will Durst, Johnny Steele, and Larry "Bubbles" Brown were killing audiences in the Holy City Zoo, the Punch Line, and all the other packed, brick-walled venues that made San Francisco the country's best, most radical comedy scene in the 1980s. Agents–and Vegas–came calling, and why not? Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, Paula Poundstone, Bobcat Goldthwait, and numerous others were honing their unique talents beneath the same spotlights and becoming stars. Then, as the '90s dawned, the local comedy scene died, and SF's era of cutting-edge, no-holds-barred humor faded into legend. What did these three comics do? They kept telling jokes however they could–and they still do. This loving, lively documentary–packed with hilarious vintage footage, intimate interviews, rat-a-tat editing, and a jazzy score–captures the triumphs and struggles, the art and dedication, of three indomitable performers who still bring it every time. Oct. 9-15. A Better You: This improv comedy follows Dr. Ron Knight (Brian Huskey, Neighbors, This Is The End, who also co-wrote the film), who in the unconventional healing community, stands out with his "Wake Up! Wake Up!" form of hypnotherapy. But with great ego and great success come great costs. As Dr. Ron becomes the prisoner to his own head, he loses touch with his gorgeous wife, Margo (Morgan Walsh), and their two children. Thrown into a midlife crisis, Dr. Ron looks for salvation on the most unlikely of shoulders: Hugo (Saturday Night Live's Horatio Sanz), the day laborer who is not only tasked with fixing Dr. Ron's rain gutters, but restoring his esteem as well. Oct. 9-14, 9 p.m. 3117 16th St., San Francisco, 863-1087, roxie.com.
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