4-Star Theatre. A Thousand Times Good Night: While it's inspired by director Erik Poppe's own experiences as a war photographer, what's refreshing about A Thousand Times Good Night — in which Juliette Binoche plays a photojournalist with a drive to cover some of the darkest things in the world — is that the typical gender roles are reversed. The soul of the film is the relationship between a mother and daughter, not a father and son, and the man is married to a woman six years his senior, as opposed to half his age. Daily. 2200 Clement,666-3488, lntsf.com/4-star-theatre.html.
AMC Metreon 16. 39th Annual American Indian Film Festival: This year's installment of the long-running Native cinema showcase includes a full week of documentaries, dramatic features, live shorts, and animations at the Metreon, then concludes with an awards gala at the Palace of Fine Arts on Sunday, Nov. 9. Through Nov. 9. aifisf.com. 101 Fourth St.,369-6207, amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/amc-metreon-16.
Artists' Television Access. Other Cinema: Lo-Fi Sci-Fi: Coincidentally showing in the same week that NASA's Antares rocket exploded within seconds of leaving its launch pad, these short films look at failed technologies and other miscellaneous science projects-gone-wrong. Sat., Nov. 8, 8:30 p.m. $6.66. othercinema.com. 992 Valencia,824-3890, atasite.org.
Brava Theater Center. San Francisco Dance Film Festival: Most of us watch dance in one of two settings — on stage or in a circle — but the fifth annual SFDFF brings the art to the screen, with standout films either telling complete stories or offering a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process. Nov. 6-9. $13-$20 per program. sfdancefilmfest.org. 2781 24th St.,641-7657, brava.org.
Castro Theatre. Chelsea Girls: San Francisco Cinematheque presents a 16mm double-projection screening of Andy Warhol's three-hour look at bohemian life in New York's Chelsea Hotel during the mid-1960s. Mary "Hanoi Hannah" Woronov also makes a personal appearance to discuss her participation in the film and the Warhol Factory scene in general. Thu., Nov. 6, 7 p.m. $12-$15. sfcinematheque.org. Mean Girls: Peaches Christ hosts a 10th anniversary screening of the catty teen comedy starring Lindsay Lohan and written by Tina Fey. Part of San Francisco Bear Pride 2014. Sun., Nov. 9, 3 p.m. $15-$25. sfbearpride.com/mean-girls. 429 Castro,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. The Room: Tommy Wiseau's cinematic bomb is every bit as bad as it's cracked up to be. You'll crack up as well at this riotous midnight screening with lots of Rocky Horror-style audience participation. Second Saturday of every month, 11:59 p.m. 2261 Fillmore,267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Dark Room Theater. Bad Movie Night: Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Jim Fourniadis, Mikl-Em, and Tim Kay buckle up their bulletproof vests for a showing of the 2005 action/romance/comedy starring Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and enough ammo to liberate a small country. Sun., Nov. 9, 8 p.m. $6.99. 2263 Mission,401-7987, darkroomsf.com.
Embarcadero Center Cinema. Pride: Organized around the not-quite-radical idea that plucky nonthreatening homosexuals and provincial Welsh workingmen's wives are equally and universally adorable, this year's best hope for a movie from the U.K. to please crowds in the U.S.A. is an ensemble uplifter about the London gay and lesbian activists who raised money to pitch in for the National Union of Mineworkers strike of 1984. Daily. 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. 1 Embarcadero Center,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 15,528-4444, exploratorium.edu.
Multiple Bay Area Locations. 3rd i San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival: To see the whole spectrum of South Asian cinema is impossible in a single weekend, but it's worth attempting at this 12th annual festival that includes Oscar-contending dramas, sobering documentaries, human-scaled thrillers, and manifold celebrations of music. Festival venues include New People Cinema (1746 Post St., S.F.); Castro Theatre (429 Castro St., S.F.); and CineArts Theatre (3000 El Camino Real, Palo Alto). Nov. 6-9. $10-$12 per program. thirdi.org. Multiple addresses,N/A.
Ninth Street Independent Film Center. Rough Cuts: Work-in-progress screening of Búscame: Search for Me, Nicole Opper's documentary about runaway boys in Mexico. Wed., Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m. $9. sfroughcuts.com. 145 Ninth St.,503-1972, ninthstreet.org.
Oddball Films. Automania 2000: Vintage Cars on Film: Short films from the 1950s to the '80s bring lowriders, midget racers, vintage commercials, safety films, and other automotive curiosities to Oddball's screen. Thu., Nov. 6, 8 p.m. $10. Learn Your Lesson from Di$ney: An Animated Shockucation: Forget Mickey Mouse. These shorts from Walt & Co. aim to teach you the facts of life, including films about menstruation, VD, puberty, music, and more. Fri., Nov. 7, 8 p.m. $10. 275 Capp,558-8112, oddballfilms.com.
Opera Plaza Cinemas. Keep On Keepin' On: Director Alan Hicks' documentary on his former mentor, nonagenarian jazz trumpet hero Clark Terry, is a reverie of lucid gentleness for its own sake. Daily. White Bird in a Blizzard: Groundbreaking queer filmmaker Greg Araki has always been fascinated by the darker side of the American teenager, starting with 1993's Totally F***ed Up, and it continues with his lovely adaptation of Laura Kasischke's novel about a teenage girl whose mother's mysterious disappearance forces her to confront some buried issues. Daily. 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. Starting Nov. 7. Daily. Plot for Peace: In brief, Carlos Agulló and Mandy Jacobson's documentary amounts to a whole movie's worth of one guy taking credit for freeing Nelson Mandela and ending apartheid. OK, it's not quite so simple, but while it's a story full of fascinating stuff — involving prisoner exchanges, suitcases full of diamonds, and, oh you know, steering the ship of world history — the directors get a little too caught up in thriller trappings to fully sort it out. Starting Nov. 7. Daily. 601 Van Ness,777-3456, landmarktheatres.com.
Roxie Theater. Young Ones: Jake Paltrow's sci-fi western is yet another near-future dystopia with all the dusty tough-guy stoicism of yore, plus robots, gadgets, and Michael Shannon. Through Nov. 6. Regarding Susan Sontag: Frameline Encore hosts a free screening of the new documentary that offers a rare look at the private life of the famous public intellectual. Thu., Nov. 6, 7 p.m. Free. frameline.org. 2014 San Francisco Transgender Film Festival: Now in its 13th stereotype-defying year, the SFTFF presents two nights (and one afternoon) of local and international shorts, sexy erotica, and award-winning documentaries that are both against the grain and beyond classifications. Nov. 7-9. $12-$15 sliding scale per program. sftff.org. 21 Years: Richard Linklater: From Slacker to Boyhood, this feature-length doc looks back at the first two decades of work from the Texas filmmaker, including onscreen tributes by Ethan Hawke, Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, Julie Delpy, and more. Nov. 9-10. True & Real Stories of San Francisco's Ecological Anomalies: Buzz your buddy Karl on Twitter and hit the Roxie for three short films about quintessentially San Franciscan environmental conditions: Micro Micro-Climates & You, In Your Own Backyard, and Fog: Fact or Fiction? Tue., Nov. 11, 7 p.m. Free/donation. facebook.com/events/732041700184961. 3117 16th St.,863-1087, roxie.com.
SFSU Campus, Cesar Chavez Student Center. Water & Oil: Screening of the 2014 environmental documentary with a presentation by Cofan chief Randy Borman from Ecuador. Wed., Nov. 5, 7 p.m. free. 1650 Holloway,338-1112, sfsustudentcenter.com.
Temescal Arts Center. Shapeshifters Cinema: Free monthly film series featuring experimental image manipulators and ambient sound shamans. Second Sunday of every month, 8 p.m. Free. shapeshifterscinema.com. 511 48th St., Oakland, 510-923-1074, temescalartscenter.org.
Victoria Theatre. Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret: The Factory Farming Awareness Coalition hosts a benefit documentary screening about the environmental damage wrought by the meat industry, with the filmmakers participating in a Q&A session after the movie. Food is also included in the ticket price. Thu., Nov. 6, 6 p.m. $15. cowspiracysf.brownpapertickets.com. 2961 16th St.,863-7576, victoriatheatre.org.
Vogue Theatre. French Cinema Now: Of the 11 films showing in this festival sponsored by the San Francisco Film Society, many are odes to the French New Wave tradition — including movies starring Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Juliette Binoche, and Kristen Stewart — though this year's festival promises to delight even those who have never heard of Jean-Luc Godard. Nov. 6-9. $10-$25 per program. sffs.org. 3290 Sacramento,346-2288, voguesf.com.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Hedy: Following her Thursday night appearance at the Castro Theatre, Warhol superstar Mary Woronov visits the YBCA to present this campy, hourlong 1966 Andy Warhol film that recreates Hollywood icon Hedy Lamarr's arrest for shoplifting. Fri., Nov. 7, 8 p.m. $6-$10. sfcinematheque.org. 701 Mission,978-2787, ybca.org.
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