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SATURDAY (Nov. 22): The premiere of James Hong's Spear of Destiny, "a no-budget version of Wagner's Ring after the death of God." Filmmaker in person 7:30, 9:30 p.m.
LUMIERE
1572 California (at Polk), 352-0810, www.landmarktheatres.com. This multiplex is only partly a "calendar house" rep theater; for the rest of the Lumiere schedule, see our Showtimes page. $9.50.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Anything But Love (Robert Cary, 2002). Call for times.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (Nov. 21-27): Jacques Nolot's Porn Theatre (France, 2002). Call for times.
MECHANICS' INSTITUTE LIBRARY
57 Post (near Market), 393-0100 and www.milibrary.org for information; phone or e-mail rsvp@milibrary.org for reservations. $5. This cultural asset of long standing hosts an ongoing film series on projected video, with salon-style discussions to follow.
FRIDAY (Nov. 21): Robert Nott, author of a new biography of John Garfield, appears with Abe Polonsky's excellent noir Force of Evil (1948) 6:30 p.m.
OPERA PLAZA
601 Van Ness (at Golden Gate), 352-0810, www.landmarktheatres.com. This multiplex is only partly a "calendar house" rep theater. For the rest of the Opera Plaza's schedule, see our Showtimes page. $9.25.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Diego Lerman's Suddenly (Argentina/Netherlands, 2002). Call for times.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (Nov. 21-27): Vladimir Michalek's Autumn Spring (Czech Republic, 2002). Call for times.
PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE
2575 Bancroft (at Bowditch), Berkeley, (510) 642-1124, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. $8, second show $2. The East Bay mecca for film scholars, part of UC's Berkeley Art Museum, thrives at its on-campus location, up the steps on Bancroft between Telegraph Avenue and the Hearst Gym.
WEDNESDAY: Program 3 of "Standby," a five-week series of video art made in New York City, 1983-93, includes Charles Atlas' gay-themed serial killer Son of Sam and Delilah (1991) and the Pixelvision Strange Weather (Peggy Ahwesh and Margaret Strosser, 1993), about "three listless crackheads" 7:30 p.m.
THURSDAY: The annual Margaret Mead Film Festival of anthropological works continues with Wellspring (Sha Qing, China, 2002), on a rural family's son with cerebral palsy, and My Flesh and Blood (Jonathan Karsh, 2003), about the strong-willed mother of 11 "special needs" kids 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY: "Margaret Mead": Filmmaker Gregorio Valverde hunts The Lost Reels of Pancho Villa (Mexico, 2002), missing footage shot by Hollywood in the teens (also the subject of a recent telefilm with Antonio Banderas), screening with three shorts, including Bill Morrison's reworking of a decayed print of a 1926 melodrama with Lionel Barrymore, The Bells, The Mesmerist (2003) 7:30 p.m.
SATURDAY: Author Greil Marcus (Lipstick Traces) introduces a screening of The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962) 7:30 p.m.
SUNDAY: A series of the films of Yasujiro Ozu opens with his first surviving film, a slapstick comedy set at a ski resort, Days of Youth (Japan, 1929), screening with the surviving fragments of the lost films, also from 1929, A Straightforward Boy and I Graduated, But... 5:30 p.m.
MONDAY: Theater closed.
TUESDAY: Artist Luis Recorder will personally manipulate the projector for a screening of his films about films The Optic Curve (2003), Still Succession (2001-3) and more 7:30 p.m.
PARKWAY
1834 Park (at Lake Merritt), Oakland, (510) 814-2400, www.picturepubpizza.com. $5 save as noted. Pizza, beer, and movies on two screens. Call theater for programs, booked a week in advance. The Parkway also offers occasional scheduled special programs.
THURSDAY (Nov. 20): A Thrillville Soul Nite featuring live music from Mocha Velvet Combination and Superfly (Gordon Parks Jr., 1972). $8 6:30, 9:15 p.m.
SUNDAY (Nov. 23): Oakland football fans are followed throughout the 2002 season by filmmakers Rogue Squadron in Raider Nation (2003), screening with other Raider films 6 p.m.
MIDNIGHT SHOW (Saturday): The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975), with live performance by Barely Legal. $6.
RAFAEL FILM CENTER
1118 Fourth St. (at A), San Rafael, 454-1222, www.cafilm.org. $9 save as noted. This three-screen repertory theater, now officially the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, is operated by the California Film Institute. Programs are complex; check carefully and call for confirmation.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: José Padilha's Bus 174 (Brazil, 2002) 8:15 p.m.
WEDNESDAY: Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003); see Ongoing for review 7, 9 p.m.
THURSDAY: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Kim Bartley, Donnacha O'Briain, 2003) 6:30 p.m. Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion (Tom Peosay, 2003) 8:50 p.m. A Rita Hayworth series screens hubby Orson Welles' poisoned valentine to her and her movie stardom, The Lady from Shanghai (1948) 7 p.m.
STARTS FRIDAY: Vladimir Michalek's Autumn Spring (Czech Republic, 2002). Elephant and Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion continue. Call theater for times.
FRIDAY: The Australian Film Roadshow screens films from Down Under over four days. Tonight, Rachel Perkins' "fiery comic melodrama" Radiance (1998) 7 p.m. Hong Kong immigrants live a Floating Life (Clara Law, 1996) 9 p.m.
SATURDAY: "Australian Film Roadshow": Three Aboriginal teens are friends in Yolngu Boy (Stephen Johnson, 2000) 2:15 p.m. A comedy, Mullet (David Caesar, 2001) 4:30 p.m. Billy Connolly is The Man Who Sued God (Mark Joffe, 2001) 6:30 p.m. The Italian immigrant community's the setting for "raucous" La Spagnola (Steve Jacobs, 2001) 9:15 p.m.
SUNDAY: Australian Film Roadshow -- Yolngu Boy 2:15 p.m. Floating Life 4:15 p.m. Radiance 6:30 p.m. Mullet 8:30 p.m.
MONDAY: Australian Film Roadshow -- La Spagnola 6:30 p.m. The Man Who Sued God 8:30 p.m.
TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY (Nov. 25-28): Donald O'Connor is remembered with a memorial screening of Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1952). Call for times.
RED VIC
1727 Haight (at Cole), 668-3994, www.redvicmoviehouse.com. $6.50 save as noted. There's a spot on the couch for you at this collectively owned rep house.
WEDNESDAY: The Polish Brothers' Northfork (2003), about potential evacuees awaiting a flood 2, 7:15, 9:15 p.m.
THURSDAY: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson's investigation of how animals saved from factory farms can thrive is documented in The Emotional World of Farm Animals (2003). Masson in person 7 p.m.
