The Duel is heading to San Francisco this weekend for SF DocFest, an annual festival devoted to the art of documentary filmmaking in all its eclectic forms. Now in its 16th year, the two-week-long celebration promises a wide variety of non-fiction films, from a Super 8 collage of behind-the-scenes footage from the set of Blue Velvet, to the mechanical spirit of the California typewriter featuring Sam Shepard and Tom Hanks. With dozens of short films, live musical acts and the world premiere of Turn it Around: The Story of East Bay Punk, produced by Green Day and narrated by Iggy Pop, it's destined to be a blast.
However, as is the case with the plurality of festivals I've attended with so many wonderful films & events to choose from, the best one can hope for is to catch merely a fraction of what's offered. Temporal limits of my weekend trip notwithstanding, I will do my utmost to take in as much of what's sure to be a fantastic time spent in the cinematic jewel of America's west coast.
Tickets to my screening, on June 3rd and June 5th, can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/yaxdr9jh
As I bounce my right knee up and down behind my desk, thinking about the bags I have yet to pack, I'm excited to return to the city that nurtured my undergraduate studies more than a decade ago, and hope that some of my favorite haunts and cafes will still recognize me in their windows. Those who still remain, that is. Perhaps somewhere in between the shoulders of those great, yawning streets that wind downhill towards the bay, I'll find some new memories to make, new reflections, and share them all with you next week when I return.