Brian Darr
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hellonfriscobay.bsky.social
Brian Darr
@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social
Cinephile, music lover & library worker originally from San Francisco now living in Maine. These are personal opinions that may not reflect the views of my employer.
Pinned
My spouse Kerry Laitala has a low-budget 3D movie called Terra Incognita screening as part of the @exploratorium.bsky.social’s Chromatic Cinema event this Thursday www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calend...
After Dark: CMYK | Exploratorium Museum Event
Strut down a runway in your brightest outfit, learn about the secrets of primary colors, play with optical illusions, plus more surprises await you at After Dark—come show off your true colors!
www.exploratorium.edu
PAUL’S BOUTIQUE is the album whose top-fifteen seed most baffles me. So you used some fun samples, and turned them into a bed of rhythm to be shouty over. I guess the Beastie Boys are just over my head. LIKE A PRAYER is Madonna’s greatest album-length achievement and deserves more than 20% voteshare
November 11, 2025 at 3:22 PM
What a giant. Yes, the Kurosawa and Kobayashi films, but also outstanding in some of the best by Naruse (When a Woman Ascends the Stairs), Teshigahara (Face of Another), Ichikawa (Conflagration), Okamoto (Sword of Doom, Kill), etc. R.I.P.
Tatsuya Nakadai (1932–2025)
November 11, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Not a huge YouTube guy so here’s two I like a lot:

@noirfoundation.bsky.social’s NoirCity channel

Experimental choreographer Mimi Garrard’s mimigarrarddance
name three youtube channels you love.
November 11, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Friend who saw this in Pordenone says it’s a fun one.
Bay Area friends — I’ll be introducing SAXOPHONE SUZY at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival on Saturday night. Live music by Guenter Buchwald, Frank Bockius & Mas Koga! Come join me at the Orinda Theatre. @sffilmpreserve.bsky.social

silentfilm.org/event/saxoph...
November 10, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by Brian Darr
This week, Chris Shields on one of Anthony Mann's existental westerns, Man of the West, screening at the Stanford on Saturday and Sunday on a Gary Cooper double bill with High Noon: www.screenslate.com/articles/man...
Man of the West
Director Anthony Mann’s name is synonymous with the psychological western of the 1950s, a variation on the genre in which obsession and revenge take precedence over heroism and justice. For his 1958 f...
www.screenslate.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Oh wow.
The Brooklyn Rail + the Film-Makers’ Cooperative are hosting a free virtual screening of the late Ken Jacobs’s STAR SPANGLED TO DEATH on Tuesday.

David Schwartz offers a brief intro (brooklynrail.org/event/2025/1...) and goes longer on Ken + Flo Jacobs for Film Comment — mailchi.mp/filmcomment/...
November 10, 2025 at 1:19 PM
35mm print of Out of the Past at the Brattle
What is the best movie not from this year that you’ve seen this year? Bonus points if you say why
November 9, 2025 at 2:53 PM
I’ve never been big into “Noirvember” but I don’t boycott it either. This was the first unseen film from the current “Blackout Noir” Criterion Channel series that I decided to mark off my list this year boxd.it/bE4Y1f
A review of Crossfire (1947)
I’d always feared this was more “important” than “good” and while that’s true, it isn’t bad either. Just a lot of men-in-rooms-talking (albeit wonderful men, especially the Roberts, in wonderfully sha...
boxd.it
November 8, 2025 at 10:40 PM
November 8, 2025 at 7:12 PM
This is today!
Bay Area: tomorrow afternoon is the California premiere of an absolutely terrific film- an experience cinephiles won’t want to miss the opportunity to see projected (it’s playing at the Vogue) sffilm.org/event/powwow...
Powwow People - SFFILM
sffilm.org
November 8, 2025 at 5:11 PM
If you see this, post and album cover with a motor vehicle on it.
November 8, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Bay Area: tomorrow afternoon is the California premiere of an absolutely terrific film- an experience cinephiles won’t want to miss the opportunity to see projected (it’s playing at the Vogue) sffilm.org/event/powwow...
Powwow People - SFFILM
sffilm.org
November 7, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Wish I could be there this weekend- if you’re in or near Western New York State you have no excuse!
I wrote briefly about this year’s Light Matter experimental film program
November 7, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Brian Darr
Mamdani “has spoken about the influence of his parents, particularly his mother’s emphasis on cultural rootedness and justice.”
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
Campaign director: Zohran Mamdani’s ideas are indebted to the films of his mother, Mira Nair
The passionately inclusive politics of the newly-elected New York mayor have clear echoes in boundary-breaking movies such as Salaam Bombay! and Monsoon Wedding
www.theguardian.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:22 PM
My last eight (a.k.a. November so far)
November 7, 2025 at 3:55 PM
“Black Cat” is the last stand for heavy metal in the tournament. Vote for Janet and defeat Mopium!
November 7, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Brian Darr
Join us tonight for a free open screening! If you have something you'd like to show in the program, email openscreening@atasite.org.
Open Screening
ATA’s free community film/video show welcomes short format work or (15 min or less) from all genres. An open forum for independent filmmakers to show their work, we hold screenings the first Thursd…
www.atasite.org
November 6, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Letterboxd seems to be back up, so I can share what I wrote about an extremely rare Mikio Naruse movie I saw last weekend boxd.it/bCtk9F
A review of The Road I Travel with You (1936)
Re-reading my Wife! Be Like A Rose! review written way back in May, I'm struck by my optimism about my potential participation in a Mikio Naruse Summer at the Harvard Film Archive's program that begin...
boxd.it
November 6, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Brian Darr
A wise child, clearly he saw Rowling for what she is 👁
Holy shit Mamdani has been winning since he was a little kid
November 6, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Brian Darr
The whole piece is just 🔥🔥🔥
November 4, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Brian Darr
Terrific news: Life After is now streaming,on @pbs.org and YouTube.
Not to miss: Reid Davenport's Life After, a fervent and meticulous blend of investigative journalism, personal documentary, and political analysis and advocacy; honored to do a Q. & A. with him and the producer Colleen Cassingham at @filmforumnyc.bsky.social after tonight's 7:10pm screening...
November 4, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Gotta vote for the last San Francisco Bay Area album in the bracket: FREEDOM
November 4, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Oh dear one less anti-Trump Republican vote in Wyoming how will the Dems make up for that?
November 4, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Brian Darr
If you are new to San Francisco, go to this. Don't miss it.
November 3, 2025 at 10:59 PM