SFIFF: Notes.

As a sort of birthday gift, Doug Cummings is treating himself to the San Francisco International Film Festival. But he's got good stuff for us, too. So far, he's written about Tsai Ming-liang's Goodbye, Dragon Inn and Raoul Ruiz's That Day (C'est jour-là).

Jennie Rose sends word on Girl Trouble, directed by Lexi Leban and Lidia Szajko. The doc screens again on Monday and Tuesday:

Juvenile justice? Think again. Of all those who enter the system, 28 percent are girls, yet only two percent of the juvenile system resources go to females. Girl Trouble tracks three girls' dealings with the San Francisco system: Stephanie, a 16-year-old single mother, Sheila, 17, and Shangra, 16. Through the SF-based Center for Young Women's Development, the girls get part-time work and, more importantly, much-needed mentoring and affection from Lateefah Simon. "We don't work with girls who are at risk," says Simon, the 24-year-old director of the center and a single mother. "We work with girls who are in-risk."

"We have no idea what life is like for these kids," says Stephanie's public defender, Jean Amabile. "Their worlds are very, very small. There are kids in San Francisco who have never seen the ocean, and the farthest you can get from the ocean is 7 miles in this city." With skillful editing and rare access to court room proceedings, the directors of this film have broken ground in revealing the system's treatment of juvenile girls.

You can also keep up with daily goings on at the fest via the Scoop du Jour.

Posted by dwhudson at April 25, 2004 3:23 PM