Goings on. San Francisco.

"The 10th San Francisco Black Film Festival (SFBFF), is billed as a bridge between worlds," notes D Scot Miller in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. "But which worlds? Sirius and Earth? Black and other? Local and global? Oakland and San Francisco? San Francisco and itself? Dammit, they all apply."

Updated through 6/6.

More from Dennis Harvey at SF360: "A festival can go at least a couple routes in choosing its opening night flick: Feel-good crowd pleaser or something more challenging that will stir discussion and divide opinions. In the end, director Ngozi Onwurah and scenarist Sharon Foster's British feature Shoot the Messenger will strike some as all of the above—but its button-pushing nature might leave others ticked off, even outraged." Today through June 8; then, June 11 through 15.

Back in the SFBG:

• "Sometimes the best thing a movie has going for it is its title, especially if that title happens to be Mutant Vampire Zombies from the 'Hood!" Cheryl Eddy previews Another Hole in the Head, running tomorrow through June 22.

• Max Goldberg previews Louder, Faster: Punk in Performance, running at the Pacific Film Archive from tomorrow through June 26: "Punk was made to be photographed - Sex Pistols guru Malcolm McLaren ensured that much - but the spirit of the frame depended on who was doing the shooting. The same three-chord assaults could make for social documents (1978-88's Target Video) or hipster scrawls (1976's Blank Generation). They might inspire science experiments (Bruce Conner's 1978 Mongoloid; Graeme Whifler's 1978 Hello Skinny), or lyrical love streams (1979's Deaf/Punk)."

• "Perhaps cinema is useless," writes Johnny Ray Huston. "Jia Zhangke entertains this idea - as a subtext — in his 2007 documentary Useless." Evenings of New Works by Jia Zhangke are slated for tomorrow and Sunday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

"The San Francisco Film Society is best known for running the San Francisco International Film Festival, but has been putting on an increasing amount of other film events throughout the year. Now, starting June 13, the Film Society will begin providing 365-day-a-year content on a special SFFS Screen at the Sundance Kabuki theater." Brian Darr has the schedule for the first round.

Updates, 6/5: Heads up from Johnny Ray Huston: Films of Warren Sonbert: Narrative Vertigo, tonight at 8.

And Cheryl Eddy has more Hole in the Head reviews.

Updates, 6/6: At SF360, Dennis Harvey offers an amusing "Travel guide through Another Hole in the Head Film Festival."

"With all the talk going on over at Girish Shambu's site about whether or not horror films are good for you and what constitutes good revulsion over bad (to quote theologian Martin Buber: 'You seek to compare?'), I thought now would be as good as any to announce Dead Channels 2008 two-month summer film series White Hot & Warped Wednesdays, venued at the Hypnodrome Theatre, 575 10th Street, San Francisco," writes Michael Guillén.

Posted by dwhudson at June 4, 2008 1:31 PM