Thoughts On the Aughts: Best/Worst Trends

A decade as odd as this one, with George Bush and Barack Obama as its bookends, deserves to be examined. While the U.S. moved from rebuilding decimated skyscrapers to the rebuilding of an entire economy, film moved from the multiplex to the mailbox to the cell phone. But did the pictures really get small? We tried to find out by surveying Bay Area film-industry professionals as well as everyday fans on the trends that moved them. We found love for animation and hate for the ascendancy of the first-person narrator-star in documentary films. We saw pleas for more collaboration and less ego. We encountered disdain for CGI and hope for independent exhibitors and filmmakers. The comments below were selected from many we received; needless to say, we couldn’t publish everything. If you feel we missed anything in particular, we encourage you to issue a few opinions of your own in the "comments" box at story’s end.

Year’s best/worst trends in feature filmmaking

Worst: Incessant vampires.
Cheryl Eddy, Senior Editor, SF Bay Guardian

Worst: Advertising that proclaims the movie as "visionary."
Jeffrey M. Anderson, critic, Combustible Celluloid

Worst: Teen movies with squiggly hand-drawn opening credits and alt-pop soundtracks and possibly Michael Cera seemed to me to get old pretty quickly.
Jonathan Kiefer, The Faster Times, KQED, San Francisco magazine, SF360.org

Best and worst: HD
Marcus Hu, Strand Releasing

Worst: Overusing the pseudo-verite documentary aesthetic in fiction filmmaking.
Chris Metzler, Tilapia Film

Best: Return to the heart.
Marc Huestis, Outsider Productions

Best: New directions and sophistication in animation. Worst: So-called comedies about sloppy guys.
Peter L. Stein, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Best: Low-budget films that look like cinema. Worst: DIY distribution. Taking ownership of an impossible job seldom ends pretty.
George Rush, Law Offices of George Rush

Best: New Argentine cinema. Worst: Less muppetry.
Sean Uyehara, Programmer, San Francisco Film Society

Decade’s best/worst trends in feature filmmaking

Worst: Incessant remakes.
Cheryl Eddy, Senior Editor, SF Bay Guardian

Worst: Shaky cams.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, critic, Combustible Celluloid

Worst: Shooting on video.
Chris Metzler, Tilapia Film

Worst: (for this year and the previous three decades) an “auteur-ish” desire for everyone to do everything. It’d be better to collaborate with folks that are good or perhaps great at their respective craft(s) rather than individuals to delude themselves that they can write, direct, edit and whatever else alone.
Jonathan Marlow, Executive Editor San Francisco Cinematheque

You figure out whether it’s best or worst: Downloading and bit torrents.
Marc Huestis, Outsider Productions

Best: Smart scripts, low budget (mumblecore). Worst: Bad scripts, low budget (mumblecore).
Peter L. Stein, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Best: Hybrids of documentary and narrative filmmaking! Worst: Making a cheap, crappy film and calling it Dogme 95 or mumblecore.
George Rush, Law Offices of George Rush

Worst: CGI and global warming films.
James T. Hong, filmmaker

Year’s best/worst trends in documentary filmmaking

Worst: Filmmakers who (unnecessarily) make themselves the subjects of their films.
Cheryl Eddy, Senior Editor, SF Bay Guardian

Worst: Too much "reality" TV in documentary filmmaking.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, critic, Combustible Celluloid

Worst: Turning everything political and losing their sense of humor.
Chris Metzler, Tilapia Film

Best: Stories from outside USA. Worst: Flip video masquerading as camera technique.
Peter L. Stein, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Best: More foundation support for docs! Worst: The glut of eco-oriented documentaries that have no story.
George Rush, Law Offices of George Rush

The decade’s best/worst trends in documentary filmmaking

Best: The overall wider acceptance of documentaries as a genre that people will actually go to the theater to see or actively seek out on DVD. Michael Moore is at least partially responsible.
Cheryl Eddy, Senior Editor, SF Bay Guardian

Worst: Too much of the "PBS talking head" format.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, critic, Combustible Celluloid

Best: DIY distribution
Chris Metzler, Tilapia Film

Best: Final Cut Pro and access to technology by people of lesser means.
Marc Huestis, Outsider Productions

Best: Hybrid storytelling formats (animation, docu-fiction). Worst: Documentaries emulating reality TV.
Peter L. Stein, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Best: Character driven, cinema v‚rit‚ documentaries. Worst: Documentaries in which the director is a character. Most documentarians are not Morgan Spurlock or Michael Moore; more often then not they are more like Sam the Eagle from the Muppets.
George Rush, Law Offices of George Rush

Worst: A glut of boring, hectoring political leaflets with no humor or cinematic imagination or respect for audience intelligence.
Jonathan Kiefer, The Faster Times, KQED, San Francisco magazine, SF360.org

Worst: Stentorian, older male narration.
Marissa Aroy, Media Factory

Worst: CGI and global warming docs.
James T. Hong, filmmaker

The best film no one heard of in the past year?

Cropsey. (I’m a little obsessed with Cropsey)
Cheryl Eddy, Senior Editor, SF Bay Guardian

Sita Sings the Blues
Jeffrey M. Anderson, critic, Combustible Celluloid

Supermen of Malegaon
Chris Metzler, Tilapia Film

Crab Trap
Michael Guillen, The Evening Class

Prodigal Sons
Marc Huestis, Outsider Productions

Fig Trees
Peter L. Stein, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Les Regrets
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Life During Wartime
George Rush, Law Offices of George Rush

Making the Boys (Crayton Robey, U.S.: a Frameline work-in-progress screening.
Michael Hawley, film-415

The Lake (Boaz Lavie, Israel)
Brian Darr, Hell On Frisco Bay

Best film no one heard of in the past decade?

Reflections of Evil (2002)
Cheryl Eddy, Senior Editor, SF Bay Guardian

Mysterious Object at Noon
Jeffrey M. Anderson, critic, Combustible Celluloid

Abel Raising Cain
Chris Metzler, Tilapia Film

Dahmer
Marc Huestis, Outsider Productions

Hiding and Seeking
Peter L. Stein, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

The Role of Her Life (2004)
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

A Time for Drunken Horses
George Rush, Law Offices of George Rush

Mickybo and Me
Marissa Aroy, Media Factory

Gift from Above (Dover Koshashvili, Israel)
Michael Hawley, film-415

Wild Tigers I Have Known
Sean Uyehara, Programmer, San Francisco Film Society

Veloma (Marie de Laubier, France, 2002)
Brian Darr, Hell on Frisco Bay

What’s the best/worst trend in technology over the past year?

The 3D trend is both best and worst. When it enhances the movie, it’s great; when it’s the only thing the movie has going for it, it’s gimmicky.
Cheryl Eddy, Senior Editor, SF Bay Guardian

Worst: All the signs suggesting Avatar would be dead-end —including, most recently, the movie itself.
Jonathan Kiefer, The Faster Times, KQED, San Francisco magazine, SF360.org

Worst: CGI blood
Jeffrey M. Anderson, critic, Combustible Celluloid

Best: Watching films on IFC’s VOD service day and date with theatrical!
Marcus Hu, Strand Releasing

Worst: Microblogging.
_Michael Guillen, The Evening Class _

Best: Facebook and YouTube. Love both.
Marc Huestis, Outsider Productions

Best: Pixar. Worst: YouTube videos masquerading as documentary filmmaking.
Peter L. Stein, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Best or worst?: Home theaters.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Best: The advent of the RED camera. Worst: Raising money for films through crowd sourcing.
George Rush, Law Offices of George Rush

Worst: Facebook, Twitter, et al.
James T. Hong, filmmaker

Worst: Ironic Snuggie wearing.
Sean Uyehara, Programmer, San Francisco Film Society

Worst: Notable individuals touting Blu-ray DVD as superior to 35mm in image quality for exhibition.
Brian Darr, Hell On Frisco Bay

What’s the best/worst trend in technology over the past decade?

Best and Worst: CGI age makeup.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, critic, Combustible Celluloid

Best: Netflix! Worst: Watching a movie on an iPod.
Marcus Hu, Strand Releasing

Worst: C-47s. Best: Clothespins.
Chris Metzler, Tilapia Film

Best: Downloading and YouTube
Marc Huestis, Outsider Productions

Best: Digital distribution. Worst: CGI replacing story strength
Peter L. Stein, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Worst: Everything that is hurting print journalism.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Best and Worst: VOD and digital distribution. Love it because film is easier to consume, but hate it because it makes it harder for filmmakers to make money.
George Rush, Law Offices of George Rush

Best: Social video pranks.
Sean Uyehara, Programmer, San Francisco Film Society

Best and Worst: The availability of a lifetime’s worth of viewing options in easily-replicated digital forms. A godsend for scholars, obsessives and couch potatoes, but a threat to public communal experiences watching niche-interest films.
Brian Darr, Hell On Frisco Bay

If you could start a festival of your own, it would be titled:

The Art of the Double Feature
Jeffrey M. Anderson, critic, Combustible Celluloid

No need to create one, as it already exists: SF Docfest
Chris Metzler, Tilapia Film

The Last Film Festival
Joel Shepard, Film/Video Curator, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Shhhh! The No-Talking During the Movie Festival
Peter L. Stein, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

La Beaute du Reel: Women of Contemporary French Cinema
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Festival, of a sort, started: It’s called Crossroads (16- to 18-April-2010).
Jonathan Marlow, Executive Editor San Francisco Cinematheque

90 Minutes of Condensed Bad Ass (Film Festival)
George Rush, Law Offices of George Rush

The Freedonia Film Festival, dedicated to screening lost films, never-made films, and inviting fictional guests to imaginary movie palaces.
Brian Darr, Hell On Frisco Bay

What’s your favorite new film venue?

Century 9
Jeffrey M. Anderson, critic, Combustible Celluloid

Rough Cuts at the LAB
Chris Metzler, Tilapia Film

Vortex Room
Michael Guillen, The Evening Class

My computer
Marc Huestis, Outsider Productions

Sundance Kabuki large theater balcony
Peter L. Stein, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Sausalito Film Festival
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

*VIZ Cinema in Japantown. It’s really nice! *
George Rush, Law Offices of George Rush

VIZ Cinema
Michael Hawley, film-415

My backyard
Sean Uyehara, Programmer, San Francisco Film Society

VIZ Cinema at New People
Brian Darr, Hell On Frisco Bay

What’s your favorite place/way to watch a film?

Castro Theater*
_Cheryl Eddy, Senior Editor, SF Bay Guardian _

Castro & Roxie. Single-screens
Jeffrey M. Anderson, critic, Combustible Celluloid

In a theatre!
Marcus Hu, Strand Releasing

Red Vic Moviehouse
Chris Metzler, Tilapia Film

*In a theater with an audience. *
Michael Guillen, The Evening Class

In silence! No cell phones, no talking.
Rod Armstrong, programmer, San Francisco Film Society

Place: Berliner Palast (Berlin); Way: Silent films with live music
Peter L. Stein, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Right now, my own living room (unless it’s a comedy)
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Either the Roxie (for its embrace of indie film) or the balcony in house one of the Kabuki (most films are better with rum). *
George Rush, Law Offices of George Rush

Grand Lake
Marissa Aroy, Media Factory

Nothing beats seeing a movie at the Castro. Or the Kabuki. Or the Balboa.
Jonathan Kiefer, The Faster Times, KQED, San Francisco Magazine, SF360.org

Tie: The Castro and the Pacific Film Archive
Michael Hawley, Film-415

Intoxicated
James T. Hong, filmmaker

Semi-conscious
Sean Uyehara, programmer, San Francisco Film Society

In a single-screen theatre filled with friends and strangers
Brian Darr, Hell On Frisco Bay

Other thoughts you’d like to share?

The best overall year of the decade, with the most great films, was 2007, but 2009 had the best animated films of the decade.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, critic, Combustible Celluloid

I can’t wait to see Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon.
Rod Armstrong, programmer, San Francisco Film Society

Who watches movies these days? I’m more entertained by Facebook!
Marc Huestis, Outsider Productions

Thanks to Michael Read and Ryan Prendiville for their assistance compiling these comments.