Director Agnieszka Holland’s film follows a family’s harrowing attempt to relocate in Sweden only to be stalled at the Belarus-Poland border.
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John Seal
Freelancer John Seal is Berkeleyside’s film critic. A movie connoisseur with a penchant for natty hats who lives in Oakland, John also writes for The Phantom of the Movie’s Videoscope, an old-fashioned paper magazine, published quarterly. He also writes regular film reviews for IMDb, which can be read here.
Dive into the summer with the Frameline Festival and film noir flicks
From the Bay Area’s annual LGBTQ+ film festival to BAMPFA’s Film Noir Classics, there’s an array of movies to
satisfy many interests.
San Francisco Documentary Film Festival returns for its 24th year
There’s plenty to choose from at this year’s salute to non-fiction cinema, including Art For Everybody, a feature about populist painter Thomas Kinkade.
Take a cinematic trip to the end of the ‘Gasoline Rainbow’
The new film by brothers Bill and Turner Ross is a charming look at five teens on a post-graduation adventure across the state of Oregon.
San Francisco International Film Festival returns to BAMPFA with two must-see films
Banel & Adama takes place in Senegal and has a climate change subtext while Soundtrack for a Coup d’Etat connects the imperialist pillaging of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with jazz music.
‘Mom and Dad’s Nipple Factory’ is not what you think, but ‘Wicked Little Letters’ is
The “Nipple Factory” is about creating artificial nipples for breast cancer patients, whereas poison pen letters are the order of the day in “Wicked.”
Bay Area legend Carol Doda gets her own documentary
The topless dancer parlayed a career waiting tables in San Francisco to world fame.
Restored film ‘Bushman’ blends fact and fiction in portrait of post-counterculture Bay Area
Inspired by director David Schickele’s time in the Peace Corps, ‘Bushman’ follows a young Nigerian man teaching at San Francisco State College on his travels around the Bay Area of the late ’60s.
At IndieFest: Droll comedies about murder, fashion and a ‘Fluorescent Beast’
The San Francisco festival, returning for its 26th season, includes movies from East Bay director Shawn Atkinson and Marcos Mereles.
Berkeley filmmaker takes aim at shadowy villains stripping local journalism for parts
Rick Goldsmith examines how vulture hedge funds have helped bring American journalism to the brink of ruin in a new documentary screening next week at Oakland’s New Parkway Theater.
The best films Berkeleyside’s movie critic saw in 2023
Movie critic John Seal picks the year’s most interesting, enjoyable and obscure feature films.
Film took 40 years to debut, highlights Another Hole in the Head
“End of Trip — Sahara,” was shot in the early ’80s and is only now making its way to the festival circuit.