Author: Fara

This is Not a Film Festival (also know as TINAFF) is a monthly recurring film showcase, allowing local Bay Area filmmakers, artists and creatives to gather, connect, and present their work. No submission fees, no awards, no gatekeeping. Our goal is to provide a space where truly independent films can be shared and enjoyed the way they’re meant to be; with a live audience.

Program:

ReCapture (06:50)

A Cyborg man has an existential breakdown as he grapples with the organic and synthetic side of his existence.
Directed by Craig Smith

Sometimes in the Morning (05:27)
Two strangers cross paths. Directed by Omar Matias

Dreaming of Carhartt (09:00)
When a man gets a new Carhartt jacket, he finds confidence but loses himself. Directed by Tariq Stone

Fuel (20:00)
When two friends return in his life, an anxious and reluctant drug dealer (Vic) must find a way to escape his life of
crime before the lives of his family and friends are threatened. Directed by Noah Abel

Genieology (06:00)
A man on a hike discovers a genie lamp and grapples with the age-old question: what would you wish for if you had a
genie? Directed by Mani Sachdeva

Filial Economy (3:12)
Filial Economy combines TV clips, news footage, memes, and personal artifacts to explore how Chinese
Confucianism frames the parent-child relationship through moral and financial obligation. Directed by Y.S. Lau

Gnobert (04:57)
Gnobert is a gnome who lives in a stump and works in a tree. This short animated mockumentary gives a peek into
the world of gnomes, who might be the very reason why you can never find that other sock. Also, Gnobert’s having
an existential crisis. Directed by Diana Reyimjan

INTERMISSION 15 MIN.

Play Date (05:27)
A mother’s desire to make sense of a well-intentioned school play date results in an unfortunate chain reaction.
Directed by Chesi Ho

Burns like a Shot (07:00)
When her best friend accidentally drinks her truth serum, a driven young scientist must reverse the effects before the
unfiltered honesty between them burns down everything they’ve never said to each other.Directed by Chandonae Baskin

My Precious Child (10:00)
Directed by Ian Anderson

Gumboy (03:20)
Directed by Fabrice Ducouret

Tethered (17:54)
When a late-night confrontation exposes betrayal and emotional warfare within her relationship, a young woman must
decide whether to choose her unknown freedom, or stay bound to the familiar toxic love that is slowly suffocating her.
Directed by Miyoni Nelson

Troubled Conexxxions (05:41)
A black disabled phone sex operator has a zany session with a white client. Directed by E’Niyah Wilson

Autumn (09:50)
When a reserved teenager is caught by his friends while presenting as a woman, he must deice whether to retreat
into secrecy or accept who he really is. Directed by Brynn Casto

TOTAL RUNTIME: 2 HOURS

Poetry reading by Joni Prince, Maria Malinovskaya & Jean Day.

One rock ‘n’ roll legend (or legendary footnote) determined not to just fade away, supergroupie Cynthia Plaster Caster notoriously began making sculptural molds of rock stars’ private parts some 35 years ago. These days she’s a middle-aged Chicagoan who calls said objets d’art “my sweet babies,” and keeps adding to the litter as an unreconstructed indie rock fan.

Cynthia — her real last name is off-limits lest a still-oblivious octogenarian mother find out just what she’s been up to — has spent intervening years since her late ’60s/early ’70s “glory days” as a humble office worker. But pic chronicles her recent return to, ahem, her roots; she’s quit dayjobbing and is prepping for a first-ever public exhibit of her oeuvre at an New York City art gallery.

Punkily youthful in her presumed early 50s, Cynthia recently won a drawn-out court battle to reclaim early anatomical statuettes from the erstwhile friend to whom she’d once entrusted them for safekeeping. With “babies” back in mama’s care, she’s trying to turn groupie infamy into a viable rent-paying career.

Though she wasn’t the sole original “Chicago Plaster Caster,” Cynthia was the one with the idea (which led her to lose virginity to Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders, she says), and former comrades have chosen not to maintain or admit that identity in later life. In their heyday, the Plaster Casters “did” everyone from Jimi Hendrix (a man of truly “epic” dimensions, as bronzed posterity attests) to Anthony Newley. Cynthia had standards, though. She refused purported entreaties from Kiss guitarist Gene Simmons, whom she thought “a jerk.” (He wrote a song called “Plaster Caster” anyway.) Frank Zappa actually contributed funds as a bemused “patron of the arts.”

In more recent years, Cynthia has “cast” punk stars including Pete Shelley (the Buzzcocks), Jon Langford (the Mekons), Jello Biafra (the Dead Kennedys) and one-man-band Momus, aka Nick Currie — all of whom are duly interviewed here. We also see the skittish — on both sides — preparations for personal historic preservation made by current underground faves Bill of SubPop retro-instrumentalists 5ive Style and the rather cretinous Danny of Demolition Doll Rods.

Other commentators tapped include early subjects Noel Redding (The Jimi Hendrix Experience), Eric Burdon (The Animals) and Wayne Kramer (MC5); plus art-world pundits as well as academe Camille Paglia, who credits Cynthia with enlightening her to “rock music as a pagan form” of primitive-orgiastic expression.

-Dennis Harvey, Variety, June 22, 2001 reviewed from SF DocFest 2001

Filmmaker Jeff Economy expected to attend.

Tickets: Here