The Grove is beginning a new project business planning with the San Francisco Film Society. They plan to take over the historic film theater located on the Main Post, creating a home for this vibrant organization, recently expanded as it takes over the programs of the Film Arts Foundation. As a result we attended the open of the San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theater. It proved a doorway into a truly indigenous, San Franciscan experience.
The opening featured La Mission, a film by Peter Bratt about the gritty, colorful Mission District in San Francisco. His brother Benjamin stars in a story of pride, redemption, violence, and the power of community.
Peter and Benjamin grew up in the Mission. Their intent was to portray universal themes through as authentic a context as they could create. And the context is vibrant—graphically mirrored by close-ups of the Mission murals threading through the opening credits. (This one, called Maestrapeace, is a on the Women's Building in the Mission).
