The San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) is always an important showcase for independent cinema. Here are three indie gems in this year’s SFFILM program.
In the winning indie I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking), a recently widowed mom has lost her housing and goes on a one-woman crusade to get herself and her daughter back into an apartment. With a one-day deadline to earn the last $200 for a rental deposit, she races the clock through a series of misadventures – both comic and tragic – roller skating around Pacoima, braiding hair and making app-based food deliveries. And she’s putting on the best face, hiding her homelessness (and even convincing her 8-year-old that they’re “camping”). I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) makes powerful statements about housing security and the gig economy in a oft funny, always accessible movie. It’s the first feature for the female, BIPOC filmmakers – shot on a low budget during a pandemic.
Socks on Fire is Bo McGuire’s tale of his own family’s inheritance battle over a Hokes Bluff, Alabama, bungalow. The family of church-going Bama football fans – and one drag queen – is jarred and wounded by the mean behavior of one aunt. Enriched by old home movies and re-enactments, this ain’t your conventional talking head documentary. Socks on Fire swings between funny and operatic, and there’s a sweet remembrance of a grandmother in here, too. Won Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The very trippy and ultimately sweet fable Strawberry Mansion is set in a future where people’s dreams are taxed. An Everyman tax auditor (co-writer and co-director Kentucker Audley) is assigned to the dreams of an elderly artist and is plunged into an Alice in Wonderland experience with her dreams, and his dreams, and a romance, to boot. Strawberry Mansion is also a sharp and funny critique of insidious commercialism.
Socks on Fire had its North American theatrical premiere at a drive-in event – complete with live drag queen performances – as SFFILM’s centerpiece event. I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) and Strawberry Mansion can be streamed at home through April 18. Tickets are available at SFFILM.