THE PROGRAM
I THINK ABOUT BIRDS (Dir. Johanna Gustin, 13 Minutes)
I THINK ABOUT BIRDS is a personal desktop documentary exploring the filmmaker's obsession with toxic online dating coaches — an obsession rooted in her existential fear of loneliness in the event that her marriage should end. It’s also about birds.
OLIVER (Dir. Michael Kaplan, 15 Minutes)
Oliver, a queer man living alone in San Francisco, turns to chatbots for everything from financial advice to intimacy as he navigates disability, debt, and desire.
LOVE IS THE DRUG (Dir. Liz Roberts, 18 Minutes)
Love is the Drug tells the story of Heather Edney’s drug user organizing which began with the Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program. The film brings together a trove of archival materials: Edney’s appearances on television, photographs, zines, flyers, and community health education videos with new 16mm footage. Love is the Drug ultimately asserts that the archive is not a scene of redemption, but rather a cinematic apparatus that can teach us about durational love.
AS THE FIRE RAGES ON (Dir. Sofia Stærmose Hardt, 18 Minutes)
While the prison performs its story in one room, incarcerated women watch true crime in the next. The film stays with their faces — and asks who really fights California's fires.
HALF LIFE (Dir. Kaare Iverson, 29 Minutes)
After delaying a routine screening, athlete and artist Kirk Keeler is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Refusing to retreat, he partners with pro climber Kevin Jorgeson to scale Yosemite’s Half Dome and raise awareness so others don’t repeat his mistake.
Playing as part of the 25th San Francisco Documentary Film Festival. Click here to look through Vogue’s program in the fest on Sunday, May 31 and Monday, June 1.