Happy Pi Day

March 14 is Pi Day so Happy Pi Day. That reminds me that The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky made one of the first independent/art house films that I saw in a theater. In 1998, he directed a movie called Pi which started me on the cinematic path I am currently on. Actually, I think the official title was π. That was one of the first independent films that I saw in a theater (Landmark Embarcadero I believe). The film involves Kabbalah mysticism, the belief that the Torah's Hebrew text can be converted into numbers and that mathematical analysis of the text reveals secrets in the past as well as predicting the future. Sean Gullette plays a math genius with mental issues and a drug addiction. He gets involved with the number theory and it turns his life upside down. On Pi Day, I salute π, eXistenZ and another film about the making of a Russian snuff film whose title I can't recall or find on the internet.

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I had an "only in San Francisco" moment before my first SFIAAFF screening. Eyes of the Spider and Serpent's Path were presented as one program. Each film was about 85 minutes, there was a 10 minute intermission, the venue was the Castro Theater and the program started at 10 PM. The program wouldn't end until after 1 AM - after BART service ends. So I drove to the Castro district on Friday the 13th. I was worried that parking would be hard to find in the area but I was able to park nearby on Diamond between 19th and 20th. That's an area I rarely venture to. The Castro Muni station which is my typical mode of transportation to the Castro Theater, is near the intersection of Market, 17th and Castro.

It was about 45 degrees that night and I was shivering wearing a windbreaker. As I was walking to the theater, there was a black woman yelling on the sidewalk. I couldn't tell who she was yelling at but she kept screaming that he was prejudiced against black women. I would have paid more attention but there was another man on the sidewalk distracting me. He was wearing a T-shirt; he must have forgotten to put on his coat...and his pants...and his underwear. Anyway, he was very congenial; he kept waving (hands and other body parts) to passerbyers. He kindly made some suggestions regarding my evening plans but of course I was going to the SFIAAFF.