New Potrero Theater

One item I forgot to mention yesterday in the section of my post which listed all the cinematic options over the holiday weekend was the New Potrero Theater (NPT).  I read about the NPT from the San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog.  The NPT, located at 312 Connecticut Street on Potrero Hill, is screening silent films on November 9 (8 PM) and  November 10 (1 PM and 8 PM).  There is an open house (with refreshments) starting one hour before each showtime.  The feature film being screened is F.W. Murnau's Sunrise preceded with (what I presume to be) a short film program called 1930s Potrero Hill Home Movies.  Tickets are $5 and proceeds go to the "Potrero Branch Library."  The screenings are being sponsored by the Potrero Hill Archives Project.

The flyer for the events states that 312 Connecticut is "now the San Francisco Gurdjieff Society."  What is the Gurdjieff Society?  Their website is ominously lacking in information.  All it says is "For further information, two avenues are available:  A one on one meeting over coffee or attending a salon discussion."  It sounds like a pyramid scheme or something.  After a little internet "research" I found a link to the Gurdjieff Society whose website implies the Society is a self-help organization with chapters all over the world.  However, on other website, people refer to it as "a cult."  Wonderful.  Having already unknowingly associated with the Freedom Socialist Party (I am still receiving their newsletter), I'm not anxious to test the waters with the Gurdjieff Society...particularly for a film I've seen a few times.

One the other hand, I regret missing the screening at the El Rey Theater last November and I would like to see the NPT which opened 99 years ago.  How often will these old, repurposed movie houses be open to the public and/or screen films?

Of the half dozen or so filmgoing options I am considering this weekend, the NPT is the least likely but the most enticing.