In Christian Petzold’s film TRANSIT, the main character Georg has assumed the identity of a controversial dead writer, in his attempt to obtain a travel visa and escape a fascist regime that is closing in. While the film is adapted from a 1944 novel by the same name, the film takes place today in the city of Marseille; as if to suggest refugees seeking political asylum still occurs …. The film was Mountain Shadow’s selection for April, 2019, and the review can be read by clicking on the image above.

“Capernaum” (“Chaos”) won Jury Prize at Cannes, and was a 2019 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. It was Mountain Shadow’s selection for April, 2019. While it is not based on a true story, it is the truest possible story; because all the people who portray all the fictional characters in the film Nadine Labaki wrote and directed are not professional actors, but ordinary, real people who depict what it means to be human. Capernaum is a tough, gritty, episodic film to watch; where the best and worst in human-kind are exposed in the chaos humans can experience, inflict on one another, and endure. Click on the image above to read the full Mountain Shadow Review.

Like all bio-pics PAULA combines historical fact about the early 20th century expressionis artist with a filmmaker’s imagination that fills in those places of unknowing with universal themes found in what is most common and familiar to the human story. It is in this sense that PAULA is far more than an early women’s empowerment story, or pictorial lecture in art history. To read a Mountain Shadow review of our January selection, click on the photo above.

In the comedic British film, “Swimming with Men,” stayin’ alive is the challenge facing Eric, a middle-aged accountant executive whose hum-drum career, marriage and family life has become so utterly and predictably dull and meaningless that his only escape is swimming solo laps after work. That is, until one day he finds himself sinking – both literally and metaphorically -- to the bottom of the pool. Then he opens his eyes and sees before him the unlikeliest form of re-immersion, initiation and rebirth. His revelatory discovery is that it’s all about coming alive once again, while he’s in the water. To read the full Mountain Shadow review, click on the image above.

Adorableness is a given when it comes to puppy movies. It’s also the “Ahhhhh-factor” when people so much as walk past the movie poster of Dana Bachman and Don Hardy’s documentary, “Pick of the Litter.” But it’s serious business when highly bred litters begin their training at facilities like Guide Dogs of the Blind (San Rafael), or Guide Dogs of the Desert (Palm Desert, California). To read a review of Mountain Shadow’s selection for November, 2018, click on the image above.

Bookshops come and go. But the larger theme behind “The Bookshop” is an allegorical tale familiar to us all in all its many guises; where the resilience and gumption of any underdog is pitted against entrenched and formidable powers. To read a Mountain Shadow review of our selection for October, 2018, click on the image above.

Mountain Shadow’s 4th Annual Short Film Competition was held Sept. 14th – 15th at the Las Lomas Theater. Twenty-two volunteer-member jurors previewed 539 submissions and selected ten Finalists to present live-action, animated and documentary films in person for audience balloting and cash awards. Click on the image above to find out who won, and view a terrific YouTube video of the filmmaker’s Q&A with the audience!

“The Cakemaker” - How does one grieve the loss of a lover? Especially a clandestine love who cannot be revealed? Seeking solace and resolution, two abandoned lovers instead try to love the one they’re with; in this critically-acclaimed German-Israeli drama that was Mountain Shadow’s selection for August, 2018. You can read Mountain Shadow’s film review by clicking on the image above.

The Desert Bride is a quiet little gem of a film about an ordinary little life. It’s an allegory, filled with metaphors. There’s the desert of nothingness, filled with mythic beliefs in miracles that – like the winds – are strong enough to blow and toss one where one never could have imagined, or undertaken on one’s own. This film was Mountain Shadow’s selection for July, 2018. Click on the image above to read the Mountain Shadow film review.

Life Lessons? What’s the worth of a teacher? In Santiago Rizzo’s autobiographical drama, an abused 12 year old graffiti addict has his life turned around by a humble middle school teacher and football coach in Berkeley; who believes that there is no such thing as a bad kid, only a bad situation. “QUEST” was Mountain Shadow’s selection for June, 2018. To read the Review, click on the image above.

From Chile, Oscar winning “Best Foreign Language Film,” A Fantastic Woman is a readily recognizable love story; including a tragic twist. It is one in which one lover is lost to the other; with the one left behind having to learn how to muster the strength and courage to carry on alone. The unfolding drama is subsequently one that seeks the answer to a question with which anyone who has ever mourned can identify. How shall one grieve? And specifically with the particular set of circumstances in this story, how will Marina, a transgender person, be allowed to grieve the death of Orlando? This fantastic film was Mountain Shadow’s selection for May, 2018. Click on the image above to read the review.

FINDING WHAT LASTS FOREVER - A personal journey of self-discovery combines with a documentary to delight foodies, along with a beautiful travelogue of Italy! Click on the image above to read a film review and commentary of Mountain Shadow’s selection for April, 2018: Matteo Troncone’s document: “Arrangarsi - Pizza and the Art of Living”

If one considers film an art form, and one subscribes to the maxim about art imitating life, then a fine film like THE INSULT is an excellent example. It is also an “everyman’s” story. Lebanon's submission for "Best Foreign Language Film," was aptly selected as one of five nominees at the 2018 Oscars. The film was Mountain Shadow's selection for March, 2018. Click on the image above to read a Mountain Shadow review of this film.

Journey, home and homecoming are universal themes, portrayed time and again in a stock story line. But they can be all the more powerful when depicted with characters who were once total strangers; but now find themselves thrown together by misfortune that becomes the catalyst for a semblance “family” where one never existed before. Such is the story line in Jackie van Beek’s slow-burn film, “The Inland Road.” To read a review of Mountain Shadow's selection for January, 2018, click on the image above.

Nearly sixty years ago, words like “liberated” -- let alone “empowered” -- were terms hardly associated with a woman’s role in Western society.  Now, in an era when TIME magazine’s “Person of the Year” are a group of women known as “The Silence Breakers,” it’s almost quaint to recall the scientific community’s surprise when a young British secretary with no formal training in their field made the cover of The National Geographic magazine in 1965. To read a review of Brett Morgen's documentary, JANE, click on the image above.

LOVING VINCENT is the world’s first fully oil painted feature film. First shot as a live action film with actors, the film was then hand-painted over frame-by-frame in oils. The story line is a standard murder mystery. The total charm of the film, however, is to be found less in the who-done-it-if-Vincent-didn’t storyline; and more in the manner in which each character vividly comes to life as if van Gogh had painted them through his own artistic eye, in his own style. The film was Mountain Shadow's selection for November, 2017. Click on the image above to read a Mountain Shadow review. 

When I see a limber ballet artist bend themselves in half or defy gravity by flying through the air like a leaping gazelle as a form of human expression, it is nothing short of pure poetry in motion.  Capture such visual expression with the eye of a director’s camera and a realistic script and you have the makings of a good film like “Polina.” This was Mountain Shadow's selection for October, 2017. To read the Review, click on the image above.

What better way to try to express the elusive and most inexplicable meanings to be discovered in our lives than in the finest expressions of language, art, music, and perhaps the most powerful form of modern communication, film? In this regard, Patrick Shen’s cinematic pursuit does an eloquent and masterful job of what one contributor in the film calls “the language of the great silent spaces.” You can read a full review of Mountain Shadow's selection for August, 2017, by clicking on the image above. Following his in-person presentation, the filmmaker sent the following message to Mountain Shadow: "Thanks so much for screening the film. I’m so impressed with the important work you’re doing to bring these “small” films to Walnut Creek. Your membership is engaged and thoughtful. A dream for a filmmaker. Thank you again." - Patrick Shen

If honesty is its own reward, the payoff may be hard to measure sometimes. That is, until a full recompense is made for others who try to work both sides of the street between feigned pretense and downright duplicity. That’s the question that’s left up to the viewer to decide in the last few fleeting and startling seconds of Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s Bulgarian film, “Glory.” This was Mountain Shadow's monthly film selection for July, 2017. Click on the image above to read the Review.