It may seem to be unnecessary-both as another mockumentary and yet one more vampire flick—but What We Do In the Shadows hits the mark by approaching its undead subjects the same way TV's The Surreal Life took on the celebrities whose careers just can't be killed. Of the 60 or so vampires living in New Zealand, four get to see a lot of each other. They're housemates in a decaying flat, unveiling their problems before a documentary team's camera. (The crew was protected by crucifixes at all times, says a title.) » Read More

The thrilling, dangerous visions of British director John Boorman include some of the most distinctive films of the last half of the 20th century. In Point Blank (1967), the rock-faced Lee Marvin prowls a pop-art California. Boorman's hit Deliverance (1972) is one of the definitive statements of American fantasies of violence. Zardoz (1974) is au courant enough to be the subject of a full-sized Burning Man effigy-there, inside the Playa-clay cranium of Zardoz, a one-couch capacity theater played the 1974 film in an endless loop. » Read More

Remember how wildly colorful geometric patterns and crazy fonts were all the rage in early '90s graphic design? Well, according to Bert Monroy, you can place the blame for that questionable aesthetic on one, solitary entity: Adobe Systems. With the introduction of its two game-changing programs-Illustrator and Photoshop-the San Jose-based Adobe Systems was responsible, at least in part, for all those wacky jogging pants you thought were so cool back in the day. » Read More

In Wichita they shut him down. The faculty just couldn't deal with him. The legendary artist Bruce Conner (1933-2008) barely even spent that much time at the University of Wichita (now Wichita State), but he was there during what now looks like an explosive kick off to a lucrative career upsetting the applecarts of authority. It was in Wichita in the early '50s that Conner and his crew organized provocative exhibitions that were stymied by the stuffed-shirt faculty within 48 hours. » Read More

We want everything in the whole wide world from the World Wide Web. We want information at our fingertips, and, yet, we want our information kept private. We want to connect openly with friends on social media, and feel that those awful little memories of social embarrassment that keep you awake in the night didn't really matter after all. We want both freedom and safety, and the vast machineries of government spying revealed by Edward Snowden show us that we have neither. » Read More

At Cinequest, the short programs can help launch a director's career and give audiences a glimpse at future mavericks. What's more, those who program the shorts inhabit the cutting edge right here in San Jose. This time around, for the festival's 25th anniversary, a wide smattering of snippets will explode off the screen. Every emotion imaginable will be thrown right in your face, from the extremes of uncomfortable darkness to joyous tear-jerking. » Read More