Brian Darr

@hellonfriscobay

Cinephile, music lover & library worker originally from San Francisco now based in Maine. These are personal opinions that may not reflect the views of my imp lawyer.

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Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· 15d

Day 7: the Western, critiqued & critic Repeat: In 1957 Puerto Rican artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz ritually destroyed a 16mm reduction of a Hollywood oater. Then he reassembled it as COWBOY & "INDIAN" FILM. Return: In 1954 Registry-absent Allan Dwan directed SILVER LODE as critique of HUAC madness.

COWBOY AND “INDIAN” FILM (1958) is an experimental collage film begun in 1957 and completed the same year as Bruce Conner's A MOVIE (NFR selected 1994) by Puerto Rican artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz; it would be his first Registry appearance.

Image description: A stark, high-contrast black-and-white film still framed within a wide black border. The upper half of the image is completely dark. A sharp, diagonal white beam of light cuts across the lower half, illuminating a group of dark silhouettes. These dark figures resemble cowboys or riders on horseback, but they are inverted upside down, appearing to hang beneath the line of light. Further to the right, a couple of softer, upright silhouettes on horseback fade into the darkness.

If inducted, 1954 film SILVER LODE would essentially be the first National Film Registry entry for at least three major Hollywood figures: its director Allan Dwan, almost inarguably the classic-era Hollywood auteur most glaringly absent from the Registry, its female lead Lizabeth Scott, and its cinematographer John Alton (although one film he worked on, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, did enter the Registry in 1993, he was not the main cinematographer on that film.)

Image description: A man and a woman in Western attire stand together inside a home, looking off-camera with tense, concerned expressions. The man on the left has dark hair and wears a light blue button-down shirt with a dark belt. The blonde woman on the right holds his arm, wearing a pink and white gingham dress with white ruffled lace trim. They stand in front of a window covered by white lace curtains, with trees visible outside in the background.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· 16d

Day 6: actors-turned-documentarians Repeat: Lee Grant's acting career was interrupted by blacklisting, later inspiring a string of activist docs launched with THE WILLMAR 8 (1981). Return: Shola Lynch, on Sesame Street as a girl, now directs films like FREE ANGELA & ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS (2012).

THE WILLMAR 8 (1981) is a documentary about a strike held in the dead of a rural Minnesota winter by bank employees whose pay and promotional opportunities had been stifled due to their gender. It was filmed by Lee Grant, who has yet to have anything she directed enter the Registry and is represented only by her acting performance in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (NFR selected 2002).

A vintage-color screen capture from Lee Grant’s 1981 documentary THE WILLMAR 8 shows a group of striking female bank employees holding a strategy meeting inside a cluttered, grassroots campaign office. Approximately six women are gathered closely around a dark wooden table, with most viewed from the back or side profiles. In the foreground left, a woman with bright blonde, voluminous hair wears a royal blue sweater, while to the right, a woman with short, textured light-grey hair wears a charcoal-grey long-sleeved shirt. The background wall functions as a chaotic bulletin board, covered completely with pinned sheets of paper, typed flyers, and informational documents. Mounted prominently on the far left wall is a large white poster board featuring bold, black, hand-painted block letters that read "ON" stacked directly above "STRIKE," serving as the focal point for the labor meeting.

FREE ANGELA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS (2012) is a documentary by Shola Lynch; neither Lynch nor the documentary subject Angela Davis are represented in the National Film Registry.

Image description: A screen shot of black-and-white archival footage cropped to 16x9 for the documentary FREE ANGELA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS featuring a close-up of political activist and academic Angela Davis standing next to a chalkboard. She looks toward the camera with a serious expression, showcasing her signature large afro hairstyle while wearing a dark top and a beaded necklace. On the dark chalkboard to her right, handwritten text in white chalk reads "Socio-economic."

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· 17d

Day 5: frenemies Mark Twain & Bret Harte, adapted Repeat: Will Vinton's THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN (1985) could be Claymation's NFR debut. New: SALOMY JANE (1914) is the sole surviving feature from San Rafael's California Motion Picture Corporation & Venezuelan-American star Beatriz Michelena.

THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN (1985) Stop-motion feature film made by Oregon animator Will Vinton would be the first National Film Registry entry based on the writings of Mark Twain, as well as the first for Vinton and his studio (which was later transformed into Laika), writer Susan Shadburne or voice actor Michele Mariana.

Image description: A vibrant screen capture from Claymation feature THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN displays a cynical green clay-style frog sitting on a map labeled "CALAVERAS," surrounded by California Gold Rush iconography.

The frog features heavy, half-closed eyelids that give it a smug, cynical expression. It rests on an orange-brown parchment map featuring blue river lines and the word "CALAVERAS" spelled out in arched, dark-red letters. To the left of the frog is a gray panning dish overflowing with yellow gold nuggets, and to the right is a crossed shovel and pickaxe. Strong lighting from the upper left casts sharp shadows behind the frog, the raised lettering, and the borders, while industrial mechanical elements with screws and red nubs frame the bottom corners of the display.

SALOMY JANE (1914) was the debut feature from the California Motion Picture Company in San Rafael, as well as for its star Beatriz Michelena. It was also the first feature film credit for legendary cinematographer Hal Mohr. If inducted, it would be the first National Film Registry appearance for Michelena, for the California Motion Picture Company, for its directors William Nigh and Lucius Henderson, and for most of the rest of its cast and crew, as well as for its original author Bret Harte.

Image description: Screen capture from the 1914 silent film SALOMY JANE, showing actress Beatriz Michelena from the waist up as she stands in front of a massive coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) tree.

Michelena is positioned slightly off-center to the right, looking down and away from the camera with a subtle smile. Her dark, voluminous curly hair is piled in a 1910s style, and she wears a form-fitting gingham check dress featuring a wide, scalloped white collar. The background is completely filled by the deeply grooved, textured bark of the coast redwood trunk. To her left, a large, dark, vertical fire scar forms a hollow cavity at the base of the tree, creating a stark contrast with the rest of the forest scene.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· 19d

Day 4: perception-changing non-fiction Repeat: The late Fred Wiseman's BLIND & DEAF SERIES would be a great Registry inclusion; his work with other cinematographers is in but nothing with John Davey. Return: Jeanne Liotta's OBSERVANDO EL CIELO, perhaps this century's greatest US experimental film?

BLIND AND DEAF SERIES a.k.a. DEAF AND BLIND SERIES (1986) is a four-part documentary (including titles BLIND, DEAF, MULTI-HANDICAPPED and ADJUSTMENT AND WORK) made by Frederick Wiseman and his most-frequent cinematographer John Davey at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind in Talladega, AL. Though Wiseman has several prior films in the Registry, none of his color work or his work with Davey or his longtime producer Karen Konicek, both of whom were mainstays of the better part of Wiseman's career, have been selected. Inducting this portrait of four distinct schools in the Institute (which sometimes are thought of as four separate films, though they were originally funded as one film, and filmed and released as a group) would provide a much more well-rounded section of Wiseman's quintessentially American filmography onto the Registry.

Image description: An eye-level photograph shows two teenage musicians rehearsing indoors in a scene from Frederick Wiseman's 1986 documentary BLIND. In the foreground, a Black youth looks slightly upward while blowing into a large white fiberglass sousaphone. He supports the brass valves with his right hand and has a concentrated expression. In the background, a white youth in a blue button-down shirt sits behind a drum kit, his mouth open as if counting the beat or singing along. The room is dimly lit, with dark furniture and musical equipment visible in the background.

OBSERVANDO EL CIELO (2007) is a 16mm film showing, through long-exposure takes shot across evenings in various US locations with optimal visibility of starlight, the rotation of the earth upon its axis. It makes an axiom of our life on Earth that is usually imperceptible into something visible. It would be the first National Film Registry for either its director and cinematographer Jeanne Liotta or her sound collaborator Peggy Ahwesh.

Image description: A large dome-shaped observatory building sits in the lower-left corner against a deep blue night sky filled with sharp, clear stars. Prominently visible in the dark expanse to the right of the dome are the stars forming the constellation Auriga, while the stars of Gemini occupy the upper sky to the left.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· 19d

Post-MIFF hangover has mostly been stuff from that folk horror box set, plus a doc I could have lived without seeing but couldn’t be bothered to stop watching.

Letterboxd posters for We Always Find Ourselves in the Sea (2017), a John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office (2025), Our Selves Unknown (2016) and To Fire You Come At Last (2023).

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· 20d

Day 3: fragmented identity narratives Repeat: Wendell B. Harris Jr's landmark independent film CHAMELEON STREET brilliantly fictionalized the true story of a Detroit con man. Return: It's been a bit since I nominated MULHOLLAND DRIVE, which would be David Lynch's second NFR entry after ERASERHEAD.

CHAMELEON STREET (1989) This Michigan-made Sundance prizewinner was the only narrative feature directed by Wendell B. Harris, Jr. Nobody involved in the film has prior National Film Registry representation.
Image description: A man with short dark hair and a few days' growth of stubble sits at a desk cluttered with open and stacked books inside a prison. He looks upward with a thoughtful or exasperated expression while holding a pair of glasses. In the background behind a barred prison cell partition, another inmate wearing a blue head covering grips the bars and looks toward him.

MULHOLLAND DR. (2001) would be the first National Film Registry entry for its stars Naomi Watts and Laura Harring, its composer Angelo Badalamenti, and its editor/producer Mary Sweeney.
Image description: A wide film still shot through a large round mirror shows two women with short blonde hair standing closely together in an indoor hallway. The woman on the left (Naomi Watts) wears a light blue sleeveless top and a pearl necklace, while the woman on the right (Laura Harring) wears a bright red top under a dark jacket. Both are looking forward with focused, slightly tense expressions.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· 20d

Day 2: non-theatrical Afro-masterpieces Repeat: Howardena Pindell's FREE, WHITE AND 21 is one of the best early forays of video art into the gallery world. New: My first of several newly-eligible nominations this year, LEMONADE also bypassed movie theatre showings but made a huge cinematic impact.

FREE, WHITE & 21 (1980) is a video performance piece interrogating a racist term found in several Hollywood films including FOOLISH WIVES (National Film Registry selected 2008) & I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (NFR selected 1991), made by Philadelphia-born artist Howardena Pindell, who has no prior NFR representation.

A still from the 1980 color video artwork FREE, WHITE AND 21 shows a Black woman, artist Howardena Pindell, looking directly at the camera with an open expression as if speaking. She has a short afro and wears a dark blue shirt against a solid, bright orange background. The image has the pixelated, slightly muted quality of early video art.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· 21d

Day 1: 1979-era auterism Repeat: THE WARRIORS because Walter Hill's only Registry representation is as ALIEN screenwriter; it's time for one of the films he directed to make it in. New: HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER'S APOCALPYSE; it would be the first for Eleanor Coppola OR for a making-of doc!

A line of eight young male actors from the 1979 film "The Warriors" stands closely together, facing forward with serious, intense facial expressions. They are dressed in matching brown, sleeveless leather vests worn over bare chests. The character on the far right is in sharp focus in the foreground, while the other gang members stretch back into a softly blurred, dimly lit urban background.

A medium shot of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and his wife Eleanor Coppola standing outdoors against a backdrop of dense green foliage. Francis, on the left, wears a yellow graphic t-shirt, a light-colored baseball cap, sunglasses, and has a full, thick beard. Eleanor stands to the right, looking intently off-camera with a serious expression; she has short dark hair and wears a long-sleeved bright green shirt.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· 22d

Stop the count!

Best album round 2 match 85: Gorillaz (seed 7) vs Stereolab (seed 58) with the latter ahead 50.3% to 49.7% with 161 votes counted.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· 26d

Crunched the numbers some more (tossing out the oldest three since the seeding was done so differently) to discover round 2 has had fewer upsets proportionally than any other round. This chart shows the range of upset percentages each round, and the overall percentage for each round over time.

Round 1: 6% (1991) - 27% (2000) / 15%
Round 2: 6 (1998) - 19 (Nineties) / 13%
Round 3: 6 (1998) - 25 (1999) / 14%
Round 4: 0 (1990, 93) 50 (1999) / 20%
Round 5: 0 (many) - 75 (1999) / 18%
R 6: 0 (most) 50 (89, 90, 92, 93) / 18%
R 7: 0 (1990, 92, 93) - 50 (most) / 36%

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· 26d

Went into my records (not guaranteed to be 100% accurate but they’re surely very close) and came up with each tournament’s breakdown of upsets by round. (2001 had 10 round 1 upsets, by comparison.) Surprising side data: no tournament has seen an upset in both the final AND the third-place match.

Upsets by round
1989: 13/5/1/2/0/1/1
2000: 17/2/1/1/0/0/1
Nineties: 9/6/3/1/0/0/1
1990: 8/3/2/0/2/1/0
1995 redux: 6/5/2/2/0/0/1
1991: 4/4/2/3/0/0/1
1999:10/5/4/4/3/0/1
1992: 7/5/4/3/1/1/0
1998: 9/2/1/1/0/0/0
1993: 14/3/2/0/1/1/1
1997: 8/4/3/1/1/0/1
1994: 21/7/3/1/3/2/1
1996: 13/5/5/3/1/1/1
1995 original flavor: 25/9/2/3/0/1/0

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· Jul 8

Screen shot from animated Gorillaz “Clint Eastwood” video showing the character 2-D with his name spray painted in red over image.

Cover for Kelis single “Young Fresh n’ New”

Cover to Hope Sandoval album BAVARIAN FRUIT BREAD

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· Jul 6

No stop the count now.

The Knife shown to have 2 votes to Rilo Kiley’s 1 vote.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· Jul 2

My review:

Disclosure Day (2026)

Watched June 27, 2026

If I wanted to simmer in a futile attempt to update 80s sensibilities to the modern era I would have been better off spending my evening typing up a detailed alt-text for a page of Find Waldo Now.

Liking The Fabelmans so much tricked me into thinking this might be essential too, but beyond the undeniably thrilling and creative train scene it’s really not unless you’re all-in for Spielberg at his most Spielbergiest. Feelings over form, wildlife endemic to the uncanniest valley, leaning hard into movie clichés like Josh O’Connor fixing his gaze behind him while driving full speed ahead, and so many Kaminski lens flares that it takes longer than it should to notice a piece of light-emitting unearthly tech in the frame. I guess most or all of the above is on purpose, but they’re all still obstacles to getting me over the hump of the unbuyable premise here.

At least the popcorn at the Eveningstar Cinema is good.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· Jun 30

Ultimate? Lest we fork-get:

“Fan”-made album cover for Muse’s ORIGIN OF SYMMETRY, featuring seven forks photographed on a tan wall, with the shadow of the photographer prominently visible.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· Jun 30

Simpsons Treehouse of Horror screencap of Homer and Marge working as forced laborers in chains, with Homer saying “Don’t blame me. I voted for Converge and Muse.”

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay· Jun 21

Yeah I struggled enough to get there that I’m probably gonna leave it be. Unlike my Tuesday score, which I tinkered with throughout the day to come up with this: