This Week at SF Film Society | NEW PEOPLE Cinema is the continuation of MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: THE ARTIST IS PRESENT,BALLPLAYER: PELOTERO, BONSÁI, THE STORYTELLERS SHOW, and THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY (Part Seven)!

Through July 12
(Directed by Matthew Akers)
2:45, 5:00, 7:15, 9:30pm

Marina Abramović has been called “the grandmother of performance art,” although she’s as youthful as ever in Matthew Akers’s fascinating, visually crisp documentary portrait, which tracks Abramović’s celebrated 2010 MOMA retrospective. The Serbian-born artist made work in the 1970s concerning the limits and conceptions of the body that have long since become part of the modern art canon, yet she still continues to athletically press at the boundaries of performance art. Granted a yearlong all-access pass, Akers captures Abramović’s many selves as she stages this major exhibition. The documentary befits its subject: It’s a sleek, unerring look in the eye of an extraordinary artist. More info >>

July 13 – 19
(Directed by Ross Finkel, Trevor Martin, Jonathan Paley)
3:00, 7:00pm (Fri, Sat, Tues); 5:00, 9:00pm (Sun, Mon, Wed) (1:00pm only on July 19)

For 16-year-old Dominican baseball players, or Peloteros, the only real chance to escape crushing poverty comes every July 2, the day they become eligible to sign professional baseball contracts. Ballplayer: Pelotero provides an intimate portrait of two prospects as they train during the run-up to the most important day of their lives and navigate the calculating, mercenary and often corrupt elements that surround professional baseball’s recruitment of the island’s top talent. More info >>

July 13 – 19
(Directed by Cristián Jiménez)
5:00, 9:00pm (Fri, Sat, Tues); 3:00, 7:00pm (Sun, Mon, Wed); (3:00pm only on July 19)

Director Cristián Jiménez brings a keen comic sense to Chilean author Alejandro Zambra’s contemporary classic novella Bonsái, crafting an existential romance with deep insight into the psychology of love, finding meaning through literature and caring for sensitive plants. Making several leaps forward and backward in time, the film follows its protagonist Julio in his sincere but deadpan fumbling through early adulthood. Bonsái strikes the perfect balance of humor and angst, wisdom and folly, and brings home a universal emotional truth—though the story Julio tells may be idealized, delusional and partially fictional, nothing has more power to move his soul. More info >>

July 14
(Short Program)
10:00am

Back by popular demand! A reprise of the popular family shorts program from this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival, this captivating collection of short films—seven animated, three live action—from around the world celebrates the universal tradition of storytelling that we have all come to cherish from childhood. From beleaguered little boats to soccer-obsessed boys, it is a grand tour of tales to share with the whole family. More info >>

July 14
12:00pm noon
Adapted from his book of the same name, Mark Cousins’ epic exploration of film—its distant and recent past, and even its future—has something of interest for everyone from the mildly curious to the hardcore cineaste. Part seven: “New Boundaries: World Cinema in Africa, Asia, Latin America”; “New American Independents & the Digital Revolution” (1990s). More info >>