Welcome to the NJC+ SF Film Club!

A Place to Talk about Films, Movies, and TV set in San Francisco

I like a good film. I also like a good movie, and a well made TV show. In the Before Times, I used to go to theaters often, be it for the latest Event Movie (i.e whatever Marvel movie is being sold to the masses) or an Important Film, usually at one of Our Fair City’s many independent movie houses. I don’t get out to theaters as much as I would like nowadays, but I still enjoy them all the same.

One of my “side quests” for many years has been to watch as many movies/films set in San Francisco. I have been known to watch terrible television and movies, enduring them only because they had something from San Francisco in it. (This is how I ended up watching/enduring The Room late at night ages ago after a night out - there was a Muni bus in it, ok?).

It is always fun to see what filmmakers get right and wrong about San Francisco, and to see places I see every day on the big screen. Nerdy, yes, but honestly if you’re already here then you already know weird nerdy nonsense is part of what you get at the NJC+.

An image of the Bay Area from an episode of Star Trek” Deep Space Nine during the Dominion War story arc. Now THAT’s a doom loop!

Now, I’d like to formalize this with a new section to the NJC+ - the NJC+ Film and TV Club, where I’ll write about movies, films and TV that depict Our City. There’s so many that immediately come to mind (think Mrs. Doubtfire, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Rock, etc.) that everyone knows.

However, for this newsletter, I want to focus more on movies/TV that aren’t as well known. For example, all of us know Donald Sutherland starred in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but not everyone knows he starred in another movie set in early 1980’s San Francisco: Crackers , an odd little comedy directed by Louis Malle, and set almost entirely on 24th St. in the Mission. It’s a fun movie, and it has a great cast. However most people probably don’t know it as well as Sutherland’s other movie set in SF. It is also a great time capsule of the Mission in the early 80s.

For this newsletter, I’m going to try something a little different - rather than just firehose content at the reader about Every Single Silly SF Movie I’ve Seen, I’m going to post a specific film/movie/TV show to watch in advance of my next post. This way you, the reader, will have a chance to see whatever it is I plan on discussing in advance of my next post, so we all are up to date on what’s discussed.

To start 2024, it seems appropriate we discuss one of the more interesting stories from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 3: a two part story from Episodes 11-12 titled “Past Tense.” This involves several of our heroes accidentally sent to the San Francisco of 2024 (!) , and the misadventures the crew have navigating a San Francisco much different than the one often seen in the Star Trek franchise, but sadly, not too different from Actual 2024.

You can watch the episodes via the Paramount+ streaming service, and you can also find them elsewhere, on DVD, the Internet, etc. also. I recently re-watched this for this newsletter, and it hits a bit harder now than it did in 1993 when the episode first aired. I would urge you to seek it out and take a look if at all possible, and in the next post I’ll talk about it and take a few screenshots as well.

Until then, I’d be interested to hear what movies, films, and TV shows that feature San Francisco you like that perhaps aren’t as well known. I’m not an expert in All Things San Francisco Film, nor do I claim to be - this is a fun thing to take our minds off the ongoing doom that we all face in the 2020s. I look forward to hearing your suggestions, particularly those that aren’t as well known.