The United Nations Association Film Festival, the social justice documentary festival that is based in the Stanford/Palo Alto area with a traditional day in San Francisco, is in its 26th year and remains as ambitious as ever.
The theme this year for the Thursday, Oct. 19, through Oct. 29 event is “Solutions,” which founder and Executive Director Jasmina Bojic explains in a statement: “UNAFF looks to emphasize strategies and approaches that offer solutions to the world’s current burning problems in this year’s festival presentation.”
That’s a tall order, even for a festival named after theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightsthat was hammered out 75 years ago in Paris at a special assembly of the United Nations General Assembly.
The festival opens 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, at Mitchell Park Community Center (3700 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto) with a reception with food and live music, an introduction by Palo Alto Mayor Lydia Kou, and a slate of films including “Still Working 9 to 5,” a documentary by Camille Hardman and Gary Lane that contrasts issues of workplace inequality raised in the 1981 Hollywood comedy starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton with those same issues in the 2020s. How much progress has been made in four decades?
UNAFF’s San Francisco day is Oct. 25, when four films screen in two programs at the Roxie Theater (3117 16th St.), all about San Francisco issues.