This year's SF DocFest opened with Mana: Beyond Belief (the film's site is here), with our own SFist Rita in attendance. After that crazy-linky last sentence, how can you not want to win passes to this Friday's opening night of Mana at the Roxie? We'll even let you pick the screening time! Enter below to win a pass for two to Mana: Beyond Belief at the Roxie this Friday, July 8. If you win,......

It was the usual scene outside the Roxie during a film fest -- odd groups of people clumped in odd places on the sidewalk, frantic-looking pedestrians just trying to get into Truly Med, people with official badges and clipboards walking around -- is it the love of indie film that drives them? What makes people act so oddly around things they love? Well, we thought you'd never ask! Kicking off the 2005 SF DocFest is Mana: Beyond Belief, an experimental documentary exploring the power of material things to inspire belief. Or, in other words: fetish objects. Not necessarily sexual objects (though there's a funny scene with a man wearing a codpiece), but tangible things that have power over people -- like Elvis. Or the shroud of Turin. Or funeral rituals in Asia. Or tuna fish in Japan. Mana is defined as "the power that exists in things" -- Check out the filmmakers' website for more information. Picture from Mana: Beyond Belief, (c) Strange Attractions, Inc. and ADR Productions. Camera: Van Carlson. Thanks to Chris from Larson Productions! Sorry we were so late!...

Usually, we try as hard as we can to avoid the real world, but we'll make an exception for the fourth San Francisco Documentary Film Festival. There are so many unbelievable films to check out over the festival, which opens tonight and runs through Sunday May 22. Many of the directors of the films and other interesting folks will be making appearances throughout the festival, so if you're a documentary groupie this Festival is......