FILM: Starting tonight, the San Francisco Black Film Festival, entering its 10th year, will be in full swing. Kicking of the week-long film fest is Ngozi Onwurah Shoot the Messenger (2006). Messenger is about "a black teacher who has to steer his careening life back on track after he is fired." Clinical depression and racism in England follows. This film screens at 7 p.m. at Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, 1881 Post. (Open bar party at Rasselas to follow!)
Also, How 2 Build a Rapper, a humorous documentary centered around a music industry's churns out disposable hip hop and rap stars, screens at 7:30 p.m. at the African American Art and Cultural Complex over at 762 Fulton. (Read more about it here.) Tickets are $10; visit www.sfbff.org for more info.
THEATER: Tracy Letts (playwright of Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hit August: Osage County, which is expected to sweep at the Tony Awards, which, yes, we're totally looking forward to seeing. Shut up) latest work premieres here in SF. It's called Bug and it's "a psychological thriller about love, fear . . . and little tiny bugs." (So: meth use?)
8 p.m. // SF Playhouse (533 Sutter) // $38