Films by Les Blank Come Back to the Bay Area

Two restored documentaries by Les Blank are on view in Bay Area theaters. (Photo courtesy of Argot Pictures)

Two classic documentaries by legendary Berkeley filmmaker Les Blank have been restored and will screen in the Bay Area. Argot Pictures presents Chulas Fronteras (Beautiful Borders), a film about the music and culture of immigrant farmworkers on the Texas-Mexico border, and Del Mero Corazón (Straight From the Heart), which illuminates love songs in the Tex-Mex Norteña music tradition. Total running time is 86 minutes. In English and Spanish. Blank, who died in 2013, is known for short documentaries like Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers and Burden of Dreams, about the making of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. See Chulas Fronteras and Del Mero Corazón in Bay Area Theaters including Rialto Cinemas Cerrito and Rialto Cinemas Elmwood during the last week of September. Info and schedule: here