Last night, closing out day 4 of the San Francisco International Film Festival, Christine Vachon of Killer Films delivered the State of Cinema Address. Christine has personally produced over 60 films, including I'm Not There, Boys Don't Cry, One Hour Photo, and the 2010 HBO mini series Mildred Pierce. The annual Address is billed as assessment of cinema + culture + society. Here's a little summary.
The style of the talk was the type where Vachon would ask a question, sort of state that she ...
It's springtime and the San Francisco International Film Festival is here again to enlighten us with the latest best film and commentary. May I say YAY? There is tons of good stuff in the program, so here's just a bit of what I'm looking forward to: 1st: As usual, The State of the Cinema Address. The seductive combination of academia + film and you have the best event of the year for film nerds. Every time I've been my hand is sore after from excitedly taking so many notes. Hmmm, maybe I'll bri...
Sean Uyehara, who has been with the San Francisco Film Society for 5 years, offers an academic perspective on film and animation.Lis: How did your interest in animation begin?Sean: I'm interested in movies...and one thing about animation that I think is especially interesting is the way that it implies the relationship of the production world of film to an audience. One thing I'm interested in about movies in general is not only how they create meaning, but how they create authority. There a...
What follows are the short films from this weekend's San Francisco International Animation Festival that in my opinion were most fantastic and that I think in one way or another stick with me forever. I Forgive You (Pierre Mousquet, Cauwe Jerome, Belgium 2009)Played as part of the Best of Annecy Program. An animation style reminiscent of The Simpsons. Two wrestlers fight, plot turns unexpectedly and the result is hilarious. San Francisco crowd chuckled with glee. Jean-Francois (Tom Haugomat, Bru...
Since I'm a fan of Spirited Away, I was looking forward to seeing Mai Mai Miracle at the San Francisco International Animation Festival this morning. Mai Mai Miracle is directed by Sunao Katabuchi, who is a protege of Hayao Miyazaki's and worked as his assistant director on Kiki's Delivery Service. Miyazaki, who has received much critical acclaim for at least a dozen films and is considered the Walt Disney of Japan, is one of the few Anime directors who has managed to make films that hav...
What is it about animation that can capture emotion and feeling so well? It probably has a lot to do with the subjectivity. Because so much attention to detail is paid by the creator to every single frame in animation, there's a lot of room for the animator to display the kind of feeling she means to and the world we see on screen ends up being the animator's brain poured out into their craft. As opposed to other mediums which are limited by available actors and sets, etc., animation is li...
Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized, a 4 part visual representation of the Decemberists' 2009 album The Hazards of Love was meant to only be a one-time show- a backdrop for a performance of the album played live start-to-finish in LA. The result was so well received the film is now being shown in festivals. Last night it opened the San Francisco International Animation Film Festival, which runs until Sunday. Guilherme Marconde and Andrezza Valentin, husband and wife team who w...
Today is a very exciting day! The San Francisco International Film Festival begins, it runs November 11–14, 2010.This year is the fifth annual. Last year I had to miss it, but two years ago I met Gene Dietch and pondered the differences between hand drawn animation and digital, talked with Nina Paley about children's animation, and was introduced to the mind-blowing world of Encyclopedia Pictura, among other things. That year I also interviewed founder Sean Uyehara about animation...(...
Peter Rodger introduced his film Oh My God at the Mill Valley Film Festival. "I was challenged to make this film because I was frustrated by the childish schoolyard mentality that permeates our world...People blowing up buildings while saying ‘God is Good.'" Rodger's film consists of him travelling around the world with a camera asking people the question: "What is God?" The film gives us many, many different answers from all kinds of people. "God is ever...
Many documentaries today address activist issues. Often after seeing such movies, audiences will ask, "What can we do?" Sunday October 18, closing day of the Mill Valley Film Festival, a panel called: Active Cinema: Strategies for Change addressed how to best inspire audiences to action. How do we help audiences connect the dots between the experience of watching the film and doing something? How can we inspire activism? The panelists discussed. "You can't just show...
Since I call myself "interested in theatre" and I lived in San Francisco for four years,it's probably some sort of sin that I had never heard of the San Francisco Mime Troupe before Friday. When I sawthe Mill Valley Film Festival was having an event: Troupers: 50 Years of the San Francisco Mime Troupe I was intrigued, but also sincerely thought I was infor a night of miming- in my mind silent acting. The illustrious Peter Coyote introduced the event by reading a section from his ...
-photo credit Margot Duane
-"Thurman has proven her versatility by playing a wide variety of compelling characters. Thurman was honored at a special tribute event during the 32nd Mill valley Film Festival and was given the Mill Valley Film Festival Award for her remarkable work in cinema." (mvff.com)
-photo credit Margot Duane
-Woody Harrelson was honored October 15, 2009 with the Mill valley Film Festival Award at the Christopher B. S...
I got to sit down with Zoe Elton, Director of Programming at The Mill Valley Film Festival 3 days before the close of this year's fest. She's been with the Festival since it's inception 32 years ago, when she sort of fell into the position at random. Previously she worked in England as a theatre director and writer. Check out our conversation below to see what she has to say about the video art community in the 80s, how documentary has changed, it feeling like a "vintage year" fo...
I am opened to a new world after seeing Michel Orion Scott's The Horse Boy- currently playing at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Thus far in my life I have not been closely touched by autism, and I didn't know much about it previous to watching. Doctors' interviews sprinkled throughout the movie help give an insight into understanding the cryptic disease. The Horse Boy tells the true story of the Isaacson family. The film begins four years after ...
Rockwell the Inspiration for Duncan Jones' 'Moon'
WHOA! This movie is a mind-blow.
Let
me start by saying that I am quite unfamiliar with the genre of science
fiction. When I read about this movie I didn't think, 'Oh what a cool
sci-fi this movie will be.' SO it was a surprise to me when during the
Q&A at the West Coast premiere of the movie at the SFIFF Sunday
night so many questions and answers had to do with the sci-fi genre
(themes borrowed from other movies, etc...
Longest-Running Film Festival in the Americas Enjoys a Spectacular 52nd Year with Superb Programming, Numerous Special Guests and Many Memorable Sold-out Events
The San Francisco Film Society wrapped its 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23-May 7) with 272 screenings of 151 films from 55 countries, with 144 filmmakers and 54 industry guests from 25 countries in attendance, with an estimated 82,000 filmgoers. Over its packed 15 days the Festival set new record highs for att...
Last night 'Age of Stupid' had its North American premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival, and after watching I feel more called to action than I have in my 23 years on earth.
"I hope you enjoy the film- well not enjoy exactly- it's not a feel good movie but a feel inspired movie," director Franny Armstrong said before the show.
This is not your average documentary. Age of Stupid starts in the future- the year 2055 at a [computer generated] "digi...
Forty years ago Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Carroll Ballard, and Walter Murch moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles, and founded the film company American Zoetrope. Three years later Coppola made ‘The Godfather.’
Accompanied by their wives, last night the men sat around on stage at the world-renowned Castro Theatre, telling the story of how it all began.
Zoetrope was $30,000 in dept before Coppola did ‘The Godfather.’ Worried about the debt and knowing that C...
Last night I watched 'Everything Strange and New' - showing one last time tomorrow- Saturday, May 2nd at the Kabuki cinema for the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Two minutes in I wanted to skip back to the beginning because I was stopped in my tracks by the style of film making. I wanted to watch it over so as to catch every detail.
This is a BLEAK movie. And man, the filmmaking is incredible at illustrating bleakness.
Eerily slow zooms and dolly shots ...
Robert Redford will be honored in San Francisco tomorrow night as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival. Redford will be receiving the Peter J. Owens award, named for the longtime San Francisco benefactor of arts and charitable organizations Peter J. Owens (1936-91), this award honors an actor whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity.
The San Francisco Film Society notes about Redford...
Such intention of purpose and unwave...
The full schedule for the 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival, April 23-May 7, is now available at fest09.sffs.org.
Keep an eye out for new films by masters like Claire Denis (35 Shots of Rum), John Boorman (The Tiger's Tail) and Hirokazu Kore-eda (Still Walking); brilliant documentaries by Heddy Honigmann (Oblivion), Joe Berlinger (Crude) and Anne Aghion (My Neighbor, My Killer); and remarkable feature debuts from Benjamin Gilmour (Son of a Lion), Aida Begic (Snow) an...
Last Sunday morning I ended my tour of the San Francisco International Animation Film Festival with a retrospective of animator Gene Deitch's work for children. Deitch and his wife Zdenka who reside in Prague, were in attendance for the screening.
The showing included Oscar Winning Monroe, The Three Robbers, TomTerrific, Maurice Sendak's In the Knight Kitchen, and Where the Wild Things Are, Sylvester and the magic Pebble, Why Mosquitos Buzz in Peoples' Ears, and Tom and Jerry.
Seein...
This weekend at the San Francisco International Animation Film Festival, my eyes were opened to a new world!
It
is that of Encyclopedia Pictura. EP is an animating collective of three
young men from Santa Cruz who are currently enjoying a lot of attention
since their animation and production for Bjork's 'Wanderlust.' View here.
-Darren Rabinovitch, Sean Hellfritsch, and Isaiah Saxon of EP, and Sean Uyehara, Programmer of SFIAFF
Encyclopedia
Pictura are definitely on top of their ...
Sita opened the San Francisco International Animation Film Festival this weekend, where I got to see it, and where director Nina Paley (check her blog) and Sound Designer Greg Sextro were in attendance for some q & a.
IFC Film Center, New York, Sunday Nov. 9, 2008. Photo by Ken Levis.
Paley introduced her movie, and having lived in the Bay Area before, she was awe-struck to be back introducing a movie she made. "It's really weird to be in this position. I've been to s...
Bartlett Elisabeth 
