Editor

First San Francisco Bay Area Festival: 28 January-13 February 2005
Three Cities, Seventeen Days, Fifty Events.

Rare Tornatore Work Starring Roman Polanski and Gerard Depardieu One of Fifteen Premieres; David O. Russell's Huckabees Infomercial Debuts; Films from Twelve Countries.

After sold-out events in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., the International Buddhist Film Festival (IBFF) will present its first San Francisco Bay Area festival January 28, 2005 through February 13, 2005. Over fifty events are scheduled in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Rafael.

Filmmakers and guest speakers from over a dozen countries are expected. IBFF associate director Tana Lehr, head of programming, says, "We have a great festival planned: fifteen premieres, some wonderful new prints of rare older works, a Focus on Korea series and some special surprises." She adds, "We are very excited about our Bay Area Filmmakers focus too. This strand allows us to highlight some of the excellent work produced right here by award-winning filmmakers."

Among the highlights of the forty title lineup are the theatrical premiere of David O. Russell's Huckabees Infomercial featuring Professor Robert Thurman, Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman; an IBFF Fresh Look presentation of Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man (starring Johnny Depp, with a soundtrack by Neil Young); the SF premiere of a little-known Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso) classic, A Pure Formality (starring Roman Polanski and Gerard Depardieu); the US premiere of Beyond the Mountain, by Korean director Chung Ji-young; the SF premiere of Hi! Dharma, by Korean director Kwan Park; the SF premiere of the controversial documentary What Remains of Us; and the US premiere of a Thai feature, Angulimala, by Suthed Tunnirat.

Also included will be One Particle of Dust, a special program of rare films of the late Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, as well as works by Bay Area filmmakers Ellen Bruno, Isaac Solotaroff, Sapana Sakya and others.

Working with San Francisco's legendary Castro Theater, UC Berkeley's Wheeler Auditorium, and Marin County's Smith Rafael Film Center, the IBFF expects attendance of over 20,000 in the course of the seventeen-day festival. Festival passes are available now by calling 510.601.5111x2 or visiting www.ibff.org; individual tickets go on sale January 10, 2005 when the full schedule will be announced.

In addition to the film screenings, The Compassion Concert, a benefit featuring Mickey Hart, Hamza El Din, former Kronos Quartet cellist Joan Jeanrenaud, Gyuto Monks, and friends, takes place at Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus February 11; "Reflecting Buddha," an exhibition and benefit sale of photographs curated by Photo Alliance founder and San Francisco Art Institute faculty member Linda Connor will be held at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery January 19-29; and "Speaking for the Buddha? Buddhism and the Media" a conference organized by the Center for Buddhist Studies and the Institute of East Asian Studies will be offered at UC Berkeley, February 7-9.

For more information, visit www.ibff.org

IBFF in SF Bay Area preliminary factsheet:
Dates
28 January-13 February 2005


Venues
28 January: Opening Night at the Castro
29-30 January: screenings at the Castro
3 February: Opening Night at Wheeler Auditorium (UCB)
4-6 February: screenings at Wheeler Auditorium
7-9 February: conference ("Speaking for the Buddha") on UC Berkeley campus
10 February: Opening Night at Rafael Film Center
11 February: The Compassion Concert, to benefit the IBFF: Mickey Hart, Hamza El Din, Joan Jeanrenaud, Gyuto Monks, and friends (Zellerbach Hall at UCB)
10-13 February: screenings at Wheeler Auditorium and Rafael Film Center


Special Screenings
Focus on Korea (6 programs)
Bay Area Filmmakers (3 programs)
Weekend Matinees ("for young people of all ages"--6 programs)
Fresh Look (classic works rediscovered--2-3 programs)


Reflecting Buddha: benefit sale of photographs
(exhibition of over 60 images by 30 well known artists curated by SFAI's Linda Connor)
SF Arts Commission Gallery in the Veteran's Building in SF, January 19-26.


Advisory Council
Josh Baran: author, consultant
Peter Coyote: actor, activist
Richard Gere: actor, activist
Philip Glass: composer
Peter Goldfarb: producer, actor
Pico Iyer: author, journalist
Bill Jersey: filmmaker
Maxine Hong Kingston : author, professor
Mickey Lemle: filmmaker, activist
Lisa Lu: actress, producer
Joanna Macy: author, activist
William McKeever: curator
Wes Nisker: author, broadcaster
Michael O'Keefe: actor, filmmaker
Kyle Secor: actor, activist
Huston Smith: author, professor
Robert Thurman: author, professor
Babeth VanLoo: filmmaker, broadcaster
Alice Walker: author, producer
Michael Wenger: author, curator
Rudy Wurlitzer: author, screenwriter