Film

/

Reading Cinemas in Rohnert Park Presents Horror-Fest


Reading Cinemas gets into the spirit of October with “Horror-Fest” by showcasing a classic horror film every Wednesday night (except Oct. 30) including Hitchcock’s PSYCHO on Halloween. All tickets are $11 and shows start at 7 p.m.

Tickets are available at the box office, or guests may conveniently purchase tickets in advance online, or download the Reading Cinemas USA app. For more information please visit ReadingCinemasUs.com, or follow us on Facebook @RohnertPark16, or on Twitter and Instagram @ReadingCinemas.


HORROR-FEST SCHEDULEReading Cinemas Valley Plaza

28 DAYS LATER (2002)OCTOBER 2 @ 7PMFour weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary. Kinetically directed by Danny Boyle, 28 DAYS LATER is both a terrifying zombie movie and a sharp political allegory. Starring Brendan Gleeson, Cillian Murph, and Naomie Harris. (113min, R)

SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004)OCTOBER 9 @ 7PMA man’s uneventful life is disrupted by the zombie apocalypse. SHAUN OF THE DEAD cleverly balances scares and witty satire, making for a bloody good zombie movie with loads of wit. (100min, R)

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)OCTOBER 16 @ 7PMFive youths on a weekend getaway fall prey to a depraved family of cannibals. Tobe Hooper’s masterpiece of subversive horror defined the genre of horror through a chilling depiction of depravity and dementia. (83min, R)

THE THING (1982)OCTOBER 23 @ 7PMHorror-meister John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape From New York) teams Kurt Russell’s outstanding performance with incredible visuals to build this chilling version of the classic THE THING. In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Once unfrozen, the form-changing alien wreaks havoc, creates terror and becomes one of them. (109min, R)

PSYCHO (1960)OCTOBER 31 @ 7PMAlfred Hitchcock’s landmark masterpiece of the macabre stars Anthony Perkins as the troubled Norman Bates, whose old dark house and adjoining motel are not the place to spend a quiet evening. When Marion Crane, spectacularly played by Janet Leigh, ends up at the Bates Motel after making off with $40,000 cash, there’s hardly a film fan alive who doesn’t know what happens next. First a private detective, then Marion’s sister, search for her as the horror and suspense mount to a terrifying climax where the mysterious killer is finally revealed. (109min, R)

/

Mill Valley Film Fest Happens October 3 – 13

The Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF), presented annually by the California Film Institute (CFI), announced today the complete lineup of films, special guests, Tributes & Spotlights, special events, MVFF Music, and much more for the 42nd edition of the Festival. The Festival will showcase the finest cinema around Marin County October 3-13, 2019 with a diverse lineup of acclaimed films, filmmakers, and special events. The Festival will present twelve World Premieres, eleven North American Premieres, and seventeen US Premieres.
 
Opening Night
JUST MERCY
In Monroeville, Alabama—To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee’s lifelong home—African American Walter McMillian (Oscar® winner Jamie Foxx) was sentenced to death for killing a white woman in 1988. A real-life, modern-day Atticus Finch in the form of recent Harvard Law grad Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) challenged a corrupt, racist system to free an innocent man. The standout cast includes Brie Larson, Tim Blake Nelson, and Rob Morgan. Expected Guests: Jamie Foxx, Tim Blake Nelson, and Rob Morgan.
 
Following the screening, the Opening Night Gala will be held at Marin Country Mart in Larkspur.
 
Centerpiece Presentation 
WAVES
Trey Edward Shults’ (Krisha, It Comes at Night) impressive third feature centers on the complicated family dynamics of three couples whose lives and loves hang in the balance. With a fantastic score by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Waves is an unflinching and delicately-crafted portrait of family and forgiveness.
 
Closing Night (note that there are two Closing Night films)
FORD v FERRARI
Academy Award® winners Matt Damon and Christian Bale star in this energetic, biographical drama from acclaimed director James Mangold (Logan). Based on the remarkable true story of automotive designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles, Ford v Ferrari details how an eccentric team of engineers battled corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build the revolutionary GT 40 race car for Ford Motor Company. Expected Guest: James Mangold.
 
MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN
Edward Norton makes a confident transition into the director’s chair with a stylish, engrossing adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s acclaimed 1999 novel of the same name, an intricate, noir-ish story set in 1950s Brooklyn. When a deceptively routine case for a detective agency proves deadly, the team of gumshoes dives head-first into their investigation, uncovering a dangerous coverup and high-ranking corruption within the elected city planning committee of Brooklyn. The cast includes Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbathaw-Raw, Cherry Jones, and Willem Dafoe. Expected Guest: Edward Norton.
 
Spotlights 
MVFF42 will bestow a number of Spotlights throughout the Festival including: Oliva Wilde and her process of creating Booksmart; actor Robert Pattinson with the local premiere of his new film The Lighthouse; Kristen Stewart, presenting her new film Seberg wherein Stewart portrays actress Jean Seberg; and the Marriage Story ensemble, including director Noah Baumbach, actress Laura Dern, and others.
 
Tribute
The Festival will present three Tributes this year: to Alfre Woodard with a screening of her new death row drama Clemency; to Michael Apted, presenting 63 Up, the latest edition of his long-term project documenting a group of people over their entire lives; and to Barbara Rush, and her body of work spanning decades – starring opposite leading men such as Paul Newman and James Mason, and working for directors including Douglas Sirk and Nicholas Ray.
 
Special Premieres 
The Festival will present a number of Special Premieres, including Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo with Danny Trejo in person; The Great 14th: Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama in His Own Words by local director Rosemary Rawcliffe; Palm d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest film The Truth; Blackbird starring Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet; and British actor Simon Bird’s directorial debut Days of Bagnold Summer.
 
Restorations
MVFF42 will present new 4K restorations of two major films by Bay Area directors; Nancy Kelly’s 1990 beloved independent film Thousand Pieces of Gold starring Rosalind Chao and Chris Cooper; and Philip Kaufman’s 1988 adaption of Milan Kundera’s classic novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
 
Behind the Screens
The Festival will present another strong slate of Panels, Master Classes, and Workshops to supplement the outstanding film programming and to continue the discussion for Festival attendees. The Mind The Gap Summit will again feature an extraordinary lineup of thought leaders and creatives in film and tech for a full day intensive to help work and share ideas as the Festival advocates gender equity in film. This year’s Summit will include a film screening and award presentation for Trailblazer of the Century to National Park Ranger Betty Reid Soskin. In addition, there will be a special Mind the Gap Director’s Forum, and a presentation of this year’s Mind the Gap Award to Swedish Film Institute CEO Anna Serner on October 5. Other Behind the Screens events include the annual State of the Industry panel featuring leaders of the independent film world to talk about the current pulse of the independent film community; From Concept to Story to Screenteen filmmakers’ workshop, facilitated by Tom Franco and Iris Torres; a Networking in Nature Active Cinema Hike on the Tennessee Valley Tailhead in Mill Valley; a Master Class held by Laura Dern; a Get the Kids in the Pictures! workshop with insider tips on how to break into acting in films; and a Variety 10 Screenwriters to Watch panel, moderated by Variety’s Features Editor Malina Saval.
 
MVFF Music 
MVFF Music returns with a diverse series of concerts at the Sweetwater Music Hall. These nights of live music include performances by artists featured in MVFF films, as well as local, national, and international musicians. Musicians this year include Danny Evans, Essence Goldman, Hayes Carll, Ace of Cups, Gaijin à Go-Go, Alice Gerrard, and Little Hurricane.
 
¡VIVA EL CINE! 
The Festival’s ¡Viva El Cine! Initiative showcases prize-winning Spanish Language and Latin American films that seek to engage and embrace our Spanish-speaking and -loving audiences. Highlights in this section include: Marighella, The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão, and Bacurau, three films from Brazil; August, from Cuba/Costa Rica; The Prince from Chile/Argentina; Pain and Glory, Pedro Almodóvar’s latest; Pablo Larraín’s Ema from Chile; and the shorts program ¡Viva los Niños!  
                                                                                   
Active Cinema
Once again the MVFF’s Active Cinema is a forum for films that inspire people to take action to create positive change. These films are united in their commitment to explore the world and its issues, engage audiences, and transform ideas into action. Highlights this year include: The Dog Doc, exploring integrative veterinary medicine; Rewind, on generational trauma; Right to Harm, which examines the extreme effects of factory farming on rural communities; and The Story of Plastic, a deep dive into the global plastic pollution crisis.
 
Focus | Eye on Sweden
A celebration of superb storytelling from emerging Swedish directors: fiction and nonfiction films that represent the range of contemporary cinema from the star of Scandinavia. Films include Amateurs, And Then We Danced, and Scheme Birds.
 
Focus | Resist Revolt Reform
Rockin’, raucous, and revealing reflections on society and culture, captured through the wide-angle and long lenses of established and emerging international filmmakers. Highlights include Coup 53, From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock: A Reporter’s Journey, A Hidden Life, Marighella, Watch List, and You Say You Want a Revolution?
                                               
Focus | Queer-ish
Diverse stories of queer representation found in a genre-twisting, award-winning array of films from across the globe. Highlights include And Then We Danced, Blackbird, By the Grace of God, Ema, Pain and Glory, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Synonyms, and Where’s My Roy Cohn?
 
Complete Press Materials are available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1sbczth54gy920h/AABuG9eCKHxnt1dnPy-Fag5ma?dl=0
 
                                               
##
 
About the Mill Valley Film Festival
Presented by the California Film Institute, the 42nd Festival runs October 3 – 13, 2019. Locations this year include: CinéArts@Sequoia (Mill Valley), Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center (San Rafael), Cinemark’s Century Theater Larkspur, Lark Theatre (Larkspur), and other theatres throughout the Bay Area. With a reputation for launching new films and creating awards season buzz, MVFF has earned a reputation as a “filmmakers’ festival” by celebrating the best in American independent and world cinema alongside high profile and prestigious award contenders.
 
About the California Film Institute
The California Film Institute (CFI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating and promoting film and media arts through the presentation of the internationally acclaimed Mill Valley Film Festival celebrating its 42nd year in 2019 and DocLands Documentary Film Festival, the ongoing cultivation of the next generation of filmmakers and film lovers through CFI Education, which features a broad range of activities, including screenings, Q&A sessions, and seminars with top international and local filmmakers and industry professionals as well as a rich program of classes and hands-on-workshops. Additionally, CFI acts as a year-round film-centric town hall with a diverse calendar of programming at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, one of the leading non-profit independent theatres in the country. The art of storytelling through film enables CFI to engage 275,000 guests throughout the year with films and events that entertain as well as address a breadth of social, environmental, and cultural issues. CFI relies on the generosity of its community to sustain these core programs. The invaluable support of our sponsors, foundations, and individual donors ensures our continued success. For more information visit cafilm.org
 
Supporters
CFI is once again proud to acknowledge the leadership support of Christopher B. and Jeannie Meg Smith, Jennifer Coslett MacCready, Vickie Soulier and Nancy P. and Richard K. Robbins Family Foundation, and the continued major support of Marin Community Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, The Gruber Family Foundation, and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. We are also fortunate to have the contributions of the following Signature and Major Sponsors of the Mill Valley Film Festival: Jackson Square Partners, Lucasfilm, Ltd., Wareham Development, Bellam Self Storage and Boxes, Netflix, Project No. 9, Delta Air Lines and San Francisco Chronicle.
 
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS
42nd Mill Valley Film Festival
Celebrating the best of independent and world cinema alongside high profile and prestigious award contenders.
Marin County, California
Thursday, October 3 to Sunday October 13, 2019
Ticket On-Sale Dates
Advance Ticket Packages and Passes on sale now
General Public Single Tickets on sale Saturday, September 14, 2019
CFI members can purchase single tickets in advance of the general public beginning Sunday, September 8, 2019.
 
Social Media
#MVFF42, #MVFF
Twitter: @MVFilmFest
Instagram: @millvalleyfilmfest
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MillValleyFilmFestival
 

/

Free Screening of ‘UNSETTLED: Seeking Refuge in America’ st The Rafael Theater in San Rafael

September 16 @ 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Bay Area filmmaker Tom Shepard’s powerful new documentary tells the untold stories of LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers who have fled intense persecution in their home countries and are attempting to resettle in the United States. The film follows four new arrivals, each of whom have escaped potential peril in their native countries for being different. They’ve landed in the purported “gay mecca” of San Francisco yet, even here, building a new life in an adopted nation is a precarious undertaking. As the current Administration continues to restrict immigrants and drastically cut the flow of refugees and asylum seekers, Unsettled is a timely look at the challenges and perseverance of four refugees on a quest for a better tomorrow.

The screening is free and a discussion and Q&A will immediately follow with director Tom Shepard   

Please get your tickets here: https://rafaelfilm.cafilm.org/unsettled/

/

Clara Bradbury-Rance Talks Lesbian Visibility in Film

A new cinema text of note, Clara Bradbury-Rance’s Lesbian Cinema after Queer Theory (Edinburgh University Press) seeks to take an overdue dive into the long-standing conversation about visibility and representation in film. Grounding her research to an octet of films—Mulholland Drive, Nathalie…, Chloe, Water Lilies, She Monkeys, Blue Is the Warmest Color, and Carol—she offers new ways of thinking about the queer moving image.

Lambda Literary recently spoke to Clara about Lesbian Cinema and lesbian cinema alike.

You’ve made a compelling case for the importance in distilling lesbian characters from ‘queer,’ while deploying queer theory as a way of analyzing these figures. Why this distinction, and this collaboration between disciplines?

Well, the answer to this question lies in part in my own personal and political investments. As a lesbian, I have always seen my gender and my sexuality together, and feminism has probably been most central to my life and my politics. Of course, queer at its best truly accounts for gender and sexuality and their intersections. But in practice, the exclusions that are produced by queer theory’s dominance in the study of sexuality often run along gender lines (in fact I think trans people have been the biggest victims of that). I use the example in my book of edited collections about let’s say “queer cinema”, which focus overwhelmingly on gay male narratives. When queer becomes a synonym for gay (or lesbian), it is more likely than not to act as an umbrella term that disguises ongoing exclusions.

And yet, I do find so much of the work of queer theory utterly invigorating. It is at its core framed around political and sexual practices—and writing about them—that reject binary categories of sexuality and gender identity. This has (perhaps simplistically) often cohered around the debate about equal marriage—do we strive to be accepted into normative institutions or to break them down. “Queer” and “lesbian and gay” are frequently positioned on either side of that debate. Queer theory encourages us to question the often normative and often simplistic requirements of so-called identity politics. And yet, the lived experience of gender and sexuality is often the lived experience of sexism and homophobia, so it is inevitably framed (even if just by others) through those same requirements.

Lesbian Cinema after Queer Theory by Clara Bradbury-Rance

And why is this uniquely important for film?

I think that despite the work of queer theory, the debate around lesbian cinema is still about lesbian directors, lesbian authors, lesbian couples, lesbian characters. And this leaves us with a kind of solidification of something called lesbian identity that we’re supposed to be able to recognize in a single character, or scene, or film. But not all lesbians look the same! Lesbianism isn’t reducible to the “coming out” scene—or even to the sex scene. Certainly not to the couple. Desire is always more complicated than that. And that’s why I was interested to see what queer theory could do for lesbian film studies without dissolving the historical, social and political meanings and motivations and investments of lesbianism. You could say I was using queer theory as a methodological tool to push at what we think we know about lesbianism and how it’s made legible on-screen.

One of the many fine points made in Lesbian Cinema after Queer Theory that haunted me throughout my reading was actually posed very early on, in your introduction. You repurpose Valerie Traub’s writings on sex in modernism for contemporary cinema, writing: 

Invisibility is entrenched in the existing discursive field surrounding the history of lesbian representation. Rather than the recipient of a clean break between a historical invisibility and a contemporary visibility, the lesbian is marked by a discourse that foregrounds the relationship between the two. […] In other words, the lesbian stands in for an anxiety rather than for herself.

Yes. Even if we make the claim that lesbianism is more visible on screen that it has ever been (and I do), it still lags behind gay male representations. For instance, the Curzon Soho cinema in London’s gay district showed Call Me By Your Name for about six consecutive months, and that just wouldn’t happen with a lesbian film; and nor is it that easy to imagine a lesbian Queer Eye getting the same kind of mainstream popularity. But still, we’re in a very different situation from even twenty years ago. So what I’m saying when I suggest that there is no clean break between invisibility and visibility is that even if we had more visibility, more representations, we’d still have the baggage of the past that informs the way lesbianism is conceived of in the present. I think in some ways lesbianism still falls between the gaps—just think, when the law in the United Kingdom changed to decriminalize gay sex (at least for some people, in some places…) in 1967, lesbian sex wasn’t included—because it had never been recognized as a phenomenon to be either legal or illegal…

Throughout, I kept wondering if the lesbian spectator is also afflicted by a similar condition. As a film writer, I regularly witness queer women approach forthcoming cinema that possesses a homoerotic element with, given that historical marginalization, a blend of excitement and trepidation. It isn’t uncommon to witness the latter entirely eclipse the former as representational and gaze questions are asked: Is the director a woman? Are the actresses queer? Where do men factor into the narrative? At times, I resent that my anxiety premonitions theirs. A memory: Upon leaving the theater after seeing Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden (a work I enjoyed), I immediately texted my girlfriend, “the lesbians are going to hate this.” Sure enough, the dissenting critiques, fearing that pattern between past and present, flowed.

Yes, that’s a familiar story (and a familiar text message).

The ‘clean break’ is futile. But is there a way to encourage lesbian audiences to be aware of, and/or circumvent, this pleasureless way of seeing?

I always think of B. Ruby Rich on Basic Instinct in her original 1992 “The New Queer Cinema” essay: “Basic Instinct was picketed by the self-righteous wing of the queer community (until dykes began to discover how much fun it was).” I’m not saying we should always find the fun at the expense of our politics. But pleasure isn’t simple. Many of us discovered our first lesbian pleasures through the cinema—I certainly did. Identifying with characters, fantasizing desires—and at least when I was growing up these were often framed around what we could call male languages of cinematic desire that Laura Mulvey was critiquing way back in 1975. So I think we need to champion feminist production practices, and feminist curation, as well as feminist criticism. And I think lesbian self-representation is vitally important. But I don’t think I can only identify with the characters in a film made by a woman. I know I will just have to reconcile myself with a bit of ambivalence along the way. The importance of something like #MeToo is that it’s helped us to make viewing choices informed by that. But cinema has always been a site for demonstrating not only the explicit, the celebratory, or the clear ways of doing lesbian desire, but also (and more often) the complexities, vulnerabilities, ambiguities, even ambivalences of it.

In Lesbian Cinema’s second chapter, you tackle the queer re-routing and domestic incompatibility of lesbian desire in Atom Egoyan’s Chloe. The two lead characters, a beleaguered wife (Julianne Moore) and the prostitute she hires to ascertain her husband’s fidelity (Amanda Seyfried), engage in an erotic exchange built on the foundation of this arrangement; in a moment of physical contact at its climax, Seyfried is shoved from the window of Moore’s home, by Moore. You write: 

in Chloe the home itself literally precipitates Chloe’s death, as she falls through a window of the house following a final embrace […] Rather than the de-eroticization of the lesbian relationship that Lee Wallace (2009: 131) argues is the home’s modus operandi, what we observe here is the forcing of lesbianism into conformity because the primary lesbian subject (Chloe, the initiator) is killed off by the home itself.

A recent film that came to mind where a lesbian relationship grows from some unseen patriarchal connection — and is punished by architecture — is Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite (2018). Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz), carries on an affair to perpetuate a war in which her husband is a major player, and is evicted twice: once by Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) from the palace, and again from the country. Do you have any thoughts on the film’s positioning in lesbian cinema you’d like to share? 

This is a great comparison—of course, in a film about royalty the questions and connections surrounding house/home and royalty/country are enlivened and provoked. I have the same reservations that many will, that the most high profile lesbian films of recent years, celebrated in criticism and by awards ceremonies, have been directed by men. (I make the distinction that they are directed by men since of course, as we know, film authorship can never be reduced to directorship. The centering of the director is part of a problematic canonization that we’d do well to keep challenging—to take “Todd Haynes’s” Carol for instance, Haynes shares authorship quite visibly with Patricia Highsmith, Christine Vachon, and Phyllis Nagy.)

All that notwithstanding, The Favourite is a film about dislike and competition and envy and jealousy and cruelty—but it is also about desire, and lust, and erotic fascination, and identification—all things that lesbian viewers have taken pleasure in for many years. It’s one of the casualties of the visibility discourse, I think, that we stop taking pleasure from the margins. It’s complicated, sure. But so is desire.

You began this project, which centers eight films but references hundreds of others, in 2011. Tell me a bit about your research methods, especially pertaining to screening. Alone, a second or third helping of Blue Is the Warmest Color, which runs just under three hours, is quite ambitious. 

Actually they’ve changed a lot. All of the films I looked at for my PhD, which turned into this book, simply had to be seen in the dark of the cinema. And then of course I’d watch and re-watch them (though I’ve had entertaining conversations with some of my favorite film scholars about the perils of mis-remembering key moments pre-DVD—which just goes to show it’s hard to take subjectivity out of it).

I saw Blue Is the Warmest Color in the cinema before I’d read any of the news reports about it. And my writing about that film has been situated firstly in that first viewing, which wasn’t on a laptop with Twitter news stories cycling along the side, but in the rather solipsistic space of the cinema. And in turn, the films I write about in this book all center what I call intensified spectatorship, moments or encounters that draw our attention to processes of voyeurism. As I say early on in my intro, I started by wanting to find films that I could call lesbian cinema and say that a new wave of lesbian cinema had been born. But it’s more complicated than that. So the book in its final form isn’t an account of celebration, or an encyclopedic documentation of lesbian visibility’s forerunners—but rather a theoretical interrogation of some complex representational terrain. I chose those eight films because in different ways they challenge the easy commodification of visibility for instance in the sex scene, the couple, or the coming out scene.

In new work I’m thinking much more about contexts and conditions of production, particularly in the digital realm—I’m writing about the filmmaker Desiree Akhavan, who began making work that was streamed on a WordPress blog, and funded by crowdfunding. When someone like Stephen Spielberg kicks out at the inclusion at festivals of films distributed by Netflix, for instance, he ignores the increase the part that streaming has had to play in the diversity of films and filmmakers being promoted. I was very much a cinema purist in 2011—There are now very different currencies at play that I think we need to attend to.

On that note, I’m reminded of the acknowledgements in Patricia White’s Uninvited: Classical Hollywood Cinema and Lesbian Representability, where she thanks her partner for “timely reminders that movie sisters really are just sisters.” It’s a humbling question, but: When working, did you have moments where you desired to envision phenomena that weren’t quite there?

Oh yes. Often. Even as a child I projected my fantasies onto many a female star. But, to bring my viewing pleasures a little more up to date—yes, I think we bring all sorts of hopes to cinema, but we also find these hopes in places we weren’t even looking. Or maybe I’m always looking.

Let’s talk cinema in 2019. What films, out and forthcoming, are exciting you?

I can answer that easily—Wanuri Kahiu’s Rafiki, doing the rounds now, is a wonderful film. It’s received a lot of publicity as the first Kenyan film to be screened in competition at the Cannes film festival in 2018. It’s also visually exciting, tender, funny, and does not shy away from the political importance of its story. It is accessible, but it also subtly experiments with form to get at the complexities of representing desire on the screen. I’m also really excited about Céline Sciamma’s new film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which screened at Cannes this year. I haven’t seen it yet but my book has a chapter on her first film, Water Lilies, and her filmmaking never fails to grab my attention.

/

Line Up for SF Jewish Film Festival Announced

The Jewish Film Institute (JFI) announces the complete lineup for the 39th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF), which will return to the Bay Area July 18th to August 4th, 2019. Tickets are now on sale for all programs.

“As we celebrate our 39th year, it is an inspiring time to be part of the global film culture and the Jewish Film Institute is participating in that conversation. The changes of the past few years have resulted in the incredible diversity of films and filmmakers that are reflected in this year’s lineup at the first and still the largest Jewish Film Festival. We are committed to discovering and supporting films and filmmakers that expand understanding of Jewish life and we deeply believe in the power of film to illuminate Jewish experience.” said JFI Executive Director Lexi Leban 

Now in its 39th year, the Festival, the first and largest of its kind, will welcome an audience of over 40,000 attendees at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, the Landmark Albany Twin in Albany, the CinéArts Theatre in Palo Alto, the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, and the Landmark Piedmont Theater in Oakland. Visit sfjff.org for complete Festival information.

Opening Night Film – FIDDLER: A MIRACLE OF MIRACLES
The 1964 Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof was (and is) a theatrical phenomenon and is now the subject of a new documentary revealing the creative origins and long-lasting cultural impact of a show that held the record, for 10 years, as the longest-running musical on Broadway. Max Lewkowicz’s lively documentary is full of interviews with the musical’s creators, performance clips from productions around the world (including the classic film version and the current popular Yiddish-language adaptation), and commentary from admirers like Stephen Sondheim and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda. 
Director Max Lewkowicz in person.

Following Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles the party continues at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, with refreshments from Oren’s Hummus, L’Chaim Foods, Wise Sons, Taste Catering, and more.

Castro Closing Night Film –  THE RED SEA DIVING RESORT
Inspired by a true life rescue mission, The Red Sea Diving Resort is the story of a group of international agents and brave Ethiopians who in the early 80s used a deserted holiday retreat in Sudan as a front to smuggle thousands of refugees to Israel. Chris Evans plays Ari Kidron, the Mossad agent who leads the mission together with Kabede Bimro, played by Michael Kenneth Williams. Posed as naive European entrepreneurs, the team he leads take advantage of the Sudanese government’s interest in expanding its Ministry of Tourism to purchase a strategically located property along the Red Sea. Their plans are thrown for a loop, however, when real tourists begin arriving, expecting service. Directed by Gideon Raff, who is the creator of the Israeli series Prisoners of War and an executive producer of its American adaptation Homeland.  
Director Gideon Raff in person.

Centerpiece Narrative –  TEL AVIV ON FIRE
Salam, an inexperienced young Palestinian man, becomes a writer on a popular soap opera after a chance meeting with an Israeli soldier. His creative career is on the rise – until the soldier and the show’s financial backers disagree about how the show should end, and Salam is caught in the middle. This satire by director Sameh Zoabi asks the question: Who controls the narrative of a script or, for that matter, of history?
Director Sameh Zoabi in person in San Francisco and Palo Alto.

Centerpiece Documentary –  THE AMAZING JOHNATHAN DOCUMENTARY
Is it possible to make a truthful film when your subject is an unreliable performer addicted to drugs who makes his living through illusion and the art of deception? This is a key question raised in director Ben Berman’s (I’m a Mitzvah, SFJFF 2014) meta-documentary portrait of Las Vegas magician and stand-up comic John Szeles, aka the Amazing Johnathan. What begins as a conventional story about an entertainer with a terminal heart condition embarking on his final tour ends up as both a meditation on mortality and an exploration of documentary filmmaking.
Director Ben Berman in person in San Francisco.


Freedom of Expression Award – JUDITH HELFAND
Judith Helfand is an artist/activist who is able to craft complex ideas about science, corporate greed, and environmental injustice into highly personal films that entertain as well as inform. Her films include A Healthy Baby Girl (SFJFF 1997), in which Helfand reveals her exposure in-utero to the drug diethylstilbestrol (DES), and Blue Vinyl (SFJFF 2001) which investigates the potentially toxic effects of vinyl. Helfand co-founded Working Films, a non-profit that mentors’ filmmakers, NGOs and foundations on the use of documentaries for social change. She is also the co-founder of Chicken and Egg Films, a source of funding to women filmmakers. Helfand will present her new film is COOKED: Survival by Zip Code, in which she takes audiences from the deadly 1995 Chicago heat disaster deep into one of our nation’s biggest growth industries – Disaster Preparedness. Along the way she forges links between extreme weather, extreme disparity, and the politics of ‘disaster.’ 
Director Judith Helfand in conversation with award-winning filmmaker Nico Opper in San Francisco


Next Wave Spotlight –  SAFE SPACES
In Safe Spaces, an adjunct professor come to terms with the upheavals in his personal and professional life. After being held responsible for a controversial incident in his classroom, he spends some time reconnecting with his dysfunctional father, mother, and sister. Starring Justin Long, Fran Descher, and Richard Schiff.
Director Daniel Schechter in person in San Francisco and Palo Alto.

Following the San Francisco screening of Safe Spaces, there will be a reception in the Castro Mezzanine for Next Wave passholders, featuring snacks, Bay Area made House Kombucha bottles, and Tito’s Handmade Vodka cocktails. 

A Next Wave Membership is available this year to anyone 35 and under, which includes a Festival pass that offers access to the entire Festival for only $45. Further information available at sfjff.org/next-wave.
Local Spotlight –  WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL
This new documentary by Rob Garver tells the story of the life and career of Pauline Kael (1919-2001), perhaps the most powerful, and personal, movie critic of the 20th century. Writing for The New Yorker and publishing a dozen best-selling books, Kael’s passion made her both admired and despised amongst her readers.

Following the San Francisco screening of What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael, there will be a HerStory Panel and Discussion on feminism and film criticism at Spark Arts,4229 18th St.
East Bay Opening Night – PICTURE OF HIS LIFE
The Festival continues its tradition of programming in the East Bay, opening with Picture of His Life. Amos Nachoum is one of the world’s great underwater photographers. He’s developed a unique approach that puts him face to face with his subjects, without any protection. At the age of 65, he is about to face his ultimate challenge: to swim with a polar bear.
Directors Dani Menkin and Yonatan Nir, producer Nancy Spielberg and subject Amos Nachoum in person in San Francisco and Albany. Director Dani Menkin in person in San Rafael.

A reception with local treats from Saul’s Deli, Pomella Oakland Catering, and Hagafen wine will follow the Albany screening on Thursday, July 25.
Palo Alto Opening Night – MY POLISH HONEYMOON
The Festival returns to Palo Alto with this special Opening Night presentation. Anna and Adam, a young Parisian couple with Jewish origins, are about to travel to Poland for the first time. They will attend a ceremony in memory of the Jewish community in the village of Adam’s grandfather, which was destroyed 75 years ago. Anna is both anxious and excited about the trip, hoping to reconnect with her roots and finally discover more about her own family’s history.
Director Elise Otzenberger in person in Palo Alto and San Francisco.

SFJFF In Good Company – CURTIZ (presented in partnership with Noir City)
Michael Curtiz directed nearly 200 films in his lifetime. In this noir-ish dramatization of the making of his most famous film, Casablanca, for which he won the Oscar for Best Director, Curtiz is shown as a man in turmoil.  As America prepares to enter WW2, the Hungarian film director grapples with political intervention and a dysfunctional relationship with his estranged daughter amid the troubled production of Casablanca in 1942.
Film Noir Foundation founder Eddie Muller in conversation with Curtiz biographer Alan K. Rode following the screening in San Francisco.
 

Film and Feast – ABE
Abe is a 12-year-old kid from Brooklyn. A passionate cook, he decides to unite his half-Palestinian, half-Israeli family by cooking a special dinner, but it all goes wrong. The movie stars Noah Schnapp (Stranger Things), and features Mark Margolis (Breaking Bad), and Brazilian musician Seu Jorge (City of God).

Following the Albany screening, there will be a ticketed lunch reception featuring traditional and contemporary Middle Eastern flavors at Zaytoon Mediterranean Restaurant & Bar, 1133 Solano Ave, Albany.

Song and Dance – THE MAMBONIKS
During the 1950s, a group of mostly Jewish dancers from New York City fell in love with the mambo, a new dance from Havana, Cuba. Their love for Latin rhythms earned them a nickname: the “mamboniks.” The Mamboniks tells a little-known story of how two cultures, Jewish and Latin, met on the dance floor at a time when America was racially segregated, and anti-Semitism was commonplace.
Director Lex Gillespie in person in San Francisco.Preceding the San Francisco screening of The Mamboniks will be a live performance of mambo-inspired music by Club Havana 1950, led by Sascha Jacobsen.

Take Action Day: Social Justice Filmmakers Repair the World
SFJFF39’s annual Take Action Day is a full-day lineup of documentaries that exemplify the Jewish values embodied in tikkun olam which inspire us to repair the world with our actions. Each film on Monday, July 22nd at the Castro Theatre will be followed by discussions with attending filmmakers and community leaders, led by former JFI Filmmaker-in-Residence Nico Opper. This year’s Take Action Day films are American Muslim by Adam Zucker, which explores Muslim/Jewish alliances in the face of rising violence; Refugee Lullaby by Ronit Kertsner, which reveals what results when one person is compelled to act because of his family history; COOKED: Survival by Zip Code by SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award recipient Judith Helfand, which confronts the effects of climate change in an unequal world; and American Factory by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, which observes what happens when a Chinese billionaire opens an auto glass company in a shuttered auto factory in Ohio. 

Desperately Seeking Israel 
Falasha Jews of Ethiopian descent call themselves the House of Israel (Beta Israel) and claim descent from the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. In 1977 Israeli officials decided that the Law of Return (aliyah) applied to them. This Festival sidebar series centers on three films about the struggle of Ethiopians to make aliyah: The Red Sea Diving Resort by Gideon Raff, about a resort in the Sudanese desert operated by Mossad agents as a decoy for evacuating refugee Ethiopian Jews; Fig Tree by Alamork Davidian, a drama set during the Ethiopian Civil War; and The Passengers by Ryan Porush, about two Ethiopian friends seeking support for the aliyah Israel promised them.

HerStory: If She Can See It, She Can Be It
In addition to the screening/panel discussion of What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael, the other HerStory selections in this year’s Festival are Before You Know It by Hannah Pearl Utt, Dolce Fine Giornata by Jacek Borcuch, Fig Tree by Alamork Davidian, Leona by Isaac Cherem, and Made in Auschwitz: The Untold Story of Block 10 by Sylvia Nagel and Sonya Winterberg.

###

For Festival logos, photos and press materials, visit jfi.org/press or sfjff.org/press. To request interviews or screeners, contact Larsen Associates at publicity@larsenassc.com or call 415.957.1205.

For general or ticket information, visit sfjff.org or email jewishfilm@sfjff.org. To contact the SFJFF Box Office, please email boxoffice@sfjff.org, or call 415.621.0568.

###

HASHTAGS: #SFJFF, #SFJFF39 and #SFJEWISHFILM / @sfjewishfilm

Facebook: facebook.com/sfjewishfilm/
Twitter:@SFJewishFilm
Instagram:@SFJewishFilm
YouTube:youtube.com/sfjewishfilm
Website:www.jfi.org / www.sfjff.org

###

About the Jewish Film Institute 
The Jewish Film Institute (JFI) is the premier curatorial voice for Jewish film and media and a leading arts and culture organization in the Bay Area. Presenter of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, JFI catalyzes and inspires communities in San Francisco and around the world to expand their understanding of Jewish life and culture through film, media, and dialogue. Year round, the Jewish Film Institute promotes awareness and appreciation of the diversity of the Jewish people through multiple mediums – including original online programming that reaches a global audience of over 2 million views. All of these services, along with artists’ support and educational initiatives, give audiences around the world even greater access to Jewish culture and the visionaries who shape it.

About the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF), presented by the Jewish Film Institute, is the largest and longest-running festival of its kind and a leader in the curation and presentation of new film and media exploring the complexities of Jewish life around the world. Presenting more than 65 films and 135 individual screenings, performances and events in five Bay Area cities (San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Rafael, Oakland, Albany), SFJFF attracts more than 40,000 filmgoers and industry professionals to its 18-day program.

The Jewish Film Institute extends a heartfelt thanks to all of its generous donors. For a complete listing of members and donors, visit jfi.org/supporters.

Premier Festival Sponsors: Sterling Bank & Trust, The Seligman Family Foundation.

Media Sponsors: Premier Media – SF Chronicle and SFGate; Select Media Sponsor – J News of Northern CA; Grand Media Sponsors – KQED, The Forward;  Major Media Sponsor – ABC7;
Signature Media Sponsors -| SF Bay Times & Betty’s List.

Business and Community Sponsors: Berkeley Film Foundation, Britex Fabrics, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, Craig Harrison’s Expressions of Excellence, GoWatchIt, Ingeniux Web Experience Management, Schoenberg Family Law Group, Sinai Memorial Chapel, Chevra Kadisha and Wareham Development, and Where the Buffalo Roam.

Hospitality Sponsors: Catch, Cinderella Bakery, Fairytale Brownies, Frena, Grand Bakery, Hagafen Cellars, Hint Water, La Méditerranée, Landmark Theatres, L’chaim Foods, Leftwich Event Specialists, Lyft, Melons Catering & Events, Oren’s Hummus, SnB Party Rentals, Pat Mazzera Photography, Posia, Pomella Oakland Catering, Saul’s Restaurant & Delicatessen, Taste Catering, Wise Sons, Yotel, Lagunitas Brewing Company and Zaytoon Mediterranean Mediterranean Restaurant and Bar

Founder’s Circle:  Steven and Bunny Fayne, Nancy and Stephen Grand, Ray Lifchez, The Alexander M. and June L. Maisin Foundation, Gale Mondry and Bruce Cohen, Osher Donor Advised Fund, Lela and Gerry Sarnat, The Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation, The Bonnie and Marty Tenenbaum Foundation, and The Nancy P. and Richard K. Robbins Family Foundation

/

Frameline43 Film Review: “Family Members”

Gay teen Lucas and his older sister Gilda haven’t gotten along for years, but they are reluctantly journeying together to the family’s beach house to remember their mother, who has recently died. Determined to pay their last respects and be gone by morning, the two soon find themselves marooned in the sleepy Argentinian coastal town by a bus strike. Now stuck indefinitely, the siblings become embroiled in their rocky reunion, struggling to leave the past behind while facing an uncertain future.

Director Mateo Bendesky’s bittersweet and funny coming-of-age tale is refreshingly original and touching, as his two remarkable young actors (Tomas Wicz and Laila Maltz) begin to reveal buried secrets—to each other and themselves. Lucas, who derives more solace from bouts of fitness training or drug-addled partying, seems intent on distorting the reality of his circumstances, while his sister strives to understand things, even if it is through tarot card readings. But as their imposed holiday becomes more fraught, life-altering revelations will come to light in this tender and memorable tale about grief, forgiveness, and first crushes.

/

Frameline43 Film Review: “Kattumaram”

In a small village ravaged by a tsunami, Singaram works as a fisherman to care for his orphaned niece and nephew. Despite her uncle’s tireless bids to find a groom for her, Anandhi rejects all efforts to get her married off, instead focusing on her work as a schoolteacher. When a new photography instructor named Kavita arrives at the school, Anandhi finds an instant connection with her. As their friendship begins to blossom into something more, Anandhi must face her feelings and the consequences they will bring in this conservative society.

Kattumaram is a heartfelt look at the strength of community in rural India, showcasing the importance of tradition along with the need for evolution. Veteran filmmaker Swarnavel Eswaran’s previous documentary work which focused on social justice informs the film throughout. Eswaran balances politics with aesthetics, making Kattumaram a beautiful and genuine experience.

/

Frameline43 Film Review: “Vita and Virginia”

The opening scene of Vita & Virginia, Chanya Button’s look at the literary lesbian love affair between legendary writers Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf baits all of us who have been eagerly awaiting this film. Gemma Arterton’s Vita declares during a public radio segment alongside her husband that she that marriage is a prison for women, along with a slew of other bold statements about the liberation of our gender. 

Listening with rapt attention is Virginia Woolf, squirreled away in her secluded writing room, huddle in front of her radio. Vita quips about wanting to meet Virginia just before signing off. Every lesbian in the theater is suddenly on the edge of her seat.

However enticing this bait might be, the rest of the film never quite manages to hook you entirely, and it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why. Visually, Vita & Virginia is a marvel to watch. The cinematography is gorgeous, the stark contrast between the way of life of both writers is established and apparent, and the love scenes are steamy yet tender.  Arterton is addictive as the staunch feminist and sapphic addict, parading around in her trendy, androgynous outfits and seducing women left and right. I would love to see an affair between her and Colette.

Image courtesy of TIFF

Elizabeth Debicki’s portrayal as the enigmatic Virginia Woolf is tremendous. She exudes the air of a tormented but brilliant soul, sometimes as awake as a woman can get, other times perpetually lost within herself. The moments the film attempts to depict Virginia’s periods of fits of madness are tinged with an almost cartoonish quality. CGI vines grow speedily from every angle, or crows swarm at her in acute Alfred Hitchcock fashion.

These drastic, out of place shifts from the ambiance established by the rest of the film seems effective in theory, but they just don’t work in the moment. Combined with the syncopated beats from the original score that contrast the time period completely, the rhythm of the film feels like it’s continuously disrupted, resulting in a viewing experience that makes it difficult to get lost in the established world of 1920s London.

Aside from the physicality of their relationship, which unfolds predominately in one scene, the steady growth of Vita and Virginia’s affection for one another skips beats throughout, requiring viewers to have established knowledge of the culmination of their relationship and only providing a sort of highlight reel. Holes are left in places that create a dissonance between their in-person interactions and the conversations they have in their letters. 

These correspondences lose their intimacy and emotion when read by their authors as they directly face the screen. Each woman speaks the words of her letter aloud, to the audience instead of to the paper in confidence and security. As a result, the epic love notes are diluted and a distraction to the moments that are intended to serve as the framework for the film. 

The aforementioned framework is a fascinating one when you look at the relationship between these two women in a vacuum. They are so starkly different, yet created permanent imprints on one another’s life and work. 

Vita & Virginia is a marvelous and mesmerizing love story that should have been brought to screen for the world to see, and that is a win in and of itself.  During a year that’s ripe with lesbian period piece romances, this film might get a bit lost behind others like Colette and Tell it to the Bees, but hopefully in time will be viewed as an important benchmark in lesbian cinema.
Read more at https://www.afterellen.com/movies/565061-vita-virginia-is-somehow-marvelous-and-mediocre#1wgtJlFxezhA5HDG.99

/

Frameline43 Film Review: “More Beautiful for Having Been Broken”

In the new drama from director Nicole Conn (Claire of the Moon; Elena Undone, Frameline34), boy wonder Freddie, who lives with a chronic illness, charms three broken women into his healing embrace. His single mother Samantha tries to cope by dancing, newcomer McKenzie runs, and Vivienne drinks. Each is isolated. Nothing but surrendering to passion, trusting in life, and receiving a greater love can fully help them move through their intertwined grief and loss.

McKenzie (Zoe Ventoura) just wants to be left alone in the glorious Northern California mountains to outrun the pain of losing her mother, but Freddie (an irresistible Cale Ferrin) is determined to bring her into his loving, eccentric community, despite her resistance. Past betrayals keep Samantha (Kayla Radomski) tight and prickly, but flowing scenes of her dancing show her true inner nature. The two women risk closeness, as wild card Vivienne (Harley Jane Kozak, When Harry Met Sally…) must face a fractured relationship and a secret past. Ultimately Freddie is the golden card that brings them all together, leading them to find new strength in their vulnerability.

/ /

Frameline43 Film Review: “An Almost Ordinary Summer”

This crowd-pleaser Italian rom-com is the tale of two polar opposite families who have unwitting been brought together for a summer vacation because the two patriarchs have a secret they want to share.

The setting is a stunning seaside mansion which is the home of the rather grand art dealer Toni (FABRIZIO BENTIVOGLIO) who has invited his pot-smoking hippy sister, and his two daughters Olivia a famous actress and Penny (JASMINE TRINCA) a deeply unhappy kindergarten principal.  Tony has lent the mansion’s guest house to Sandro (FILIPPO SCICCHITANO) and his pregnant wife Carolina, and Sandro’a  father Carlo (ALESSANDRO GASSMANN), who hasn’t been the same since his wife died.  They run a small family fish store on the outskirts of Rome.

Toni shares his bombshell news at dinner with his family when he tells them he is getting married again.  This time to Carlo, who is having problems telling his own family the news.  Most of  the them are shocked but delighted with the news except for Penny and Sandro who vow together that they will do their best to stop the wedding ever happening

Penny is still carrying abandonment issues of when she was a child when Toni was very much an absent father out having a good time,  whereas Sandro is a hot bloodied and very excitable macho Italian man who cannot control his homophobia.  Their actions result in some hilarious comic scenes in these rather charming feel-good film where you are always sure that whatever happens, love will win out in the end.

It’s a gentle dig at their own country where same-sex marriage is still illegal, but the issue here is not of the political consequences but how these two men who are both grandfathers can reconcile themselves, and their extended families to the reality of their relationship.

It’s a joyous wee film which is like  a breath of fresh air and which deals with a hot button topic without ever resorting to getting heavy or lapsing into cliched scenarios.

«‹ 13 14 15 16›»