SEEN
SEEN is the Film Society's photo page chronicling recent SFFS events.
Actors Christopher Upham and Scott Shepherd workshopped the script for Ad Inexplorata with produer Matt Parker and writer-director Mark Elijah Rosenberg at a session of Filmmaker360's Off the Page program at the Film Society's offices in the Presidio. PHOTO BY MICHELE TURNURE-SALLEO, POSTED 12.7.12
Members of the Industrial Light & Magic special effects team gave a presentation about that technology behind the blockbuster effects featured in Marvel's The Avengers for middle and high school students as part of the SFFS Youth Educations's program The Art and Science of Lucasfilm. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 12.7.12
Duccio Chiarini, director of the charming family documentary Hit the Road, Nonna, was on hand to answer the audience's questions after both of his screenings at New Italian Cinema. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 12.7.12
Dawn Rich, executive producer and screenwriter, and Jason Wolos, director, screenwriter and producer, celebrated the Opening Night screenings of Trattoria at Cinema by the Bay, the Film Society's annual festival showcasing the passion, innovation and diversity of Bay Area filmmaking. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 12.7.12
Film Society programmer Rod Armstrong welcomed Ursula Meier, director of Sister, before her Closing Night screening at French Cinema Now. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 10.31.12
Film marketing, distribution and digital strategy consultant Marc Shiller participated in an in-depth discussion with FilmHouse residents about film promotion in the digital age, moderated by SFFS Executive Director Ted Hope. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR, POSTED 10.22.12
Professional development is a major component of the FilmHouse residency program, including a guest speaker series featuring noted film industry figures like Marc Shiller, who gave a presentation and held a discussion about film promotion with current FilmHouse residents and local filmmakers. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR, POSTED 10.22.12
Fung Kai, director of Taiwan Film Days opener Din Tao: Leader of the Parade, posed with a giant Prince Nezha puppet like those seen in the film. Attendees of Taiwan Film Days Opening Night were treated to an impressive dance performance featuring the puppets. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 10.19.12
Anna Boden, the Film Society's Fall 2012 artist in residence, spoke to students at Petaluma High School about the filmmaking process after they watched her film Sugar. Boden has dozens of school visits scheduled during her residency. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 10.4.12
The architects of FilmHouse, Jennifer Rainin, President of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation; Film Society Executive Director Ted Hope; Susannah Greason Robbins, Executive Director of the SF Film Commission; and Director of Filmamker360 Michele Turnure-Salleo celebrated the grand reopening of the new location at a reception to welcome new residents and show the space to the local film community. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR, POSTED 10.4.12
Animator Anthony Cianciolo, one of the first residents in the Film Society’s new FilmHouse location on Fillmore Street, moving into his new office suite to begin work on his project The Art of Sainthood. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 10.4.12
Mark Smolinski, director of global health threats at the Skoll Global Threats Fund, spoke to students at Wallenberg High School after a screening of Contagion arranged by SFFS Youth Education. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 9.19.12
Brent Green, whose new installation To Many Men Strange Fates are Given is on exhibit through October 20 at Steven Wolf Fine Arts as part of the Film Society’s KinoTek series, with SFFS programmer Sean Uyehara at the opening reception. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 9.17.12
Viewers donned special wooden glasses with polarized lenses to watch Brent Green’s new work To Many Men Strange Fates are Given on exhibit through October 20 at Steven Wolf Fine Arts as part of the Film Society’s KinoTek series. From left: Bill Proctor (SFFS), Karl Cohen (ASIFA-SF) and Keith Cowling (SFFS). PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 9.17.12
On Labor Day weekend four former interns in the Film Society's publicity department traveled from New York, Los Angeles and the Bay Area to the remote southwest corner of Colorado to work at the 39th Telluride Film Festival. From left: Adam Hurley, Camille Bertrand, Richard Parkin and Jannette Bivona. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 9.17.12
ParaNorman artists Florian Perinelle (stop-motion animator), Adam Fisher (face animator), Kim Slate (face animator), Suzanne Moulton (hair lead) and Jan Maas (stop-motion animator) joined SFFS Youth Education guests after a recent preview screening to answer questions and talk about their work on the film. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 9.7.12
Celebrated documentary filmmaker Les Blank, whose films include Burden of Dreams, Always for Pleasure and Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers taught a master class on the art of documentary cinematography as part of the Film Society's Education program. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR, POSTED 8.24.12
Documentary filmmaker Les Blank and SFFS Filmmaker Education Manager Michael A. Behrens getting acquainted before Blank's master class on the art of documentary cinematography. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR, POSTED 8.24.12
Stop-motion artists Kat Alioshan, Damon Bard and Sarah Serata, who worked on James and the Giant Peach with director Henry Selick, posed with their models and a young fan after a screening of the film and a show-and-tell hosted by SFFS Youth Education at SF Film Society Cinema. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 8.16.12
Alums from last year’s Young Filmmakers Camp returned for the 2012 Advanced Lab and on their shooting day two codirectors fine-tuned the camera settings in preparation for a take. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 8.16.12
Jon Shenk, director of The Island President, answered students' questions after a screening of the film hosted by SFFS Youth Education at the Berkeley Art Museum during the National Student Leadership Conference. The students, invited to the conference from all over the world, were particularly engaged and eager to learn more about the political and environment issues surrounding the documentary. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 8.9.12
Fans of Todd Solondz’s unique films filled Film Society Cinema twice over for a preview screening of Dark Horse and the chance to hear the director’s thoughtful answers to their questions and comments afterwards. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.24.12
Actor Scott Marlowe and writer/director Chris Mason Johnson on the set of the film Test, which was awarded a $60,000 SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grant for production in the Fall of 2011. PHOTO BY MICHELE TURNURE-SALLEO, POSTED 7.24.12
At the Film Society’s Young Filmmakers Camp Production Lab for 13–15 year olds, a crew of young Spielbergs shot a scene for their original horror film under the watchful eye of Education Associate Trinity West. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.19.12
On day nine of a 20-day shoot for Fruitvale, writer/director Ryan Coogler and producer Sev Ohanian conferred between takes for the emotional scene in which Octavia Spencer, playing Oscar Grant’s mother, learns that her son has died on the operating table at Highland Hospital. Coogler received a $100,000 SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant for production in May 2012. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.19.12
Fruitvale has benefitted from a wealth of talented Bay Area film professionals including script supervisor Virginia McCarthy, who has worked with Philip Kaufman and starts work with Woody Allen next month. Michele Turnure-Salleo, SFFS Filmmaker360 director introduced McCarthy to writer/director Ryan Coogler. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.19.12
After the special family screening at Film Society Cinema of The Storytellers Show, the hit shorts program from the SF International Film Festival, a young audience member and SFFS Youth Education Manager Keith Zwölfer participated in a live Q&A from England via Skype with the 2012 Golden Gate Award winner for Best Family Film, Nandita Jain, director of Storyteller (Kahanikar). PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.16.12
Producer/editor Isaac Solotaroff introduced the opening weekend screenings of Ballplayer: Pelotero, an engrossing exposé of professional baseball, at Film Society Cinema and participated in audience Q&As following each show. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.16.12
Sev Ohanian (left) and Gerard McMurray, two of the producers of Fruitvale, met with Michele Turnure-Salleo, the Film Society’s director of Filmmaker360, a week before shooting starts in Oakland. Fruitvale writer/director Ryan Coogler received a $100,000 SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant for production in May 2012. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.2.12
At the Film Society’s Preteen Film Camp, under the expert tutelage of filmmaker John Dilley, seven young filmmakers are learning all the filmmaking basics, while producing a short film about a training academy for young ghosts, mummies, zombies and vampires. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.29.12
The Film Society hosted an opening night reception in honor of fine artist Adriane Colburn. The new KinoTek exhibit Adriane Colburn: Ways, Points and Means, a curated selection of work that investigates the poetics of the ocean and our complex relationship to the seas, is open June 22–July 7, 1:00–7:00 pm Wednesdays–Saturdays at Superfrog Gallery in the New People building (1746 Post Street). PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.27.12
Fine artist Adriane Colburn and her crew suspended the piece Not Far Off/Hogshead Hitch, created from boat parts, acrylic, wood, rope and line, from the ceiling of Superfrog Gallery for the Film Society’s new KinoTek exhibit Adriane Colburn: Ways, Points and Means. From left Dustin Fosnot, Colburn, Lee Hunter, Wes Chiu. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.27.12
Curtiss Clayton, an editor best known for his work on character-driven independent features, especially those of Gus Van Sant, entertained a packed master class at the Film Society for over three hours with tales of negotiating The Politics of the Cutting Room Floor. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.27.12
Under the auspices of the Film Society’s Filmmaker360 program, the recently launched Off the Page series gave writer/director Mario de la Vega the invaluable opportunity to workshop his script for The Undeniable Charm of Sloppy Unruh with actors Kyle Chandler, John Hawkes and Amy Ryan. From left: Hawkes, de la Vega, Ryan, Chandler. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.20.12
The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of: San Francisco and the Movies, the exhibit curated by Miguel Pendás and on view at the Old Mint through June 24 features numerous photographs from the San Francisco International Film Festival taken over nearly thirty years by Pamela Gentile. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.20.12
The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of: San Francisco and the Movies, the exhibit curated by Miguel Pendás (right) and on view at the Old Mint through June 24, features a room devoted to memorabilia and photographs from the San Francisco International Film Festival. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.20.12
Lead actors Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry, director Benh Zeitlin and producers Dan Janvey, Michael Gottwald and Josh Penn of Beasts of the Southern Wild, winner of the 2012 Cannes Camera d’Or award, joined SFFS Filmmaker360 Director Michele Turnure-Salleo for a special screening at Film Society Cinema. Back row: Zeitlin, Janvey, Henry, Penn, Gottwald; front row: Wallis, Turnure-Salleo. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.4.12
Cowriter Jerry Shahl, Christine Pelosi and producer Peter Kaufman arrive at the Castro Theatre for the premiere of Philip Kaufman’s Hemingway & Gellhorn which was shot entirely in the Bay Area with local locations convincingly standing in for Cuba, Spain, Key West and China, among others. HBO Films partnered with the Film Society for the invitational screening. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.4.12
Nancy Pelosi greeted director Philip Kaufman as she arrived at the Castro Theatre for the premiere of Hemingway & Gellhorn, starring Clive Owens and Nicole Kidman as Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. HBO Films partnered with the Film Society for the invitational screening. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.4.12
For the fifth year in a row, SFFS Youth Education produced and curated the media arts segment of the San Francisco Unified School District’s annual student arts festival, 'Young at Art' at the de Young Museum. The program featured 16 films from 11 SF schools and youth media organizations, made by students in grades 5–12, followed by a Q&A with the young filmmakers. PHOTO BY DAWN ROSALES, POSTED 5.22.12
Braden King flew in from New York to introduce the opening night screening of Here at Film Society Cinema and lead a insightful question and answer session afterwards with a near full house that included many crew members and friends. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 5.14.12
Anita Monga, artistic director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (left, with Rachel Rosen, SFFS director of programming) announced the full program for the 17th edition taking place July 12–15 at the Castro Theatre. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 5.14.12
Film writer Adam Hartzell watched Hang Sang-soo’s The Day He Arrives seven times in the past seven days, every day of its week-long run at Film Society Cinema, and posted his evolving observations on the Asian cinema enthusiast site VCinema. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 5.11.12
Virginia McCarthy, who has worked as script supervisor for Curtis Hanson, Todd Field and Michael Apted, has just signed on to work with writer/director Ryan Coogler when he starts production this summer on Fruitvale, the true story of Oscar Grant. Coogler received a $100,000 Spring 2012 SFFS/KRF FilmmakingGrant this month. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 5.2.12
In August San Francisco Film Society Director of Publicity Hilary Hart and filmmaker Aurora Guerrero, whose debut feature film Mosquita y Mari played at SFIFF55 following its world premiere at Sundance, will team up to teach Film Festival Marketing and Publicity 101 at San Francisco Film Society. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 5.1.12
Ryan Lattanzio, winner of the third ‘From College to Cannes’ contest, supported by the San Francisco Film Society, the Consulate General of France in San Francisco, the French American Cultural Society and Semaine de la Critique, heads to the Cannes Film Festival next month. From left: Romain Serman, French Consul General; Joanne Parsont, SFFS director of education; Sophie Suberville, French American Cultural Society executive director; Lattanzio. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.30.12
Writer/director Ryan Coogler and cast members Melonie Diaz and Michael B. Jordan workshopped the script for Fruitvale, the true story of Oscar Grant who was fatally shot by a BART policeman, at the second round of Off the Page, a project development program of San Francisco Film Society’s Filmmaker360 supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. From left: Tamara Badgley Horowitz, SFFS Grants & Residencies Coordinator; Coogler; Diaz; Jordan; Michele Turnure-Salleo, director, Filmmaker360. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.24.12
Writer/director Ryan Coogler and actor Michael B. Jordan spent two days developing the script for Fruitvale, the true story of Oscar Grant, who was shot and killed by a BART policeman on New Year’s Day 2009, at the the Film Society's second Off the Page program, a script workshop funded by San Francisco Film Society and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.24.12
Programmer Sean Uyehara and Karolina Sobecka, a leading figure in the production of interactive installations, at the opening of Sobecka’s KinoTek show, Human Moves, Animal Visions, which runs through May 3 at SuperFrog Gallery at 1746 Post Street. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.21.12
Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, senior scientist of the Pesticide Action Network, hosted the Causes & Impacts: The Threat of GMOs salon discussion featuring Micha X. Peled, director of the documentary Bitter Seeds, Frank Plughoff of Labelgmos.org in an impassioned discussion about the issue of genetically modified foods and the dangers they pose to farmers and consumers around the world. From left: Ishii-Eiteman, Peled, SFFS Filmmaker Education Manager Michael Behrens and Plughoff. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.21.12
The entire staff for the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival met at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas to prepare for Opening Night on April 19. PHOTO BY GEORGE F. GUND, POSTED 4.19.12
Lydia Dedes and her father Chris stopped by Festival headquarters to pick up their tickets for Opening Night of the San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theatre. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.19.12
Five student filmmakers were selected as finalists for the Beyond Film School audience award, which was awarded to Paula Lima of Academy of Art University for Angelito. From left: Tara Diego, CSU Monterey Bay, Monterey Meltdown; Daniela Ricci, USF, Anxiety: A Tax; Lima; Sabrina Wong, CCSF, Grandpa; Brian Andrews, Ex’pression College of Digital Arts, Hominid. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.11.12
This Spring’s Film Society Artist in Residence, Iraqi filmmaker Oday Rasheed, met with SFFS staff and interns for an enlightening and wide-ranging discussion about filmmaking in Iraq and life in Baghdad since the U.S. invasion. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.9.12
Academy Award-nominated costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis made sure that Filmmaker Education Manager Michael Behren’s jacket was perfectly fitted before the Film Society’s master class Character Comes First: Costume Design in the Movies. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.6.12
On the second day of his two-week artist-in-residency at SFFS Iraqi director Oday Rasheed presented his melancholic sophomore feature Qarantina, about a family living in present day Baghdad, at SF Film Society Cinema, followed by an illuminating Q&A moderated by journalist Terry McCarthy. From left: Rasheed, SFFS Director of Education Joanne Parsont and McCarthy. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.4.12
March 29th marked the inauguration of Off the Page — the new script-workshopping program from Filmmaker360 — with the support of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Three actors (Matthew Jones, Alia Shawkat and Blake Bashoff) flew in to workshop Ross, the upcoming project from director Matthew Lessner and producer Carlton Evans which is a recent SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grant recipient. From left: Evans, Woods, Jones, Lessner, Shawkat and Bashoff. PHOTO BY MICHELE TURNURE-SALLEO, POSTED 3.30.12
Film Society programmers Rod Armstrong, Rachel Rosen, Audrey Chang and Sean Uyehara presented the complete program for the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival at a press conference at the Fairmont San Francisco March 27. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR, POSTED 3.29.12
Steve Paquin, a Filmmaker360 intern at the Film Society, was among the lucky film aficionados (including out-of-towners Leonard Maltin, Manohla Dargis of the New York Times and Kenneth Turnan of the Los Angeles Times) who saw the premiere show of Kevin Brownlow’s 5 1/2 hour restoration of Abel Gance’s masterpiece Napoleon with Carl Davis conducting the Oakland East Bay Symphony at the Paramount Theatre, presented by San Francisco Silent Film Festival. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 3.28.12
The SFFS Global Threats Film Series kicked off at SF Film Society Cinema with a screening of the spectacular documentary The Island President followed by an in-depth Q&A with director Jon Shenk and journalist Mark Hertsgaard moderated by SFFS Director of Programming Rachel Rosen. The Island President opens in San Francisco on March 30. From left Rosen, Shenk, Hertsgaard. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 3.28.12
Director Alive Wu was joined by spotlight honoree Joan Chen, and fellow cast members Michelle Krusiec and Lynn Chen for a Saving Face reunion at San Francisco Film Society Cinema hosted by the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 3.16.12
Terence Davies, at SF Film Society Cinema to introduce a preview screening of his exquisitely nuanced new film The Deep Blue Sea (opening March 30) and a new 35mm print of The Long Day Closes, with longtime SFFS member Jim Gunn. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 3.16.12
English director Emily James was at San Francisco Film Society Cinema for the SF Green Film Festival closing night screening of her behind–the-scenes documentary about environmental activists, Just Do It: a Tale of Modern-Day Outlaws. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 3.16.12
Producer Bonni Cohen, director Jon Shenk, producer Richard Berge and SF Green Film Festival founder/director Rachel Caplan were at SF Film Society Cinema for the SFGFF opening night presentation of The Island President. The stirring documentary plays again at SFFSC on March 20, on the first program of the SFFS Global Threats Film Series. Following that screening there will be an in-depth Q&A with the filmmaker and special guest Terry Tamminen, ranked #1 on the Guardian’s list of “Top 50 People Who Can Save the Planet,” moderated by journalist Mark Hertsgaard. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 3.2.12
The students in the University of San Francisco’s “Inside SFIFF” class are getting a behind-the-scenes look at how a major international film festival is produced, runs and serves its various constituencies from San Francisco Film Society staff members. As part of this semester-long class, students will attend, review and analyze a series of SFIFF55 films, and meet with guest filmmakers at the Festival. PHOTO BYJOSLYN THORESEN, POSTED 2.28.12
The CAAM team introduced the full program for the 30th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival at the morning press conference at SF Film Society Cinema. Quentin Lee’s White Frog, featuring Joan Chen, will open SFIAAFF on March 8 at the Castro Theatre. From left: Festival and Exhibitions Director Masashi Niwang, Quentin Lee, Festival Managing Director Christine Kwon. For more information visit caamedia.org. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 2.10.12
Indie-GoGo cofounder Danae Ringelmann, filmmaker Tiffany Shlain and attorney George Rush shared insights into the ever-evolving digital distribution landscape at SFFS Film Arts Forum: Digital Distribution Now. Michael Behrens, SFFS filmmaker education manager, moderated the panel in front of a packed house at the Little Roxie. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 2.9.12
Beverly Thorman, Dolly Talaga, Judy Nelson and Ninfa Dawson, SF Film Society volunteers with decades of experience between them, are prized core volunteers at several other film festivals in the city, including the Mostly British Film Festival, at the Vogue through February 9. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 2.8.12
SFFS board member Todd Traina hosted a by-invitation-only screening of Another Happy Day at SF Film Society Cinema, followed by a late night reception at nearby Bushi Tei restaurant. The Traina-produced autobiographical dramedy written and directed by Sam Levinson (son of Barry) features an all-star cast including Ellen Barkin, Kate Bosworth, Ellen Burstyn, Thomas Haden Church, Ezra Miller, Demi Moore and George Kennedy. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
The Sundance Film Festival 2012 awards night ceremony started off on a sober note as festival director John Cooper acknowledged the sudden death on January 23 of SFFS executive director Bingham Ray and read a eulogy written by Ray’s longtime poker buddies Magnolia Pictures chief Eamonn Bowles, Sony Classics SVP Tom Prassis, Sawyer Studios head Arnie Sawyer and producer Ben Barenholtz. Cooper choked up more than once while reading the tribute. SFFS program director Trevor Groth was later quoted as saying that 2012 SFF may well be remembered by many people as Ray’s last festival. PHOTO BY MICHAEL READ
Benh Zeitlin arrived in Park City on January 19, little known in the film world. Eleven days of excitement about his mythical film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, began at the screening for Sundance volunteers on day one of the festival, continued at six more sold out screenings and culminated with the winning of the grand jury prize in the U.S. dramatic film competition at the SFF awards ceremony. Beasts received two SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grants in the past two years, totaling $105,000. PHOTO BY MICHAEL READ
At the Sundance Film Festival awards night ceremony, director Benh Zeitlin celebrates with the cast and producers of Beasts of the Southern Wild as the film wins the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic award on Saturday, January 28, 2012. PHOTO BY MICHAEL READ
Berkeley-based filmmaker Mark Kitchell’s A Fierce Green Fire, documenting pivotal moments in the history of environmental activism played multiple sold out shows at Sundance 2012. At one Q&A, Kitchell was accompanied by Lois Gibbs, former housewife and president of the Love Canal Home Owners Association, whose career as an environmental activist was launched by the 1970s fight for accountability over the Love Canal contamination. SFFS was fiscal sponsor of the inspiring documentary based on New York Times environmental journalist Philip Shabecoff's book. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Quvenzhané Wallis, the extraordinary young actress who plays the lead in Benh Zeitlin’s astonishing debut feature Beasts of the Southern Wild was all smiles before another sold out screening at Sundance 2012. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Director Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild was the sensation of Sundance 2012. Early in the festival Fox Searchlight won the bidding war for distribution rights to Zeitlin’s stunning debut. SFFS’s Filmmaker360 was an early supporter of the film providing project development and $105,000 in grants from the SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants over the past two years. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
The cast and crew of Mosquita Y Mari (from left: actress Venecia Troncosco, director Aurora Guerrero, actress Fenessa Pineda) attended screenings of the beautifully shot story of a complex budding friendship between two Chicana high schoolers in the NEXT section of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The auspicious first feature film received an $88,000 SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant for postproduction in 2011. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Editor Ken Schneider prowled the streets of Park City between screenings of A Fierce Green Fire, Mark Kitchell’s documentary about the crucial moments in the history of the environmental movement. SFFS was fiscal sponsor for the project, which was shot and edited over the past four years and had it’s world premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2012. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
SFFS programmer Sean Uyehara spent six days in Park City, Utah at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival scouting films, from early morning to the wee hours, for the upcoming San Francisco International Film Festival (April 19–May 3) and the Film Society’s year round programming. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Thursday night director Benh Zeitlin introduced the preview screening of Beasts of the Southern Wild to a packed house of Sundance Film Festival volunteers. Last summer Beasts received a $55,000 SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation grant to support postproduction. Beasts has it's first public SFF screening tonight 1/20 at the Eccles Theatre in Park City. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Following the preview screening of the Sundance Film Festival dramatic competition film Beasts of the Southern Wild for a packed house of SFF volunteers director Benh Zeitlin, lead actors Quvenhane Wallis and Dwight Henry, cowriter Lucy Alibar and other cast members (from right) were greeted with a standing ovation and answered questions at an extended Q/A that was finally cut off as midnight approached. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
SFFS Executive Director Bingham Ray and Stellan Skarsgård, who first met while working on Breaking the Waves, participated in an audience Q&A via Skype (Skarsgård from Sweden) following the opening night screenings of King of Devil's Island at SF Film Society Cinema. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Wim Wenders, SFFS Executive Director Bingham Ray and Francis Ford Coppola relaxed at Tosca Cafe following a screening of Wenders' 3D documentary Pina on December 19. PHOTO BY PAMELA GENTILE
Wim Wenders, director of Pina (right), welcomed special guest Francis Ford Coppola to a screening of his film hosted by the Film Society. PHOTO BY PAMELA GENTILE
SFFS Executive Director Bingham Ray moderated an audience Q&A with director Wim Wenders following the screening of his 3D documentary Pina on December 19. PHOTO BY PAMELA GENTILE
Special guests Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation and Laura Truffaut, daughter of director François Truffaut were at SF Film Society Cinema on December 16 to introduce the evening screening of The Bride Wore Black, Truffaut’s homage to his idol Alfred Hitchcock, starring the inimitable Jeanne Moreau. Bride plays through December 22. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Jale Yoldas, Tamara Badgley Horowitz and Michele Turnure-Salleo of the Film Society’s Filmmaker Services partnered with independent film attorney George Rush to host a filmmakers' holiday party at Noble featuring a heated karaoke competition. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Don Hertzfeldt, who received the Persistence of Vision Award at the 2010 San Francisco International Film Festival, was joined by SFFS director of programming Rachel Rosen for the SF premiere of the final film in his animated trilogy about a character named Bill. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Don Hertzfeldt was surrounded by admirers following two sold-out screenings of his newest film It’s Such a Beautiful Day at SF Film Society Cinema. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Tim Wagner (left) of Open Show and Danny O’Brien of the Committee to Protect Journalists introduced a screening Restrepo (SFIFF 2009) on December 7 at SF Film Society Cinema at a tribute to director/journalist Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya in April. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
SFFS Film Art Forum: Pitch Perfect panelists oversaw a lively and thoughtful session of pitching, critiquing and advising on December 5 at SF Film Society Cinema. From left: moderator Michael Behrens, producer Carlton Evans, literary manager Jennie Frankel Frisbie, SFFS Filmmaker Services director Michele Turnure-Salleo, producer David Winton and SFFS executive director Bingham Ray. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Susan Stern (Blessing), Dana Nachman and Chelsea Matter (The Human Experiment) and Robert James (Revolutionary Sex) refined their project pitches before a panel of experts at SFFS Film Arts Forum: Pitch Perfect. Nachman and Matter’s pitch was voted best of the forum. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
On a school visit organized by SFFS Youth Education on December 2, local filmmaker Theo Rigby led a thoughtful discussion about immigration and the rights of immigrants with the 7th grade class at Julia Morgan for Girls after a screening of his short documentary Sin Pais. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWÖlLFER
Performance artist Erin Markey caroused with Film Society programmer Sean Uyehara after the world premiere peformance of her KinoTek piece The Dardy Family Home Movies by Stephen Sondheim by Erin Markey, December 2 at SF Film Society Cinema. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR
San Francisco Film Commission Executive Director Susannah Robbins (right) welcomed the Film Society's new Executive Director Bingham Ray at a reception at Tosca Cafe. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR
The local film community came out in droves to the welcome reception at Tosca Cafe honoring new Film Society Executive Director Bingham Ray, including filmmakers Amanda Micheli and Christopher Upham. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR
Producer Hilary Armstrong welcomed special guests to the SF Film Society Cinema for the sold-out premiere San Francisco screening of California State of Mind: The Legacy of Pat Brown. From left: Armstrong, Anne Gust Brown, Governor Jerry Brown and Film Society Executive Director Bingham Ray. PHOTO BY PAMELA GENTILE
Governor Jerry Brown mingled with Film Society Executive Director Bingham Ray and board member Maurice Kanbar at a post-screening reception at SF Film Society Cinema after the SF premiere of California State of Mind: The Legacy of Pat Brown. PHOTO BY PAMELA GENTILE
First time director Giorgia Cecere (center) won the City of Florence Award for her film The First Assignment on Closing Night of New Italian Cinema at Landmark's Embarcadero Center Cinema. The award, decided by audience ballot, was presented to her by Viviana del Bianco of New Italian Cinema Events and Rod Armstrong of the Film Society. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj, who arrived in San Francisco for a two week residency at the Film Society, was at SF Film Society Cinema for a screening of his latest feature A Useful Life. From left: Santhosh Daniel of Global Film Initiative, Joanne Parsont of SFFS and Veiroj. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Bingham Ray, executive director of SF Film Society, Fabrizio Marcelli, consul general of Italy and Daniele Luchetti, director of Our Life celebrated in style on opening day of the fifteenth New Italian Cinema festival in San Francisco. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Guest programmer Jay Wertzler presented 'Anthropomorphlolz,' a collection of weird-centric shorts from the farthest reaches of the animation universe, at the San Francisco International Animation Festival. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Director Eric Leiser used a canny hybrid life action/animation approach in Glitch in the Grid to portray the inner life of a reclusive artist struggling to find happiness. From left: producer Jeffrey Leiser, Eric Leiser, actor Jay Masonek, and Film Society programmer Sean Uyehara on Opening Night at San Francisco International Animation Festival. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
One of the highlights of Cinema By the Bay was the live performance of a new score for the 1926 silent film The Bat by virtuoso guitarist Ava Mendoza and drummer Nick Tumburro. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Editor Stephanie Challberg, director Mimi Chakarova and cinematographer Adam Keker were at Cinema By the Bay for the screening of their compelling investigative documentary The Price of Sex. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Director Sam Burbank, with SFFS programmer Audrey Chang, screened his debut narrative feature, the quirky sci-fi comedy, Where's My Stuff? for a full house at the third annual Cinema By the Bay. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
SFFS and San Francisco Film Commission hosted the Cinema By the Bay Filmmaker Services Brunch at Medjool celebrating the work of incubated at FilmHouse. From left: Dalan McNabola, editor of Connected; Priya Desai, codirector of Match+: Love in the Time of HIV; Michele Turnure-Salleo, SFFS director of filmmaker services; Lisa Fructman, codirector of Sweet Dreams; Susannah Robbins, executive director SF Film Commission; and Matthew Baldwin, editor of Ghosts of Havana. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Joshua Moore's feature film directorial debut, I Think It's Raining, featuring a mesmerizing performance by Alexandra Clayton, had its US premiere at opening night of Cinema by the Bay. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Denis Bisson, French cultural attache, Rachel Rosen, San Francisco Film Society director of programming and Katia Lewcowicz, director of Bachelor Days Are Over, relaxed on French Cinema Days Opening Night just prior to the screening of the comedy about a man with a serious case of pre-wedding jitters. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Actors Christopher Upham and Scott Shepherd workshopped the script for Ad Inexplorata with produer Matt Parker and writer-director Mark Elijah Rosenberg at a session of Filmmaker360's Off the Page program at the Film Society's offices in the Presidio. PHOTO BY MICHELE TURNURE-SALLEO, POSTED 12.7.12
Members of the Industrial Light & Magic special effects team gave a presentation about that technology behind the blockbuster effects featured in Marvel's The Avengers for middle and high school students as part of the SFFS Youth Educations's program The Art and Science of Lucasfilm. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 12.7.12
Duccio Chiarini, director of the charming family documentary Hit the Road, Nonna, was on hand to answer the audience's questions after both of his screenings at New Italian Cinema. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 12.7.12
Dawn Rich, executive producer and screenwriter, and Jason Wolos, director, screenwriter and producer, celebrated the Opening Night screenings of Trattoria at Cinema by the Bay, the Film Society's annual festival showcasing the passion, innovation and diversity of Bay Area filmmaking. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 12.7.12
Film Society programmer Rod Armstrong welcomed Ursula Meier, director of Sister, before her Closing Night screening at French Cinema Now. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 10.31.12
Film marketing, distribution and digital strategy consultant Marc Shiller participated in an in-depth discussion with FilmHouse residents about film promotion in the digital age, moderated by SFFS Executive Director Ted Hope. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR, POSTED 10.22.12
Professional development is a major component of the FilmHouse residency program, including a guest speaker series featuring noted film industry figures like Marc Shiller, who gave a presentation and held a discussion about film promotion with current FilmHouse residents and local filmmakers. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR, POSTED 10.22.12
Fung Kai, director of Taiwan Film Days opener Din Tao: Leader of the Parade, posed with a giant Prince Nezha puppet like those seen in the film. Attendees of Taiwan Film Days Opening Night were treated to an impressive dance performance featuring the puppets. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 10.19.12
Anna Boden, the Film Society's Fall 2012 artist in residence, spoke to students at Petaluma High School about the filmmaking process after they watched her film Sugar. Boden has dozens of school visits scheduled during her residency. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 10.4.12
The architects of FilmHouse, Jennifer Rainin, President of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation; Film Society Executive Director Ted Hope; Susannah Greason Robbins, Executive Director of the SF Film Commission; and Director of Filmamker360 Michele Turnure-Salleo celebrated the grand reopening of the new location at a reception to welcome new residents and show the space to the local film community. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR, POSTED 10.4.12
Animator Anthony Cianciolo, one of the first residents in the Film Society’s new FilmHouse location on Fillmore Street, moving into his new office suite to begin work on his project The Art of Sainthood. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 10.4.12
Mark Smolinski, director of global health threats at the Skoll Global Threats Fund, spoke to students at Wallenberg High School after a screening of Contagion arranged by SFFS Youth Education. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 9.19.12
Brent Green, whose new installation To Many Men Strange Fates are Given is on exhibit through October 20 at Steven Wolf Fine Arts as part of the Film Society’s KinoTek series, with SFFS programmer Sean Uyehara at the opening reception. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 9.17.12
Viewers donned special wooden glasses with polarized lenses to watch Brent Green’s new work To Many Men Strange Fates are Given on exhibit through October 20 at Steven Wolf Fine Arts as part of the Film Society’s KinoTek series. From left: Bill Proctor (SFFS), Karl Cohen (ASIFA-SF) and Keith Cowling (SFFS). PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 9.17.12
On Labor Day weekend four former interns in the Film Society's publicity department traveled from New York, Los Angeles and the Bay Area to the remote southwest corner of Colorado to work at the 39th Telluride Film Festival. From left: Adam Hurley, Camille Bertrand, Richard Parkin and Jannette Bivona. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 9.17.12
ParaNorman artists Florian Perinelle (stop-motion animator), Adam Fisher (face animator), Kim Slate (face animator), Suzanne Moulton (hair lead) and Jan Maas (stop-motion animator) joined SFFS Youth Education guests after a recent preview screening to answer questions and talk about their work on the film. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 9.7.12
Celebrated documentary filmmaker Les Blank, whose films include Burden of Dreams, Always for Pleasure and Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers taught a master class on the art of documentary cinematography as part of the Film Society's Education program. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR, POSTED 8.24.12
Documentary filmmaker Les Blank and SFFS Filmmaker Education Manager Michael A. Behrens getting acquainted before Blank's master class on the art of documentary cinematography. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR, POSTED 8.24.12
Stop-motion artists Kat Alioshan, Damon Bard and Sarah Serata, who worked on James and the Giant Peach with director Henry Selick, posed with their models and a young fan after a screening of the film and a show-and-tell hosted by SFFS Youth Education at SF Film Society Cinema. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 8.16.12
Alums from last year’s Young Filmmakers Camp returned for the 2012 Advanced Lab and on their shooting day two codirectors fine-tuned the camera settings in preparation for a take. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 8.16.12
Jon Shenk, director of The Island President, answered students' questions after a screening of the film hosted by SFFS Youth Education at the Berkeley Art Museum during the National Student Leadership Conference. The students, invited to the conference from all over the world, were particularly engaged and eager to learn more about the political and environment issues surrounding the documentary. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 8.9.12
Fans of Todd Solondz’s unique films filled Film Society Cinema twice over for a preview screening of Dark Horse and the chance to hear the director’s thoughtful answers to their questions and comments afterwards. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.24.12
Actor Scott Marlowe and writer/director Chris Mason Johnson on the set of the film Test, which was awarded a $60,000 SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grant for production in the Fall of 2011. PHOTO BY MICHELE TURNURE-SALLEO, POSTED 7.24.12
At the Film Society’s Young Filmmakers Camp Production Lab for 13–15 year olds, a crew of young Spielbergs shot a scene for their original horror film under the watchful eye of Education Associate Trinity West. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.19.12
On day nine of a 20-day shoot for Fruitvale, writer/director Ryan Coogler and producer Sev Ohanian conferred between takes for the emotional scene in which Octavia Spencer, playing Oscar Grant’s mother, learns that her son has died on the operating table at Highland Hospital. Coogler received a $100,000 SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant for production in May 2012. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.19.12
Fruitvale has benefitted from a wealth of talented Bay Area film professionals including script supervisor Virginia McCarthy, who has worked with Philip Kaufman and starts work with Woody Allen next month. Michele Turnure-Salleo, SFFS Filmmaker360 director introduced McCarthy to writer/director Ryan Coogler. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.19.12
After the special family screening at Film Society Cinema of The Storytellers Show, the hit shorts program from the SF International Film Festival, a young audience member and SFFS Youth Education Manager Keith Zwölfer participated in a live Q&A from England via Skype with the 2012 Golden Gate Award winner for Best Family Film, Nandita Jain, director of Storyteller (Kahanikar). PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.16.12
Producer/editor Isaac Solotaroff introduced the opening weekend screenings of Ballplayer: Pelotero, an engrossing exposé of professional baseball, at Film Society Cinema and participated in audience Q&As following each show. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.16.12
Sev Ohanian (left) and Gerard McMurray, two of the producers of Fruitvale, met with Michele Turnure-Salleo, the Film Society’s director of Filmmaker360, a week before shooting starts in Oakland. Fruitvale writer/director Ryan Coogler received a $100,000 SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant for production in May 2012. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 7.2.12
At the Film Society’s Preteen Film Camp, under the expert tutelage of filmmaker John Dilley, seven young filmmakers are learning all the filmmaking basics, while producing a short film about a training academy for young ghosts, mummies, zombies and vampires. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.29.12
The Film Society hosted an opening night reception in honor of fine artist Adriane Colburn. The new KinoTek exhibit Adriane Colburn: Ways, Points and Means, a curated selection of work that investigates the poetics of the ocean and our complex relationship to the seas, is open June 22–July 7, 1:00–7:00 pm Wednesdays–Saturdays at Superfrog Gallery in the New People building (1746 Post Street). PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.27.12
Fine artist Adriane Colburn and her crew suspended the piece Not Far Off/Hogshead Hitch, created from boat parts, acrylic, wood, rope and line, from the ceiling of Superfrog Gallery for the Film Society’s new KinoTek exhibit Adriane Colburn: Ways, Points and Means. From left Dustin Fosnot, Colburn, Lee Hunter, Wes Chiu. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.27.12
Curtiss Clayton, an editor best known for his work on character-driven independent features, especially those of Gus Van Sant, entertained a packed master class at the Film Society for over three hours with tales of negotiating The Politics of the Cutting Room Floor. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.27.12
Under the auspices of the Film Society’s Filmmaker360 program, the recently launched Off the Page series gave writer/director Mario de la Vega the invaluable opportunity to workshop his script for The Undeniable Charm of Sloppy Unruh with actors Kyle Chandler, John Hawkes and Amy Ryan. From left: Hawkes, de la Vega, Ryan, Chandler. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.20.12
The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of: San Francisco and the Movies, the exhibit curated by Miguel Pendás and on view at the Old Mint through June 24 features numerous photographs from the San Francisco International Film Festival taken over nearly thirty years by Pamela Gentile. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.20.12
The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of: San Francisco and the Movies, the exhibit curated by Miguel Pendás (right) and on view at the Old Mint through June 24, features a room devoted to memorabilia and photographs from the San Francisco International Film Festival. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.20.12
Lead actors Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry, director Benh Zeitlin and producers Dan Janvey, Michael Gottwald and Josh Penn of Beasts of the Southern Wild, winner of the 2012 Cannes Camera d’Or award, joined SFFS Filmmaker360 Director Michele Turnure-Salleo for a special screening at Film Society Cinema. Back row: Zeitlin, Janvey, Henry, Penn, Gottwald; front row: Wallis, Turnure-Salleo. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.4.12
Cowriter Jerry Shahl, Christine Pelosi and producer Peter Kaufman arrive at the Castro Theatre for the premiere of Philip Kaufman’s Hemingway & Gellhorn which was shot entirely in the Bay Area with local locations convincingly standing in for Cuba, Spain, Key West and China, among others. HBO Films partnered with the Film Society for the invitational screening. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.4.12
Nancy Pelosi greeted director Philip Kaufman as she arrived at the Castro Theatre for the premiere of Hemingway & Gellhorn, starring Clive Owens and Nicole Kidman as Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. HBO Films partnered with the Film Society for the invitational screening. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 6.4.12
For the fifth year in a row, SFFS Youth Education produced and curated the media arts segment of the San Francisco Unified School District’s annual student arts festival, 'Young at Art' at the de Young Museum. The program featured 16 films from 11 SF schools and youth media organizations, made by students in grades 5–12, followed by a Q&A with the young filmmakers. PHOTO BY DAWN ROSALES, POSTED 5.22.12
Braden King flew in from New York to introduce the opening night screening of Here at Film Society Cinema and lead a insightful question and answer session afterwards with a near full house that included many crew members and friends. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 5.14.12
Anita Monga, artistic director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (left, with Rachel Rosen, SFFS director of programming) announced the full program for the 17th edition taking place July 12–15 at the Castro Theatre. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 5.14.12
Film writer Adam Hartzell watched Hang Sang-soo’s The Day He Arrives seven times in the past seven days, every day of its week-long run at Film Society Cinema, and posted his evolving observations on the Asian cinema enthusiast site VCinema. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 5.11.12
Virginia McCarthy, who has worked as script supervisor for Curtis Hanson, Todd Field and Michael Apted, has just signed on to work with writer/director Ryan Coogler when he starts production this summer on Fruitvale, the true story of Oscar Grant. Coogler received a $100,000 Spring 2012 SFFS/KRF FilmmakingGrant this month. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 5.2.12
In August San Francisco Film Society Director of Publicity Hilary Hart and filmmaker Aurora Guerrero, whose debut feature film Mosquita y Mari played at SFIFF55 following its world premiere at Sundance, will team up to teach Film Festival Marketing and Publicity 101 at San Francisco Film Society. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWOLFER, POSTED 5.1.12
Ryan Lattanzio, winner of the third ‘From College to Cannes’ contest, supported by the San Francisco Film Society, the Consulate General of France in San Francisco, the French American Cultural Society and Semaine de la Critique, heads to the Cannes Film Festival next month. From left: Romain Serman, French Consul General; Joanne Parsont, SFFS director of education; Sophie Suberville, French American Cultural Society executive director; Lattanzio. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.30.12
Writer/director Ryan Coogler and cast members Melonie Diaz and Michael B. Jordan workshopped the script for Fruitvale, the true story of Oscar Grant who was fatally shot by a BART policeman, at the second round of Off the Page, a project development program of San Francisco Film Society’s Filmmaker360 supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. From left: Tamara Badgley Horowitz, SFFS Grants & Residencies Coordinator; Coogler; Diaz; Jordan; Michele Turnure-Salleo, director, Filmmaker360. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.24.12
Writer/director Ryan Coogler and actor Michael B. Jordan spent two days developing the script for Fruitvale, the true story of Oscar Grant, who was shot and killed by a BART policeman on New Year’s Day 2009, at the the Film Society's second Off the Page program, a script workshop funded by San Francisco Film Society and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.24.12
Programmer Sean Uyehara and Karolina Sobecka, a leading figure in the production of interactive installations, at the opening of Sobecka’s KinoTek show, Human Moves, Animal Visions, which runs through May 3 at SuperFrog Gallery at 1746 Post Street. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.21.12
Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, senior scientist of the Pesticide Action Network, hosted the Causes & Impacts: The Threat of GMOs salon discussion featuring Micha X. Peled, director of the documentary Bitter Seeds, Frank Plughoff of Labelgmos.org in an impassioned discussion about the issue of genetically modified foods and the dangers they pose to farmers and consumers around the world. From left: Ishii-Eiteman, Peled, SFFS Filmmaker Education Manager Michael Behrens and Plughoff. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.21.12
The entire staff for the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival met at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas to prepare for Opening Night on April 19. PHOTO BY GEORGE F. GUND, POSTED 4.19.12
Lydia Dedes and her father Chris stopped by Festival headquarters to pick up their tickets for Opening Night of the San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theatre. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.19.12
Five student filmmakers were selected as finalists for the Beyond Film School audience award, which was awarded to Paula Lima of Academy of Art University for Angelito. From left: Tara Diego, CSU Monterey Bay, Monterey Meltdown; Daniela Ricci, USF, Anxiety: A Tax; Lima; Sabrina Wong, CCSF, Grandpa; Brian Andrews, Ex’pression College of Digital Arts, Hominid. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.11.12
This Spring’s Film Society Artist in Residence, Iraqi filmmaker Oday Rasheed, met with SFFS staff and interns for an enlightening and wide-ranging discussion about filmmaking in Iraq and life in Baghdad since the U.S. invasion. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.9.12
Academy Award-nominated costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis made sure that Filmmaker Education Manager Michael Behren’s jacket was perfectly fitted before the Film Society’s master class Character Comes First: Costume Design in the Movies. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.6.12
On the second day of his two-week artist-in-residency at SFFS Iraqi director Oday Rasheed presented his melancholic sophomore feature Qarantina, about a family living in present day Baghdad, at SF Film Society Cinema, followed by an illuminating Q&A moderated by journalist Terry McCarthy. From left: Rasheed, SFFS Director of Education Joanne Parsont and McCarthy. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 4.4.12
March 29th marked the inauguration of Off the Page — the new script-workshopping program from Filmmaker360 — with the support of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Three actors (Matthew Jones, Alia Shawkat and Blake Bashoff) flew in to workshop Ross, the upcoming project from director Matthew Lessner and producer Carlton Evans which is a recent SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grant recipient. From left: Evans, Woods, Jones, Lessner, Shawkat and Bashoff. PHOTO BY MICHELE TURNURE-SALLEO, POSTED 3.30.12 Film Society programmers Rod Armstrong, Rachel Rosen, Audrey Chang and Sean Uyehara presented the complete program for the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival at a press conference at the Fairmont San Francisco March 27. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR, POSTED 3.29.12
Steve Paquin, a Filmmaker360 intern at the Film Society, was among the lucky film aficionados (including out-of-towners Leonard Maltin, Manohla Dargis of the New York Times and Kenneth Turnan of the Los Angeles Times) who saw the premiere show of Kevin Brownlow’s 5 1/2 hour restoration of Abel Gance’s masterpiece Napoleon with Carl Davis conducting the Oakland East Bay Symphony at the Paramount Theatre, presented by San Francisco Silent Film Festival. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 3.28.12
The SFFS Global Threats Film Series kicked off at SF Film Society Cinema with a screening of the spectacular documentary The Island President followed by an in-depth Q&A with director Jon Shenk and journalist Mark Hertsgaard moderated by SFFS Director of Programming Rachel Rosen. The Island President opens in San Francisco on March 30. From left Rosen, Shenk, Hertsgaard. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 3.28.12
Director Alive Wu was joined by spotlight honoree Joan Chen, and fellow cast members Michelle Krusiec and Lynn Chen for a Saving Face reunion at San Francisco Film Society Cinema hosted by the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 3.16.12
Terence Davies, at SF Film Society Cinema to introduce a preview screening of his exquisitely nuanced new film The Deep Blue Sea (opening March 30) and a new 35mm print of The Long Day Closes, with longtime SFFS member Jim Gunn. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 3.16.12
English director Emily James was at San Francisco Film Society Cinema for the SF Green Film Festival closing night screening of her behind–the-scenes documentary about environmental activists, Just Do It: a Tale of Modern-Day Outlaws. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 3.16.12
Producer Bonni Cohen, director Jon Shenk, producer Richard Berge and SF Green Film Festival founder/director Rachel Caplan were at SF Film Society Cinema for the SFGFF opening night presentation of The Island President. The stirring documentary plays again at SFFSC on March 20, on the first program of the SFFS Global Threats Film Series. Following that screening there will be an in-depth Q&A with the filmmaker and special guest Terry Tamminen, ranked #1 on the Guardian’s list of “Top 50 People Who Can Save the Planet,” moderated by journalist Mark Hertsgaard. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 3.2.12
The students in the University of San Francisco’s “Inside SFIFF” class are getting a behind-the-scenes look at how a major international film festival is produced, runs and serves its various constituencies from San Francisco Film Society staff members. As part of this semester-long class, students will attend, review and analyze a series of SFIFF55 films, and meet with guest filmmakers at the Festival. PHOTO BYJOSLYN THORESEN, POSTED 2.28.12
The CAAM team introduced the full program for the 30th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival at the morning press conference at SF Film Society Cinema. Quentin Lee’s White Frog, featuring Joan Chen, will open SFIAAFF on March 8 at the Castro Theatre. From left: Festival and Exhibitions Director Masashi Niwang, Quentin Lee, Festival Managing Director Christine Kwon. For more information visit caamedia.org. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 2.10.12
Indie-GoGo cofounder Danae Ringelmann, filmmaker Tiffany Shlain and attorney George Rush shared insights into the ever-evolving digital distribution landscape at SFFS Film Arts Forum: Digital Distribution Now. Michael Behrens, SFFS filmmaker education manager, moderated the panel in front of a packed house at the Little Roxie. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 2.9.12
Beverly Thorman, Dolly Talaga, Judy Nelson and Ninfa Dawson, SF Film Society volunteers with decades of experience between them, are prized core volunteers at several other film festivals in the city, including the Mostly British Film Festival, at the Vogue through February 9. PHOTO BY HILARY HART, POSTED 2.8.12
SFFS board member Todd Traina hosted a by-invitation-only screening of Another Happy Day at SF Film Society Cinema, followed by a late night reception at nearby Bushi Tei restaurant. The Traina-produced autobiographical dramedy written and directed by Sam Levinson (son of Barry) features an all-star cast including Ellen Barkin, Kate Bosworth, Ellen Burstyn, Thomas Haden Church, Ezra Miller, Demi Moore and George Kennedy. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
The Sundance Film Festival 2012 awards night ceremony started off on a sober note as festival director John Cooper acknowledged the sudden death on January 23 of SFFS executive director Bingham Ray and read a eulogy written by Ray’s longtime poker buddies Magnolia Pictures chief Eamonn Bowles, Sony Classics SVP Tom Prassis, Sawyer Studios head Arnie Sawyer and producer Ben Barenholtz. Cooper choked up more than once while reading the tribute. SFFS program director Trevor Groth was later quoted as saying that 2012 SFF may well be remembered by many people as Ray’s last festival. PHOTO BY MICHAEL READ
Benh Zeitlin arrived in Park City on January 19, little known in the film world. Eleven days of excitement about his mythical film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, began at the screening for Sundance volunteers on day one of the festival, continued at six more sold out screenings and culminated with the winning of the grand jury prize in the U.S. dramatic film competition at the SFF awards ceremony. Beasts received two SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grants in the past two years, totaling $105,000. PHOTO BY MICHAEL READ
At the Sundance Film Festival awards night ceremony, director Benh Zeitlin celebrates with the cast and producers of Beasts of the Southern Wild as the film wins the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic award on Saturday, January 28, 2012. PHOTO BY MICHAEL READ
Berkeley-based filmmaker Mark Kitchell’s A Fierce Green Fire, documenting pivotal moments in the history of environmental activism played multiple sold out shows at Sundance 2012. At one Q&A, Kitchell was accompanied by Lois Gibbs, former housewife and president of the Love Canal Home Owners Association, whose career as an environmental activist was launched by the 1970s fight for accountability over the Love Canal contamination. SFFS was fiscal sponsor of the inspiring documentary based on New York Times environmental journalist Philip Shabecoff's book. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Quvenzhané Wallis, the extraordinary young actress who plays the lead in Benh Zeitlin’s astonishing debut feature Beasts of the Southern Wild was all smiles before another sold out screening at Sundance 2012. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Director Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild was the sensation of Sundance 2012. Early in the festival Fox Searchlight won the bidding war for distribution rights to Zeitlin’s stunning debut. SFFS’s Filmmaker360 was an early supporter of the film providing project development and $105,000 in grants from the SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants over the past two years. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
The cast and crew of Mosquita Y Mari (from left: actress Venecia Troncosco, director Aurora Guerrero, actress Fenessa Pineda) attended screenings of the beautifully shot story of a complex budding friendship between two Chicana high schoolers in the NEXT section of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The auspicious first feature film received an $88,000 SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant for postproduction in 2011. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Editor Ken Schneider prowled the streets of Park City between screenings of A Fierce Green Fire, Mark Kitchell’s documentary about the crucial moments in the history of the environmental movement. SFFS was fiscal sponsor for the project, which was shot and edited over the past four years and had it’s world premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2012. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
SFFS programmer Sean Uyehara spent six days in Park City, Utah at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival scouting films, from early morning to the wee hours, for the upcoming San Francisco International Film Festival (April 19–May 3) and the Film Society’s year round programming. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Thursday night director Benh Zeitlin introduced the preview screening of Beasts of the Southern Wild to a packed house of Sundance Film Festival volunteers. Last summer Beasts received a $55,000 SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation grant to support postproduction. Beasts has it's first public SFF screening tonight 1/20 at the Eccles Theatre in Park City. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Following the preview screening of the Sundance Film Festival dramatic competition film Beasts of the Southern Wild for a packed house of SFF volunteers director Benh Zeitlin, lead actors Quvenhane Wallis and Dwight Henry, cowriter Lucy Alibar and other cast members (from right) were greeted with a standing ovation and answered questions at an extended Q/A that was finally cut off as midnight approached. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
SFFS Executive Director Bingham Ray and Stellan Skarsgård, who first met while working on Breaking the Waves, participated in an audience Q&A via Skype (Skarsgård from Sweden) following the opening night screenings of King of Devil's Island at SF Film Society Cinema. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Wim Wenders, SFFS Executive Director Bingham Ray and Francis Ford Coppola relaxed at Tosca Cafe following a screening of Wenders' 3D documentary Pina on December 19. PHOTO BY PAMELA GENTILE
Wim Wenders, director of Pina (right), welcomed special guest Francis Ford Coppola to a screening of his film hosted by the Film Society. PHOTO BY PAMELA GENTILE
SFFS Executive Director Bingham Ray moderated an audience Q&A with director Wim Wenders following the screening of his 3D documentary Pina on December 19. PHOTO BY PAMELA GENTILE
Special guests Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation and Laura Truffaut, daughter of director François Truffaut were at SF Film Society Cinema on December 16 to introduce the evening screening of The Bride Wore Black, Truffaut’s homage to his idol Alfred Hitchcock, starring the inimitable Jeanne Moreau. Bride plays through December 22. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Jale Yoldas, Tamara Badgley Horowitz and Michele Turnure-Salleo of the Film Society’s Filmmaker Services partnered with independent film attorney George Rush to host a filmmakers' holiday party at Noble featuring a heated karaoke competition. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Don Hertzfeldt, who received the Persistence of Vision Award at the 2010 San Francisco International Film Festival, was joined by SFFS director of programming Rachel Rosen for the SF premiere of the final film in his animated trilogy about a character named Bill. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Don Hertzfeldt was surrounded by admirers following two sold-out screenings of his newest film It’s Such a Beautiful Day at SF Film Society Cinema. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Tim Wagner (left) of Open Show and Danny O’Brien of the Committee to Protect Journalists introduced a screening Restrepo (SFIFF 2009) on December 7 at SF Film Society Cinema at a tribute to director/journalist Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya in April. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
SFFS Film Art Forum: Pitch Perfect panelists oversaw a lively and thoughtful session of pitching, critiquing and advising on December 5 at SF Film Society Cinema. From left: moderator Michael Behrens, producer Carlton Evans, literary manager Jennie Frankel Frisbie, SFFS Filmmaker Services director Michele Turnure-Salleo, producer David Winton and SFFS executive director Bingham Ray. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Susan Stern (Blessing), Dana Nachman and Chelsea Matter (The Human Experiment) and Robert James (Revolutionary Sex) refined their project pitches before a panel of experts at SFFS Film Arts Forum: Pitch Perfect. Nachman and Matter’s pitch was voted best of the forum. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
On a school visit organized by SFFS Youth Education on December 2, local filmmaker Theo Rigby led a thoughtful discussion about immigration and the rights of immigrants with the 7th grade class at Julia Morgan for Girls after a screening of his short documentary Sin Pais. PHOTO BY KEITH ZWÖlLFER
Performance artist Erin Markey caroused with Film Society programmer Sean Uyehara after the world premiere peformance of her KinoTek piece The Dardy Family Home Movies by Stephen Sondheim by Erin Markey, December 2 at SF Film Society Cinema. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR
San Francisco Film Commission Executive Director Susannah Robbins (right) welcomed the Film Society's new Executive Director Bingham Ray at a reception at Tosca Cafe. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR
The local film community came out in droves to the welcome reception at Tosca Cafe honoring new Film Society Executive Director Bingham Ray, including filmmakers Amanda Micheli and Christopher Upham. PHOTO BY BILL PROCTOR
Producer Hilary Armstrong welcomed special guests to the SF Film Society Cinema for the sold-out premiere San Francisco screening of California State of Mind: The Legacy of Pat Brown. From left: Armstrong, Anne Gust Brown, Governor Jerry Brown and Film Society Executive Director Bingham Ray. PHOTO BY PAMELA GENTILE
Governor Jerry Brown mingled with Film Society Executive Director Bingham Ray and board member Maurice Kanbar at a post-screening reception at SF Film Society Cinema after the SF premiere of California State of Mind: The Legacy of Pat Brown. PHOTO BY PAMELA GENTILE
First time director Giorgia Cecere (center) won the City of Florence Award for her film The First Assignment on Closing Night of New Italian Cinema at Landmark's Embarcadero Center Cinema. The award, decided by audience ballot, was presented to her by Viviana del Bianco of New Italian Cinema Events and Rod Armstrong of the Film Society. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj, who arrived in San Francisco for a two week residency at the Film Society, was at SF Film Society Cinema for a screening of his latest feature A Useful Life. From left: Santhosh Daniel of Global Film Initiative, Joanne Parsont of SFFS and Veiroj. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Bingham Ray, executive director of SF Film Society, Fabrizio Marcelli, consul general of Italy and Daniele Luchetti, director of Our Life celebrated in style on opening day of the fifteenth New Italian Cinema festival in San Francisco. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Guest programmer Jay Wertzler presented 'Anthropomorphlolz,' a collection of weird-centric shorts from the farthest reaches of the animation universe, at the San Francisco International Animation Festival. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Director Eric Leiser used a canny hybrid life action/animation approach in Glitch in the Grid to portray the inner life of a reclusive artist struggling to find happiness. From left: producer Jeffrey Leiser, Eric Leiser, actor Jay Masonek, and Film Society programmer Sean Uyehara on Opening Night at San Francisco International Animation Festival. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
One of the highlights of Cinema By the Bay was the live performance of a new score for the 1926 silent film The Bat by virtuoso guitarist Ava Mendoza and drummer Nick Tumburro. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Editor Stephanie Challberg, director Mimi Chakarova and cinematographer Adam Keker were at Cinema By the Bay for the screening of their compelling investigative documentary The Price of Sex. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Director Sam Burbank, with SFFS programmer Audrey Chang, screened his debut narrative feature, the quirky sci-fi comedy, Where's My Stuff? for a full house at the third annual Cinema By the Bay. PHOTO BY HILARY HARTSFFS and San Francisco Film Commission hosted the Cinema By the Bay Filmmaker Services Brunch at Medjool celebrating the work of incubated at FilmHouse. From left: Dalan McNabola, editor of Connected; Priya Desai, codirector of Match+: Love in the Time of HIV; Michele Turnure-Salleo, SFFS director of filmmaker services; Lisa Fructman, codirector of Sweet Dreams; Susannah Robbins, executive director SF Film Commission; and Matthew Baldwin, editor of Ghosts of Havana. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Joshua Moore's feature film directorial debut, I Think It's Raining, featuring a mesmerizing performance by Alexandra Clayton, had its US premiere at opening night of Cinema by the Bay. PHOTO BY HILARY HART
Denis Bisson, French cultural attache, Rachel Rosen, San Francisco Film Society director of programming and Katia Lewcowicz, director of Bachelor Days Are Over, relaxed on French Cinema Days Opening Night just prior to the screening of the comedy about a man with a serious case of pre-wedding jitters. PHOTO BY HILARY HART