The San Francisco Film Society’s acclaimed SF360 Film+Club, a bimonthly social screening series, returns with a rare appearance by Steven Severin, performing his recent solo work Music for Silents, Tuesday, January 12 at 7:00 pm at Mezzanine (444 Jessie Street at Mint).

Severin will perform his latest project Music for Silents, live with video projection. The centerpiece of the new work is a soundtrack to the French avant-garde masterpiece The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928), directed by Germaine Dulac and written by Antonin Artaud. This surrealist classic was met by antipathy on its original release by the British Board of Film Censors, which wrote that it is “apparently meaningless ... But, if there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable.” Severin is known for weaving intense and dark musical tapestries, which lend themselves to Dulac’s film and the handful of other rare silent shorts that will be presented.

A key member of the Bromley Contingent, which captivated the culture and fashion scenes in 1970s England, Severin formed Siouxsie and the Banshees with Siouxsie Sioux in 1976. The Times called the band “one of the most audacious and uncompromising musical adventurers of the post-punk era.” During their reign, Siouxsie and the Banshees established themselves as one of the foremost alternative art groups in London. Since the breakup of the band in 1995, Severin has applied himself to numerous solo projects including the composition and performance of several film scores including the supernatural thriller London Voodoo and a six-part Channel 4/PBS documentary titled The Ascent of Money. Music for Silents was released on October 1, 2009.

“This is a rare chance to witness a cultural phenomenon,” said Film Society programmer Sean Uyehara. “Steven Severin has continuously reinvented himself since his days with the Banshees. And still, his creative force shines through unique and undiluted.”

Tickets $12 year-round SFFS members, $15 general; Tickets available online at www.sffs.org, by calling 925-866-9559 or by faxing 925-866-9597. Box office opens October 27 for SFFS members and October 30 for the general public.

Must be 21+ to attend.

SF360 Film+Club was chosen Best Dance-Floor Flick Fix by the editors of the San Francisco Bay Guardian’s Best of the Bay 2008 edition, who wrote, “Our favorite SF360 shindig is its SF360 Film+Club night at Mezzanine, which screens underground films to a room of intoxicated cinephiles.”

For more information: sffs.org/screenings-and-events

For interviews and screeners contact hilary@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit http://download.sffs.org/press.

San Francisco Film Society is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to celebrating film and the moving image in all its glorious forms. SFFS year-round programs and events are concentrated in four core areas: Celebrating Internationalism, Inspiring Bay Area Youth, Showcasing Bay Area Film Culture and Exploring New Digital Media. The Film Society shows the best of world cinema year-round on its SFFS Screen at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas; presents the longest-running film festival in the Americas, the SF International (April 22–May 6, 2010); publishes a daily online magazine, SF360.org, featuring broad-ranging news and features on Bay Area film and media; annually reaches more than 8,000 students ages 6–18 with its acclaimed media literacy programs; and provides crucial support to the Bay Area filmmaking community through SFFS Filmmaker Services including FilmHouse Residencies, Fiscal Sponsorship, the SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants, the Herbert Family Filmmaking Grants, the Hearst Screening Grant, the Djerassi/SFFS Screenwriting Fellowship, SFFS Film Arts Forums and professional-level filmmaker classes.

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