San Francisco, CA – The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23–May 7) will present the world premiere of Christopher Felver’s latest documentary Ferlinghetti (USA 2009), an intimate portrait of the literary and counterculture icon Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Tuesday, April 28 at 6:00 pm at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas. Felver and Ferlinghetti, as well as several of Ferlinghetti’s literary and political colleagues are expected to attend the premiere and celebration. Ferlinghetti will also screen at the Pacific Film Archive at 6:30 pm Wednesday, April 6. The film is part of the Festival’s popular Cinema by the Bay section.

In Ferlinghetti, Christopher Felver has crafted a sharply wrought portrait that reveals Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s stature as one of the preeminent figures of postwar American political activism and literature. Ferlinghetti has authored more than 50 books of poetry and criticism, and his Coney Island of the Mind is the most popular volume of poetry in the American literary canon. After attending Allen Ginsberg’s seminal performance of Howl, Ferlinghetti published the epic poem and triumphed in a landmark censorship trial against the City of San Francisco. Successive generations of musicians, poets, authors and filmmakers have benefitted from this decision, which became a foundation of First Amendment activism. City Lights Books, which Ferlinghetti cofounded in 1953 with Peter D. Martin as a literary meeting place, has for more than half a century been a thriving literary landmark and incubator of dissent.

Speaking of City Lights recently in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Film Society Executive Director Graham Leggat said, “Enter reverentially, for this truly is hallowed ground, but with a keen excitement you would never feel in church. A good bookstore is a joy forever-—its loveliness increases!—and this is the absolute best.” About the film Leggat said, “Chris Felver has captured this wonderful man’s spirit and vitality across a long and illustrious lifetime. This film is full of joyful moments.”

Ferlinghetti was named San Francisco’s Poet Laureate in August 1998, and he used his post as a bully pulpit from which he continued to advocate for pacifism and social justice. In 2003 he was awarded the Robert Frost Memorial Medal and the Author’s Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, and he was elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters. His most recent book, Americus Book I, was published by New Directions in 2004. Ferlinghetti, who turns 90 March 24, is still writing, publishing, painting and speaking out against injustice. The infamous banner declaring “Dissent Is Not Un-American” that went up on the front of City Lights right after September 11, 2001, has been replaced by a sign that urges “Indict and jail Bush and Cheney.”

Utilizing archival photographs and recordings, rare footage shot in Europe and contemporary and archival interviews with Ferlinghetti and his peers, Felver has created a lively and moving tribute to one of the most influential American artists and activists of the past 60 years.

The International’s Cinema by the Bay section celebrates films produced in the creative heart of the West. In addition to Ferlinghetti, the 2009 Cinema by the Bay includes Frazer Bradshaw’s Everything Strange and New, an exquisitely rendered profile of an Oakland carpenter living in the grip of spiritual inertia and downward mobility; Allie Light and Irving Saraf’s Empress Hotel, a multifaceted portrait of the Tenderloin neighborhood and the residents of a hotel for the newly homeless; Jonathan Parker’s (Untitled), a comic take on New York City’s avant-garde art and music scenes; and David Lee Miller’s My Suicide, exploring the tumultuous inner life of a teenage boy who announces his intent to commit suicide on camera.

For tickets and information go to www.sffs.org or call 925-866-9559.

Ferlinghetti is copresented with Litquake, San Francisco’s Literary Festival.

The San Francisco Film Society
San Francisco Film Society is a nonprofit arts and education organization dedicated to celebrating the world of film and media in four core areas: Internationalism and Cross-Cultural Exchange; Educating and Inspiring Bay Area Youth; Showcasing Bay Area Film Culture; and Exploring New Media.

SFFS shows the best of world cinema year-round on its SFFS Screen at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas and presents the San Francisco International Animation Festival, New Italian Cinema and French Cinema Now annually in the fall. In all, the Film Society presents more than 300 days of programming each year, reaching a total audience of more than 100,000 people. Its acclaimed youth education program introduces international cinema and media literacy to more than 7,000 teachers and students annually.

The Film Society publishes a daily online magazine, SF360.org, with broad-ranging news and features on Bay Area film culture and provides crucial support to the Bay Area filmmaking community through SFFS filmmaker services including grants & residencies, fiscal sponsorship, production assistance and development, networking and conference events, and professional-level filmmaker classes and workshops.

The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival
The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 23–May 7, 2009 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre and Landmark’s Clay Theatre in San Francisco; and the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley. Held each spring for 15 days, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in the country’s most beautiful city, featuring 25 juried awards, 200 films and live events with upwards of 100 participating filmmakers and diverse audiences of 75,000+ people.

For tickets and information go to www.sffs.org or call 925-866-9559.

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