San Francisco International Film Festival 2011 (year 54)

[Chris Knipp]

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3458/sfiff54orgwhite.jpg
April 21 to May 5, 2011

The Filmleaf Festival Coverage thread for the 2011 festival begins here. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=25984#post25984)

March 29, 2011. The San Francisco International Film Festiva has announced its program today with the usual press conference on the beautiful top floor of the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, with Graham Leggett, Executive Director of the SFFS, presiding in his fifth year at the Society's helm.

The full program of the festival films begins here (http://fest11.sffs.org/films/).

I will plan to attend and review films.

There are 189 films from forty-odd countries. I've already seen around 18 of them, which gives me a slight headstart.

Opening night film is Mike Mills' Beginners with Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer. Centerpiece is Azarel Jacobs' Terri. Closing night film is Matthieu Amalric's On Tour (Tournée).

Special awards are going to legendary screenwriter Frank Pierson; Persist ence of Vision Award to artist Matthew Barney; the Mel Novikoff Award for contribution to public appreciation of film goes to film restorer/showman Serge Bromberg (whose Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno was in the SFIFF last year).

[Chris Knipp]

From the short SFIFF "Miniguide," a few titles that look interesting:

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (Werner Herzog 2010) (http://fest11.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=16). I've wanted to see this about the 30,000-year-old cave paintings we will never be able to see in person. Amazing images, and an amazing filmmaker. It has been shown in NYC and is coming here to theaters, however.

CIRCUMSTANCE (Maryam Keshavarz 2011) (http://fest11.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=20). As I've mentioned before, this is one in the new New Directors/New Films series that I missed and people said was great. It's about young women in Tehran living under the radar and won a Sundance Audience Award.

DETROIT WILD CITY (Florent Tillon 2011). (http://fest11.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=26) Documentary by a French director about the devastated yet beautiful Detroit of today. New and amazing things may be happening there.

HA HA HA (Hong Sang-soo 2010) (http://fest11.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=39). I have often liked the Korean director's somewhat European-inspired films. This one has two men swapping stories (and flashbacks) at the seaside (a familiar Hong venue) and it turns out the people and events are intertwined.

OUTRAGE (Takeshi Kitano 2010). (http://fest11.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=70) The implacable and whimsical Kitano returns to the gangster genre. The VARIETY review describes it as "grisly" and "visually stunning," and says the "Tech credits are superlative."

13 ASSASSINS (Takashi Miike 2010). (http://fest11.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=91) In a similar vein a new gangster film by the Asian cult master, recently featured at a series at Lincoln Center.

THE TRIP (Michael Winterbottom 2010) (http://fest11.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=95) Winterbottom takes the people from his TRISTRAM SHANDY and riffs forward. The VARIETY reviewer says 'Michael Winterbottom's "The Trip" is about 20 minutes too long, but the other 90 are among the funniest in recent memory.'

This is just a first look, and might not be all movies you need to go to a film festival for. More will be revealed as I go over the list again and talk to people. I am sure there are some excellent new documentaries, which I have not gotten to yet, except for the Detroit one.

I have also seen fifteen or so of the selections at NY events. They'll be listed with links in the SFIFF 2011 Festival Coverage thread. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011)

[Chris Knipp]

Agustí Villaronga: Black Bread (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26022#post26022)

This Catalan-language coming-of-age film set in 1944 was a major prizewinner in Spain last year and it's easy to see why. In contrast to del Toro's richly surreal and expressionistic Pan's Labyrinth, which in setting and focus it resembles (also including Sergi López as a local fascist official), this film is marked by a simplicity and austerity that link it to the masterpieces of Italian neorealism, but there is a greater moral ambiguity.

[Johann]

Excellent!
Thanks for giving us something to be excited about.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks. I will be posting more previews and reviews gradually from now on, though the main screenings don't start till ten days from now. This is a very good film.

[Chris Knipp]

The Arbor (Clio Barnard 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26028#post26028)

Documentary and realism seamlessly blend in the portrait of a working-class playwright

Location shots, real people, and actors are deployed in a seamless amalgam in this recollection of of the talented but short-lived alcoholic working-class playwright from Bradford, West Yorkshire, in the north of England, Andrea Dunbar.

A tough ride but a very compulsively watchable one. This is just a preview. The full review will appear later after Strand's release later this month.

[Chris Knipp]

Radim Spacek: Walking Too Fast (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26032#post26032)

1980's meltdown of a secret police sociopath. Despite a similar setup --focusing on an intellectual under surveillance and the chief operative on the case -- this Czech film has none of the warmth or detail -- or the logic -- of Von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others, but it conveys the madness of Soviet-era repression rather well through one character, an elite operative of the StB in Prague in 1982, in a repellant but compelling performance by actor Ondrej Malý. More a psychological portrait than a "political thriller." Big prize-winner at the Prague Oscars, but not a box office success at home.

[Chris Knipp]

Ali Samadi Ahadi: The Green Wave (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26034#post26034)

This documentary by an Iranian expatriate living in Germany uses talking heads, newsreels, cell phone videos, feeds from Twitter and blogs and animation to tell the tragic story of the revolution of spring and summer 2009 in Iran that ended in a fixed election and violent repression, which may be considered the first spark of the revolts sweeping the Middle East today from Tunisia to Yemen. It tells us everything except exactly how it came about and how it can happen again.

[Chris Knipp]

Linda Aschan: She Monkeys (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26035#post26035)

As in Céline Sciamma's 2007 Water Lilies, two young budding girls of contrasting personalities bond and clash around a female spsorting event, this time equestrian gymnastics in Sweden, in Lilies water ballet in Frace.

[cinemabon]

I went to the website to look at some of the trailers. The "watch" link opens a new "page" but the film never opens. The festival looks great. Wish I was there. Can't wait to hear all about it. I remember last year, you were the first person to write a review of "King's Speech" (which will be out on DVD next week). Looking forward to your picks for next year's best pix.

Chris... you will love this short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H-VodcRG4o&feature=related

[Chris Knipp]

C:

If the "watch" trailers aren't working maybe your computer's software needs updating. It works for me. If you want to see a bit of one of the films, try looking it up on YouTube, which will have trailers for them too.


The festival looks great. Wish I was there. Can't wait to hear all about it.

You're hearing about it now. I already have links to twenty or so of the films, 4-7 or so of which are all new this week, and I'll be adding more as I see them, reviews or previews.

[Chris Knipp]

Federico Veiroj: A Useful Life (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26042#post26042)

In this enchanting little feature from Uruguay, the manager of a cinematheque in Montevideo sees the facility close, but his own life opens up. Filmed with non-actors, very close to the milieux of the story.

You might want to contrast this with Davide Ferrario's After Midnight/Dopo mezzonotte (2004), starring Giorgio Pasotti, a film in which the magical Mole Antonelliana (the cavernous Museum of Cinema in Turin, Italy) is the setting for a very unlikely love story.

[Chris Knipp]

Clio Barnard: The Arbor (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26028#post26028)

From England, a portrait of the northern working-class playwright Andrea Dunbar done in a skillful amalgam of "verbatim theater" with archival footage and location shots using actors lip-synching interviews with family and friends that Barnard spent two years doing before making the film. An award-winner for sound, structure, and acting that is so seamlessly acted it draws you in and you forget which is real and which a recreation.

[Chris Knipp]

The SF Film Society has announced that the chief director honored will be Oliver Stone. (http://fest11.sffs.org/awards/oliver_stone.php)
Wednesday, April 27, 7:00 pm
Sundance Kabuki Cinemas
1881 Post Street (at Fillmore)
$20 members, $25 general

In addition today (April 14, 2011):

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/2848/sfiff54logo.jpg

Festival Screening & Event Highlights
SFIFF54 State of Cinema Address: Christine Vachon
April 24, 9:00 pm Sundance Kabuki Cinemas

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4272/christinevachon.jpg


The State of Cinema Address will be presented by indie film maverick Christine Vachon, the producer of a number of often controversial films, including all of Todd Haynes's projects. One of indie film's most formidable and well-respected figures, Vachon's take on the State of Cinema promises to enlighten and provoke.

See details about the State of Cinema Address. (http://fest11.sffs.org/awards/christine_vachon.php)

[Chris Knipp]

Kwaan, Chiang: Let the Wind Carry Me (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26048#post26048)

Portrait of Mark Lee Ping Bing, an important cinemtographer who has notably collaborated with Hou Hsiau-hsien and Wong Kar-wai, and contributed his subtle sense of color and light to fifty films.

[Chris Knipp]

Pang Ho-cheung: Love in a Puff (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26050#post26050)

A breezy, light, profane, observant Hong Kong love comedy wherein the couple first meet at a city smoker's hideout with coworkers and neighborhood oddballs.

[Chris Knipp]

Park Jung-bum: The Journals of Musan (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26052#post26052)

Assistant director on Park Chang-dung's outstanding recent film Poetry (NYFF 1010) debuts with a somewhat overlong but powerful depiction of the desperate life of a defector from North Korea living on the outskirts of Seoul, with Park himself playing the role of the protagonist.

[Chris Knipp]

Lech Majewski: The Mill and the Cross (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26061#post26061)

Brilliant recreation of Pieter Breugel the Elder's painting, "The Procession to Calvary," both its sixteenth-century Flemish context, with the oppression of protestants by Spanish occupiers, and the creation of the painting itself. Rutger Hauer, Michael York, and Charlotte Rampling star. A triumpth, which if widely seen may rival Alexei Sokurov's Russian Ark as an art-historical tour de force and make the talented Polish director Majewski an international figure.

[Chris Knipp]

Dan Geller, Dayna Goldfine: Something Ventured (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26063#post26063)

A documentary about the role of venture capital in US business since the late Fifties. Most of the key investments came in the Seventies and early Eighties. This is largely a story of Silicon Valley, and also a story of East Coast investors getting innovative companies started in California. Little companies like Apple, Intel, Google, Genentech, Cisco, Tandem and Atari.

[Chris Knipp]

Matthieu Amalric: On Tour (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26067#post26067)

Big French acting star Matthieu Amalric (Best Actor, Cannes 2007 for his role in Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) depicts a failing French producer touring dismal harbor venues with American burlesque queens in this, his fourth directorial effort. It has gained more attention than previous outings as a helmer and won him the Directorial Prize at Cannes last year. The film appears somewhat directionless to a Stateside viewer, but apparently deeply appealed to the French as a metaphor for their fantasy about the US.

[Chris Knipp]

Miranda July: The Future (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26070#post26070)

Miranda July's sophomore feature again stars herself, this time with Hamish Linklater as an LA couple of uncertain ambitious for whom the decision to adopt a stray cat is so earth-shaking it causes them both to quit their jobs and revamp their lives. July's surreal whimsey is more focused this time than in Me and You and Everyone We Know (http://www.cinescene.com/knipp/everyone.htm) and takes a dark metaphysical turn.

[Chris Knipp]

Nikola Lezaic: Tilva Rosh (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26073#post26073)

This loosely-slung, authentic-feeling coming of age film shot in a washed up copper mining town in Serbia about a pair of skateboarders who flirt with a girl just back from France and challenge each other in Jackass-style stunts can stand as an essential contribution to the cinema of twenty-first century youth.

[oscar jubis]

I don't believe I have ever had an opinion as divergent from yours as it is the case with TILVA ROS. Half the audience at the MIFF walked out within the first hour.
I came to my office and read the Variety review:
"Shallow skater dudes imitate "Jackass" stunts and while away time until one leaves for college in the tedious Serbian slacker drama "Tilva Ros." Though freshman scripter-helmer Nikola Lezaic aspires to say something about contempo Serbian life, his reliance on U.S. subcultures and indie pop songs speak more to the globalization of a certain brand of American idiocy. Auds partial to Lezaic's influences, particularly Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, may enjoy watching stupid people doing stupid things, and the pic's big win in Sarajevo will spur fest play, but theatrical distribution is unlikely."

And I thought critic Jay Weissberg was being too kind.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for commenting, Oscar. I hope to hear more if there are other ones you've seen or have thoughts on.

De gustibus.... I don't find your reaction surprising. I am aware I am going a little bit out on a limb on this one. I know that there have been walkouts at festival screenings. However I think I made clear the qualities that distinguish this film, which were perceived at Sarajevo. The emphasis is not so much on the "Jackass"-style stunts as the descriptions may make non-viewers think. It's more about the camaraderie of the two guys and their group. There have been many positive comments on the acting, the naturalness of the atmosphere created. I also found the main character, Toda/Marko, very winning, and liked the relationships of the young men with the older men in their lives.

Again, thanks for your comments (I hope for more).

I have seen a lot by now what I'm going to see, and some of the best or most interresting I'd watched before the festival schedule was announced. I have however also enjoyed nearly all the new ones I've reviewed exclusively for this festival.

[Chris Knipp]

Otar Iosseliani: Chantrapas (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26077#post26077)

In his new film the Giorgian exile in France reimagines his own life and career ironically making his young director's experiences harsher than his own both under the Soviets and in Europe, but his signature charm and rambling, complicated mise-en-scene are consistent with earlier work.

[oscar jubis]

The only other film I have seen that you review in this thread is A USEFUL LIFE. Very good review, Chris. It's only slightly more favorable than the review I would write. However, I did go into the theater with expectations that were perhaps too high. If I may point out, there seems to be a sentence that needs correction:
"The director uses a microphone to broadcast live translations in Spanish of the English subtitles for McTeague and von Stroheim's Greed."

It reads as if McTeague was also a film and not just the novel on which Greed is based and the name of the protagonist of both the novel and the film.

[Chris Knipp]

Glad you saw A Useful Life; look forward to the news of what you've seen. I'll correct the mistake with McTeague. Did you see that Italian romance set in the Turin film museum, After Midnight? That setting was amazing.

I've liked a lot of the new ones in the SFIFF that I hadn't seen before. My top rated ones:
The Arbor, the inventive UK documentary. Amazing technique.
Black Bread, the Catalan 1940's coming-of-age story. Classic.
Jurnals of Musan, the gloomy, heavy, but memorable story of the North Korean defector. Powerful.
The Mill and the Cross, eye-popping and moving recreation of the creation of a Breugel painting. That one is brilliant.

I also liked:
The City Below,Christoph Hochhäusler's cold, tense German Wave drama of banking, greed and lust, which I saw today.

And probably worth watching:
Walking Too Fast, the Czech film about the Cold War life. A memorable central character.
Love in a Puff, light, pop Hong Kong romance that's just very hip and smoothly done.
Something Ventured is a worthwhile documentary about an important topic. Michuk is very interested, because he's seeking investments for his own starup in Poland now. As a doc however this is not technically or conceptually unusual and I think this fest is top-heavy with docs. I'm running out of narrative features to see.

I haven't been ecstatic about every single one of my choices. I could easily have done without Miranda July's new one (which has a theatrical release coming anyway), and the doc The Green Wave as well as Amalric's On Tour were disappointments (as I had somewhat feared). But otherwise selecting carefully has paid off. I may not be seeing a lot more though, maybe six or so if time and logistics permit. I still miss the earlier years when they showed many press screenings that were NOT merely distributors' promotions but in fact of stuff we were never going to see in theaters like Los Muertos (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=409&view=next) and Noticias Lejanas. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?1711-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2006/page2) And Alicia Scherson's Play. (http://www.cinescene.com/knipp/sfiff.htm) Daratt (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?1999-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2007-%2850th-anniversary%29&p=17718#post17718)was a good recommendation of yours, by the way, from back then, though not a press screening.

[Chris Knipp]

Christoph Hochhäusler: The City Below (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26081#post26081)

From the German Wave a chilly, elegant, intense film about banks, power, and adultery.

[oscar jubis]

You're right about After Midnight. Have not seen the other titles you mention from the SFIFF.

I wrote a MIFF report for publication in the journal Film International. They don't let me post it (I'll post a link if they make it available online), but I can tell you that my top 3 films from the MIFF 2011 were:

NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT :a film-essay by master documentarian/political activist Patricio Guzman on very limited release by Icarus Films.
BEYOND: The directing debut of legendary Swedish actress Pernilla August, starring Naomi Rapace.
HALF OF OSCAR: Reticent, elegant, understated Spanish drama.

[Chris Knipp]

Too bad your publication demands exclusivity. Could you write just brief summaries and evaluations of the films you've seen for the Festival Coverage section, as I did above? How about simply a list of all the titles you saw? Film International would not have a copyright on that.

Incidentally your Festival Coverage link to Film International for last year's MFF does not work. Maybe your coverage is no longer online. But unlike ours, their festival coverage section has no entries for 2011 so far.

I'll note your recommendation of Nostalgia for the Light. It's a film available here on an SFIFF screner DVD. However I'm running out of time for San Francisco because I'm going to NYC next week. From there I'm going to Paris. As usual I'll post reports on the new films I see there.

[oscar jubis]

How exciting! Conversely, my travel during the past year were short trips to Milwaukee and New Orleans, strictly on business. The Nola trip inconveniently coinciding with the MIFF. Since there were no press screenings before the fest this year, I ended up watching only about 14 movies or so. As it is with any publication, there are guidelines concerning length: 1000 words for DVD and book reviews and 1500 words for festival reports.I only wrote about half the movies I watched including, of course, the 3 I mentioned in the previous post. There were 4 or 5 that I think are slightly less accomplished( or whatever) but this is a matter of opinion. I am sure there are people who think Oscar-winner In a Better World (which I watched at the fest just before it opened) is a better film than my 3 favorites, for instance. I watched an Israeli film, INTIMATE GRAMMAR, a movie from Iceland, MAMMA GOGO, and one from Argentina, THE INVISIBLE EYE, which are quite good and probably would do better at the box office than the 3 I loved. Check them out, and do post from abroad about the stuff you get to watch.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, I always see interesting new films in NYC and Paris.

It would still be nice to see a list of those 14 films you saw at Miami.

I will be seeing Alejandro Chomski's Asleep in the Sun/Dormir al sol (Argentina) today.

I still plan to see if time allows:

Tatiana Huezo: The Tiniest Place (2011)--Mexico

Better This World (Galloway, de la Vega 2011)--USA

The Dish and the Spoon (Allison Bagnoll 2011)--USA

Marathon Boy (Gemma Atwal 2010)--India

Circumstance (Maryam Keshavarz 2010)--Iran

That will mean I've seen 35 SFIFF selections, counting the 15 I'd already seen in NYC.

[oscar jubis]

Sounds like fun.Enjoy.

NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT
BEYOND
HALF OF OSCAR
INTIMATE GRAMMAR
THE INVISIBLE EYE
MAMMA GOGO
A USEFUL LIFE
IN A BETTER WORLD
MARTI, THE EYE OF THE CANARY (Cuba/Spain)
POTICHE
GESHER (Iran)
WATER AND SALT (Argentina)
ARMADILLO (Denmark)
TILVA ROS

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks! In a Better World has been showing in Landmark theaters but I haven't had a chance to see it, though I do still hope to.
Intimate Grammar was recommended by Howard Schumann. I saw and reviewed (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3026-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2011&p=25753#post25753)Potiche as part of the Rendez-Vous at Lincoln Center/IFC earlier this year. We've discussed A Useful Life and Tilva Rosh on this thread, and I mentioned Nostalgia for the Light is one I might still see as part of the SFIFF. Beyond and Half of Oscar, your other favorites, I don't know about.

The Invisible Eye is another sly Argentinian period film. I don't know where I might see it so far.

It looks like we are losing your Miami reporting due to Film International. As I said, your link on Filmleaf to your last year's coverage there no longer works.

[Chris Knipp]

Alejandro Chomski: Asleep in the Sun (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26091#post26091)

A droll little piece of cinematic surrealism set in 1940's Buenos Aires and based on a story by the writer Adofo Bioy Casares, who died in 1999 but whom the director knew. This is Kafka with a whimsical touch. The disquiet is slow in coming but builds in a rush in the final scene, a wake where dogs and people have traded personalities. Art direction is delicious and makes up for a lack of depth in the story.

[Chris Knipp]

Tatiana Huezo: The Tiniest Place (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26093#post26093)

Powerful and aesthetically superb first feature documentary about Cinquera, a small village in El Salvador wiped out by the national guard in the civil war and now rebuilt. Narrated by seven survivors who now live here again.

From the first five minutes I knew this was superbly done. It shows what filmmaking is about, the creative sequencing of the raw material of images and sound to build something eloquent and fresh, something nobody's ever quite made before. This is why one watches festival films. It makes you wish you could make a documentary but it humbles you because you know you could never do anything 1/100th as good at this. Huezo studied in Spain and is Mexican but was born in Salvador and her grandmother lived in Cinquera.

[Chris Knipp]

Kelly Duane, Katie Galloway: Better This World (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26099#post2609)

Doc to be shown on "POV" about two young men who went to the Twin Cities to disrupt the 2008 Republican Convention and were put in jail for terrorism. The filmmakers have such remarkable documentation and access this seems almost like reality television, but with a politically very thought-provoking message about the possibilities for dissent and the use of informers in post-9/11 America.

[Chris Knipp]

Allison Bognall: The Dish and the Spoon (2022) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26101#post26101)

Another new Amerindie film, a wistful seaside romance between an angry wife (Greta Gerwig) whose husband has just slept with aother woman and an English waif (Olly Alexander) just dumped by his girlfriend. Greata doesn't take Oly as seriously as Olly takes Greta, but till the director runs out of original improvs they make an interesting odd couple. The film achieves charm and steers clear of twee.

[Chris Knipp]

Maryam Keshavarz: Circumstance (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26107#post26107)

As mentioned earlier I missed this at New Directors/New Films in March. Some people said I'd missed one of the best of the series. And then some said I had not missed that much after all. That left me wishing I'd seen it. Had I seen it then, I would have published a whole review, because there was no constraint on doing so at ND/NF, but the SFIFF has a "hold review" rule for a lot of title (http://www.sffs.org/pressdownloads/press.aspx?catid=131,698,699&pageid=2155)s because they're coming out in US theaters later, or hope to.... For a full review go to my website. You might want to see this and judge for yourself. I'd tend to agree with the Robert Kohler, who sums things up: "Certain to be discussed more for its daring depiction of a lesbian relationship in present-day Tehran than for its artistic merits, writer-director Maryam Keshavarz's 'Circumstance' suggests a new way of showing stories about young Iranians even as it stumbles and falls over myriad narrative miscalculations."

[Chris Knipp]

The SFIFF has announced awards.

Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature Winners
Investigative Documentary Feature:
Crime After Crime, Yoav Potash (USA 2011)
· Winner receives $25,000 cash prize
Documentary Feature:
Better This World, Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway (USA 2011)
· Winner receives $20,000 cash prize
Bay Area Documentary Feature:
Better This World, Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway (USA 2011)
· Winner receives $15,000 cash prize and $2000 laboratory services from EFILM Digital Laboratories.

New Directors Award:
The Journals of Musan, Park Jung-bum (South Korea 2010)
· Winner receives $15,000 cash prize

FIPRESCI Prize:
The Salesman, Sébastien Pilote (Canada 2011)

I didn't see Crime After Crime -- or The Salesman. Variety's lukewarm review of the latter gives no hint of FIPRESCI potential: "A surprisingly autumnal first feature for a writer-director still under 40. . . Melancholy piece is a commercial nonstarter. . . fest play and homefront awards could spur niche DVD and quality broadcast sales offshore."

I reviewed Better This World, a good and politically relevant documentary showing a remarkable degree of access to people and information. In terms of the filmmaker's art not to mention documentary power, I would strongly recommend another doc from the festival, The Tiniest Place. In terms of originality of method both The Arbor and The Mill and the Cross are even more unusual and get my strongest recommendations.

In honoring the director of Journals of Musan, the fest vollows Tribeca, which gave the director a similar award.

[Chris Knipp]

Takashi Miike: 13 Assassins (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26120#post26120)

Gore specialist Miike turns to a more traditional genre with this samurai movie whose very long and dazzling battle sequence might invite comparison with Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. This gimmicky tour de force really doesn't have the profound meaning and rich structure of the Kurosawa masterpiece and may be a contemporary debasement of the tradition, but nonetheless it's a must-see for fans of the genre or of Miike. It actually opened just before the SFIFF screening, and I saw it at the IFC Center in NYC after missing it in San Francisco. It will be rolling out in release in various US locations in May, June, and July 2011 as listed here. (http://audreymagazine.com/takashi-miikes-13-assassins/)

[Chris Knipp]

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/2913/homezz.jpg

STRAND RELEASING has announced some upcoming releases that are relevant to the SFIFF and some other recent Festival Coverage items:


The Arbor (Clio Barnard). Opens in LA May 13, 2011.
I’m Glad That My Mother Is Alive (Claude and Natan Miller). Summer.
The Sleeping Beauty (Catherine Breillat). IFC Center NYC July 8, LA July 29.
Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangar). TBA.

Also from the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2011:
Service Entrance (Philippe Le Guay), TBA.

From the NYFF 2010:
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff. NYC May 13, LA June 3.

[Chris Knipp]

Werner Herzog: Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26125#post26125)

The long-heralded, long-awaited film at last, in 3D, about the oldest cave paintings known and perhaps the most spectacular. A wonderful film from the always-exceptional Herzog -- and yet aesthetically a little disappointing, for one who paged through the Lascaux books years ago. New information and new technology here, but still no final answers and maybe not quite enough questions or hypotheses.

Part of the SFIFF but now showing at IFC Center in NYC (opened there April 29, 2011).

[Chris Knipp]

Here is an updated link index of my SFIFF 2011 reviews including films I have seen since the festival ended.



INDEX OF LINKS TO MY REVIEWS OF THE FESTIVAL FILMS:

(Including films seen and/or reviewed previously at NYFF 2110, R-V [Rendez-Vous with French Cinema] 2010 or 2011, or ND/NF [New Directors/New Films 2011)

13 Assassins (Takashi Miike 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26120#post26120)
L'Amour Fou (Pierre Thorreton 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3069-Pierre-Thoretton-L-Amour-Fou-%282010%29)
Arbor, The (Clio Barnard 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26028#post26028)
Asleep in the Sun (Alejandro Chomski 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26091#post26091)
At Ellen's Age (Pia Marais 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3032-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2011&p=25886#post25886) ND/NF
Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3032-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2011&p=25951#post25951) ND/NF
Aurora (Cristi Puiu 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2875-New-York-Film-Festival-2010&p=25144#post25144) NYFF
Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu, The (Andrei Uticǎ 2010 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2875-New-York-Film-Festival-2010&p=25085#post25085)) NYFF
Beginners (Mike Mills 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3088-BEGINNERS-%28Mike-Mills-2010%29&p=26326#post26326)
Better This World (Kelly Duane, Katie Galloway 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26099#post26099)
Black Bread (Agustí Villaronga 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26022#post26022)
Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975, The (Göran Hugo Olsson: 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3032-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2011&p=25892#post25892) ND/NF
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26125#post26125)
Chantrapas (Otar Iosseliani 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26077#post26077)
Circumstance (Maryam Keshavarz 2011) (http://www.sffs.org/pressdownloads/press.aspx?catid=131,698,699&pageid=2155)
City Below, The (Christoph Hochhäusler 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26081#post26081)
Dolce Vita, La (Federico Fellini) (Restored print) (no review)
Dish and the Spoon, The (Abigail Bognall 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26101#post26101)
Foreign Parts (Verena Paravel, J.P. Sniadecki, 2010) NYFF (no review)
Future, The (Miranda July 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26070#post26070)
Green Wave, The (Ali Samadi Ahadi 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26034#post26034)
Hands Up (Romain Goupil 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3026-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2011&p=25830#post25830) R-V 2011
Hospitalité (Koji Fukada 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3032-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2011&p=25927#post25927) ND/NF
I'm Glad My Mother Is Alive (Claude Miller, Nathan Miller 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24110#post24110) R-V 2010
Incendies (Denis Villeneuve 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3032-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2011&p=25880#post25880) ND/NF
Journals of Musan (Park Jung-bum 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26052#post26052)
Let the Wind Carry Me (Kwan, Chiang 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26048#post26048)
Love in a Puff (Pang Ho-cheung 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26050#post26050)
Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2875-New-York-Film-Festival-2010&p=25170#post25170) NYFF
Microphone (Ahmad Abdalla 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3032-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2011&p=25922#post25922) ND/NF
Mill and the Cross, The (Lech Majewski 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26061#post26061)
My Joy (Sergei Loznitsa 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2875-New-York-Film-Festival-2010&p=25119#post25119) NYFF
Mysteries of Lisbon (Raúl Ruiz 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2875-New-York-Film-Festival-2010&p=25192#post25192) NYFF
On Tour (Matthieu Amalric 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26067#post26067)
Page One: Inside the New York Times (Andrew Rossi 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/newthread.php?do=postthread&f=29)
Quattro Volte, Le (Michelangelo Frammartino 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2875-New-York-Film-Festival-2010&p=25100#post25100) NYFF
She Monkeys (Linda Aschan 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26035#post26035)
Silent Souls (Alexei Fedorchenko 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2875-New-York-Film-Festival-2010&p=25115#post25115) NYFF
Sleeping Beauty, The (Catherine Breillat 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3026-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2011&p=25769#post25769) R-V 2011
Something Ventured (Dan Geller, Danya Goldfine 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26063#post26063)
Tilva Rosh (Nikola Lezaic 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26073#post26073)
Tiniest Place, The (Tatiana Huezo 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26093#post26093)
Trip, The (Michael Winterbottom 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3083-THE-TRIP-%28Michael-Winterbottom-2010%29)
Useful Life, A (Federico Veiroj 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26042#post26042)
Walking Too Fast (Radim Spacek 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26032#post26032)

[oscar jubis]

That's a lot of reviews!
Perhaps this is not the right thread to ask if you (or anyone) have seen, perhaps at a festival or abroad, two films I liked that seem to have opened comercially only in Miami: Of Love and other Demons and Park Benches (Bancs Publics).

"In her startlingly assured debut, "Of Love and Other Demons," Costa Rican writer-director Hilda Hidalgo has seemingly unlocked the key to translating the cerebral sensuality of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's writing into film, providing one of the few screen adaptations worthy of the Colombian novelist's source material. She's aided immensely in this effort by two impeccable lead performances and painterly cinematography, but the seemingly casual mastery of difficult narrative rhythms is all her own." (Variety)

Review of Park Benches: http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/reviews.php?id=8627

[Chris Knipp]

That's a lot of reviews!

It actually seems to be exactly the same number of reviews I listed in my 2010 SFIFF review index (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2823-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2010).

I looked up those two films on IMDb, the Spanish-language one and the French one. They aren't listed there as having any US theatrical release, though the Costa Rican one has been in a lot of US film festivals. The French one, not. I guess officially, neither has been released in the US. Where were they shown, in Miami?

[cinemabon]

He doth set the world on fire! I'm overwhelmed with a plethora of pulchritude.

[oscar jubis]

Cinemabon can surely be cryptically erudite...

Yes, these films and many others seemingly without national distributions are having commercial runs here because there are a lot of independent "art" theaters in Miami and they don't want the programming to overlap too much. It's mostly European, Latin American, and Amerindie films.

[Chris Knipp]

That seems very unusual in the country. Who are the distributors?

[oscar jubis]

This is an excerpt from a report on the 2010 MIFF I wrote for Film International Journal

During the Miami International Film Festival (MIFF), one would logically conclude that the city is a major market for foreign-language, independent and "art" films. However, once the buzz dies down, box-office receipts at theaters showing festival fare are disappointing. Several non-mainstream theaters are attempting to buck that trend by riding the coattails of another successful edition of the MIFF, the 27th. At a time when the number of alternative theaters around the country is dwindling, a brand new cinematheque is set to open in tony Coral Gables, the one in South Beach is moving to larger quarters, and the theaters run by Miami Dade College and the University of Miami have expanded their programming. The MIFF serves as a catalyst for this cultural expansion.

I reported this trend in my city about 15 months ago. Both new cinematheques I mentioned have had great success as they are perfectly located in South Beach and downtown Coral Gables. There is yet another new art cinema, "The O", located in a part of town that has failed to show that it can support a local alternative theater, given the many options around. I have yet to go. Wish them luck, although I work for the competition.

The programmers of these theaters are often dealing directly with foreign distributors like in the case of Of Love and other Demons. The French film Bancs Publics was purchased by IFC Films in 2009 and not released (for no good reason I can think of).

[Chris Knipp]

IFC's non-release of Bancs publics would be worth looking into if I can find someone who'd know. IFC has a bit of a rep for buying things and just sitting on them sometimes.

Let's hope this pattern you describe spreads to other urban centers of the country. In the Bay Area Landmark has a semi-monopoly on art houses, along with Rialto and the Roxie. Perhaps because of the IFC Center, Film Forum, Anthology Film Archives, Quad Cinema, Cinema Village, Angelika, and the activities (now growing) at Lincoln Center and MoMA and more, that may explain why there is only a single Landmark cineplex in Manhattan while the Bay Area has multiiple Landmarks. Some of their programming is not very adventurous. The biggest one in Berkeley is showing HANGOVER II and BRIDESMAIDS.

The Roxie Cinema in San Francisco is the only place around here I really know of that is like the independent cinemas you describe working directly with foreign distributers for their own local unique releases. http://www.roxie.com/. Right now they are running the Frameline (gay) Festival. You can see these events coming at the Roxie:

THE BIG UNEASY
Starting July 10

Harry Shearer IN PERSON

and more importantly

ROAD TO NOWHERE / Monte Hellman in Person / Hellman Retrospective
Starting July 22

Monte Hellman IN PERSON after the 7pm & before the 9:30 shows, Friday, July 22In a career spanning over five decades, Monte Hellman’s relatively compact body of work has proven him to be one of the Great American Directors.

[oscar jubis]

The Roxie looks great. And I'm happy about the Hellman retrospective. Great opportunity if you haven't seen stuff like Cockfighter. It's Warren Oates in the lead. Enough said.

Without a doubt NYC is the best city for cinephilia. Can't beat that.

What seems unique about Miami is that, with one exception, our art cinemas are either run by academic institutions (Cosford, Tower) or by a non-profit board (both Gables and SoBeach cinematheques). This is significant because they don't have the pressure to turn a profit, so they don't have to condescend to what's popular. I was disappointed to find out that the excellent Cinema Studies department at San Francisco State U., better than my own program at UM, doesn't have a screening room or theater open to the public.

[Chris Knipp]

Definitely non-profit or academic sponsorship of art houses would be a strong feature. I didn't know the SF State Cinema Studies Dept. was better than yours in Miami, or that it has no showings for the public. I'll try to get to some of the Roxie showings for Hellman. It is near a BART station. NYC is very lively, but you do know that people miss the many big old art and rep houses of the past that have shut down over the past three decades. Film Forum often lists some of them when they ask for contributions or subscriptions. Another site I forgot to mention is the Museum of the Moving Image, which is great, though in Astoria, Queens. I've only been there once, should go more often.

I watched Barbara Loden's WANDA, which you recommended. Strange little piece of Americana. Some of the sequences could be motion picture outgrowths of Robert Frank's seminal photography treatise, The Americans. A film that feels authentic and haunting, and at yet at the same time is in some ways ludicrous and amateurish. It also seems an outgrowth of Loden's own life. I didn't know she was a protege of Elia Kazan and his wife, and died "still angry" at the age of 48.

[Chris Knipp]

Have you seen Hellman's BACK DOOR TO HELL? That is not in the Roxie series but is one of only two, with TWO LANE BLACKTOP, available on DVD from Netflix. COCKFIGHTER and ROAD TO NOWHERE they list as coming eventually, maybe.

[oscar jubis]

No, I haven't seen Back Door to Hell and I want to. I've seen: Ride in the Whirlwind, The Shooting, Two-lane Blacktop, Cockfighter and Iguana. Cockfighter has been released on DVD in the US by 3 different companies. The one with the best picture quality and Hellman commentary was released by Anchor Bay in 2001. It is now a collector's item. I have the inferior but acceptable Catcom release.
Good point about Wanda and Robert Frank's photography.

[Chris Knipp]

Good to know.

I forgot the Film Society of Lincoln Center had a Monte Hellman event (http://www.filmlinc.com/blog/entry/images-from-the-walter-reade-monte-hellman-and-the-open-roads-film-festival) in connection with the Open Roads festival a couple weeks ago.

http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/8938/logorpb.png

TO HELLMAN AND BACK: AN EVENING WITH MONTE HELLMAN - June 8

The Film Society of Lincoln Center presented an evening of cinema, literature and music celebrating the return of iconoclastic director Monte Hellman and the release of a new edition of Charles Willeford's long out-of-print novel Cockfighter. FSLC, Picture Box Books and Monterey Media presented a movie double bill of Hellman's new film ROAD TO NOWHERE and his 70s cult-favorite COCKFIGHTER followed by a book party in the Furman Gallery fueled by a live musical performance by Matt Sweeney.

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/7505/fslchellman.jpg
You shouldn't be intimidated in the least to ask this guy a question. (Photo by Justina Walford)

[Chris Knipp]

Graham Leggat has announced (http://www.indiewire.com/article/graham_leggat_steps_down_san_francisco_film_societ y/) that he is leaving his job as director of the San Francisco Film Society (and the SFIFF) after six years, for health reasons.


Graham Leggat has stepped down as executive director of the San Francisco Film Society, effectively immediately.

In a letter circled to colleagues Monday, Leggat cited health issues for his departure, saying, “As you know, I have relished my leadership role in this dynamic, beloved organization. Unfortunately, health issues make it impossible for me to continue to serve effectively.”

Leggat said that leadership will transfer to the SFFS staff lead by Deputy Director Steven Jenkins and the organization’s Board of Directors.

Graham Leggat was appointed executive director of the organization, which hosts year-round programming including the annual San Francisco International Film Festival, the oldest in North America [IN 2005]. Prior to his appointment, he served as director of communications at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

While serving as the venerable institution’s executive director., he has spearheaded a number of new initiatives, including the most recent announcement that it would operate a theater in San Francisco’s Japantown neighborhood, giving the 54-year-old organization a beachhead in which it could offer its exhibition, education and filmmaker services programs year-round.

Leggat was Director of Communications at the FSLC the first year I covered the NYFF in Filmleaf. He was a dynamic and powerful press and industry liaison and far more than that, not surprising that he would go on to become a film society and film festival director. The Scottish-born Leggett had spent time in Northern California before and liked it. He has been a magnanimous,outgoing and tireless leader and revitalized the SFFS, always championing great films and great directors bringing the Society to new heights as an organization. It will be hard to find a true replacement. To give a sense of what a difference Leggat has made suffice it to say that his predecessor's regime was described (http://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2007/04/2007-sfiff50opening-night-introductory.html) by a blogger as "inept tyranny." Leggat has been an enormous asset to San Francisco and one can only keep one's fingers crossed that someone of similar merit can be found. As that blog points out, Leggat defended his predecessor on the basis of the SFIFF's fine festival programs. But Leggat greatly expanded the SF Film Society's other functions, its funding, and its physical capability, notably in the recent announcement of a new state-of-the-art venue for film presentations near the Sundance Kabuki, headquarters of the festival.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/8589/grahamcannes.jpg
GRAHAM LEGGAT AT CANNES 2005

[Chris Knipp]

A San Francisco Chronicle article (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/04/MNEQ1K5F20.DTL) about Graham Leggat's resignation reveals that he has cancer and his prospects are, alas, not good for survival. He is 51.


"I was diagnosed last March with cancer and have had various treatments," he said in a telephone interview on Friday. "And it looked like it was going away. But that's always a dodgy proposition, and it returned with kind of a vengeance in March of this year." His cancer has metastasized to several organs and is now classified Stage 4. "It is largely deemed incurable," he said. . .

"I could not be more excited about what the future holds for the society," Leggat said on Friday. "I'm a little less excited about what the future holds for me, which seems to be not much. . . .

Leggat, born in Scotland, came to the United States in 1979, worked in New York at such nonprofits as the American Museum of the Moving Image, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and at one time was a New York Daily News columnist and publisher of Film Comment magazine; his novel, "Song of a Dangerous Paradise," came out in 2007.

He plans to remain in the Bay Area, where "I could not be better supported," and will travel with his girlfriend to New York this week "to say hello and goodbye to family and friends." He's looking forward to his son visiting for four weeks this summer. "It's just a question of making yourself comfortable and divesting yourself of small and large things. I have the extraordinary fortune of being able to do that."

[Chris Knipp]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

GRAHAM LEGGAT (1960 - 2011)

San Francisco, CA -- Graham Leggat (b. March 12, 1960), executive director of the San Francisco Film Society, a national leader in exhibition, education and filmmaker services and presenter of the San Francisco International Film Festival, died at his San Francisco home on August 25, 2011, after an 18-month battle with cancer. He was 51.

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/4687/18352130.jpg
Graham Leggat - Photo by
Pamela Gentile

"For nearly six exciting and transformative years, Graham Leggat led the San Francisco Film Society with irrepressible determination, dash and design," said Pat McBaine, president of the Film Society's board of directors. "His vision, leadership, passion, work ethic, tenacity, imagination and daring along with his colorful language and wicked Scottish sense of humor have indelibly marked our organization with a valuable legacy and left it in the best shape -- artistically, organizationally and financially -- in its 54-year history. Graham was fiercely proud and appreciative of his years at the Film Society and frequently referred to them as the best years of his life. It's no accident or coincidence that those years have also been the best years in the life of the Film Society. Our board and staff are deeply saddened by the loss of our leader, colleague and friend but inspired by his example and memory to carry on his work and build on his accomplishments and vision."

"Graham's boundless energy and intellect made him just the person to inspire and excite the staff and board to reach new heights and develop our assets," said Melanie Blum, former president of the Film Society board of directors, who organized the executive director search that led to Leggat's appointment in 2005. She remembers writing to Graham that the Film Society was about to celebrate its 50th anniversary and was at a critical juncture in its history. It needed an enlightened leader who could grow the organization into a new and powerful year-round cultural institution. She found that leader in Leggat. "He was a true visionary and a wonderful friend."

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/6531/tn1o.jpg
Graham Leggat - Photo by Drew Altizer

Leggat was appointed executive director of the Film Society October 15, 2005. He immediately architected a strategic plan that enhanced the Film Society's reputation with both filmmakers and audiences, and produced remarkable results. In the five years that he was executive director the staff grew from 11 to 35. The board of directors nearly doubled, from 12 to 22. The operating budget expanded from $2 million to $6 million and was balanced each year. Contributed income increased from $1 million to $3 million. Membership rose 98 percent, ticket sales rose 62 percent and receipts for Film Society Awards Night, the organization's largest annual fundraising event, rose 42 percent. The San Francisco Film Society was transformed from a two-week-a-year film festival producer into a year-round cultural institution with an increasingly national impact, providing programs and services in three areas of activity: exhibition, education and filmmaker services. An article in the San Francisco Examiner in October 2010 noted that the Film Society "has made a transformation worthy of an adventure movie."

In exhibition, the International is the crown jewel and the longest-running festival in the Americas. In the past five years SFIFF has honored a plethora of illustrious guests including Kevin Brownlow, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Duvall, Roger Ebert, Ed Harris, Werner Herzog, Spike Lee, Mike Leigh, Peter Morgan, Errol Morris, Walter Murch, Robert Redford, Walter Salles, James Schamus, Terence Stamp, Oliver Stone, Tilda Swinton, Christine Vachon, Elijah Wood, Evan Rachel Wood and Robin Williams.

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/9937/tn2bd.jpg
Rod Armstrong, Rachel Rosen, Graham Leggat,
Audrey Chang and Sean Uyehara - Photo by Tommy Lau

Under Leggat's leadership, the Film Society expanded year-round programming and now presents a robust Fall Season of seven focused festivals including Hong Kong Cinema, Taiwan Film Days, the NY/SF International Children's Film Festival, French Cinema Now, Cinema by the Bay, the San Francisco International Animation Festival and New Italian Cinema.

Earlier this year, Leggat finalized a long-sought goal when the Film Society announced a historic lease-signing that will enable the organization to offer its acclaimed exhibition, education and filmmaker services programs and events on a daily year-round basis for the first time in the organization's storied 54-year history. On September 1, San Francisco Film Society | New People Cinema will open its doors in the supremely stylish state-of-the art 143-seat theater located in the ultra-contemporary New People building at 1746 Post Street (Webster/Buchanan) in Japantown.

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/1852/tn3w.jpg
Paul Sturtz, Graham Leggat, Rachel Rosen
and Eugene Hernandez - Photo by Pamela Gentile

The Film Society now has a year-round education department that offers media literacy programs to over 10,000 K-12 students, college and university programs to help students transition into the professional filmmaking arena and more than 120 classes and workshops per year in film craft and film studies for filmmakers, filmgoers and cinephiles of all ages and skill levels.

Leggat spearheaded the signing of an agreement with Film Arts Foundation in 2008 that led to the creation of the Film Society's Filmmaker Services, which offers a full suite of programs and activities designed to foster creativity and further the careers of independent filmmakers. Filmmaker Services oversees one of the largest film grant programs in the country and through 2013 will have dispersed more than $3.5 million to narrative and documentary filmmakers. In addition, through a partnership with the San Francisco Film Commission, production office space has been provided for dozens of local filmmakers, while several hundred more have benefited from a vibrant fiscal sponsorship program, which provides production and development assistance.

Leggat's vision also encompassed publishing the nation's only regional online daily film magazine, SF360.org, founded in 2006 in partnership with indieWIRE. The publication now features more than 1,000 pieces of original arts journalism and serves a broad audience of filmmakers, industry professionals and aficionados from around the world who visit the site, subscribe to the weekly newsletters and participate in the growing SF360 community. A variety of stories on Leggat will be appearing on the site in the coming days; reader thoughts and tributes can be posted in comments at SF360.org.

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/3629/tn4d.jpg
Graham Leggat - Photo by Tommy Lau

Graham Charles Alexander Leggat was born March 12, 1960 in Epsom, Surrey. Born of Scottish parents, he grew up in England and Scotland. His father Graham was a renowned international soccer player and later TV commentator for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. His mother Marilyn was a teacher and later a human resources executive at a financial company. Following the end of his father's playing career in the mid-'70s, the family immigrated to Toronto, Canada, where Leggat attended high school, excelled at athletics and captained four high school teams (soccer, football, basketball and rugby).

Having discovered the Beat writers, and through them Zen Buddhism, Leggat decided to trek to Northern California for college. After a Beat-like cross-country bus ride, he started at Stanford University in 1979, "looking," he said, "for enlightenment, but instead found preprofessional determination and high school-like anxiety, so dropped out, not once but twice." The first time, after his sophomore year, he backpacked across Europe and picked oranges on Crete. A year later he dropped out again, moved to Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and studied for three years to become a Buddhist priest before returning to Stanford where he edited the campus literary magazine, played varsity soccer, won the outstanding undergraduate in the creative arts award and graduated in 1987 with a BA in modern English, American literature and American studies. That fall Leggat enrolled in the master's program at Syracuse University to study fiction writing with Tobias Wolff. He graduated in 1989 with an MA in English and creative writing.

After graduate school Leggat worked as a freelance journalist then landed his first film job working with Richard Herskowitz and Mary Fessenden at Cornell Cinema, one of the country's best college film exhibition programs. The day that he walked into their office he knew, "that (he) had found (his) career, vocation and joy." As coordinator for the Central New York Programmers Group he organized screenings and conferences, curated film packages and arranged for filmmakers to tour exhibition venues throughout upstate New York.

A temporary job at the New York Film Festival in 1994 drew him to New York City and led to executive positions at the American Museum of the Moving Image (director of public relations), the Museum of Modern Art (assistant director, department of communications) and the Film Society of Lincoln Center (director of communications). Leggat served on the boards of Media Alliance and the Association of Independent Film and Videomakers, was a programmer at the New York Video Festival and the Shorts International Film Festival, and helped found the Gen Art Film Festival. He was the associate publisher of Film Comment magazine, contributing editor for Filmmaker magazine and columnist for the New York Daily News. His first novel, Song of a Dangerous Paradise, was published in January 2007; rare copies of this sci-fi adventure sell for nearly $200.

At the 2009 International Film Festival Summit, Leggat received the Director Excellence Award, presented to the film festival director who has made considerable contributions and a lasting impact on his/her film festival and independent film, with an emphasis on festival growth, new programs, organizational structure and overall vision.

In early 2011 the French consul general in San Francisco, Romain Serman, made Leggat a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an honor awarded by the French Minister of Culture, in recognition of his significant support of cinema.

Leggat is survived by his parents Graham and Marilyn of Niagara Falls, Canada, son William and daughters Vhary and Isabelle, sister Alexandra Leggat of Toronto, devoted partner Diana Chiawen Lee, former wife Ellen Hughes, mother of his daughters and former wife Lillian Heard, mother of his son.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Leggat's memory may be made to the San Francisco Film Society. Condolences should be sent to inmemoryofgraham@sffs.org or c/o Jessica Anthony, SFFS, 39 Mesa Street, Suite 110, The Presidio, San Francisco, CA 94129.

A memorial service, open to the public, is planned for late September.

For hi-res photos of Graham Leggat visit sffs.org/pressdownloads (http://sffs.org/pressdownloads/display.aspx?catid=131,137)

Graham Leggat Favorites
Films: The Leopard, Blade Runner, Miller's Crossing, The Tin Drum, The 400 Blows, Alien, Cold Water, Talk to Her, The Royal Tenenbaums, In the Mood for Love, 2046 and hundreds more.

Writer: Tobias Wolff

Musician: Tom Waits

Songs: "Singin' in the Rain," "Get Me Away from Here I'm Dying," "My Dad, I Fucking Love My Dad"

Karaoke songs to perform: Radiohead's "Creep," Sid Vicious's "My Way" and the Clash's "Guns of Brixton"

[Chris Knipp]

Bingham Ray (1954 - 2012)

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/7297/nm0712759.jpg
BINGHAM RAY

Sad story. Three months after the death of Graham Leggett of cancer at 51, on November 7, 2011, the 57-year-old "colorful indie film executive" Bingham Ray was appointed executive director of the San Francisco Film Society to replace him. Now, before I'd even gotten around to reporting on Bingham Ray, he has died as a result of a stroke suffered at the Sundance Film Festival, after serving little longer than two months as new SFFS director. The cause was a series of strokes.

From Scarsdale, NY, Ray worked as a projectionist in a Grenwich Village movie house, then worked in the NYC office of MGM in the Eighties. He worked at five other distribution companies, including New Yorker Films and Avenue Pictures, where he oversaw the release of Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy in 1989. In 1991 with Jeff Lipsky in LA Ray co-founded October Films, which after several mergers in 2002 became the immportant art house distributer Focus Features. Ray was an indie mover and shaker who was active during the glory days of Sundance. He was partly responsible for the release of such films as The War Room, Secrets and Lies, Breaking the Waves, High Art and Lost Highway and an early Iranian export success, Panahi's The White Balloon. He went on to run United Artists, during which time he was involved in the release of Bowling for Columbine and Hotel Rwanda. Ray was also a programming consultant to the Film Society of Lincoln Center, IFC Films and Snag Films, which focuses on documentaries, and an adjunct professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He had described the SFFS directorshop as a job "too good to be true," and citing Graham Leggat's great success had said that

[Chris Knipp]

Bingham Ray (1954 - 2012)
SFFS New Director Suddenly Dies

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/7297/nm0712759.jpg
BINGHAM RAY [from IMDb]

Sad story. Three months after the death of Graham Leggett of cancer at 51, on November 7, 2011, the 57-year-old "colorful indie film executive" Bingham Ray was appointed executive director of the San Francisco Film Society to replace him. Now, before I'd even gotten around to reporting on Bingham Ray, he has died while attending the Sundance Film Festival. He had served little longer than two months as new SFFS director. The cause was a series of strokes.

He had described the SFFS directorshop as a job "too good to be true," and citing Graham Leggat's great success during his six-year leadership in revitalizing the San Francisco Film Society, Ray had said that you don't fix something that is not broken, and he would seek to follow the good path Leggat had set.

As a New York Times obit by Brooks Barnes (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/movies/bingham-ray-executive-who-championed-independent-films-dies-at-57.html) describes him, Ray was "volatile and blunt" and "championed stylized, intellectually challenging films, buying distribution rights to movies that few believed had a box-office prayer." Barnes quotes Eamonn Bowles, president of Magnolia Pictures: "The words 'fearless' and 'brave' are tossed around a lot in our world, but that’s the only way to describe Bingham."

Ray spent his life dedicated to film. After growing up in Scarsdale, New York, Ray worked in his younger days as a projectionist at the now defunct Bleeker Street Theater in Grenwich Village, then gained regular employment at the NYC office of MGM in the Eighties. He subsequently worked at five other distribution companies, including New Yorker Films and Avenue Pictures, where he oversaw the release of Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy in 1989. In 1991 with Jeff Lipsky in LA Ray co-founded October Films, which after several mergers in 2002 became the immportant art house distributer Focus Features. Ray was an indie mover and shaker who was active during the glory days of Sundance, so that his being stricken there has a certain special tragic significance, and has caused widespread shock at the festival.

Ty Burr of the Boston Globe in a Sundance blog (http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/blog/2012/01/bingham_ray_195.html) wrote of Ray, "I imagine there will be many, many glasses raised on Park City's Main Street tonight. He'll be missed, and I don't say that sentimentally. Ray was attending the Art House Convergence Conference when he was stricken, advising theater owners on how to bring the movies he loved to the audiences who might best appreciate them. In other words, he was in his prime and still making a difference. He will be missed."

Through October and Focus Films Ray was partly responsible for the release of such films as The War Room, Secrets and Lies, Breaking the Waves, High Art, The Apostle, Cookie's Fortune, The Celebration, and Lost Highway and an early Iranian export success, Panahi's The White Balloon. He went on to run United Artists, during which time he was involved in the release of Bowling for Columbine and Hotel Rwanda.

Recently Ray had been a programming consultant to the Film Society of Lincoln Center, IFC Films and Snag Films, which focuses on documentaries, and an adjunct professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Further coverage on MUBI./ (http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/bingham-ray-1954-2012), my source as well as the Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/movies/bingham-ray-executive-who-championed-independent-films-dies-at-57.html) piece and one by Karina Longworth in the Village Voice. (http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/01/bingham_ray_ind_1.php)

[Chris Knipp]

THE GREEN WAVE.

The Iranian documentary has finally been released in New York, according to today's Times. Review by Rachel Saitz. (http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/08/17/movies/movie-review-the-green-wave-documents-irans-green-revolution.html)

My SFFF 2011 review. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26034#post26034)

[cinemabon]

Chris, who is the successor to the SFFS?

[Chris Knipp]

TED HOPE

CINEMABON,
That is here if you go to Forums and skip down ten or eleven titles, but it should go here; I couldn't remember where I'd put the other information about the two previous ill-fated directors (here, on this thread).

Since Bingham Ray died in January only a few months after succeeding the late Graham Leggett as director of the San Francisco Film Society, a successor has officially been named, longtime American indie film producer Ted Hope. He like Bingham Ray comes from NYC.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/3324/tedhope.jpg
TED HOPE





"The film world - be it in content, creation, business or audience - has changed significantly over the last twenty years and we all must change with it...It's time that the film industry looked not just to Hollywood but instead to the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, and San Francisco Film Society is a major artistic voice positioned right in the heart of this vibrant cultural location." -Ted Hope

The San Francisco Film Society is elated to announce that Ted Hope, one of the film industry's most respected and prolific figures, has been named executive director, effective September 1, 2012. He joins us at an exciting moment in our 55-year history, during a period in which we have recently experienced our greatest successes to date across each of our main program areas: exhibition, education and filmmaker services.

Ted Hope has been recognized personally with numerous awards and accolades, and his films have received some of the industry's most prestigious honors including two Academy Award nominations for The Savages(2007), two Academy Award nominations and five BAFTA nominations for 21 Grams(2003) and five Academy Award nominations for In the Bedroom(2001). He also holds a record at the Sundance Film Festival: three of his 23 Sundance entries (American Splendor[2003], The Brothers McMullen[1995] and What Happened Was...[1994]) have won the Grand Jury Prize; no producer has won more.

As generative as he is with movies, Hope is no less so in business; in 1990 he cofounded with James Schamus the production and sales powerhouse Good Machine, which was sold to Universal in 2002. Known within the industry for having an extraordinary ability to recognize emerging talent, Hope has more than 20 first features to his credit, including those of Alan Ball, Todd Field, Michel Gondry, Hal Hartley, Nicole Holofcener and Ang Lee, among others.

In addition to his efforts in independent film production, Hope is one of the most influential and followed voices in independent film on social media, with multiple blogs and more than 20,000 Twitter followers. He has curated an indie film screening series for the last three years, most recently at The Film Society Of Lincoln Center. A prolific writer on issues facing the film industry and film culture, Hope's work has appeared in numerous media outlets.

I wrote detailed recollections and gave biographical information about Graham Leggett, but I can't find where it is on Filmleaf now. For my information on my website, go here.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1865



This is reprinted from a separate thread just begun: SFFS names new director Ted Hope (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3324-SFFS-names-new-director-Ted-Hope&p=28289#post28289)

[oscar jubis]

I've been able to watch some of the films you liked from this festival that did not receive theatrical distribution in the US. These include the Catalan-language film Black Bread, and the magnificent documentary about a remote village in El Salvador titled The Tiniest Place. Sad that only festival goers got to see these wonderful movies. I am also sad that so many great Latino films only play in festivals. I have a copy of the excellent adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's OF LOVE AND OTHER DEMONS (Colombia/Costa Rica) but the damn thing does not have English subtitles. The Nobel-prize winner reportedly loved it.

[Chris Knipp]

I especially remember THE TINIEST PLACE, definitely beautifully done. Not everything gets widely seen, and some that does isn't much worth seeing. This is why we go to festivals.