SFIFF 2014 - links and comments thread

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/sfiff57logo.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

San Francisco International Film Festival 2014 April 24-May 8

Filmleaf Festival Coverage thread for SFIFF 57, 2014 begins here. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32055#post32055)


Links to the reviews:

20,000 Days on Earth (Ian Forsyth, Jane Pollard 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31935#post31935)
Abuse of Weakness (Catherine Breillat 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31004#post31004)
Amazing Catfish, The/Los insólitos pesces gato (Claudia Sainte-Luce 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32131#post32131)
Bad Hair/Pelo malo (Mariana Rondón 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32158#post32158)
Child of God (James Franco 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30940#post30940)
Club Sandwich (Fernando Eimbcke 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30990#post30990)
Dear White People (Justin Simien 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31876#post31876)
Double, The (Richard Ayoade 3014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31891#post31891)
Dune, The/La dune (Yossi Aviram 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32112#post32112)
Eastern Boys (Robin Campillo 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31853#post31853)
Freedom Summer (Stanley Nelson 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32296#post32296)
Happiness (Thomas Balmès 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32292#post32292)
Harmony Lessons (Emir Baigazin 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32272#post32272)
Heaven Adores You (Nikolas Dylan Rossi 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32288#post32288)
History of Fear (Benjamin Naishat 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31878#post31878)
If You Don't, I Will (Sophie Fillières 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31806#post31806)
Last Weekend (Tom Dolby, Tom Williams 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32191#post32191)
Manos Sucias (Josef Wladyka 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32278#post32278)
Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy (Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32266#post32266)
Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30966#post30966)
Obvious Child (Gillian Robbespiere 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014/page3)
Of Horses and Men (Benedict Erlingsson 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31873#post31873)
Our Sunhi (Hong Sang-soo 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31868#post31868)
Palo Alto (Gia Coppola 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32237#post32237)
Ping Pong Summer (Michael Tully 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32111#post32111)
Reconstruction, The/La reconstrucción (Juan Taratuto 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014#post32144)
Return to Homs (Talal Derki 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31894#post31894)
Salvation Army (Abdellah Taïa 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31916#post31916)
School of Babel (Julie Bertucelli 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31831#post31831)
South Is Nothing/Il Sud è niente (Fabio Mollo 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32125#post32125)
Stop the Pounding Heart (Robert Minervini 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31887#post31887)
Stray Dogs (Tsing Ming-liang 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30998&posted=1#post30998)
Tamako in Moratorium (Nobuhiro Yamashita 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32270#post32270)
Tangerines (Zaza Urshadze 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32283#post32283)
Tip Top (Serge Bozon 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31860#post31860)
Tonnerre (Guillaume Brac 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31854#post31854)
Trap Street (Vivian Qu 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31930#post31930)
We Are the Best! (Lucas Moodysson 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3758-WE-ARE-THE-BEST%21-%28Lucas-Moodysson-2013%29)
We Come As Friends (Hubert Sauper 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31872#post31872)
When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism (Corneliu Porumboiu 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30994#post30994)
White Shadow (Noaz Deshe 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32218#post32218)
Young and Beautiful (Francois Ozon 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31813#post31813)
The Dog (Allison Berg, Frank Keraudren) NYFF 2013 sidebar - saw but did not review

Click on the logo above for info on the full program, which was announced Tues., 1 April 2014 at a press conference at the Fairmont Hotel in SF. You can download a PDF file of the festival catalog HERE (http://old.sffs.org/downloadasset.ashx?assetid=6583).

David Thompson will be honored. Richard Linklater will receive the founder's directing award. Opening night film: Hossein Amini’s 'The Two Faces of January' , closing night film: Chris Messina’s Directorial Debut 'Alex of Venice' . Gia Coppola's "Palo Alto," which arrives in theaters May 9, is the fest's centerpiece gala.
3/26/2014

From the press release:


SFIFF 2014 by the Numbers:
168 Films
74 Narrative Features
29 Documentary Features
65 Shorts
56 Countries Represented
40 Languages
3 World Premieres
5 North American Premieres
5 U.S. Premieres
45 Women Directors
200 Filmmakers and Industry Guests Expected

"The SFIFF57 lineup features an unprecedented number of films supported by the San Francisco Film Society's Filmmaker360 program, including Kat Candler's Hellion (SFFS/KRF grant winner: $70,000 for postproduction), Sara Colangelo's Little Accidents (SFFS/KRF grant winner: $50,000 for postproduction), Josef Wladyka's Manos Sucias (two-time SFFS/KRF grant winner: $45,000 for production, $90,000 for postproduction), Gillian Robespierre's Obvious Child (Off the Page screenwriting workshop participant), Jesse Moss' The Overnighters (SFFS project development program) and Michael Tully's Ping Pong Summer (SFFS/KRF grant winner: $50,000 for postproduction)."

24 or 25 of the lineup are already reviewed here from NYFF 2013, ND/NF 2014, or Rendez-Vous 2014. Also saw The Dog (Allison Berg, Frank Keraudren) (NYFF 2013 sidebar) but did not review.

New ones I'd like to see:

Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
Chinese Puzzle (Cédric Klapisch)
We Are the Best! (Lucas Moodyson)

Other possibilities:

The Dune (Yossi Aviram) theme sounds iffy but looks like it has Nierls Arestrup in it and Jay Weissberg of VARIETY loved it
Hellion (Kat Candler), troubled teenager, breakout for young actor Josh Wiggins, Sundance hit
Intruders (Noh Young-seok) Korean, about a screenwriter (Hong Sang-soo-ish?)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt) has a Metacritic 82 though Mike D'Angelo at Toronto was disappointed
Ping Pong Summer (Michael Tully) because it's set in Ocean City, Maryland.
Queen Margot, The Director's Cut (1994, Patruce Chéreau) as a homage to the late director
The Reconstruction (Juan Taraturo) because I like anything set in Patagonia
The Sacrament (Ti West) about fanaticism, starring Joe Swanberg
The Skeleton Twins (Craig Johnson) this was praised at Sundance; with Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig
South Is Nothing (Fabio Mollo) Mafia girl, Italian debut
The Trip to Italy (Michael Winterbottom) not great reviews, but I like this format with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon
Yves Saint Laurent (Jalil Lespert) biopic, fallback item, but I like Pierre Niney, who plays Saint Laurent, the youngest actor in the Comédie Francaise, or was

Also: there are press screenings of Palo Alto (Gia Coppola) and of Last Weekend (Tom Dolby, Tom Williams) back-to-back, so hope to see these.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/sfiff57biglogo.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Back to back distrib rep screenings are offered in a week or so of

Last Weekend (Tom Dolby)
Palo Alto (Gib Coppola) (centerpiece film)

I have The Dune (Yossi Aviram) (actual DVD) and Ping Pong Summer (Vimeo). Were I in NYC I could watch a screening of Chinese Puzzle (Cédric Klapisch) in a couple days. Filmleafers are encouraged to look at the screener list and make recommendations. It is here. (http://old.sffs.org/pressdownloads/press.aspx?catid=131,1744,1745&pageid=3782) Note that I have already seen and reviewed 12 of these on Filmleaf already, narrowing the choice.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg

Michael Tully: Ping Pong Summer (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32111#post32111)

A sweet Ocean City, Maryland summer vacation coming-of-ager set in 1985 that doesn't try anything tricky but succeeds at what it so mildly does. If it has a unique feature it may be making a ping pong match climactic and exciting. Wow! The protag Rad Miracle (Marcello Conte) is certainly eye candy but Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe &Co. are unchallenged. This was a Sundance film that certainly would probably NOT be likely to have made the edgier roster of the FSLC's New Directors/New Films, and it didn't.

[Johann]

Cool that David Thompson and Richard Linklater are being honored. I dig them both.
It's good that you've seen a chunk of these movies already. That must help.

Ping Pong as exciting? As climactic? Without playing it yourself? That may be impressive.
Very cool about the grants and supports for post-production. Very nice! Congrats to those films and their makers!

[Chris Knipp]

This is the area by the way that SFIFF beats the NYFF. The NYFF is prestigious, elite, classy, great watching, but the Film Society of Lincoln Center attracts too many oldsters and not enough young people and does not have all these programs like the San Francisco Film Society and Sundance. Yes David Thompson and Linklater are good choices for people to honor I agree.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Yossi Aviram: The Dune/La dune (2013 (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2707)

Those Israelis continue to impress. Aviram, a former cinematographer, has produced a delicate, subtle, and exceptionally well acted directorial debut, set mostly in France and in French with an initial segment in Israel and Hebrew and an Israeli tie-in. A tale of paths that cross and connections long lost, this is a study of memory and mood and a bit of a mystery story about an officer of the French bureau of missing persons and a mysterious man found in the country, mute, unsought, with no identification. Distinguished performances by the always superb Niels Arestrup, as the police investigator, with Guy Marchand as his longtime lover, and a strong Lior Ashkenazi as the lost man; it's a pleasure just to see Arestrup and Matthieu Amalric, in a key cameo, in the same room, two of the best French film actors of recent times.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Fabio Mollo: South Is Nothing/Il Sud è niente (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32125#post32125)

A moody debut feature for Mollo set in the thirty-something Fabio Mollo's native Reggio Calabria, where the Mafia reigns. The story depicts its crushing effect on a small family, with focus on a misfit tomboy called Grazia (Miriam Karlkvist, who got a Euro shooting star award for her committed performance). Her brother has disappeared a few years earlier. Now a local mob boss tells her father he has to sell his fish shop and move north with Grazia. Much tight-lipped brooding follows. Director, cinemagrapher, and much of the crew and some cast members have links with the Centrol Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, and it shows in an air of youth and experimentalism.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg

Claudia Sainte-Luce: The Amazing Catfish/Los insólitos pesces gato (2013) (http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640x480q90/822/6u1k.jpg)

Mexican first film about a very lonely and isolated young woman who's adopted into the fatherless family of a dying woman with three daughters and a young son. It won the Youth Prize at Locarno and was included in the Discovery section at Toronto and the cinematography is by Agnès Godard.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg

Juan Taratuto: The Reconstruction/La reconstrucción (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014#post32144)

A craggy, tight-lipped oddball working as a no-nonsense oil field boss in Argentina is called to Ushuaia, the nethermost town in the south of Patagonia, to help a friend with a wife and two daughters, and events slowly take him out of his shell. From the films of Carlos Sorin we've come to know Patagonia as unlikely soil where cinema can bloom. This is also one of those Latin American outback movies where tough macho men come to take a deep look into themselves. Interestingly, Taratuto and his fellow Buenos Aires collaborator and terrific star here Diego Peretti have done a 180° turnaround for this movie, going from the bouncy, talky romantic comedies they formerly did together to serous drama that deals with tragedy and its aftermath, and they do a very fine job of it.

Another example of macho life and emotional trauma in Patagonia would be Pablo Trapero's BORN AND BRED (2006), (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?1999-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2007-%2850th-anniversary%29&p=17826#post17826) in the 2007 SFIFF.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg

Marina Mondon: Bad Hair/Pelo malo (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32158#post32158)

From Venezuela comes this complex and well-acted, if draggy, portrait of the fraught relationship between a nine-year-old boy with putative burgeoning homosexual tendencies and his tough young jobless mother in a working-class housing project. It's Caracas in the twilight of Hugo Chavez's presidency, and the teeming city and the bothersome relationships are depicted with documentary realism making use of improvisation rather than a learned script. PELO MALO/BAD HAIR, which debuted at Toronto and has shown at a dozen other festivals and had theatrical releases in France and the UK, doesn't quite work as a film, but it has a lot of good stuff in it, a vivid texture and good scenes. Suggesting it's gay self-discovery is misleading: it's more subtle than that and the sexuality and the hair issues are just several of the various threads.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Tom Dolby, Tom Williams: Last Weekend (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32191#post32191)

This is just a sketchy opening to my full review due to "hold review" restrictions for this movie about a rich family whose matriarch (played by Patricia Clarkson) has decided to sell their glamorous prewar Lake Tahoe resort house, though she's not saying so so the adult children assembled with her and her husband for Labor Day Weekend, with boyfriends and girlfriends, will have a "summer weekend like all the others." Tom Dolby, son of the late sound/noise reduction system inventor, may have grown up in wealthy circumstances like this. There's gayness -- the youngest son and his new boyfriend get the nicest cuddles, status anxiety -- the older son has just lost his job through a major stock trading fuckup, and there's a lot about real estate, money and status. It's all a little too bland and easily resolved (no Tracy Letts or Eugene O'Neill action here), but I give it credit for at least making one think of Virginia Woolf and Henry James.

The 2 May screening is the movie's world premiere.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Noaz Deshe: White Shadow (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32218#post32218)

The overlong yet remarkable saga of an endangered albino boy in Tanzania, one of three countries in Africa where "muti" parts are delivered to witch doctors who sell them for a lot of money for their supposed energizing properties. The film wildly swerves between intense documentary realism and swoony surreal sequences and features several young albino newcomers to the screen who are amazing. A harrowing watch that the Variety critic Guy Lodge writing from Venice, where Berlin- and L.A.-based Israeli first-time director Deshe won the most promising award called this a "staggering debut." Deshe co-scripted, co-lensed, co-composed the score, co-produced and directed. Ryan Gosling was a producer. Also at Sundance.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Gia Coppola: Palo Alto (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32237#post32237)

This is just a preview for now pending theatrical release around three weeks from now. I like this new youth film by the third generation Coppola. Gia is the granddaughter of Francis and niece of Sofia. It's adapted from James Franco's book of short stories about confused partying teenagers and messed up adults in his home town in the Peninsula south of San Francisco. A good cast features the sensitive Emma Roberts, the fiery Nat Wolff, subtle laid-back newcomer Jack Kilmer, plus his father Val, James Franco as a predatory girl's soccer coach and Chris Messina as a gay dad who tries to seduce one of the boys. Episodic, but vivid and contemporary, a promising debut by Gia. Franco's production company produced. First shown last August at Telluride, preceding 24 April 2014 at Tribeca, 3 May at the SFIFF, where it is the Centerpiece film. Well reviewed by Variety and Hollywood Reporter. "The best feature film directed by someone named Coppola in a number of years," wrote Todd McCarthy in Hollywood Reporter. Metacritic 74.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg

Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit: Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy ( 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32266#post32266)

A Thai film about two teenage girls in their last year at school, the scenario all built around an actual 400+-tweet Twitter feed by a teenage girl. Overt references to Wong Kar-wai, Godard, and the Nouvelle Vague and a somewhat Brechtian, surreal treatment of action and setting. It all sound a bit better on paper than it plays out on screen, but this director has a future in festivals, and there is amusement and charm here. I'd say, Who will ever learn to say his name? But that didn't stop Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

[Chris Knipp]

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Nobuhiro Yahashita: Tamako in Moratorium (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32270#post32270)

Japan has slackers too. This little film has been compared to Ozu. It doesn't pack that kind of quiet emotional punch or carry that weight of art, but it is a knowing and kind comment on divided modern Japanese families and the younger generation's difficulty finding a place for itself.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg

Emir Baigazin: Harmony Lessons (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32272#post32272)

Extortion and retribution in a rural school in Kazakhstan. This first film was presented in competition at Berlin, and they didn't make a mistake. Watch for it.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Josef Wladyka: Manos Sucias (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32278#post32278)

Shooting an action film about cocaine smuggling in a "narco-torpedo" dragged by a fishing boat in the heavily narco-trafficked Pacific coastal region of Buenaventura, Colombia with actors recruited locally, Wladyka and his small team of collaborators used indigenous material with some of the passion and verve of young Israeli-born filmmaker Noaz Deshe in his Tanzanian-shot film about African albinos, WHITE SHADOW (also SFIFF 2014). MANOS SUCIAS, co-produced and supported by Wladyka's NYU Film School mentor Spike Lee, has just been well received at Tribeca, and shows at the end of the SFIFF on 8 May 2014.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Zaza Urshadze: Tangerines (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32283#post32283)

A couple of older Estonian men are caught in the crossfire in 1992 fighting between Georgians and Chechens in this little antiwar film that won the directing prize and audience award at Warsaw last year.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Nikolas Dylan Rossi: Heaven Adores You (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32288#post32288)

A documentary about the music and life of Portland singer songwriter Eliott Smith, whose song "Miss Misery" used in GOOD WILL HUNTING was nominated for an Oscar in 1998, but who died a possible suicide at the age of 34, in 2003. This is just a PREVIEW for now because the film is pending US theatrical release. SFIFF 5 May 2014 is its premiere.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Thomas Balmès: Happiness (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32292#post32292)

Richly exotic footage of rural life and Himalayan landscapes in mountainous Bhutan and the fresh-faced awe of a boy, sometimes a monk, who's never seen TV, store mannequins, or fish tanks (which won a world doc cinematography award at Sundance) makes up for gaps, unexplained details, and scenes and conversations that seem re-staged. The French filmmaker also did the film BABIES. This is in part a film about the encroachment of technology and media in unspoiled regions.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Best of the fest. Reviewing SFIFF 2014 titles.

It's not all over yet, but there were clearly some standouts that were new to me, three fiction first features that entered an exotic, in two cases dangerous locale and brilliantly used local actors and locations, all three are bold, risk-taking films that are exciting and challenging to watch and take you somewhere new.


Noaz Deshe: White Shadow (2013).
Depicting the dangerous situation of albinos in Tanzania and several other African countries, Deshe makes dazzling, bold use of local people and settings. VARIETY called this a "staggering debut."
Emir Baigazin: Harmony Lessons (2013) Using a school in Kazakhstan, the young fimmaker creates a surreal world of physical and psychological danger. A disturbing and brilliant film.
Josef Wladyka: Manos Sucias (2014) Polish-American Wladyka went to a heavily narco-trafficked coastal region of Colombia and recruited his actors locally to tell a tale of desperate, almost doomed cocaine-running by two fishermen.

I also liked:

Yossi Aviram: The Dune (2013), a film mostly in French by an Israeli director that makes sensitive use of the immense talents of Niels Arestrup.
Gia Coppola: Palo Alto. American teenagers again, but this third generation Coppola casts well and directs well and these youngsters are good to watch.
The Latin American films Amazing Catfish, Bad Hair, and The Reconstruction were worth watching in a low-keyed sort of way.

Of the 25 SFIFF 2014 selections already reviewed on this site, these I would particularly look for if you have not seen them:

Abuse of Weakness (Catherine Breillat) NYFF 2013*
Club Sandwich (Fernando Eimbcke) NYFF 2013
Eastern Boys (Robin Campillo) R-V 2014*
Return to Homs (Talal Derki) ND/NF 2014*
Salvation Army (Abdellah Taïa) ND/NF 2014 *
School of Babel (Julie Bertucelli) R-V 2014*
Trap Street (Vivian Qu) ND/NF*
We Come As Friends (Hubert Sauper) ND/NF 2014*
Young and Beautiful (Francois Ozon) R-V 2014*

Others, you can probably live without, unless they have some special appeal for you, and this can always mean docs on topics you're into.

There are also SFIFF 2014 films I'd like to see that I'm not expecting to see during the fest. Some of them will be coming shortly though.

Alex of Venice, Chris Messina, USA
Boyhood, Richard Linklater, USA
Chinese Puzzle, Cédric Klapisch, France
The Skeleton Twins, Craig Johnson, USA
The Two Faces of January, Hossein Amini, England
We Are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, Sweden

I'm just curious about some of these. I'm still trying to see Moodysson's WE ARE THE BEST!

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Stanley Nelson: Freedom Summer (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32296#post32296)

A key moment of American history, touchingly delineated. a PBS presentation, which will be used in schools and libraries. There are some eyeopeners. And tears.

It airs on the PBS American Experience series June 24, 2014. It's the 50th anniversary of these events.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320x240q90/20/ve5n.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)


Prizes.

Well, I'm a bit disappointed HISTORY OF FEAR won over WHITE SHADOW, but at least WHITE SHADOW got a special prize. THE AMAZING CATFISH is getting a theatrical release. Why didn't HARMONY LESSONS win something? It wasn't nominnated. I really like TRAP STREET, which was nominated. No doubt HISTORY OF FEAR was deemed more stylistically adventurous. RETURN TO HOMS is a fabulous documentary. People should see that along with THE SQUARE. I'm very happy RETURN TO HOMS won a prize here. I heard about THE OVERNIGHTERS but have not seen that or THE LAST SEASON. Oh yes and MANOS SUCIAS was a nominee too, and I'd certainly have given that the prize over HISTORY OF FEAR; but for me between WHITE SHADOW, HARMONY LESSONS, and MANOS SUCIAS for me it's a tie; they should get a joint prize.
Press release from SFFS:

History of Fear, The Overnighters and The Last Season Take Top Feature Prizes

San Francisco, CA -- This evening the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival, presented by the San Francisco Film Society, announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Award and New Directors Prize competitions at an event held at Rouge | Nick's Crispy Tacos. This year the Festival awarded nearly $40,000 in prizes to emerging and established filmmakers from 13 countries around the globe. For more than 50 years, SFIFF's Golden Gate Awards have honored deserving films independent of commercial concerns, heralding unsung excellence and exposing local and international audiences to unique and innovative works. For more information about competition categories and juries, visit sffs.org.

The New Directors jury was composed of Filmmaker Magazine Editor-in-Chief Scott Macaulay, Fandor cofounder Jonathan Marlow and writer Ella Taylor.

New Directors Prize: History of Fear, Benjamín Naishtat (Argentina/France/Germany/Qatar/Uruguay)
-- Winner receives $10,000 cash prize

In a statement, the jury noted: "From an unusually strong slate of first films, the jury chose History of Fear, a slyly assured reflection on suburban paranoia from Argentine director Benjamín Naishtat. There may or may not be a predatory invasion (or two, or three) of a wealthy Buenos Aires enclave. But the movie's subject, rendered with one eyebrow subtly cocked, is the rising panic of its residents, an indiscreetly charmless bourgeoisie crippled by nameless terrors. Goosing both his characters and his audience with intimations of horror, Naishtat makes expert use of the implicit with a wit and visual flair unusual in a novice filmmaker."

Special Jury Recognition: White Shadow, Noaz Deshe (Italy/Germany/Tanzania), The Amazing Catfish, Claudia Sainte-Luce (Mexico)

"Special mention also goes to Israeli director Noaz Deshe's White Shadow, a viscerally stylish neo-noir about the victimization of albinos in an African country ruled by superstition; and to The Amazing Catfish, a warm and exhilaratingly unpredictable dramedy from Mexican filmmaker Claudia Sainte-Luce about the impact of a mysterious stranger on a family struggling with imminent tragedy."

The Golden Gate Award Documentary feature competition jury was comprised of filmmaker Rob Epstein, journalist Nathan Heller, and Film Society of Lincoln Center Co-Executive Director Lesli Klainberg.

Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature Winners

Documentary Feature: The Overnighters, Jesse Moss (USA)
-- Winner receives $10,000 cash prize

The jury noted in a statement: "Jesse Moss' The Overnighters, which follows a pastor's efforts to house job-seekers in an insular North Dakota town, is exceptional as an exercise of narrative craft, as a feat of immersion journalism, and as an intimate portrait of one man's struggles. In driving to the heart of local discontent, the documentary is admirably fair-minded, yet it is Moss' alertness as a filmmaker that lets him stay close to the story as its subjects take unexpected, sometimes shocking, turns. The result illuminates a messy confluence of American interests: faith, altruism, family, opportunity, and the search for honest self-expression."

Bay Area Documentary Feature: The Last Season, Sara Dosa (USA)
-- Winner receives $5,000 cash prize

The jury noted: "The Last Season, a remarkable documentary about rare-mushroom hunting in the Oregon woods, sweeps away the topsoil of the Pacific landscape to reveal the multilayered social legacy of distant wars. Along the way, it unearths affinities and affections that challenge common ideas about family. With integrity of craft, first-time director Sara Dosa here claims the high standard of Bay Area documentary filmmaking for a new generation."

Special jury recognition: Return to Homs, Talal Derki (Syria/Germany)

The jury noted: "Turning the stuff of headlines into intimate personal history, Talal Derki's Return to Homs uses extraordinary access -- footage from young rebels' private meetings and urban battles -- as a window onto the Syrian conflict. The film's light-footed coverage captures the spirit of an uprising driven by mobile technology, while its emotional immediacy brings to life one rebel's slow progression from peaceful protester to violent revolutionary. This is the rare film valuable both as a revelatory news document and as a moving story out of time: a private narrative that maps the broader course of conflict and idealism in the region."

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

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Current SF Film Socity director Noah Cowan on SFIFF 2014 closing night,
Castro Theater

Numbers.

Four days after festival's end, with a weekend to take stock, the SFIFF publicity office sends some statistics. (I already listed the main prize winners above.)

This was the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 24-May 8) with 263 screenings of 168 films from 56 countries, which were attended by over 300 filmmakers and industry guests from over 20 countries. Over 15 days, SFIFF57 showed 74 narrative features, 29 documentary features and a total of 65 short films. The SFIFF lays claim to being the "longest-running film festival in the Americas."

There are a lot of prizes, $40,00 worth, and the SFFS gives through the year in its various development programs, rivaling Sundance's. They mention that during the festival this year, the school program brought 4,700 students ages six to eighteen to a series of chosen screenings. Film people in turn went out to give talks and workshops in local classrooms too during the excitement of the festival. .

The festival sold out 113 screenings this year. Aside from the programming in itself and local enthusiasm for the festival (I have always run into hard core old-timers who come every year for decades and go to as many films as they can cram in) a particular draw, of course, is screenings and events featuring filmmakers in person and this year the SFFS reports a "record number of out-of-town guests" who came to participate in post-screening Q&As for their films. Main special honorees were Richard Linklater, Jeremy Irons, Stehen Gaghan, and Disney and Pixar honcho John Lasseter. Others: Isaac Julien and David Thomson. It was mentioned that in addition to people on hand for Q&As on their own work other film celebs on hand and "spotted frequently attending" included Tracy Chapman, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Coppola, Danny Glover, Lauren Hutton, Barry Jenkins, Delroy Lindo and and Sam Rockwell.

There are a lot of local awards to local filmmakers or films of local interest like those in the other SFFS series, Cinema by the Bay. The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to Justin Simien's Sundance hit (which I reviewed in New Directors earlier), DEAR WHITE PEOPLE (USA), with Cédric Klapisch's third in his Romain Duris-Audrey Tautou (he may do a fourth) CHINESE PUZZLE (France/USA) also getting high marks from festival-goers. (I have not yet seen it) The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature was given to Mike Fleiss' THE OTHER ONE: THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF BOB WEIR (USA), which I have also not seen, with Stanley Nelson's FREEDOM SUMMER (USA) also scoring well with SFIFF audiences. I was very moved myself by FREEDOM SUMMER and am not surprised it was an audience favorite. I can't list all the many items in the SFIFF roundup; they include a lot of live events, master classes and salons. This is a festival relatively lacking in high profile movie premieres compared to not only Cannes, Toronto, and the one in the same season, Tribeca, and soon after Telluride, but compared to the New York Film Festival it has (somewhat like Tribeca) much more local community involvement, youth involvement, and payback to the community. Some of this grew markedly during the strong and inspired leadership of the late Graham Leggett, but though the SFFS has been ravaged by the loss of three directors in a row in a short period of time, its strong cadre of film finders and organizers and promoters remains and it continues to flourish.

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Awards recipients including Richard Linklater, Jeremy Irons, Stephen Gaghan,
David Thomson and awards presenters including Parker Posey

Closing Nignt.

Actor Chris Messina's directing debut Alex of Venice ended the SFIFF.
He also acts in it; it stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead. It premiered at Tribeca.

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MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD, CHRIS MESSINA IN ALEX OF VENICE

[Chris Knipp]

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San Francisco International Film Festival 2014: Links to the reviews:

20,000 Days on Earth (Ian Forsyth, Jane Pollard 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31935#post31935)
Abuse of Weakness (Catherine Breillat 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31004#post31004)
Amazing Catfish, The/Los insólitos pesces gato (Claudia Sainte-Luce 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32131#post32131)
Bad Hair/Pelo malo (Mariana Rondón 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32158#post32158)
Child of God (James Franco 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30940#post30940)
Club Sandwich (Fernando Eimbcke 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30990#post30990)
Dear White People (Justin Simien 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31876#post31876)
Double, The (Richard Ayoade 3014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31891#post31891)
Dune, The/La dune (Yossi Aviram 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32112#post32112)
Eastern Boys (Robin Campillo 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31853#post31853)
Freedom Summer (Stanley Nelson 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32296#post32296)
Happiness (Thomas Balmès 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32292#post32292)
Harmony Lessons (Emir Baigazin 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32272#post32272)
Heaven Adores You (Nikolas Dylan Rossi 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32288#post32288)
History of Fear (Benjamin Naishat 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31878#post31878)
If You Don't, I Will (Sophie Fillières 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31806#post31806)
Last Weekend (Tom Dolby, Tom Williams 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32191#post32191)
Manos Sucias (Josef Wladyka 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32278#post32278)
Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy (Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32266#post32266)
Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30966#post30966)
Obvious Child (Gillian Robbespiere 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014/page3)
Of Horses and Men (Benedict Erlingsson 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31873#post31873)
Our Sunhi (Hong Sang-soo 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31868#post31868)
Palo Alto (Gia Coppola 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32237#post32237)
Ping Pong Summer (Michael Tully 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32111#post32111)
Reconstruction, The/La reconstrucción (Juan Taratuto 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014#post32144)
Return to Homs (Talal Derki 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31894#post31894)
Salvation Army (Abdellah Taïa 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31916#post31916)
School of Babel (Julie Bertucelli 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31831#post31831)
South Is Nothing/Il Sud è niente (Fabio Mollo 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32125#post32125)
Stop the Pounding Heart (Robert Minervini 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31887#post31887)
Stray Dogs (Tsing Ming-liang 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30998&posted=1#post30998)
Tamako in Moratorium (Nobuhiro Yamashita 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32270#post32270)
Tangerines (Zaza Urshadze 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32283#post32283)
Tip Top (Serge Bozon 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31860#post31860)
Tonnerre (Guillaume Brac 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31854#post31854)
Trap Street (Vivian Qu 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31930#post31930)
We Are the Best! (Lucas Moodysson 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3758-WE-ARE-THE-BEST%21-%28Lucas-Moodysson-2013%29)
We Come As Friends (Hubert Sauper 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31872#post31872)
When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism (Corneliu Porumboiu 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30994#post30994)
White Shadow (Noaz Deshe 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32218#post32218)
Young and Beautiful (Francois Ozon 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31813#post31813)

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Claudia Sainte-Luce: The Amazing Catfish/Los insólitos pesces gato (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32131#post32131)

This SFIFF film opens Friday June 13, 2014 in New York. You can now read the full review at the link above.

[Johann]

Your reviews are very well-rounded and thoughtful Chris. Always a pleasure to read. Sorry I don't comment more. I'll try to do so now.

A few of the films that have got my attention, just based on your words:

Gia Coppola's Palo Alto: If Val Kilmer's son is as good as you say, then then this is great news. The granddaughter of Francis Coppola directing the son of Val Kilmer- that sounds awesome without even seeing the movie. Cinematic dynasties continue! It's great. Not sure if we need blowjob scenes, tho. Didn't Vincent Gallo prove those were superfluous and should only be in porno flicks?

Mary is Happy, Mary is Happy- if he's referencing Wong Kar-Wei and Truffaut, then he can't be all that bad.

White Shadow- seems like Ryan Gosling isn't just into a "movie star" career- he's reaching out to other aspiring filmmakers. Very cool. he does Canada proud. It was also cool to learn about Noaz Desche and his artistic multi-tasking. he's doing what Frank Miller always wanted to do! And doing it much younger! Sounds like a must-see.

Tamako in Moratorium- again, another filmmaker with shades of other great directors- you mentioned Ozu. Sounds fine to me. Japan is never to be ignored in world cinema.

Harmony Lessons also sounds good and different.

Manos Sucias sounds watchable too. From a student of Spike Lee's? Sign me up.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for the comments. PALO ALTO is fine, I think; I'd like to see it again. I do like Jack Kilmer and I'm not alone, but the whole cast is good. I'm a bit surprised you balk at blowjob scenes but anyway they are not graphic, and very brief, just quickly indicated. Nothing like Vincent Gallo! WHITE SHADOW and HARMONY LESSONS and MANON SUCIAS are fine very distinctive located first films. I think as a film HARMONY LESSONS is the one that stands out the most but the settings and people of WHITE SHADOW are incredibly vivid.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/34/0dpt.jpg (http://festival.sffs.org/)

Nadav Schirman: The Green Prince

Opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, September 12

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One I eyed hungrily but didn't get to see at the SIFF. No local NorCal screening announced and can't make the NYC one, but hope to see soon and review. Of the films I regretted missing at the 2014 SFIFF there remain Alex of Venice, The Skeleton Twins, and The Two Faces of January, plus this. The others of my wish-I-could-see SFIFF 2014 list linked to below I've reviewed now:

Alex of Venice, Chris Messina, USA
Boyhood, Richard Linklater, USA (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3795-BOYHOOD-%28Richard-Linklater-2014%29)
Chinese Puzzle, Cédric Klapisch, France (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3751-CHINESE-PUZZLE-(Cdric-Klapisch-2014))
The Skeleton Twins, Craig Johnson, USA
The Two Faces of January, Hossein Amini, England
We Are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, Sweden (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3758-WE-ARE-THE-BEST!-(Lucas-Moodysson-2013))