San Francisco International Film Festival 2018

[Chris Knipp]

San Francisco International Film Festival April 4-17 2018

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FESTIVAL COVERAGE THREAD (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36673#post36673)

Links to the reviews
Angels Wear White (Vivian Qu 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36674#post36674)
Big Bad Fox & Other Tales, The/Le grand renard méchant & autres contes (Patrick Imbert, Benjamin Renner 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36745#post36745)
City of the Sun (Rati Oneli 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36748#post36748)
Civilization: How Do We Look? (Episode 2) (Matt Hill 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36677#post36677)
Claire’s Camera/La caméra de Claire (Hong Sangsoo 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36686#post36686)
The Cleaners (Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36703#post36703)
Dogs (The Distant Barking of Dogs) (Simon Lereng Wilmont 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36676#post36676)
Djon África (João Miller Guerra, Filipa Reis 2018) (http://chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3872) (ND/NF[/URL]
[URL="http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36721#post36721"]Godard Mon Amour (Michel Hazanavicius 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36715#post36715)
Hale County This Morning, This Evening (RaMell Ross 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4466-NEW-DIRECTORS-NEW-FILMS-2018-(March-28%96April-8-2018)-Festival-Coverage&p=36603#post36603) (ND/NF)
Half the Picture (Amy Adrion 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36735#post36735)
Hal (Amy Scott 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36683#post36683)
Human Element, The (Matthew Testa 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36687#post36687)
I Am Not a Witch (Rungano Nyoni 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36708#post36708)
Judge, The (Erika Cohn 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36760#post36760)
Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle/Muchos hijos, un mono y un castillo (Gustavo Salmerón 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36762#post36762)
Minding the Gap (Bing Liu 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36716#post36716)
My Life with James Dean/Ma vie avec James Dean (Dominique Choisy 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36675#post36675)
No Date, No Signature (Vahid Jalilvand 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36694#post36694)
The Other Side of Everything/Druga strana svega (Mila Turajlić 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36712#post36712)
The Pushouts (Katie Galloway 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36706#post36706)
Ravens/Korparna (Jens Assur 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36702#post36702)
RBG (Julie Cohen, Betsy West 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36722#post36722)
Rescue List, The (Alyssa Fedele, Zachary Fink 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36750#post36750)
The Rider (Chloé Zhao 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4375-New-York-Film-Festival-2017&p=36271#post36271) (NYFF 2017)
Scary Mother (Ana Urushadze 2017) (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3859) (ND/NF)
★ (Star) (Johann Lurf 2017)
Suleiman Mountain/Suleiman Too (Elizaveta Stishova 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36752#post36752)
The Third Murder/三度目の殺人 (Sandome no satsujin) (Hirokazu Kore-eda 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36688#post36688)
Those Who Are Fine/Dene wos guet gei (Cyril Schäublin 2017) (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3875) (ND/NF)
Tigre (Ulises Porra Guardiola, Silvina Schnicer 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36736#post36736)
Tre Maison Dasan (Denali Tiller 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36692#post36692)
Wajib (Annemarie Jacir 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36714#post36714)
The White Girl (Jenny Suen, Christopher Doyle 2017) (Sunday, April 8, 2018 1:00 p.m. Castro Theatre BUY TICKETS SPONSORED BY)
Winter Brothers/Vinterbrødre (Hlynur Pálmason 2017) (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3853) (ND/NF)
The Workshop/L'Atelier (Laurent Cantet 2017) (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3879) (R-V)
Wrestle (Suzannah Herbert, Lauren Belfer 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36693#post36693)

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A Kid Like Jake
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A KID LIKE JAKE

The SF Film Society announced the 2018 program (from Variety (http://variety.com/2018/film/news/san-francisco-film-festival-lineup-a-kid-like-jake-dont-worry-1202726159/)).

(But it seems impossible to upload a printable list of the main selections, so far [-CK].)

Some info on the opening and closing night films of SFIFF 2018.

The Claire Danes-starred family drama “A Kid Like Jake” - a social drama centered around an ambitious white couple in NYC with a kid with pretty obvious transgender leanings - directed by Silas Howard, kicks off the San Francisco International Film Festival on April 4.

The festival also announced that its closing night film will be Gus Van Sant's “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot,” a biopic about recovering alcoholic and cartoonist John Callahan starring Joaquin Phoenix, which will screen on April 17. This has been widely reviewed (Metacritic 70%) as a so-so film, too sentimental and repetitive for some, but repping yet another terrific performance by Phoenix following up his as yet unseen (in the US) one in Lynne Ramsey's You Were Never Really Here, Cannes Best Screenplay winner in May 2017.

The 61-year-old festival, organized through the San Francisco Film Society, considers itself to be the oldest movie fest in the U.S. The SFFS organization announced most of its lineup at a news conference on Wednesday at the Dolby Theater on Market Street in San Francisco.

“A Kid Like Jake,” which premiered at Sundance in January, is directed by Silas Howard and written by Daniel Pearle, based on his 2013 play of the same name. The film also stars Jim Parsons, Octavia Spencer, and Priyanka Chopra. Danes and Parsons portray parents looking for the “right” New York primary school for their 4-year-old son who prefers Disney princesses to G.I. Joe. IFC bought domestic rights to “Jake” last month.

From KQED (San Francisco) (https://www.kqed.org/arts/13827356/tix-not-to-miss-at-the-san-francisco-international-film-festival):Setting a tone of openness and vulnerability against an often hateful national discussion is the festival’s kickoff film A Kid Like Jake. Helmed by Silas Howard (the first trans director of a Transparent episode), the film follows Jim Parsons and Claire Danes as the parents of a preschool-aged son who likes to engage in “gender-variant play.” Should they use their child’s possible transgender leanings as a “diversity” selling point in their quest for entry into New York’s exclusive private schools? What’s best for Jake?

“Don’t Worry,” which also debuted at Sundance, is directed by Gus Van Sant and is based on late cartoonist John Callahan’s memoir of the same name. Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara, and Jack Black also star in the biopic. Amazon is opening the film on July 13.

The festival will also hold a tribute to filmmaker Wayne Wang, with a screening of “Smoke.” Wang’s credits include “Chan Is Missing,” “Maid in Manhattan,” “The Joy Luck Club,” “Anywhere but Here,” and “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.”

Other tributes unveiled Wednesday include Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (George Gund III Craft of Cinema Award), Annette Insdorf (Mel Novikoff Award), and Nathaniel Dorsky (Persistence of Vision Award).

The fest had already announced that its centerpiece film will be Boots Riley’s satire “Sorry to Bother You” on April 12. Charlize Theron will be honored at the event with a special tribute, followed by a screening of her new film “Tully” on April 8.

See a PDF file of the Festival's 2018 program HERE (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/avi6l6nm16br7wm/AABYC0Ad4Y3sM4w12wBZMZB2a/2018%20Festival%20Program%20Guide?dl=0&preview=2018SFFILM_GUIDE.pdf).

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[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/9un.png (https://www.sffilm.org/)

Films of the 2018 SFIFF (APRIL 4-17):
An alphabetical list of most of the long films of the SFIFF plus some events. Links to Filmleaf reviews.
(Click on the logo above for the festival's website.)

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KOREEDA'S A THIRD MURDER

Alex Strangelove (Craig Johnson 2017)
American Animals ( Bart Layton 2017)
Angels Wear White/ 嘉年华 (Jiā Nián Huá) (Vivian Qu 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36674#post36674)
Bad Reputation ( Kevin Kerslake: 2017)
Barry (Bill Hader 2017)
Beast (Michael Pearce 2017)
The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales ( Benjamin Renner, Patrick Imbert 2017)
Bisbee ‘17 ( Robert Greene 2017)
Blonde Redhead with I Was Born, But... (Yasujirô Ozu 1932)
Boom for Real (Sara Driver 2017)
Boundaries (Shana Feste 2017)
Carcasse (Gústav Geir Bollason, Clémentine Roy 2017)
Chef Flynn (Cameron Yates 2018)
The Children Act (Richard Eyre 2017)
City of the Sun (Rati Oneli 2017)
Civilizatrion: How Do We Look? (Episode 2) (Matt Hill 2018)
Claire’s Camera/La caméra de Claire (Hong Sangsoo 2017)
The Cleaners (Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck 2018)
Cold Water/L'Eau froide (Olivier Assayas 1994)
Damsel (Davd Zellner, Nathan Zellner 2018)
Deep Astronomy and the Romantic Sciences (Cory McAbee 2019)
Dogs (The Distant Barking of Dogs) (Simon Lereng Wilmont 2018)
Djon África (João Miller Guerra, Filipa Reis 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4466-NEW-DIRECTORS-NEW-FILMS-2018-(March-28%96April-8-2018)-Festival-Coverage&p=36598#post36598) (ND/NF)
Don't Worry He Won't Get Far on Foot (Gus Van Sant 2018) - Closing Night Film
Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham 2018)
First Reformed (Paul Schrader 2017)
Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable (Sasha Waters Freyer 2018)
Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti (Edouard Deluc 2017)
Generation Wealth (Lauren Greenfield 2018)
End Game (Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman 2018)
Godard, Mon Amour (Michel Hazanavicius 2017)
Hale County This Morning, This Evening (RaMell Ross 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4466-NEW-DIRECTORS-NEW-FILMS-2018-(March-28%96April-8-2018)-Festival-Coverage&p=36603#post36603) (ND/NF)
Half the Picture (Amy Adrion 2018)
Hal (Amy Scott 2018)

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AMY SCOTT, DIRECTOR OF HAL

How to Talk to Girls at Parties (John Cameron Mitchell 2017)
The Human Element (Matthew Testa 2018)
I Am Not a Witch (Rungano Nyoni 2017)
I Hate Kids (John Asher 2018)
A Kid Like Jake (Silas Howard 2018) - Opening Night Film
Kodachrome (Mark Raso 2018)
Inventing Tomorrow (Laura Nix 2018)
Jupiter’s Moon (Kornél Mundruczó 2017)
Leave No Trace (Debra Granik 2018)
Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle/Muchos hijos, un mono y un castillo (Gustavo Salmerón 2017)
Louise Lecavalier - In Motion (Raymond St-Jean 2017)
Loveling (Gustavo Pizzi 2017)
Makala (Emmanuel Gras 2017)
A Man of Integrity (Mohammad Rasoulof 2017)
Manhunt (John Woo 2017)
Matangi/Maya/M.I.A (Steve Loveridge 2018)
Mel Novikoff Award: Annette Insdorf: To Be or Not To Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
Minding the Gap (Bing Liu 2018)
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (Desiree Akhavan 2018)
My Life with James Dean/Ma vie avec James Dean (Dominique Choisy 2017)
The Next Guardian (Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó 2017)
Night Comes On (Jordana Spiro 2018)
No Date, No Signature (Vahid Jalilvand 2017)
The Other Side of Everything/Druga strana svega (Mila Turajlić 2017)
Pick of the Litter (Don Hardy, Dana Nachman 2018)
POV Award: Nathaniel Dorsky
A Prayer Before Dawn (Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire 2017)
The Price of Everything (Nathaniel Kahn 2018)
Purge This Land (Lee Anne Schmitt 2017)
The Pushouts (Katie Galloway 2018)
Ravenous/Les affamés (Robin Aubert 2017)
Ravens/Korparna (Jens Assur2017)
RBG (Betsy West, Julie Cohen 2018)
The Rescue List (Alyssa Fedele, Zachary Fink 2017)
Revenge (Coralie Fargeat 2017)
The Rider (Chloé Zhao 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4375-New-York-Film-Festival-2017&p=36271#post36271) (NYFF 2017)
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (Marina Zenovich 2018)
Salyut-7 (Klim Shipenko 2017)
Scary Mother (Ana Urushadze 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4466-NEW-DIRECTORS-NEW-FILMS-2018-(March-28%96April-8-2018)-Festival-Coverage&p=36544#post36544) (ND/NF)
Searching (Aneesh Chaganty 2018)
The Shape of a Surface: Experimental Shorts
The Shape of Pixar Characters: A Workshop for Kids
Shirkers (Sandi Tan 2018)
Sorry to Bother You (Boots Riley ) - Centerpiece Film
The Sower/Le Semeur (Marine Francen 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4456-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2018&p=36553#post36553) (R-V)
★ (Star) (Johann Lurf 2017)
State of Cinema: Guy Maddin
Suleiman Mountain (Elizaveta Stishova 2017)
Support the Girls (Andrew Bujalski 2018)
Surprise Secret Screening
The Third Murder/三度目の殺人 (Sandome no satsujin) (Hirokazu Kore-eda 2017)
This One's For the Ladies (Gene Graham 2018)
Those Who Are Fine/Dene wos guet gei (Cyril Schäublin 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4466-NEW-DIRECTORS-NEW-FILMS-2018-(March-28%96April-8-2018)-Festival-Coverage&p=36601#post36601) (ND/NF)
A Thousand Thoughts – A Live Documentary by Sam Green and Kronos Quartet (Directors: Sam Green, Joe Bini)
Three Identical Strangers (Tim Wardle 2018)
Tigre (Ulises Porra Guardiola, Silvina Schnicer 2017)
Un Traductor (Rodrigo Barriuso, Sebastián Barriuso 2018)
Tre Maison Dasan (Denali Tiller 2017)
Tully (Jason Reitman 2018) - Tribute to Charlize Theron
Smoke (Wayne Wang 1995 ) - Tribute to Wayne Wang
Trying on The Crown: David Thomson Master Class

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CHEF FLYNN

Ulam: Main Dish (Alexandra Cuerdo 2017)
Wajib (Annemarie Jacir 2017)
We the Animals (Jeremiah Zagar 2018)
What Will People Say (Iram Haq 2017)
The White Girl (Jenny Suen, Christopher Doyle 2017)
Winter Brothers/Vinterbrødre (Hlynur Pálmason 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4466-NEW-DIRECTORS-NEW-FILMS-2018-(March-28%96April-8-2018)-Festival-Coverage&p=36539#post36539) (ND/NF)
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Morgan Neville 2018)
The Workshop/L'Atelier (Laurent Cantet 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4456-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2018&p=36572#post36572) (R-V)
Wrestle (Suzannah Herbert, Lauren Belfer 2018)

[Chris Knipp]

About the Centerpiece Film:


Sorry to Bother You
Boots Riley, USA, 2018, 107 min

The wait is over–Bay Area icon Boots Riley’s outrageous, taboo-breaking satire is now a wonderfully deranged feature film. Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield)
gets hired as a telemarketer for Oakland company RegalView. His potential blossoms when he finds his “white voice”—a hilarious voice-over running
gag—but moving up the ranks leads to conflicts with coworkers and his girlfriend, not to mention the nefarious activities (including genetic manipulation!)
he discovers being perpetrated by RegalView’s CEO, played by Armie Hammer. With shades of Charlie Kaufman, Jordan Peele, and Jonathan Swift, Sorry to
Bother You brings surreal flair, dazzling originality, and a scathing lampoon of hyper-capitalist excess to the familiar streets of Oakland, California. Costars
Tessa Thompson, Steven Yuen, and Danny Glover, with music by The Coup and Tune-Yards.

THURSDAY • APRIL 12 • 6:30 • CASTRO
THURSDAY • APRIL 12 • 8:00 • GRAND LAKE
$20 MEMBER / $25 GENERAL

About the Closing Night Film, Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (SFIFF text):


[CLOSING NIGHT FILM]
Caustic and wickedly funny, celebrated quadriplegic Portland
cartoonist John Callahan had a knack for depicting taboo
subjects – especially people with physical disabilities –
without an ounce of cultural sensitivity. With an engrossing
and shape-shifting performance by Joaquin Phoenix as
Callahan, accompanied by scene-stealing support from
Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara, and Jack Black, Gus Van Sant’s
(Milk, My Own Private Idaho) newest film follows the life of
this troubled alcoholic who journeys from rock-bottom to an
oddball AA group to ultimately channeling his demons into
sometimes shocking and always humorous profane art.

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[Chris Knipp]

The SFIFF 2018 Persistence of Vision (POV) AWARD goes to Nathaniel Dorsky

San Francisco experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky is noted for his short films of striking beauty.

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NATHANIEL DORSKY [THE EVENING CLASS]


The Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award honors a filmmaker whose
main body of work falls outside of the realm of narrative feature filmmaking.
For more than 50 years, Nathaniel Dorsky has been illuminating minds with
experimental, silent shorts in which light, nature, and everyday surrounds
are carefully captured and combined to prismatic, alchemical effect. Dorsky
has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, screenings at MoMa, the
Tate, and Whitney Biennial, but as Max Goldberg writes in Cinema Scope,
such appellations are beside the point. “Once engrossed in Dorsky’s silent
cinema...the social world of reputation is suspended for the encompassing
and intrinsically solitary experience of beauty.” Join us for this conversation
with Nathaniel Dorsky and screening of four recent short films.

2011 Conversation with Nathaniel Dorsky by Michael Guillen in The Evening Class (http://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2011/03/disposable-discontinuous-evening-class_22.html)

2012 Article on Nathaniel Dorsky by Manohla Dargis NYTimes. (https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/movies/the-startlingly-beautiful-films-of-nathaniel-dorsky.html)

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[Chris Knipp]

Honoree at the festival: Charlize Theron


Charlize Theron has a ferocity and focus unique to contemporary
screen actors. She can utterly transform herself and transfix an
audience across a variety of genres, and the subtlety in her protean
performances is a tonic for these times. But her talent in that
regard dates back: By 2003, Theron was already a master of her
art, something never more apparent than in her role that year as
serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins’ Monster (2003). Since
then, Theron has continued to build an impressive body of work,
receiving a second Academy Award nomination for her portrayal
of a miner who sues her company for sexual harassment in North
Country (2005), reviving George Miller’s Mad Max franchise with her
ferocious turn as the warrior Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury
Road (2015), and mixing slaughter and spycraft in the Cold War era
thriller Atomic Blonde (2017). Join us for this special conversation
with Charlize Theron, followed by a screening of Tully.


Tully
Jason Reitman, USA, 2018

Marlo (Charlize Theron) has lost her youth to motherhood and is
completely burnt out. When her brother (Mark Duplass) suggests a
night nanny—someone to help with her newborn—she reluctantly
agrees, welcoming a stranger named Tully into her home. Grounded
by Theron’s extraordinary performance, which delivers the smart and
hilarious dialogue written and directed with great care by frequent
collaborators Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman, Tully details all
aspects of motherhood however unglamorous they may be.

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[Chris Knipp]

SFIFF 2018 begins.

The Festival began last night with A Kid LIke Jake.

Links to the reviews and Festival Coverage thread will be HERE (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36673#post36673).

Today's films include City of the Sun, The Rider, Winter Brothers, Barry, The Price of Everything, Makala, Workshop, Angels Wear White, I hate Kids, American Animals, My Life with James Dean, The Distant Barking of Dogs, Civilizations: How Do We Look? (Episode 2), and What Will People Say?.

Reviews of The Rider, Winter Brothers, and Workshop have already appeared on Filmleaf. I will soon be reporting in this thread on:

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ANGELS WEAR WHITE

Angels Wear White
My Life with James Dean
The Distant Barking of Dogs
Civilizations: How Do We Look? (Episode 2)

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[Chris Knipp]

ANGELS WEAR WHITE (Vivian Qu 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36674#post36674)

Very young girls are molested in a motel by a middle-aged official. It takes a long time for anything to happen. This sophomore feature by the maker of the 2013 Trap Street (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3686-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2014&p=31930#post31930) (ND/NF 2014) is beautiful to look at but too diffuse and meandering. But it never ceases to be watchable - or #metoo-relevant. From China. In many festivals.

First 2018 SFIFF review.
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[Chris Knipp]

MY LIFE WITH JAMES DEAN/MA VIE AVEC JAMES DEAN (Dominique Chosy 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36675#post36675)

A gay French charmer about a hunky young filmmaker vaguely promoting his eponymous new film in Calais and some other towns on the Norman coast, with an actor he likes, a projectionist who likes him, and an organizer who likes the wrong person. Lightness is maintained. Stay for the surprise Bollywood finale.

Three screenings in the SFIFF, with the filmmaker and star present at all of them.

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[Chris Knipp]

THE DISTANT BARKING OF DOGS (Simon Lareng Wilmont 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36676#post36676)

An intimate documentary of Oleg, a 10-year-old Ukrainian boy living with his granny on the edge of the war zone of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Beautiful and harrowing.


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[Chris Knipp]

HAL (Amy Scott 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36683#post36683)

Lesser known than other New Hollywood directors like Scorsese, coppola, Spielberg, or Lucas, Hal Ashby produced seven notable films in the nine years from 1970 to 1979. He declined thereafter and died at 59 of pancreatic cancer. This is a short reintro that tells more about the work than life. For a cool examination of that work you'd have to go to Pauline Kael's review of his 1978 Coming Home, anyway. Some of the actors and editors that worked with him reminisce here.

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[Chris Knipp]

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KIM MIN-HEE, ISABELLE HUPPERT IN CLAIRE'S CAMERA (HONG SANG-SOO)

April 7. Today is day 4 of the SFIFF.

I count 22 features or documentaries.This is not including celebrity live vents with Alex Garland, Wayne Wang, et al. Totally overwhelming! Filmleaf is covering a few of today's offerings, though.


Will cover the first three, have covered the second three:
Claire's Camera
The Human Element
The Third Murder
Winter Brothers
The Rider
The Workshop
Scheduled today in the festival:
The Human Element
Half the Picture
Makala
The Price of Everything
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Claire's Camera
The Judge
The Third Murder
Ulam: Main Dish
Generation Wealth
No Date, No Signature
Kodachrome
Winter Brothers
The Rider
The Workshop
Un Traductor
Loveling
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Three IDentical Strangers
A Man of Integrity
Revenge

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[Chris Knipp]

CLAIRE'S CAMERA (Hong Sang-soo 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36686#post36686)

A shorter film produced by Hong's swift, improvisational method, which seems to be working for him very well. This one has a Metascore of 80%. It was shot at Cannes, and includes Isabelle Huppert as a high school teacher on vacation with a Polaroid camera, who has never been to Cannes before. I like them longer and with more Korean (this is largely in English, nobody's native language here), but this is still profound, yet witty and light.


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[Chris Knipp]

THE HUMAN ELEMENT (Matthew Testa 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36687#post36687)

A brand new film about James Balog, the subject of what may be the best climate change movie of them all, Jeff Orlowski's Chasing Ice. This time he's away from the ice focused on the elements, earth, air, fire, and water, all of them, he shows, radically changed and changing due to a fifth element: the human element. If you think this is just another climate change movie, you're wrong. There can't be too many climate change movies. And James Balog is a photographer, who records events iin still photos. He is as important in his way as Bill McKibben, the founder of 360.org.

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[Chris Knipp]

THE THIRD MURDER (Hirokazu Koreeda 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36688#post36688)

Debuted at Venice, this presents a lengthy dramatic exploration of the motivations of a man who has committed murder a third time after being released from lengthy incarceration. The lawyers are seeking the motive that will be the best defense. An exploration into devious psychology and complicated circumstances is a welcome departure perhaps, from conventional puzzle-murders. But it's not Koreeda's best work. He is not in his element here.

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[Chris Knipp]

April 8. Day 5 at the SF Film Festival.

Events today overed in Filmleaf include
The Human Element reviewed yesterday
The Third Murder reviewed in capsule form this morning
Tre Maison Dason, a doc about kids with parents in jail
Wrestle, another doc about kids in high school in an Alabama team
Djon Africa, already reviewed in ND/NF
My Life with James Dean reviewed earlier
Angels Wear White Chinese film about a sexual abuse case, reviewed earlier
The Workshop reviewed for its theatrical release in NYC

So there are eight films in the SFIFF showing today covered or coming shortly in Filmleaf.

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[Chris Knipp]

April 11. A special show at the Castro Theater

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Blonde Redhead plays LIVE score of Ozu film 'I Was Born, But ...'
Wednesday, April 11 at 8:00 pm.

IT is a custom of the festival to provide some live accompaniment of silent films. This year the group Blind Redhead has composed a score to go with Yasujirô Ozu's 1932 silent comedy I Was Born, But...

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[Chris Knipp]

TRE MAISON DASON (Denali Tiller) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36692#post36692)

A doc that follows three young boys as they experience having a parent who is incarcerated. Set in Rhode Island, where a facility allows fathers two hours of free time with their kid per week in a designated space with attractive murals. Each kid has his special identity and issues. One is very small, one is having a hard time, one is hyper and smart. A fascinating film. World Premiere in the Global Visions section of the SFIFF.

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[Chris Knipp]

WRESTLE (Susannah Herbert 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36693#post36693)

An intense young white coach leads a mostly black wrestling from a long-failing Alabama high school to compete in the state finals, and they don't do badly. Exciting and seamless doc with personal dramas and exciting matches. Maybe the energy flags a little bit in the middle but honestly, I was on the edge of my seat most of the way. A very well made film with great material. World Premiere in the Global Vision section of teh SFIFF.

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[Chris Knipp]

WRESTLE article shows its importance to the subjects (http://highschoolsports.al.com/news/article/-6657848185872215532/documentary-on-alabama-wrestling-team-set-for-world-premiere/)

WRESTLE shows today and tomorrow at the SFIFF:

Monday, April 9, 2018
6:00 p.m.
Roxie Theater

BUY TICKETS (https://www.sffilm.org/2018-sffilm-festival/festival-calendar/wrestle)

Tuesday, April 10, 2018
3:00 p.m.
SFMOMA

BUY TICKETS (https://www.sffilm.org/2018-sffilm-festival/festival-calendar/wrestle)


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[Chris Knipp]

NO DATE, NO SIGNATURE/BIDUN TARIKH, BIDUN IMDHA' (Vahid Jalilvand 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36694#post36694)


This film about an accident and resulting conflicts about guilt and responsiblity has the complexity of detail and moral examination contemporary Iranian cinema does so well. It also has matters of class, sex, and a sense of a whole society dodging the law and in deep trouble. Some implausible elements don't mar the emotional power, the terrific acting, and the great looking, elegant black and white images. You will writhe with pleasure if you like Iranian films.

بدون تاریخ، بدون امضاء

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[Chris Knipp]

Upcoming coverage.

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THE CLEANERS

RAVENS:
Swedish feature about a boy facing the harsh realities of agrarian life.

THE CLEANERS:
The people who trawl the Internet to save us from horrors - doc about a strange nether world.

THE PUSHOUTS:
Bay Area doc about high school dropouts and those who fight back.


All showing at the SFIFF in the next few days.

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[Chris Knipp]

RAVENS (Jens Assur 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36702#post36702)

Grim life on a remote Swedish farm in 1978 relieved by a pretty girl from Stockholm and bird watching for young Klas - but will be have to take over the farm, after all? Debut feature for this photojournalist by trade has beautiful visuals.

THE CLEANERS (Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36703#post36703)

Benighted, shadowy drones in Manila are underpaid to edit out ugly images from social media, but the really ugly stuff goes unchecked in this short doc that takes on more than it can handle.

THE PUSHOUTS (Katie Galloway 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36706#post36706)

Under-an-hour doc from award-winning local documentarian follows Victor Rios, a former drug dealer and gang member who became a UC Santa Barbara professor with a wife and kids, as he leads a SoCal program, Yo Watts!, to motivate and turn around kids who have left school, not as "dropouts" but as "pushouts" the system works to defeat.

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[Chris Knipp]

THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING (Mila Turajlić 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36712#post36712)

Prizewinning documentary is an illustration of how the personal parallels the political as it follows filmmaker Mila Turajlić's mother Srbijanka's description of family and national history starting with the subdivision of their sumptuous apartment in downtown Belgrade in the time of Tito.

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[Chris Knipp]

2018 Golden Gate Awards Official Selections
Presented at the Festival since its inaugural year in 1957, the Golden Gate Awards (GGAs) are among the most significant honors for emerging global film artists in the United States. Prizes are awarded in 14 narrative, documentary, and short film categories and total nearly $40,000.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
McBaine Documentary Feature Prize winner winner will receive $10,000, and McBaine Bay Area Documentary Feature Prize winner will receive $5,000. Documentary films in competition include:

City of the Sun
Rati Oneli, Georgia/USA/Qatar/Netherlands

The Distant Barking of Dogs
Simon Lereng Wilmont, Denmark/Sweden/Finland

Hale County This Morning, This Evening
RaMell Ross, USA

The Judge (Bay Area)
Erika Cohn, USA/Palestine

Minding the Gap
Bing Liu, USA

The Next Guardian
Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó, Hungary/Netherlands

The Other Side of Everything
Mila Turajlić, Serbia/France/Qatar

The Rescue List (Bay Area)
Alyssa Fedele, Zachary Fink, USA/Ghana

Shirkers
Sandi Tan, USA

Tre Maison Dasan
Denali Tiller, USA

NEW DIRECTORS PRIZE

The Golden Gate Award New Directors Prize of $10,000 will be given to a narrative first feature that exhibits a unique artistic sensibility and deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible. This year, ten films are in contention for this award. Narrative films in competition include:

Djon África
João Miller Guerra, Felipa Reis, Portugal/Brazil/Cape Verde

I Am Not a Witch
Rungano Nyoni, UK/France/Zambia/Germany

Night Comes On
Jordana Spiro, USA

Ravens
Jens Assur, Sweden

Scary Mother
Ana Urushadze, Georgia/Estonia

The Sower
Marine Francen, France

Suleiman Mountain
Elizaveta Stishova, Kyrgyzstan/Russia

Those Who Are Fine
Cyril Schäublin, Switzerland

Tigre
Ulises Porra Guardiola, Silvina Schnicer, Argentina

Winter Brothers
Hlynur Pálmason, Denmark/Iceland

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[Chris Knipp]

GARY WINOGRAND: ALL THINGS ARE PHOTOGRAPHABLE (Sasha Waters Freyer 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36715#post36715)

Not the ultimate word on this premier American street photographer of the Sixties and Seventies, but a word long overdue. Part of the PBS American Masters series

MINDING THE GAP (Bing Liu 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36716#post36716)

Bing Liu's participatory five-year film project becomes a triple coming-of-age story about three guys with parental abuse in their pasts who skateboarded away the pain. Filmed in failing blue collar town Rockford, IL. Well received at Sunance and SXSW, sponsored by Steve James and Kartemquin Films, this seems scattered at times but winds up feeling healing and true. Part of the PBS POV series.

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[Chris Knipp]

GODARD MON AMOUR/LE REDOUTABLE (Michel Hazanavicius 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36721#post36721)

Hazanavicius is good at pastiches and this is a series of them with Louis Garrel and Stacy Martin as Jean-Luc Godard and Anne Wiazemsky in May 1968. A mildly amusing passive-aggressive homage that's surprisingly bland and uninteresting for such a topic. Godard is still alive and making radical films. If anybody needed to make this - which is, however, doubtful - it would have been him.

See Armond White's comment on this film (https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/movie-review-godard-mon-amour-terrible-but-important/) which he calls "appalling and entertaining." He says: "Even a bad film about Godard, as this one is, introduces people to his genius."

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[Chris Knipp]

Ones that got away.

San Francisco 2018 film festival films that might have been cool to see but I missed.

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Boom for Real
It's no secret that I am a huge fan of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88). In fact I did see the show at the Barbican Art Gallery, London (21 Sept. '17-28 Jan. '18) which presumably this doc was made to go with, and watched some of it there. Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sara Driver, USA

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Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (1982). Photograph: Jean-Michel Basquiat/Barbican

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A Kid Named Jake

The Opening Night Film of the festival, and I got invited to it, but I didn't go. Don't know that I'll like it, but its transgender and class themes make it relevant to today. Coming June 1. A Kid Like Jake, Silas Howard, USA

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Makala, Emmanuel Gras, France A documentary about an African guy who struggles to make charcoal to sell. I've now missed it twice; it was included in a day of ND/NF last month that I missed, and was in the SFIFF too.

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Tully, Jason Reitman, USA

A new movie starring Charlize Theron. She was the honored actor at this year's festival and the premiere of this new movie starring Charlize crowned the celebration of her career. Which ain't over yet, for sure!

القاضية

The Judge, Erika Cohn, USA / Palestine

Doc about Kholoud Al-Faqih, a Palestinian trailblazer as the first woman judge on the Shari’a (Islamic law) court in the Middle East.

More to come....


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[Chris Knipp]

RBG (Julie Cohen, Betsy West 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36722#post36722)

An admiring documentary portrait of the life and achievement (not over) of Supreme court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, now 84 but still not retired. With the heavily conservative court since Bush's two appointments, she represents a further to the left element and must write many dissenting decisions. She has become a liberal pop icon, known as "The Notorious RBG."

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[Chris Knipp]

HALF THE PICTURE (Amy Adrion 2018)
(http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36735#post36735)
Half the picture, women think, should be women. Hollywood is a very sexist community, more than most. The percentage of women actually directing films in Hollywood is minuscule, and it starts with a lot of women in film school studying to be directors. They get filtered out, and by the time you get to the top there are virtually none. Ava DuVernay was the first woman to get to make a $100 million movie. It didn't turn out to be very good,, but how many men have gotten to make lousy $100 million movies? Hundreds? Thousands? A talking heads picture. The EEOC has looked into this lately. They have brought charges against all the major studios for discrimination against women.

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[Chris Knipp]

TIGRE (Ulises Guardiola, Silvina Schnicer 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36736#post36736)

A heady tropical debut from Argentina. As island estate, family squabbles, burgeoning sexuality. Boom!

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[Chris Knipp]

THE WHITE GIRL (Jenny Suen, Christopher Doyle 2017) (Thierry Fremaux)

Famous Wong Kar-wai cinematographer Doyle may draw festival attention to this return-to-Hong Kong film, but frankly it's a non-starter. A wan mood piece about a girl who must hide from the sun, a street boy who sells mosquito coils and lives with a mute Buddhist priest who makes Rube Goldberg machines, and a Japanese pop Star who lives in an empty tower.

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[Chris Knipp]

The Golden Gate Awards for feature films and McBaine documentary feature competition.

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NATO MARVANIDZE IN SCARY MOTHER


The SFIFF does give awards, and their top ones are these, divided into documentary and fiction feature. Here are the 2018 nominees. Ten of each. The winners, announced Apr. 15, 2018, are in red. Links to the Filmleaf reviews. Given here are the SFIFF blurbs.

2018 GGA NEW DIRECTORS (NARRATIVE FEATURE) COMPETITION

Djon África, João Miller Guerra and Felipa Reis, Portugal/Brazil/Cape Verde (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4466-NEW-DIRECTORS-NEW-FILMS-2018-(March-28%96April-8-2018)-Festival-Coverage&p=36598#post36598)
At loose ends in Lisbon, Miguel (Miguel Moreira) is prompted by a chance encounter to search for the father he has never known in Cape Verde, where he encounters a diverse mélange of residents. From cheeky bus riders to a ribald farmwoman who serves as a kind of cultural griot, Guerra and Reis's winning and funny debut uses the road movie format as its jumping-off point for a culturally rich portrait of the verdant and beautiful landscapes of Cape Verde.

I Am Not a Witch, Rungano Nyoni, UK/France (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36708#post36708)
"The child is a witch," exclaim the villagers in the opening of this strikingly beautiful first feature by Rungano Nyoni. When young Shula is accused of witchcraft in her village, she is exiled, her movements constrained, and she is expected to perform miracles; however, she is not prepared to live this way forever. Employing breathtaking composition, Nyoni layers magical realism, satire, and social critique to blur reality with the surreal in this original and unforgettable story.

Night Comes On, Jordana Spiro, USA
Jordana Spiro's heartfelt and nuanced debut feature concerns Angel, just out of juvenile detention, and her sister, currently in a foster home. Angel is determined to confront her father about their past, while her sibling needs her to stay out of trouble so they can build on their bond. Newcomers Dominique Fishback (The Deuce) and Tatum Marilyn Hall give authentic and grounded performances, intimately capturing the close bond of sisterhood as they desperately try to remain a family against their complex circumstances.

Ravens, Jens Assur, Sweden (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36702#post36702)
A young boy, whose aspirations lie away from the family farm, tries to take a stand against his father, a stubborn and taciturn man who extols the virtues of toil and sacrifice. As their conflict butts up against challenging economic and emotional realities, the lives of all family members, including the boy's dissatisfied mother, are profoundly altered. With a stark visual sensibility and powerful performances, Assur's debut feature beautifully renders the story of a life that seems to offer little way out.

Scary Mother, Ana Urushadze, Georgia/Estonia (Filmleaf review-ND/NF 2018) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4466-NEW-DIRECTORS-NEW-FILMS-2018-(March-28%96April-8-2018)-Festival-Coverage&p=36544#post36544)
Manana, a wild-haired 50-something mother of three, has just written a book. The problem is that the novel is clearly autobiographical and leaves no family member unscathed. As the ramifications of her artistic endeavor unravel in compellingly bizarre fashion, Manana's single-minded pursuit of her new calling leads the film into brave and uncharted territory.

The Sower, Marine Francen, France (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4456-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2018&p=36553#post36553)
In a rural mountain village in 1851, it is up to the women to bring in the grain harvest after all their men have been arrested for sedition. Under these challenging circumstances, their livelihoods as well as their desire for children become an obsession and when a mysterious man appears, these concerns play out in continually surprising and erotic fashion in this frank, feverish, and ravishingly beautiful film.

Suleiman Mountain, Elizaveta Stishova, Kyrgyzstan/Russia (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36752#post36752)
Without preamble, a young Kyrgyz boy is taken out an orphanage and into the lives of his supposed parents who make ends meet by running various cons on unsuspecting villagers. Director Stishova weaves mythological and even comedic elements into a beautifully filmed tale that centers around the titular mountain, a mysterious and holy place where the prophet Solomon is said to be buried and where the film's characters aim to find their destinies.

Those Who Are Fine, Cyril Schäublin, Switzerland (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4466-NEW-DIRECTORS-NEW-FILMS-2018-(March-28%96April-8-2018)-Festival-Coverage&p=36601#post36601) (nd/ND/NF 2018 review)
Through striking framing, intense angles, fragmented scenes, and amusing conversations that at first seem to be unrelated, Those Who Are Fine weaves together stories of a young woman at a telemarketing company who takes advantage of the elderly by convincing them to give her large sums of cash. Director Cyril Schäublin's bold and precisely assembled debut astutely captures a world where every character is either on or using a device and surveillance is everywhere but fails to protect.

Tigre, Ulises Porra Guardiola and Silvina Schnicer, Argentina (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36736#post36736)
In a boarded-up family estate situated in Argentina's mysterious and ancient Tigre delta, three generations gather to decide whether to sell their property to developers. As the family navigates their relationship to their home, their interpersonal conflicts lead to them to a unique and beautiful farewell.

Winter Brothers, Hlynur Pálmason, Denmark/Iceland (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4466-NEW-DIRECTORS-NEW-FILMS-2018-(March-28%96April-8-2018)-Festival-Coverage&p=36539#post36539)(ND/NF 2018 review)
A powerful batch of moonshine made in the barracks of an industrial compound causes problems for Emil after his coworkers become ill. Already an outcast, resentment grows as he blunders everything that he tries to pursue—including the only woman in town. Set in an ashen-grey wilderness, where everything is covered in a clay-like dust, director Hlynur Pálmason's drama distinctly captures each character's bumbling rage with sly humor in this debut feature film.

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OLEG AFANASYEV in THE DISTANT BARKING OF DOGS

2018 GOLDEN GATE AWARDS MCBAINE DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION

City of the Sun, Rati Oneli, Georgia/USA/Qatar/Netherlands (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36748#post36748)
The lives, dreams, and desires of three stalwart denizens of a desolate Georgian mining town provide the framework for this observational and gorgeously rendered film. With precise attention to landscape and architecture, director Rati O'Neli focuses on Archil, a miner with an operatic flair for theater, the workouts of twin sprinters, and Zurab, an impassioned man working to keep Georgian music and culture alive.

The Distant Barking of Dogs, Simon Lereng Wilmont, Denmark/Sweden/Finland – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Filmleaf review (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36676#post36676)•Receives $10,000 cash prize
In the midst of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, a loving, wise, and defiant grandmother raises her two young grandsons. Living under the omnipresent threat of war, the spirited boys, Oleg and Yarik, learn to adapt to their precarious situation and playfully wander through their neighborhood oblivious to the dangers around them. With a warm gaze toward his beguiling protagonists, director Simon Lereng Wilmot lends sensitivity and entrancing visuals—intimately framed close-ups and vibrant rural landscapes—to deliver a nuanced portrait of war and its corrosive effect.

Hale County This Morning, This Evening, RaMell Ross, USA (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4466-NEW-DIRECTORS-NEW-FILMS-2018-(March-28%96April-8-2018)-Festival-Coverage&p=36603#post36603) (ND/NF review)
"I already had my troubles for today, so I can't worry about tomorrow," states Daniel, one of the protagonists in award-winning photographer RaMell Ross's inspired and intimate portrait of a place and its people. Set in an African-American community in rural Alabama where the director moves to coach basketball in 2009, the film captures small, but nevertheless precious, moments in Black lives—church services, a toddler running circles, an eclipse—with rapturous attention.

The Judge, Erika Cohn, USA/Palestine •Receives $5,000 cash prize
Judge Kholoud Al-Faqih became the first female appointed to any of the Middle East's Shari'a courts in 2009, challenging longstanding traditions and customs of women's roles in society. Constantly battling controversy over her position, Al-Faqih offers guidance, mentorship, and support both in and outside the courts. In this intimate portrait, director Erika Cohn captures the determined and compassionate judge as she strives to achieve justice in a system that so often does not favor women.

Minding the Gap, Bing Liu, USA (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36716#post36716)
In Rockford, Illinois, Bing Liu has been filming his friends Zack and Kiere on and off their skateboards for ten years. Weaving archival footage, interviews, and incredible skate videos, Liu chronicles in simple and poetic fashion the lives of his inner circle of friends and family, revealing the damaging circumstances in which they all grew up. Less a film about skate culture and more an unusual and powerful coming-of-age story, Liu's feature documentary is fresh and powerful.

The Next Guardian, Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó, Hungary/Netherlands (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36749#post36749)
In the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, teenage siblings, Gyembo and Tashi share a passion for soccer, Facebook, and girls. Gyembo enjoys reading classmates Facebook posts while Tashi turns heads with her confident, boyish demeanor. As technology and social media become more accessible, these youthful amusements collide with the father's desire for Gyembo to inherit the family monastery. Co-directors Arun Bhattarai and Dorottyya Zurbó present a penetrating and compassionate portrait of globalization and fundamental change in a country immersed in tradition and culture.

The Other Side of Everything, Mila Turajlić, Serbia/France/Qatar (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36712#post36712)
In 1945, filmmaker Mila Turajlić's (Cinema Komunisto, Festival 2011) family apartment was divided and redistributed by the state government. Her mother's political activism meant that they were spied on from the very rooms they used to own. Now her fascinating mother, Srbijanka, can talk about that "other side." A staunch public advocate and voice of resistance against Slobodan Milosevic for years, she discusses with her daughter their complicated personal and political histories, while reflecting on the divided past they share.

The Rescue List, Alyssa Fedele and Zachary Fink, USA/Ghana – WORLD PREMIERE (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36750#post36750)
Lake Volta in Ghana is the largest man-made lake in the world; it is also notorious as a locale for forced child labor. Bay Area filmmakers Zachary Fink and Alyssa Fedele's beautifully shot documentary charts the courageous efforts of a local safe house to rescue the kids, give them schooling and therapy, and prepare them for reintegration into their families. Though it contains many intimate and moving moments with the children, the star of the film is real life hero Kwame, who initiates several dramatic rescues and is a former child slave himself.

Shirkers, Sandi Tan, USA
"When I was 18, I had so many ideas," reflects Sandi Tan in this buoyant personal documentary. 25 years ago, Tan and two cinephile friends made a film in Singapore, but the reels disappeared, along with a mysterious man named Georges Cardona who had been acting as the project's mentor. Recently, the footage was found, which prompts this constantly surprising and reflective film about movie love, female friendship, and the urge for creative expression.

Tre Maison Dasan, Denali Tiller, USA – WORLD PREMIERE (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36692#post36692)
Tre, Maison, and Dasan are three boys who all share something in common—one of their parents is in jail. Following their separate lives through boyhood and weaving their stories together, first-time documentary filmmaker Denali Tiller tenderly observes each youngster's life, as the kids come to understand more about the world around them. Capturing loving, frustrating, and heart wrenching moments between parent and child, Tre Maison Dasan approaches the issue of mass-incarceration by exposing the effects of the criminal justice system on young men.

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[Chris Knipp]

Golden Gate Awards announced.


GOLDEN GATE NEW DIRECTORS AWARD (FICTION FEATURE)
The New Directors award is given to a debut feature by an international filmmaker whose work exhibits unique artistic sensibility or vision. The New Directors jury included Programmer Dilcia Barrera, Producer and Editor-in-Chief of Filmmaker Magazine Scott Macaulay, and Producer Adele Romanski.

SCARY MOTHER (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4466-NEW-DIRECTORS-NEW-FILMS-2018-(March-28%96April-8-2018)-Festival-Coverage&p=36544#post36544)
GGA New Directors Award winner: Scary Mother, Ana Urushadze (Georgia/Estonia)
Receives $10,000 cash prize
The jury awarded its Golden Gate prize to Ana Urushadze for Scary Mother “for its confident tone and unquestioning commitment to its fearless protagonist, a complicated artist caught between motherhood and the wilds of her own imagination.”

MCBAINE DOCUMENTARY FEATURE AWARD
For more than 60 years, a significant element of the SFFILM Festival has been its broad selection of acclaimed documentaries from across the globe. There are two awards in this category – Best Documentary and Best Bay Area Documentary. Films in the Bay Area Documentary Feature category are also eligible for the Best Documentary Feature award. This year’s Documentary Feature jury was comprised of filmmaker and journalist Carrie Lozano, journalist Noel Murray, and nonfiction filmmaker, visual artist, and writer AJ Schnack.

CITY OF THE SUN (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36748#post36748)
Special Jury Mention, McBaine Documentary Feature: City of the Sun, Rati Oneli (Georgia/USA/Qatar/Netherlands)
The jury granted this mention to Oneli’s film “for its stunning use of cinematography and sound design that immerses us in a place that is at once stark and stirring.”

THE DISTANT BARKING OF DOGS (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36676#post36676)
McBaine Documentary Feature Award Winner: The Distant Barking of Dogs, Simon Lereng Wilmont (Denmark/Sweden/Finland)
•Receives $10,000 cash prize
The jury described the Feature Award winner as “Remarkable, exquisite and unforgettable.”

THE JUDGE
McBaine Bay Area Documentary Feature Award: The Judge, Erika Cohn (USA/Palestine)
•Receives $5,000 cash prize
The jury applauded The Judge for "turning a lens on a charismatic and influential woman who is fighting for equality against all odds, and for its nuanced portrayal of a culture that is often misunderstood."

Links to the reviews. I have not had an opportunity to watch The Judge., or, among the nominees, Night Comes On or Shirkers.

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[Chris Knipp]

THE BIG BAD FOX & OTHER TALES/LE GRAND MÉCHANT RENARD & AUTRES CONTES (2017) (( Patrick Imbert, Benjamin Renner 2017))

A cute hand-drawn French animated film of an episodic nature.

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[Chris Knipp]

CITY OF THE SUN/ (Rati Oneli 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36748#post36748)

The filmmaker lived for years in New York. He went to the once important, now faded city of Chiatura, in Georgia (it once produced half the world's manganese), and reportedly has stayed back there. He worked with the excellent cinematographer Arseni Kachaturian to make this haunting and unusual film, focusing on a few people, a man who sells scrap metal and teaches music, a few miners, two girls training as Olympic runners who aren't getting enough to eat. He captures a unique mood and look of a cavernous ghost town, tearing itself apart and selling what's left, while a few linger and dance.

Honorable mention in the Golden Gate awards.

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[Chris Knipp]

THE NEXT GUARDIAN (Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36749#post36749)

Soccer-playing siblings, best mates, at a Buddhist temple-monastery in Bhutan, family-owned. They do not please their father much. She likes girls, as does he. To her disappointment, she washes out of soccer camp. He's supposed to train as a monk, and he's not enthusiastic. The filmmakers probably should have stayed around longer to see what was going to happen, but maybe they had other things to do.

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[Chris Knipp]

THE RESCUE LIST (Alyssa Fedele, Zachary Fink 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36750#post36750)

Slavery, unfortunately, is widespread in the modern world, and this is an example of it. Boys are sold into slavery to fishermen in Ghana, on Lake Volta, a huge man-made lake and forced to live a miserable life for years and years. Some are rescued and hidden away and taught to read and write, then returned to their families, if it seems safe. A thousand have been rescued, but about 10,000 may be on the lake still. A simple film that is cheering and yet deeply saddening.

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[Chris Knipp]

SULEIMAN MOUNTAIN/SULEIMAN TOO (Elizaveta Stishova 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36752#post36752)

A rarity, a feature made in Kyrgyzstan by an outsider, Russian Elizaveta Stishova. It's a road movie about a trio of con artists, a man and his two wives, one of whom "rescues" their son Uluk from an orphanage.

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[Chris Knipp]

THE JUDGE (Erika Cohn 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36760#post36760)

A doc about the first female sharia court judge in Palestine. I could have used a little more specific information, but Kholoud Al-Fakih is a strong and engaging personality and the basic outlines are here. Limited theatrical release Fri. Apr. 13, 2018, wider coming. Rolling release throughout the country. https://www.thejudgefilm.com/screenings/

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[Chris Knipp]

LOTS OF KIDS, A MONKEY AND A CASTLE/MUCHOS HIJOS, UN MONO Y UN CASTILLO (Gustavo Salmerón 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36762#post36762)

A quite hilarious home movie portrait of the actor Gustavo Salmerón's 's mother Juleta, who set those three goals for happiness and achieved them, and her chaotic late ife, entertaining simply because this real person and her family are fun to observe.

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[Chris Knipp]

Festival closing.

The SFIFF (April 4-17) has wrapped and reports they showed 242 screenings of 186 films from 45 countries, which were attended by some 300 filmmakers and industry guests. Over two weeks, the 2018 fest showed 59 narrative features, 38 documentary features, four New Visions features, two episodic programs, and a total of 83 short films.

Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade and Sam Green’s A Thousand Thoughts Won Audience Awards for Best Narrative Feature and Best Documentary. $40,000 worth of awards were granted to winners.

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[Chris Knipp]

GODARD, MON AMOUR (Michel Hazanavicius) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36721#post36721)

See Armond White's comment on this film (https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/movie-review-godard-mon-amour-terrible-but-important/) which he calls "appalling and entertaining." He says: "Even a bad film about Godard, as this one is, introduces people to his genius." And there is indeed that. Louis Garrel livens up his presence and I saw the trailer with a friend before re-watching Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really There and he said, "I want to see that."

Armond White's National Review piece is just out because it's in theaters now, in NYC at Quad Cinema. In Landmark Cinemas shortly coming to San Francisco's Embarcadero Cinema.

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[Chris Knipp]

CIVILIZATIONS: HOW DO WE LOOK? (BBC & PBS series) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36677#post36677)

(Finally got to watch this.)

A sample, the second hour-long episode of a nine-part series updating Kenneth Clark's famous 1969 one, "Civilization." Note the change from singular to plural. Likewise, the unifying voice of the single presenter has been replaced by three. Some new information, and new technology and a few important new archaeological findings, but Sir Kenneth's distinctive voice has not bee replaced with anything equally memorable. This starts out exactly sounding like a Fifties Encyclopedia Brittanica instructional film and never finds itself.

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[Chris Knipp]

P.s. A full review of Godard Mon Amour is up now, since it is out in theaters.

GODARD MON AMOUR (Michel Hazanavicius 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36721#post36721)


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[Chris Knipp]

WAJIB (Annemarie Jacir 2017) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36714#post36714)

On the one-year anniversary of this film's Locarno debut, I'm posting my full review of this Palestinian film about a son who now lives in Italy who temporarily returns to his native Nazareth for his sister's wedding confronting the daily tensions and generational conflicts of life as a restricted people in a Jewish state. Mohammad and Saleh Bakri, the actors who play the father and son who travel around town in the old family Volvo hand-delivering the wedding invitations in the traditional way, are real-life father and son. No US release of this film seems to be in sight.

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[Chris Knipp]

Now showing in theaters (20 Sept. 2018) from the SFIFF:

I Am Not a Witch (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4477-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2018&p=36708#post36708)

At:
Quad Cinema, NYC
Elmwood, Berkeley
Roxie, San Francisco

Metascore: 79%