Tiger Beat

All in This Tea on Jaman through Friday

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

David Hoffman, Gina Leibrecht & Les Blanks talking about All in This Tea

            

           

   

I'll write more about the  free rental of a few of the films at the San Francisco International Film Festival on Jaman,
but I wanted to let people know that All in This Tea by Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht is available as a free rental on Jaman until sometime Friday or 100 copies have been downloaded (as of 4 pm on Thursday, it has been downloaded 32 times).

It will be released on DVD when they've raised about $20,000 (half of that for music rights).  Donations can be made online (scroll down to the Tea Project).

Blank's 1973 film Dry Wood, "a glimpse into the life, food, and Mardi Gras celebrations of black Creoles in French Louisiana, featuring the stories and music of 'Bois Sec' Ardoin and Canray Fontenot," is available for free streaming online at Folkstreams.

Blank will receive the 2007 Edward MacDowell Medal.    Past winners have included  Thornton Wilder, Robert Frost, Alexander Calder, Edward Hopper, Eudora Welty, Georgia O'Keeffe, Stan Brakhage, Joan Didion, Chuck Jones, Merce Cunningham, and Steve Reich.

Update: AITT is no longer available.  There were about 80 downloads.  Thanks to Scott Beale for writing about it (based on an update to twitter before I even wrote this post).  But more films will be available starting on Sunday.  There are also several Tribeca films available.

Originally posted on tigerbeat.vox.com

Persistence of Vision Award: Heddy Honigmann

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Heddy Honigmann & John Anderson

            

           

   

Last night, Heddy Honigmann (site is in Dutch) received the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award (more photos).  She was interviewed by John Anderson (who wrote an essay about her for the festival catalog).  She said for her, interviews with subjects are conversations, that too many filmmakers have an agenda with their questions and don't really listen to  what people are saying.  Anderson said that empathy is a term which is often used when talking about her films.

She talked about the difficulty she was having raising funding for her next film on the history of the last 30 years of Peru told through the stories of  waiters, bartenders, and small shop owners.  When she said it was much worse for documentaries in Europe now, Anderson said it is still much better than in the US.

Forever, her film on the Père-Lachaise Cemetery is in Paris where Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Marcel Proust, Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein and many others are buried, was screened. Max Goldberg wrote about the documentary for the Bay Guardian. It will be shown again at 7 pm on Wednesday, May 2nd at PFA (which had a retrospective of her films in 2003).

It will be released in September by First Run Films which has distributed several of her films.  She said a DVD box set of her films will be out next year.

Originally posted on tigerbeat.vox.com

The Conversation continues...

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Invasion of the Bodysnatchers & the Conversation

            

           

   

People associate the San Francisco International Film Festival with cinema venues like the Castro (where a double feature of by some of the filmmakers who were in Sunday's Fog City Mavericks is playing tonight), the Kabuki, and PFA, but last year the festival started showing films at satellite venues.   

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Fabricating Tom Zé

            

           

   

The satellite screenings continue this year with Fabricating Tom Zé at El Rio tonight (tickets are only $5).  Tom Zé says at the beginning of the documentary that concerts are boring.  His performances and this documentary on him are anything but boring.  Zé is part of the Tropicália movement in Brazil (Carlos Basuldo talked about Tropicália at the SF Art Institute in January - scroll down on their podcast page to listen to it).  NPR profiled Zé last year.  There won't Ze's traditional five encores tonight, but you can get some of his music which is available from David Byrne's Luka Bop label.

Although El Rio is mostly a music venue, they do show films including the Hub Collective's free Televising the Revolution Radical Film Series which takes play on the fourth Tuesday of every month (the next is on May 22nd at 8 pm).

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Rob Nilsson at the Fog City Mavericks screening

            

           

   

Also, tonight through Thursday, May 3rd, films from Rob Nilsson's Nine@Night series will be shown in Justin Herman Plaza starting at 7 pm.  Four of his films will be available for a limited time on Jaman starting on May 7th (I'll write more about the SFIFF Jaman films soon).

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Jon Else and Peter Sellars - Wonders are Many: the Making of  Doctor Atomic

            

           

   

There also are two screenings of Jon Else's Wonders are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic at 7 pm and 9:30 pm on Sunday, May 6th at Intersection for the Arts (tickets are $5 at the door).  Some photos from Sunday's Castro screening.  Stanley Nelson's Jonestown: the Life and Death of People's Temple which was shown at Intersection last year was on PBS last month and is now out on DVD.

Originally posted on tigerbeat.vox.com

Sunday at the film festival with Peter Sellars

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Peter Sellars answering questions after Wonders are Many: the Making of Doctor Atomic

            

           

   

Peter Sellars will be introducing two films he commissioned, Opera Jawa at 12:30 pm at the Castro and Daratt at 2:45 pm at SMOMA.   He'll also be giving the State of Cinema address at 4 pm at the Kabuki.

Wonders are Many screens several more times.

Originally posted on tigerbeat.vox.com

Documentary double feature

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Steve Kurtz - Critical Art Ensemble

            

           

   

Although it isn't an actual double feature, you can see two of the best documentaries at the San Francisco
International Film Festival tonight at the Castro (one of the best theaters in the country).  Strange Culture is playing
at 6 pm and Wonders are Many screens at 9 pm.

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Josh Kornbluth, Lynn Hershman Leeson, & Steve Kurtz

            

           

   

Steve Kurtz, the subject of Strange Culture gave a talk about his work with the Critical Art Ensemble at SFMOMA in March and then Lynn Hershman Leeson showed a few scenes and outtakes from the documentary about Kurtz and the government's Kafkaesque criminal prosecution of him.

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Jon Else in a workshop on Wonders are Many

            

           

   

Jon Else's the Wonders are Many tells story of the creation of the atomic bomb and the creation of  the opera, Doctor Atomic.  At a workshop at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism (where he chairs the documentary program), he said a lot of new material has come out since the Day After Trinity was released in 1981.  Doctor Atomic even uses the text of recently declassified material as part of the libretto and Wonders includes footage of atomic tests which have never been seen before.

Composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars (who is also giving the State of Cinema address Sunday at 4 pm at the Kabuki) will be at tonight's screening.  Judy Stone wrote about Wonders for the LA Times and Michael Fox interviewed Else for SF360.  I interviewed Else about his previous documentary on opera, Sing Faster. 

Both fillms are showing several other times at the festival.

Originally posted on tigerbeat.vox.com

Musical movies at the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Johnathan Richman

            

           

   

Every year, the San Francisco International Film Festival asks a musician (or band) to compose a score for a silent film. This year, Jonathan Richman (who lives in Glen Park) has chosen The Phantom Carriage which will be shown on Friday, April 27th at 7 pm at the Castro.

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Harry Smith: Old Weird America

            

           

   

It is too bad The Old Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music wasn't ready to play at last year's festival.  Deerhoof performed with a program of Harry Smith's animated films.   The documentary, produced by the Harry Smith Archives, screens four times starting on April 27th at PFA.  It is also available as part of the Harry Smith Project (but don't miss the chance to see and hear it in a theater).

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Devil's Canyon by Kelly Sears

            

           

   

Notes to a Toon Underground is a program of animated films accompanied by 11 musician including Jason Lytle (Grandaddy) and Jamie Stewart and Caralee McElroy (Xiu Xiu).  It takes place at the Castro on Saturday, May 5th at 8:30 pm.  Kimberly Chun writes in the Guardian about animator Kelly Sears.

                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Guy Maddin accepting the Persistence of Vision award

            

           

   

Guy Maddin received the Persistence of Vision award last year (this year it goes to Heddy Honigmann).  He returns with Brand Upon the Brain! which will feature live music led by Beth Custer and narration by Joan Chen.  It screens on Monday, May 7th at 8 pm at the Castro and is co-sponsored by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

When the film was shown at the Berlin Film Festival, Maddin wrote about the over 1800 people who were going to see it :

I hope against hope I may quell all their trepidation. Silent film is arid, they fear. Silent film is corny, they fear. Silent film is slow, stale and black & white, they fear. The possibility of a glute-deadening boredom is what preys on their minds most.

So I have recruited allies for what I like to call “boredom insurance”: live orchestral accompaniment (always good for securing the audience’s goodwill) playing an original wall-to-wall score; a narrator of exquisite Scanditalian flutiness in the person of Isabella Rossellini; three Foley artists producing more than 600 live sound effects; and an authentic castrato from Winnipeg who can produce the most unearthly and unlikely warblings from within his roughly hewn, adult and completely hairless torso.

All of them will be visible to the audience as silhouettes feverishly working to cast out their night sabbath spells from the stage directly in front of the unspooling images of my misbegotten film. I’m counting on a supernatural fusion of these live elements and the ghostly projections to supply the spark of life that will re-animate silent film once and for all and make believers of the skeptics. Please pray for my soul!

Click To Play

S.T. VanAirsdale discusses the narrative feature film, "Vitus" with director, Fredi M. Murer and young piano prodigy turned lead actor, Teo Gheorghiu.

There are many more music related films and events, but I'll just mention the delightful Vitus which plays on Sunday, May 5th at noon at the Clay (the video above is an interview with the director and star).

Originally posted on tigerbeat.vox.com

50 Years of the San Francisco International Film Festiva

The San Francisco International Film Festival opens Thursday night at the Castro and runs through May 10th, but the celebration of the festival's 50th anniversary began earlier this year with a launch of a website devoted to the history of the oldest film festival in the United States.

In March, sf360 editor Susan Gerhard, creative director Miguel Pendás, photographer Pamela Gentile, and History Project Coordinator Jennifer Preissel gave a presentation on the site at the Apple Store (more photos).

It is possible to search for any film or guest, and there are Great Moments stories on Les Blank (who is showing All in this Tea this year), Jack Lemmon, Jack Nicholson, Mary Pickford, Abbas Kiarostam, The Talking Heads, and many others. 

The story on Bette Davis includes a PDF of her letter to the festival which includes her suggestions for film clips (with a brief comment on each movie).  There is an MP3 of Davis, and more MP3s of other guests in the Closeups section. 

There are also videos (a player is linked from the the Closeups section).  There are short clips including last year's sold out tribute at the Castro to Werner Herzog, and an excerpt from Tilda Swinton's State of  Cinema address  (the full text is online - this year Peter Sellars is giving the address on Sunday at 4 pm at the Kabuki). 

There are also trailers from past years, and a short film by Christian Bruno and Sam Green (who is a  judge
this year for the documentary short Golden Gate Awards), Pie Fight '69.

The Our History section includes oral histories from Jerry Mander (author of Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television and a publicist for the fest in the early sixties), Jeannette Etheredge (the owner of Tosca Cafe), and others.  Etheredge is scheduled take part in a special edition of the Porchlight storytelling series, Five-O: Stories and Images from 50 Years of the SF International at the Kabuki on Tuesday, May 8th at 6:30 p.m.  People can contribute their own stories about the festival in the Collective Memory section of the site.

There will be more stories and history during The True Story of the World: On the Road at 50, at the Kabuki on Monday, April 30 at 6:30 pm.  Peter Coyote, Diane DiPrima, and Michael McClure will discuss Kerouac's book which was published the same year the festival started.

The Chronicle has a page which includes Ruthe Stein's short pieces on each year of the festival and other coverage.  B. Ruby Rich (who talked about the importance of film festivals in her 2004 State of the Cinema address) interviewed the festival staff about the history of the fest for sf360.

Originally posted on tigerbeat.vox.com

Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

                                                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

            

           

   

Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple airs Monday, April 9th on most PBS stations (also available on DVD).

                                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Stanley Nelson

            

           

   

Stanley Nelson's documentary tells a story we still need to see.  That shows we need to look at any leader or movement critically no matter how good their politics seem.

                           

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Stanley Nelson - Medium Rare

            

           

   

Also, this interview Nelson did a year ago with former San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez.

Nelson's website has a screening kit.  He made an excellent documentary about the Black Press.


A San Francisco Chronicle series from 1998.


Lots of links at the end  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown

Originally posted on tigerbeat.vox.com

China Blue

                                                       

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Independent Lens "China Blue" | PBS

            

           

   

China Blue airs on many PBS stations tonight (check local listings - it is on KQED at 10:30 pm).

Even if you aren't wearing something now that was made in China, something in your closet probably was.  This documentary  introduces you to some of the women who make clothes and the conditions they work under. 

Actually, many aren't even women.  Some are as young as 14 and work up to 20 hours a day with no overtime.  For about 6 cents an hour.

Bay area filmmaker (and former Media Alliance exec director) Micha Peled is able to show a story few people have seen before.

He became interested in how our clothes when they made the website for his previous documentary, Chain Wars - When Wal-Mart Comes to Town.

He made the film illegally in China.   And if you watch it, you can see why they don't want films like this made.

One former factory supervisor describes how they were warned when there would be an inspection.  A worker describes how there are two sets of timecards.  One for when there is an inspection.  The other for their real wages.


An interview (mp3) with Peled from Your Call Radio.



Also on PBS tonight is So Much, So Fast (on KQED at 9 pm).

Originally posted on tigerbeat.vox.com

On Vox: Race to Execution

Rachel Lyon, Race to Execution

Race to Execution airs Tuesday, March 27 on many PBS stations as part of Independent Lens (check local listings - it is on at 11 pm on KQED in San Francisco).  The documentary looks at two death penalty cases and
the role race played in them.
  

Barbara Becnel

There was a screening of the documentary and panel discussion on Feb. 22.  Barbara Becnel talked about
witness the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams.  More Community Cinema screenings.

Originally posted on tigerbeat.vox.com