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SF Int'l Womens Film Festival
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Friday, 02 April 2010 05:00
- Written by Lynne Shannon
The 6th annual San Francisco International Women's Film Festival is running April 7 to 11, 2010 at the Roxie Theater and other venues around the San Francisco Bay Area. This cavalcade of shorts and features, both documentary and otherwise, from a vast array of films by women all over the world make for a lavish feast of cinematic riches
The Opening Night Tribute Award will be presented to Peabody Award winning filmmaker Judith Helfand (Blue Vinyl), whose many contributions to cinema promote community building. She believes in "using films for engagement and social change" and as a filmmaker she participates in the environmental health and justice movement. 
This tribute includes the 20th anniversary of A Healthy Baby Girl, Helfand’s debut film about life after DES-related cancer. The film explores how the anti-miscarriage drug DES (administered to her mother during pregnancy) changed Helfand’s life and radically transformed her future.
Also shown is an excerpt from her Sundance Film Fesitval award-winning sequel, Blue Vinyl, and her short film Ek Velt, about the big move from the blue vinyl house. In addition to moderating panels, Helfand is also holding a special master class, as she shares storytelling strategies that lead to effective (even funny and entertaining) filmmaking and ‘call to action’ activism.
Included in this year’s Festival is LUNAFEST: Film Festival by, for, about Women, a selection of 10 short films from a widely diverse group of women, including Monday Before Thanksgiving, a short film made by Courtney Cox.
The Festival tracks include:
The Jane Campion Retrospective, featuring award-winning short films by the internationally acclaimed director who went on to helm The Piano, An Angel at My Table, Sweetie and Bright Star. The films are: A Girl's Own Story; Passionless Moments; and Peel, a Palme d'Or winner at Cannes.
"Girl Shorts", showcasing the best Lesbian Cinema from around the world.
"Making Herstory: Young Women in the Director's Chair", honoring the upcoming generation of women filmmakers
Children's Animation Program
Panels, including:
Local Filmmakers Panel: Documentary and Activism
Grant Guidelines, FAQ’s and best practices before applying
The Heroine's Journey: The Craft of Writing Female Characters with Pamela Gray
Documentaries include:
Orgasm Inc. Liz Canner’s film is a look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that attempt to determine our lives, our health, “and that ultimate moment: orgasm.”
21 Days To Nawroz, directed by Michelle Mama. This film explores the lives of three very different Kurdish women: a feminist attorney, an eight year-old girl, and a tech-savvy young woman, and the effect that experimental democracy really has on women.
Code Name: Butterflies, directed and written by Chilean filmmaker Cecilia Domeyko, tells the powerful story of the Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic who in the 1950s, under the code name 'Butterflies', created a secret resistance movement against dictator Rafael Trujillo, who had the women assassinated.
Indie Spotlight: Narrative films include:
Everyday Black Man, directed by Carmen Madden. A thoughtful man running a small neighbor
hood fruit and vegetable store takes on a young man as a partner, only to realize the younger man is selling more than just baked goods. The award-winning director is also making history as one of the first African American women to run a feature film studio.
Between Floors, directed by Jen White, examines the human condition through a uniquely claustrophobic lens, five stuck elevators and the people trapped inside them.
About SFWIFF
Filmmaker and community educator Scarlett Shepard founded the San Francisco Women’s Film Festival in 2004. Originally held at San Francisco State University, the success of its first run prompted Shepard to expand the festival beyond the SFSU campus and rename the festival. “SFWFF is a necessary step - women directors should no longer be left out or considered a side note in film festivals, film history and the film industry,” says Shepard.
For further information, visit www.sfwff.com.
San Francisco International Women's Film Festival
April 7-11, 2010
Roxie Theatre
3117 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 863-1087
SF Women's Building
3543 18th Street #8
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 431-1180
Plus other venues
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Serves Non-fiction Feast
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- Category: Previews
- Published on Wednesday, 31 March 2010 15:59
- Written by Laura Blum
For its 13th installment, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival opens with Kings of Pastry, about a French chef competition. The gastronomic theme pairs well with Full Frame's closing barbecue, a tradition that incarnates the Southern hospitality associated with this Durham, N.C., event, taking place April 8 to 11, 2010.
Yet not so long ago, a film celebrating quiche-eaters might not have enjoyed such a visible U.S. premiere. That this Gallic bakeoff by husband-and-wife filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus whets moviegoers' appetites suggests a cultural shift, since French fries were renamed "freedom fries" in the early days of the Iraq War.
America's battles, however, rage on, and one of the most highly anticipated films to be screened at this Full Frame follows a U.S. platoon in the deadly Korengal Valley of Afghanistan. Titled Restrepo, this collaboration between Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger won the Grand Jury award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and is touted as a corrective to the liberties taken in The Hurt Locker.
Another combat-themed film at Full Frame is How to Fold a Flag (pictured on our front page). The fourth installment in Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein's Iraq War series tracks the four U.S. soldiers introduced in Gunner Palace (2004) as they readjust to civilian life. An especially poignant scene concerns dishonorable discharge, which a vet suffering from post-traumatic disorders sees as a ruse to manage the demands on VA hospitals.
Compared against the recent past, programming director Sadie Tillery "would not say this year's films were especially bleak." The selection committee "culled together a mix from such a broad spectrum … some celebratory, some grim," she commented.
Of the more than 1,200 submissions that swarmed the Festival inbox, only 57 made it to the 2010 "New Docs" section.
Alex Gibney — whose Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) and Oscar laureate Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) graced previous Full Frame editions — returns with Casino Jack and the United States of Money. The gripping saga of lobbyist Jack Abramoff spans his early years as Republican cheerleader through his incarceration for fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials, by way of Indian casinos, Russian spies, Chinese sweatshops and Mafia-style murder in Miami, Fla. As depressing as it is enlightening, Gibney's crash course in the commerce of democracy bares the nightmarish potential of the American Dream.
Yoruba Richen's Promised Land also vies in the "New Docs" competition. This study of land claims cases in South Africa follows two black communities struggling to reclaim their inheritance from white citizens who gained ownership under apartheid.
Screening alongside the competition will be a program of films about labor, identity and globalization. The series, which was curated by the directing team of 
Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, includes China Blue. Micha X. Peled's clandestine exposé of blue-jeans manufacture in China squints the human aspects of globalization, and makes you rethink what really comes between you and your denims.
Bognar and Reichert's latest film, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, will be screened in the "Invited" category alongside such works as Michel Gondry's family album, The Thorn in the Heart, and Steven Soderbergh’s look back on monologist Spaulding Grey, And Everything is Going Fine.
This year's Career Award honors Liz Garbus and Rory Kennedy, makers of films on the legal system, AIDS, human rights and other social issues involving everyday heroes.
The four-day Festival, which is jointly presented with Duke University, offers conversations with filmmakers, workshops, parties and a handful of free community screenings.
For now, it has no plans to follow a small but growing roster of film festivals entering the distribution business. This could change under new executive director Dierdre Haj, though Tillery doesn't consider herself "a distributor or someone who can negotiate that deal."
"We made a conscious decision not to be a market," she adds. Nor does the Festival require premieres. "It's important for filmmakers to show as at many platforms as possible," explains Tillery.
The current thrust of Full Frame's industry ambitions is to allow "filmmakers to see one another's work and…have time to sit down with and enjoy coffee and discuss what they just saw." Set within a single downtown block, the Festival nurtures an atmosphere of sanity by the mere fact that "you're not running to the next shuttle or screening," says Tillery.
For further details, consult www.fullframefest.org
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
324 Blackwell Street, Suite 500
Washington Building, Bay 5
Durham, NC 27701
(919) 687-4100
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
And for FFTraveler's coverage of Durham proper go to: http://filmfestivaltraveler.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=678:durham-nc-&catid=105:travel-feature&Itemid=107
New Directors/New Films Reveals Lineup
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- Category: Previews
- Published on Tuesday, 23 March 2010 05:00
- Written by Laura Blum
For 39 years now, the first sign of spring is a mating dance between the Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center called New Directors/New Films. The series culls the latest creations from directors who themselves tend to be recently hatched.
ND/NF opens on March 24, 2010, at MoMA with the premiere of Bill Cunningham New York. Richard Press's feature debut trails the New York Times photographer as he goes about his "Style" beat, documenting the latest street fashions while darting around on his Schwinn. Produced by former Times staffer Philip Gefter, the nonfiction film also looks back on Cunningham's long life and career. Be prepared to gulp during the climactic moment when this happy compulsive turns as blue as his hallmark work jacket.Noteworthy selections include Mia Hansen-Løve's Father of My Children (Le père de mes enfants) and exiled Iranian video artist Shirin Neshat's Women Without Men. Coincidentally, both stories pivot on a suicide.
Dima El-Horr's Lebanese drama, Every Day Is a Holiday (Chaque jour est une fête) is another standout on the New Directors/New Films fiction lineup. Yet the surest bets are on its documentaries. 
Opening NightIn a city of dedicated originals, New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham stands out as one who both knows how to capture the essence of the singular personality and clearly represents one himself. Entering his ninth decade, Cunningham still rides his Schwinn around Manhattan, putting miles between his street-level view of personal style and what the titans of fashion will come to discover down the road. This heartfelt and honest documentary turns the camera on one who has so lovingly and selflessly captured the looks that have defined generations. And in the photographer’s chronicles of the events and people that captivate our beloved city, the film is just as much a portrait of New York as of Cunningham.
Directed by Xavier Dolan
Dolan’s cri de coeur bracingly exposes the limits of love. Dolan himself plays the lead character, Hubert, a fiery creature full of lust and venom. His burgeoning (homo)sexuality is distinctly and intensely at odds with his mutually parasitic maternal relationship. The more Hubert and his aggravatingly conventional mother (Anne Dorval) realize they cannot continue to live as child and parent, the more they are drawn to each other. Their intimacy can only manifest through vicious arguments, lending an Albee-esque absurdity to their encounters. Dolan brilliantly situates the violence of the relationship within an exquisite filmic structure, allowing the humor and the pathos of his tale to emerge. A Regent Releasing release.
Directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani.
The title is the French word for “bitter” but this provocative and sensational debut is anything but. An oneiric, eroticized homage to 1970s Italian giallo horror movies re-imagined as an avant-garde trance film, Cattet and Forzani’s pastiche tour de force plays out a delirious, enigmatic, almost wordless death-dance of fear and desire. Its three movements, each in a different style, correspond to the childhood, adolescence and adulthood of its female protagonist – and that’s all you need to know. Drawing its stylized, hyperbolic gestures from the playbooks of Bava, Leone, Argento, and De Palma and taking them into a realm of near-abstraction, Amer has genre in the blood. Its bold wide-screen compositions, super-focused sound, emphatic music (lifted from original giallo soundtracks) and razor-sharp cuts make for an outrageous and intoxicating cinematic head-trip.
For two boys locked in a basement, boundaries become blurred between dream and reality, light and shadow, life and death. 13 min.
Beautiful Darling: The Life and Times of Candy Darling, Andy Warhol SuperstarWritten and directed by James Rasin
Born James Slattery in Massapequa, Long Island, in 1944, Candy Darling transformed herself into a stunning blonde actress who in the mid-60s became an active player in New York’s “downtown” scene. In her passionate act of self-creation, Candy Darling mesmerized. A party fixture, she appeared in Warhol films, and Tennessee Williams cast her in a play. She was seen and written about, and then, before she turned 30, cancer claimed her life. Using vintage footage and interviews old and new, and anchored by the presence of Candy’s very close friend, Jeremiah Newton, director James Rasin creates a critical and loving portrait of a singular and audacious life. With Jackie Curtis, Holly Woodlawn, Penny Arcade, Paul Morrissey, Fran Lebowitz, John Waters. Candy’s letters and diaries read by Chloë Sevigny.
Directed by Sultan Sharrief.
For almost 60 years, Bilal’s family has run a taxi business — known to everybody in the neighborhood as “the stand” — started by his grandfather. But times are getting tougher: there’s more competition, and Bilal is thinking of leaving the stand and going off to university. Based on a true story, Bilal’s Stand is a delightful and moving look at a world rarely seen: a stable, loving, black Muslim family, struggling to keep a business alive amid both internal and external pressures. For his crew, debut director Sultan Sharrief used many of the students from EFEX, the inner-city outreach program he founded in his native Detroit, as well as many nonprofessional actors, some of them playing themselves.
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
The most perverse film of the year — you’ll be scratching your head when you’re not laughing it off. In an inscrutable scenario that suggests a warped experiment in social conditioning and control, Dogtooth presents scenes from the life of a not-so-average family that inhabits an idyllic villa compound sealed off from all contact with the outside world. In a new spin on home schooling, the head of the household has taught his adolescent children a drastically rearranged vocabulary: a salt shaker is a “telephone,” an armchair is “the sea” and &mdashyou get the idea. Moreover, to attend to the teenagers’ sexual needs, he arranges occasional visits from a female employee. With echoes of Buñuel, Arturo Ripstein, and early Atom Egoyan, this is a deadpan satire on patriarchy and the sexual Pandora’s box concealed within every family. A Kino International release.
Down TerraceDirected by Ben Wheatley
Mike Leigh meets The Sopranos in this extraordinary family crime drama, shot in eight days largely in one location. Fresh out of jail, Bill (Robert Hill) is obsessed with finding out who snitched on him. His son, Karl (Robin Hill), also just released, is similarly concerned but has other things on his mind — namely, what to do about his pregnant girlfriend. Bill, eager to ferret out the informer, lays out a series of traps and ruses for his associates — that is, when he’s not singing old Fairport Convention songs while accompanying himself on guitar. Director Ben Wheatley (BBC’s The Wrong Door) makes a powerful feature-film debut, creating an astonishing sense of normalcy laced with jet-black humor. A Magnet release. 89 min.
Juliette lives with her two siblings and mother, and while a bit shy, seems to lead an average life. Then she develops a crush on her French teacher, Madame Solenska (Belgian-Portuguese singer Lio), who at first seems to appreciate her pupil’s admiration. Juliette becomes convinced that she’s as special to Madame Solenska as she feels the teacher is to her. But the crush veers off into obsession, as Juliette starts to follow Madame Solenska around town and even to her home. Myriam Aziza beautifully captures the stifling small-town atmosphere, as well as the complex, contradictory emotional life of this twelve-year-old: even if Juliette’s feelings are misguided or naïve, they are no less susceptible to being hurt. Lio is terrific as the teacher, a proud woman comfortable with her beauty.
Directed by Babak Jalali
Written and directed by Radu Jude
The Romanians are back with another bone-dry, pitch-black comedy — this time bearing a particularly cynical view on happiness, the cruelty of families, and the making of inept television commercials. In his feature-film debut, Radu Jude is already a master of uneasy hilarity. When a plucky provincial duckling of a young lady wins a contest, she must travel with her parents to the buzzing metropolis of Bucharest to claim her prize. But there’s a catch — in fact, there are several, the most troublesome aimed straight from home… Jude’s film is a bittersweet experience that’s as nasty as it is enjoyable, and as true to life as fiction can get over one hot summer afternoon. And as “the happiest girl,” Andrea Bosneag is a breakthrough discovery.
Immersing us in the frozen wilds of the Russian Arctic, writer/director Alexei Popogrebsky makes an impressive addition to the canon of films about man’s extraordinary ability to cope with harsh nature and extreme isolation. Young Pavel (Grigory Dobrygin) arrives at a remote research station for a summer of adventure under the tutelage of the wise and crusty Sergei (Sergei Puskepalis), whose multi-year tour of duty is coming to an end. Misplaced confidence and youthful immaturity lead to a string of potentially deadly deceptions. The deliberate pace of life in the Arctic, combined with the disorienting round-the-clock sunlight, sets the stage for a thriller infused with equal parts psychological trauma and physical endurance. Winner of three Silver Bears (for both lead actors and cinematography) at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival.
Directed by Sander Burger
Newlyweds and childhood sweethearts Tako and Sandra lead a cute suburban life. Tako relocated from the city to marry Sandra and runs the family bike business; she seems happy working at a small employment agency. Both the couple and their apartment look ripped from this season’s Ikea catalogue — everything is perfectly lovely. Then things get even better: Sandra is pregnant. But the good news starts a small crack in the adorable façade that grows as the characters pull at it. Tako decides to take this opportunity to grow up, while Sandra, suffering from an eating disorder, begins to slim down — and the pretty scenery of their life starts to fall away. Panicked about the future, Tako takes increasingly drastic measures. In his second feature film, director Sander Burger paints a sharp and trenchant portrait of the pitfalls of happiness.
Directed by Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat
Night Catches Us Directed by Tanya Hamilton
Hamilton's debut feature exposes the realities of African-American life during the final days of the Black Power movement, as potluck suppers, run-ins with the authorities, and lingering radicalism threaten to set off a neighborhood teetering on the edge. Set in Philadelphia in 1976, Night Catches Us focuses on two former Black Panther activists (Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington) who reunite during the summer before Jimmy Carter’s election. Through two people drawn together despite their past, the film paints a fresh perspective of the era and gives an allegory for our own times in the age of Obama. Playing two friends forced to confront personal and political demons, Mackie and Washington give spectacular performances, while Hamilton’s use of a compelling soundtrack (by The Roots) and moving archival footage bring to life the history of black resistance.
Directed by Mads Brügger.
Tehroun
Women Without MenSF Int'l Asian American Film Festival
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Sunday, 14 March 2010 06:00
- Written by Lynne Shannon
The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival runs March 11-21, 2010 at the 
Castro Theatre and Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in San Francisco, and other venues, and, in conjunction, the festival is also being held for the ninth year in San Jose on March 19-21.
Presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the 28th edition showcases an array of films that span the genres, from international horror and romantic comedies to documentaries on poet/ activists and a Japanese American Black Panther.
This year's edition of the largest festival dedicated to Asian and Asian American films also coincides with the 30th anniversary of CAAM, and to celebrate they present a lineup of live events, interactive projects, online contests and more.
Leading films are:
The Opening Night Gala film, Today’s Special, directed by David Kaplan, starring Aasif Mandvi (The Daily Show), Naseeruddin Shah and celebrity chef Madhur Jaffrey. A sous-chef whose life is turning to hash finds renewal with some unlikely characters.
The Centerpiece Film, The People I've Slept With, directed by Quentin Lee, is a new comedy about a promiscuous young woman who suddenly finds herself pregnant. Starring Karin Anna Cheung (Better Luck Tomorrow), Archie Kao (CSI) and James Shigeta.
The Closing Night Gala film is Au Revoir Taipei, directed by Arvin Chen, which follows a lovesick boy and a female bookstore clerk through the sights and streets of nighttime Taipei in their quest for love.
Other features in this awesome lineup include:
God is D_ad, directed by Abraham Lim, won the Best Picture award at last week's Korean Film Festival in Los Angeles. This road trip gathers together some strangers headed for a gamers' tournament in Chicago for a journey that prompts the question: are we bound by free will, an omniscient God or the roll of the Dungeon Master's dice?
The U.S. Premiere of The Message, directed by Chen Kuo-fu and Gao Qunshu. In Japanese-occupied Nanjing, “the Phantom” is leaking Japanese secrets to the resistance. Five suspects are rounded up: will they destroy one another—and the resistance—to save themselves? Starring Li Bingbing and Zhou Xun (Suzhou River).
Hong Kong’s entry for this year’s Academy Awards is Prince of Tears, directed by Yonfan. Two young sisters come of age during Taiwan’s brutal anti-communist crackdowns of the ‘50s.
Documentaries include:
The World Premiere of Lessons of the Blood, directed by James T. Hong and Yin-Ju Chen. This film is a brilliant exploration of the explosive and contested history of Japanese atrocities and biological warfare in China during WWII.
Aoki, directed by Mike Cheng and Ben Wang, highlights the life of Bay Area Japanese American activist Richard Aoki (1938 – 2009), a founding member of the Black Panther Party. From a Japanese internment camp to the Vietnam War and a friendship with Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, Aoki’s remarkable life and activism is covered through interviews, contemporary footage and archival material.
State of Aloha, directed by Anne Misawa reveals that despite its reputation, the 50th state in the Union is far from an idyllic paradise. Narrated by Hawai’i resident Jason Scott Lee, this documentary explores the hot-button controversies surrounding Hawai’ian statehood and all that it has entailed.
Other special presentations:
A Retrospective of Lino Brocka, the first Filipino director to screen at Cannes. The four films selected for screening are:
Manila in the Claws of Neon, about a young provincial looking for his lost love in Manila; You Have Been Weighed and Found Wanting, about a sensitive young man who is drawn to the outcasts of his small town; Insiang, about a young woman in the slums of Tondo whose efforts to respect her "serpent-like" are blown apart by the mother's younger lover; and Bayan Ko, about how depoliticized individuals are still, no matter what, destroyed by economic circumstances. The film’s Cannes screening caused a furious Marcos regime to revoke Brocka’s citizenship.
This year’s "Spotlight" is on Oscar and Emmy-award winning producer, director and writer Freida Lee Mock (Maya Lin: a Strong Clear Vision). Two of her latest documentaries are screened, and she will be present for discussions following the screenings.
Lt. Watada – Lieutenant Ehren Watada is the bravest man in the military, or the best friend of Al Qaeda, depending on whom you ask. Mock’s riveting documentary tells the lieutenant’s tale, from heroic enlister in the armed forces to famed resister of the Iraq War.
Sing China! – The Los Angeles Children’s Chorus tours across a China preparing for the Beijing Olympics. Part travelogue of a nation on the verge of change, part cultural investigation of American preteens having their eyes opened to a new world, and all an extraordinary musical experience.
Other festival events include
The Bonesetter’s Daughter: Making of an Opera (Working Title ) is a work-in-progress screening of a new opera written by Amy Tan from her novel, sung by the San Francisco Opera.
"Up Close & Personal with the Asian American Film Industry," a session with top film producer Karin Chien (The Motel, Robot Stories).
"Imagining Atrocity: City of Life and Death and the Nanjing Massacre on Film," presented by Michael Berry, Associate Professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies at UC Santa Barbara.
"Best Fest Photo Contest": Attendees can submit their Festival photos and enter to win a Flip Video MinoHD Camcorder plus two Fast Passes to the 2011 SFIAAFF. Entries in three categories:
Paparazzi – Snap photos of favorite Festival celebrities
Places and Spaces – Get shots of the many beautiful & iconic venues of the Festival
Fest Faces, sponsored by shu uemura – Capture all the fabulous faces of the Festival
About the Festival
The Center for Asian America Media presents the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) every March. The SFIAAFF is the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asian films, annually presenting approximately 120 works in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose. Since 1982, the SFIAAFF has been an important launching point for Asian American independent filmmakers as well as a vital source for new Asian cinema.
For more information, visit festival.asianamericanmedia.org.
San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
March 11-21, 2010
Castro Theatre
29 Castro St., San Francisco
415-621-6120
Sundance Kabuki Cinemas
1881 Post St., San Francisco
415-346-3243
