San Francisco International Film Festival kicks off Wednesday night with Sean Wang’s “Dìdi—tributes to Chiwetel Ejiofor, Joan Chen; awards to Johan Grimonprez, Gary Meyer
There’s something undeniably special about sitting in a theater with others and experiencing a story unfold on the big screen. The experience is made even better when there’s an illuminating on-stage conversation with an actor or director. The 67th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFilm) opens Wednesday evening and runs through Sunday, offering over 80 films from 40 countries with 12 world, 8 North American, and 5 US premieres and lots of talent in attendance. The majority of screenings this year are at six theaters in San Francisco’s Presidio and Marina neighborhoods and at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMFA). The move to the Marina District is great news for North Bay Residents who can now easily access the festival right off the Golden Gate Bridge and avoid the off-putting parking hassles that the festival has long posed for who came by car.
ARThound recently published a “top picks” feature for films with filmmakers/stars in attendance. Here, I profile opening and closing nights and the festival four special tributes and awards programs, each featuring the honored guest in conversation with a highly accomplished moderator and a screening of a special film the awardee has either directed, acted in, or selected. These wonderful in-depth programs are very thoughtfully curated, offering the chance to really expand your film take-away.
Opening Night: Sundance audience award winner, “Dìdi,” opens the festival on Wednesday night. Bay Area director Sean Wang’s debut feature is set in Fremont and follows 13-year-old Taiwanese American Chris (Izaac Wang) in the fleeting months prior to his freshman year as he clumsily navigates life. Joan Chen, plays his mother. Wang was recently nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary for his warm humanistic short, “Nai Nai and Wài Pó,” about his maternal and paternal grandmothers (SFFilm 2023). An Opening Night Party follows at Fort Mason’s 308 Gallery. (2023, USA, 90 min)
Closing Night: Sunday evening’s closer is Josh Margolin’s “Thelma,” starring June Squibb, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, Malcolm McDowell, Fred Hechinger and Richard Roundtree. When a phone scammer steals 93 year-old widow Thelma’s nest egg (Squibb), she and her friend Ben (“Shaft” star Richard Roundtree in his final performance) use their social invisibility and elder-age devices to pursue the thief. (2023, USA, 97 min) Screens: Sunday 7:15 PM, Premier One Theater at One Letterman (Director Josh Margolin, actor June Squibb, and producers Chris Kaye and Zoe Worth will attend this screening only) and 8 PM, Marina Theatre.
POV Award: Johan Grimonprez +”Soundtrack for a Coup d’Etat” (Thursday, April 25, 6:30-9:40 PM, BAMPFA)
Established in 1997, the Persistence of Vision Award (POV) honors the achievement of a filmmaker whose main body of work falls outside the realm of narrative feature filmmaking. Belgian filmmaker and multimedia artist Johan Grimonprez’s feature films include dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (Festival 1998), Double Take (2009), and Shadow World (Festival 2016). His curatorial projects have exhibited at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; and MoMA. His art works are in the collections of Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; and Tate Modern, London. He will be in conversation with Moderator Fumi Okiji, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, UC Berkeley, whose work addresses black studies, critical theory, and sound and music studies as avenues of understanding modern life. His documentary, “Soundtrack for a Coup d’Etat,” interweaves interviews, archival footage, and more to tell the story of Western nations conspiring against the nascent Democratic Republic of the Congo to protect capitalist interests. Grimonprez acknowledges that history is never fully known: it is always ongoing. The film’s polyphonic approach to history opens up a forum to question and re-imagine events that transpired and to negotiate their consequences and rewrite history once again. (2024, 150 min, Belgium, France, The Netherlands in English, French, Dutch, Russian)
Mel Novikoff Award: Gary Meyer + “Macario” + “Sour Balls” (Saturday, April 27, noon-2:30 PM, Premier Theater, SF)
The SFFILM Mel Novikoff Award is given to an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the film-going public’s appreciation of world cinema. This year’s recipient, Gary Meyer, has been involved in making and screening film since childhood and his passion evolved into a remarkable career that includes co-founding Landmark Theatres; serving as co-director of the Telluride Film Festival (2007-15); producing the sumptuous doc “The Art of Eating: The Life and Appetites of M.F.K. Fisher,” and founding/editing EatDrinkFilms. Disclosure: he’s been one of my editors for nearly a decade and his enthusiasm for/knowledge of global film is astonishing as is his energy and capacity for networking. As I am writing this, we are texting about the classics of Greek film. He will be in conversation with IndieWire Editor-at-Large Anne Thompson, followed by a screening of the 1960 Mexican classic “Macario” and Jessica Yu‘s memorable short “Sour Death Balls.” “‘Marcario’ was one of the first foreign films I ever saw as a young teenager,” Meyers. “It was unlike anything I had seen before—the cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa was incredible. Years later, I was able to bring him up to a film festival I produced in San Diego for a tribute.” (1960, Mexico, 91 min, in Spanish, 4K restoration)
Chiwetel Ejiofor Tribute + “Rob Peace” (Sloan Science on Screen) (Saturday, April 27, 7-9:30 PM, Premier Theater, SF)
SF Film celebrates British actor, screenwriter, and director Chiwetel Ejiofor with a tribute that includes a conversation and a screening of his latest feature, “Rob Peace.” Film lovers know Ejiofor for the incredible vulnerability he brings to his characters from his BAFTA-winning performance in the seminal drama, “12 Years a Slave” (2013), to the comedies “Love Actually” (2003) and “Kinky Boots”(2005) and as Mordo in Marvel’s “Doctor Strange (2016), and the amazing CGI lion, Scar, in the “Lion King” remake (2019). Theater lovers know him for his legendary BAFTA winning run in “Othello” at the Donmar Warehouse and Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet” at the National Theatre. Lately, he has embraced screenwriting and directing. His first feature, “The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind” (2019) was awarded the Sundance Film Festival’s Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize; an NAACP Image Award for outstanding direction; and the British Independent Film Awards’ Douglas Hickox Award. His latest feature, “Rob Peace,” about is about a young black Yale student, a science prodigy excelling in biophysics, whose connection to his imprisoned terminally ill father is his downfall. Ejiofor will be in conversation with Vijay Ramani, PhD, Assistant Investigator at the Gladstone Institute for Data Science and Biotechnology and Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF. (2024, USA/BRazil, 119 min)
Joan Chen Tribute + “Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl” (Sunday, April 28, 1-3:30 PM, Premier Theater, SF)
Actor/director/writer/producer Joan Chen will be honored with tribute that includes an intimate conversation celebrating her career and a special 35 mm screening of her debut feature, “Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl” (1997). Chen will interviewed by Hollywood producer Janet Yang, current President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. At age twelve, Chen, an excellent shooter, was discovered on the rifle range of a Shanghai school by Jiang Qing, “Madame Mao,” the wife of Chairman Mao Zedong. In 1975, when she was 14, the Shanghai Film Studio placed her in the Actors’ Training Program. As a teen, her performance in “Little Flower” (1979) garnered her China’s Best Actress award, and the Chinese press hailed her the “Elizabeth Taylor of China. ” Her parents, both doctors in Shanghai, had a Sloan Kettering fellowship to do research in New York and Joan accompanied them. Her roles in “The Last Emperor” (1987) and as the enigmatic mill owner Josie Packard in the cult TV series Twin Peaks (1989-91) 90) and “Heaven and Earth” (1994) brought her international fame. She then turned to writing and directing and her debut feature, “Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl” (1998) won seven Golden Horse Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Feature Film. She also directed “Autumn in New York” (2000) and the short “Shanghai Strangers” (2012). Chen will interviewed by Hollywood producer Janet Yang, current President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. (1998, 99 min, China/USA, in Mandarin with English subtitles)
Details:
SFFilm 2024 is April 24-28 in San Francisco and Berkeley. Advance ticket purchase is mandatory as films sell out. Most film and awards tickets are $20; seniors and students $19 plus handling fees. Tributes are $35. For full schedule and tickets, visit: https://sffilm.org/.
A new encore edition of the festival’s most popular films will run May 2-4 at San Francisco’s Roxie Theater in the Mission district. Visit the Roxie’s website to browse offerings and purchase tickets: https://roxie.com/
San Francisco International Film Festival trims its program to 5 days and moves to the Marina District—SO convenient for North Bay attendees
Proudly hailed as the longest running film festival in the Americas, the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) has announced the program for its 67th edition, April 24-28, and BIG changes await. Traditionally 11 days, the festival is now five nights and 4 days with the majority of screenings at six theaters in San Francisco’s Presidio and Marina neighborhoods and at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMFA). A new encore edition of the festival’s most popular films will run May 2-4 at San Francisco’s Roxie Theater in the Mission district. This year’s program is smaller but thoughtfully curated, offering over 80 films from 40 countries with 12 world premieres, 8 North American premieres and 5 US premieres.
The move is great news for North Bay Residents who can now easily access the venues right off the Golden Gate Bridge and avoid the off-putting parking hassles that the festival has long posed for who came by car and faced tightly scheduled screenings spread all across San Francisco.
Sundance audience award winner, “Dìdi,” opens the festival on Wednesday night. Bay Area director Sean Wang’s debut feature is set in Fremont and follows 13-year-old Taiwanese American Chris (Izaac Wang) in the fleeting months prior to his freshman year as he clumsily navigates life. Joan Chen, who has her own SFFilm tribute, plays his mother. Wang was recently nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary for his warm humanistic short, “Nai Nai and Wài Pó,” about his maternal and paternal grandmothers (SFFilm 2023). An Opening Night Party follows at Fort Mason’s 308 Gallery. (2023, USA, 90 min)
The festival Sunday evening closes with “Thelma,” starring June Squibb, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, Malcolm McDowell, Fred Hechinger and Richard Roundtree. When a phone scammer steals 93 year-old widow Thelma’s nest egg (Squibb), she and her friend Ben (“Shaft” star Richard Roundtree in his final performance) use their social invisibility and elder-age devices to pursue the thief. (2023, USA, 97 min) Screens: Sunday 7:15 PM, Premier One Theater at One Letterman (Director Josh Margolin, actor June Squibb, and producers Chris Kaye and Zoe Worth will attend this screening only) and 8 PM, Marina Theatre.
Stay tuned to ARThound for an in-depth profile of the festival’s big nights and tributes. Here are six films certain to sell-out in advance that I have on my radar. They all have talent in attendance and are sure to inspire you in many ways.
Porcelain War
Filmed in Ukraine amidst the chaos of war, “Porcelain War” captures the inspiring resilience of two highly-skilled ceramic artists who respond by creating beauty in the destruction that surrounds them as well as a portrait of their marriage tested under the pressure cooker of war. Anya creates remarkable porcelain figures imbued with folkloric references and scenes from nature. Prior to the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Slava and Anya lived a bucolic life in rural Crimea which stands in profound contrast to their daily lives in in war-torn Kharkiv, where they moved instead of fleeing Ukraine altogether. There, Slava’s weaponry expertise and Anya’s art making stand as two dichotomous halves of their resistance effort: war balanced by love, bloodshed by beauty. Winner of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Documentary. Directors Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev as well as artist Anya Stasenko will be in attendance. (2024, 90 min, Ukraine/USA/Russia, in English and Russian) Screens: Friday, April 26, 8:45 PM at Premier Theater, SF
Empty Nets
Over the years the San Francisco International Film Festival has showcased some remarkable Iranian films which, through allegory, have illuminated issues that were deemed off limits by the regime. Working under the constant threat of censorship and imprisonment, Iranian filmmakers have expressed themselves indirectly through metaphor and they have astounded us with rich stories that are about politics yet transcend politics to reveal what is intimate and poignantly familiar in our human condition.
Behrooz Karamizade’s drama “Empty Nets,” uses a love story to explore the increasingly difficult, sometimes hopeless lives of young working-class people in Iran as they strive for better lives. The Iranian-German director, who was born in Iran but grew up in Germany, sets his story on Iran’s northern Caspian Sea coast. His drama follows Amir (Hamid Reza Abbasi), a young man who is desperate to marry his girlfriend Narges (Sadif Asgari) but needs enough money for the large dowry necessary to win over her upper-class parents. He gets a job at a local fishery and, once there, illicit opportunities present themselves and he is soon drawn into the dangerous but lucrative business of sturgeon poaching for the black market caviar trade and then, human smuggling. Living a considerable distance from Narges, their relationship is strained. Cinematographer Ashkan Ashkani (“There Is No Evil”) who shot the near the coastal cities of Rasht and Bandar Anzali utilized the region’s damp climate and overcast skies to evoke a melancholic and oppressive atmosphere. Director Behrooz Karamizade is expected to attend. (2023, 101 minutes, Germany/Iran, in Farsi with English subtitles) Screens: Fri April 26, 3 p.m., Marina Theatre and Sunday, April 28, 2:30 p.m. BAMPFA
Black Box Diaries:
In her remarkable feature debut, “Black Box Diaries,” journalist and writer Shiori Ito embarks on a courageous investigation of her own sexual assault that becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s outdated judicial system and biased societal norms. Her quest for justice begins in spring 2015 when, as a young intern at Thomson Reuters, she was drugged and raped by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, the Washington bureau chief for the Tokyo Broadcasting System Television and the personal biographer for Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan. Yamaguchi took her to dinner in Tokyo to discuss job prospects, drugged her and dragged her from a taxi to his hotel room and raped her while she was unconscious. After she reported the sexual assault, Japanese authorities refused to pursue her case in a meaningful manner. She persisted, navigating a legal system steeped in outdated laws that placed burden of proof on the victims. Her struggle was both against her assailant and a societal framework that silences survivors. Facing public slander, character assassination and the daunting reality of confronting her rapist, she persisted and her bravery propelled Japan into its own #MeToo wave protest, leading to a broader conversation about sexual violence in Japan and a movement towards legal and cultural change. The film has been called “an impressively crafted, concise piece of filmmaking.” Its strongest point is its intimacy, realness. In those moments when Ito bares her soul, her hurt, her frustration; we feel the wellspring of her pain. She takes us to her dark place and then we fight and we keep fighting. Director Shiori Ito is expected to attend. (2024, 104 min, Japan/US/UK, in Japanese with English subtitles.) Screens Friday, April 26, 6 P.M. at Marina Theatre 1, SF and Saturday, April 27, 2:30 P.M., at BAMPFA, Berkeley
The Japanese films that have screened at SFFilm over the years have exhibited a profound humanism and compassion in their storytelling. Also of note is Kei Chika-ura’s “Great Absence” in which a father’s decline into Alzheimer’s senility envelopes everyone around him, especially his distant son whose last chance to know his dad is complicated by his jumbled and fragmentary grasp on reality.
Mabel
I saw a lot of myself in the description of Nicolas Ma’s debut feature “Mabel” which has its world premiere at SFFilm. Biracial Callie (Lexi Perkel) is out of sorts after her family moves and has a hard time fitting in at her new school. She loves plants and not much else. When a substitute teacher, Ms. G (Judy Greer), a magnetic postdoc from the local university, starts a botany unit in science class, Callie is mesmerized by her lectures and wrangles her way into the group. She devises an experiment raising chrysanthemums in the dark and involves Agnes, her ebullient younger neighbor, into working with her. This family-friendly film for ages 8 and up received the Sloan $100,000 Feature Film Production Award at NYU in 2019 and the Sloan Screenplay Award from the Tribeca Film Institute in 2020. Ma produced the wonderful Fred Rogers documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” for SFFilm 2018, the winner of a best documentary Film Independent Spirit Award. Director Nicholas Ma is expected to attend. (2023, 84 min, USA) Screens: Saturday, April 27, 5 p.m. at Vogue Theatre, SF
“Mabel” is one of three films presented in SFFilm’s Sloan Science in Cinema Initiative, a partnership between the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and SFFILM, that includes screenings and participation by Sloan fellows and grant recipients at events throughout the festival. (Other films include “On the Invention of Species” which is receving SFFilm’s Sloan Science of Screen Award and “Rob Peace” which screens at the Tribute to director Chiwetel Ejiofor, both programs are Sat April 27.
Sugarcane
By way television streaming, many of us became aware of the horrific abuses of native children that took place on reservations through Taylor Sheridan’s fictionalized drama “1923.” Sadly, such abuses transpired in several locales. One prolonged experience is exposed in “Sugarcane,” the remarkable feature debut documentary that received Sundance’s jury prize for documentary direction this year. Canadian co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie deliver a multilayered film that catalogs the horrors that transpired at the St. Joseph’s Mission residential school near the Sugarcane Reservation of Williams Lake in British Columbia. A reckoning is always more meaningful when there is skin the game. Julian Brave NoiseCat’s own family and community were victims and his intimate investigation into their abuse uncovers forced family separations, horrific physical and sexual violence and the attempted destruction of Native culture and language. Poignant, difficult interviews with survivors of St. Joseph’s — including NoiseCat’s father and grandmother — captures them dredging up memories they long sought to suppress. Profiling a community ripe for healing and seeking accountability from the government and the Catholic Church, the film invites audiences to confront their assumptions about morality and justice and to bear witness to the devastating legacy of intergenerational trauma inflicted by the residential school system. Directors Julian Brave Noisecat and Emily Kassie are expected to attend. (2024, Canada/USA, 104 min, in Secwepemctsín and English. Screens: Sunday, April 28, 4:15 PM, Premier Theater, One Letterman, SF
Eureka:
One of joys of attending SFFilm over the years is watching a filmmaker’s development. Argentinian director Lisandro Alonso’s latest feature “Eureka” offers a triptych of stories focused on Indigenous culture in the Americas. Its opening story revisits and remixes his last film, the historical drama “Jauja” (Festival 2015, winner Cannes FIPRESCI Prize ), reuniting the director with lead actor Viggo Mortenson, who plays a gunslinger looking for his kidnapped daughter. In a sudden shift of location, filmmaking style and gaze, the scenario shifts to the Pine Ridge reservation in wintry South Dakota where Native American police officer Alaina searches for another missing young woman. In the final segment, a shape-shifting bird introduces viewers to a forest-dwelling tribe in the Amazon and a community contending with interpersonal rivalries. Employing an increasingly dreamlike narrative, “Eureka,” like Alonso’s earlier film “Juaja,” abandons traditional storytelling methods to take us on a journey to an elusive place that that exists beyond the realms of time and civilization. (2023, Argentina/France/Portugal/Germany/Mexico, 146 min, in English, Lakota, and Portuguese languages.) Screens: Thursday, April 25, 2:45 PM, Premier Theatre at One Letterman, SF
Details:
SFFilm 2024 is April 24-28 in San Francisco and Berkeley. Advance ticket purchase is mandatory as films sell out. Most tickets are $20; seniors and students $19 plus handling fees. For full schedule and tickets, visit: https://sffilm.org/.
The 28th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival—showcasing German film and more—opens Thursday at SF’s Roxie Theater with a sobering story of an alcoholic in Berlin battling addiction
The Berlin & Beyond Film Festival (B&B), now in its 28th year, is known for its breadth of exceptional contemporary film and storytelling from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and other German speaking locales. This year’s B&B presents 11 films and runs April 18-20 at the Roxie Theater and April 21-22 at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley with an online component April 23-25.
It all kicks off Thursday evening, April 18, in San Francisco’s Mission District at the historic Roxie Theater with the North American Premiere of Markus Goller’s “One for the Road.” Goller (“25 km/hr”), the director, producer and editor, will be in attendance and will be honored with B&B’s 2024 Film Maker Award. Set in Berlin, his poignant new dramedy stars Frederick Lau as a construction worker in denial about his excessive drinking until he loses his license and is forced into a remedial driving course. Loath to admit he can’t control his addiction, his life begins to unravel. He relapses repeatedly hurting those who care for him as he falls prey to the toxic call of alcohol. (115 min, Germany, 2023. In German with English subtitles.) Also screens: Monday, April 22, 2024, 5:30 P.M. at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, Berkeley. Thursday’s special premiere screening is followed by an Opening Night Party at 515 Valencia.
Other special guests in attendance at this year’s B&B include Fab Morvan, who will be a guest at the North American Premiere of Luke Korem’s documentary “Girl You Know It’s True.” on Friday, April 19. Morvan, along with the late Rob Pilatus were “Milli Vanilli,” the Munich-based R&B who became one of the most popular pop acts in the world in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with millions of records sold. Their success turned to infamy when it was discovered that Morvan and Pilatus lip-synced the vocals on their releases. Their Grammy award was revoked. In 1998, they recorded a comeback album, Back and in Attack, but its release was canceled after Pilatus died the same year. Korem’s music-packed film adaptation tells the band’s infamous story. (124 min, Germany, 2023. In English, German, and some French with English subtitles) The film screens once: Friday, April 19, 8:15 P.M.
Swiss director and author, Bettina Oberli, will be in conversation during Saturday afternoon’s Swiss Film & Talks that features a special 35 mm projection of her beloved 2006 comedy “Late Bloomers” (Die Herbstzeitlosen) about four older ladies from Switzerland’s sleepy Emmental region who turn the local corner shop into a chic lingerie store, throwing their community into disarray. Also screening is an episode of Oberli’s very popular TV series, The Night in Question, an ongoing drama about a young lawyer who goes beyond all moral limits to have her father, a famous singer, declared innocent of raping her best friend. Also screening later on Saturday is İlker Çatak’s Academy Award-nominated film “The Teacher’s Lounge” (Das Lehrerzimmer) starring Leonie Benesch as a teacher whose decides to get involved when one of her students is accused of theft. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.
ARThound recommends: Margarethe von Trotta’s drama
One film that stands out in the program is acclaimed German director Margarethe von Trotta’s sumptuous bio pic, “Ingeborg Bachmann – Journey Into The Desert” (“Ingeborg Bachman -Reise in die Wüste”) about Austrian poet and writer Ingeborg Bachmann (Vicky Krieps, (“Phantom Thread,” “Corsage”) who successfully broke into the male dominated world of post-WWII German-language literature. I’m excited about this film because von Trotta has built her career making meaty engrossing films about interesting women who forge their own path, at times alienating everyone around them and at times paying a high price. “Rosa Luxemburg” (1986) was about the Communist rebel who didn’t fit in with any party sect. “Vision” (2009) was about Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century nun-mystic who composed music that transcended all ages. “Hannah Arendt” (2012) followed the German-American philosophy professor as she covered Adolph Eichmann’s war-crimes trial in Jerusalem. Bachmann’s story starts out in Paris, the summer of 1958. There, the 32-year-old author first encounters the Swiss playwright Max Frisch (Ronald Zehrfield, “Barbara,” “Phoenix”), fifteen years her senior. They are both literary celebs. In the four years that follow, they amuse themselves with each other, splitting their time between his hometown of Zurich and her adopted home, Rome, making it easy for her to have plenty on concurrent flirtations. He gives off unsettling vibes from the very beginning. Throughout, she is immersed in the psychological challenges of being a woman in the early 1960’s and her own fascinating traumas which are never elaborated. Tension builds as Max’s controlling nature surfaces more intertwined with growing mistrust. He envies Ingeborg’s fame while the she can’t abide his petty jealousy. We watch her grapple with life while trying to remain productive. She retreats to the Egyptian Sahara with journalist Adolf Opel (Tobias Resch) to center herself and get more intensely into her writing. Vicky Krieps drives this addictive drama which could have delved even more heavily into Bachmann’s genius, writing and fascinating inner world and less into her relationships. The period dresses are stunning. (California Premiere, 110 min, Germany, 2023. In German with English subtitles) Screens: Saturday, April 20, 6:30 p.m., Roxie, SF, and Monday, April 22, 7:45 PM, Rialto Cinemas Elmwood.
Details:
Berlin & Beyond is Thursday, April 18 – Monday, April 22, 2024. The Roxie Theater is located at 3117 16th Street at Valencia. Allow ample time for street parking, especially on the weekend. Visit the website for more information and tickets: https://berlinbeyond.com/2024/
San Francisco Silent Film Festival is at the Palace of Fine Arts, April 10-14—convenient for North Bay attendees—Thursday has a fabulous freebie and a rediscovered Clara Bow film
After 26 years at the Castro Theatre, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF), one of the world’s foremost festivals dedicated to showing and preserving pre-sound era movies, will hold its 27th edition at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts, making it very convenient for those driving in from the North Bay. The four day, 5 night festival is April 10-14 and includes 22 live cinema programs. If you’ve never experienced a silent film the way it was meant to be seen—on the big screen and with riveting live musical accompaniment, it’s high time. The festival kicks off Wednesday evening, April 10 with one of the great adventure films of the silent era, Douglas Fairbanks’ “The Black Pirate,” directed by Albert Parker with music from the Donald Sosin Ensemble. Newly and beautifully restored by MoMA, this dazzling adventure film has influenced almost every pirate movie since.
The venue change is due to the Castro’s $15 million renovation, underway now, that is estimated to take 1.5 years, after which SFSFF hopes to return to the Castro. The Palace of Fine Arts was built to showcase San Francisco for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and is one of the City’s most beloved landmarks. Its theater has stadium seating for 960, with plenty of room to accommodate the live musicians performing during the screenings. Parking is much easier. ARThound recommends Thursday (April 11) for its wonderful free program, Amazing Tales from the Archives, which includes live music by Stephen Horne and for the two Clara Bow films that follow. If it sounds interesting, reserve your free tickets right now.
Thursday April 11, 11 a.m. Free! Amazing Tales from the Archives (90 minutes)
SFSFF’s “Amazing Tales from the Archives” was begun in 2006, as a way to highlight the importance of film preservation and to provide insight into the remarkable work done by film archives around the world. This year’s three presentations include film clips and live accompaniment from Stephen Horne, the acclaimed house pianist at London’s BFI (British Film Institute) Southbank for 30+ years, who marks his 17th season with SFSFF.
- BFI National Archive’s Bryony Dixon brings tales of Michael Powell’s start in the movies on the French Riviera where the Twenties really roared. Powell’s first job in the industry was working at the flamboyant Rex Ingram’s Victorine studios, just outside Nice, in the mid-1920s, when he was just 19. Powell went on to become one of Britain’s most respected and influential directors (“A Matter of Life and Death,” “Black Narcissus” and “The Red Shoes.”)
- Northeastern University media historian Denise Khor, who recently discovered the presumed lost “The Oath of the Sword,” from 1914, the earliest known Asian American film, discusses the film’s role in changing perceptions of Asians in cinema. Produced by the Los Angeles-based Japanese American Film Company, run by Japanese immigrants, the groundbreaking film had an all Japanese cast. The story follows Masao, a young Japanese man who leaves Japan to study at UC Berkeley and leaves his childhood sweetheart and fiancé, Hisa, back in Japan. While Masao becomes a star athlete at Cal, Hisa languishes. When they reunite four years later, they discover that their lives are irrevocably and tragically changed.
- David Pierce, coauthor of The Dawn of Technicolor traces the bumpy early history of one of cinema’s most successful color processes. Today, technicolor is most associated with films made during the height of the Hollywood studio era—color classics such as “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938), “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), and “Singin’ In the Rain” (1952). Pearce delves into the painstaking two decades of research and development that preceded and enabled this celebrated period of creative and technical achievement in film. Includes clips from early pivotal films.
Thursday, April 11, 2 p.m. Clara Bow—“The Pill Pounder” and “Dancing Mothers” (80 minutes program total) Live music by Wayne Barker. Introduction from writer, producer, film preservationist David Stenn.
SFSFF is proudly presenting film darling Clara Bow in the newly found and newly restored 1923 short “The Pill Pounder,” directed by Gregory La Cava. How the film was found is a story for the ages. In 2023, director Gary Higgins learned that a film distribution house in Omaha, Nebraska had closed and was auctioning off its film archive. To get the film he wanted, he had to buy an entire stack of films for $20. Within that stack was “The Pill Pounder” starring silent screen siren Clara Bow early in her career. This was a prized master copy, duplicated from the original nitrate negative and printed on safety stock. It wasn’t subject to the nitrate degradation that has been responsible for the loss of the majority of silent films that were produced, including more than half of Bow’s oeuvre. Higgins sold the film to Clara Bow biographer, David Stenn (“Clara Bow: Runnin’ Wild”) who had it restored and SFSFF fans will enjoy it 101 years after its original release with a fascinating intro from Stenn.
“Dancing Mothers,” a 1926 Clara Bow feature length drama, stars the effervescent Bow as rebellious Kittens Westcourt who becomes a “flapper” defying her parents and the community. Kittens’ mother Ethel (Alice Joyce) is lonely and she’s tired of waiting around the house for her philandering husband and thrill-seeking daughter. She takes matters into her own hands and goes to the club Kittens frequents. There, she gets close to Jerry, Kittens’ boyfriend, and attempts to lure him away from her daughter. Her plan backfires when he falls for her but Kittens just won’t let him go. A 1926 tagline for the film reads: “Youth-Wild, Free and Reckless. Middle-Age and Out For One Last Fling.” (1926, USA, 66 minutes, DCP)
Wednesday April 10, 7:30 p.m., “The Black Pirate” (1926), Live music by the Donald Sosin Ensemble (97 min, US, 1926, DCP) introduced by writer/director Alexander Payne
One of the great adventure films of the silent era, Douglas Fairbanks’ “The Black Pirate,” directed by Albert Parker, has influenced almost every pirate movie since, from “Captain Blood” (1935) and “The Black Swan” (1942) through to “Pirates of the Caribbean” (2003). It’s most famous for Fairbanks’ action scenes and stunts, from him slicing his way down a ship’s sail to his underwater ambush by the governor’s guards. This swashbuckler was one of the first major Hollywood productions to be photographed entirely in Technicolor. The new restoration by MoMA’s Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center refers back to the original two-color Technicolor camera negatives to faithfully and respectfully reconstruct the film’s original color scheme using modern digital restoration techniques. Fairbanks was inspired by the Dutch old masters like Rembrandt and Vermeer in crafting the film’s lighting, textures and color. The restoration has a very plush painterly feel— shades of brown and muted colors predominate; flashes of bolder color pop during moments of violence or a flash of gunpowder. No expense was bared for the sumptuous costumes and sets and they are spectacular in the restoration. (For more information on the restoration, read BFI’s fascinating article: “The Black Pirate: how we restored Douglas Fairbanks’ early colour swashbuckler.” (1926, USA, 97 min, DCP)
Details:
SFSFF 2024 is April 10-14,2024.
Complete schedule, festival passes, and tickets: https://silentfilm.org/festival-2024-schedule/
Festival trailer: https://vimeo.com/921271634?share=copy
Champagne biopic “Widow Clicquot” opens Sonoma International Film Festival’s delectable program
The Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF27) is just around the corner, March 20-24. Set in the heart of the wine country, with a program that emphasizes film, food, wine, parties, and community engagement, SIFF has twice been voted one of the 25 coolest festivals in the world by MovieMaker magazine. SIFF27 showcases 43 narrative and 16 documentary features plus 48 shorts from over 25 countries.
Star power is lean but mean. Beloved film veteran, Beau Bridges will be in town Friday, March 22 to receive the SIFF Lifetime Achievement Award and to participate in an on-stage conversation following a 35th anniversary screening of “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” with a hopping tribute party to follow.
SIFF is also hosting the world premiere of “Extremely Unique Dynamic,” its Gay-La Spotlight Film, on Thursday, March 21, directed by Harrison Xu, Ivan Leung, and Katherine Dudas followed by a disco themed tribute party and hosted by actor, director, musician John Cameron Mitchell (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch”).
There is something to enjoy for everyone. Here, I focus on the festival’s culinary offerings which include a special dinner and tribute to Chef Susan Feniger, three dramas, four documentaries, seven shorts and a new food insecurity awareness initiative. SIFF is pass-oriented but individual tickets (with lowest entry priority) are available too.
It all kicks off on Wednesday evening, March 20, at the historic Sebastiani Theater with a champagne toast: the U.S. premiere of “Widow Clicquot” (UK, 89 min, 2023) with producer Christina Weiss Lure and the book’s author, Tulare J. Mazzeo, in attendance. Haley Bennett stars as Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, also known as “Veuve Clicquot.” Widowed at age 27, Madame Clicquot unexpectedly asserts control of the business, refines her husband’s techniques and creates the recipe for modern-day champagne, leading the Clicquot brand to global dominance. Set circa-1800, and shot in vineyards in Chablis and Reims, this story of female persistence, mingled with romance, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival. After the film acquaint yourself with what first put this festival on the map: its fabulous boozy parties. SIFF’s infamous tent has seen its heyday and this year all parties will be held at local venues. Sebastiani Winery, just off the town square, hosts the Opening Night Party with guest DJ John Cameron Mitchell, ‘Taste of Sonoma’ small bites, and libations.
Susan Feniger. Forked Screening & Tribute Dinner | SIFF Culinary Special Event: Thursday, March 21, 5-8pm, Hanna Boys Center
SIFF’s Culinary Tribute Dinner is always its most buzzed about evening. As the wine flows, patrons, food lovers, and festival luminaries bond over a fabulous meal and film. This year, SIFF will honor James Beard Award-wining chef, restaurateur, media personality and author, Susan Feniger with its Culinary Excellence Award on Thursday, March 21. The evening kicks off with Gloria Ferrer bubbles at a 5 p.m. reception followed by the Bay Area Premiere of filmmaker Liz Lachman’s documentary, “Susan Feniger. FORKED.” Lachman and Feniger, who are also life partners, will participate in a post-screening Q&A moderated by Chef Joanne Weir. Feniger will then be presented with the award, a Dale Chihuly sculpture created especially for the festival. Past recipients include Jacques Pépin and Martin Yan. The highlight will be a multi-course meal curated by Feniger, inspired by her global travels. Each course will be paired with exquisite Sonoma Valley wines. This event has sold out: SIFF advises those interested to contact the box office to join the waiting list.
Even before there was a “food scene,” since the early 1980’s, Chef Susan Feniger has been an innovator and teacher, introducing global cuisine, scintillating flavors and new ways of cooking to American audiences. Her career has been intertwined with long-time friend, collaborator and business-partner chef Mary Sue Milliken. Well known for their 400 episode run on The Food Network’s series “Too Hot Tamales” and “Tamales World Tour;” the charismatic and business-savvy duo are co-chef/owners of the expanding Border Grill empire of restaurants, trucks, catering and have continually broken barriers as female restaurateurs in a male-dominated industry. They own: Socalo (Santa Monica); Border Grill, BBQ Mexicana and Pacha Mamas (Las Vegas); Alice B. (Palm Springs) and this year will add a drive-through BBQ Mexicana in Las Vegas. In 2018, Feniger and Milliken received the Julia Child Award, making them the first women to achieve this distinction.
Feniger is “excited” to be honored by SIFF and to share the limelight with her longtime partner, filmmaker Liz Lachman in her first full-length film and first documentary. “At first, I couldn’t imagine how I could possibly make an interesting topic for a film,” said Feniger, who did not see the film until it was done. “I am impressed…it covers a complicated experience and made me see even more clearly what a great storyteller Liz is.”
Liz Lachman is a lauded director and screenwriter, an Emmy award-winning musician and recipient of the Golden Reel and BMI TV Music awards. Her past films include the shorts “Pin-up,” a psychological thriller and the gay romantic comedy, “Getting to Know You,” starring Dana Delaney (“China Beach”).
“Susan Feniger, FORKED” follows Feniger on the long journey to realizing an ambitious original concept for L.A.’s dining scene by opening “Street,” her first solo restaurant, (apart from her long-term business partner Mary Sue Milliken) that will bring a range of global street foods together under one roof. Hunting down delectable street food for the menu takes Susan on journeys to Vietnam and Shanghai and then back to L.A. where, for weeks, she replicates new flavor profiles and tests recipes in her home kitchen. The drawn-out construction and permitting of the restaurant provides endless headaches and expenses. Liz Lachman masterfully blends historical clips with footage she shot in 2009-10 and 2021-22 to capture the heart of this remarkably creative process, which may or not pan out as a viable business but reveals just how resilient Susan Feniger truly is. The film includes cameos with Bobby Flay, Mary Sue Milliken, and Wolfgang Puck. (US, 2023, 92 min)
The Culinary Film Line-up:
Delicious Short Films: six short films, (72 min program), Thursday, March 21,12:30 p.m., The Woman’s Club and Sunday, March 24, 6:30 p.m., The Woman’s Club)
“Lunchbox” Taiwanese American director Anne Hu’s drama of loss and healing is inspired by the lovingly prepared box lunches her immigrant mother made for her school lunch as she was growing up in Cleveland, Ohio. Years later, she struggles to forgive herself for pushing her mother away. (US, 2022, 15:30). Anne Hue in attendance.
“Camille” Denise Roldán Alcalá’s animated short focuses on the emotions of a shy little girl longing to be accepted at school. She bakes a mountain of cupcakes to make friends, but things don’t turn out as expected. (Mexico, 2023, 12:18 min) Denise Roldán Alcalá in attendance.
“Order for Pickup” In Jackie! Zhou’s drama, burnt-out Kelsey is trapped in a cycle of work and isolation until an irregular order for pickup disrupts everything. (US, 2023, 13 min)
“Ekbeh” Writer/director Mariah Eli Hernandez-Fitch learns to make gumbo and shares personal stories about her grandparents experiences in Louisiana as a way to honor and preserve their indigenous history and culture. (In English, Louisiana French, and ‘Uma languages, US, 2023, 9 min) Mariah Eli Hernandez-Fitch in attendance
“Tomato Kitchen” In Junyi Xiao’s animated short, an accident interrupts Lee’s dinner with his colleagues and the dark truth of the Tomato Kitchen along with Lee’s hidden past are revealed. (China, 2023, 9 min)
“Death & Ramen” In writer/director Tiger Ji’s dark comedy, after attempting suicide by swallowing a lot of Ambien, ramen chef Timmy goes on a unintended late night journey with the Grim Reaper. They share a bowl of ramen and discover what it means to be human. (US, 2023, 14 min) Tiger Ji in attendance.
“The Most Remote Restaurant in the World” –Thursday, March 21, 2:30 p.m. @ Veterans Hall #1 and Sun, Mar 24th, 11:00 a.m. @ Veterans Hall #1
Danish director Ole Juncker’s documentary captures the elite world of food tourism, profiling Poul Andrias Ziska, executive chef of the 2 Michelin Star restaurant Koks, in the Faroe Islands as he relocates his team to a remote town in Greenland inhabited by 53 people. In Faroese, “koks” means “someone who fusses over something in pursuit of perfection” and twenty-something Ziska fits the bill. His team of 21 essentially double the population and set up at the Ilimanaq Lodge, where they proceed to prepare multicourse Michelin quality dining experiences based on indigenous ingredients and sustainability that challenge even the most adventurous palate—“arctic tartlet of seal blood and seaweed.” Visionary or insanity? Ziska’s problems range from sourcing ingredients to staffing his high-end restaurant. The visuals are stunning, (2023, 86 min, Denmark)
“Waiting for Dali” – Thursday, March 21, 5 p.m., Veteran’s Hall #1 and Sunday, March 24th, 1:30 PM, Veterans Hall #1
Set in the 1970’s in the waning days of the Franco regime, David Pujol’s dramedy tells the story of Fernando (Iván Massagué), an accomplished chef who flees authorities in Barcelona to the idyllic coastal village of Cadaqués, where Salvador Dalí lives with his wife, Gala. He finds work in a seaside restaurant and discovers Mediterranean cuisine in its purest form. The story revolves around dogged attempts to lure Dalí into the restaurant, which happens to be named El Surreal. Praised for its food shots, many of the film’s dishes were inspired by actual El Bulli creations. In Spanish Catalan and French with English subtitles. (Spain, 2023, 114 min)
“Sugar and Stars” – Friday, March 22, 6:30 PM, Veterans Hall #1 and Sat, March 23rd, 10:30 AM, Veterans Hall #1)
Based on a true story, Sébastien Tulard’s comedy follows French chef Yazid Ichemrahem (Riadh Belaiche) from his rough beginnings to working for the world’s top chefs in Paris and Monaco. Yazid was just two when his father walked away from his family and he was placed in a foster home. Fortunately, the family was loving and nurtured his love of fine sweets. When they relinquished him at age 9, he began ping-ponging from home to home, never finding an enduring connection. With incredible determination, Yazid pursued cooking and, at age 22, became a renowned pâtissier. Beautifully shot, the film addresses Yazid’s struggles with abandonment and identity while showcasing his talent and rise to become founder of Ycone Paris. (France, 2023, 110 min) In French with English subtitles. Post-screening Q&A’s with Director Sébastien Tulard and Executive Producer Christine Lascary.
“Farming While Black” – Saturday, March 23, 3:00 PM, SVHS Little Theatre
In 1910, Black farmers owned 14 percent of all U.S. farmland. Now, the number is a paltry two percent due to racism, discrimination, and dispossession. Bay Area documentary filmmaker Mark Decena (“Dopamine”) tells the personal stories of Black farmers striving to reverse that trend through regenerative farming set in the larger framework of activism and social justice. He interviews Black Kreyol farmer and food sovereignty activist Leah Penniman, founder of NY’s Soul Fire Farm, and two other Black farmer-activists who are fighting to reclaim their agricultural heritage through growing food, building community and advocacy. Collectively, their work has a major impact. (2023, 75 min) Director Mark Decena, Producuer Liz Decena, cast member Blain Snipstal in attendance.
“Food, Inc. 2” and short film “From Kitchen to Community”- Sunday, March 24, 1:30 PM, Andrews Hall
In Robert Kenner and Melissa Robledo’s sequel to 2008’s Oscar-nominated documentary “Food, Inc.,” the filmmakers reunite with investigative authors Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser to take a fresh look at our broken food system and what can fix it, focusing on new products, innovative farmers, and food producers working toward a healthier future. (US, 2023, 94 min)
Directors Brady Anderson and James Green chronicle the indomitable spirit of California’s restaurant owners and their vital role in our communities and the heavy strain of Covid-19 placed on their already precarious margins. (2023, 15 min)
Food Insecurity Awareness Community Event – Sunday, March 24, 3:30-5 PM, Sonoma Community Center, Rm 110 (Presented in partnership with PG&E and the KHR McNeely Family Fund)
Local restaurants will provide small bites and beverages at this free event. Festival attendees are encouraged to make cash donations throughout the festival to SIFF’s Food Insecurity Awareness Initiative. Both SIFF and PG&E will match a portion of funds raised and donate this to the Redwood Empire Food Bank and California Restaurant Foundation-Restaurants Care. Donations of non-perishable food items for F.I.S.H. (Friends In Sonoma Helping) can be dropped off at the festival box office, 539 1st Street West, throughout the festival. Cash donations can be made online at https://2024siff.eventive.org/donate.
SIFF’s five-day festival is curated by Artistic Director Carl Spence, senior programmers Amanda Salazar, and Ken Jacobson, and shorts programmer Oscar Arce Naranjo.
Details:
SIFF27 is March 20-24, 2024. Info/tickets/passes: https://sonomafilmfest.org/
SF Opera Announces its slimmer 2024-2025 Season—six operas, two concerts
San Francisco Opera announced its 102nd season yesterday (Feb 20) which opens September 6 and runs through June 27, 2025. The program includes just six operas along with two concerts: Beethoven 9 and a special Pride Concert. It’s a paired-down but delectable menu, replete with gorgeous music, drama and songs that define and illuminate unforgettable characters.
“Un Ballo in Maschera,” Verdi’s fast-paced tale of political betrayal, hidden agendas and forbidden passions opens the season and a Pride Concert closes it. And, for the first time in Company history, the SFO Orchestra and Chorus will perform Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony on October 26. In sharp contrast to SFO’s previous two seasons which had several premieres emphasizing modern stories, there is a strong reliance on familiar, crowd-drawing repertoire with reinvigorating touches that includes fabulous sets and costumes—Bizet’s “Carmen,” Puccini’s “La Bohème,” Mozart’s “Idomeneo,” Verdi’s “Ballo…” and Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde.” The inviting descriptions of the operas’ plots and characters on SFO’s website emphasize the timeless aspects of the stories, casting the dilemmas the characters face in very relatable contemporary language.
Snappy descriptions of the operas’ plots and characters on SFO’s gorgeous website emphasize the timeless aspects of the stories, casting dilemmas the characters face in very relatable terms. For “La Bohème “—”Rent is overdue, and the poet Rodolfo’s manuscript is reduced to kindling. But as the fire in the hearth dwindles, passion burns brightly amongst a group of friends.” For the Lucy Hume’s new production of Mozart’s “Idomeneo“—”highlights the tension between people and their environment, nature becoming increasingly untenable the longer Idomeneo avoids fulfilling his vow.”
A highlight will be the West Coast premiere of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a relatively new opera from 2000, adapted from Margaret Atwood’s 1985 thought-provoking seminal novel, with its score from Danish composer Poul Ruders and libretto from British librettist Paul Bentley. This Royal Danish Theatre co-production will be presented in September and October 2024. It was originally scheduled for SFO’s 2020 season but rescheduled due to Covid. It is set in a futurist America where women’s identity, fertility and freedoms are curtailed and they are forced to bear children for the ruling commanders. Mezzo-soprano Irene Roberts, who has performed the heroines of Offenbach, Bizet, Bright Sheng and Mozart at SFO, stars as the handmaid Offred whose courage, resilience and defiance are heroic. Ruder’s opera has been hailed by Gramophone as “vividly imaginative” and conveying “a disturbing story with great drama and stylistic flair.” The composition, which relies heavily on intoxicating medieval chants, has been highly praised.
Details:
Subscriptions for 2024-2025 season on sale now: https://www.sfopera.com/subscribe/
SIFF27 celebrates chef Susan Feniger with its Culinary Excellence Award on March 22, 2024
Acclaimed for delivering the best in film, food and wine, the 27th Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF), March 20-24, will honor James Beard Award-wining chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and media personality Susan Feniger with its Culinary Excellence Award at its annual Special Culinary Event on Thursday, March 21 at the Hanna Boys Center.
The evening at will kick-off with a 5 p.m. reception featuring Gloria Ferrer bubbles, followed by the Bay Area premiere of filmmaker Liz Lachman’s new documentary, “Susan Feniger.FORKED” with both Feniger and Lachman participating in a Q & A. The award, a Dale Chihuly sculpture created especially for SIFF, will be presented to Feniger. Past recipients include Jacques Pepin and Martin Yan. The culinary highlight will be a multi-course meal curated by Feniger that features foods inspired by her global travels, each course paired with exquisite Sonoma Valley wines.
In a career spanning 40 years, Feniger has introduced foods from different cultures and their scintillating flavors to the American palate. She is the co-chef/owner, along with chef Mary Sue Milliken, of the Border Grill empire that includes restaurants, trucks, and catering; Socalo (Santa Monica); BBQ Mexicana and Pacha Mamas (Las Vegas); and Alice B. (Palm Springs). Later this year, the entrepreneurial duo will open their first drive-through BBQ Mexicana (Las Vegas).
Together, Feniger and Milliken brought their innovative approaches to The Food Network with some 400 episodes of the “Too Hot Tamales” and”Tamales World Tour” series. Feniger has also appeared on “Iron Chef,” “Top Chef Masters,” and “Cooking with the Master Chefs.” In 2018, Feniger and Milliken received the Los Angeles Times Gold Award for culinary excellence and innovation. That same year, they also received the Julia Child Award, making them the first women to achieve this distinction. Feniger has also co-authored six cookbooks.
Liz Lachman is a lauded director and screenwriter, an Emmy award-winning musician and recipient of the Golden Reel and BMI TV Music awards. Her past films include the shorts “Pin-up,” a psychological thriller starring Angela Sarafyan (“Westworld”) and Christina Chang (“The Good Doctor”) and the gay romantic comedy, “Getting to Know You,” starring Dana Delaney (“Tombstone,” “China Beach”).
“Susan Feniger, FORKED” follows Feniger’s tribulations on the long road to opening her first solo restaurant, “Street,” in Los Angeles. Hunting down delectable and interesting street food takes Susan on journeys to Vietnam and Shanghai and then back to Los Angeles where these recipes just don’t pan out. Then, there’s the drawn-out construction of her new restaurant that goes horribly wrong. Lachman creates a bittersweet snapshot of giving your all and realizing that it’s not if you fail but HOW you fail. Includes cameos of Bobby Flay, Mary Sue Milliken, and Wolfgang Puck.
Details:
SIFF27 is March 20-24 in Sonoma and this is first event that has been announced thus far. The full schedule will be announced on March 1. Tickets to this Special Culinary event are $275 and are discounted for festival passholders. SIFF passes are now on sale with early bird discounts of at least $50 on every pass level. Attending the festival or this special dinner does not require a pass.
Info/tickets/passes: https://sonomafilmfest.org/
The Legion of Honor’s “Botticelli Drawings”—an eye into a master of the line—closes Sunday, February 11
The Legion of Honor has pulled off another major coup with its winter show, “Botticelli Drawings,” the first exhibition ever dedicated to the drawings of the beloved Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli (ca. 144 –1510). Bringing critical attention to the role of draftsmanship in his artistic practice, the exhibition includes some 60 stunning works lent from 42 institutions. Twelve of the world’s most beloved Botticelli paintings are on view as well as paintings by Italian Renaissance master Filippo Lippi. Botticelli’s masterpieces are reunited with most of his known extant preparatory drawings—from his earliest recorded drawings made under the master Fra Filippo Lippi to his more experimental drawings for his final painting. Five drawings are new attributions. The joy is in discovering the magic of Botticelli’s rhythmic line and the remarkable way he infused figures with movement and faces with tenderness and brought voluminous life and heft to drapery. The exhibit closes this Sunday, February 11, and the Legion of Honor is the only venue. So precious are these works on 550 year-old paper and canvas that some have never before traveled.
The show has been widely reviewed, but ARThound brings you some highlights that will direct your experience—
“We are reuniting most of Boticelli’s known graphic catalog which is incredibly sparse” explained FAMSF curator of drawings and prints Furio Rinaldi, who worked on the exhibit for four years. “This is typical of the 15th century in general because collecting of drawings was not as developed in the 15th century as it would become later in the 16th century. The preservation of an artist’s work also has a lot to do with his success. Towards the end of Botticelli’s life, his career took an unfortunate turn. In following Savonarola (the reformer who replaced Lorenzo Medici), his work fell out of fashion to the point that, when he died, his own family refused his inheritance to avoid paying his debts. His drawings were his visual patrimony—very valuable templates for figural compositions that could be produced and repeated so I assume the loss of his work began upon his death, 1510.”
“We are reuniting most of Boticelli’s known graphic catalog which is “incredibly sparse” explained FAMSF curator Furio Rinaldi, who worked on the exhibit for over four years. “This is typical of the 15th century in general, but his corpus is particularly meager because collecting of drawings was not as developed in the 15th century as it would become later in the 16th century. The preservation of an artist’s work also has a lot to do with his success. Towards the end of his life, his career took an unfortunate turn. In following Savonarola (the reformer who replaced Lorenzo Medici), he fell out of fashion to the point that, when he died, his own family refused his inheritance to avoid paying his debts. His drawings were his visual patrimony—very valuable templates for figural compositions that could be produced and repeated so I assume the loss of his work began upon his death, 1510.”
Following his death, Botticelli was largely forgotten for nearly 300 years, until he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites in the 19th century. Those who saw the Legion’s 2018 exhibit “Truth and Beauty,” will recall that Florentine Renaissance painters ignited the imagination of Pre-Raphaelites who rebelled against classical traditions and were drawn to Botticelli’s fluid style. Now universally recognized, Botticelli is celebrated for his vibrant “Birth of Venus” and stunning portraits like his “Simonetta Vespucci as Nymph” his muse with the billowing hair who was the reputed model for the allegorical painting. His drawings, the very underpinning of his mastery of movement, have never received the attention they deserve.
“Rinaldi has worked like a forensic detective, distinguishing Botticelli’s drawings from that of the workshop, ” said Tom Campbell, director FAMSF. ”Hung alongside related paintings, the drawings allow us to pull back the curtain, to trace process of this exceptionally inventive artist.”
“This is a journey into Botticelli’s mind,” says Rinaldi. ”I wanted an extremely clean and modern presentation with drawings taking a central place in every gallery.”
Early drawings; new attributions
The exhibit proceeds chronologically. The first gallery contains Botticelli’s earliest drawings of the figure, created when he was a young teen and draftsman in Florence in the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi whose patron was the influential Cosimo de’ Medici. Two newly attributed drawings are presented here for the first time: “Head of a Woman in Near Profile Looking down to the Left” circa. 1468–1470 associated with the painting “Madonna of the Roses” or “Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist” (circa 1490) and “Head of a Man in Near Profile Looking Left” circa 1468-1470, associated with “Adoration of the Magi” (1475).
Celebrating the Figure:
The male figure was a core element of Botticelli’s’s composition. The second gallery contains figural drawings that were part of very important paintings and seminal commissions that propelled Botticelli’s career in the early 1470’s—“St. Sebastian,” his first lifesize male nude; “The Adoration of the Magi.” Botticelli’s primary concern was to produce an anatomically accurate image and, coming from Lippi, the lines and their tension that defined the nude body. He had his workshop assistants pose as models for nude or semi-nude studies in poses that mimicked both antique and contemporary sculptures and was interested in verifying, in real life, that these poses were accurate, a practice that became canonical in draftsmanship.
Also on display, Antonio Pollaiuolo’s seminal “Battle of the Nudes,” (1470): the largest engraving of its time; the first signed print of the Italian Renaissance; and the first print showing the male naked body in motion. The work became an important reference for all artists studying the male nude.
A special treat in seeing these drawings in person is the ability to inspect the remarkable 550+ year-old fine papers they are executed on: striking shades of red, pinks and green. An important drapery study on green paper is mesmerizing. Rinaldi returned to it several times to conclude it is a possible attribution to Botticelli by whom there is not a single known drapery study. It reflects the style of both Andrea del Verrocchio and Botticelli, and was previously attributed to Verrocchio. Striking for its modeling, and layered drawing technique, both sculptural and monumental, this is one of the most accomplished drapery studies produced in Renaissance Florence. “The treatment of the draperies here is similar to the draperies of the Delphic and Cimmerian sibyls (the third and fourth figures from the left) in Botticelli’s “Five Sibyls in Niches…” says Rinaldi. “Lippi was so active in this genre we can also deduce that Botticelli was also exercising himself in this very specific typology of drawing.”
Christ Church Picture Gallery, University of Oxford
In the first gallery, a drawing attributed to Lippi’s workshop stands out for its exquisite red paper, with blue undertones.
Arresting portraits—novel poses, gorgeous clothing:
Botticelli’s bust-length three quarter profile “Portrait of a Lady known as Smeralda Bandinelli,” is one the most compelling portraits on display. Botticelli boldly broke with convention and was the first artist in Italy to create portrait of a lady looking directly at the viewer. Before Botticelli, women were typically depicted in profile with averted eyes and were represented as objects, the property of their fathers or husbands. The subject, Smeralda Bandinelli, wife of Viviano Bandinelli and inferred grandmother of the 16th century sculptor Baccio Bandinelli, is identified by an inscription on the window frame. Here, Botticelli’s sitter has real agency and looks directly out at the beholder while her gesture, her hand resting on a window frame, signifies an attempt to interact with her surroundings. Rinaldi posited that this very lifelike pose may have been chosen because she was already dead when the portrait was created.
The portrait showcases Botticelli’s complete mastery of drapery on the female form. Her clothing is infused with lifelike volume, replete with intricate folds, transparency and delicacy in its distinct layering and wonderful plays of light. Her overgown or “guanello” is edged in a gold trim with loose cuffs that reveal a raspberry red silk gown which is slit at the forearms and laced so that it offers a peak of her white chemise “camisa” below. She grasps a piece of white fabric with such lifelike folds and presence we can almost feel it. Her hand is placed over her protruding stomach. Her hair is blond, another clue to her class, and coiffed under a linen headdress indicating she is in her home. Her marital status is alluded to by the column in the window, a common signifier of fortitude and constancy, the most important virtues a wife should possess.
Botticelli’s Later Years
Two events framed Botticelli’s later years deeply impacting his life and art: the death of his patron Lorenzo Magnifico and his career-crushing support of Girolamo Savonarola, the zealot priest who preached against the moral corruption of the clergy and of Florence. The final galleries focus on Botticelli’s late religious phase, where he began to create works with pious themes, abandoning the style and drafting principles that had made him so popular in favor of a medieval style.
His 1501, “Mystic Nativity” embodies both light and darkness and, with its veiled messages, has a magnetizing impact on viewers. This is Botticelli’s only signed artwork, albeit in Greek which is embedded in the layer of Greek inscription at the top. This inscription, along with the odd layer of clinging /floating angels in the painting who are holding crowns with paper scrolls also with inscriptions are all veiled references to the teachings of Savonarola, who had been deemed a heretic by the Pope. The overall meaning of the work which offers a very unique apocalyptic interpretation of Christ’s birth has been widely debated while Botticelli’s innovative iconography comes alive when viewed in person.
The show concludes with Botticelli’s magnificent final “Adoration of the Magi,” painted while he was still running his workshop. Teaming with the movement of crowds and horses, it was left unfinished in his studio when he died in 1505. The three Magi, have arrived to visit the newborn baby. Plainly dressed and almost swallowed up by the crowds around them, it’s hard to find them. They are not imbued with their normal signifiers: gifts and gold. Rinaldi posits this was a way for Botticelli, under Savonarola’s preaching, to return to a more humble spirituality and participation. The painting is reunited for the first time since its conception with three preparatory drawings, also together for the first time. The drawings are rendered on linen, a very unusual choice for a drawing support, exemplifying Botticelli’s experimental tilt towards the end of his career.
Details:
“Botticelli Drawings” closes Sunday, February 11. FAMSF membership is NOT required to see this exhibit but tickets are discounted for members. Purchase timed entry tickets (9:30 a.m. to 4 pm, Tuesday-Sunday) at https://tickets.famsf.org/events/283/list
Docent tours: highly recommended. Free tours offered daily, Tuesday through Sunday, at 11:30 am and 1:30 pm. Tours are about an hour. Tours convene on the museum’s lower level. Tours are limited; sign-up at lower level coat check is required to participate.
Review: SF Opera’s “The Elixir of Love”—fake potions, feigned emotions, glorious singing—pure delight!
I’m still humming. It’s been two weeks since I first experienced tenor Pene Pati singing Nemorino’s lush aria, “Una furtiva lagrima” in SF Opera’s opening performance of Gaetono Donizetti’s bel canto charmer “The Elixir of Love” and I can’t get enough. I loved this magical production so much I went twice, to both Sunday matinees. This review covers both performances.
“L’elisir d’amore” is an opera buffa (comic opera) written by Donizetti that premiered in 1832 and was an immediate smash for both its beautiful singing and entertaining plot. It was last performed at SF Opera in 2008 with superstar Mexican lyric tenor Ramón Vargas as Nemorino in astounding form and driving an ice cream truck in the Napa Valley. Coming right on the heels of the company’s lauded West Coast premiere of “Omar,” which dealt with the legacy of slavery, “Elixir” goes down easy, like a glass of champagne…bubbly and light… the perfect accompaniment to the holidays.
This 2016 production hails from the UK, Leed’s Opera North, and was most recently performed in the US at Lyric Opera of Chicago where it ran in 2021. It is directed by its original team—Daniel Slater (stage director), Robert Innes (production designer) and Simon Mills (lighting designer). Taking the story out of its rustic 19th century roots and more leaden class connotations and setting it in the 1950’s with a“La Dolce Vita” vibe enables a much more stylish set and a more contemporary read of the characters. Nemorino is a penniless waiter with a heart of gold rather than a bumbling village idiot. Adina, the wealthy and glamorous owner of the luxe resort Hotel Adina is a professional thirty something who is not in touch with her emotions. She has enough time on her hands to loll around the terrace reading, the old media equivalent of today’s phone.
It is former Merola and Adler fellow, tenor Panne Pete, whose singing, onatural comedic flare and chemistry with Adina made the performance soar. His Nemorino, while clumsy, is no buffoon. He’s a hapless romantic, subject to moments of pure vulnerability and surging feelings that underlie the comedy. From the moment Pete took the stage, he worked his magic. A huge stage presence, he has a natural ease about him and is immensely likeable. His Act I “Quanto è bella, quanto è cara”! (“How beautiful she is; how dear she is”), one of the great arias for lyric tenors, was superb, pulsing with feeling. On opening Sunday, his big moment came in Act II. Just as the orchestra and audience were poised for his iconic “Una furtive lagrima,” (“A furtive tear”) a baffling noise filled the hall. Conductor, Ramón Tebar, in his company debut, stopped the orchestra. After a few moments of confusion, a reboot, picking up with the haunting bassoon solo by principal Rufus Olivier. Penne, nonplussed, delivered one of the most tender and impassioned “lagrimas” I’ve heard that left myself and several around me in tears…a performance that earned him extended applause and rousing whoops from the audience. From that point on, it was as if both both he and Adina were floating on air. This is the joy of live performance—anything can happen. (The noise came from someone in the audience inadvertently triggering their medical alert button.)
As Adina, Slovakian soprano Slava Zámecníková, had a triumphant American and SFO role debut. Zámecníková, who is a regular in German and Austrian opera houses, embraced the role’s demanding coloratura effortlessly and in beautiful form…energetically singing stanza after stanza of recitative and moving lithely about the stage in pace with the music. She conveyed initial indifference towards both Nemorino and Belcore and then eased into the increasingly conflicting emotions her character is experiencing…yet she lacked that charismatic spark, audience connection, that defines the greats who have owned this role.
What a difference a week makes. Last Sunday’s performance was much stronger; she was connecting more readily with the characters. The audience was wild for her. As the proprietress of the upscale Hotel Adina, situated on the Riviera, she first walked on stage in a chic lilac silk pants suit, projecting cool confidence and affluence. She reads Tristan and Isolde and gathers her workers round to tell them the story through her lovely aria “Della crudele Isotta,” (“The cruel Isolde”) recounting their story of falling under the spell of the magic elixir of love. She sang an impassioned “Prendi, prendi per me sei libero” (“Take it, I have freed you”) in Act II telling Nemorino that she has bought back his military commission and he is free.
Fresh from rave reviews for his charismatic buffa performance as Dulcamara at the Glyndebourne Festival, Italian baritone Renato Girolami lit up the stage as the wily traveling salesman—he’s a swindler but a lovable persuasive one who enables Nemorino’s pursuit of Adina. His dramatic entrance on a hot air balloon was one of the scenic highlights of the performance. His Act I aria, “Udite, uditi o rustici!” (“Listen all you townsfolk”), touting the benefits of his magic elixir was buoyant, and hilarious.
Who can resist a man in uniform, especially crisp whites? The pompous Sargeant Belcore was sung with aplomb by French baritone David Bizic in his SFO debut. One of the opera’s magical moments was when he and his officers made their entrance to Adina’s sun-washed hotel terrace on sporty silver Italian Vespas and he immediately began courting Adina. When he conveniently pulled a bouquet of red roses from Vespa’s side compartment, while coyly serenading her in “Or se m’ami come io t’amo,” (“Now if you love me as I love you”) the audience ate it up.
Though a small role, current Adler fellow, soprano Arianna Rodriguez, sang Giannetta with brightness and sparkle, especially when spreading the news that Nemorino’s uncle had just died leaving him the wealthiest bachelor in the area.
Conductor, Ramón Tebar, in his SFO debut, kept Donizetti’s wonderfully melodious score upbeat and guided a magical performance from the orchestra that was in sync with the onstage singing. It’s been said often but bears repeating: the real elixir in this Donizetti charmer is the intoxicating music. Cudos to the SF Opera chorus. This is a demanding production, that not only required buoyant singing but several coordinated moves across the stage. Tim Clayton’s choreography was in perfect sync with the rousing music…the chorus responded enthusiastically, sang beautifully and managed to convey a real sense of fun.
Friday, December 1: The Elixir of Love Encounter:
SFO invites you to travel to a glamorous 1950s seaside hotel to experience Donizetti’s “The Elixir of Love” in a one night only event that’s part opera, part party. The “Encounter” begins with a fully-produced performance of Act 1, then explore the transformed Opera House lobbies, filled with custom cocktails, marvelous mischief, and spectacular selfies inspired by the balmy Mediterranean setting of the opera. Experience: The Piazza; The Hotel Casino; The Country Villa Getaway; The Beach Club; The Wine Cellar (a hideout with a dance floor presided over by none other than the legendary Juanita MORE!) With unique surprises around every corner, you’ll enjoy la dolce vita all night long. Doors open to the themed lobby spaces at 6:30pm. The performance of Act 1 of “The Elixir of Love” begins at 7:30pm and is performed with full orchestra, chorus, and principal artists. The act runs approximately 70 minutes and then the action moves from the auditorium to the Opera House lobbies and continues until the conclusion of the event at 11:30pm. Tickets start at $39: https://www.sfopera.com/seasons/2023-24-season/the-elixir-of-love-encounter/#performances
Details:
SFO’s “The Elixir of Love” has three remaining performances: Wed/Nov 29, 7:30 p.m.; Tues/Dec 5, 7:30 p.m.; Sat/Dec 9, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $32 to $397. https://www.sfopera.com/operas/the-elixir-of-love/
Find the stories that move you: the 46th Mill Valley Film Festival is Oct 5-15; non-member tickets on sale 4pm Tuesday/Sept 12
When it comes to fabulous storytelling, relevancy and stars in attendance, it’s hard to beat the track record of the Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF). MVFF46, October 5- 15, includes 76 feature-length films, many of which have won prizes at Cannes and other international prestige festivals and no less than eight creatively curated shorts programs. Due to the fierce ongoing labor disputes that have pitted Hollywood’s screenwriters and actors unions against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, festivals like MVFF have had to scramble for content and guests, so this year there are fewer big releases and big names in attendance and the lineup draws much of its pizazz from its international docket of dramas and docs. There are films from far-flung Belarus, Croatia, Kosovo, Jordan, Macedonia, Mongolia, Sudan and MVFF’s popular annual slate of Latin American cinema, Vive el Cine!.
The festival kicks off on Thursday, October 5, with the North American premiere of Jack Huston’s “The Day of the Fight,” marking Huston’s directorial debut. Huston, who will attend, has distinguished himself a leading talent in front of and behind the camera in film, television and theatre. This is the story of a once successful boxer, played by Michael Pitt, who takes a journey through his past and present on the day of his first fight since leaving prison. Ron Perlman and Joe Pesci co-star and the black and white cinematography is reportedly stunning.
The biggest “big name”event at this year’s festival promises to be the appearance of Sophia Coppola at Sequoia Cinemas on Wed, October 11 for “Priscilla.” The biopic had its world premiere last week at Venice and left Priscilla Presley herself teary-eyed. Coppola, who wrote, directed and co-produced the film, will be in conversation and presented with the MVFF Award for filmmaking. The film is based on the 1985 memoir “Elvis and Me” by Priscilla Presley and Sandra Harmon and tracks the first five years of Priscilla Ann Beaulieu Presley’s life through her eyes as she meets Elvis Presley, already a superstar, at a party and begins a relationship with him. The soundtrack has no music from Elvis Presley. Coppola has proved herself a masterful storyteller time and time again and what better story to tackle than this. Cailee Spaney plays Priscilla and Jacob Elordi play Elvis.
Music lovers will be enthralled with MVFF’s closing night film, “Maestro,” with stunning performances by Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan as Leonard Bernstein and his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre, in this intimate portrait of their 25 plus year marriage. Bernstein’s profuse talent in both music and theater coalesced to make him a superstar in multiple fields: symphonic music, Broadway musicals, ballet, film and television. The film, which just had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, takes on his life, career and marriage and marks Cooper’s return to the director’s chair, following his triumph with “A Star Is Born.”
ARThound’s Picks:
Cyborgian Rhapsody: Tribute to Bay Area artist Lynn Hershman Leeson (Shorts presentation and Mind the Gap Award) Sunday, October 8, Rafael 2, 4 to 5:25 pm
Bay Area artist, filmmaker and visionary Lynn Hershman Leeson, is recognized globally for her innovative work investigating issues that are now considered vital to the workings of contemporary society: identity, surveillance, the relationship between humans and technology, and the use of media as a tool of empowerment against censorship and political repression. Hershman Lesson has a long-held fascination with AI—its potentials; its uses and abuses. While she states that her works “are all always unfinished,” her latest is the short film, “The Cyborgian Rhapsody – “Immortality” (2023), which was written and is performed by an actual Cyborg—a GPT 3 Chatbot—in the image of its/her creator, Hershman Leeson herself. This is the fourth part of a film project she began in 1996 that addresses the evolution of AI and how it affects identity and culture. Others in this quartet of short films feature human performers: “Seduction of a Cyborg,”(1994), a poetic metaphor about the invasion of technology into an unsuspecting body, with Joanne Green Levine. In “Shadowstalker”(2018), Tessa Thompson (Passing, MVFF44) unpacks the dubious outcomes of AI usage—identity theft, predictive policing, inherent racism. In the award-winning “Logic Paralyzes the Heart,” (2022) Joan Chen’s (“Lust Caution” MVFF32) portrays a cyborg facing, essentially, her midlife crisis. The program includes a conversation with Lynn Hershman Leeson who will also be presented with the MVFF Mind the Gap Award and the screening of the four shorts.
“Goodbye Julia”
Mohamed Kordofani’s “Goodbye Julia” is the first Sudanese film to screen at MVFF, where it has its West Coast premiere. A prizewinner in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, it is set in the capital city of Khartoum during the six years leading up to the 2011 secession of South Sudan. This riveting melodrama tackles the social causes of Sudan’s split through the story of two women—Mona, a wealthy Muslim from the north, and Julia, an impoverished Christian from the south. Their lives become enmeshed when Mona accidentally hits Julia’s son Daniel with her car and flees the scene. As Julia’s husband, Akrim, pursues Mona on his motorcycle, Mona calls her husband telling him she is being chased and is in danger. When they arrive in Mona’s affluent gated neighborhood, her husband shoots and kills Akrim. The murder is covered up but Mona’s guilt eats away at her. Amazingly, the story twists and turns to the point where Julia is working for Mona and has been accepted into her home and the two women forge a friendship that has both depth and deep rifts. Screens: Oct 12, noon, and Oct 13, 11:30 AM, both at Sequoia Cinemas. Sudan, Egypt, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Sweden • 2023 • 120 mins • in Arabic with English subtitles.
“If Only I Could Hibernate”
“If Only I Could Hibernate,” is the first Mongolian film ever shown in Cannes’ official selection but not as MVFF, where audiences delighted in MVFF39’s “The Eagle Huntress.” Zoljargal Purevdash’s semi-autobiographical debut feature is a social drama about Ulzii, another young hardscrapper who is a science prodigy. This motivated and gifted young Mongolian boy in Ulaanbaatar, who is determined to win a physics scholarship to a prestigious high school. When his illiterate mother returns to the countryside to take a job, she leaves him in the city, in the middle of winter, with full responsibility for the care of his two younger siblings. The film delivers a version of Ulaanbaatar that is not often seen: the sharp socioeconomic gap between the yurt districts which house the poor and have neither heat nor running water and the newer elite high rise apartment complexes offering creature comforts. French ethnomusicologist Johanni Curtet’s first feature score features ethnic doshpuluur (ethnic string instrument) and mouth harp segments for the Yurt districts which contrast to the beatbox vibes of the city and the throat-singing of the countryside. Screens: October 13, noon, and October 14, 4:45 PM, both at Smith Rafael Film Center, 98 min. In Mongolian with English subtitles.
“Terrestrial Voices”
We are all aware of the Iranian regime’s swift punitive arm when it comes to filmmakers who raise their aire. After Iranian directors Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami’s “Terrestrial Voices” had its world premiere at Cannes, in Un Certain Regard, and received high praise, Iranian authorities attempted to silence Asgari upon his return to Iran. His passport was confiscated and he was threatened with prison time, by now a right of passage for Iranian directors. “Terrestrial Verses” is a satire of the Iranian regime, presented in nine vignettes about ordinary Iranians from all walks of life interacting with authority giving us complex snapshots of what’s its like to live in a society where you have to have to be on guard constantly. Screens: October 6, 2pm, Sequoia 2 and October 10, 5:30 pm, Rafael 2, 77 mins. In Farsi with English subtitles.
Details:
MVFF46 is October 5-15, 2023. Tickets went on sale for California Film Institute members on Friday, Sept. 8 and are available to the general public on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 4pm at mvff.com. Most films are $16 and big nights are more. Lock in your selections early as the festival tends to sell out.
ARThound 