This weekend’s 5th Petaluma International Film Festival spans the remote corners of the globe—ARThound looks at the line-up
Junya Sakino’s “Sake Bomb” (Japan/USA 2013) was filmed in Petaluma and screens Friday at 7:45 PM at the 5th Petaluma International Film Festival. This comedic film is about a cynical, sarcastic and self-deprecating young Asian American man from L.A. who takes his naive Japanese cousin on an adventurous road trip along the California coast to Petaluma to find his ex-girlfriend.
With more than 40 independent films from 20 countries and a new program showcasing local filmmakers, 5th Annual Petaluma International Film Festival (PIFF), this Friday through Sunday, has its best line-up ever. Organized by Saeed Shafa who founded the popular annual Tiburon Film Festival in 2002, PIFF not only emphasizes great storytelling and international points of view; it has films that you just won’t see elsewhere. The festival kicks off at noon on Friday with German filmmaker Hermann Vaske’s acclaimed documentary Balkan Spirit (2013, Germany) which explores the vast creative landscape of the war-torn Balkans and closes with a Sunday 10:15 PM screening of award-winning documentarian Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s dynamically-shot Touba (2013, Senegal/USA) reveals a face of Islam the world rarely glimpses—the Grand Magaal pilgrimage of 1 million Sufi Muslims to their holy city of Touba, Senegal. PIFF offers six screenings daily, running from noon till just before midnight, with each time slot allocated to a full-length film and at least one short (30 minutes or less).
This year, filmmakers and/or films span the globe from Athens to Kosovo to remote Papua New Guinea to Senegal to Yemen. That’s right…Papua New Guinea! How does Shafa find these gems? “When we send out our call for entries, they come to us,” said Shafa. “Fortunately, every year more countries are participating and more filmmakers are getting to know our festival and the kind of programing we have. This, at the same time, makes our selections very difficult but is the reward of having so many good films to choose from for our sophisticated audiences.”
The fine selection of entertaining shorts this year proves that stories can be highly effective in a limited time framework. Shafa has purposely paired all the feature-length films with shorts to get the point across. The incomparable Gérard Depardieu stars as a befuddled door-to-door salesman in Constance Meyer’s comedic short Frank-Étienne Vers la Béatitude (2012, France) and in just 12 minutes gets caught up in a struggle between an irresistible young woman (Marina Fois), her ex, and their dog. (screens Saturday 8 PM)
New to this year’s festival is Sonoma Filmmakers Showcase, Saturday October 12, 6 PM—a program celebrating 5 short films made by Sonoma County filmmakers in support of the community’s rich and diverse talent. All the filmmakers will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A. On the program—Greg Blatman’s Kitty Litter (2012, 9 min, shot in Petaluma); Beth Nelson’s The Sky is the Roof (2013, 30 min—historical overview of pre-colonial Napa Valley); Laura Owen & Aron Campisano’s Chocolatés (5 min); Bret Smith’s Rat-Face Burattino (2013, 5 min) and Paul Winston’s The World is My Stage (2013, 26 min).
Full schedule here.
Film descriptions here.
ARThound has attended this festival every year since it opened and has implicit trust in Saeed Shafa’s programming but here are the films caught my eye:
FRIDAY, OPENING DAY
Balkan Spirit —Friday, noon, : The festival kicks off with German filmmaker Hermann Vaske’s acclaimed documentary Balkan Spirit (2013, Germany). Vaske and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek explore the cultural, philosophical, political and artistic renaissance that is literally breathing life into this amazing region after decades of war and stagnation. The engaging film features Angelina Jolie, Isabelle Huppert, Emir Kusturica, Dušan Makavejev, Abel Ferrara, Jasmila Zbanic and many other who will be forever on your creative radar. 80 minutes. Screens with Shane Atkinson’s short, Penny Dreadful (USA, 2013, 13 min).
SATURDAY
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc—Saturday, 2 PM *great for kids*: French filmmaker Luc Besson’s action films (La Femme Nikita, Colombiana, The Fifth Element, The Messenger) often feature a courageous female lead. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc (France, 2013) stars Louise Bourgoin as Adele Blanc-Sec, a daring female investigative reporter and action-seeker. Based on the historical comic book series by French comics artist, Jacques Tardi, the film has the whip-smart and charming young heroine using her reasoning skills to solve a mystery that will save her comatose sister Agathe (Laure de Clermont). Adele believes that an imprisoned scientist, Professor Espérandieu (Jacky Nercessian), can reanimate a legendary doctor, who in turn might be able to revive Agathe. With the help of her number-one fan, Andrej Zborowski (Nicolas Giraud), Adele must evade her nemeses long enough to save her sister. 107 minutes. In French with English subtitles
The Professor—Saturday, 2 PM with short Frank-Étienne Vers la Béatitude: In Tunisian director Mahmoud ben Mahmoud’s retro-thriller, the struggle for social justice and human rights in late 1970s Tunisia is dramatized against the backdrop of a perilous extra-marital affair between a law professor (played by Ahmed Hafiane) who heads Tunisia’s new human rights commission and his radical young student . The period Ben Mahmoud has recreated captures the historical roots of Tunisia’s long slide into tyranny. The period explored coincides with recently deposed Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s career-boosting appointment as General Director of National Security, a major stepping stone towards his 23-year authoritarian rule. Begun in the final days of Ben Ali’s reign, the film was subject to official interference, and could only be completed after the ousted dictator fled to exile in Saudi Arabia last year. Michael Portal’s stirring musical score, with European and Arabic references, has been praised. (2012, Tunisia, France, Qatar, 92 minutes) Screens with Constance Meyer’s comedic short Frank-Étienne Vers la Béatitude (2012, France, 12 minutes).
Gérard Depardieu, one of the most beloved and prolific characters in film history (and who recently renounced his French citizenship to become a citizen of the world and avoid high French taxes) plays a salesman who is sidetracked by an irresistible young woman (Marina Foïs) with a dog in Constance Meyer’s 12 minute comedic short “Frank-Étienne Vers la Béatitude” (2012, France) which screens Saturday at 8 PM at the 5th Petaluma International Film Festival.
Sonoma Filmmakers Showcase—Saturday, 6 PM—A new addition to PIFF, a special screening of five short films made by Sonoma County filmmakers in support of the community’s rich and diverse talent. All the filmmakers will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A. On the program—Greg Blatman’s Kitty Litter (2012, 9 min, shot in Petaluma); Beth Nelson’s The Sky is the Roof (2013, 30 min—historical overview of pre-colonial Napa Valley); Laura Owen & Aron Campisano’s Chocolatés (5 min); Bret Smith’s Rat-Face Burattino (2013, 5 min) and Paul Winston’s The World is My Stage (2013, 26 min). Total Length: Approx. 2 hours
Agnus Dei—Saturday 10 PM, screens with short Jacobo: Kosovar filmmaker Agim Sopi’s feature drama is based on a true horror story born out of the brutal atrocities of the Kosovo War which occurred in late 1990’s. The film’s backdrop is the face-off of Serb paramilitaries against Kosovar Albanian rebels (KLA) as the Serbs try to remove all Kosovo Albanians from Kosovo. The story involves Peter (Astrit Alihajdaraj), a young Serb solider who is the product of a forbidden love between his Serb mother and Kosovar Albanian father. Peter goes off to war and rescues and then ends up falling in love with an Albanian girl named Maria (the beautiful Dafina Berisha). They travel back to Peter’s mom’s house, only to discover a terrible family secret that will destroy Peter’s entire world. This modern day Odepius-like tale is perfect for its late night time slot. (2012, Kosovo, 85 min) In Serbian with English subtitles. Screens with David del Águilla’s Jacobo (2012, Spain, 14 minutes)
SUNDAY
Isolated —Sunday, 2 PM, screens with short Via Tango: American director Justin Le Pera’s documentary Isolated (USA 2013) was shot in remote New Guinea, which seems reason enough to check it out. It follows 6 thrill seeking surfers who embark on a journey to search for one of the world’s last undiscovered waves New Guinea, a vast sprawling region where black magic, sorcery and cannibalism sometimes occur. There’s thrilling surfing footage as they encounter epic waves. The film gets very serious when they run up against human rights atrocities surrounding the West Papua-Indonesian civil war and an unethical mining corporation—alarming maladies that seem to plague the world’s most beautiful places. The film features never before seen footage of an ancient aboriginal culture. 90 minutes. Screens with the Spanish short, Via Tango.
The Last Winter (Zemestane akha)—-Sunday 6:15 PM, Screens with the animated short Double Occupancy: Saeed Shafa, PIFF founder, has a passion for the great poetic of film. This year’s gem from Iran is Salem Salavati’s documentary The Last Winter (Zemestane akhar) (Iran, 2012), an elegant parable about the threatened culture of Iranian Kurdistan told through the story of a family who is unable to change and to come to terms with a tragedy. Salavati’s documentary is an expanded version of his previous short Snowy Dreams with the same picturesque winter scenery, calm, realistic life style and culture of Iranian Kurdistan. 95 minutes. English subtitles. Screens with the animated short Double Occupancy (2012, Germany, 9 min) by German filmmaker Fabian Giessler.
Salem Salavati’s documentary The Last Winter (Zemestane akhar) (Iran, 2012, 95 min) won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Yerevan International Film Festival and screens Sunday, October 13, at the 5th Petaluma International Film Festival. With beautiful cinematography, it tells the story of rural family in a remote corner of Iran and, like many Iranian films, it employs allegory to make a larger statement the threatened culture of Iranian Kurdistan.
Touba—Sunday 10:15 PM: The festival closes with a lush doc. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s Touba (Senegal, 2013) has won awards for its cinematography and received glowing reviews for delivering a rare sensory experience. This observational film follows the annual Grand Magaal pilgrimage of 1 million Sufi Muslims to the holy city of Touba, Senegal. Dynamically shot in 16mm, it captures the sights and sounds and rituals of the Mouride Brotherhood: one of Africa’s most elusive organizations. Pilgrims travel from all over the world to pay homage to the life and teachings of Cheikh Amadou Bamba, whose non-violent resistance to French colonial persecution in the late 19th century inspired a national movement: freedom of religious expression through pacifism. Vasarhelyi, a Sundance fellow, is the acclaimed director of the award-winning documentary Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love (2008) which explored the African pop artist N’Dour as he released a spiritual album that unexpectedly alienated his Senegalese countrymen. Touba screens with the Lebanese filmmaker Mokhtar Beyroth’s short, Studio Beirut (Lebanon, 2013, 15 min).
In “Touba,”which screens Sunday at the 5th Petaluma International Film Festival, award-winning filmmaker Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi gains unprecedented access to one of the largest religious pilgrimages on the African continent, revealing a face of Islam the world rarely glimpses. Shot on 16mm film, defying the all-digital trend, its vivid cinematography and soundtrack weave together a humanist film poem.
PIFF Details: The 5th Petaluma International Film Festival is Friday, October 11, through Sunday, October 13, 2013 at Petaluma’s Boulevard Cinemas, 200 C Street, Petaluma. Tickets are $11 for all PIFF screenings and are available in person or for online purchase at Petaluma’s Boulevard Cinemas. All inclusive festival pass is $150 and can be obtained by phoning (415) 251-8433 or by emailing info@petalumafilmfestival.org.
Three Great Film Festivals North of the Golden Gate Open in Early October—get ready!
Brian Percival’s film adaptation of Markus Zusak’s New York Times best seller “The Book Thief” (2013) is one of two films opening the 36th Mill Valley Film Festival, October 3-13, 2013. Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson star as a couple raising a young German foster child (Sophie Nélisse) and hiding a Jew from the Nazis during World War II.
The fall film festival season we’ve been waiting for kicks off in early October with three film festivals North of the Golden Gate—the 36th Mill Valley Film Festival (Oct 3-13, 2013), the 18th Sonoma County Jewish Film Festival (Oct 3-Nov 21, 2013) and the 5th Petaluma International Film Festival (Oct 11-13, 2013).
Stay-tuned to ARThound for detailed coverage, but below are the bare bones and ticketing information on each. The three-day Petaluma International Film Festival overlaps with the final Fri-Sat-Sun of the Mill Valley Film Festival and the Sonoma County Jewish Film Festival and Mill Valley Film Festival both share an October 3 opening, With some planning though, you can easily see plenty of films at each of these festivals.
Mill Valley Film Festival (Oct 3-13)
Heading into its 36th year, the acclaimed Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF36) kicks off Thursday, October 3, 2013 in high style with the Co-Opening night films Nebraska, from director Alexander Payne, and The Book Thief from director Brian Percival. Bruce Dern and Will Forte will be in attendance for the Bay Area Premiere of Nebraksa at CinéArts@Sequoia in Mill Valley and Academy Award®-winner Geoffrey Rush and Sophie Nélisse and Brian Percival will be in attendance for The Book Thief at the Century Cinema Corte Madera in Corte Madera. An Opening Night Gala at the Corte Madera Town Center will follow the Opening Night Screenings where guests will enjoy delicious local cuisine and wine and music.
A scene from Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” (2013), one of two films opening the 36th Mill Valley Film Festival, October 3-13, 2013. Bruce Dern plays a father who receives a sweepstakes letter in the mail and goes on a road trip across America’s heartland with his son Macgruber, played by Will Forte, to claim the prize. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
On the heels of the prestigious Venice and Toronto festivals, MVFF has the proud distinction of presenting Bay Area premieres of the last five Academy Award-Winners for Best Picture—Slumdog Millionaire, The Hurt Locker, The King’s Speech, The Artist and Argo—and festival organizers Mark Fishkin and Zoe Elton expect no less this year. Aside from its array of big premieres, big nights, stars and luminaries, and tributes and awards, the carefully planned 11 day festival offers over 150 films and events that fit the informed, progressive and Bohemian zeitgeist of Northern California. A few of the special interest categories include—animation, animal rights, Asian, Central Europe, Children’s Festival, comedy, environment/nature, fine arts, food, health, history, human rights, indigenous peoples, women, world cinema, and war.
There’s a huge buzz about Judy Dench’s performance in Philomena Steven Frears’ heart-tugging adoption story starring Dench and Steve Coogan. Philomena tells the story of a down-on-his-luck journalist (Coogan) who teams up with older woman (Dench, 78 in real life) whose son was taken away after she became pregnant as a teenager and was forced into a Catholic convent cum slave-labor home for unwed pregnant girls run by Northern Irish nuns. The movie is based on a true story of Irish woman Philomena Lee’s 50-year struggle to find her son, who was sold for adoption in America, as told by Martin Sixsmith in his 2009 book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and a Fifty-Year Search.
Because MVFF makes ticket available to California Film Institute members in advance of the general public, many of the films and special tributes are nearly sold out before they are publicly available. (For a list of films currently at rush, click here.) I’ll be pointing out several films over the next few days that still have availability and are unlikely to screen elsewhere, or, that have special programming combined with their screening that make them a must-see at Mill Valley.
Details: The festival’s homepage is here. Advance ticket purchase is essential as this festival sells out. To purchase tickets online for MVFF screenings, browse the film listings—the full list and scheduling information are online here. Most tickets are $14 and special events and tributes are more. Tickets can also be purchased in person at select Marin ticket outlets.
Rush tickets: If seats become available, even after tickets have sold out, rush tickets will be sold. The rush line forms outside each venue beginning one hour before show-time. Approximately 15 minutes prior to the screening, available rush tickets are sold on a first-come, first serve basis for Cash Only.)
Sonoma County Jewish Film Festival 2013 (Oct 3 – Nov 21)
The Jewish Community Center, Sonoma County presents the 18th annual Sonoma County Jewish Film Festival (SCJFF) which opens Thursday October 3, 2013 at Rialto Cinemas, Sebastopol, and ends November 21, 2013. The festival conveniently runs on Thursdays at 1 PM and 7:30 PM and presents seven carefully selected films from Israel, France, Germany, Austria and the USA. “You don’t have to be Jewish to love these films,” says Ellen Blustein, Film Festival Director who emphasizes their great stories. “We’re committed to providing high quality, entertaining, independent films to our loyal audience – after all – they are our community.”
Alice Taglioni and Patrick Bruel in Sophie Lellouche’s romantic comedy “Paris-Manhattan,” which opens the 18th Sonoma County Jewish Film Festival on Thursday, October 3 at Sebastopol’s Rialto Cinemas. Photo: courtesy SCJFF
Opening the festival is Sophie Lellouche’s debut film, the romantic comedy Paris-Manhattan (2012) screening Thursday, October 3, at 1 PM and 7:30 PM — Alice (Alice Taglioni) is beautiful, successful pharmacist in her 30s who is obsessed with Woody Allen and his films. In lieu of a manly shoulder, she spills her secrets to an iconic poster of Woody that hangs in her bedroom. She even prescribes his films to her customers who need advice and guidance beyond the traditional medicine she dispenses. France, 77 minutes, French with English subtitles. click for trailer. Screens with Woody Before Allen, Short film, USA, 13 minutes, English.
The SCJFF always has a special event and on Thursday, October 31 presents a screening and a special musical performance. The evening begins with music—a quartet from the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra will perform for the first time ever in Sonoma County. Then, Josh Aronson’s acclaimed documentary Orchestra of Exiles (2012) will screen—the suspenseful chronicle of how one man, Bronislaw Huberman, helped save Europe’s premiere Jewish musicians from obliteration by the Nazis during WWII. This densely layered story of the creation of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra (which in 1948 became the renowned Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, now conducted by Zubin Mehta) involves key characters including the high Nazi official, Goebbels; renowned conductors, Furtwangler and Toscanini; a future head of state, Chaim Weizmann; the families of victimized Jewish musicians who made up the ranks of orchestras across central Europe and Albert Einstein, who was an amateur violinist who liked to read music with Huberman. The film features the music of Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Pinchas Zukerman, Joshua Bell and others. After the screening, there will be a reception where audience members can mingle with the musicians. Details: Click here for tickets and information about the entire festival or call 707-528-4222 or visit the Rialto Cinemas Box Office. Ticket prices range from $10-$20.
Petaluma International Film Festival (Oct 11-13)
5th Annual Petaluma International Film Festival (PIFF) runs Friday, October 11 through Sunday, October 13th at Petaluma’s Boulevard 14 Cinemas. Organized by Saeed Shafa who founded the popular annual Tiburon Film Festival in 2002, PIFF’s programming also reflects a strong emphasis on international points of view and great storytelling. The festival offers six screenings daily, starting at noon and running till about 11 PM, each time slot allocated to a full-length film and at least 1 short (30 minutes or less) for a total of 17 full-length films and 23 shorts. This year, filmmakers and/or films span the globe from Athens to Kosovo to remote Papua New Guinea to Senegal to Yemen.
Opening Day: The festival opens Friday, October 11 with a noon screening of Hermann Vaske’s Balkan Spirit (2013, Germany, 80 minutes). Vaske and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek explore the cultural, philosophical, political and artistic renaissance that is literally breathing life into this amazing region after decades of war and stagnation. The engaging film features Angelina Jolie, Isabelle Huppert, Emir Kusturica, Dušan Makavejev, Abel Ferrara, Jasmila Zbanic and many other who will be forever on your creative radar.
5 Films by Sonoma Flimmakers, Saturday October 12, 6 PM—PIFF will present a collection of films made by Sonoma County filmmakers in support of the community’s rich and diverse talent. All the filmmakers will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A. On the program- Greg Blatman’s Kitty Litter (2012, 9 min, shot in Petaluma); Beth Nelson’s The Sky is the Roof (2013, 30 min—historical overview of pre-colonial Napa Valley); Laura Owen & Aron Campisano’s Chocolatés (5 min); Bret Smith’s Rat-Face Burattino (2013, 5 min) and Paul Winston’s The World is My Stage (2013, 26 min).
Salem Salavati’s documentary The Last Winter (Zemestane akhar) (Iran, 2012, 95 min) won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Yerevan International Film Festival and screens Sunday, October 13, at the 5th Petaluma International Film Festival. With beautiful cinematography, it tells the story of rural family in a remote corner of Iran and, like many Iranian films, it employs allegory to make a larger statement the threatened culture of Iranian Kurdistan.
Shafa has a passion for the great poetic of film. This year’s gem from Iran is Salem Salavati’s documentary The Last Winter (Zemestane akhar) (Iran, 2012, 95 min), an elegant parable about the threatened culture of Iranian Kurdistan told through the story of a family who is unable to change and to come to terms with a tragedy. Salavati’s documentary is an expanded version of his previous short Snowy Dreams with the same picturesque winter scenery, calm, realistic life style and culture of Iranian Kurdistan. Screens with the short Double Occupancy at 6:15 PM on Sunday, October 13, 2013.
PIFF Details: Tickets are $11 for all PIFF screenings and are available in person or for online purchase at Petaluma’s Boulevard Cinemas, 200 C Street, Petaluma. All inclusive festival pass is $150 and can be obtained by phoning (415) 251-8433 or by emailing info@petalumafilmfestival.org. Full schedule here. Film descriptions here.
ARThound 