March 29, 2005

Renowned Documentarian Adam Curtis to Be Honored at 48th San Francisco International Film Festival; Curtis to Receive Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award

The 48th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21—May 5) is presenting pioneer Adam Curtis with the prestigious Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award to honor his prescient and controversial documentaries for television. Curtis will be presented with the award prior to the showing of his documentary THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES: THE RISE OF THE POLITICS OF FEAR (2004) on Sunday, May 1 at 2:00 pm at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres. Following the screening, Curtis will be interviewed onstage.

"Adam Curtis is becoming internationally known as a master in the field of documentary filmmaking," said Linda Blackaby, director of programming. "By combining meticulous research and thorough analysis to present a case in his documentaries for the BBC, he reframes and refocuses our ideas about the forces at work in the 20th and 21st centuries global culture and politics."

Curtis is a senior executive producer with BBC television in London. Over the past 15 years he has made many documentary films and film series that focus on the history of politics and culture both in Britain and globally. Curtis's documentary THE CENTURY OF THE SELF (SFIFF 2003), a four-part film series produced for the BBC about the cultural and political influence of Sigmund Freud, his ideas and his family was the winner of the esteemed British Broadcast Award for Best Documentary Series. Some of his other films include: THE MAYFAIR SET (2002), FISHTANK (1999), MODERN TIMES: THE WAY OF THE FLESH (SFIFF, Golden Gate Award winner 1998), £25,000,000 — THE TRUE STORY OF NICK LEESON AND THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF BARINGS (1996), THE LIVING DEAD (1995) and PANDORA'S BOX (1992).

THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES puts forward that in the past our politicians offered us dreams for a better world, now they promise to protect us from nightmares. Since September 11, the most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But is the War on Terror a scam? At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neoconservatives and the radical Islamists. These two groups have changed the world but not in the way either intended. Adam Curtis tops his previous BBC series, THE CENTURY OF THE SELF with this controversial, myth-shattering investigation into the politics of fear as it is practiced by U.S. and other world leaders.

Curtis has won many awards for his films—both in Britain and America—and is one of the BBC's most renowned historical documentary filmmakers. Among his many accolades, Curtis has received four British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards.

Established in 1997, the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award recognizes the lifetime achievement of filmmakers who work outside of feature films in the realms of documentaries, shorts, experimental or animated works. Previous winners have been documentarian Jon Else (2004), experimental filmmaker Pat O'Neill (2003), Latin American cinema pioneer Fernando Birri (2002), avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger (2001), animator Faith Hubley (2000), documentarians Johan van der Keuken (1999) and Robert Frank (1998) and animator Jan Svankmajer (1997). Mother Jones magazine is the sponsor of the Persistence of Vision Award and screening.

The 48th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 21—May 5, 2005 at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres, the Home of the Festival, the Castro Theatre, the Palace of Fine Arts, Kanbar Hall at the Jewish Community Center and the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco; the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley; and Landmark's Aquarius Theatre in Palo Alto. Tickets for San Francisco Film Society members will be available on March 29 and for the general public on April 5. To purchase tickets and for ticket information log on to www.sffs.org, call 925.866.9559 or visit the Main Ticket Outlet, located in the atrium of the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres, 1881 Post Street or the Satellite Ticket Outlet at the Virgin Megastore, 2 Stockton Street. For up-to-date Festival information log on to www.sffs.org or call 415.561.5000.

The 48th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21—May 5, 2005) is presented by the San Francisco Film Society, a nonprofit arts and educational organization dedicated to celebrating international film and the moving image.