March 29, 2005

48th San Francisco International Festival Announces Golden Gate Award Nominees; Awards Recognize Innovative Works Spanning Multiple Film Disciplines

The 48th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21—May 5) unveiled its official selection for the Golden Gate Awards (GGA) competition, which honors innovation in documentary, animation, shorts, experimental, television and works by youth. Winners will be announced at the Golden Gate Awards ceremony on Wednesday, May 4 at the Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Official selections will be screened in a variety of curated programs throughout the Festival to give audiences the opportunity to savor the talents of diverse filmmakers from around the globe. Over 1,400 entries were submitted and the final program offers 57 films from over 21 countries.

"The Golden Gate Awards films have been an essential element of the San Francisco International Film Festival ever since the first San Francisco Film Festival in 1957," said Roxanne Messina Captor, executive director of the Festival. "The Golden Gate Awards ceremony has become such a popular celebration that we have grown into a bigger venue, the Cowell Theater, where we invite the public to join us as we announce the award-winning works in all categories, along with the SKYY Prize and FIPRESCI Jury Prize winners."

The films in the GGA competition offer an early look at future award winners and nominees. SUPER SIZE ME, a competitor in last year's documentary category was an Academy Award nominee this year. RYAN is Chris Landreth's Academy Award—winning animated short about Ryan Larkin who years ago pioneered human motion in animation and influenced Landreth's career. Today, Larkin lives on welfare and panhandles for spare change.

The selections also showcase stellar Bay Area—based filmmaking talent, and this year's presentations are no exception. Bay Area-produced films include Taggart Siegel's THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN, which takes a personal look at the fascinating life of John Peterson, a farmer, artist and writer whose struggle to save the family farm is also a fight for his own way of life; Stephen Cheslik-DeMeyer's down-home documentary, LIFE IN A BOX, follows queer alt-country duo Y'all as they travel across America in their stylish trailer home, bringing catchy tunes, folksy humor, lucky green dresses and relationship drama to their Bible Belt fans; the documentary short, THE LIFE OF KEVIN CARTER (Dan Krauss, USA/South Africa), tells the story of South African photojournalist Kevin Carter who committed suicide only weeks after winning the Pulitzer Prize; the documentary short, RADIO TAKEOVER (Serena Down, Mike Seely), explores the FCC shutdown of low-powered FM radio station San Francisco Liberation Radio; and of local interest, Ralph Arlyck's FOLLOWING SEAN asks, Does tie-dye ever go out of style? By revisiting the San Francisco hippie kid he filmed in the late 1960s, Arlyck fast-forwards from Summer of Love idealism to present-day reality, finding family dysfunction and a counterculture in crisis.

Other documentary features in competition include CZECH DREAM (Vit Klusak, Filip Remunda, Czech Republic), an entertaining and thought-provoking look at the power of advertising and consumer dreams that documents a gigantic hoax—the promotion and gala opening of a wholly fictitious megastore in an empty Prague field; BOXERS AND BALLERINAS (USA) a lively documentary by twentysomethings Mike Cahill and Brit Marling who spend some quality time with four Cuban athletes and dancers, two in Miami and two in Havana, struggling to perfect their craft while weighing obligations to their families, their homeland and themselves; DELAMU (Tian Zhuangzhuang, China), a breathtakingly gorgeous portrait of the landscapes and people of the ancient, perilous and remote Tea-Horse Road of southwestern China—a time capsule of a place and time soon to be altered by encroaching technology; THE BOYS OF BARAKA (Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, USA/Kenya), in which twenty African American boys are plucked, kicking and screaming, from the mean streets of inner-city Baltimore and sent to a boarding school in the wilds of Kenya. This exhilarating film documents first their rebellion, then their transformation.

Equally remarkable are the films from young people in the GGA's Youth Works section. This year offers BULLETS IN THE HOOD: A BED-STUY STORY (Terrence Fisher, Daniel Howard) in which a teenager who lost eight friends to gun violence picks up a camera to tell the story of blood on the streets of Brooklyn and four films produced by the Oakland-based Youth Sounds Factory: ELEMENTS (Paolo Sambrano), C: NONE OF THE ABOVE (Daniel Downey, Andrew Baxter), INERTIA (Erica Eng) and PRESCOTT CIRCUS: THE MOVIE (Mandel Lum).

"We are especially proud of our world-class films in competition. Because they are selected out of a wide net of entries, these films truly are the cream of the crop from the international filmmaking community," said MaÔa Cybelle Carpenter, Golden Gate Awards coordinator. "Year after year, these filmmakers recount how wonderful it is to participate in a competition of such high caliber and to be able to interact with such engaged audiences."

Prescreening committees and panels comprised of Bay Area media professionals convened from November 2004 through January 2005 to view and evaluate all entries. They then nominated official selections of the most distinguished films and videos across 14 categories based on excellence in form and content. Juries of renowned film professionals will assemble during the Festival to determine the winners who will receive trophies and cash prizes of up to $5,000. Comprising the documentary feature jury are filmmaker Sam Green, Film Society of Lincoln Center programmer Marian Masone and journalist Susan Gerhard. Serving on the documentary shorts jury are San Francisco Cinematheque curator Irina Leimbacher, journalist Michael Fox and San Francisco Art Institute visiting professor and filmmaker Caroline Savage. The jury members for the nondocumentary shorts are Exploratorium curator Liz Keim, Mills College professor Steven Matheson and Film Quarterly editor Ann Martin. And the jury members for Works for Kids and Families and Youth Works are Joanne Parsont, Katy Kavanaugh, James Gunn and Keith Zwolfer.

Additionally, Apple is providing production suite software including Final Cut Pro, Motion and DVD Studio Pro to the winner of the GGA Best Documentary Feature, AlphaCine Labs is providing $2,000 worth of lab services to the winner of the GGA for Best Bay Area Documentary Feature and Kodak is providing 5,000 feet of negative stock (2,500 each) to the winners of the GGA for Best Documentary Short and Best Bay Area Documentary Short.

GOLDEN GATE AWARD OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

FILM & VIDEO

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

Abel Raises Cain, Jenny Abel (USA, 2004)

Boxers and Ballerinas, Mike Cahill, Brit Marling (USA, 2004)

The Boys of Baraka, Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady (USA/Kenya, 2005)

Czech Dream, Vit Klusak, Filip Remunda (Czech Republic, 2004)

Delamu, Tian Zhuangzhuang (China, 2004)

A Doula Story, Daniel Alpert (USA, 2004)

Following Sean, Ralph Arlyck (USA, 2004)

*Life in a Box, Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer (USA, 2005)

Omar and Pete, Tod Lending (USA, 2005)

Relativity, Brenda Kovrig (Canada, 2004)

*The Real Dirt on Farmer John, Taggart Siegel (USA, 2005)

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

Buried in the Backyard, Sarah Prior, Monica Bigler (USA, 2004)

*Changing the Taste of Mud, Violet Feng, Serene Fang (China/USA, 2004)

The Critical Path, Benita Raphan (USA, 2004)

The Ecstatic, Till Passow (Pakistan/Germany, 2004)

*The Life of Kevin Carter, Dan Krauss (USA/South Africa, 2004)

Night, Gloriana Severdija (Germany, 2004)

*Radio Takeover, Mike Seely, Serena Down (USA, 2004)

NARRATIVE SHORTS

Afternoon, Kim Spurlock (USA, 2005)

Amal, Ali Benkirane (France/Morocco, 2004)

Candy Viola, Fabio Simonelli (Italy, 2004)

Desequilibrium, Francisco Garcia (Brazil, 2004)

Everything Goes, Andrew Kotatko (Australia, 2004)

Going Postal, Suzi Ewing (England/USA, 2004)

Nits, Harry Wootliff (England, 2004)

Rain Is Falling, Holger Ernst (Germany/Morocco, 2004)

*Twilight, Victoria Gamburg (Russia/USA, 2005)

Two Cars, One Night, Taika Waititi (New Zealand, 2004)

*La Vie d'un Chien, John Harden (USA/France, 2004)

WORKS FOR KIDS AND FAMILIES

Codename:Simon, Graham Tallman (USA, 2004)

A Slippery Tale, Susanne Seidel (Germany, 2004)

The Tale of What I Want and Don't Want, Ricardo Antonio Barahona (El Salvador, 2004)

ANIMATED SHORTS

Butler, Erik Rosenlund (Sweden, 2005)

Frog, Christopher Conforti (USA, 2004)

Ryan, Chris Landreth (Canada, 2004)

The Shadow in Sara, Karla Nielsen (Denmark, 2004)

The Tooth, Nathan Stone (Australia, 2004)

NEW VISIONS

Death in the Garden of Paradise, Nurjahan Akhlaq (Canada/Pakistan, 2004)

*The Form of the Good, James T. Hong (USA, 2004)

The Future Is Behind You, Abigail Child (USA, 2004)

Icarus, Tirtza Even (Spain/USA, 2004)

Legal Errorist, Mara Mattuschka, Chris Haring (Austria, 2005)

Phantom Foreign Vienna, Lisl Ponger (Austria, 2004)

*Torchlight Tango, Kerry Laitala (USA, 2005)

Viscera, Leighton Pierce (USA, 2004)

We Are the Littletons: A True Story, Penny Lane (USA, 2004)

YOUTH WORK

Bullets in the Hood: A Bed-Stuy Story, Terrence Fisher, Daniel Howard (USA, 2004)

*C: None of the Above, Andrew Baxter, Daniel Downey (USA, 2004)

*Elements, Paolo Sambrano (USA, 2004)

*Homeless Orchestra, Theo Ellington (USA, 2004)

*Inertia, Erica Eng (USA, 2004)

*Prescott Circus: The Movie, Mandel Lum (USA, 2004)

*Wired, Edward Elliott (USA, 2004)

TELEVISION

TV DOCUMENTARY LONG FORM

Off to War, Brent Renaud, Craig Renaud (USA, 2004)

TV DOCUMENTARY SHORT FORM

Facing the Dead, Gabrielle Pfeiffer (Germany, 2004)

TV NARRATIVE LONG FORM

Tempus Fugit, Enric Folch (Spain, 2004)

TV NARRATIVE SHORT FORM

The Newsroom, Season Three—Baghdad Bound, Ken Finkleman (Canada, 2005)

*Bay Area filmmakers

Sundance Channel and Comcast are sponsors of the Golden Gate Awards Documentary Selection and the Golden Gate Awards Ceremony.

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.