49th San Francisco International Film Festival Introduces Programming for Kids to Bring their Adults to

Spotlight: to Highlight Films for the Family

March 28, 2006

San Francisco, CA—The 49th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 20–May 4) announces the introduction of a new Spotlight: program offering films for people young and old to enjoy together. Spotlight: Family Films, films kids can bring their adults to, will be comprised of three short-film programs and an international feature. The shorts collections include: Friends–Lost and Found, Not So Quiet Silents with Alloy Orchestra and Youth Gone Wild. A special screening of Viva Cuba with a subtitle reader rounds out the family selection.

The Spotlight: Family Films program starts on Saturday, April 22 at 1:00 pm at the Kabuki 8 Theatres with a screening of Viva Cuba, a fairytale-like, charmer about 11-year-old Malú who embarks with her best friend Jorgito on a quest to find her father. To enable all family members an opportunity to attend and enjoy this delightful film, a subtitle reader will be present in one of the theaters of this dual-theater showing of Viva Cuba. The film will screen two other times during the Festival at the Kabuki 8 Theatres: on Monday, April 24 at 9:00 pm and again Tuesday, April 25 at 1:00 pm (these screenings will not have a reader present).

Next up at the Castro Theatre on Sunday, April 23 at 1:00 pm will be a performance by the music ensemble Alloy Orchestra in concert with the Not So Quiet Silents, featuring the silent-classic shorts Back Stage (1919) with funny guys Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle and Keaton’s One Week (1920). The selection also includes Dragonflies, the Baby Cries (2001), a miniature exploration into childhood whimsy. An interactive element is planned to enlist the audience as creators of sound to complement Alloy Orchestra’s performance.

Friends–Lost and Found is a collection of shorts that explore the concept of friendship and its impact on how individuals view themselves and determine their place in the world. The selection includes A Bag of Sweets; Cake; Emelia—The Five Year Old Goth Girl; Hide & Seek; Kylie Goldstein, All American; Roberto the Insect Architect; Rubber Soles and Sirah. Friends–Lost and Found will screen at the Kabuki 8 Theatres on Thursday, April 27 at 3:45 pm, Friday, April 28 at 10:00 am and at 1:15 pm on Sunday, April 30.

Youth Gone Wild highlights the creativity of young filmmakers in its selection of shorts ranging from the comical-poetic lambasting featured in Slip of the Tongue to the serious and compelling in RIP Oakland, a thought-provoking documentary about violence in Oakland, California. The voices of young people under the age of 18 are represented in this diverse group of short films including The Boat, Community Gardens, A Drive Thru Society, Expectations, The Fish, Grand Mal, Happy Birthday, RIP Oakland, Shoes, Signal from Planet Q and Slip of the Tongue. Youth Gone Wild will screen at the Kabuki 8 Theatres at 1:00 pm on both Saturday, April 29 and Thursday, May 4. Filmmakers are expected to attend.

Special support for Spotlight: Family Films provided by the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and Wells Fargo.

Founded in 1957, the vanguard San Francisco International Film Festival is the longest-running film festival in the Americas. Held each spring for two weeks, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in the country’s most beautiful city, featuring some 200 films and live events with more than 100 filmmakers in attendance, presenting some 22 awards and attracting a diverse audience of nearly 80,000 people.

The 49th International runs April 20–May 4, 2006 at the Kabuki 8 Theatres, the Castro Theatre 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, as well as several smaller venues. To purchase tickets and for ticket information log on to www.sffs.org, call 925.866.9559 or visit the Main Ticket Outlet at the Kabuki 8 Theatres (1881 Post Street) or the Satellite Ticket Outlet at Virgin Megastore (2 Stockton Street). For additional information log on to www.sffs.org or call 415.561.5000.

San Francisco Film Society, presenter of the flagship SFIFF, is a nonprofit arts and educational organization dedicated to celebrating the world of film and media in all its glorious forms. In early 2006 the Film Society unveiled SF360, a broad-spectrum series of initiatives designed to showcase the extraordinary vitality, variety and innovation of the San Francisco Bay Area film and media scene, including www.sf360.org, SF360 San Francisco Movie Night, SF360 InSchool Cinemas and the SF360 Festival of Festivals.

The Film Society will present the first annual San Francisco International Animation Festival from October 11–15, 2006 and a new SF International Youth Media Festival in 2007.

First to 50: SFIFF will hold its landmark 50th anniversary in April 2007.