San Francisco Film Society and Ironweed Film Club Present Marshall Curry’s Street Fight as the Featured Film of the Inaugural Sf360 San Francisco Movie Night

Bay Area Film Lovers Invited to Host House Parties to Watch Riveting Academy Award–Nominated Documentary About Street-Level Politics in Newark, New Jersey

Citywide Event to Be Held Monday, April 17 as a Special Pre-Festival Presentation of the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival

March 28, 2006

San Francisco, CA—

The San Francisco Film Society, presenter of the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 20–May 4) and Ironweed Film Club, a San Francisco-based DVD-of-the-month club distributing socially conscious films, invite San Franciscans to help host the first SF360 San Francisco Movie Night on Monday, April 17. The Academy Award–nominated documentary Street Fight, directed by Marshall Curry, is the one movie the city will be talking about after Bay Area film fans, including more than 700 Ironweed Film Club subscribers, view the film at house parties across the city during one evening.

“The Film Society’s SF360 initiatives are designed to explore the ways in which new media platforms allow new work to reach new audiences in new ways, so we’re very happy to be able to team up with Ironweed Film Club to present the first Movie Night in the country of this scope and scale,” said SFFS executive director Graham Leggat. “On the evening of April 17, if seen from satellite, the Bay Area will be an expanded cinema, with disparate pockets of like-minded viewers connected by digital technology and a common viewing experience. There’s something beautiful and almost utopian about this project, particularly if it helps spark new aesthetic experiences or social and political change.”

“SF360 San Francisco Movie Night is a simple way to get together with your friends and support independent films,” said Ironweed founder Adam Werbach. “Street Fight is the perfect film to kick off Movie Night. It is edge-of-your-seat, entertaining, challenging filmmaking at its best and will be sure to spur lively and thoughtful debates about politics, race and democracy.”

The Event
On Monday, April 17 San Franciscans are encouraged to host a movie night for a group of friends and be part of the first citywide SF360 San Francisco Movie Night. To host a movie night, go to ironweedfilms.com to sign up as a member of the Ironweed Film Club. For $14.95 per month, subscribers receive a members-only DVD of the film and the opportunity to extend their membership for additional monthly Film Club choices. Subscribers can also choose a yearly membership option for $160.00.

In April, subscribing members will receive the exclusive DVD from Ironweed featuring the film for SF360 Movie Night Street Fight, a special introduction by author, columnist and blogger Arianna Huffington, selected short films and tips and discussion guides for hosting a screening party on April 17. During the signup process, members receive all the other information needed to invite friends and host a home movie night. This is the first SF360 San Francisco Movie Night to be presented in a series intended for quarterly or semiannual presentations. Some community interactive elements for the night will be announced.

The Film
Directed by Marshall Curry, Street Fight chronicles the bare-knuckles race for mayor of Newark, New Jersey between Cory Booker, a 32-year-old Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law School graduate, and Sharpe James, the four-term incumbent and undisputed champion of Newark politics. The battle sheds light on important American questions about democracy, power and—in a surprising twist—race. Both Booker and James are African American Democrats, but when the mayor accuses the Ivy League educated Booker of not being “really” Black it forces voters to examine how race is defined. Street Fight tells a gripping story of the underbelly of democracy where elections are not about spindoctors, media consultants or photo ops. In Newark, we discover, elections are won and lost in the streets.

SF360 San Francisco Movie night is part of the SF360 series of initiatives launched by the San Francisco Film Society in early 2006, designed to strengthen and promote the San Francisco film and media scene in all its various and exciting forms. In addition to SF360 San Francisco Movie Night, the SF360 series of initiatives also include the SF360.org (launched March 2006 in cooperation with IndieWIRE) and the upcoming SF360 Festival of Festivals and SF360 InSchool Cinemas.

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.