50th San Francisco International Film Festival Spotlights Cinema By The Bay, Digital Media And International Horror

Local Brilliance, Innovative Thinking and Thrills and Chills Inspire Trio of Themed Program Sections

April 3, 2007

San Francisco, CA – The 50th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 26–May 10) presents three Spotlight sections: Cinema by the Bay, KinoTek and The Late Show. Cinema by the Bay is a collection of six films and one onstage screening/discussion by Bay Area filmmakers whose work epitomizes the creative heart of the west. KinoTek will feature four new media programs designed to take audiences beyond standard festival-going experiences. The Late Show is a survey of the best in new international horror cinema.

Cinema by the Bay
The San Francisco Bay Area has long been an epicenter of filmmaking innovation and the 50th International is thrilled to present this spotlight section surveying the breadth of the scene. The seven presentations comprising Cinema by the Bay represent a sampling of the distinct visions at work here and employ a variety of genres and forms to tell singular stories. Special support for the Cinema by the Bay Spotlight is provided by the San Francisco Film Commission.

In Fog City Mavericks, Gary Leva chronicles the past 40 years of the lives and work of the Bay Area’s best-known filmmakers, with more than two-dozen on-camera interviews and rare archival footage. This world premiere screening is underwritten by Macy’s West. Murch covers the life and philosophy of Walter Murch, one of the world’s greatest film and sound editors. He’s a generous and erudite man, eager to share his passion for film, in this revealing documentary by Edie and David Ichikoa.

All in This Tea by Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht is an absorbing documentary that follows adventurer and world-renowned tea importer David Lee Hoffman through China in pursuit of the best handcrafted teas. In the world premiere of Carved Out of Pavement: The Work of Rob Nilsson, fiercely independent San Francisco filmmaker Rob Nilsson will discuss his Direct Action filmmaking and show excerpts from several digital works-in-progress. Revolution Summer (world premiere) is Miles Montalbano’s locally shot DIY portrait of three restless young urbanites grappling with love and rebellion during the Iraqatastrophe.

Strange Culture, Lynn Hershman Leeson’s unconventional documentary about Steve Kurtz, a conceptual artist falsely accused of bioterrorism, features Tilda Swinton, Thomas Jay Ryan, Peter Coyote and Josh Kornbluth. Wonders Are Many by award-winning documentarian Jon Else provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the making of Doctor Atomic, an opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer, created in 2006 for the San Francisco Opera by composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars.

KinoTek
This Festival program highlights new technologies, cross-platform works and interactive elements. The world premiere of Arrows of Time, by Ken McMullen, contrasts discoveries in high energy physics with cultural developments in philosophy, poetry and film and video production—all during a live multimedia performance, edited in real time.

Special Forces,by internationally renowned composer Bob Ostertag and animator Pierre Hébert, uses images and sounds from video games, war footage and original materials recorded in Beirut this April. Ostertag will generate a score and soundscape comprised of video game sound clips and Hébert will create animations on the spot that interact with remixed images and sounds. The result is a powerful mix of pointed, playful and urgent views of the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Special support is generously provided by the Consulate General of Canada.

The first feature-length work shot on a mobile phone to have its premiere at a major film festival, Why didn’t anybody tell me it would become this bad in Afghanistan, is a rigorous experimental film by Cyrus Frisch told through the eyes of a traumatized Dutch soldier who has returned home from a tour of Afghanistan.

KinoTek closes with Halou, Tarentel and the GreenWorld, sponsored by Yahoo! Video and Heart of Green, at SF nightclub Mighty. The beloved local bands take the stage with contrasting and intense multimedia performances that merge electronic and psychedelic music with dreamy visuals. The ethereal voice of Halou’s Rebecca Coseboom amid the band’s atmospheric organic and electronic beats are played out against CGI and cutout animation projections, while Tarentel continues their onstage collaboration with local filmmaker Paul Clipson. Videos made by the winner and finalists of the SFIFF50 GreenWorld online video contest, presented by SFFS, Jumpcut and Yahoo! Video, will also be screened.

The Late Show
The annual Late Show spotlight presents edgy and outrageous films that arouse, amuse and shock. This year, the spotlight is on international horror—a rich, and burgeoning genre demonstrating that audiences the world over love a good thrill. The Late Show opens with Black Sheep (New Zealand), Jonathan King’s delightfully witty tale about the havoc that ensues when genetically engineered sheep are introduced onto a family farm. Ghost Train (Japan), a much-needed jolt to the J-horror genre, is Takeshi Furusawa’s tale of a haunted subway platform and the search for two missing youngsters. In Cold Prey (Norway), a spectacularly scary slasher film by director Roar Uthaug, five snowboarders encounter a masked murderer in an abandoned ski lodge. TV gets twisted in The Signal by Atlanta-based filmmakers David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry, who offer a gruesome satire of media and modern technology.

Stella Artois beer, courtesy of the Festival, will be served prior to the screenings taking place on both Friday and Saturday evenings at the Sundance Cinemas Kabuki. Stella Artois is the exclusive sponsor of The Late Show.

Please refer to the Festival Web site at www.sffs.org or the Festival Miniguide for showtimes and venues.