47th San Francisco International Film Festival Kicks Off April 15 for
Two-Week Cinema Spree

The 47th San Francisco International Film Festival runs from April 15–29, opening with Jim Jarmusch’s ode to bad habits and good conversation, COFFEE AND CIGARETTES, featuring an all-star, all-hipster cast including Bill Murray, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, Steve Buscemi, Alfred Molina, Cate Blanchett, the White Stripes, Roberto Begnini, RZA, GZA, Isaach de Bankolé, Alex Descas and Taylor Mead. Closing out the Festival is LAWS OF ATTRACTION, a sparkling romantic comedy with Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore as divorce lawyers who find love in the courtroom, featuring Frances Fisher and Parker Posey.

In announcing the program Executive Director Roxanne Messina Captor said, “The 47th Festival includes films from more countries than ever before, reflecting a world in the midst of great changes. We see this year’s filmmakers speaking out about diverse social issues and exploring underground movements in politics, culture and the arts, from coffee-house counterculture to underground jazz to political corruption in Peru and activist grandmothers in Argentina.”

The Festival this year includes three World Premieres: the hard-hitting documentary, GIRL TROUBLE, by local filmmakers Lexi Leban and Lidia Szajko, about three troubled teenage girls entangled in San Francisco’s juvenile justice system; BRASS TACKS, a gritty, music-filled tale of a struggling jazz band directed by first-time helmer Gavin Dougan; and a Japanese horror movie with puppet costars, MARRONNIER, directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi. This year’s two International Premieres are SOMEONE ELSE’S SHINJUKU EAST, an intimate documentary portrait of Taiwanese immigrants living in a seedy Tokyo neighborhood, and WE LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH, a documentary about Beirut’s disparate political and religious factions brought together through the mesmerizing voice of singer Fairuz, who is beloved throughout the Arab world.

The Festival’s three North American Premieres include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s (CURE, SFIFF 1998; CHARISMA, SFIFF 2000) latest, DOPPELGANGER, starring Koji Yakusho, and ROUTE 181—FRAGMENTS OF A JOURNEY IN PALESTINE-ISRAEL, a unique collaboration between a Palestinian filmmaker and an Israeli filmmaker. The Festival’s 11 U.S. Premieres include Carlos Diegues’s GOD IS BRAZILIAN, Veit Helmer’s GATE TO HEAVEN, Rajat Kapoor’s RAGHU ROMEO, Eric Rohmer’s TRIPLE AGENT, Ekachai Uekrongtham’s BEAUTIFUL BOXER and one U.S. Premiere that’s about 36 years tardy, Cheng Chang-Ho’s 1968 spy thriller TEMPTRESS OF A THOUSAND FACES.

Honored with awards at this year’s Festival are Milos Forman, who receives the Film Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing, and Chris Cooper, who receives the Peter J. Owens Award, which honors an actor whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity. Both artists will be appearing at the Castro Theatre for onstage interviews, as well as being feted at the Film Society Awards Night.

Jon Else, renowned documentary maker (CADILLAC DESERT; YOSEMITE: THE FATE OF HEAVEN) and cinematographer, is the first Bay Area artist to receive the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award, which honors the life achievement of a filmmaker who works in forms other than narrative features. The Mel Novikoff Award, which is bestowed on an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the filmgoing public’s knowledge and appreciation of world cinema, is given this year to Paolo Cherchi Usai, senior curator of George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, one of the country’s leading film archives and preservation facilities. Else’s film, THE DAY AFTER TRINITY, will screen at the Festival following an onstage interview; a program of unusual silent short films from George Eastman House, called LIFE IS SHORTS, will screen at the Pacific Film Archive Theater with live musical accompaniment following an onstage interview with Cherchi Usai.

Cyd Charisse is considered by many to be the greatest female dancer ever to grace the movie musical. As Fred Astaire once said, “When you’ve danced with Cyd Charisse, you stay danced with.” The Festival’s tribute this year celebrates the life and work of Cyd Charisse with a screening of SILK STOCKINGS, starring Astaire and Charisse in a loose remake of NINOTCHKA, and an onstage interview at the Castro Theatre.

Alloy Orchestra first brought one of their original silent film scores to the Festival back in 1995 with LONESOME. This year, Festival audiences are lucky enough to get two new performances from these masters of the silent film score. The trio will perform to Buster Keaton’s masterpiece THE GENERAL as well as the French silent classic DANS LA NUIT, directed by Charles Vanel, better known for having one of the world’s longest film acting careers, spanning 70 years from 1910 to 1980.

Eleven films are competing this year for the SKYY Prize, a $10,000 cash award given to a first-time feature filmmaker and chosen by an international jury. The films include Celina Murga’s ANA AND THE OTHERS from Argentina, Rodney Evans’ BROTHER TO BROTHER from the U.S., Arto Koskinen’s THE HANDCUFF KING from Finland, Boris Khlebnikov and Alexei Popogrebsky’s KOKTEBEL from Russia, Chen Daming’s MANHOLE from China, Lee Kang-sheng’s THE MISSING from Taiwan, Andrés Waissbluth’s THE NEWCOMERS from Chile, Sabiha Sumar’s SILENT WATERS from Pakistan, Andrzej Jakimowski’s SQUINT YOUR EYES from Poland, Sarah Gavron’s THIS LITTLE LIFE from England and Salvatore Mereu’s THREE STEP DANCING  from Italy.

The Festival boasts 17 films from Pacific Asia this year, including THE MISSING, the debut feature by Lee Kang-sheng, better known as the lead actor in the films of Festival regular Tsai Ming-liang (REBELS OF THE NEON GOD, SFIFF 1993; VIVE L’AMOUR, SFIFF 1995; THE RIVER, SFIFF 1997; THE HOLE, SFIFF 1999). In fact, THE MISSING is something of a companion piece to Tsai’s new film, GOODBYE, DRAGON INN, also in the Festival—both films share several interlocking characters and were made at the same time. A partial list of other Asian films include Ryuchi Hiroki’s VIBRATOR from Japan, a story of a guy, a girl and a truck; a groundbreaking animated film from South Korea, SKY BLUE; Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE, starring Tadanobu Asano and shot by the great Christopher Doyle; and Ekachai Uekrongtham’s BEAUTIFUL BOXER, a drama based on the real life of Thai kickboxer Nong Toom who used his boxing winnings to pay for a sex change operation.

This year’s Extreme Cinema section is an all-Asian extravaganza of edgy delights. From Hong Kong comes THE PARK, a good old haunted amusement park horror movie—with some sequences in 3-D!— directed by the inhumanly prolific Andrew Lau (DANCE OF A DREAM, SFIFF 2002; INFERNAL AFFAIRS, SFIFF 2003). The indescribable cop-revenge-kidnap-sci-fi-comic thriller SAVE THE GREEN PLANET!, directed by Jang Jun-Hwan, is a nutjob masterpiece that could be the first cult movie from South Korea. MARRONNIER is a horror movie from Japan with a cast of puppets, directed by Hideyuki Kobayashi. And, in its U.S. Premiere, TEMPTRESS OF A THOUSAND FACES, by the director of martial arts favorite THE FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH (1973), Cheng Chang-Ho. The film is a bizarre James Bondian action movie (released in Hong Kong a year after YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) with a female hero and villain.

Latin America makes a strong showing in the 47th Festival. Here’s a partial list: From Brazil comes Hector Babenco’s newest film, the prison drama CARANDIRU; Carlos Diegues’s newest comedy, GOD IS BRAZILIAN, which features God as the main protagonist; and THE MAN WHO COPIED, a dazzling comic romance that mixes styles—even animation—with wild abandon. From Chile comes B-HAPPY, which features a star-making performance by Manuela Martelli as a 14-year-old girl challenged by life to grow up ahead of schedule; and THE NEWCOMERS, a seedy underworld drama set in Chile's sex industry. From Peru comes WHAT THE EYE DOESN’T SEE, a MAGNOLIA-esque portrait of a society exposing its broken moral compass, set against the backdrop of the fall of the Fujimori regime.

Documentaries are strong at the 47th Festival with such nonfiction offerings as THE CORPORATION, an epic vivisection of the corporate world that has been called this year’s BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE; Festival regular Heddy Honigmann’s (METAL AND MELANCHOLY, SFIFF 1994; THE UNDERGROUND ORCHESTRA, SFIFF 1998; CRAZY, SFIFF 2000; GOOD HUSBAND, DEAR SON, SFIFF 2002) DAME LA MANO, a portrait of a New Jersey nightclub frequented by Cuban exiles, that is ablaze with the sounds of African rumba; THE BOY WHO PLAYS ON THE BUDDHAS OF BAMIYAN, about the lives of several Afghan families living in the shadow of what were once the world’s tallest stone statues until the Taliban destroyed them in 2001; Morgan Spurlock’s already widely discussed SUPER SIZE ME, in which he goes on what turns out to be a life-threatening one-month diet of all McDonald’s food; Paola di Florio’s HOME OF THE BRAVE, the moving story of Viola Liuzzo, who was murdered in the South during the civil rights crusade of the 1960s; Jehane Noujaim’s (STARTUP.COM, SFIFF 2001) CONTROL ROOM, a deep-inside look at Iraq’s Al Jazeera news outlet; and CHISHOLM ’72—UNBOUGHT & UNBOSSED, a timely portrait of the gutsy former congresswoman and presidential candidate, directed by Shola Lynch.

France always has a strong showing at the Festival, and the 47th is no exception. A partial list of French films include Yann Samuell’s LOVE ME IF YOU DARE (the Festival’s ZOOM! After Hours offering); Merzak Allouache’s CHOUCHOU; Noémie Lvovsky’s FEELINGS; Abdellatif Kechiche’s L’ESQUIVE; Eric Rohmer’s TRIPLE AGENT; and Arnaud Desplechin’s IN THE COMPANY OF MEN.

The 47th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 15-29, 2004 at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres "The Home of the Festival," the Castro Theatre, the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley and the Century Cinema 16 Mountain View. Tickets for San Francisco Film Society members will be available on March 23 and for the general public on March 30. To purchase tickets and for ticket information log on to www.sffs.org, call 925.275.9490, or visit the Main Box Office, located in the atrium of the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres at 1881 Post Street or the Satellite Box Office at Crocker Galleria, 50 Post Street, second floor, opening on March 30. For up-to-date Festival information log on to www.sffs.org or call 415.931.FILM.

The 47th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 15-29, 2004) is presented by the San Francisco Film Society, a nonprofit arts and educational organization dedicated to celebrating international film and the moving image.