Renowned Documentarian/Cinematographer Jon Else Honored at 47^th San Francisco International Film Festival

The 47^th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 15–29) is presenting pioneer Jon Else with the prestigious Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award to honor his prescient documentaries and outstanding efforts for television. Else will be presented with the award prior to the showing of his Oscar-nominated documentary THE DAY AFTER TRINITY (1980) on Sunday, April 25, at 3:30 pm at the Pacific Film Archive with Else in person.

“Jon Else is a major force in the community of internationally recognized and innovative documentary filmmakers that has been living and working in the Bay Area for years,” said Linda Blackaby, director of programming. “By augmenting his work in film and television with his professorial duties at UC Berkeley, he continues this legacy, nurturing the filmmakers of the future.”

Jon Else is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and cinematographer whose other films include SING FASTER: THE STAGEHANDS’ RING CYCLE (1999) and CADILLAC DESERT (1997). He was series producer and cinematographer for EYES ON THE PRIZE (1987), a multipart documentary on the civil rights movement. Else produced, directed and photographed YOSEMITE: THE FATE OF HEAVEN (1989) for the Sundance Institute, A JOB AT FORD’S (1992) for the PBS series THE GREAT DEPRESSION (1992) and OPEN OUTCRY (2001), a film about commodities traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Else has served as cinematographer on hundreds of documentaries and dramas, including WHO ARE THE DEBOLTS? AND WHERE DID THEY GET 19 KIDS?  (World Premiere, SFIFF 1977) and CRUMB (1994). Recently, he served as director of photography on TUPAC: RESURRECTION (2003) and traveled to Kabul where he worked on a documentary about Afghanistan’s new constitution.

Among his many accolades, Else has received four Emmy awards, two Oscar nominations and the Documentary Filmmaker’s Trophy from the Sundance Film Festival. He has also been honored with a four-year MacArthur Fellowship and several DuPont Columbia Awards, most recently for CADILLAC DESERT, his four-part series about water and the transformation of the American West. He is currently a professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Established in 1997, the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award recognizes the lifetime achievement of filmmakers who work outside of feature films in the realms of documentaries, shorts, experimental or animated works. Previous winners have been experimental filmmaker Pat O’Neill (2003), Latin American cinema pioneer Fernando Birri (2002), avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger (2001), animator Faith Hubley (2000), documentarians Johan van der Keuken (1999) and Robert Frank (1998) and animator Jan Svankmajer (1997).

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.