San Francisco Int. Film Fest

The San Francisco International Film Festival opens tonight and runs through May 1st. While Sundance and Cannes get the most attention (among others), festivals like San Francisco are among the best if your main interest is seeing films rather than doing deals.

Though important deals do get made. Last year's documentary award winner on artist Andy Goldworthy, Rivers and Tides, was picked up for distribution by the Roxie partly because of the strong audience support at the festival. It is still playing and opening in theaters and has been reviewed here and here. Even if you can't make it to San Francisco, a number of the films will be opening theatrically and others may play at a festival or film center near you. I have an overview of the documentaries in the festival at the soon to be revived TVBarn documentary section including information on when many of them will be on PBS or HBO.

There is a relaxed atmoshphere where it is easy to talk to most of the guests. And some of the most enjoyable Q&As are at many of the daytime screenings Monday through Friday which are part of the Schools at the Festival program which provides $2 tickets for students (the normally $10 tickets are $6 for everyone else before 5 pm).

For the past few years, the festival has been presenting a silent film with a new score by a contemporary band. The first year Yo Le Tengo accompanied eight undersea documentary shorts by the French avant-garde filmmaker Jean Painleve. The soundtrack is available for sale on their site (and there is also an MP3). This year Lambchop will perform with Murnau's Sunrise on Friday at the Castro theater (details on screenings are at the bottom of the linked descriptions).

On Wednesday, the MC5 will be kicking out the jams motherfucker at the Castro. Well, a documentary about them and filmmaker David Thomas will. And right before, My Voice, a wonderful musical set in Guinea-Bissau and Paris. Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story will be showing a couple of times. I wrote about when it was on Independent Lens earlier this year.

Article Author: Steve Rhodes

Steve Rhodes is a journalist and photographer in San Francisco.

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