Found

SFIFF52: A Robert Redford rarity--live and onstage

Robert Redford’s appearance at the San Francisco International Film Festival to accept the Peter J. Owens Award is a major occasion. Public-fuss-shy, Redford has done an amazing job, considering the odds, of remaining private. He started buying Utah land well before he was a star in order to Get Away From It All. And while he has, on occasion, stepped up to the podium to comment on his frequent environmental and political concerns, or on the status of the now-fabled Sundance Institute and Festival he founded years ago, he hasn’t used the podium to blow his own horn as a movie star (or even director) since the last time a publicist made him. And when was the last time a publicist had that much clout?

topics: actors, bay area, castro theatre, documentary film institute, drama, dramatic films, festivals, hollywood, independent film, san francisco international film festival, sundance, sundance film festival, sundance kabuki

Experience

Curating the curators at Bay Area Now 5

Bay Area Now, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ triennial exhibition, has developed a deserved reputation for presenting an energetic survey of current Bay Area artistic practice. YBCA’s film/video curator, Joel Shepard, programs the film portion of the exhibition, and over the years he’s showcased a survey of contemporary Bay Area film, commissioned new work from locals like Bill Daniel and Ellen Bruno and focused on live cinema. This year Shepard curates Bay Area film curators.

topics: cult cinema, curators, documentary film institute, experimental film, features, genre films, yerba buena center for the arts

Ellsberg and the Empress

When Prince Charles and Camilla visited San Francisco in 2005, one of their most publicized outings was an hour-long stop at the Empress Hotel. The building had been converted just a year earlier into a residence hotel for homeless people, and was the pride of the city’s Direct Access to Housing program. As soon as the royals and the TV crews left the Tenderloin, of course, the spotlight drifted off the Empress. So much the better for esteemed S.F. documentary makers Allie Light and Irving Saraf, who subsequently began filming a portion of the hotel’s 90 residents.

“We went into it with a lot of naivete,” Light recalls, a surprising admission for veteran filmmakers whose subjects have included mental illness (Dialogues with Madwomen) and convicted killers (Blind Spot: Murder by Women). “I believed entirely what we were told,” by the residents, Light says, “how happy they were to have a place to live, and how much they were trying to get their life together. [One tenant named] Jeffrey is very verbal and clear about who he is and was. And then we see him out on the street selling a voucher from his therapist. They reveal themselves.”

topics: bay area, documentary film institute, independent film, political film

Platform

Strand's Marcus Hu and Frameline's Michael Lumpkin

[Editor’s note: With Frameline Artistic Director Michael Lumpkin leaving his post after this year’s San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, SF360.org felt it appropriate to ask an equally storied figure in LGBT film to help mark the occasion. Strand Releasing President Marcus Hu graciously agreed to speak with his old friend Lumpkin about Frameline, queer cinema and the future of this niche festival.]

I’ve worked with Michael Lumpkin from the very inception of our company back in 1989. When Strand Releasing didn’t even have a name yet, and was based out of the Strand Theatre on Market Street, and we didn’t have any funds, Michael figured out way of getting our first film, Lino Brocka’s Macho Dancer secured, helped to take care of the print shipment, helped to deal with the funding necessary to pay Mr. Brocka for the rental. Michael has done so much for GLBT filmmakers, distributors both domestic and globally, that I don’t know how an organization such a Frameline will be able to find another figure head such as him. For me, Michael has seen the rise and fall of the New Queer Cinema, he’s helped bring Vito Russo’s vision to celluloid with Rob and Jeff [Epstein and Friedman]. When Michael started the festival, he was working with short films and a few spare features that might have featured gay content and a few years back he was bringing Ang Lee in to present the San Francisco premiere of Brokeback Mountain. He’s seen the evolution of GLBT cinema and hopefully will still be involved in some degree to our industry.

LGBT cinema owes a lot to Michael’s dedication.

topics: distributors, documentary film institute, exhibitions, experimental film, film festivals, gay lesbian cinema, q&a, queer cinema

Report

"Cachao: Uno Más"

"You’re listening to Con Sabór," says KPFA DJ and Music Director Luis Medina. "I am going to be featuring an interview with one of the great masters of Latin Music, Israel "Cachao" Lopez. Cachao will be in concert tonight at Bimbo’s featuring the Cine Son All Stars with special guest Andy Garcia."

That’s how the documentary film Cachao: Uno Más opens. The Cachao tune, "Goza Mi Mambo" (Enjoy My Mambo), bubbles underneath as Luis talks on the radio and a visual panorama of San Francisco scenes—the Bay Bridge, ships, seagulls, cable cars, Muni, Victorians, and the Transamerica pyramid—all collage together.

Cachao: Uno Más gets its premiere as part of the 51st San Francisco Film Festival on Monday, April 28, at the Sundance Kabuki. It comes a few weeks after the passing on March 22, 2008, of the acclaimed bassist and Cuban music innovator at age 89 in Coral Cables, Florida. Now, what was to be a living celebration of his artistic work turns into a memorial mass paying homage to his musicality and accomplishments.

topics: documentary, documentary film institute, music, san francisco international film festival, san francisco state