In Production

Rainin winners prime new wave of social-issue dramas

For the great majority of the public, documentaries are still educational films while narrative features are “the movies.” It’s the rare fiction feature film that handles social justice themes without condescension and oversimplification. The San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants were created to support the local development of lively and intelligent social-issue narrative films, with the hope of strengthening the San Francisco filmmaking community—and bringing more forward-thinking films by talented makers into general release. The grants, which run 2009-13, will be awarded in the spring and fall of each year and the total amount disbursed over these five years will be more than $3 million. The inaugural class for the $35,000 grants consists of Amanda Micheli and Jeff Zimbalist, Fall 2009, Richard Levien, Spring 2009. Here’s the scoop on their projects.

topics: activism, bay area, directors, how-to, immigration, independent film, political film, screenwriting

In Production

On the road before "The Recess Ends"

Some documentaries are made to stand forever; others matter at a particular moment in time or not at all. Austin Chu is quite clear which category The Recess Ends belongs to. Shot earlier this year in a host of depressed burgs and ‘burbs across the country, the verité documentary is a pulsing snapshot of the United States at its lowest economic ebb in generations. “I feel it’s one of those pieces that needs to be seen now,” Chu declares. “I can’t wait for anyone. If someone buys it and distributes it next year, we’ve missed the mark.” Made on a shoestring and rushed out into the world, The Recess Ends reflects both the new economy and the future of independent filmmaking.

topics: activism, bay area, diy, documentary film, genre films, political film

Take Two

The fix is in: Yes Men take on the world

At the beginning of The Yes Men Fix the World, one of the titular duo nervously prepares for fraudulently representing Dow Chemical in front of a purported BBC World News audience of 300 million—telling “a really big lie which unfortunately is gonna wipe $2 billion off one company’s stock price.”

Now, why would anyone want to do that? Well, in this case to try shaming the corporation into properly addressing the 1984 gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, that cost thousands of lives. (Estimates including subsequent gas-related disease deaths run as high as 35,000.) It remains the worst industrial disaster in history. The original restitution sums and contamination cleanup efforts were pitifully inadequate; the area remains a health and environmental dead zone. Dow, which absorbed Union Carbide in 2003, claims it holds no responsibility for the tragedy or its lingering aftereffects.

topics: activism, directors, diy, documentary, performance, political film, reviews

In Production

Don’t criticize it: "Holding on to Jah" steps out

It’s hard to imagine a venue where the new documentary Holding on to Jah will sound better than it did at Mezzanine last Wednesday night. The pulsing, reggae-rich soundtrack burst from the nightclub’s speakers, wowing an audience of music fans, Rastafarians and friends of filmmakers Harrison Stafford and Roger Landon Hall. And yet, contrary to the expectations of some in the crowd, it’s not a music film, even if nearly all of the interviewees are musicians. Equally surprising, particularly for herb fans, the feature-length film is in no danger of receiving an R rating for smoking or drug use. In other words, the coy reference above to the lyrics of “Legalize It,” the title track of Peter Tosh’s 1976 solo debut, is just a toot.

topics: bay area, music, political film

Platform

Franny Armstrong's S.O.S. to the world

Franny Armstrong is a force of nature. Boundlessly energetic and impassioned about something most people only joke about—saving humankind—Armstrong gained a strong following at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where she’s screened two films. Her latest, The Age of Stupid, tackles the effects of climate change, and offers a plea to all who will listen: Change your ways. The plea goes public in a massive way this coming Monday, when The Age of Stupid makes its debut to the world, screening from a tent in New York, to 115,000 people in 400 movie theaters across the country. The evening features 40 live minutes with Kofi Annan, Gillian Anderson, Mary Robinson, Armstrong herself, the star of the film Pete Postlethwaite, and other leading thinkers, celebrities and political figures from around the world. Audiences will hear from scientists working in the Himalayas and Indonesian rainforest via live satellite link and from a group of children speaking from the very room in Copenhagen in which all our futures will be decided at the UN climate summit in December. Radiohead’s Thom Yorke will wrap up the evening with a short acoustic performance. Armstrong allowed us to conduct an interview with her via internet chat.

topics: activism, bay area, directors, diy, environmental films, music, political film, public, san francisco international film festival, women filmmakers, world cinema

Experience

Women Make Movies Film Festival highlights Kim Longinotto

At a panel during this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival, film critics were asked to offer a note of hope on a film landscape often characterized as lacking—and B. Ruby Rich responded with enthusiastic praise for a filmmaker she called "unheralded" and "incredibly sensitive," Kim Longinotto. "When more and more documentaries seem to follow either individual pathologies or people who are already famous," Rich said, "it’s really important to see [Longinotto] model looking very deeply into a culture—and extraordinary women in that culture—in a way that’s actually riveting.”

Though not a household name, Longinotto has certainly been getting attention: Her films played at the Pacific Film Archive in 2006; she won the Sundance World Cinema Jury Prize for Rough Aunties this past year; and, beginning this Friday, is under the spotlight at the Women Make Movies Film Festival taking place at the Roxie Theater, which runs through September 3.

topics: activism, african cinema, directors, distribution, distributors, diy, documentary, independent film, iranian cinema, political film, women, women filmmakers, world cinema

In Production

Hess and Janos salute the volunteers of America

Look what’s happening out in the streets: 65 million Americans volunteer every year. That may not be what Paul, Grace and Marty had in mind, but there is a revolutionary aspect to community participation these days. Via Volunteer Nation: Stories of Service, veteran producer-directors Ben Hess and Dan Janos are using the latest technology to mobilize the millennials (18-35). “That demographic consumes content online and on mobile devices, but not on traditional television sets,” Hess notes. “We’re looking at the convergence of activism, social awareness and digital media.”

topics: activism, bay area, directors, diy, documentary, exhibition, festivals, independent film, internet, political film, producers, public