S.F. Film Fest celebrates 60 years
Giving world a stage established city as an international arts player
It was Dec. 4, 1957, one of the most important days in the storied cultural history of San Francisco. Braving heavy rains, a black-tie crowd jammed into the Metro Theater on Union Street, and when the lights went down for the screening of the German film “The Captain From Köpenick,” the first major international film festival in North America was born.
The event, which attracted almost 12,000 people over 14 days, solidified the city’s place in the international arts scene. It helped bring a wave of foreign films to American shores. It helped broaden Hollywood’s horizons, turning international performers such as Sophia Loren into household names. It set the stage for the creation of other American festivals — Sundance, Tribeca, just to name a couple — that have introduced filmmakers around the world. And most important, it helped establish film as an international language, a way to unite diverse cultures.
“The first S.F. International Film Festival, opening today at the Metro, is definitely international,” columnist Herb Caen wrote in The Chronicle. “America’s only entry is ‘Uncle Vanya,’ based on the Russian classic by Chekhov. Britain’s big one is a performance in London by the Soviets’ Bolshoi Ballet. And Japan’s hottest contender is ‘Throne of Blood,’ a Far Eastern version of Sweet Will’s ‘Macbeth.’ ”
Now that the grande dame of North America’s film festivals, which runs from April 5 to 19, is turning 60, its commitment to foreign cinema remains as strong as ever. And even as the festival has evolved to embrace local and national filmmakers, many of these artists are informed by a view that they are global voices, that they have a rightful place on the world stage.
Since that fateful opening night six decades ago, San Francisco has maintained its reputation as an international arts hotbed, and along the way, the Bay Area’s global influence has expanded even more with the help of its technology, innovation, food culture and social activism.
“Film unites all of these things that make San Francisco an important part of the world,” said Noah Cowan, executive director of SFFilm, the newly renamed organization that runs the festival. “The film festival is a great opportunity to experience what the Bay Area is and to realize what an incredible place it is for creativity.”
And there will be plenty of creativity in the lineup. The opening-night feature will be “Landline,” an American film about family dysfunction that stars Jenny Slate, John Turturro, Edie Falco and Jay Duplass. The closing-night presentation, “The Green Fog — A San Francisco Fantasia,” promises to hark back to the city’s importance in the history of film, as Canadian director Guy Maddin presents a visual collage that reimagines Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” The world-renowned Kronos Quartet will accompany the film.
In between these two big nights, foreign cinema will be a major part of the festival experience, as SFFilm unspools 182 films from 51 countries, representing 38 languages.
“Foreign films could not be more important — and not just from an artistic or aesthetic point of view,” Cowan said. “Global storytelling is essential to peace, and in helping us understand the world. The more opportunities we have to see these kind of films, the more opportunity we have to imagine ourselves.”
Undoubtedly, the current nationalistic fervor in the United States will add new layers of context to many of the festival’s programs, but nationalism is not exclusive to America, of course, and some of this year’s foreign selections will reflect that.
“We have a peculiar president saying peculiar things about global politics,” Cowan said. “These same comments are happening all over the world, and it benefits us to show all the different responses to these incendiary political statements. There’s nothing like film to provide different visions of the planet. Ensuring that there is a dialogue is vital.”
As usual, there will be plenty of French offerings — seven films from France, and three others in the French language. The festival will also feature a bevy of films from Argentina, the latest sign that directors from Latin America continue to impress.
Rachel Rosen, director of programming for SFFilm, said: “International films that end up being shown in the festival have universal themes: coming of age, leaving home, finding home, families, grief, hope, finding connections with other humans.”
Outside of New York, though, there are few theaters that consistently offer foreign fare, so festivals like San Francisco International have become more important than ever in making sure that these movies get seen.
When it comes to regular theater engagements, “the Bay Area has the same downward trends in foreign films at the box office,” Rosen said, “but in terms of the festival, there remains a strong interest in seeing foreign films.”
That certainly is the case for Netta Fedor, a San Francisco resident who has been taking two weeks’
annual vacation for the past three decades to attend the festival — fitting at least 45 films, almost of all them foreign, into her schedule every year. “It’s my favorite time of the year,” she said. “My father took me to Fellini’s ‘8½’ when I was a teenager, and I was always interested in other cultures.”
This type of enthusiasm and curiosity has carried the festival’s international brand over the years. “We’re not the only American festival involved in foreign films, but we were the first,” Rosen said, “and we remain steadfast in that mission. That’s what we’re known for.”
That mission includes the nurturing of global filmmakers, some of whose visions may take on more importance as time goes on.
Filmmaker Jean Renoir, son of painter Auguste Renoir and a judge for the 1960 festival, told the San Francisco Examiner at the time: “I am not a prophet, but it seems to me that in the future, there will be only two sorts of film. On the one hand big spectaculars, with high budgets ... and on the other hand there will be those pictures to which people are attracted by the author . ... The public has no time for anything between these extremes.
“Each generation is shaped by music, art, films. It can only be advanced through these things, and in order to advance it, the master must be ahead of his time. This means that he is not fully understood by his audience. His effect is deep and very important, although the result … may not appear for many years.”
Cowan and Rosen relish that many filmmakers from across the globe — from masters to those just beginning to make their mark — will be able to attend the festival to screen their work. This is, after all, an event that has hosted such giants as Akira Kurosawa, Francois Truffaut, Catherine Deneuve, Bernardo Bertolucci, Claude Chabrol, Milos Forman, Yves Montand, Alec Guinness and Jeanne Moreau, not to mention countless Hollywood legends.
“Part of the festival’s role is to champion filmmakers from diverse backgrounds,” Cowan said. “We are doing all we can to ensure that global storytellers have a voice.”