Bay Area themes resonate at SFFilm fest
It is rare that a first-time feature by an unproven director should get tremendous buzz, but such is the case with Bay Area rapper and producer Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and is now scheduled to be the Centerpiece selection at the SFFilm festival in April. The festival’s program was announced on Wednesday, March 14.
“We’re very proud, not only that it’s here and that it’s an amazing film, and a film set in Oakland,” says Noah Cowan, executive director of SFFilm, “but also because we supported it from its very early days in development to its premiere.” The film won four SFFilm grants.
“One of the themes of this year’s festival is bringing it all back to the Bay Area,” says Cowan. “All three of the big nights to us represent a statement of why the Bay Area is what it is from a political and social level in these weird times we live in. They deal with people who are marginalized and treated like political footballs. These are not just terrific films but have a galva-
Oakland-set “Sorry to Bother You,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, is the Centerpiece.
nizing effect in this moment in history.”
The 61st edition of the SFFilm International festival begins April 4 with a screening of Silas Howard’s “A Kid Like Jake,” starring Jim Parsons and Claire Danes as the parents of a child who might be transgender. “It’s a beautifully crafted film with major stars and a pretty sophisticated story that speaks volumes about the changing world of youth and youth culture — and about how parents can and sometimes can’t adapt,” Cowan says.
The festival officially closes on April 15 with “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot,” the latest from Gus Van Sant, a biopic about the late John Callahan, a quadriplegic cartoonist played by Joaquin Phoenix. Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara and Jack Black co-star.
“This is a riot,” says Cowan. “I’ve never seen Gus Van Sant make a comedy this funny and this irreverent.”
As for the rest, there’s a lot to consider and look forward to, tributes and foreign films and obscure independents that look fascinating.
Here’s one title, of many: “Godard, Mon Amour,” a drama about the filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, set in 1967, a year in which Godard’s work got tiresome just as his life was getting interesting. His work became didactic and political, but he started an affair with his leading lady, Anne Wiazemsky. It’s directed by Michel Hazanavicius (“The Artist”).
This year Annette Insdorf will be given the Mel Novikoff Award (named for the film distributor), and it’s an inspired choice. Insdorf is a film scholar who has written indispensable books about filmmakers Krzysztof Kieslowski, Philip Kaufman and especially Francois Truffaut, whose work she has been promoting and expounding on since long before Truffaut’s death in 1984. Following the presentation of the award, there will be a screening of the film of Insdorf ’s choosing, Ernst Lubitsch’s comic-dramatic masterpiece, “To Be or Not to Be” (1942), about a Warsaw acting troupe during the Nazi invasion of Poland. Jack Benny and Carole Lombard star in it.
Equally inspired is the choice of Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman for the George Gund III Craft of Cinema Award. Together these Bay Area filmmakers have created some of the most compelling and humane documentaries of our time, including “Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt” (1989), “Where Are We? Our Trip Through America” (1993), “The Celluloid Closet” (1995) and “Paragraph 175” (2000). They also made an excellent (and misunderstood) feature film, “Lovelace,” in 2013. (And on his own, Epstein made the classic “The Times of Harvey Milk” (1984), which won the Academy Award for best documentary.) Previous winners of the George Gund III Award include John Lasseter and Ray Dolby.
It had been previously announced that Charlize Theron will contribute her star power to the festival. She will appear for a tribute in her honor and to introduce her latest film, “Tully,” directed by Jason Reitman. There also will be a tribute to filmmaker Wayne Wang, followed by a screening of his lovely and sensitive film, “Smoke” (1995), starring Harvey Keitel.
The French filmmaker Olivier Assayas has become wellknown in the United States for films such as “Summer Hours” and “The Clouds of Sils Maria,” but his early film, “Cold Water” (1994), starring Virginie Ledoyen, has never been shown in San Francisco. It’s about to be released by the Criterion Collection, and Criterion chose SFFilm for the movie’s premiere.
“They use us as a launch platform,” says Cowan, “because they know how sophisticated S.F. audiences are about the history of film.”
Finally, there’s “The Mercury 13,” one of a number of films about space exploration that the festival is showing this year. “The Mercury 13” is a documentary making its world premiere that tells the story of 13 women, chosen for the space program in the 1960s, who were cut from the program due to sexism, even though many of them did better on the tests than the men.
“These women went on to become leaders of the feminist movement, the coolest women in the world,” says Cowan. “Now they’re these charming older women, but you can tell they were real s— disturbers in their youth.”