Let's step away from the Festival opening next Wednesday, and take a look at a very different one that opens in early June. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival provides an intensive, four-day immersion into the first decades of the cinema. The festival brings rare prints and new restorations of classic and obscure silent movies, … Continue reading Silent Film Fest coming in early June
Category: Festivals
San Fran Intl Film Fest Preview, Part 3
Here's my final preview batch of San Francisco International Film Festival mini-reviews. Hope they help you choose what to see. When the Festival opens next Wednesday, I'll start writing about films as they screen for paying audiences - a much better way to see a movie. You can read all of my coverage of this … Continue reading San Fran Intl Film Fest Preview, Part 3
San Fran Intl Film Fest Preview, Part 2
Once again, I present three new mini-reviews of films that will screen at the San Francisco International Film Festival. You can also check out my first batch of five. I'll post at least four more before the festival opens. As usual, they're listed from best to worst. A- A Date for Mad Mary The story … Continue reading San Fran Intl Film Fest Preview, Part 2
Buster Keaton Weekend
Movie audiences first saw Buster Keaton on the big screen in 1917, with the premiere of Fatty Arbuckle's short The Butcher Boy. To celebrate the centenary of Keaton's first cinematic appearance, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum turns its theater over to the Great Stoneface with a mini festival of 11 shorts and four feature-length … Continue reading Buster Keaton Weekend
SF Intl Film Fest Preview, Part 1
Here's my first collection of San Francisco International Film Festival mini-reviews: five movies appraised from best to worst. Three of them are narratives. The two documentaries, which happen to be the two best in the lot, deal with Haiti, and cover the horrible 2010 earthquake. A Bending the Arc If this documentary doesn't make you … Continue reading SF Intl Film Fest Preview, Part 1
San Francisco International Film Festival turns 60
We don't have Sundance or Toronto in the Bay Area, but we do have the oldest film festival in the Americas. The San Francisco International Film Festival turns 60 this year, and the organization that runs it is now it's called SFFILM. This year, it's running 181 separate films (104 of them feature length) from April 5 through … Continue reading San Francisco International Film Festival turns 60
Anne V. Coates, the Orient Express, & the Mostly British Film Festival
Tuesday night, I finally got around to attending the Mostly British Film Festival at the Vogue. How could I miss it? David Thomson would be interviewing the great, British film editor, Anne V. Coates. And after the talk, there would be a screening of Sidney Lumet's 1974 version of Murder on the Orient Express. Coates, … Continue reading Anne V. Coates, the Orient Express, & the Mostly British Film Festival
CAAMfest preview
I've screened four features - two narratives and two documentaries - that will screen next month at CAAMFest. Unlike my recommendations for the Mostly British Film Festival, these are all new movies that haven't yet been shown commercially in the Bay Area. B+ The Tiger Hunter This well-made fish-out-of-water comedy stars Danny Pudi of Community … Continue reading CAAMfest preview
Mostly British Film Festival Preview
With the Mostly British Film Festival opening Thursday night, I thought I'd tell you what I think is worth catching. I have not, unfortunately, had time to screen any of the new films at the festival, so I'll still with the older ones. All screenings are at the Vogue. An Evening with Anne V. Coates … Continue reading Mostly British Film Festival Preview
CAAMFest: Asian-American films take center stage in mid-March
On Thursday, the Center for Asian American Media announced the lineup for this year's CAAMFest. From March 9 through March 19, the festival will screen over 50 feature films - ten of them world premieres - plus shorts, live concerts, and parties. CAAMFest starts at the on March 9 at the Castro with The Tiger … Continue reading CAAMFest: Asian-American films take center stage in mid-March
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