Category: Festivals

Jewish Film Festival

~ Lincoln Spector

Two of my biggest passions--Judaism and cinema--come together this summer like they do every summer for the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. (Come to think of it, some of my other big passions--music, history, and sex--turn up here, as well.) The organizers are calling the 28th SFIFF the largest one ever, with “70 films from … Continue reading Jewish Film Festival

Two June Festivals

~ Lincoln Spector

What could be scarier than another film festival starting less than a month after the San Francisco International festival closes? How about two film such festivals? And one of them sounds very scary, indeed. Let’s start with the festival that won’t give you a fright (although judging from recent exit polls, it might scare people … Continue reading Two June Festivals

SFIFF: Up the Yangtze

~ Lincoln Spector

Tuesday evening I caught Up the Yangtze, a documentary by Canadian director Yung Chang. China’s Three Gorges Dam, still under construction, may be the largest hydroelectric project ever attempted, and Chang’s film takes an unusual but effective approach to examining the project’s repercussions. He focuses his camera on two teenagers working a cruise ship that … Continue reading SFIFF: Up the Yangtze

SFIFF: Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans

~ Lincoln Spector

I just caught Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans. It’s a basic, PBS-style documentary without anything truly creative or exciting technically or artistically. But the subject matter--an integrated New Orleans neighborhood which might have been the largest community of free Blacks in the pre-Civil War south. It follows the neighborhood through it’s … Continue reading SFIFF: Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans

SFIFF: Kevin Kelly’s State of Cinema Address

~ Lincoln Spector ~ 3 Comments

Now I can get to Kevin Kelly’s State of Cinema Address. Kelly isn’t a movie person. He’s a technology geek, and he writes about technology. Since I also write about technology (it pays better than Bayflicks--but then, so does flipping burgers), I found this talk especially interesting. Kelly is best known for founding The Well and … Continue reading SFIFF: Kevin Kelly’s State of Cinema Address