Category: SFFilm (San Francisco International Film Festival)

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

SFIFF: Robert Towne

~ Lincoln Spector

I spend much of Saturday afternoon and evening with screenwriter Robert Towne and several hundred of his fans. Towne won this year’s Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting. After clips from films he’d written (and in some cases directed), Towne sat down with Eddie Muller of the Film Noir foundation. Their talk went on so … Continue reading SFIFF: Robert Towne

SFIFF: Orz Boyz

~ Lincoln Spector

I just saw Orz Boyz, a Taiwanese comedy about young boys with a lively fantasy life that helps them (and hinders them) in dealing with their harsh realities. Very disjointed, and occasionally difficult to follow in ways that I suspect have more to do with my ignorance of Taiwanese culture than actual problems with the … Continue reading SFIFF: Orz Boyz