Feb 14, 2012
Festival, SFFILM
55th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 19-May 3) announces the second program of this year’s Live & Onstage lineup. SFIFF and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) have teamed up to copresent the world premiere of Sam Green’s The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller with a live score performed by Yo La Tengo, at Phyllis Wattis Theater, SFMOMA on Tuesday, May 1 at 7:00 and 9:00 pm.
Academy Award-nominated documentarian Sam Green (The Weather Underground, SFIFF 2003) returns to SFIFF with the world premiere of a new work. Like his previous project, Utopia in Four Movements (SFIFF 2010), The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller includes live narration by Green and live music. To back his images and words, Green has teamed with indie superstars Yo La Tengo (remembered for their singularly inspiring score for the short films of Jean Painlevé at SFIFF 2001) to compose a score for the piece, and YLT will perform it on this special night. The film is part of a larger commissioned project which is included in an exhibition at SFMOMA scheduled to open on March 31 titled “The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area.” Both the documentary and the exhibition contemplate the projects Fuller proposed for the Bay Area-including a gargantuan floating tetrahedral city in the middle of the Bay-and explore his utopian vision of radical change through a “design revolution.” Forever associated with the geodesic dome, Fuller was also a galvanizing intellect. Green has tracked down many Bay Area luminaries to discuss his influence. In addition to the live documentary, Green is producing a multi-channel installation, built by the local tech wizards at Obscura Digital. Ticket holders for the documentary also gain admittance to the Fuller exhibition at SFMOMA on the night of the program and an 8:00 pm reception at the museum’s Koret Visitor Education Center.
Tickets $20 for SFFS and SFMOMA members, $25 for the general public. Box office now open for SFFS members online at sffs.org and in person at SF Film Society Cinema (1746 Post Street, Webster/Buchanan). Box office opens February 16 for the general public.
For more information about “The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area” exhibition (March 31-July 29) visit sfmoma.org.
To request an interview contact hhart@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.
Upcoming San Francisco Film Society programs
Through February 16: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia Masterful police procedural from acclaimed Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan yields a quietly poignant portrait of the human condition.
Opening February 17: Margaret Anna Paquin stars in Kenneth Lonergan’s drama about a young woman grappling with her feelings of guilt over her role in a tragic accident.
Opening February 24: Roadie Michael Cuesta’s compellingly honest look at youthful rock ‘n’ roll dreams gone awry.
March 8: The Long Day Closes with director Terence Davies in Person New 35mm print of Davies’s expressionistic autobiographical scrapbook of working-class family life in Northern England in the mid-1950s.
Opening March 16: Kill List Ben Wheatley’s non-traditional approach to the horror genre moves effortlessly from kitchen-sink realism to gritty thrills.
Opening March 23: Sound of Noise A delightful comic cocktail mixing a modern urban symphony, a police procedural and a love story.
Opening March 30: House of Pleasures Ambitious and elegantly made, Bertrand Bonello’s film depicts life in a Paris brothel at the turn of the 20th century.
Opening April 6: This Is Not a Film In this profound reflection on the nature of making art, banned Iranian director Jafar Panahi (along with his collaborator Mojtaba Mirtahmasb) discusses his plans for a film he knows he cannot make.
Opening April 13: The Turin Horse This apocalyptic story of the domestic life of a horse-cart driver and his daughter is purportedly Béla Tarr’s last film.
55th San Francisco International Film Festival
The 55th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 19-May 3 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre, SF Film Society Cinema and SFMOMA in San Francisco and the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. Held each spring for 15 days, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities, featuring 200 films and live events, 14 juried awards and $70,000 in cash prizes, upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests and diverse and engaged audiences with more than 70,000 people in attendance.