Mar 29, 2011
Festival
The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21-May 5) will present two new Conversations series designed to deepen and enhance the Festival experience, giving filmgoers the opportunity to go a step beyond the post-screening Q&A. An extension of the Film Society’s year-round Film Craft & Film Studies program, Master Classes are an opportunity to engage with special Festival guests and get an insider’s look at intriguing cinema subjects. In the Salons, Bay Area film scholars and filmmakers will lead in-depth discussions about major film genres and prominent Festival themes. Audience members select from a list of thematically linked films and then participate in the corresponding salon to engage with fellow cinephiles. All programs will take place in House 2 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas.
MASTER CLASSES
Jean-Michel Frodon: The Critic’s Response & Responsibility will take place Thursday, April 28 at 7:30 pm. French film critic Jean-Michel Frodon will explore the task and purpose of the critic in cinema today. A former critic for Le Point and Le Monde, and former editor-in-chief of Cahiers du Cinéma, Frodon is the author or editor of 17 books related to cinema. He currently writes for slate.fr, teaches at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, is editor-in-chief of the collaborative website artsciencefactory.fr and is the 2011 Stanford Humanities Center Bliss Carnochan Visitor. Tickets are $12 SFFS members/$15 general.
Frank Pierson: A Writer’s Life will take place Friday, April 29 at 5:00 pm. The legendary screenwriter-and recipient of this year’s Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting-Frank Pierson (Cool Hand Luke, Dog Day Afternoon) will lead an intimate discussion about the craft of screenwriting. Tickets are $15 SFFS members/$20 general.
The Producer/Director Collaboration will take place Sunday, May 1 at 1:00 pm. Producer Alison Dickey and director Azazel Jacobs will discuss their working partnership and their experiences bringing SFIFF54’s Centerpiece film Terri to the screen. Tickets are $15 SFFS members/$20 general.
SALONS
The Social Justice Documentary salon will take place Monday, April 25 at 8:30 pmfollowing the 6:30 pm screening of Hot Coffee. Films to be discussed include Better This World, Crime After Crime and Hot Coffee. The salon will be hosted by Bill Nichols, a cinema studies professor at San Francisco State University and an author specializing in documentary and ethnographic films, film history and theory, and rhetoric and visual representation. Tickets are $11 SFFS members/$12 seniors, students and persons with disabilities/$13 general.
The Expressions of French Cinema salon will take place Sunday, May 1 at 3:15 pm after the 1:00 pm screening of Hands Up. Films to be discussed include Children of the Princess of Cleves, Hands Up, I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive and The Place in Between. The salon will be hosted by Susan Weiner, the author of Enfants Terribles: Femininity and Youth in the Mass Media in France, 1945-68 and a former professor of French cultural studies at Yale University. Tickets are $11 SFFS members/$12 seniors, students and persons with disabilities/$13 general.
For tickets and information visit sffs.org/tickets. Tickets go on sale March 25 for members and March 30 for the general public.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.
54th San Francisco International Film Festival
The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 21-May 5, 2011 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre, New People and SFMOMA in San Francisco and the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley. Held each spring for 15 days, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in the country’s most beautiful city, featuring 15 juried awards, 200 films and live events with upwards of 100 participating filmmakers and diverse audiences of 75,000+ people.