Sep 28, 2011
SFFILM
The San Francisco Film Society presents the third annual Cinema by the Bay, Thursday, November 3-Sunday, November 6, at the Film Society’s new theatrical home, San Francisco Film Society | New People Cinema (1746 Post Street).
Cinema by the Bay celebrates the passion, innovation and diversity of Bay Area filmmaking, the intelligence and probing spirit of local directors and the incredible depth and breadth of America’s film and media frontier. The four-day festival will feature new work produced in or about the San Francisco Bay Area and provide a compelling window into Bay Area film culture and practice at its best. The 2011 edition of Cinema by the Bay opens with Joshua Moore’s heartfelt debut feature I Think It’s Raining, includes screenings of dynamic new films by leading filmmakers and is capped with the latest celebration of Bay Area innovators, Essential SF.
CBTB was programmed by Audrey Chang and Sean Uyehara, who had this to say about the festival, “With Cinema by the Bay entering its third year, we are starting to see the festival grow legs. The Film Society’s hope for CBTB has always been for it to stand alongside all of our seasonal offerings as a full partner and that has certainly happened. We are excited and pleased to celebrate Bay Area film culture in this way.”
Cinema by the Bay is an essential element of the Film Society’s year-round programs highlighting Bay Area film culture. SFFS has long celebrated films produced in the creative heart of the West, giving Golden Gate Awards to the best Bay Area documentaries and shorts, and five years ago inaugurating a dedicated Cinema by the Bay section in the San Francisco International Film Festival. The most recent edition of the International featured 23 local narrative and documentary feature and short films, capping a total of 160 local films showcased at SFIFF since the section’s inception. With a dedicated fall festival, the Film Society continues the tradition established by Film Arts Foundation, which from 1984 to 2005 programmed the Bay Area’s most dynamic showcase of local independent filmmaking with its Festival of Independent Cinema.
For complete program information, visit sffs.org/Screenings-and-Events/Fall-Season-2011/Cinema-by-the-Bay.
Thursday, November 3 Opening Night
7:00 pm I Think It’s Raining
Joshua Moore Director Expected
At first glance, Renata is a bubbly free spirit who finds herself unexpectedly back in her native San Francisco after fleeing for reasons unknown. As she roams through the city reconnecting with old friends, her emotional instability is slowly revealed. Featuring a mesmerizing performance by Alexandra Clayton, I Think It’s Rainingexpertly portrays a young woman at odds with who she once was and who she will become. USA 2011, 92 min. Written by Joshua Moore, Alexandra Clayton. Photographed by Sinisa Kukic. With Alexandra Clayton, Andy Dulman.
9:00 pm Opening Night Party Celebrate CBTB at 1300 Fillmore (at Eddy) with Southern-inspired hors d’oeuvres and sponsored wine.
9:30 pm I Think It’s Raining
Friday, November 4
7:00 pm Baywatch!
Directors Expected
Testing the bounds of genre, style and sometimes decorum, Baywatch! is a compendium of the sorts of insightful, humorous, beautiful and strange films that emerge from that most wonderful and unique bastion of creativity: the Bay Area filmmaking community. Anchored by real and seemingly real documentaries in Smut Capital of America and Blow Up, surrounded by several wonderful music videos and joined by the experimental and uncategorizable in Liz Walsh’s Galaxy and two examples of Philip Huang’s YouTube escapades, this program has something to delight and offend everybody. Total running time 62 min.
9:30 pm The Bat with Ava Mendoza Live Performance
With her 2010 album Shadow Stories, Ava Mendoza demonstrated that she is one of a handful of musical geniuses working in the Bay Area. In this program, Mendoza will preform her original composition to accompany the silent film The Bat, a strange genre-bender about a group of greedy loot seekers who are picked off one by one by a shadowy killer. Directed by Roland West. USA 1926, 86 min. Written by Roland West. Photographed by Arthur Edeson. Starring Jack Pickford, Louise Fazenda.
Saturday, November 5
2:00 pm WeOwnTV: Freetown in the Bay
Banker White, Black Nature Guests Expected
Following the making of his film Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars (2005), a documentary about six musicians who form a band in a Guinea refugee camp, San Francisco-based filmmaker Banker White made the extraordinary decision to try to develop a collaborative media project with other Sierra Leoneans. This program presents works produced by WeOwnTV, the resulting community-based media center based in Freetown. Total running time 75 min.
4:30 pm Essential SF: Canyon Cinema
Directors Expected
In the late 1950s, film artists who shared a vision of filmmaking as a form of personal expression came together, leading to the birth of Canyon Cinema, which has developed into an important source for independent, experimental and avant-garde film. Curated by executive director/filmmaker Dominic Angerame and featuring work by Lawrence Jordan, George Kuchar and others, this program chronicles the vibrant history of Canyon Cinema and experimental film. Total running time 105 min.
6:45 pm The Price of Sex
Mimi Chakarova Director Expected
For several years, photojournalist Mimi Chakarova, a native of Bulgaria, traveled from impoverished rural areas in Eastern Europe to Turkey, Greece and Dubai to expose the lurid world of sex trafficking. Filming undercover with unprecedented access to her subjects, Chakarova investigates the root causes of sex trafficking and documents the lives of women enslaved by poverty and prostitution. USA 2011, 72 min. Photographed by Adam Keker. Distributed by Women Make Movies.
9:00 pm Where’s My Stuff?
Sam Burbank Director Expected
A band of misfits undertakes a trip to Nevada to recover belongings placed in deep storage, encountering an abundance of colorful characters and absurd situations along the way. An allegory of our decadent, materialistic and absurd relationship to business and junk, Where’s My Stuff? is mostly a comedy, slightly science fiction and a little bit critical. Its seeming vagueness about “things” simply mirrors the public’s understanding of the murky underworlds of shady business practices, dot-com bubbles and other worrisome affairs. USA 2011, 90 min. Written by Sam Burbank. Photographed by Frazer Bradshaw. With Todd Brotze, Nick Massouh, Paz Pardo.
Sunday, November 6
2:00 pm Reel SF
Directors Expected
The Bay Area is home to some of the most vital filmmakers working today. While these artists are certainly an eclectic bunch, uniting many of them is the investigation of social justice. From the established guard of the late Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday to the new ranks of Amanda Micheli and Barry Jenkins to up-and-comers such as Maris Curran and Jason Jaikaitis, this program provides a snapshot of where Bay Area filmmaking has been and where it is headed. Total running time 74 min.
4:15 pm Where’s My Stuff? see 11/5
7:00 pm SF360.org Presents: Essential SF
Essential SF is an ongoing compendium of the Bay Area film community’s most vital figures and institutions. Veteran visionaries Allie Light and Irving Saraf, Joshua Grannell, Karen Larsen, Canyon Cinema and others will be feted at this short ceremony and informal celebration. An outgrowth of SF360.org’s Essential SF column and a key event in SFFS’s Cinema by the Bay, this event shines a light on the region’s legendary idiosyncratic and multifaceted contributions to the filmmaking world.
Film tickets $11 for SFFS members, $13 general, $12 seniors, students and persons with disabilities; Opening Night film and party $15 for SFFS members, $20 general; Film Society CineVoucher 10-Packs $105 for SFFS members, $125 general. Box office now open for members and opens October 4 for the general public: online at sffs.org and in person at San Francisco Film Society | New People Cinema.
To request screeners or interviews contact hilary@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit: sffs.org/pressdownloads.
Cinema by the Bay is supported by the San Francisco Film Commission, venue sponsors 1300 Fillmore and Medjool Restaurant, Lounge and Sky Terrace, and media sponsor San Francisco Bay Guardian.
At San Francisco Film Society | New People Cinema, the supremely stylish state-of-the art theater located in the ultra-contemporary New People building at 1746 Post Street (Webster/Buchanan) in Japantown, the San Francisco Film Society offers its acclaimed exhibition, education and filmmaker services programs and events on a daily year-round basis. For complete up-to-date information on all SFFS | NPC programming, including buying tickets, visit sffs.org.
Upcoming San Francisco Film Society programs
September 28-29: Shaolin With a superstar cast including Andy Lau, Jackie Chan and Nicholas Tse and a group of real Shaolin monks, this is an action-packed story of a ruthless warlord’s rehabilitation through Buddhist practice.
Opens September 30: Passione John Turturro’s tuneful exploration of the musical roots and traditions of Naples, Italy, as well as its influence on the rest of the world.
October 1: Film in the Fog Free, family-friendly screening will feature Delmer Daves’s gritty film noir thriller Dark Passage (USA 1947), a musical performance, a classic animated short and free freshly-popped popcorn.
October 9: An Evening with Susan Orlean and Rin Tin Tin Orlean celebrates the publication of her new book Rin Tin Tin: The Life and Legend with an illustrated introduction to Rin Tin Tin’s career and a screening of his greatest silent film, Clash of the Wolves.
October 14-16: Taiwan Film Days A showcase of the best contemporary Taiwanese cinema.
October 17-21: The Sleeping Beauty Catherine Breillat takes on another classic fairy tale, brining her unique exploration of female sexuality to the story of a young princess who is the subject of a tug-of-war among witches.
October 21-23: NY/SF International Children’s Film Festival A celebration of diverse, enlightening, inspiring and entertaining films for kids ages 3-18 and their families.
October 24: Orbit(film) and An Injury to One A program of short films dedicated to the awe and absurdity of the solar system.
October 27-November 2 French Cinema Now The weeklong annual Festival brings the most significant new work from international francophone cinema to discerning Bay Area audiences.