Mar 14, 2018
Festival
San Francisco, CA — SFFILM today announced that 2006 Persistence of Vision Award recipient and Festival stalwart Guy Maddin will deliver the highly anticipated State of Cinema Address at the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival (April 4–17) on Sunday April 8, 12:30 pm, at the Victoria Theatre. Each year, SFFILM invites a visionary thinker to discuss the intersecting worlds of contemporary cinema and visual arts, culture and society, images and ideas. In this year’s address, cinematic iconoclast Maddin will discuss what he has dubbed “five unshootable films,” arguing for the primacy of dream, emotion, and surprise over more traditional filmic concerns.
“A treasure trove of wit, cinephilia, intellectual curiosity and an intense streak of naughtiness, iconoclastic filmmaker Guy Maddin is a global Indy superstar both for his beloved and provocative films—like last year’s closing night commission The Green Fog – A San Francisco Fantasia—and his legendary question and answer sessions,” said SFFILM Executive Director Noah Cowan. Guy has been a frequent guest of the San Francisco International Film Festival and so we are aware of his deep commitment to power napping and cinematic dream states, the subject of his talk. He has also promised a clip presentation, which in itself will be a fascinating survey of cinema’s formative influences.”
We are honored this year to welcome Canadian icon Guy Maddin, whose association with SFFILM stretches back nearly three decades to 1989 when the Festival screened his directing debut Tales from the Gimli Hospital. The filmmaker who last year celebrated the 60th anniversary of SFFILM with the commissioned closing night film The Green Fog – A San Francisco Fantasia returns with his singular take on the current State of Cinema:
“We’ve long taken for granted that cinema is a dream, sometimes even a dream within a dream, and more dreams inside those. But what are the limits of the nested trance? How many such oneiric intoxications can be fit inside each other to elevate cinema to cyclone-bomb levels of dangerously compressed emotion trembling on the verge of detonation. I hope to prove, by discussing the strange idea of ‘five unshootable films,’ that the new ‘sleeping actor’ is the greatest actor, that the neuroses and childhood fears experienced in slumber have replaced the strenuous labors of the long-incumbent ‘waking’ thespian and finally ascended to the status of ultimate attainment in film. ‘AWAKE TO SLEEP!’ is the new battle cry! It’ll leave your eyes wide open! Dreamy clips galore!” — Guy Maddin
The exuberant, surreal works of celebrated Winnipeg-born filmmaker Guy Maddin are marked by their dreamlike sensibilities, poignant editing, and indelible links to the history of silent and early-sound-era film. An installation and internet artist, writer and filmmaker, Maddin is the director of eleven feature-length movies, including The Forbidden Room (2015), My Winnipeg (2007), The Saddest Music in the World (2003), and innumerable shorts. He has also mounted over seventy performances around the world of his films featuring live elements—orchestra, sound effects, singing and narration. In the fall of 2015 he launched a major internet interactive work, Seances, enabling anyone online to “hold séances with,” or view, randomly combined fragments of canonical lost films remade by Maddin on sets installed in public spaces. Maddin has twice won America’s National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Experimental Film, with Archangel (1991) and The Heart of the World (2001). A resolute critical favorite, he has received many awards, including the Telluride Silver Medal for lifetime achievement in 1995, an Emmy for his ballet film Dracula – Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002), and an appointment to the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor. Maddin is a print journalist and author of three books, and served as a Visiting Lecturer on Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University from 2015 to 2018.
Over the years SFFILM Festival has invited many visionary thinkers to deliver their views on the current state and evolution of filmmaking. Director Steven Soderbergh provoked a media sensation with his 2013 address when video of his searing critique of the movie business went viral via the New York Times, Wired, The Hollywood Reporter and hundreds of other media outlets. In addition to Soderbergh, previous State of Cinema speakers have included Pixar co-founder and President Dr. Ed Catmull, visual effects wizard Douglas Trumbull, author Jonathan Lethem, film producer Christine Vachon, film editor Walter Murch, photographer Mary Ellen Mark, WIRED publisher Kevin Kelly, actress Tilda Swinton, writer/director Brad Bird, cultural commentator B. Ruby Rich, and Michel Ciment, longtime editor of the influential French film magazine Positif.
Tickets to the State of Cinema Address are $13 for SFFILM members, $16 for the general public. Box office is now open online at sffilm.org for SFFILM members and opens March 16 for the general public.
For general information visit sffilm.org/festival
To request interviews or screeners, contact your Festival Press Office representative.
For photos and press materials visit sffilm.org/press
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2018 San Francisco International Film Festival
The longest-running film festival in the Americas, the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities. The 61st edition runs April 4-17 at venues across the Bay Area and features nearly 200 films and live events, 14 juried awards with close to $40,000 in cash prizes, and upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests.
SFFILM
SFFILM is a nonprofit organization with a mission to champion the world’s finest films and filmmakers through programs anchored in and inspired by the spirit and values of the San Francisco Bay Area. Presenter of the San Francisco International Film Festival, SFFILM is a year-round organization delivering screenings and events to more than 75,000 film lovers and media education programs to more than 10,000 students and teachers annually. In addition to its public programs, SFFILM supports the careers of independent filmmakers from the Bay Area and beyond with grants, residencies, and other creative development services.
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