Mar 14, 2018
Festival
San Francisco, CA — SFFILM today announced three immersive programs in the popular Live & Onstage section of the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival: Blonde Redhead with I Was Born But… in which the alt icons energize the beloved Ozu classic with a new live score, and A Thousand Thoughts – A Live Documentary by Sam Green and Kronos Quartet, a “live documentary” directed by Bay Area filmmaker Sam Green (The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, Festival 2012) and veteran film editor Joe Bini focusing on Bay Area classical titans Kronos Quartet. Kronos Quartet themselves will provide live accompaniment on stage, and Green will narrate live in his own inimitable style. The 2018 SFFILM Festival’s live offerings are rounded out by A Celebration of Oddball Films in which intriguing shorts from the beloved local archive will be scored by the Red Room Orchestra, a Bay Area-based group of musicians brought together by San Francisco producer and multi-instrumentalist Marc Capelle.
“Live music and moving images are a galvanizing combination, and this year’s programs showcase the range and variety of what live cinema can be,” said SFFILM Director of Programming Rachel Rosen. “It’s gratifying to be able to highlight Bay Area treasures from The Kronos Quartet, who closed out the Festival in such great style last year, to Oddball Films, and thrilling to be able to welcome such iconic artists as Blonde Redhead to the Castro stage. I’m glad I don’t have to choose between these shows.”
Blonde Redhead with I Was Born, But…
Wednesday, April 11 at 8:00pm at the Castro Theatre
Blonde Redhead has haunted audiences with alt-rock sounds ranging from noise-rock to dreampop for decades. Expatriates Kazu Makino, Amedeo Pace and Simone Pace formed the band in New York in the mid ’90s and have created nine albums, the second of which, La Mia Vita Violenta, is dedicated to Pasolini, and the most recent, Masculin Féminin, references Godard. Their relationship with film doesn’t end there, though: Makino’s voice can be heard in the 2006 horror remake Sisters, and they scored THE 2008 documentary The Dungeon Masters. In 2017, one of their earlier singles, “For the Damaged Coda,” hit the charts after being featured on Rick and Morty.
One of Ozu’s most popular films, I Was Born, But… is a blithe portrait of the financial and psychological toils of one family, as told from the rascally point of view of a couple of stubborn little boys. For two brothers, the daily struggles of bullies and mean teachers is nothing next to the mortification they feel when they realize their good-natured father’s low-rung social status.
A Thousand Thoughts – A Live Documentary by Sam Green and Kronos Quartet
Tuesday, April 10 at 7:00 pm at the Castro Theatre
Academy-Award-nominated filmmaker Sam Green and film editor Joe Bini have partnered with the legendary New Classical pioneers Kronos Quartet to create a “live documentary” about the classical music group that is a powerfully moving experience. The Kronos Quartet will take the stage and provide the musical score to a multi-screen film about them, while Green narrates from the stage. Blending archival footage; interviews with longtime collaborators such as Philip Glass, Terry Riley, and Laurie Anderson; along with interactive storytelling, A Thousand Thoughts creates a profound connection to the music and the musicians, one that celebrates their talent and influence while allowing the audience to experience it first-hand.
A Celebration of Oddball Films with Marc Capelle’s Red Room Orchestra
Monday, April 9 at 8:00 pm at the Castro Theatre
Formed by San Francisco producer and multi-instrumentalist Marc Capelle in 2017, the Red Room Orchestra is a collective of popular, jazz, classical electronic, composers, and performers who’ve played and recorded alongside The Bad Seeds, The Plastic Ono Band, Cibo Matto, Oingo Boingo, Sonic Youth, CAKE, American Music Club, Lou Harrison, Aesop Rock, The Steve Reich Ensemble, The Nels Cline Singers, Rodriguez, Iggy Pop, Tune-Yards, Bill Frisell, and more. They’ve offered live renderings of the music of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, as well as reinterpreting the soundtracks of Wes Anderson’s Rushmore (1998) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). For this special Oddball Films presentation, the Orchestra promises to commemorate and confound with a No Wave/disco score that features as much ABBA as Albert Ayler.
The reels in Stephen Parr’s Oddball Films collection are said to number 50,000, but their impact on screens and filmmakers is exponentially greater. Elements of Parr’s archive of industrials, educational films, and, yes, oddities of all kinds found their way into the hands of filmmakers near and far, from Bay Area documentarians like Jennifer Kroot to A-list Hollywood directors like Ridley Scott. The in-house screenings upstairs in his Mission hideaway headquarters were not-to-be-missed (or replicated) events that demonstrated his long-practiced art of remixing, recontextualizing, bewildering, educating, and delighting his audience. SFFILM pays tribute to this sui generis collector who passed before his time this past year with a screening of work from Oddball Films’ archive accompanied by live music.
In addition to the programs included above, the festival’s slate this year hosts a healthy selection of music-related films and events, including a performance art program by San Francisco cult music icon Cory McAbee, Deep Astronomy and the Romantic Sciences; Kevin Kerslake’s Joan Jett doc Bad Reputation; Raymond St-Jean’s portrait of a dance icon, Louise Lecavalier – In Motion; and Steven Loveridge’s Matangi / Maya / M.I.A., which follows the musical and political timeline of the indie recording artist of the same name. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) director John Cameron Mitchell’s How to Talk to Girls at Parties and Mark Raso’s reference-packed nostalgia trip Kodachrome also offer plenty of highlights for the musically inclined.
Tickets to Blonde Redhead with I Was Born, But… are $20 for SFFILM Members and $25 for the general public.
Tickets to A Thousand Thoughts – A Live Documentary by Sam Green and Kronos Quartet are $25 for SFFILM members, $30 for the general public.
Tickets to A Celebration of Oddball Films with Marc Capelle’s Red Room Orchestra are $20 for SFFILM Members and $25 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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