Sep 4, 2018
SFFILM
San Francisco, CA – SFFILM has announced the lineup of new films premiering on the SFFILM Screening Room, the curated film streaming service available exclusively to SFFILM members through an easy-to-use web platform and mobile app. Five new feature films have joined the roster of titles on the service and are now available to stream. There are currently 26 films to choose from on the platform.
The SFFILM Screening Room service is available to SFFILM members on the web at sffilm.org/watch. Members can also access films and supplemental content by downloading the SFFILM app and logging into their membership accounts. The SFFILM app is available for iOS, Apple TV, and Android devices as a free download on iTunes or Google Play. The web platform and app have been created with the generous support of Margaret and Will Hearst.
FEATURE FILMS ADDED SEPTEMBER 1
After Tiller
Martha Shane, Lana Wilson (USA 2013, 85 min.)
In the wake of the murder of Dr. George Tiller, only four late-term abortion providers remain in the United States. This thought provoking, sometimes troubling documentary examines the personal and ethical imperatives that drive these physicians to continue in the face of often dangerous legal and personal harassment. After premiering at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, the film screened at the at the SFFILM Festival that same year.
Brimstone & Glory
Viktor Jakovleski (USA 2017, 67 min.)
Burning Man has nothing on Tultepec’s charging toritos and exploding castillos. Mexico’s weeklong National Pyrotechnic Festival is sheer unbridled madness. Scars that tourists take away from fireworks-exploding bulls and towering infernos are earned with pleasure, as this dynamic documentary keeps explanation to a minimum while maximizing the experiential through GoPro camera POVs and gorgeous abstractions. Filmmaker Viktor Jakovleski has created a visually rapturous, immersive, sensory experience of this extraordinary event, capturing the danger and mayhem in all its glory. Winner of the McBaine Documentary Feature Award at the 2017 SFFILM Festival.
Embrace of the Serpent
Ciro Guerra (Colombia 2015, 123 min.)
At once blistering and poetic, the ravages of colonialism cast a dark shadow over the South American landscape in Embrace of the Serpent, the third feature by Ciro Guerra. Filmed in stunning black-and-white, the film centers on Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and the two scientists who, over the course of 40 years, build a friendship with him. The film is inspired by the real-life journals of two explorers (Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes) who traveled through the Colombian Amazon during the last century in search of the sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant. Embrace of the Serpent was Colombia’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2016 Academy Awards®.
River of Grass
Kelly Reichardt (USA 1994, 81 min.)
Kelly Reichardt’s darkly funny debut feature brought the writer/director back to the setting of her adolescence, the suburban landscape of southern Florida, where she grew up with her detective father and narcotics agent mother. Shot on 16mm, the story follows the misadventures of disaffected house-wife “Cozy,” played by Lisa Bowman, and the aimless layabout “Lee,” played by up-and-comer Larry Fessenden, who also acted as a producer and the film’s editor. Described by Reichardt as “a road movie without the road, a love story without the love, and a crime story without the crime,” River of Grass introduces viewers to a director already in command of her craft and defining her signature style. River of Grass premiered at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival and went on to play at the Berlin Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival with a new restoration.
The Road Movie
Dimitri Kalashnikov (Russia/Belarus/Serbia/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia 2016, 67 min.)
A fascinating mosaic of asphalt adventures, landscape photography, and some of the most bizarre footage ever seen, Dmitrii Kalashnikov’s The Road Movie is a stunning compilation of video material shot exclusively via dashboard cameras in Russian automobiles. The dash-cam phenomenon permeates Russian roads thoroughly, capturing a vivid range of spectacles through the windshield, including a comet crashing down to Earth, an epic forest fire, and no shortage of angry motorists taking road rage to wholly new and unexpected levels, all the while accompanied by bemused commentary from unseen and often stoic drivers and passengers. The Road Movie won the Golden Lynx at New Directors / New Films Festival in 2017.
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SFFILM Presents
SFFILM produces a robust slate of public programs throughout the year, including red carpet premiere events, advance member screenings, and in-depth film series. With diverse offerings and a commitment to excellence in world cinema, SFFILM is the home of great film in the Bay Area all year long. For more information visit sffilm.org/presents.
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 (April 10–23, 2019, SFFILM is a year-round nonprofit organization delivering screenings and events to more than 75,000 film lovers and media education programs to more than 12,000 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. For more information visit sffilm.org.
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