THE WILL OF GIANTS

Citizen Kane with William R. Hearst III

On a ferocious, rain-swept Thursday evening in downtown San Francisco, the winds battered against the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as enthusiastic film lovers sat down to drink in a bit of living history, in the form of a long-awaited conversation that would take place between preeminent film historian David Thomson, and a man who is the grandson of the primary inspiration for Citizen Kane’s titular Charles Foster Kane, William R. Hearst III. As SFFILM’s Executive Director, Noah Cowan, expressed before the two took the stage… “It took me two years to get up the nerve to ask Will if he’d be willing to do this.”

The intensity of the bleed-through between the real-life William Randolph Hearst, and the on-screen depiction of newspaper tycoon-cum-failed Presidential candidate, Charles Foster Kane, continues to fascinate film fans and historians alike nearly eighty years since the film first arrived amid a hailstorm of controversy. Hearst sought to bury the movie, and many took his side against the awesomely talented, headstrong Orson Welles, whose equal roles as reckless provocateur and dazzling cinematic storyteller engendered uphill professional struggles that would ultimately leave him a seemingly distraught, morbidly obese old man whose fate didn’t seem so far removed from that of his portrayal of Kane nearly two generations prior.

Those hoping the Hearst clan are still harboring any kind of grudge against the film would have been disappointed to hear Will say how much he was a fan of the film upon first seeing it in college, and how he continues to find the film’s characters a fascinating marriage of composites of key figures from his grandfather’s heyday. The only thing he personally finds inaccurate is the portrayal of Xanadu, the film’s version of the Hearst family’s San Simeon estate. “Xanadu was really dark and depressing, and the San Simeon I think of is white walls and so much sunlight!”

Of course, the sheer technical innovation of the film’s narrative structure, married with Greg Tolland’s stunning black and white photography, in-camera visual effects, and Welles’s magnetic, multi-generational performance, come together to create an emotionally enthralling experience with Kane’s sheer abundance of craft so evident nearly four generations later. The theme of powerful men using the media to gain prominence to satisfy an unending need for more continue to resonate in America (perhaps uncomfortably so in 2017) and the film still serves as an uncannily relevant mirror into the dark underbelly of a nation built upon the feverish appetites of men like Charles Foster Kane.

Watch the full conversation below.

Cheers,

James J. Jefferies

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OF POETRY AND FILMS

Taking Poetry, and Film, into the Classroom

SFFILM recently visited high school classes with the poet Donté Clark, the subject of the award-winning film “Romeo is Bleeding”

On March 14, the Education Team from SFFILM visited Balboa High School with Donté Clark, the poet from Richmond who was the subject of the SFFILM-backed award-winning 2015 documentary Romeo is Bleeding. After a successful visit last year, the teacher reached out to us again earlier this year for a repeat visit with her new cohort of English students to coincide with their poetry unit.

We gathered in the school theatre with a big contingent of students from three different classes. A few of them immediately approached Donté to talk about their experience watching his story on screen, their craft, their lives. All the students had watched the documentary in class in the weeks before the visit and complemented their viewing with a special study guide. They had discussed the film and thought about questions they might want to ask, with the more nervous ones submitting their written questions to their teacher for her to pose in an informal Q&A with Donté. Before that, however, he gave a performance of one of his pieces drawn from his contemporary Richmond-based adaptation of Romeo & Juliet that appears in Romeo is Bleeding. The theatre was totally silent, except for the odd gasp, as Donté threw off his beanie and walked the stage, arms gesturing and lyrics pouring rhythmically out of his mouth.

There was then a Q&A. The first one was a request, through the teacher, for Donté to read a poem the student had been working on. After that, the questions ranged from spirituality to race to the simplistic beauty of “does poetry make you happy?,” along with specific questions about the film and the play. His responses drew on the values of education and lifelong learning to the personal decisions that he had made in his life to end up in his position, as a creator and cultural figure with numerous projects on the go. “What do you think was the strongest or most powerful line in the play?,” one of the students asked. “‘I know you was expecting us to choose death, but tonight you choose life.’ I think that piece was the strongest line in the play, and why I chose to write it. Violence only begets more violence, and in Richmond we have already lost too many people. In Verona, it was only Mercutio and Tybalt who died, and then Romeo and Juliet took their own lives. But from where I’m from four people get killed in one shooting, that’s a weekend. So showing another body is not so powerful, so it was important for me to rewrite that: they expected death, but instead we chose life. Everyone stood up and went crazy.”

The kids, engaged and inspired, recognized that this person was sharing closely with them, and one was even inspired to talk about loss that he had experienced through violence in his own neighborhood before the questions continued and the hour flew by. His talent for connecting with young students is brilliant and it is fabulous to see him work each and every time we are lucky enough to have him join us, and these aren’t easy Q&As by any means. Finally, one student came to the front to share his poem with the audience before the bell rang — and then a few students lined up to talk to Donté, to share with him their stories and their ideas, and glean a little bit more from his experiences. “I loved being able to connect with him,” one student said, and another added: “it helped me think about writing and poetry in a different way. I thought it was kind of boring before seeing the film and hearing him.”

Even though it was two years ago that Romeo is Bleeding was in the Festival (and won the Audience Award for Documentary that year), it has had a lasting impact not only on Donté but also to the many who have seen him on screen, let alone the thousands of students that he has spoken to in classrooms and at events. The film was directed by Jason Zeldes (the editor of 20 Feet From Stardom) and depicts a fatal turf war between neighborhoods that haunts the city of Richmond, CA., telling the story of how Donté Clark transcends the violence in his hometown by writing poetry about his experiences and working with a community arts organization. Using his voice to inspire those around him, he and the like-minded youth of the city mount an urban adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with the hope of starting a real dialogue about violence in the city. “I’m always excited to be able to share my stories,” Donté said afterwards, “and to provide any guidance or perspective about the life and journey of an artist.”

Ciao,

Tom Winterbottom

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JASON HEADLEY TALKS ‘A BAD IDEA GONE WRONG’ PREMIERE @ SXSW

Laughs, Nerves, And A Successful First Outing

It’s possible I was just too dumb to be nervous.

That’s what people kept asking me before my first feature film, “A Bad Idea Gone Wrong,” premiered at SXSW: “Are you nervous?” And I honestly didn’t understand the question. The movie was finished. I’d watched it enough times, building it piece by piece, to have no perspective on it whatsoever. But I still had a low, lingering feeling that I’d made the movie I set out to make. So my work was done. All I had to do was sit in a theater and watch it with a bunch of strangers.

“I’m excited.” That’s what I would tell people. And I meant it.

Then the rain started.

Our world premiere was on a Saturday afternoon and it was raining pretty good. One thing I hadn’t considered was the possibility that I might not watch the movie with a bunch of strangers after all, but with a smattering of wet, grumpy people in a mostly empty theater.

I started to get nervous. There was a lot going on as the doors opened. We were quarantined in a green room underneath the theater for a while, either due to a health scare or because we were being too noisy. (It’s because we were being too noisy.) When we got let out of detention, we had to take various configurations of photos on the red carpet and I honestly had no idea how many people had gone into the theater. Finally free to take a look, I saw nothing but sweet relief: The theater was full. Three hundred people, some of them wet, none of them grumpy.

I was back to being excited.

People were laughing from the very start. The movie is a comedy, so that’s a good thing. Great laughs and gasps in all the right places. It was a true rush listening this bunch of strangers go on the ride. To the point where, near the end, my awareness of all the effort it took to get here — all the failure and rejection and opportunities made and teamwork required — began to cause a disturbance in and around my eyeballs. I was about to cry. Luckily, I come from a place where we stifle our emotions with great rigor and proficiency. I wasn’t about to cry my way through my Q&A. So I pulled it together and just felt some good, old-fashioned joy about the whole thing. A rare indulgence.

Three days later, we all went to the awards ceremony. I was neither nervous nor excited. I felt the same as when I took my brother’s girlfriend to prom: Certain I had no chance. Our film was in Narrative Competition, but it’s a comedy and comedy doesn’t win awards. Even at the Golden Globes, where Comedy has its own category, “The Martian” won. The. Martian. So I was just sitting there, minding my own business, when judge Scott Mantz started talking about our movie. He was talking about a Special Jury Recognition for Best Ensemble. And suddenly we were onstage and I got to sing the praises of my cast — Matt Jones, Eleanore Pienta, and Will Rogers — into a microphone in front of a thousand people.

It was a superb experience all around. We finished the night at a diner at 3 a.m., too tired to eat but too wired to sleep. Just like that, my first feature was out in the world, all on its own. And I’m ready to get started on the next one.

– Jason Headley

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FROM THE OCEAN TO THE CLASSROOM

Exploring Disney Pixar’s Short Film Piper with Filmmakers Marc and Allan and SFFILM Education

Gosh, do we love what we do! Just recalling a day a few weeks back when we spent hours chatting all things Academy Award nominated short from Pixar, Piper. Our guests were director Allan Barillaro and producer Marc Sondheimer. Fantastic guys, and great filmmakers.

The day began with a multimedia presentation at the Alamo Drafthouse for 300 Bay Area students/teachers. Allan gave the students a little insight into the inspiration for the film. The short tells the story of a hungry sandpiper hatchling who ventures from her nest for the first time to dig for food by the shoreline. The only problem is, the food is buried beneath the sand where scary waves roll up onto the shore.

“We enjoyed seeing how deeply one needs to study the ocean, the sand, how bubbles reflect light and then pop, how the sound effects and theme song went from scratch ideas to full orchestra, how quick sketches turn into fully rendered characters. How composition frames positive and negative spaces. It was all just so fascinating.” — San Francisco Teacher

The audience then got to view the film, which was followed up by a behind the scenes look at how the whole thing came together. Marc and Allan covered a wide range of topics including: computer science, narrative storytelling, art history, musical composition, and even coastal wildlife biology. No rock unturned with Pixar. We finished things off with a Q & A, giving the students a chance to discover even more about the animation process.

“My students came home excited to create. They were able to expand their understanding of the creative process and wanted to apply it to projects they were already creating as well as new projects.” —San Francisco Teacher

In the afternoon, we took Allan and Marc over to a class of 4th & 5th grade students at Jefferson Elementary where, along with the regular presentation, Allan was also able to give the kids a bonus drawing demonstration.

“These special events, outside of the classroom, are what students will remember. Fortunately this program, like all the SFFILM programs I have attended, are full of important information and insight about film and animation making. And it doesn’t feel like work.” —San Francisco Teacher

Educational opportunities like this one are also available outside of our SFFILM Education programming. This year’s Festival features two masterclasses with Pixar artists. There will also be an opportunity to see the newest short from the studio, Lou, during our Shorts 5: Family Films program at the Castro on April 15th. Director Dave Mullins and producer Dana Murray will be in attendance at the screening.

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