A daughter’s urge to understand her father leads to the creation of an indelible character in Lorena Padilla’s feature debut ‘Martinez’
Film Still from Martinez.
A native of Guadalajara, Mexico, writer-director Lorena Padilla didn’t want a quinceañera when she turned 15. Instead of a celebration marking her journey from girlhood to womanhood, she asked for a trip, traveling north to San Jose to visit relatives. With two of her cousins, she spent a day in San Francisco, describing it as a rite of passage. Since then, Padilla collaborated on the story of Bay Area filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes’s documentary 499, but she never made it back here again. Until now, that is, as Martinez, her first feature, screens at the SFFILM Festival with Padilla in attendance.
“You have no idea how thrilled I am,” she says during a recent video chat. “It’s a dream come true…I feel like everything is falling into place. It is such an honor.”
What is Martinez about?
A Fantastic Woman star Francisco Reyes plays the titular character in Padilla’s drama that blends deadpan humor and poignancy. A Chilean immigrant who lived in Mexico for 40 years and spent decades at his office job, Martinez is thrown for a loop when human resources informs him that he must retire. Not only that, but he is also obligated to train his replacement, Pablo (Humberto Busto), an amiable goofball, under the jaundiced eye of Martinez’s office frenemy, Conchita (Martha Claudia Moreno). Meanwhile, the loner and lifelong bachelor’s life undergoes further upheaval when a neighbor he barely knew dies and a compulsion drives him to collect some of her abandoned belongings, further nudging Martinez out of his apathetic slumber.
When Padilla began working on her script, it was an attempt to understand her father, whose personality she describes as “peculiar,” something she used to struggle with when she was younger. But while she did gain more insight into her dad as she was writing, the project also changed.
“It started with that realization, ‘Oh, now I get it. Now I get why he was behaving the way he was behaving,” Padilla says. “It started like that and then it kind of evolved. I was talking about myself. Everything was kind of mixed up in that.”
What Inspired Lorena Padilla’s Story
A Fulbright scholar who got her MFA in dramatic writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Padilla also spent a year in London, taking a course on art direction in film and supporting herself as a waitress. She would take the city’s red double-decker buses to get around the city and read the free newspapers. It was in one of those that she discovered another of Martinez’s story threads, a small item about a woman whose body was discovered in her apartment.
“It was heartbreaking; reality is always worse than fiction,” Padilla says. “She had been dead for two years and she had been wrapping Christmas presents. What stuck in my head was like, ‘Oh my god, I cannot believe that can happen in a big city.’
“One thing led to the other and I said, ‘What had to happen in order for my dad, or Martinez, to change, was to be confronted with mortality.’ And that’s when this woman came back to me.”
Casting an actor to play Martinez presented a challenge. Padilla originally looked at Mexican actors but they all misread the character. They felt sorry for him and his situation and that found its way into their interpretations of him, portraying him as a sweet old man, a far cry from the curmudgeon who existed in Padilla’s screenplay. It was a Chilean friend who suggested Reyes. A Fantastic Woman was not yet out in Mexico, but Padilla was able to watch the trailer for Sebastián Lelio’s film in which Reyes played the much older lover of a transsexual woman. From that tiny slice of his performance, she saw her Martinez.
Padilla sent Reyes her script and met him over a video call, later traveling to Chile to shoot a teaser to make sure he was, in fact, the right actor for the part. Reyes learned of A Fantastic Woman’s Golden Globes nomination for best foreign language film while she was there (it would go on to win the Oscar® in that same category) and feared that he might not want to work with a first-time filmmaker on her independent movie but he remained committed to the project.
Francisco Reyes in Martinez.
The actor and director have something in common that gives both extra insight into the loner that Padilla created. Reyes lived in Paris for a time. Padilla has resided in five countries, and in 10 cities in the past 15 years, including Dallas where is she is a film professor at Southern Methodist University.
“I think being an immigrant, you always have this lonely place inside yourself,” Padilla says. “If you’re lucky, you can go back to your country once in a while, but you don’t belong there and you don’t belong to the new place, either.
“Francisco Reyes and I had a long conversation about that, that’s how we connected. He would say that even though you love a place and you have friends and you are lucky enough to have a house, there is always an emptiness inside you when you’re an immigrant. You’re like more a Mexican abroad or a Chilean abroad. In Mexico, I’m not Mexican enough and in the US, I’m not American enough. It’s like you’re never enough. It’s like you’re just in limbo, in that in between. For us, for Francisco Reyes and me, that was very important.”
Martinez’s Impact on Viewers
A project that began as a way for a daughter to better understand her father turns out to have wider implications. Long before Padilla had an opportunity to show Martinez to an audience, indeed, even before she began assembling her final cut in postproduction, she found that this character she wrote and gave to Reyes to so vividly inhabit was already striking an emotional chord.
“Everyone on the crew, but I mean, everyone, every single person was telling me, ‘My dad is like that,’” Padilla says. “He was like a common experience, because in Mexico, there’s a lot of machismo and it affects everyone. Men are not supposed to express their feelings. So we were all watching our own dads on the camera, and were understanding them and that this was part of our culture, this dynamic our society has.
“(Making the film) was such a cathartic experience; it was such a learning process…I think I understand my dad even better now. I don’t have that weight on my shoulders anymore. It was such an interesting experience that I was very lucky to have.”
Pam Grady is a freelance writer, whose work appears in the San Francisco Chronicle, 48 Hills, and other publications. She also has her own web site.
Stay In Touch With SFFILM
SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM works hard to bring the most exciting films and filmmakers to Bay Area movie lovers. To be the first to know what’s coming, sign up for our email alerts and watch your inbox.
Get a behind the scenes look at Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky, and Maeve O’Boyle’s documentary on superstar Joan Baez.
Photo Courtesy of Mead Street Films.
When Joan Baez was 13 years old, she wrote an essay declaring who she was, prescient words from a precocious teen who would grow up to be a towering figure in American folk music and political activism. A phrase from it worked its way into the title Joan Baez: I Am a Noise, Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky, and Maeve O’Boyle’s documentary that screens at the Festival on Tuesday, Apr. 18. Baez herself has thoughts on that essay.
“I was just thinking of the one thing we didn’t mention, which is the fantasy part, my ‘I’m going to start a peace movement and we’re going to save the world,’ Baez says during a recent video call with O’Connor and Navasky. “It was all very real to me, you know, I have to laugh. On the other hand, that’s the direction I went without ever looking back.
“But just to add, it is a funny combination of this shy, don’t-feel-good-about-myself, less than and, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m going to save the world.’”
What is Joan Baez I Am a Noise About?
Baez may not have saved the world in the end but not for lack of trying, as expressed through her music and her dedication to the civil rights and antiwar movement. But that is only one facet of I Am a Noise, a rich documentary that is as much about Baez’s complicated family story and her relationships with Bob Dylan and former husband, antiwar activist David Harris, as her career and politics. It is also as much about the present as the past as the filmmakers capture her during her 2018/19 “Fare Thee Well” tour. The 82-year-old artist is never less than frank and the filmmakers take a similar approach. This is not hagiography.
Photo Courtesy of Albert Baez.
“I wanted to leave an honest legacy and you can’t do that if you pretty it all up,” Baez say. “So, it’s not pretty. I just held my nose and jumped in. I said, ‘Okay, here are the keys to the storage unit… What a Pandora’s box I let them open up and they just ran with it.”
O’Connor and Navasky are Emmy-winning filmmakers who frequently collaborate. The pair previously worked with O’Boyle (also the editor of I Am a Noise) when she co-produced and edited their 2015 PBS Frontline documentary, Growing Up Trans. The trio’s connection to Baez begins with O’Connor, who first met Baez in the mid-‘80s on a documentary project , the two women becoming friends. Filming for the documentary began several years before the Fare Thee Well tour but it was the idea of a final tour that kicked the project in high gear.
“There wasn’t a commitment to a last tour but the idea of a potential last tour gave Miri, Maeve, and I an opening to think about the value in documenting that with Joan. It would give us a window into somebody who had been famous for 60-plus years coming to the end of a kind of amazing career.
Photo Courtesy of Alain Gaveau.
“There was no guarantee that would end, which made it even more interesting,” she adds. “The film itself could be a process of discovery. It was an opening and we knew it would be a narrative anchor. Over the course of time, the film shifted dramatically. As we all got in deeper and deeper and as Joan entrusted us, particularly with the family archive, the film really took a huge turn.”
O’Connor observes that Baez’s parents, Albert and Joan, kept everything. Albert, a physicist, made home movies of his family that included Baez’s older sister Pauline and younger sister, singer-songwriter Mimi Fariña. The family were also letter writers, Joan sending long written or recorded missives to her parents from the road. For the filmmakers, the trove was a gold mine.
“It cracked open the film in a lot of ways but particularly in terms of how to represent the past,” O’Connor says. “We had a chance to make the past come alive through the original source material that could make this a very different kind of biography. It would feel more like time travel than biography, so that we could see how Joan experienced things at the time rather than from the remove of 60 years later. There’s an immediacy and immersiveness that we wanted to capture in every strand of the film.”
How did the Filmmakers Find Balance?
One of the challenges of the film from the outset was how to balance the documentary’s many aspects of Baez’s family life, activism, and music career. But just in the way that she conducted her life, the filmmakers discovered some of the work was already done for them.
“The balancing of politics and music was almost natural to her from the time she was a teenager,” Navasky says. “In her letters, there is music and politics and family, they’re all interwoven. In some ways, following the course of her original primary material guided us.
“She’s had an incredibly packed life,” she adds. “We were constantly struggling with we could and couldn’t leave out.”
Photo Courtesy of Mead Street Films.
Baez has a son, Gabriel Harris, and a granddaughter, Jasmine, and she is an aunt to her sister Pauline’s children but she is the last of her birth family. The filmmakers were able to get footage of Baez’s mom before she died at 100 in 2013 and Pauline before she passed away at 77 in 2016. (Albert died in 2007 at 94, and Mimi in 2001 at 56.) But for the most part, it is Joan observing and speaking for her family.
“I hope I did them justice as well as I could,” Baez says. “I obviously couldn’t have made the film until they were all gone. For the Baez line, this is the end of the road. So, that, too, is part of leaving a legacy, of trying to leave an honest legacy. My family was nothing, if not honest, each in his own way.”
Joan Baez I Am a Noise is stuffed with music, from the beginning of Baez’s career when she was a teenager sensation all the way through the decades to that last tour of a venerated veteran performer. All that music will pour out of the Castro Theatre’s speakers during the film’s SFFILM Festival screening where O’Connor and Navasky and longtime Woodside resident Baez will be in attendance along with Baez’s friends and family.
“It’s different, seeing it on a big screen, because if you’re going to be overwhelmed, that’s the way to do it,” Baez says. “So each time I see it, there are different reactions and sometimes they’re very deep. They’re very sad. Sometimes I’m just delighted at the silly parts of it. I mean, does it bring up stuff? Absolutely. Absolutely, each time. Some of it I really don’t want to think about and I have to. With other parts of it, it’s okay.”
Pam Grady is a freelance writer, whose work appears in the San Francisco Chronicle, 48 Hills, and other publications. She also has her own web site.
Stay In Touch With SFFILM
SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM works hard to bring the most exciting films and filmmakers to Bay Area movie lovers. To be the first to know what’s coming, sign up for our email alerts and watch your inbox.
Woo Ming Jin’s Stone Turtle plays with genre and form—see it for the first time in California at the 2023 SFFILM Festival
Film Still from Stone Turtle.
Woo Ming Jin embraced the chance to make Stone Turtle, his eerie drama that won the FIPRESCI prize at the 2022 Locarno International Film Festival and makes its California premiere at the SFFILM Festival on Saturday, April 15. It was the middle of COVID, a time of punishing lockdowns in Malaysia. In those bleak times, the filmmaker’s career seemed at a standstill.
“During COVID, there was a feeling that I wasn’t sure whether I would make another film,” Woo says during a video call. “I had the opportunity to make this film very quickly, and I thought, ‘You know, I’ll just do something that I truly want to do without any sort of expectations from anyone else.’”
What is Stone Turtle about?
The title, Stone Turtle, refers to a Malaysian folk tale, a kind of romantic tragedy involving a turtle couple who become separated, leaving the female turtle to search ever after for her missing mate. The lore comes alive in beguiling animated sequences, directed by Paul Raymond Williams (assistant animator on Studio Ghibli’s The Red Turtle).
The animation is woven into the story of Zahara (Asmara Abigail), an Indonesian migrant living on the titular island off the east coast of Malaysia. The place is sparsely populated, the province of women, all outsiders like Zahara and her 10-year-old niece Nika (Samara Kenzo). Zahara’s biggest concern besides selling enough turtle eggs to sustain her small family is getting Nika into school, a high hurdle when only Malaysian citizens are allowed to register for public education. But those challenges are soon supplanted by one far more dangerous. An interloper arrives on the island, Samad (Bront Palarae). He claims to be researching leatherback turtles but Zahara recognizes him and doubts his intentions are so benign.
As Zahara and Samad face off, violence and mystery envelop their conflict, embroidered with elements of ghost stories and revenge, and shot through with alternative timelines that have led some critics to compare Stone Turtle to the classic Harold Ramis comedy Groundhog Day.
“In terms of Groundhog Day, I suppose it’s the seminal sort of time loops movie,” Woo says. “When we started making this, and I was discussing it with my producer, we thought it could be a day repeating itself but it could also be parallel realities, so like one version after the other.
“So time loops weren’t strictly on my mind as we were making it, but as we edited and the film became more crystallized, it became obvious it was a time loop. So, unconsciously absolutely, Groundhog Day, or I really enjoyed that Tom Cruise movie, Edge of Tomorrow. Maybe I was thinking more of that in terms of this looping element.”
Film Still from Stone Turtle.
Woo was a boy when he first visited the island that became his mythical Turtle Island. He spent holidays and vacations there fishing, starting when he was in high school. Then a few years ago, he spent a few months there while working on a project and got to know some of the villagers who eked a subsistence living turtle poaching. With turtle populations declining, it is a practice that could be disastrous but conservation groups in the region have become the villagers’ customers, ensuring the safety of the eggs.
“It was sort of like a symbiotic relationship,” Woo says. “I found it really fascinating. That was the catalyst for the film, and I had really wanted to make a film on the east coast. That region where we shot is really well known for that folklore, the legend of the stone turtle. It was really my desire to basically tell a contemporary version of this folklore and I was inspired by some of the people I’ve encountered in the region.”
To the folk tale and the turtle poaching, Woo added in elements highlighting the situation for migrants in a society where they have few rights or opportunities and also observes the perilous status of women in patriarchal society. At the same time, Woo didn’t want to make a heavy-handed social issues movie.
“In terms of the genre, I just wanted to have some fun with it,” he says. “Maybe it was a reaction to COVID. We were all stuck and feeling miserable and I thought, ‘This is an opportunity. I’m just going to do something fun.’ I say ‘fun’ in quotation marks as cinematic.
“I wanted to do something that’s important but also play with genres. And I’d always wanted to mix animation with live action, and then came the idea of looping time, because this place where we shot is pretty magical.”
Film Still from Stone Turtle.
Woo wrote Samad with Palarae—whom the director describes as a kind of Malaysian Michael Shannon—in mind. The men are friends, and Palarae appeared in Woo’s film Zombitopia (2021), as well as one Woo produced, Barbarian Invasion (2021). The actor occasionally works in Indonesia and suggested Abigail, with whom he’s appeared in several films, to Woo.
“I had seen a few films Asmara’s been, and she was really brilliant,” Woo says. “She had this sort of natural instinct about her. Even though she’s professionally trained, she has this feral sort of instinct about her that I really liked. We cast her and immediately knew she had chemistry with Bront, because that was important. Even though they were playing good/bad person, they still needed to have some sort of on-screen chemistry.
“And so, we worked together on this character, Zahara. There was a lot of input that Asmara gave that I really welcomed because, for me, I’m writing the lines but I always enjoy it if the actors take the role and sort of sort of carve it to make it their own.”
Woo Ming Jin’s San Francisco Homecoming
When it comes to Stone Turtle’s appearance at the festival, the film represents a kind of homecoming for Woo. The very first film festival Woo attended was what was then the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2005, when his first feature Monday Morning Glory screened as part of a spotlight on Malaysian cinema programmed by Roger Garcia. Four years later, another of his features, Woman on Fire Looks for Water, delighted Festival audiences. Woo can’t attend in person this year but he is thrilled that Stone Turtle will represent him at the Festival.
“I’m very happy to screen it in San Francisco,” he says, “There is something special about screening to an audience in San Francisco.”
Pam Grady is a freelance writer, whose work appears in the San Francisco Chronicle, 48 Hills, and other publications. She also has her own web site.
Stay In Touch With SFFILM
SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM works hard to bring the most exciting films and filmmakers to Bay Area movie lovers. To be the first to know what’s coming, sign up for our email alerts and watch your inbox.
Remembering former SFFILM Executive Director Noah Cowan
On Wednesday, January 25, former SFFILM Executive Director Noah Cowan passed away at his home in Los Angeles. Our staff and alumni are deeply saddened by his loss and we’ve been swapping many uproarious stories about Noah, a wonderful, wild, big-hearted, and complex person who did so much for this organization during his tenure. His legacy is still propelling SFFILM ever forward, with filmmaking and film appreciation at its center.
Noah stepped into the Executive Director role at SFFILM in 2014—then known as the San Francisco Film Society—and immediately got to work with his bold vision for the organization. He said at the time, “The Bay Area has a storied relationship to cinema’s century-plus history and is currently home to the technology companies that will decisively influence the medium’s future. SFFS is uniquely positioned to work with filmmakers, educators, and enthusiastic local audiences to embrace the dynamic and exciting changes taking place within the industry and continue to ensure that great cinema is made, seen and appreciated.”
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan in the audience at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan in the audience at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan in the audience at an SFFILM event.
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Noah Cowan on stage with Ellen Burstyn at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan on stage with Ellen Burstyn at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan on stage with Ellen Burstyn at an SFFILM event.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan on the red carpet with SF Mayor London Breed and former SFFILM Director of Programming Rachel Rosen.
Noah Cowan on the red carpet with SF Mayor London Breed and former SFFILM Director of Programming Rachel Rosen.
Noah Cowan on the red carpet with SF Mayor London Breed and former SFFILM Director of Programming Rachel Rosen.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan and Ellen Burstyn sitting together at SFFILM Awards Night.
Noah Cowan and Ellen Burstyn sitting together at SFFILM Awards Night.
Noah Cowan and Ellen Burstyn sitting together at SFFILM Awards Night.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan in the audience at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan in the audience at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan in the audience at an SFFILM event.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan in the audience at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan in the audience at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan in the audience at an SFFILM event.
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Noah Cowan with Pat Cleveland and Stephen Burrows at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan with Pat Cleveland and Stephen Burrows at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan with Pat Cleveland and Stephen Burrows at an SFFILM event.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan with Marcus Hu and B. Ruby Rich at SFFILM Essential SF
Noah Cowan with Marcus Hu and B. Ruby Rich at SFFILM Essential SF
Noah Cowan with Marcus Hu and B. Ruby Rich at SFFILM Essential SF
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Noah Cowan with Johnnie To at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan with Johnnie To at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan with Johnnie To at an SFFILM event.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan and Shah Rukh Khan at the 2017 SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan and Shah Rukh Khan at the 2017 SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan and Shah Rukh Khan at the 2017 SFFILM Festival.
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Noah Cowan and Wesley Morris at the 2016 SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan and Wesley Morris at the 2016 SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan and Wesley Morris at the 2016 SFFILM Festival.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan in the audience at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan in the audience at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan in the audience at an SFFILM event.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan with Jennifer Siebel Newsom and CA Governor Gavin Newsom at the 2019 SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan with Jennifer Siebel Newsom and CA Governor Gavin Newsom at the 2019 SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan with Jennifer Siebel Newsom and CA Governor Gavin Newsom at the 2019 SFFILM Festival.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan and filmmakers of Darkest Hour at an SF Honors Award Presentation.
Noah Cowan and filmmakers of Darkest Hour at an SF Honors Award Presentation.
Noah Cowan and filmmakers of Darkest Hour at an SF Honors Award Presentation.
Launched in March of 2017, Noah delivered the rebranding of the organization, integrating all programs including year-round exhibitions, the world-renowned San Francisco International Film Festival, SFFILM Makers, and SFFILM Education under the banner of SFFILM. This new SFFILM was the foundation of who we are today—an organization that prioritizes supporting filmmakers young and old, bringing together the local film community, and inspiring film lovers throughout the Bay Area.
“Noah’s impact on SFFILM was indelible and lasting, and I was honored to carry the stewardship of the organization from Noah’s visionary work. He helped to bring us into a more modern and accessible era, starting with our name change from the San Francisco Film Society, as well as elevating our artist development and education programs to a higher visibility aligned with our legacy festival,” said SFFILM Executive Director, Anne Lai. “His energy and excitement about what we do continue to echo in the new initiatives he created during his time here. Like the movies, he was bigger than life and will be greatly missed.”
Photo by Tommy Lau.
And of course, his love and knowledge of film drove his ambitions for the artform, and for SFFILM. Associate Director of Programming Rod Armstrong shared this remembrance, “Talking about cinema with Noah was a great pleasure for me during his time at SFFILM. Following his departure, we’d pick up our cinephilic chats when we saw one another, sprinkled with nifty gossip. It’s to my great dismay that I won’t be able to continue this conversation with Noah; he made me smarter, better at my job, and hearing his always-at-the-ready laugh made my day a little brighter. The ways he expanded the scope and reach of SFFILM are just one element of his impressive legacy; I’m so proud to have been a part of it.”
We will miss Noah and we know many film communities around the world will as well. We will continue to find solace in his legacy and work, and on especially hard days, we’ll look back at his musings on filmmaking to remind ourselves of the man he was and the devotion he had for filmmaking and film loving.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan and Spike Lee on the red carpet.
Noah Cowan and Spike Lee on the red carpet.
Noah Cowan and Spike Lee on the red carpet.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan with Dolores Huerta and Peter Bratt on the red carpet.
Noah Cowan with Dolores Huerta and Peter Bratt on the red carpet.
Noah Cowan with Dolores Huerta and Peter Bratt on the red carpet.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan and Ben Fong-Torres on the red carpet.
Noah Cowan and Ben Fong-Torres on the red carpet.
Noah Cowan and Ben Fong-Torres on the red carpet.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan interviewing at the SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan interviewing at the SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan interviewing at the SFFILM Festival.
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Noah Cowan onstage at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan onstage at an SFFILM event.
Noah Cowan onstage at an SFFILM event.
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Noah Cowan interviewing at the SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan interviewing at the SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan interviewing at the SFFILM Festival.
Photo by George F. Gund
Photo by George F. Gund
Photo by George F. Gund
Noah Cowan in front of an SFFILM Festival venue.
Noah Cowan in front of an SFFILM Festival venue.
Noah Cowan in front of an SFFILM Festival venue.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan on stage for the 2018 SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan on stage for the 2018 SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan on stage for the 2018 SFFILM Festival.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan posing for a photo at the 2018 SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan posing for a photo at the 2018 SFFILM Festival.
Noah Cowan posing for a photo at the 2018 SFFILM Festival.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Noah Cowan onstage at the 2019 SFFILM Festival with the filmmakers of Tales of the City.
Noah Cowan onstage at the 2019 SFFILM Festival with the filmmakers of Tales of the City.
Noah Cowan onstage at the 2019 SFFILM Festival with the filmmakers of Tales of the City.
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Noah Cowan with Boots Riley and Steve McQueen at SFFILM Awards Night.
Noah Cowan with Boots Riley and Steve McQueen at SFFILM Awards Night.
Noah Cowan with Boots Riley and Steve McQueen at SFFILM Awards Night.
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Noah Cowan with former SFFILM Director of Programming Rachel Rosen.
Noah Cowan with former SFFILM Director of Programming Rachel Rosen.
Noah Cowan with former SFFILM Director of Programming Rachel Rosen.
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Noah Cowan with Doron Weber and Josh Singer in front of the Castro Marquee.
Noah Cowan with Doron Weber and Josh Singer in front of the Castro Marquee.
Noah Cowan with Doron Weber and Josh Singer in front of the Castro Marquee.
As 2022 comes to a close, SFFILM’s Anne Lai reflects on a wonderful year for film in the Bay Area.
A Letter from Our Executive Director
Fellow Film Lovers,
This year we had the privilege of seeing so many of you at in-person events in our city’s most beloved theaters. As a lover of movies, I felt both inspired by the enthusiasm of our audiences, filmmakers, and guests, and reinvigorated by sharing in our collective appreciation of cinema. As the Executive Director of SFFILM, I felt reaffirmed in our organization’s mission.
We believe deeply in the power of the arts and particularly cinematic storytelling to bring hope, inspiration, opportunity, and knowledge to the world. We believe that film brings communities together. Film was born as one of the most accessible art forms over a hundred years ago. And, especially now, it provides one of the most influential and impactful forms of storytelling we have. We invest in films, filmmakers (current and future), and audiences of all ages because it is imperative to advocate for independent voices, thoughts, and perspectives.
All of our successes would not have been possible without the generous support of our members, the guiding vision of our board members, the admirable contributions of our staff, and the meaningful efforts of our seasonal employees and year-round volunteers. Here, we’re revisiting these successes and other highlights, so please read on. For now, I wish you a restful, reflective, and reinvigorating holiday season.
Warmly, Anne Lai Executive Director, SFFILM
SFFILM 2022 Review: From Michelle Yeoh to Ryan Coogler
San Francisco International Film Festival Highlights
As many of you know, this past year marked the 65th San Francisco International Film Festival. Deeply rooted in the notion of film appreciation—film as an art form and as a meaningful force for social change—the Festival encapsulates so much of SFFILM’s mission.
One of the Festival’s most exciting events was A Tribute to Michelle Yeoh, who graciously revisited her filmography while in conversation with Sandra Oh. “We are so blessed that we get to walk in and out of the lives of these characters,” Yeoh told a packed Castro Theatre about her experience leading the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once. “What I found is we were able to find joy. This family—they never gave up. And that’s what we have to do for each other… At the end of the day, stay strong.”
Since we returned to in-person programming in earnest this year, Yeoh’s words felt even more striking. However, that tribute was just one of the many memorable moments from this year’s Festival. The 11-day event featured a range of marquee premieres, international competitions, compelling documentaries, short and mid-length programs, live music performances, and dazzling red carpet events.
Audiences who attended the latest chapter of the longest-running film festival in the Americas had access to a slate of 130 films from 56 countries. Not to mention, 16 of those screenings marked world premieres. Showings of Stay Awake (Jamie Sisley; USA), Breaking (Abi Damaris Corbin; USA), and Cha Cha Real Smooth (Cooper Raiff; USA) comprised The Festival’s distinguished Opening, Centerpiece, and Closing events, respecitvely.
Other programs of note included tributes and honors to Jenny Slate (Marcel the Shell With Shoes On; USA) and the Persistence of Vision Award for Trinh T. Minh-ha (What About China?; USA, China). We also celebrated our Academy Awards-qualifying* 2022 Golden Gate Awards (GGA), which included:
McBaine Documentary Feature—I Didn’t See You There (Reid Davenport; USA) and Master of Light (Rosa Ruth Boesten; USA, Netherlands)
New Directors Prize—Hit the Road (Panah Panahi; Iran)
Animated Short*—Sierra (Sander Joon; Estonia)
Documentary Short*—Long Line of Ladies (Shaadiin Tome and Rayka Zehtabchi; USA) and Holding Moses (Rivkah Beth Medow and Jen Rainin; USA, Japan)
Family Films—Battery Daddy (Seung-bae Jeon; South Korea)
Mid-Lengths—The Time of the Fireflies (Mattis Appelqvist Dalton, Matteo Robert Morales; Mexico, USA, Belgium)
Narrative Shorts*—Busan, 1999 (Thomas Kim; South Korea) and Half-Day (Morgan Mathews; USA)
New Visions—Listen to the Beat of Our Images (Audrey Jean-Baptiste, Maxime Jean-Baptiste; France, French Guiana)
Cine Latino—The Employer and the Employee (Manolo Nieto; Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, France)
Youth Works—Honeybee (Emilio Vazquez Reyes; USA)
SFFILM Presents Review
While the San Francisco International Film Festival is our headlining event, Bay Area cinephiles also enjoyed special screenings of some of 2022’s most significant movies during summer and fall which started with Adamma Ebo’s Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. with Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown in person in August; a September sneak peek of Andrew Dominik’s Blonde, with Hair and Makeup Department Heads Jaime Leigh McIntosh and Tina Roesler Kerwin in attendance; in October, a tribute to Gina Prince-Bythewood with a screening of The Woman King with composer Terence Blanchard presenting the award to Gina, as well as a screening of Charlotte Wells’s debut feature Aftersun featuring the director herself in person; and in November, we celebrated SF Honors with Guillermo del Toro and his newest feature, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio at the Dolby Theater.
All of this was rounded out by Doc Stories—our documentary showcase of some of the year’s finest works, including the world premiere of Marina Zenovich’s Jerry Brown: The Disruptor; Laura Poitras’ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed; Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli’s Lakota Nation vs. United States; Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes; and Chris Smith’s Sr., which was produced by its subject’s son: Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Vogue Theatre at SFFILM Doc Stories
Vogue Theatre at SFFILM Doc Stories
Vogue Theatre at SFFILM Doc Stories
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Marina Zenovich at SFFILM Doc Stories
Marina Zenovich at SFFILM Doc Stories
Marina Zenovich at SFFILM Doc Stories
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Governor Jerry Brown at SFFILM Doc Stories
Governor Jerry Brown at SFFILM Doc Stories
Governor Jerry Brown at SFFILM Doc Stories
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Shaunak Sen at SFFILM Doc Stories
Shaunak Sen at SFFILM Doc Stories
Shaunak Sen at SFFILM Doc Stories
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Laura Poitras at SFFILM Doc Stories
Laura Poitras at SFFILM Doc Stories
Laura Poitras at SFFILM Doc Stories
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Lakota Nation Vs United States Filmmakers at SFFILM Doc Stories
Lakota Nation Vs United States Filmmakers at SFFILM Doc Stories
Lakota Nation Vs United States Filmmakers at SFFILM Doc Stories
As awards season neared, we hosted SFFILM Awards Night, which honored four of contemporary cinema’s greatest talents. This year’s awardees were:
Ryan Coogler (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) — Irving M. Levin Award for Directing
Sarah Polley (Women Talking) — SFFILM Award for Storytelling
Margot Robbie (Babylon) — Maria Manetti Shrem Award for Acting
Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once) — George Gund III Award
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Joan Chen
Joan Chen
Joan Chen
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Stephanie Hsu
Stephanie Hsu
Stephanie Hsu
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Danai Gurira
Danai Gurira
Danai Gurira
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Danai Gurira and Ryan Coogler
Danai Gurira and Ryan Coogler
Danai Gurira and Ryan Coogler
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Margot Robbie and Diego Calva
Margot Robbie and Diego Calva
Margot Robbie and Diego Calva
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Tommy Lau
Jessica Fairbanks, Sarah Polley, Mariecar Mendoza, and Anne Lai
Jessica Fairbanks, Sarah Polley, Mariecar Mendoza, and Anne Lai
SFFILM Director of Programming Jessica Fairbanks, Sarah Polley, Mariecar Mendoza, and SFFILM Executive Director Anne Lai
SFFILM Makers at a Glance
After many years spent in the Presidio and Chinatown, SFFILM staff took time this year to really settle into our new headquarters in SoMa. In doing so, we reopened a space for FilmHouse, our community hub that provides Bay Area-based documentary and narrative filmmakers with artistic guidance, office space, a vibrant creative community, and support from established film industry professionals. We were thrilled to welcome filmmakers back to an in-personal, communal gathering space.
In 2022, we also provided funding and artist development support to independent filmmakers through several annual grants. In partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, SFFILM awarded $450,000 in grants to 18 narrative feature projects in various stages of production in the latest round of the SFFILM Rainin Grant program. While you can read about the projects in full, recipients included:
Rowdy By Nature | Morningstar Angeline, writer/director
Ruby: Portrait of a Black Teen in an American Suburb | Raven Johnson, writer/director
Santa Anita | David Liu, writer/director + Xin Li, producer
Signs Preceding the End of the World | Joie Estrella Horwitz, writer/director; Luis Gutiérrez Arias, writer/director; Kindred Spirit, producer + Bahìa Colectiva, producer
The President’s Cake | Hasan Hadi, writer/director
The Stud | Matthew Puccini, writer/director
Tokyo Forever | Andres Piñeros, writer/director; Federico Piñeros, producer + John Chaparro, producer
Uncle Hiep’s Casino | Richard Van, writer/director + Betty Hu, producer
Welcome to Roswell | StormMiguel Florez, writer/director/producer
Where Is the Healer? | Tebogo Malebogo, writer/director/producer + Petrus van Staden, producer
But these weren’t the only grants SFFILM provided this year. We collaborated, again, with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation for the SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities grant, awarding the funds to Sarah Granger in support of her film The Pain-Free Day. In partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation—the nation’s leading philanthropic grantor for science and the arts—SFFILM awarded filmmakers Temi Ojo (A Man with a Missing Face) and Mark Ingber (Terroir) 2022’s Sloan Science in Cinema fellowships. Our Documentary Film Fund winners will be publicly announced in January.
There was no better way to cap off a wonderful year for SFFILM Makers than with the announcement of the Sundance International Film Festival lineup. Of the 99 films that will screen at Sundance, seven of them are SFFILM-supported projects, including:
Against the Tide | Sarvnik Kaur, director/producer; Koval Bhatia, producer | SFFILM Support Received—Documentary Film Fund; SFFILM Invest | Appearing In—International Documentary Competition
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt | Raven Jackson, writer/director; Maria Altamirano, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, producers | SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant; SFFILM Westridge Grant | Appearing In—U.S. Dramatic Competition
Fancy Dance | Erica Tremblay, writer/director/producer; Miciana Alise, writer | SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant | Appearing In—U.S. Dramatic Competition
Fremont | Babak Jalali, writer/director; Marjaneh Moghimi, producer; George Rush, producer | SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant | Appearing In—Next
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project | Joe Brewster, co-director/producer; Michéle Stephenson, co-director/producer | SFFILM Support Received—Documentary Film Fund; SFFILM Invest | Appearing In—U.S. Documentary Competition
Going Varsity in Mariachi | Alejandra Vasquez, director; Sam Osborn, director; Julia Pontecorvo, producer; James Lawler, producer; Luis Miranda, producer | SFFILM Support Received—Documentary Film Fund | Appearing In—U.S. Documentary Competition
The Tuba Thieves | Allison O’Daniel, director/producer; Rachel Nederveld, Wendy Ettinger, Maida Lynn, Su Kim, Maya E. Rudolph, producers | SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant | Appearing In—Next
SFFILM Education, In Brief
Our Education team ensures that filmmaking and film literacy are more accessible to the Bay Area’s youngest movie fans. The annual Schools at the Festival program, which took place at the 65th San Francisco International Film Festival, is just one example of this vital outreach; in connecting the Bay Area community and schools with the Festival, students of all ages can be inspired, moved, and connected to stories from around the world.
SFFILM’s Director of Education Keith Zwölfer said, “It’s been an extremely difficult two years for parents, students, and teachers. We were fortunate to be able to implement online resources and still provide meaningful and impactful experiences, but our passion truly lives in the impact we achieve through in-person educational events. So, it was fantastic to be able to bring school groups back in 2022. Nothing compares to seeing and hearing hundreds of students reacting to world class cinema in a theater with their peers. The silver lining of the pandemic is that we’ve learned to utilize online programming to supplement our in-person offerings, providing a level of accessibility we didn’t have previously for the Bay Area while also allowing us to expand our reach throughout the country and internationally.”
This year’s program reached 11,000 students and teachers for 19 in-person and online screenings and 24 school visits. Along with our Bay Area participants, we also had school groups from 14 states—as well as the UK and Canada—who viewed our online offerings.
When it comes to hands-on experiences, our annual Youth Filmmaker Camp allows participants to learn from local professionals, and then take what they learn and apply it to their own short narrative films. This year, 38 campers learned about screenwriting, filming, and editing over each of the camp’s two-week sessions. SFFILM provided 20 full scholarships ($1000) and one partial scholarship ($600). In addition to our in-house educators, Bay Area filmmakers Trevor Jiminez, Morgan Mathews, Joshua Pausanos, Ashley Valenzuela, Kar Yin Tham, Kein Wong, and Jim LeBrecht all provided campers with invaluable insight, too.
Other events throughout the year included a family screening of Turning Red, with Oscar-winning director Domee Shi (Bao) and production designer Rona Liu (Kitbull) in attendance. The screening had roughly 600 attendees, making it a wonderful way to welcome families back to in-person movie-going. In the fall, over 800 people attended the world premiere of ONI: Thunder God’s Tale, a 3D stop-motion hybrid animated fantasy series created by Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi (Dam Keeper).
A few weeks later, SFFILM made Doc Stories more accessible to students with Education’s first in-person iteration of Schools at Doc Stories. Across nine in-person and online screenings, and one in-person school visit, we served 4,772 students and teachers. School groups from 12 states as well as the UK also tuned in, building on our resolve to make film education more accessible and equitable to all students.
Throughout Doc Stories weekend, Disney Legend and long-time animator Floyd Norman (The Jungle Book, 1967) and Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfoot (The Queen of Basketball) of Breakwater Studios both stopped by to speak with young film lovers. To close out Schools at Doc Stories we held online Q&A sessions with filmmakers, which were attended by 3,400 K–12 students.
To close out a successful 2022, Youth Residency sessions will be held at FilmHouse (and virtually) in the coming weeks.
SFFILM 2023: What’s Ahead?
As we look ahead to a fresh year of exhibitions, artist development initiatives, and educational programming, the whole SFFILM team is motivated to continue our organization’s essential work. Make sure to save the date for the 2023 of the San Francisco International Film Festival, which will be held April 13–23. Until then, we will see you at the movies.
Stay In Touch With SFFILM
SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM works hard to bring the most exciting films and filmmakers to Bay Area movie lovers. To be the first to know what’s coming, sign up for our email alerts and watch your inbox.
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