Jul 3, 2017
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 already robust slate of titles on the service, and are available to stream as of July 1. New international features will be added each month.
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 JULY 1
Alps
Yorgos Lanthimos (Greece/France 2011, 93 min)
Stepping outside of the manor into urban terrain, the audacious director behind Dogtooth and The Lobster presents a tragicomedy about a tightly knit group that specializes in impersonating the recently deceased. You’ll never look at tennis or rhythmic gymnastics—or modern life and grief counseling-the same way again.
As I Open My Eyes
Leyla Bouzid (France/Tunisia/Belgium/UAE 2015, 102 min)
Her family assumes that Farah, a high-achieving student in Tunis, will continue her studies, but she just wants to sing. When her mom hears that she’s performing politically provocative material with a group of male friends, a powerful story unfolds of female independence that stands in the face of conservative Muslim beliefs.
The Forbidden Room
Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson (Canada 2015, 131 min)
A riot of two-strip Technicolor and “lost” film fragments erupts in The Forbidden Room with subplots including doomed submariners fighting to survive, a woodsman coming to a damsel’s rescue, a volcano’s dream and more that coalesce into a hallucinatory evocation of that moment when silent film coexisted with nascent sound. Guy Maddin’s most ambitious work yet is a fever dream of his obsession with melodrama and early cinema, gorgeously and humorously rendered.
How to Smell a Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock in Normandy
Les Blank, Gina Leibrecht (USA 2014, 65 min)
Filmmakers Les Blank and Richard Leacock were stubborn iconoclasts and kindred spirits. This disarming portrait captures Leacock’s wisdom and wit through conversations in his Normandy farmhouse and honors an intuitive, artful approach to nonfiction filmmaking.
In Another Country
Hong Sang-soo (South Korea 2012, 89 min)
Legendary French actress Isabelle Huppert stars in the first English-language film from South Korean master Hong Sang-soo, “the love child Antonioni and Hou Hsiao-hsien never had” (Village Voice). In a triptych of overlapping stories, three different French women (a filmmaker, an adulterer and a divorcee—Huppert, Huppert and…Huppert) visit a small Korean resort town and encounter a flirtatious director, a lovestruck lifeguard and far too much soju.
For general information visit sffilm.org
To request interviews or screeners, contact bproctor@sffilm.org
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 champions 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 nonprofit organization delivering screenings and events to more than 100,000 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. For more information visit sffilm.org.
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