Jan 23, 2014
Artist Development
The San Francisco Film Society has announced that Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva will be in San Francisco February 14-28 for the Film Society’s seventh Artist in Residence program. Silva’s packed two-week schedule will include programs in each of the Film Society’s core areas: education, exhibition and filmmaker services, including visits to Bay Area high school and college classrooms, a screening of his film Magic Magic (February 20), an artist talk (February 25) and various networking events with the local film community. The winter 2014 Artist in Residence program is made possible by a grant from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and is presented in partnership with Compound.
“After meeting with Sebastián last spring while he was here for the San Francisco International Film Festival with his film Crystal Fairy, we knew we wanted to invite him back to spend more time with us in the Artist in Residence program,” said SFFS Director of Education Joanne Parsont. “He has already expressed great enthusiasm for the opportunity to engage with the educational community to show and talk about his work, and the Bay Area filmmaking community is equally eager to connect with him, so it promises to be another inspiring and exciting residency.”
For complete Artist in Residence information visit sffs.org/Education/Artist-in-Residence.
Sebastián Silva was born in Santiago, Chile in 1979. He studied filmmaking at the Escuela de Cine de Chile in Santiago and English at McGill University in Montreal, while pursuing his career as an artist and musician. His first feature film, Life Kills Me (La Vida Me Mata), was released in 2008, followed by The Maid in 2009, which won the World Cinema Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2010 Golden Globes Awards. Silva returned to Sundance in 2013 to premiere two new films, Magic Magic and Crystal Fairy (SFIFF 2013), where he won the World Cinema Directing Award (Dramatic) for Crystal Fairy. He is currently in post-production on his latest feature, Nasty Baby, to be released in 2014.
Magic Magic (Chile 2012, 97 min.), Silva’s gripping psychological thriller starring Juno Temple, Michael Cera and Emily Browning, will be screened Thursday, February 20 at 7:00 pm at Landmarks’ Clay Theatre (2261 Fillmore Street). The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker. Tickets are $10 for SFFS members, $12 general, $11 for students and persons with disabilities. Box office now open online at sffs.org.
About Magic Magic:
If Alicia could just get some sleep, everything would be all right. As she and her cousin Sarah make their way through rural Chile with Sarah’s boyfriend, his sister, and their strange American friend Brink, Alicia’s insomnia slowly takes control. The difference between what is happening in reality and what is happening in her own mind becomes less and less clear to her. After she takes a stab at hypnosis to help solve the problem, things only get worse. As her waking nightmare continues, will her “friends” be her salvation or her downfall? Writer/director Sebastián Silva crafts an unsettling film that examines sexual repression and the fear of loss. With vivid characters in conflict, evocative landscapes, and Christopher Doyle and Glenn Kaplan’s fluid cinematography, Silva shows how the smallest choices we make can have significant and insurmountable consequences. -Mike Plante, Sundance Film Festival
Silva will also participate in an intimate artist talk Tuesday, February 25, 5:00 pm at FilmHouse (1426 Fillmore Street), in which he will discuss the evolution of his filmmaking style, his experiences working with actors and how being an actor himself has influenced his work as a director, among other subjects. This event is free and open to the public. To reserve a seat, visit sffs.org.
Visiting artists are selected based on their filmmaking experience, compelling body of work and desire to share their knowledge with emerging filmmakers and film students. Under the auspices of the Film Society’s Education department, Silva is scheduled to visit several high school and college classes during his residency. SFFS artists in residence typically make around 6-8 school visits during their time in San Francisco, reaching a total of up to 400 students. In collaboration with Filmmaker360, the Film Society’s filmmaker services program, Silva will also have the opportunity to meet and network with Bay Area filmmakers. A lunch discussion with SFFS FilmHouse residents, a happy hour with the broader Bay Area filmmaking community, and a private work-in-progress screening of his latest film Nasty Baby are all scheduled to take place over the course of Silva’s residency.
The previous SFFS Artists in Residence are Federico Veiroj of Uruguay, Ido Haar of Israel, Oday Rasheed of Iraq, Anna Boden of the U.S., Ashim Ahluwalia of India and Mohamed Diab of Egypt.
To request interviews or screeners contact bproctor@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.