Mar 14, 2018
Festival
San Francisco, CA — SFFILM is proud to announce that the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award will be presented to visionary experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky at the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival (April 4–17), Friday April 6, 6:00 pm at the SFMOMA Phyllis Wattis Theater. An in-depth onstage conversation with the artist will examine his unique compositional technique, the necessity for an emotional connection with the audience of his “devotional films,” and the philosophy underpinning his recent, and increasingly prolific, output. The discussion will be accompanied by a screening of four of Dorsky’s 16mm films.
“Nathaniel Dorsky presents us with a different way of experiencing film and an opportunity to reflect on the medium, the world around us, and possibly ourselves,” said SFFILM Director of Programming Rachel Rosen. “We are thrilled to be able to honor the work of this intrepid and truly original filmmaker. ”
Established in 1997, the Persistence of Vision Award each year honors the achievement of a filmmaker or institution whose main body of work is outside the realm of narrative feature filmmaking, crafting documentaries, short films, television, animated, experimental, or multiplatform work.
For more than 50 years, Nathaniel Dorsky has been illuminating minds with experimental, silent films in which light, nature, and everyday surroundings are carefully captured and combined to prismatic, alchemical effect. Though his impressive list of commercial and independent credits for film editing span generations; his primary career is as a film visionary. Based in San Francisco, Dorsky uses quotidian surroundings to create lyrical, languid 16mm silent films that speak to the wonder, universality, and ephemerality of the human experience. In his 2003 book, Devotional Cinema, he writes about film viewing with the same delicacy and intimacy he uses to create brilliance in the medium itself when he says, “In a flash, the uncanny presence of the poetic and vibrant world, ripe with mystery, stands before us.” Dorsky has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, screenings at MoMA, the Tate Modern, and Whitney Biennial, but as Max Goldberg writes in Cinema Scope, such appellations are beside the point. “Once engrossed in Dorsky’s silent cinema… the social world of reputation is suspended for the encompassing and intrinsically solitary experience of beauty.” His recent film, Elohim, was just awarded the Jean Vigo Prize for Best Director at the Punto de Vista Film Festival.
About Nathaniel Dorsky: Four Films
Four ephemeral worlds emerge in this selection of Nathaniel Dorsky films. The last months of a San Francisco drought year (2015) brought about Autumn (2016), which the filmmaker calls “a stately, but intimate, seasonal tome,” and “a celebration of the poignancy and mystery of our later years.” The Dreamer (2016), he writes, was born out of San Francisco spring’s “crisp, cool breezes, bright, warm sunlight, and a general sense of heartbreaking clarity.” In accompanying text to stills of Intimations (2015), he notes “how delicately light imbues our fleeting life.” The film Avraham (2014), he offers, was not named after-the-fact as many films are, but before shooting – and the word acted as the film’s inspiration, and determining factor.
Previous recipients of the Persistence of Vision Award include visionary artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson (2017), pioneering studio Aardman Animations (2016); documentarian Kim Longinotto (2015); filmmaker and visual artist Isaac Julien (2014); multidisciplinary artist Jem Cohen (2013); documentarian Barbara Kopple (2012); multimedia artist Matthew Barney (2011); animator Don Hertzfeldt (2010); documentarians Lourdes Portillo (2009), Errol Morris (2008) and Heddy Honigmann (2007); cinematic iconoclast Guy Maddin (2006); documentarians Adam Curtis (2005) and Jon Else (2004); experimental filmmaker Pat O’Neill (2003); Latin American cinema pioneer Fernando Birri (2002); avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger (2001); animator Faith Hubley (2000); documentarians Johan van der Keuken (1999) and Robert Frank (1998); and animator Jan Svankmajer (1997).
Tickets to Persistence of Vision Award: Nathaniel Dorsky are $13 for SFFILM members, $16 for the general public. Box office is now open online at sffilm.org for SFFILM members and opens March 16 for the general public.
For general information visit sffilm.org/festival
To request interviews or screeners, contact your Festival Press Office representative.
For photos and press materials visit sffilm.org/press
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2018 San Francisco International Film Festival
The longest-running film festival in the Americas, the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities. The 61st edition runs April 4-17 at venues across the Bay Area and features nearly 200 films and live events, 14 juried awards with close to $40,000 in cash prizes, and upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests.
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, SFFILM is a year-round organization delivering screenings and events to more than 75,000 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.
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