Mar 19, 2019
Festival
Program Features an Intimate Conversation with Madeline Anderson and a Screening of Two Short Films on April 13
San Francisco, CA — SFFILM is proud to announce that the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award will be presented to documentary filmmaker Madeline Anderson at the 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival (April 10–23), Saturday, April 13, 4:30 pm at SFMOMA. An in-depth onstage conversation with the artist, moderated by Dawn Porter, will be accompanied by a screening of two of Anderson’s short films, Integration Report 1 and I Am Somebody.
“Madeline Anderson is such a pioneer in so many arenas that it’s a crime that she and her work aren’t better known and more widely recognized,” said SFFILM Director of Programming Rachel Rosen. “We hope this program brings some well-deserved attention to this wonderful filmmaker. Her films are remarkably relevant to today’s discussions about equality and respect.”
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 multi-platform work.
Madeline Anderson is a documentary filmmaker —a producer, director, and editor—whose career has been groundbreaking in numerous ways. Anderson is credited with being the first American-born Black woman to produce and direct a televised documentary film, the first to direct and produce a syndicated television series, and the first African-American woman to join the film editors union, among other firsts. Her films are passionate and innovative records of civil and social rights activists of the ’60s from a specifically feminist perspective. The SFFILM Festival event will include a career-spanning conversation with Madeline Anderson and screening of two of her seminal non-fiction films.
About Integration Report 1 and I Am Somebody
Integration Report 1 (1960, 20 min) is a study of the struggle for racial equality in the US, focusing on events in Montgomery, Alabama, Brooklyn, New York, and Washington, DC. I Am Somebody (1970, 30 min) documents a strike called by African-American hospital workers—almost all of them women—in Charleston, South Carolina in 1969 to demand union recognition and equitable wages.
Previous recipients of the Persistence of Vision Award include experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky (2018), 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 Madeline Anderson: POV Award + Two Short Films 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 22 for the general public.
For general information visit sffilm.org/festival.
For photos and press materials visit sffilm.org/press.
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2019 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 62nd edition runs April 10–23 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 12,000 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.
This press release is available online at sffilm.org/press/releases.
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