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Mill Valley Film Fest Keeps Evolving by Tom Mayer
Stevie Nicks and Dave Stewart arrive on the red carpet at the 2012 Mill Valley Film Festival, greeted by its founder and director Mark Fishkin. photo: Lori Glasser
OF ALL THE BAY AREA FILM FESTIVALS,
the Mill Valley Film Festival has been consistently the strongest in "pushing itself forward," with every passing year (now on its 36th), to include a wider variety of major films from around the world. Due to the star power available in Marin and SF, the list of films, guest stars and tributes this year is broader, wider, and stronger than ever before.
In MVFF 36, Ben Stiller, Geoffrey Rush, Dakota Fanning, Sean Penn, Jared Leto, Bruce Dern and Andy Garcia lead the list of top names bringing Hollywood to Marin County during the 11 days of the festival, which runs from October 3rd to the 13th in Mill Valley and San Rafael.
This year's festival includes 68 film premieres, of which 40 are world, U.S., or North American premieres.
"These films aren't playing a lot of places," said festival founder and director Mark Fishkin. "We're fortunate to have them."
Dern, star of "Coming Home" in 1978, will appear with the opening night film, "Nebraska" along with co-star Will Forte. Dern, who was nominated for an Academy Award in 1978, stars as an abusive father in the movie, directed by Alexander Payne ("Sideways" 2004, "The Descendants" 2011).
Stiller will introduce the closing night movie, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", based on the famous James Thurber story, which Stiller both stars in and directs. Making his first visit to the festival, Stiller will appear at screenings at the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael and the CineArts@Sequoia in Mill Valley. He will be interviewed onstage at the Rafael and presented with a MVFF award.
"He's a huge star, but people forget what a talented director he is," Fishkin said, noting that Stiller has directed films such as "Reality Bites" (1994), "Zoolander" (2001) and "Tropic Thunder" (2008).
Rush, one of a handful of stars to sweep the trifecta of acting — Oscar, Tony, and Emmy, will be a guest at the world premiere of the second opening night movie, "The Book Thief", a drama about the power of literature set in Nazi Germany in 1938. Rush, last in Mill Valley in 1994 when he won the Academy Award for "Shine", will be accompanied by young co-star, Sophie Nelisse, and director Brian Percival, an Emmy Award winner for directing the PBS hit "Downton Abbey".
"This film has never been shown before," Fishkin said. "They're rushing to finish it."
Leto and Fanning will be honored with screenings the festival calls "spotlight" presentations. In "Dallas Buyers Club", based on a true story, Leto plays a transsexual woman turned AIDS med-smuggler opposite Matthew McConaughey, As widely reported, Leto lost 50 pounds for his role as an anti-gay turned accidental AIDS activist.
"Both of these roles were physically demanding and intense," Fishkin said.
Fanning, a former child star who is now 19, stars in "Effie Gray" playing the title role of the underage bride of scandalous Victorian era art critic John Ruskin. When she was 14, Fanning was at MVFF in 2008 for "The Secret Life of Bees".
"This film is her first leading role as an role," Fishkin said, noting that his film is also based on real events.
Garcia and co-star Vera Farmiga will be at the festival for the premiere of "At Middleton", playing parents who meet while their kids are on a college admissions tour.
Former Marin resident Sean Penn joins directors Don Hardy and Dana Nachman for the world premiere of "The Human Experiment", a new documentary Penn narrates about the dangers, similar to the tobacco industry of old, of an unregulated chemical industry.
On October 5, MVFF will honor French director Costa-Gavras with a tribute and on-stage interview by Peter Coyote. It will be followed by a screening of the new Costa-Gavras film "Le Capital".
"At 80 years old, with films such as 'Z' [1967], 'Missing' [1982] and 'State of Siege' [1972], he's a major international figure," Fishkin said.
British director Steve McQueen and actor Chiwetel Ejiofor will be presented with MVFF awards for "12 Years a Slave". Their new feature, which has received tremendous buzz, is a true story of a free black man in 19th century US who is abducted and sold.
The festival's long history of live music presentations along with films about music continues this year with the US premiere of "The Invisible Lighthouse", the first film directed by musician and songwriter Thomas Dolby ("She Blinded Me with Science", 1981). At the screening, Dolby will play the film score live with Grammy winner Don Was, film composer Marck Isham, cellist Zoe Keating, famed singer-songwriter Dan Hicks, and Grammy winner Narada Michael Walden.
Former Mill Valley resident Mike Bloomfield's music career was tragically cut short with his death in 1981. His story is the subject of the new documentary "Sweet Blues: A Film About Mike Bloomfield" by director Bob Sarles and Christina Keating. A concert at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley honoring Bloomfield will feature Conan O'Brien, Barry Goldberg of Electric Flag fame, music director Jimmy Vivino, and bluesman and former Bloomfield cohort Nick Gravenites.
As in previous years of MVFF, local Village Music owner John Goddard hosts the popular "Hi De Ho Show", this time showing videos celebrating the 50th anniversary of the "British Invasion".
A documentary about Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz, "This Ain't No Mouse Music", will be followed by a concert at Sweetwater Music Hall hosted by critic Joel Selvin and featuring Eric and Suzy Thompson, Los Cenzontles, and Creole Belles.
Films by SF Bay Area filmmakers also include "Toxic Hot Seat", an expose of toxic flame retardants by Fairfax filmmaker Jamie Redford; "In the Cobbler's Shoes", a documentary by director David Marks about Mill Valley shoe repairman Misak Pirinjian; and David L. Brown's "Keeper of the Beat: A Woman's Journey Into the Heart of Drumming" about 67-year-old Marin drummer Barbara Borden.
Other local films of interest are "The New Environmentalists" by Marin's Will Parinello, John Antonelli, and Tom Dusenbery; "Return of the Jedi" by Richard Marquand of Nicasio; "Greed", by San Anselmo director Liam Hughes; "Naples Yellow" by director Tylor Norwood, also of San Anselmo; "Laugh Clown Laugh" and "Yukon Kings" by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee of San Rafael; "John Brown's Body at San Quentin Prison" by Joe De Francesco of Bernal Heights in SF; "Unfair Game: The Politics of Poaching" by John Antonelli and Mill Valley Film Group, and "Hans" by director Harris Cohen of Tiburon.
More info and tickets online at mvff.com. Posted on Sep 12, 2013 - 12:41 AM