Dedicated to the memory of that most remarkable month of May ’68 and its surrounding history in an expansive period of global unrest. The focus is on Paris as a watershed upheaval that surged forward with great optimism, only to be crushed by unyielding power. Not one to relinquish its influence easily, the United States also figures dramatically throughout. Soon to be forty years old, May ’68 is demonstrating creaky joints, age-related depression, and memory loss…definitely memory loss.
A Grin Without a Cat
PFA Collection Video
Wednesday, April 2, 7:00 pm
In 1968, revolution was in the air in Paris, Peking, Prague, and Peoria. But was it on the ground? That is the fundamental question energizing this remarkable video essay by the inimitable, satiric, and fully fomented Chris Marker. His sweeping ciné-tract is about not the proper path but the transformation achieved along the way. Chris Marker (France, 1977/1988)
La Chinoise
Friday, April 4, 9:15 pm
This Parisian cell of five young people deliberates the need for action with the language of revolution. In an almost slapstick assemblage of skits that moves Pop to agitprop, La Chinoise charts the progress of radicals veering from play at revolution to actual revolt. Jean-Luc Godard (France,’67)
The Battle of Algiers
Saturday, April 5, 6:30 pm
Just a few years after Algeria had thrown off the yoke of colonialism, Italian director Pontecorvo and company arrived in Algiers to make an unflinching replication of the struggle for independence. The black-and-white filmmaking style perfectly reproduces the spontaneity of cinema verité. Gillo Pontecorvo (Italy/Algeria, 1966)
1973
Thursday, April 10, 6:30 pm
A massacre of student protesters just before the 1968 Olympics began in Mexico City and turned the youthful optimism of a generation into disillusionment. Isordia’s aggressively stylized documentary looks at three young Mexicans born in 1973 who represent the consequence of that disappointment. Antonino Isordia (Mexico, 2005)
The Man Who Left His Will on Film
Thursday, April 10, 9:00 pm
Already enraged by the Vietnam War, anti-government demonstrations in Japan were further intensified by the renewal of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States. In 1969, agitated students took to the streets, soon repelled by implacable force. Nagisa Oshima (Japan, 1970)
The Revolutionary
Friday, April 18, 9:00 pm
While tear gas wafted through the streets of America, Hollywood stuck to its paeans to the counterculture. Fresh from Midnight Cowboy, Jon Voight is a disgruntled philosophy student changed to radical leafleteer. Paul Williams (U.S. ’70)
Queimada!
Saturday, April 19, 6:00 pm
An embattled epic is set in the mid-nineteenth century on a fictional island of Portuguese-possessed sugar plantations. Film looks at history as an unfolding of contradictory machinations. Marlon Brando plays William Walker, an agent provocateur under the employ of the British government. Gillo Pontecorvo (Italy/France, 1969)
Z
Saturday, April 19, 8:45 pm
Short on title but long on suspense, Z is both a gripping film and a political gesture. With its director Costa-Gavras in exile in France, composer Mikis Theodorakis under house-arrest in Greece, and screenwriter Jorge Semprun no longer welcome in Spain, this fictional account was a film intended to expose fascist stirrings in the country that gave birth to democracy. Costa-Gavras (France/Algeria, 1969)
La Commune (Paris, 1871)
Sunday, April 20, 1:00 pm
As France’s republican government fled to Versailles in 1870, determined workers and radical intellectuals barricaded Paris and installed La Commune in a rapturous attempt at a utopian society. Peter Watkins’s monumental and exhilarating masterwork keeps the radical spirit alive. Peter Watkins (France, 2000)
Society of the Spectacle
Wednesday, April 23, 7:30 pm
The Situationists, a political avant-garde with roots in Marxism, were visibly active in the days leading to the 1968 occupation of the Sorbonne. Guy Debord, their reigning theoretician, had published his seminal work, Society of the Spectacle, in 1967, giving the movement an all-encompassing logic. Guy Debord (France, 1973)
We’re a Happy Family: Films about Bad Parents
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
From funny to ghastly, this two-part series looks at films about dysfunctional parents. If you thought your family was bad, wait until you see these films.
Frank and Cindy
Thursday, April 3, 7:30 pm
This brutally honest documentary starts off as the portrait of a drunken, oafish has-been relegated to pulling weeds and peeing in cans in the basement. But as the story unfolds it becomes apparent that Frank isn’t the only one with issues. Filmmaker G.J. Echternkamp in person.
The Sad, The Funny & The Dark Side of Parenting
Saturday, April 19, 7:30 pm
Archivist and raconteur Dennis Nyback presents in person three rare, ultra-bizarre films about bad parents. The slapstick Mr. & Mrs. Gump (‘28) is followed by a much darker film, The Case of the Kitchen Killer (‘74), directed by a high school student. Finally, it’s the weird miserable, The Summer We Moved to Elm Street (‘66). Dennis Nyback in person.
Still Lives: The Films of Pedro Costa
Pacific Film Archive
Saturday, April 12
Portuguese director Pedro Costa is possibly the most relevant filmmaker at work today, captivating viewers with his spare, austere aesthetic, willful ambiguity and combination of documentary, avant-garde and fiction. Costa earthily portrays the immigrant marginalized communities of Lisbon’s slums.
All Blossoms Again
Saturday, April 12, 6:00 pm
Portrait of Pedro Costa follows him during the shooting and editing of Colossal Youth. This film captures Costa at work in the editing room, musing over the aesthetics, demands, and “truth” of filmmaking. Filmmaking has been idolized for too long, he insists; for him it is merely a job, a shift to put in from day to day. Aurélien Gerbault (France, 2006)
Colossal Youth
Saturday, April 12, 7:45 pm
Widely acclaimed as one of the best films of 2006, this experimental docu-fiction captures life in a Cape Verdean neighborhood of Lisbon. One of the most remarkable and mysterious city films ever made, a portrait of individuals lost in a razed urban renewal zone that’s at once utterly familiar and totally alien. (Portugal/France/Switzerland, 2006)
The Magnificent Orson Welles
April 4 - April 13
Pacific Film Archive
What can we say about Orson Welles? Citizen Kane has topped innumerable best film lists of all time, yet critics continue to debate the meaning of his illustrious career. Welles summed it up sardonically in F for Fake: “I began at the top and have been working my way down ever since.” Featured the ‘Wonder Boy’ of American theater on the cover of Time at twenty-three, he’s been a model for filmmakers ever since.
The Trial
Friday, April 4, 7:00 pm
Welles believed The Trial was the finest film he have ever made. Kafka’s Josef K (Anthony Perkins) is trapped by language; Welles makes him a prisoner of mise-en-scène, abstract anxiety translated into the vividly physical. Orson Welles (France/Italy/W. Germany/Yugoslavia, 1962)
F for Fake
Saturday, April 5, 8:50 pm
A loose network of coincidences, both actual and fictional, becomes the outline for an essay on the relationship between art and illusion, talent and fakery, stories and lies, with extra jabs at ‘experts’ as arbiters of value.Orson Welles (France/Iran/W. Germany, 1973)
The Immortal Story
Friday, April 11, 9:00 pm
The aged Mr. Clay (Welles) believes in power, not in prophecies; facts, not stories. So he decides to make an oft-repeated seafarers’ boast come true, enlisting a no-longer-young beauty (Jeanne Moreau) to play his young bride, and a virginal sailor to enact the plot and later tell the tale.
It’s All True
Sunday, April 13, 2:00 pm
Documentary excursion into the fate of Welles’s unfinished three-part film of same name, filmed in Mexico and Brazil in 1942. Following the film, Joseph McBride will speak about Welles’s unfinished films and present outtakes from It’s All True (footage from the UCLA Film & Television Archive), and clips from Don Quixote and The Other Side of the Wind.
A Colt Is My Passport
April 10 - 13
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Presented for the first time in the US, this series of super-stylized action films celebrates the golden age of Japan’s oldest and boldest film studio, Nikkatsu. Influenced by both Hollywood and French New Wave, these films show the Westernization that swept away old values, while teaching an entire generation a new Japanese meaning of cool. All films a 35mm film with new dig-subtitles. Series organized by Outcast Cinema and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
A Colt Is My Passport
Thursday, April 10, 7:30 pm
With rival gang members in pursuit, a cool-headed killer is desperate to get out of town after pulling off a hit with his partner. The film is brilliantly stylish and noir-inspired—a true undiscovered classic. Its lean direction and wind-swept, empty locales play perfectly with favorite Joe Shishido’s panache and tough-guy cool. By Takashi Nomura.
Roughneck
Friday, April 11, 7:30 pm
In this tough yakuza (Japanese gangster) film, Akira Kobayashi plays Yuji, a hoodlum who becomes involved with an ototobun (younger gang brother) trying to go straight. By Koreyoshi Kurahara.
Gangster VIP
Friday, April 11, 9:30 pm
After spending three years in prison for stabbing a hitman from a rival gang, Goro comes out disenchanted with yakuza life. By Toshio Masuda.
Red Handkerchief
Saturday, April 12, 7:30 pm
Perfect distillation of all that was Nikkatsu noir: a steely hero, a desirable and slightly dangerous woman, and an international milieu of tough guys, cops, gangsters, working-class good guys and reluctant heroes. By Toshio Masuda.
Glass Johnny: Looks Like A Beast
Saturday, April 12, 9:30 pm
Inspired by Fellini’s La Strada and a sharp departure from the Nikkatsu action norm, Glass Johnny stars Joe Shishido as a bicycle track tipster. Before he can achieve his life’s mission, he becomes the unwilling savior of a pure-hearted prostitute fleeing from her pimp. By Koreyoshi Kurahara.
The Velvet Hustler
Sunday, April 13, 7:30 pm
A pop art-colored romance between two doomed loners set amidst go-go dancing kids, tough yakuza and American soldiers on leave from the Vietnam War. By Toshio Masuda.
Pranks Film Festival
April 1-3 Roxie Theatre
Three-day celebration and tribute to the ‘Art of the Prank’ and those pranksters that have courage enough to pull them off.
http://www.pranksfilmfestival.com/
The Sonoma Valley Film Festival
April 9-13 Various Venues, Sonoma
More than 75 new films and an array of special events, including Michael Keaton tribute, live music, celebrity appearances, filmmaker Q&As, sizzling parties, and Opening Night Gala at Jacuzzi Winery. http://www.sonomafilmfest.org
San Francisco Women’s Film Festival
April 10-13 Various Venues, San Francisco
Showcasing the best in women’s cinema, SFWFF features underrepresented female voices from around the world. SFWFF offers a variety of free to low-cost screenings and educational programs led by cinema celebrities, professors, and notable film figures.
http://www.sfwff.com
Palm Beach International Film Festival
April 10-17 Palm Beach
Recently ranked by Movie Maker Magazine as one of the top 10 destination film festivals in the world an attendance of over 40,000. Annually, filmmakers selected have the opportunity to receive acknowledgment in such categories as Best Picture, Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Actor/Actress, Best Short Film, and Audience Favorite.
http://www.pbifilmfest.org
Alice’s 3-Minute Film Festival
April 11 Bimbo’s 365 Club, SF
Evening showcases up to 20 short films, culminating in an award show offering over $10,000 in cash and prizes, extensive radio exposure and more. Final judging by an esteemed jury (from Pixar, FAF, SFIFF, ILM, and BA VC) while films are shown.
http://www.radioalice.com
San Francisco International Film Festival
April 24-May 8 Various Venues, SF
Visionary since 1957, the SFIFF presents an energetic medley of the artistry and innovation of the world’s most imaginative storytellers. The Film Society Directing Award goes this year to Mike Leigh (the uncompromising English film and theater director, screenwriter and playwright) who will be on the Castro Theatre stage April 30. SFIFF hosts nearly 80,000 film lovers and hundreds of filmmakers, journalists and industry professionals having a blast.
http://www.sffs.org
San Francisco Frozen Film Festival
July San Francisco
The festival itself is a celebration of razor’s edge independent films and bands, including live music concerts, short films, animation, global features, long and short documentaries, skate films, music documentaries, and music videos. The SFFF takes place in the dead of summer, when San Francisco is at its most chill.
http://www.frozenfilmfestival.com
San Joaquin Film Festival
June 4 - 8 Stockton
The First San Joaquin Film Festival will be a global festival. The Stockton-San Joaquin region was a major filming destination and known in the 60s as ‘Hollywood North.’ Call for Entries is for all filmmakers, local, national, international.
http://www.festivalfocus.org/external.php?uid=813
Edinburgh International Film Festival
June 18 – 29 Edinburgh
The world’s longest continually-running film festival, the EIFF is a true home to innovative and exciting cinema. For over a half-century, the Festival has presented some of cinema’s most important and exciting moments, playing host to the world’s greatest filmmakers.
Deadline: April 2
http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk
Melbourne International Film Festival
July 25 – August 10 Australia
A 19-day feast of cinematic delicacies from over 50 countries: features, shorts, documentaries, animations, experimental works, and music videos. Deadline: Features April 4.
http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au
Munich Film Festival
June 20 – 28 Munich, Germany
Filmfest München stands for hot movies, film discoveries of the most compelling and delightful kind, and a laid back yet productive atmosphere. Germany’s largest and most important summer festival screens the best new films from around the world on 15 screens along Munich’s Movie Mile.
Deadline: April 15
http://www.filmfest-muenchen.de
Odense Film Festival
August 19 - 24 Denmark
Odense screens international and Danish short fiction and documentaries (short and feature length). Founded in 1975, the festival is Denmark’s oldest, and the largest short film festival. http://www.filmfestival.dk
Celebration of Shorts
May 24-25 New Britain, CT
The competition is open to any film or video completed after September 1, 2005, regardless of content, subject or origin. No premiere requirements. Projects may have distribution.
Deadline: Aug. 15
http://www.celebrationofshorts.com
Brooklyn International Film Festival
May 30 - June 8 Brooklyn, NY
Competitive festival for independent filmmakers, held annually since 1997. Award $80,000 in film services, products and cash. Categories: Features, Shorts, Docs, Experimental, Animation. Deadline: Feb. 15
http://www.wbff.org
Woods Hole Film Festival
July 26 - August 2 Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Special slots specifically for New England and first-time filmmakers. 8 days, over 100 films, and special events such as annual filmmaker brunch, workshops, filmmaker panels, celebrity guest filmmaker events, and parties with audience awards in various categories.
Deadline: May 1, 2008
http://www.woodsholefilmfestival.org