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Is the Bay Area Over-Festivaled?
by Doniphan Blair
Tom Mayer back in the day (around 1982). photo: courtesy T. MayerRoxie-founder and film activist Tom Mayer has followed the explosion of film festivals with enthusiasm but he feels it may have gone too far. With the shakedown in distribution, publicity and display, the festival process may also warrant reappraisal, he says.
Mayer has had some troubles of late—friends dying, his younger brother, only 57, has inoperable cancer, work issues—but he remains upbeat due to his religion—film. A life-long obsession, it started with his media degree at Boston University and it blossomed when he cofounded the Mission District's colorful Roxie Theater in 1976.
From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and one eighth Jewish (on father’s side, hence not Jewish), Mayer likes to say his name is "like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer," although he has yet to unearth a connection. But he carries the tradition on today valiantly as a gadfly, advocate and reviewer.
“I went to the Roxie one day and the concession guy didn’t show up, so I volunteered,” said Mayer, referring to 1976, when Roxie was a porn theater, and he and his friends took it over in a matter of months.
Mayer was reminiscenceing with relish and eating with gusto, since we were breaking—well, bending pita—bread at a Middle Eastern joint in San Francisco’s Castro.
“We got a sublease—Robert Evans, a guy named Dick Gaikowski—who died of lung cancer about ten years ago—and Peter Moore, who is now married to Anita Monga [the director of the Silent Film Festival]. We had almost zero investment. The owner just thought it was a way to keep it going since porno was declining.”
He co-ran Roxie for eight years but he has continued to campaign, lobby and even testify on all things cinema, including a presentation to former Mayor Gavin Newsom about the rapid disappearance of single-screen theaters.
And Mayer can be seen, literally in the lobby of a theater near you, buttonholing a reviewer, cajoling a recalcitrant viewer, but also inquiring the opinions of others. He is a very friendly fellow.
Mayer has attended lots and lots of film festivals. Both because he loved doing so AND because in San Francisco you simply have to since there are so damn many! We counted 60: see CineSource Festival List.
As we enter the festival season, Mayer has been studying the situation. Indeed, we started there.
Tom Mayer in front of the Roxie around when they premiered the reissue of Dali-Buñuel's 'L'Age D'Or'. photo: courtesy T. MayerTom Mayer: It’s off the charts. I just counted over 40 [before the list, compiled with Mayer's help, was finalized] but is it sustainable? My feeling about a lot of the festivals is—the Jewish, the gay, the Asian American—guess what? Mainstream films are taking over all these specialty stories.
I am not saying it is perfect—that there is no racism, no anti-Semitism, no anti-gay attitude—but the need for these festivals is starting to soften. It is a mainstreaming thing. Over time you are going to wear down the need.
I am not saying you shouldn’t have festivals but the idea of doing ten-day festivals, two-week festivals may not be viable. The economy and the difficulty of getting grants is hurting nonprofits, especially the way things are going with the economy here—in the middle of a recession, rents are up 15%!
Is the number of festivals in San Francisco the most in the world?
Over 40, it’s unbelievable. New York has a lot of festivals but if you included everything here—like CineQuest in San Jose—you practically have something every week. The International is two weeks, the gay is ten days—they begin to overlap.
For a while there were two German festivals, German Gems and the main one by the Goethe Institute, Berlin and Beyond. It was run by a young guy from Cambodia, Sophoan Sorn, a great story, he came out of Stockton. They had great films and great publicity but the attendance was way down.
CineSource: The Jewish Festival here was the first in the world—
Started at the Roxie in 1980—but just for that first year. The International was founded in 1957 and says it's the oldest in the Americas. San Francisco’s LGBT Festival [known as Frameline although Mayer prefers the simpler Gay Festival] is the biggest gay-themed event in the state of California, maybe in the US or the world—as far as attendance.
But are we over-festivaled?
I think so.
Do we need attrition in the number of festivals or just the number of days?
Although Meyer started out slow, sizing up his interlocutor, he was soon spilling the beans but some of the best dish had to be redacted in post. photo: D. BlairI think both. No one is going to give anything up because they have their own agenda. I am just saying some of them—the Bicycle Film Festival, the Ocean Film Festival, the Green Film Festival, the Latino Festival—will have to go—or merge... unless the economy and funding come back to previous levels.
The Latino used to be alright but it is greatly diminished.
A new group took it over, so it might improve.
For example: Beside the main stream Asian festival [called CAAM, Center for Asian American Media], which comes in February, you’ve got the Four Star [Theater] which does a sort of second Asian festival, martial arts and Hong Kong films mostly. The Kung Fu folks could say, ‘We have our own audience and we don’t care about the fancy-shmancy stuff CAAM is showing at the Kabuki.’ [laughs]
Then there is the 3rd i, which is South Asian—I don’t know what that the ‘I’s stand’s for—and is also good. Deepak Chopra’s son, Gotham, came to present a movie and I interviewed him.
This is in no way disparages or minimizes the work the festivals are doing—which is great. In my opinion, however, they are sometimes cannibalizing each other’s audiences.
Yes, some audiences are completely separate and the audiences in San Francisco are diverse and love to go to film festivals. But, at some point, if you stretch out to ten days, if you don’t have great films every night—your audience becomes burned out.
The perception is: You are filling in with marginal work which doesn’t have a lot interest. In the Gay Festival [Frameline], there has been griping that there is little gay content in certain films—which to me is silly but that is the kind of comment people make.
I am just saying: your brand begins to weaken. Stick to your core themes and to five to seven days. Make it more quality and you will get new audiences with younger people. Keep refreshing it.
Ironically, Frameline wanted to acquire their own theater in the ‘90s but they are still showing at the Castro, Roxie and the Victoria every year for at least the last fifteen—they started in ’77.
The waiters seemed to know Tom and kept us plied with pita and tea. photo: D. BlairThe SF International is the granddaddy. They might be the one it is worth keeping at two weeks but I think every one else should cut back a bit.
Why would you say so many festivals got going here?
The lively film scene. You just have a huge creative ferment plus diversity: the gay, the Jewish, African American, Latino, Asian communities. And you can’t just have an insular film buff scene. It has to be spread out, a cultural interest in jazz, classical music or other things.
Why is it so important to have film festivals?
Even in this day and age, when you’ve got DVDs and Blu-rays, films have to be acquired by a US distributor to be shown. That is the main reason [for film festivals], to generate buzz. If there is a good response at the festival, it is picked up for distribution. People are not going to put money into it unless they think they can get their money back.
The film reviewing is also important: it affects the publicity, which affects the distribution, which affects the exhibition. Even that is getting cut back.
The San Francisco Chronicle used to have a lot of film writers, now it has Mick LaSalle and a couple of staff writers. The Bay Guardian has one main guy, Dennis Harvey, who also writes for Variety. The SF Weekly has one main guy.
By the way, they are now owned by the same people [the San Francisco Newspaper Company], which also owns the Examiner, although they claim they’ll keep their editorial staff separate.
I think this is a tough time. There has been a breakdown in exhibition, distribution and publicity. The whole publicity machine is changing—press screenings replaced by online streaming to provide film reviewers with advance screenings, and so forth.
That is precisely why, despite the film experts, the reviewers, the distributors, if it is not shown to an audience at a festival, and [the distributers] don’t see a couple of laughs or tears then forget it?
Although Tom can get on his high horse and wax over the top, he sweetly inquired about the interviewer's affairs and family. photo: D. BlairRight. Noir City—that is coming up in ten days at the Castro—is a good example. They are run by this non-profit, Film Noir Foundation. When they get money from admissions, major grants from national foundations, they put that into getting the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the major studios to cough up a print and restore it, with eventual release on DVD and Blu-ray.
So the Noir Festival is a perfect example of how important a festival is: generating interest, creating funding, producing new work?
Right. Of course, Frameline and the Jewish also do that[, generate some restoration,] and of course the Silent, but the Noir is the premier example.
You also believe celebrities are important? Big opening night films?
Right, right.
And the parties which Jeff Ross from the Indie Fest specializes in?
Yes. The Indie Fest is doing opening night, parties— which are off site, you have to go to the women’s building and Brava Theater—as well as films you won’t see anywhere else. He even has a roller disco party!
And two days before the Indie Festival—which starts next week—they are doing their Super Bowl party—called ‘Men in Tights’—live on the big screen at the Roxie. That is one of Jeff’s specialties, which I think is interesting. They also do it for the Oscars, of course.
They have to do all these things to make money. You have to diversify your material to get a broader audience. Everyone does those things. The Asian American will have a big opening night at the Asian Art Museum.
That is great but every year? Can you top this? It has to be a bigger splash.
The International held their own during the recession but apparently some of the other festivals didn’t do too well.
Last year was the International’s biggest year. Berlin and Beyond was one that was sagging. For the first time ever, it had nights at the smaller screen at the Goethe Institute. They made a decision due to sagging attendance the previous years.
A previous Castro manager said to me that when they have a festival, they get a certain flat fee for the day and they are happy to have that business. But they had put pressure on Berlin and Beyond to stick to their smaller screen for two days. They took Monday and Tuesday out, where the Castro stayed closed right in the middle of the festival, which was rare for a festival.
Of course, certain films are better for the smaller screen at the Goethe [Institute]. I saw one, a documentary about Albert Hoffman who created LSD in Switzerland—excellent.
Any new festivals you find compelling?
The Green Festival is in its second or third year, run by Rachel Kaplan, who used to be with the International. I would say what they are doing is the most interesting. They have had some good events, and they spread out to give the impression of a bigger festival. You can say it is environmental but they make it bigger then that.
It struck me there is no hippie or beatnik film festival.
A lot of books have been written about it and it lingers on the fringes. Every festival is going have a film about the historical heydays of SF but you couldn’t make a festival out it.
If we don’t need a hippie festival, what festival do we need?
I think a lot of the bases are covered and we would be hard pressed to add another. With 40 or so festivals, that is an ridiculous number, although some are only one or two days at the Victoria [Theater in the Mission].
A friend of mine started the Transbay, or Transmedia, Festival to highlight alternative media and platforms.
How about the Disposable Film Festival? That was a good one. [laughs] Carlton Evans and Eric Slatkin started it, shows features shot on cell phones, still going strong.
And the Black Film Festival?
There was the gay black festival. The SF Black Film Festival is now in its 15th year, I don't know if the Black Gay Film Festival is still going.
Ave Montague, the woman from the Black Film Festival, died in 2009 but her son took it over.
I was shocked and saddened to hear about her death—she wasn’t old. Last year, it appeared at the same time as the Gay Festival and there was a little bit of an issue.
I guess they need some sort of clearing house. With 40 festivals, you can’t have one festival with out it conflicting with another.
From the middle of November to the Middle of January—from Berlin and Beyond is in October to Noir City in January—is a two-month stretch over the holidays that no one will have a festival. So you have 40 crammed into the ten months of the year—no wonder they step on each other’s toes.
So nothing more comes to mind? How about an old people’s festival
There is a one that comes to mind, cosponsored by a lady I met. It is not just an old people’s festival. Ah yes, [laughs] the Legacy Film Festival on Aging, co-sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. This year it will be held at the Coppola Theater at SF State.
And few flame out. The Sonoma festival was mismanaged and looking like it was going down but last year I heard they did well.
Yes, I didn’t go but I get their information as well as from Tiburon.
Those festivals are different then big city festivals. Every little town needs a festival like that. It is their carnival, when they can strut their stuff, bring out the celebrities, have gala events. It certainly helps the restaurants. That sort of festival is essential. But to have them you need nice theaters.
The festivals are all competing for the best venues. If you can’t find a theater on short notice the Victoria is always there, although they mostly do live material.
Gavin Newsom, when he was Supervisor, held two hearings in 2000, about the future of single-screen movie theaters. I have a presentation. Sorry to say, those hearings had little impact and lots closed.
The SF Neighborhood Theater Foundation bought the Vogue and the Balboa, and helped Frank and Lila Lee, owners of the 4 Star, to reopen two theaters on Chestnut Street.
But many other theaters in SF have closed since 2000. The Bridge just closed and the Lumiere closed six months ago. Landmark is down to the Embarcadero, the Opera Plaza and the Clay. The New People Cinema is a beautiful single screen in Japantown, a Japanese company was going to do Japanese films.
The Film Society took over for a year but their lease expired August 31. Now they are renting it on a case-by-case basis. They have these mini festivals: New Italian, New French, Cinema by the Bay, animation.
If there are all these people have money and want to go out, why can’t people make a go of the New People? I went to some screenings and they were showing some great stuff but there wasn’t a huge attendance.
So you started the Roxie in the oldest continually running theater in San Francisco?
They say 1910, I say 1912, whatever. [laughs] The Victoria Theater, which is two blocks away, that is 100%—1908—the oldest. It was continual but not with film. It was billed as a play theater or light opera and actually called Brown’s Opera House—run by [Governor] Jerry Brown’s grandfather.
The Roxie was a straight porno theater for five years, from roughly 1970-75. It had already closed by the time we got there. A Russian opera-loving group was trying to run Russian opera movies of all things! [laughs] That lasted two months.
Amazing it lasted two months.
Exactly. Then we took over. Bottom line: you didn’t have cable—only big buildings down town, you didn’t have VHS, so any old thing, you got a great audience.
Our high point was November 1979 we showed ‘L’Age d’Or’ (1930)— first legal US screening in 49 years—by Bunuel and Dali in its first legal subtitled print. We beat New York by two weeks. That was a big deal. We brought it back many times.
We did political films, documentaries, foreign stuff. We did some first run.
In 1978, Paul Schrader felt that Universal Studios was "dumping" his film ‘Blue Collar’, not giving it enough publicity, so we had him and some of the stars up from LA, and we did great business with the film. We did a lot of stuff over the years, we had the flexibility.
The only reason we had our foot in the door is, one of my—now diseased—gay business partners Robert Evans was the manager of a straight porno place and knew the old guy who was running it, um, Maury Schwarz. He died in 2008 at the age of 94, and would have been in the Olympics in 1939, but World War II intervened—at least according to his SF Chronicle obit.
Robert was a partner with filmmaker Curt McDowell, who lived with filmmaker George Kuchar before moving in with Robert. Incidentally, I appeared in a bit role as a cowboy in Curt's ‘Sparkle's Tavern,’ filmed in 1976 but not shown until 1985 at the Seattle Film Festival.
In fact. Robert was arrested once or twice just for being in the box office. Every time they would do a crack down on pornography in the Tenderloin they would push it straight to 16th and Valencia. There was three or four porno places, one is still open on Mission and 17th.
Then there was the Roxie and Victoria. They were more like old fashioned burlesque gussied up into strip shows—with 16mm porno between the acts. I went a few times. It had been the New Follies Burlesk from 1963-1978 and it suddenly closed. The rumor was the owners had left town with all the withholdings from their employees—didn’t pay them.
The Bank of America was going to tear [the Victoria] down for a parking lot. I didn’t want that nor did I want another movie theater moving in so close to the Roxie. So I made a phone call to the husband and wife who bought it, fixed it up and reopened it as a stage theater in 1979. They still own it to this day, Anita and Robert Correa. He used to teach theater at San Francisco state.
There was an anti-porno neighborhood group that sprung up to get rid of all this porno and they were thrilled to pieces when we took over the Roxie. At the same time, you had the Mission activists who said any body who moved in was a gentrifier.
30 years later Valencia Street, 16 new restaurants have opened up in the last year. There must 35 restaurants between 16th and 24th full of people who work for Google or Facebook, making a $100,000 but don’t want to live in Palo Alto. They get down by company bus.
Are these people going to the Roxie?
Hard to say. The Roxie did a big Kickstarter campaign $50,000 just last month and they even posted on their Facebook, ‘We are not closing, we are just doing a fund raiser.’
Chris Statton and his wife Kate, they started after Rod Holt and his son Allan, who took over two and a half years after New College. The college ran it 2006-08 until the whole college closed. The Stattons are trying to keep it hip and happening by showing a bunch of ultra-violent films.
They have to appeal to a younger audience but they were showing this ultra-violent Irish film over the holidays—I don’t know, I am not saying you have show ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’
I was talking to the guy who writes the film reviews for Bay Area Reporter [local gay magazine]. We both have really broad taste but we looked at the last couple of schedules of the Roxie and, frankly, it isn’t stuff we would be going to. But when they have a festival, like the Indie Fest coming up, they do great.
They started as a nonprofit in 2010, I believe. When you form a nonprofit that is great but you have to keep getting grants or going to Kickstarter to get the public to give you money. We looked into being a nonprofit, way back in the’70s and we determined it was not viable.
The major studios would perceive you in a strange way. If you are a theater doing a theatrical showing we want our cut of 20-30%. If you are a university that is a different ball of wax. Maybe it is different now.
What they need is small edgy films that people don’t get a chance to see… Korean, Iranian, French. Todd Haynes, Dogma from Denmark…
Right. Plus the Alamo Draft House, based in Austin, Texas, are taking over the New Mission [Theater on Mission and 21st].
They just got their permits and are going to reopen at the end of this year with five screens. It was a lavish old theater built by the same guy who did the Castro and the Paramount [in Oakland]. I personally think it is a good thing.
The former manager of the Castro, Bill Longen—he was a manager after Anita Monga—he is the manager. He told me that ‘No one will go to the Castro or the Roxie once the New Mission opens.’
I doubt that but I think it's a good thing for the neighborhood: we can always use more screens.
Posted on Jan 26, 2013 - 02:19 AM
by Doniphan Blair
Tom Mayer back in the day (around 1982). photo: courtesy T. MayerMayer has had some troubles of late—friends dying, his younger brother, only 57, has inoperable cancer, work issues—but he remains upbeat due to his religion—film. A life-long obsession, it started with his media degree at Boston University and it blossomed when he cofounded the Mission District's colorful Roxie Theater in 1976.
From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and one eighth Jewish (on father’s side, hence not Jewish), Mayer likes to say his name is "like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer," although he has yet to unearth a connection. But he carries the tradition on today valiantly as a gadfly, advocate and reviewer.
“I went to the Roxie one day and the concession guy didn’t show up, so I volunteered,” said Mayer, referring to 1976, when Roxie was a porn theater, and he and his friends took it over in a matter of months.
Mayer was reminiscenceing with relish and eating with gusto, since we were breaking—well, bending pita—bread at a Middle Eastern joint in San Francisco’s Castro.
“We got a sublease—Robert Evans, a guy named Dick Gaikowski—who died of lung cancer about ten years ago—and Peter Moore, who is now married to Anita Monga [the director of the Silent Film Festival]. We had almost zero investment. The owner just thought it was a way to keep it going since porno was declining.”
He co-ran Roxie for eight years but he has continued to campaign, lobby and even testify on all things cinema, including a presentation to former Mayor Gavin Newsom about the rapid disappearance of single-screen theaters.
And Mayer can be seen, literally in the lobby of a theater near you, buttonholing a reviewer, cajoling a recalcitrant viewer, but also inquiring the opinions of others. He is a very friendly fellow.
Mayer has attended lots and lots of film festivals. Both because he loved doing so AND because in San Francisco you simply have to since there are so damn many! We counted 60: see CineSource Festival List.
As we enter the festival season, Mayer has been studying the situation. Indeed, we started there.
Tom Mayer in front of the Roxie around when they premiered the reissue of Dali-Buñuel's 'L'Age D'Or'. photo: courtesy T. MayerI am not saying it is perfect—that there is no racism, no anti-Semitism, no anti-gay attitude—but the need for these festivals is starting to soften. It is a mainstreaming thing. Over time you are going to wear down the need.
I am not saying you shouldn’t have festivals but the idea of doing ten-day festivals, two-week festivals may not be viable. The economy and the difficulty of getting grants is hurting nonprofits, especially the way things are going with the economy here—in the middle of a recession, rents are up 15%!
Is the number of festivals in San Francisco the most in the world?
Over 40, it’s unbelievable. New York has a lot of festivals but if you included everything here—like CineQuest in San Jose—you practically have something every week. The International is two weeks, the gay is ten days—they begin to overlap.
For a while there were two German festivals, German Gems and the main one by the Goethe Institute, Berlin and Beyond. It was run by a young guy from Cambodia, Sophoan Sorn, a great story, he came out of Stockton. They had great films and great publicity but the attendance was way down.
CineSource: The Jewish Festival here was the first in the world—
Started at the Roxie in 1980—but just for that first year. The International was founded in 1957 and says it's the oldest in the Americas. San Francisco’s LGBT Festival [known as Frameline although Mayer prefers the simpler Gay Festival] is the biggest gay-themed event in the state of California, maybe in the US or the world—as far as attendance.
But are we over-festivaled?
I think so.
Do we need attrition in the number of festivals or just the number of days?
Although Meyer started out slow, sizing up his interlocutor, he was soon spilling the beans but some of the best dish had to be redacted in post. photo: D. BlairThe Latino used to be alright but it is greatly diminished.
A new group took it over, so it might improve.
For example: Beside the main stream Asian festival [called CAAM, Center for Asian American Media], which comes in February, you’ve got the Four Star [Theater] which does a sort of second Asian festival, martial arts and Hong Kong films mostly. The Kung Fu folks could say, ‘We have our own audience and we don’t care about the fancy-shmancy stuff CAAM is showing at the Kabuki.’ [laughs]
Then there is the 3rd i, which is South Asian—I don’t know what that the ‘I’s stand’s for—and is also good. Deepak Chopra’s son, Gotham, came to present a movie and I interviewed him.
This is in no way disparages or minimizes the work the festivals are doing—which is great. In my opinion, however, they are sometimes cannibalizing each other’s audiences.
Yes, some audiences are completely separate and the audiences in San Francisco are diverse and love to go to film festivals. But, at some point, if you stretch out to ten days, if you don’t have great films every night—your audience becomes burned out.
The perception is: You are filling in with marginal work which doesn’t have a lot interest. In the Gay Festival [Frameline], there has been griping that there is little gay content in certain films—which to me is silly but that is the kind of comment people make.
I am just saying: your brand begins to weaken. Stick to your core themes and to five to seven days. Make it more quality and you will get new audiences with younger people. Keep refreshing it.
Ironically, Frameline wanted to acquire their own theater in the ‘90s but they are still showing at the Castro, Roxie and the Victoria every year for at least the last fifteen—they started in ’77.
The waiters seemed to know Tom and kept us plied with pita and tea. photo: D. BlairWhy would you say so many festivals got going here?
The lively film scene. You just have a huge creative ferment plus diversity: the gay, the Jewish, African American, Latino, Asian communities. And you can’t just have an insular film buff scene. It has to be spread out, a cultural interest in jazz, classical music or other things.
Why is it so important to have film festivals?
Even in this day and age, when you’ve got DVDs and Blu-rays, films have to be acquired by a US distributor to be shown. That is the main reason [for film festivals], to generate buzz. If there is a good response at the festival, it is picked up for distribution. People are not going to put money into it unless they think they can get their money back.
The film reviewing is also important: it affects the publicity, which affects the distribution, which affects the exhibition. Even that is getting cut back.
The San Francisco Chronicle used to have a lot of film writers, now it has Mick LaSalle and a couple of staff writers. The Bay Guardian has one main guy, Dennis Harvey, who also writes for Variety. The SF Weekly has one main guy.
By the way, they are now owned by the same people [the San Francisco Newspaper Company], which also owns the Examiner, although they claim they’ll keep their editorial staff separate.
I think this is a tough time. There has been a breakdown in exhibition, distribution and publicity. The whole publicity machine is changing—press screenings replaced by online streaming to provide film reviewers with advance screenings, and so forth.
That is precisely why, despite the film experts, the reviewers, the distributors, if it is not shown to an audience at a festival, and [the distributers] don’t see a couple of laughs or tears then forget it?
Although Tom can get on his high horse and wax over the top, he sweetly inquired about the interviewer's affairs and family. photo: D. BlairSo the Noir Festival is a perfect example of how important a festival is: generating interest, creating funding, producing new work?
Right. Of course, Frameline and the Jewish also do that[, generate some restoration,] and of course the Silent, but the Noir is the premier example.
You also believe celebrities are important? Big opening night films?
Right, right.
And the parties which Jeff Ross from the Indie Fest specializes in?
Yes. The Indie Fest is doing opening night, parties— which are off site, you have to go to the women’s building and Brava Theater—as well as films you won’t see anywhere else. He even has a roller disco party!
And two days before the Indie Festival—which starts next week—they are doing their Super Bowl party—called ‘Men in Tights’—live on the big screen at the Roxie. That is one of Jeff’s specialties, which I think is interesting. They also do it for the Oscars, of course.
They have to do all these things to make money. You have to diversify your material to get a broader audience. Everyone does those things. The Asian American will have a big opening night at the Asian Art Museum.
That is great but every year? Can you top this? It has to be a bigger splash.
The International held their own during the recession but apparently some of the other festivals didn’t do too well.
Last year was the International’s biggest year. Berlin and Beyond was one that was sagging. For the first time ever, it had nights at the smaller screen at the Goethe Institute. They made a decision due to sagging attendance the previous years.
A previous Castro manager said to me that when they have a festival, they get a certain flat fee for the day and they are happy to have that business. But they had put pressure on Berlin and Beyond to stick to their smaller screen for two days. They took Monday and Tuesday out, where the Castro stayed closed right in the middle of the festival, which was rare for a festival.
Of course, certain films are better for the smaller screen at the Goethe [Institute]. I saw one, a documentary about Albert Hoffman who created LSD in Switzerland—excellent.
Any new festivals you find compelling?
The Green Festival is in its second or third year, run by Rachel Kaplan, who used to be with the International. I would say what they are doing is the most interesting. They have had some good events, and they spread out to give the impression of a bigger festival. You can say it is environmental but they make it bigger then that.
It struck me there is no hippie or beatnik film festival.
A lot of books have been written about it and it lingers on the fringes. Every festival is going have a film about the historical heydays of SF but you couldn’t make a festival out it.
If we don’t need a hippie festival, what festival do we need?
I think a lot of the bases are covered and we would be hard pressed to add another. With 40 or so festivals, that is an ridiculous number, although some are only one or two days at the Victoria [Theater in the Mission].
A friend of mine started the Transbay, or Transmedia, Festival to highlight alternative media and platforms.
How about the Disposable Film Festival? That was a good one. [laughs] Carlton Evans and Eric Slatkin started it, shows features shot on cell phones, still going strong.
And the Black Film Festival?
There was the gay black festival. The SF Black Film Festival is now in its 15th year, I don't know if the Black Gay Film Festival is still going.
Ave Montague, the woman from the Black Film Festival, died in 2009 but her son took it over.
I was shocked and saddened to hear about her death—she wasn’t old. Last year, it appeared at the same time as the Gay Festival and there was a little bit of an issue.
I guess they need some sort of clearing house. With 40 festivals, you can’t have one festival with out it conflicting with another.
From the middle of November to the Middle of January—from Berlin and Beyond is in October to Noir City in January—is a two-month stretch over the holidays that no one will have a festival. So you have 40 crammed into the ten months of the year—no wonder they step on each other’s toes.
So nothing more comes to mind? How about an old people’s festival
There is a one that comes to mind, cosponsored by a lady I met. It is not just an old people’s festival. Ah yes, [laughs] the Legacy Film Festival on Aging, co-sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. This year it will be held at the Coppola Theater at SF State.
And few flame out. The Sonoma festival was mismanaged and looking like it was going down but last year I heard they did well.
Yes, I didn’t go but I get their information as well as from Tiburon.
Those festivals are different then big city festivals. Every little town needs a festival like that. It is their carnival, when they can strut their stuff, bring out the celebrities, have gala events. It certainly helps the restaurants. That sort of festival is essential. But to have them you need nice theaters.
The festivals are all competing for the best venues. If you can’t find a theater on short notice the Victoria is always there, although they mostly do live material.
Gavin Newsom, when he was Supervisor, held two hearings in 2000, about the future of single-screen movie theaters. I have a presentation. Sorry to say, those hearings had little impact and lots closed.
The SF Neighborhood Theater Foundation bought the Vogue and the Balboa, and helped Frank and Lila Lee, owners of the 4 Star, to reopen two theaters on Chestnut Street.
But many other theaters in SF have closed since 2000. The Bridge just closed and the Lumiere closed six months ago. Landmark is down to the Embarcadero, the Opera Plaza and the Clay. The New People Cinema is a beautiful single screen in Japantown, a Japanese company was going to do Japanese films.
The Film Society took over for a year but their lease expired August 31. Now they are renting it on a case-by-case basis. They have these mini festivals: New Italian, New French, Cinema by the Bay, animation.
If there are all these people have money and want to go out, why can’t people make a go of the New People? I went to some screenings and they were showing some great stuff but there wasn’t a huge attendance.
So you started the Roxie in the oldest continually running theater in San Francisco?
They say 1910, I say 1912, whatever. [laughs] The Victoria Theater, which is two blocks away, that is 100%—1908—the oldest. It was continual but not with film. It was billed as a play theater or light opera and actually called Brown’s Opera House—run by [Governor] Jerry Brown’s grandfather.
The Roxie was a straight porno theater for five years, from roughly 1970-75. It had already closed by the time we got there. A Russian opera-loving group was trying to run Russian opera movies of all things! [laughs] That lasted two months.
Amazing it lasted two months.
Exactly. Then we took over. Bottom line: you didn’t have cable—only big buildings down town, you didn’t have VHS, so any old thing, you got a great audience.
Our high point was November 1979 we showed ‘L’Age d’Or’ (1930)— first legal US screening in 49 years—by Bunuel and Dali in its first legal subtitled print. We beat New York by two weeks. That was a big deal. We brought it back many times.
We did political films, documentaries, foreign stuff. We did some first run.
In 1978, Paul Schrader felt that Universal Studios was "dumping" his film ‘Blue Collar’, not giving it enough publicity, so we had him and some of the stars up from LA, and we did great business with the film. We did a lot of stuff over the years, we had the flexibility.
The only reason we had our foot in the door is, one of my—now diseased—gay business partners Robert Evans was the manager of a straight porno place and knew the old guy who was running it, um, Maury Schwarz. He died in 2008 at the age of 94, and would have been in the Olympics in 1939, but World War II intervened—at least according to his SF Chronicle obit.
Robert was a partner with filmmaker Curt McDowell, who lived with filmmaker George Kuchar before moving in with Robert. Incidentally, I appeared in a bit role as a cowboy in Curt's ‘Sparkle's Tavern,’ filmed in 1976 but not shown until 1985 at the Seattle Film Festival.
In fact. Robert was arrested once or twice just for being in the box office. Every time they would do a crack down on pornography in the Tenderloin they would push it straight to 16th and Valencia. There was three or four porno places, one is still open on Mission and 17th.
Then there was the Roxie and Victoria. They were more like old fashioned burlesque gussied up into strip shows—with 16mm porno between the acts. I went a few times. It had been the New Follies Burlesk from 1963-1978 and it suddenly closed. The rumor was the owners had left town with all the withholdings from their employees—didn’t pay them.
The Bank of America was going to tear [the Victoria] down for a parking lot. I didn’t want that nor did I want another movie theater moving in so close to the Roxie. So I made a phone call to the husband and wife who bought it, fixed it up and reopened it as a stage theater in 1979. They still own it to this day, Anita and Robert Correa. He used to teach theater at San Francisco state.
There was an anti-porno neighborhood group that sprung up to get rid of all this porno and they were thrilled to pieces when we took over the Roxie. At the same time, you had the Mission activists who said any body who moved in was a gentrifier.
30 years later Valencia Street, 16 new restaurants have opened up in the last year. There must 35 restaurants between 16th and 24th full of people who work for Google or Facebook, making a $100,000 but don’t want to live in Palo Alto. They get down by company bus.
Are these people going to the Roxie?
Hard to say. The Roxie did a big Kickstarter campaign $50,000 just last month and they even posted on their Facebook, ‘We are not closing, we are just doing a fund raiser.’
Chris Statton and his wife Kate, they started after Rod Holt and his son Allan, who took over two and a half years after New College. The college ran it 2006-08 until the whole college closed. The Stattons are trying to keep it hip and happening by showing a bunch of ultra-violent films.
They have to appeal to a younger audience but they were showing this ultra-violent Irish film over the holidays—I don’t know, I am not saying you have show ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’
I was talking to the guy who writes the film reviews for Bay Area Reporter [local gay magazine]. We both have really broad taste but we looked at the last couple of schedules of the Roxie and, frankly, it isn’t stuff we would be going to. But when they have a festival, like the Indie Fest coming up, they do great.
They started as a nonprofit in 2010, I believe. When you form a nonprofit that is great but you have to keep getting grants or going to Kickstarter to get the public to give you money. We looked into being a nonprofit, way back in the’70s and we determined it was not viable.
The major studios would perceive you in a strange way. If you are a theater doing a theatrical showing we want our cut of 20-30%. If you are a university that is a different ball of wax. Maybe it is different now.
What they need is small edgy films that people don’t get a chance to see… Korean, Iranian, French. Todd Haynes, Dogma from Denmark…
Right. Plus the Alamo Draft House, based in Austin, Texas, are taking over the New Mission [Theater on Mission and 21st].
They just got their permits and are going to reopen at the end of this year with five screens. It was a lavish old theater built by the same guy who did the Castro and the Paramount [in Oakland]. I personally think it is a good thing.
The former manager of the Castro, Bill Longen—he was a manager after Anita Monga—he is the manager. He told me that ‘No one will go to the Castro or the Roxie once the New Mission opens.’
I doubt that but I think it's a good thing for the neighborhood: we can always use more screens.
Posted on Jan 26, 2013 - 02:19 AM
