SFFilmFests-12MonthsaYear

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Centerpiece Film-"Love Comes Lately"

2008-07-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

“Love Comes Lately” is 28th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Centerpiece film.
While browsing on SFJFF website, the film drew my attention as it had great cast. The screening was on Sunday, followed by Q&A with the film’s director. It was perfect, and I knew I was in for an interesting and exciting evening.
Directed by Austrian director Jan Shutte, the film is based on Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer’s 3 short stories: “The Briefcase”, “Old Lov” and ‘Alone”. It revolves around the character of Max Kohn, a self-centered retired writer from New York whose vivid imagination merges reality with fiction. The film has great cast with Rhea Pearlman as Max’s girlfriend, Barbara Hershey as a former student, and Elizabeth Pena as imaginary hotel attendant who is charmed by Max Kohn’s gentlemanly manners.
However, despite the great cast and the humoristic nature of Isaac Bahsevis Singer’s stories, the film turned out to be a disappointment. All 3 stories were joined together in a somewhat irrelevant manner, with the ending that didn’t carry any meaning in connection to the stories in the film. I would give it 2 ½ out of 5 stars.
Watch trailer here.

The film’s West Coast premier at Castro theatre on Sunday,
July 27, 2008 drew a huge crowd. Castro theatre, which took its name after Castro street it is located on, was packed. The audience consisted of all age groups and was very receptive to film's short introduction by SF Jewish Festival's director. After the screening, “Love Comes Lately" director Jan Shutte was available for Q&A. He talked about the challengers creators experienced while shooting the film on a shoestring budget, as well as the secret behind securing such a great cast- the fact that all female parts were offered to older actresses, who jumped on the opportunity to play girl-friends and love interests instead of mother roles usually offered to them.
The performance of the female leads definitely made a difference in this film with funny and uncanny delivery of the material on the screen.
The atmosphere at the festivals is usually more intimate and open, the audiences feel more connected to the film as they have an opportunity to meet the director and/or cast and ask questions, or simply make comments about the film. This is exactly what happened at the West Coast premier of “Love Comes Lately” on Sunday. The vibe of excitement and acceptance dominated inside the theatre. The audience was laughing throughout the film, and it ended with enthusiastic applause. You simply cannot experince anything like that at a regular movie theater.
It reminded me one more time why film festivals are always worth attending.

The Centerpiece screening was sponsored by Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture.

The 28th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

2008-07-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

The 28th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (July 24-August 11, 2008)
(View Festival’s Trailer here).
Tonight is the opening night of The 28th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival!
The festival opens with” Strangers” (watch the trailers), a love story between Eyal (Israeli) and Rana (Palestinian), who met on a subway in Berlin during 2006 World Cup.

Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv, two Israeli writers-directors, created this drama using risky shooting style asking their cast to practically improvise script while shooting. This is their first feature.

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival

2008-07-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

The 13th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival (July 11-13,2008)
“Silent Film Festival?” -you say, “Who watches silent films nowadays?”. But folks in San Francisco managed to create a silent film festival that attracted more and more viewers with each year. The festival presents its films the way it was done many decades ago-on a big screen with live music accompaniment. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?
Here is little bit of history: Melissa Chittick and Stephen Salmons founded the The Silent Film Festival in 1992. Over 1,800 people came to the first festival, and annual attendance has grown over the years to 11,000.
This is how SFSFF formulated its mission:
“We believe the best way to truly appreciate the power and beauty of a silent film is by seeing it as it was meant to be seen: on the big screen with lives musical accompaniment. For over thirteen years, we’ve hand selected the finest 35mm prints, engaged leading musicians to compose and perform live era-authentic musical scores, and invited filmmakers, authors, stars, archivists, and scholars to provide context and commentary for each film. We are committed to exploring the broad spectrum of silent film. Our programming is a lively and thought-provoking mix of education and entertainment which combines established American classics, lesser-known gems, rare and/or recently restored films, and important international work, including films from China, India, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, France and Russia.”
This year’s film selection:
Here are 3 films that I think were the most interesting:
The Soul of Youth
The Man Who Laughs
Her Wild Oat
The festival is sponsored by The KQED (SF Public Television Station), National Endowment for The Arts and San Francisco Guardian, among other sponsors.

2008-07-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

Technorati Profile

Blogging about SF Film Festivals

2008-07-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

I love films, and I love film fests. I live in San Francisco. The city that has much to offer when it comes to film festivals. There are several of them going on every month. Just in this month of July there are 5 -all of them worth attending.
I decided to blog about every one of them. Many of us cannot go to all the festivals, so at least we can read about them! Here are the festivals that are taking place in SF in July:
Brainwash Drive-In/Bike-In/Walk-In Movie Festival
Internationall Working Class Film and Video Festival/LaborFest
San Francisco Silent Film Festival
San Francisco Frozen Film Festival
and-my favorite!- San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
I hope this is going to be fun for you as much as it is fun for me!