The San Francisco Film Society will present the second annual Cinema by the Bay, a celebration of the passion, innovation and diversity of Bay Area filmmaking, the intelligence and probing spirit of local directors and the incredible depth and breadth of America’s film and media frontier, November 5 – 8 at the Roxie Theater, Southern Exposure and the Lab. The four-day festival will feature new work produced in or about the San Francisco Bay Area and provide a compelling window into Bay Area film culture and practice at its best. CBTB includes features, shorts, narratives and documentaries from well-known and emerging local talent.
CBTB was programmed by Sean Uyehara and Audrey Chang, who describes this year’s program saying, “We had a blast viewing exciting new works and were impressed by the variety and unique sensibilities coming from the Bay Area. These films reflect local filmmaking at its finest.”
Cinema by the Bay is an essential element of the Film Society’s year-round programs highlighting Bay Area film culture. SFFS has long celebrated films produced in the creative heart of the West, giving Golden Gate Awards to Bay Area documentaries and shorts, and four years ago inaugurating a dedicated Cinema by the Bay section in the annual San Francisco International Film Festival. The most recent edition of the International featured 24 local narrative and documentary feature and short films, capping a total of 137 local films showcased at SFIFF since the section’s inception. With a dedicated fall festival, the Film Society continues the tradition established by Film Arts Foundation, which from 1984 to 2005 programmed the Bay Area’s most dynamic showcase of local independent filmmaking with its Festival of Independent Cinema.
For complete program information, visit sffs.org/Screenings-and-Events
All events take place at the Roxie Theater (3117 16th Street near Valencia) except as noted below.
Friday, November 5 – Opening Night
7:00 pm Fanny, Annie & Danny
Director in person
Chris Brown (2010)
The titular trio of this darkly comedic film are dysfunctional adult siblings brought together by their equally hapless mother for the Christmas holiday. The event — a train wreck from the beginning — is celebrated a week prior to Christmas so as not to ruin the actual holiday. Viewers will sense the impending climax without knowing exactly when or where it will hit, or how hard a toll it will take on the family. Written by Chris Brown. Photographed by Chris Brown. With Jill Pixley, Carlye Pollack, Jonathan Leveck, Colette Keen, George Killingsworth. 82 min.
9:00 pm Opening Night Party with complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres at the Summit, a restaurant and arts incubation space, 780 Valencia Street between 18th and 19th streets.
9:30 pm Babnik
Director in person
Alejandro Adams (2010)
When a San Francisco-based Russian sex-trafficking ring takes an interest in a destitute young girl, people from various walks of life are sucked into an elaborate scheme to abduct her. Misha is the charismatic crime lord at the center of this tight-knit immigrant community. Part exposé, part suspense tale, Alejandro Adams’s film — much like the world it portrays — is continuously in flux. Written by Alejandro Adams, Marya Murphy. With Michael Umansky, Artem Mishin, Nika Gambarin, lona Rubashevsky, Arseniy Arkhipov. 77 min.
Saturday, November 6
2:00 pm The Stanford Scene
Directors in person
Considered one of the finest educational institutions in the world, Stanford University has also produced some of the best documentary filmmakers in the country. This program highlights just a small selection of outstanding works by Stanford alums including Charlotte Lagarde, Johnny Symons and Kevin Gordon, whose Dreams Awake, codirected with Rebekah Meredith, received the 2010 Student Academy Award. TRT: 67 min.
4:15 pm Deep Down
Director in person
Jennifer Gilomen, Sally Rubin (2010)
A complex human documentary portrait that cuts across environmental, economic and cultural lines, Deep Down contrasts the devastating result of our rampant energy consumption with the remote and picturesque backdrop of Appalachia. Beverly May and Terry Ratcliffe shared a childhood friendship growing up in the small, tightly-knit community of Maytown in the eastern Kentucky mountains. As adults, the two find themselves on opposite sides of an explosive issue. Photographed by Jennifer Gilomen. Edited by Sally Rubin. Music by Joshua Penman. 57 min.
6:30 pm Ed Hardy Tattoo the World
Director in person
Emiko Omori (2009)
In 1974, Emiko Omori received her first tattoo from Ed Hardy and a strong bond was formed. Nearly 40 years later, the filmmaker reunites with the master of body imagery to chart his unexpected rise to cult status and his phenomenal influence on pop culture. Omori’s affectionate and personal documentary chronicles the journey of the artist and, by extension, the evolution of tattooing from a marginalized to respectable art form. Written and photographed by Emiko Omori. 75 min.
9:00 pm 4th & Goal Special sneak preview screening
Nina Gilden Seavey (2010)
This is the epic tale of six young men in their quest to join the most elite club in professional athletics: the NFL. Shot over six years at the famed junior college football program at City College in San Francisco, the film follows them through the 2003 championship season and into their encounter with the world of professional football. What their individual fates reveal is as much a prophetic tale of brotherhood, family and the harsh realities of growing up as it is about excelling on 100 yards of turf. Photographed by Michael Pryfogle. 84 min.
Sunday, November 7
2:00 pm Rivers of a Lost Coast
Directors in person
Justin Coupe, Palmer Taylor (2009)
Along the Russian, Eel and Smith rivers, the northern coast once was the epicenter of fly-fishing for West Coast salmon and steelhead, and the stage for a rivalry between two passionate anglers, Bill Schaadt and Ted Lindner. Rivers of a Lost Coast is a fascinating document of a wild California that has since been lost to the rising tides of urbanization. Written by Justin Coupe, Palmer Taylor. Photographed by Justin Coupe. 86 min.
4:30 pm Baywatch!
Directors in person
Don’t be fooled: None of these short films feature David Hasselhoff. Instead, the selection includes an array of strategies of investigation, surveillance and voyeurism. From the manic obsession of The Fuck You Garage to the elegiac detail of the city-symphony in Dominic Angerame’s The Soul of Things, this program serves as a guide to observing. TRT: 74 min.
7:00 pm Essential SF: Les Blank and Rick Prelinger in Conversation
Les Blank and Rick Prelinger have consistently illuminated culture in ways both fascinating and instructive. Blank focuses on milieus and moments, always unearthing the fundamental character of his study. Prelinger works with the archives of our ephemera, always wryly and, as in the title of one of Blank’s films, always for pleasure. Blank and Prelinger will present excerpts of their work and converse, in a discussion moderated by Steve Seid, about varied topics both familiar and arcane, including the role of humor in serious work and the perspective of the observant fan.
9:00 pm Southern Exposure: Cross-Cuts
Southern Exposure, 3030 20th Street at Alabama
Directors in person
A leading light, Southern Exposure consistently supports Bay Area artists and serves as a vital hub for the arts community. The organization’s new Mission District gallery is a dynamic venue for the presentation of diverse, contemporary art, and for this night of video work by several of the leading local artists working with video and film. Artists include Melissa Day, Anthony Discenza, Kota Ezawa, Jonn Herschend, Desiree Hollman, Packard Jennings, Rebekah May, Chris Sollars, Richard T. Walker, Anne Walsh, Chris Kubrick and Lindsey White.
Monday, November 8
7:30 pm SF360.org Presents: Essential SF
The Lab, 2948 16th Street at Capp
Essential SF is an ongoing compendium of the Bay Area film community’s most vital figures and institutions. Veteran visionaries Les Blank, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Anne McGuire, Rick Prelinger, Gail Silva and, posthumously, Marlon Riggs will be feted at this short ceremony followed by a party with music by Myles Cooper.