72 posts tagged “san francisco”
The Modern Language Association conference is in San Francisco at the Hilton through Tuesday, Dec 30th
and a number of sessions are free and open to the public.
The website requires free registration to look at the conference program and isn't easy to
navigate, so I'll list a few of the open sessions here.
Sunday, Dec 28th
Public Shakespeares Noon to 1:15, Continental 1-2, Hilton
Grace Paley Writing the World: Literature and Legacy, 1:45 - 3:30 pm, Continental 1-2, Hilton
with Dorothy Allison, Thulani Davis, Gish Jen, & Galway Kinnell
Biocultures: Closing the Science-Humanities Gap, 1:45 - 3:30 pm, Continental 5, Hilton
Politics and the Classroom: A Roundtable 3:30 - 4:45 pm, Continental 5, Hilton
A Screening of the silent film When Lincoln Paid, 5:15 - 6:30 pm, Golden Gate 8, Hilton
Storytelling from Native California, 5:15 - 6:30 pm, Golden Gate 5, Hilton
A Reading by Three Black South African Women Writers, 5:15 - 6:30 pm, Golden Gate 3, Hilton
with Gabeba Baderoon, Yvette T. Chritanse, & Nadia Davids
The Impropriety of Faust: Marking the Two Hundredth Anniversary of Goethe's Play, 7:15 - 8:30 pm, Club Room, Marriott
The Presidential Address, 8:40 pm, Continental 5, Hilton
Monday, Dec 29tth
Return to Prince Edward Island: Anne of Green Gables at One Hundred, 8:30 - 9:45 am, Sutter, Hilton
The Story Hearer: Grace Paley's Poetry & Prose, 10:15 - 11:30 am, Golden Gate 3, Hilton
Literature of Immigrants, noon to 1:15 pm, Franciscan B, Hilton
Our Affection for Books, noon to 1:15 pm, Yosemite B, Hilton
The Responsibility of the Poet: Grace Paley Writing Social Change with Susan Griffin, 3:30 - 4:45 pm, Golden Gate 3, Hilton
Editing Manuscripts in Digital & Print Forms, 3:30 - 4:45 pm, Yosemite B, Hilton
Crossing Borders: Four Scottish Poets in Conversations, 5:15 - 6:30 pm
with Gerry Cambridge, David Kinloch, Alan Riach, & Fiona J Wilson
The Bay Area as a Site of Resistance in Native American Literature, 9 - 10:15 pm, Lombard, Hilton
Tuesday, Dec 30th
The Godfather at Forty: Retrospectives on Puzo's Italian America and Its Meanings for American Culture, 8:30 - 9:45 am, Union Square 24, Hilton
There was a panel on microblogging Sunday morning.
There are a couple of special film events in San Francisco on Tuesday, October 9th (tonight). The Mill Valley Film Festival comes to the San Francisco Art Institute with a screening at 7:30 pm of Welcome to Nollywood. The documentary looks at the film industry in Nigeria which only started in the early 90s, but is already the third largest behind Hollywood and Bollywood. Director Jaimie Meltzer (Off the Charts) and producer Henry Rosenthal (The Devil and Daniel Johnson) both live in San Francisco. Michael Fox interviewed Meltzer for SF360.
The Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio screens at the Clay Theater at 7:30 followed by a performance by the group and Q&A with filmmaker Agostino Ferrente. The documentary tells story of an effort to save a historic theater by creating an orchestra made up of musicians from all over the world. The tour is being presented by Netflix's Red Envelope Entertainment.
Chicken John introduced Rev. Billy before the Q&A. They'll be having a conversation at 8 pm on Tuesday,
October 2nd (details).
Baez, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and Larry Harvey). There are also many more great documentaries at DocFest through October 10th.
a panel discussion of the internet and film distribution with Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg. The film
is now availalbe on iTunes for $1.99 and also on DVD with a discussion kit.
There also is a podcast about the film and a facebook group. Photos from the premiere (even before it played at Sundance).
Strange Culture is playing at the Roxie and the Rafael through Thursday, September 27th. It will be at the
Cinema Village in New York from October 5th to 18th (check the website for other places it will be shown).
It tells the story of artist Steve Kurtz's arrest in 2004 weaving together documentary, segments with Tilda Swinton and other actors, and animation. I saw Kurtz talk about his art at SFMOMA in March and saw the film at the San Francisco International Film Festival in May (photos).
Lucy Gray interviewed Kurtz and director Lynn Hershman Leeson in March and interviewed her again recently.
DocFest opens at the Roxie on Friday and runs through October 10th and the Mill Valley Film Festival opens at the Rafael and other theaters on October 4th and runs through October 14th. I'll be writing about both festivals.
He spoke at SFMOMA last night. I'll update this with more on what he said. Until then, some photos (I have many more to go through).
The film tells the story of the genocide in Darfur through the eyes of Brian Steidle who became a military observer there in 2004 after leaving the Marines. He photographed the horrors he saw there, but later wrote that his camera was not nearly enough. But the images he took are powerful, particularly as he tells the story in the film.
Wells says there will be a feature film based on his story, but people should see the documentary now. I asked
her about being the field producer on a segment of the film where Steidle visits Rwanda. She said people are still in mourning twelve years later, that what happened had an impact long after the killing stopped.
Revolution Summer which played at the San Francisco International Film Festival also opens at the Roxie tonight. Jonathan Richman who did the score will perform.
The Devil Came on Horseback, a documentary on Darfur which was sold out at the San Francisco International Film Festival, is opening in the bay area. Friday, August 24th, Mayor Gavin Newsom will introduce the 7 pm screening at the Roxie, and producer Jane Wells will do a Q&A. She will also be at the 8:50 screening and at the 5:10 pm (Q&A) and 7:30 pm (intro) shows at the Shattuck in Berkeley on Saturday, and the 4:30 pm (Q&A) and 6:45 pm (intro) at the Rafael. The 11th Hour
War Made Easy also opens at the Roxie. Norman Solomon will be at the opening on Friday, August 31st at the Rafael. I do Norman's website and have sent him an email asking if he will be at any of the Roxie screenings. There was an article in the Chronicle on how the film uses fair use. It will expand to theaters in other cities and is available on DVD and for screenings at house parties. More photos of the screening at the Grand Lake theater.
Thom Hartmann and Paul Hawken will be at the 7:30 pm and 10 pm shows of the environmental documentary the 11th Hour on Friday at the Embacadero. Producer Brian Gerber will be at all shows on Saturday and Sunday.
Director Seth Gordon will speak at the 7:15 pm and 9:45 pm screenings of The King of Kong on Friday.
There will be a free screening of Made in LA on Thursday, September 6 at 7 pm at the Roxie (it will also be show on PBS on September 4th). There will be a discussion with filmmakers Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar; Guadalupe Hernandez, one of the workers featured in the film; and Katie Quan, Associate Chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival moves to Berkeley (til Aug 4) and Palo Alto (til Aug 2) Saturday, July 28th (today). It will then be in San Rafael Aug 4 - 6 and there will be a special screening of the Israeli tv series, A Touch Away, Aug 4 - 5 at the JCC in San Francisco.
This afternoon at 3 pm, following a 1:50 pm screening of Wasted at Berkeley Rep's Roda Theater, there will be a panel discusion of Israeli documentaries. Several of the filmmakers participating including Shimon Dotan were interviewed on YourCall Radio (an MP3 is online). Donlan's intense Hot House which won the best World Cinema Documentary award at Sundance is screening at 4:30 pm today in Palo Alto, on Sunday at 4:15 pm in Berkeley, and next Saturday, Aug 4 at 4:30 pm in San Rafael (full details are at the link)
I'll write more about some of the films, but I have posted a bunch of photos.
