FilmClick

Director Brad Marlowe brings the Latino Film Festival a moving documentary of how El Salvador, one of the smallest countries in the world, facilitated one of the most successful rescue operations during the second World War.   Glass House (78 mins) shares the story that begins in 1942 when the lives of thirty thousand Jews were saved when they were issued certificates of Salvadorian citizenship thanks to “El Salvador Action”.   José Arturo Castellanos headed the operation, a man assigned to open the Consulate of El Salvador in 1938 in in Hamburg while Europe was under Nazi siege. Glass House shares one of the greatest humanitarian efforts in the Holocaust’s history.  The documentary was filmed over a three-year period on location in Central America, Switzerland, Hungary, and Spain, as the sons and daughters of the heroes themselves along with some of the survivors of the effort, share this inspirational story, all people who owe their lives to El Salvador.

Glass House is playing on Saturday, November 22 at 6PM at the Latino Film Festival.

For Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/48030

San Francisco International Film Festival
4.24.08 – 5.08.08
San Francisco

The San Francisco International Film Festival is playing at various locations across the Bay Area, making it fairly convenient for anyone to view some amazing work from around the world. This is a great opportunity to watch films that would not normally play in theaters because they don’t follow the traditional three-act structure.

One of those films, Liew Seng Tat’s Flower in the Pocket, played at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. Flower does not have an overlying plot that drives the story. Instead, they show moments to illustrate the general theme of something missing in the characters’ lives.

The film centers on two brothers, Li Ohm and Li Ah, who are underachievers but are very tight with each other. Their closeness and drive are directly a result of their father’s hands-off approach to parenting. The brothers have learned to rely on each other for food, support, and entertainment.

This is not to say their father doesn’t care. He shows great concern at one point over the welfare of his kids. It feels more like he’s not prepared to accept the role of being a parent. He seems content on being a loner, which is not what the boys need.

The film also shows the family of Ayu, a Muslim girl who befriends the brothers. Ayu’s family is a direct opposite of the brothers in that her family consists of her mother and grandmother who both give Ayu attention and parental guidance.

James Lee, who plays the father, gives an understated and nuanced performance that captures the mindset of his character. The children give convincing performances without seeming overly coached. This was director Liew Seng Tat’s first feature, but he has worked on multiple short films.

For SFIFF51 dates and showtimes, visit: http://fest08.sffs.org/
by Courtney Sid, FilmClick Staff, csid@filmclick.com

San Francisco International Film Festival
4.24.08 – 5.08.08
San Francisco, CA

SFIFF51 is in full swing this week giving local cinephiles a healthy dose of films in every genre. So, for those of you making excuse for yourselves, there is still time to get a seat and see some fine film programming brought to us by the SF Film Society.

A few narrative films playing in the festival set to peek interest are All is Forgiven, the first feature from French Danish filmmaker Mia Hannsen-Løve. All is Forgiven is a powerful French drama about the fragile complexities of addiction and familial estrangement at the center of a strained father-daughter relationship.

Water Lilies, the debut feature from director Céline Sciamma exposes the misunderstood nature of first time adolescent sexual longings. Water Lilies, a coming of age tale, follows the interrelated tween-age lives of three girls as they maneuver in and out of the waters of synchronized swimming while trying to reconcile their often mixed up and indefinable feelings.

SFIFF51 boasts a healthy supply of inspiring foreign and domestic dramas as well as documentaries, and with director Rodrigo Plá’s thrilling La Zona the SFIFF provides an intricate tale that weaves a web so complex it comes off like a modern day Hitchcock production. La Zona is about the fevered effects of a growing class divide between two communities living in a Mexican city where the rich separates themselves from the “dangers” of the lower class that lives just beyond their gated boarders. The film focuses on the tragedy that ensues when three members of the outside world are involved in a robbery gone wrong. They become trapped inside the walls of the high-security world of the elite. La Zona is a definite can’t miss with a great arc sure to keep you involved with the story, and is possibly one of the best films at this year’s festival.

There is no doubt why people came out in droves to check out some of the great films produced by Bay Area talent that I championed for. I saw the lines for some of these films go for blocks, and even stood in a few. Touching Home by Logan and Noah Miller had a nearly sold out house at their last showing, and the crowd that attended the musical, Evolution, seemed like those you would find at Bay to Breakers - so I know you guys are supporting the Bay’s local filmmakers.

Now if you didn’t get a chance to see any of the great work coming out of the Bay, here’s a reminder for films still screening this week. Barry Jenkins’ engaging debut, Medicine For Melancholy, is a beautifully lensed independent that explores the two sides of the African American experience in San Francisco. Barry Jenkins’ film takes you on a journey through the streets of the city as we watch two characters explore each other’s thoughts and feelings about self-identification, race, romance and gentrification in a city where they are quickly becoming the smallest minority.

Award-winning documentarian Johnny Symons premiered his sixth film, Ask Not, at this year’s festival to a full house at the Castro Theater. Please run out and get tickets before the seats are taken. Ask Not is another of Symons’ work that focuses on gay culture, particularly the struggles of a young activist determined to fight against the double standards of the discriminatory “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy, as well as brave, gay American men and women forced into the closet in order to serve their country.

Youth filmmakers are also on display in the Youth Media Mania programming of shorts featuring works of local talents Apollonia Mendoza (Beowulf), Ruben Palomares (Change the Nation), David Johnson (Parkour Masters), and Jazmin Jones and Nick Parker (The Apollos). The featured works presented in the Youth Media Mania program are often hilarious, inspiring, and full of positive messages offering a family-friendly environment.

The 51st San Francisco International Film Festival has only a few days before it comes to a sad close, and there is still time left to support some great filmmakers presenting fine films; so don’t wait until next year to be a part of this long running SF institution.

For SFIFF51 dates and show times, visit: http://fest08.sffs.org/

by Kareem Worrell, FilmClick Staff, kworrell@filmclick.com

San Francisco International Film Festival
4.24.08 – 5.08.08
San Francisco, CA

After celebrating its milestone 50th International Film Festival last year, the San Francisco Film Society is gearing up to show the City by the Bay just why it’s the only festival in the U.S to have celebrated its golden anniversary.

To celebrate the start of the festival, the renowned society kicked things off with an amazing meet-and-greet reception for Bay Area filmmakers in the Palm Room of the San Francisco Film Center, located in the beautiful and historic Presidio. The well executed mixer served as a meeting ground for the S.F-based filmmakers featured in this year’s festival to mingle, conspire and drink to their shared passions while I was in attendance to cover the event for the FilmClick community.

Film festivals have generally served as the middleman for those of us who enjoy great films, and as a springboard to discover maverick works that fall outside of the big studio system of the Hollywood machine. As a film student here in the Bay Area, it was an honor to be invited to such an event, and a strategic opportunity to meet a diversity of local talent working in a smattering of genres.

SFIFF 51 is set to showcase a lineup of inspired, first-time, Northern California filmmakers, as well as seasoned veterans whose work will screen in this year’s fest. Two films making a big buzz from first-time directors are Medicine For Melancholy and Touching Home, two personal works from talented young directors Barry Jenkins (Melancholy) and Identical twin brothers Logan and Noah Miller (Home). Both works are set to premier in the following weeks, and will utilize the Bay Area’s stunning urban and small-town landscapes as backdrop to their debut features.

While making the rounds (libation in hand) I also got the chance to converse with festival alum and Award-winning documentarian Johnny Symons (director of acclaimed Daddy & Papa) about his premiering and much talked about documentary Ask Not. An informative film that tackles the hypocrisy of the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy of the American Armed Forces, Ask Not is a great lead into what is already an election year for the history books.

Now, if politically-savvy human rights docs aren’t your taste, and you’re still riding high off of Scorsese’s Shine a Light, Cachao: Uno Mas will send you running back to the record stores. Produced by the DocFilm Institute at San Francisco State University, Israel (Cachao) Lopez’s dedication and impassioned gift of Afro-Cuban music and rhythm is captured and adulated as the film offers up a performance at Bimbos 365 and interviews with the masters’ many friends, colleagues and admirers.

Opening April 24 and running through May 8, SFIFF 51 will wow the world stage with 177 films from 49 countries, eight world premieres, two international premieres, eight North American premieres, seven U.S Premieres and 32 West Coast premieres. NorCal cinephiles and FilmClickers beware if you don’t make it to at least one screening to support local talent, you will be the person with the head hung low and nothing to say at the water cooler… and ain’t nobody gonna want to hear about your trip to Bolinas, I promise.

For SFIFF51 dates and showtimes, visit: http://fest08.sffs.org/

by Kareem Worrell, FilmClick Staff, kworrell@filmclick.com