SFIFF58—MICHAEL HAWLEY'S WRAPS UP WEEK TWO
Here are some thoughts on five on my favorite programs from the second week of the recent San Francisco International Film Festival. (My round-up of week one can be found here.)Eden (France, dir. Mia...
View ArticleSFSFF20 (2015)—MICHAEL HAWLEY PREVIEWS THE LINE-UP
Over the span of two decades, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) has transformed itself from a one-day, three-film event into the second most prestigious silent movie showcase in the world....
View ArticleSFIFF58—VIGGO MORTENSEN DOUBLE-BILL: FAR FROM MEN (LOIN DES HOMMES, 2014) /...
Far From Men / Loin Des Hommes (dir. David Oelhoffen, 2014)—Choice under pressure is the gist of this genre hybrid that borrows tropes from war films as well as westerns. Shot on the Algerian /...
View ArticleSFIFF58—LOVE & MERCY (2014): An Evening Class Question For Bill Pohlad
In the spirit of Bill Pohlad's choice to cast two actors to portray Beach Boys' visionary Brian Wilson in Pohlad's winning biopic Love & Mercy (2014) [official site], two Evening Class...
View ArticleFANTASIA 2015—THE FIRST WAVE
The administrative minutiae following the death last April of my beloved sister Barbara Guillén made it impossible for me to attend the 2014 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival...
View ArticleFANTASIA 2015—OPENING NIGHT & WORLD PREMIERES
A few more announcements included in the First Wave from the Fantasia International Film Festival (Fantasia)—scheduled to run for three weeks (July 14-August 4, 2015) in Montreal, Quebec,...
View ArticleFANTASIA 2015—THE FIRST WAVE TRAILER PARK
Anyone game for available trailers for the First Wave announcements for the 19th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival (Fantasia)? Montreal's Fantasia runs for three weeks (July 14-August...
View ArticleNEW FILIPINO CINEMA—The Coffin Maker (Magkakabaung, 2014)
You're in luck! For the fourth edition of New Filipino Cinema (NFC), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) programmer Joel Shepard has elected to repeat screenings of the NFC line-up the following...
View ArticleTHE WOLFPACK (2015)—The Evening Class Interview With Crystal Moselle
In the "truth is stranger than fiction" department, in lopes Crystal Moselle's festival favorite The Wolfpack (2015), her thought-provoking portrait of the Angulo brothers—Bhagavan, Govinda, Jagadisa,...
View ArticleFRAMELINE 39—MICHAEL HAWLEY PREVIEWS THE LINE-UP
The following are preview capsules for ten films screening at the 39th edition of Frameline, the world's oldest and largest LGBTQ film festival. This year's fest runs from June 18 to 28,...
View ArticleFRAMELINE39—A HANDFUL OF HOLD REVIEWS
If memory serves me, the "hold review" capsule was a negotiated compromise struck at one of the early editions of the New York Film Festival to mollify theater owners who felt that festival reviews...
View ArticleFRAMELINE 39: THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING (2014)—Q&A With Actor / Director Andy...
As one of the community co-presenters of Frameline's Bay Area premiere of The Yes Men Are Revolting (2014) [official website], Rachel Caplan—founder and CEO of the San Francisco Green Film...
View ArticleFRAMELINE 39: TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL (2015)—Introductory Remarks by Rob...
Jeffrey Friedman recalled that he and Rob Epstein had just started working on their documentary The Celluloid Closet (1995) when they met Jeffrey Schwarz. He was a recent film school graduate who had...
View ArticleFRAMELINE 39: TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL (2015)—Onstage Conversation with Tab...
As predicted, Tab Hunter Confidential (2015), Frameline Award recipient Jeffrey Schwarz's companion documentary to Tab Hunter's 2005 autobiography Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making Of A Movie Star...
View ArticleSUN BLOOD STORIES—TWILIGHT MIDNIGHT MORNING
"Put all the images in language in a place of safety and make use of them, for they are in the desert, and it's in the desert we must go and look for them."—Jean Genet.Boise sits in the southern...
View ArticleFANTASIA 2015—THE SECOND WAVE
The 19th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival (Fantasia), presented by Ubisoft and Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada, will soon be stunning Montreal with three weeks of cinematic ingenuity...
View ArticleDARK STAR: H.R. GIGER'S WORLD (2014)
The dark brilliance of H.R. Giger's visionary imagination is undisputed. Catapulted into international fame for his contributions to the visual effects and creature concepts of Ridley Scott's Alien...
View ArticleFANTASIA 2015—SLUMLORD / OBSERVANCE
The horrific hazards of surveillance—whether this side of the lens or that—is the connective trope between the World Premieres of Slumlord (2015) and Observance (2015) at the 19th edition of the...
View ArticleFANTASIA 2015—DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY: TERROR OF FRANKENSTEIN / WE ARE STILL HERE
Director's Commentary—Terror Of Frankenstein (USA, dir. Tim Kirk)—This “mockumentary” of sorts sports a brilliant concept, albeit unevenly executed. I dozed off now and again because listening to two...
View ArticleFANTASIA 2015—GOODNIGHT MOMMY / A HARD DAY / BØRNING
Goodnight Mommy / Ich seh, Ich seh (2014, Austria, dirs. Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala)—The horror genre has made me completely distrust corn fields. The minute Goodnight Mommy starts with...
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