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FANTASIA 2016—OUTLAWS AND ANGELS (2016)
What first attracted me to the Fantasia International Film Festival was its unbridled passion for genre—not only horror, sci-fi, and martial arts—but, all genres. I’ve seen remarkable police...
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FANTASIA 2016—RUPTURE (2016)
After a 10-year hiatus from filmmaking, Steven Shainberg returns to the fray with a disturbingly original study of abduction, Rupture (2016), a genre exercise boasting its World Premiere in Fantasia’s...
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FANTASIA 2016—THE UNSEEN (2016)
The narrative theme of the absent father is leant a startling new visibility in Geoff Redknap’s feature debut The Unseen (2016), screening as a World Premiere at Fantasia’s 20th edition. Redknap would...
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FANTASIA 2016—BED OF THE DEAD (2016)
The team aesthetic of the Black Fawn production group impressed me (and inspired me to develop my own creative team) when—at last year’s edition of Fantasia—I had the opportunity to talk to Chad...
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FANTASIA 2016—3 QUESTIONS FOR GUILLERMO DEL TORO
For its 20th edition, the Fantasia International Film Festival (Fantasia) presented leading genre filmmaker Guillermo del Toro with its prestigious Cheval Noir Award, which del Toro accepted in person...
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THE HEART OF ART: LLÉVATE MIS AMORES (ALL OF ME, 2014) / MUJERES LUZ—The...
As part of their developing RoxCine programming curated by Isabel Fondevila, and co-presented by Galería de la Raza, Cine+Mas SF Latino Film Festival, and the Latino Community Foundation, the Roxie...
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CAMERA OBSCURA (2016): SECOND ANNUAL REPORT
The Second Annual Report of the reconvened CAMERA OBSCURA is scheduled for Thursday, 18-November, to Sunday, 20-November, at the historic Hotel Petaluma. In 1957, shortly after Frank Stauffacher’s...
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TOWER (2016)
Fifty years ago, on August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman positioned himself on the top floor of the University of Texas Tower with an arsenal of weapons and opened fire, holding the Austin campus hostage...
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SFFF60—MICHAEL HAWLEY ANTICIPATES THE LINE-UP
Evening Class contributor Michael Hawley began blogging about the San Francisco International Film Festival on its 50th anniversary in 2006. A decade-plus later it has become something of a tradition...
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SFFF60—MICHAEL HAWLEY EXPLORES THE BIG NIGHTS, AWARDS & TRIBUTES, AND SPECIAL...
The first order of business at last week's press conference for the 60th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) was addressing the issue of rebranding. There were hints of impending change...
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SFFILM—The Art & Craft of Planet of the Apes with Andy Serkis and Joe Letteri
Photo courtesy SFFILMEach time I return to San Francisco I can rest assured that SFFILM has been busy maintaining and building upon their signature creative programming throughout the Bay Area. For...
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PFA: DOCUMENTARY VOICES—The Short Films of Luis Ospina
Photo: Juan Cristobal CoboLaunching the 2018 edition of “Documentary Voices”—the Pacific Film Archive’s annual series of recent and historical documentary films—is a visit from Luis Ospina, who has...
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COLOMBIAN CINEMA—TODO COMENZO POR EL FIN (IT ALL STARTED AT THE END, 2015)
"I believe that my true vocation has been the documentary. Fiction film, with all the technical paraphernalia and its high costs, has always been a state of exception for me, while the documentary is a...
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PFA: HARD, FAST & BEAUTIFUL—Frako Loden on Outrage (1950) and The Bigamist...
Back in March 2009, Frako Loden wrote up a profile of Ida Lupino for The Evening Class and I repurpose same to get the word out on “Ida Lupino: Hard, Fast and Beautiful”, the select retrospective...
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PSIFF 2018: PHANTOM THREAD (2017)—An Evening Class Question For Paul Thomas...
It was such a rapturous experience to view Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread (2017) projected in 70mm on the giant screen at Palm Springs' Camelot Theater with Anderson on hand for a generous,...
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THE INSULT (2017)—The Evening Class Interview With Ziad Doueiri
The Insult (2017), directed by Ziad Doueiri and co-written by Doueiri and Joelle Touma, screened in the main competition section of the 74th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Volpi...
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SF INDIEFEST—STUCK (2017)
If only riding the MUNI underground would be as entertaining as Michael Berry's Stuck (2017), boasting its Bay Area premiere as the opening night entry for San Francisco IndieFest’s 20th edition....
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PFA: REVERSE ANGLE / DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME (2016)—An Evening Class...
There are some who might argue that Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016) was robbed of its due Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature of the year, and I would be inclined to agree....
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SHADOWS IN MIND (2018)
In 1965, Sydney Pollack directed his first feature-length film The Slender Thread featuring Sidney Poitier as a college volunteer singlehandedly manning a hotline crisis center. He receives a distress...
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DIVERGE (2016)
Following a year long festival tour including awards at Lund International, Julien Dubuque International, Tallgrass, and the Barbados Independent Film Festivals, Gravitas Ventures has acquired...
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