Category: reviews

Paste up, Pix, Spike Lee

I caught up with my leftover paste-up at home this morning. My work desk in the back room is a mess, the dining room table in front is big, but the kitchen table has the best light, so I set up there. And the red stool is just the right height — not standing, not sitting, like I’m back working at the drafting table in one of the animal show barns Ohio State used for architecture students back in the day — for that kind of work.

An Evening with Spike Lee
The Program Guide says:

Join us for a special evening honoring the unconventional filmmaking genius of Spike Lee, recipient of this year’s Film Society Directing Award. Retrospective film clips from Lee’s singular career will be followed by an onstage interview conducted by Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris and a screening of Acts II and III of Lee’s four-act Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke.

The Directing Award was first won by Akira Kurosawa in 1986, and then presented to such icons as Clint Eastwood, Warren Beatty, Robert Altman, Milos Forman, in this century, Werner Herzog winning it last year. Pretty good company. Continue reading “SFIFF50 DAY SEVEN — Wednesday” →

Cap, Paste up, Warriors

First thing in the morning I went to City Hall. There’s an outside chance they might have my Woody Cap.

At the Opening Night party I left my cap on a pile of Morgan’s and Julieta’s stuff behind the press table. Then I did my duty and then I partied. After, when I got to my scooter, parked across the street from City Hall, I had this feeling of being capless. Drat! I went back through security into City Hall and looked where I had left my cap. The table was there and the floor was bare. In the following days, I checked with Richard, Morgan and Julieta. No dice. Continue reading “SFIFF50 DAY SIX — Tuesday” →

Free time and Fay Grim

Monday is a day of free time for me, and I used it primarily for catching up with my writing. Ah, but in the evening it’s showtime: Carol and Sarah to Broken English starring Parker Posey, and I followed to Fay Grim, starring the same.

Fay Grim, USA/Germany 2006
Directed by Hal Hartley
Distributed by Magnolia Pictures

[best if read aloud in a monotone, to capture the spirit of the film]

Fay Grim

Deadpan humor

Dry wit

Intrigue in Foreign lands

The lovely Parker Posey

In introducing the film, the director said, “It’s a sequel to Henry Fool, but it’s not necessary to have seen Henry Fool. You”ll be confused in any case. That’s about it.”

He was right.

Fun.

I rode home on Pacific Avenue at nearly midnight. The street was deserted. I was able to leisurely coast from Octavia all the way to Polk, catching green lights at Gough, Franklin and Van Ness. I”ve always wanted to do that.

Fun.

Fog City Mavericks

Missed the Sopranos. Missed the Warriors Playoff Game 4 (W’s won to go up three games to one against #1 seed Dallas Mavericks). Carol missed her faves, Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. Didn”t even think to DVR them. We were at the World Premier of Fog City Mavericks at the Castro.

Continue reading “SFIFF50 DAY FOUR — Sunday” →

The Press Room and Jindabyne

My day started at 3:30 at the Kubuki Press Room. The Press Room is in House 8, small for a theater, large for a room. From the entrance, the floor steps down to the screen and one can imagine a carpeted space with seats on the stepped rows, but there is no carpet and there are no seats just now. The floor is painted concrete.

A row of tables front the screen with five computer stations for Hilary, the three publicists and one intern. Shannon, the VIP Coordinator often uses the intern computer. Those folks face the screen, backs to the “audience.” Another row of tables, along the first riser is arrayed with press lists, instructions as to how to become accredited press, the necessary forms to do so, as well as interview request forms and magazines featuring Festival articles. At one end is a station for check-out of DVD Press Screeners, at the other end a table with various binders and room for me to do paste-ups when I”m there. Richard, the Publicity Coordinator holds forth in the center of this array.

The interns are the first line of defense, so to speak. We are to greet the press and access their needs before they interrupt Hilary or the publicists. Normally, their needs are for screeners or pick up their press badges. However, Hilary and the publicists, know most of the press, or at least the important ones, and being gregarious by nature and job description, often usurp our defense to smile and effusively great the people from whom we are protecting them. Continue reading “SFIFF50 DAY THREE – Saturday” →

The Rush Line and Murch

During our personal film selecting process, I didn”t know what I”d be doing for Publicity work, and I didn”t know my schedule. Carol, along with Sarah and sometimes Paula and John, went ahead and selected films they wanted to see and bought their tickets. They chose Opening and Closing Nights as well as Fog City Mavericks and the Centerpiece, Delirious, and a few others. (That’s, from left, Sarah, Paula and Carol)

About a week before Opening Night my schedule was solidified. Turns out I will be working the big events: Opening and Closing, Fog City, and the Film Society Awards Night. Otherwise, I”m working Tuesday evenings, Thursday mornings and Saturday evenings. Considering my schedule and the films Carol had chosen, I made my picks. The result; we are ticketed for only one event together, An Evening with Spike Lee. So there you go. Many of the films Carol selected were “at rush” by the time I bought my tickets. Continue reading “SFIFF50 DAY TWO — Friday” →

SFIFF50
An Introduction and Day One.

SFIFF50 Staff

Last July I volunteered to become an intern in the Publicity Department of the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS), knowing that my service would reach fulfillment in the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF50). Having worked the 49th as a Festival Volunteer, I wanted to experience the 50th from the inside.

Starting out, there was Hilary, the Director of Publicity, and me. My main tasks were to research the circulation of those media covering the Festival, paste up press clippings, and post Film Society events at various sites on the Internet. Now, there is a Publicity Coordinator, a staff of three professional publicists, and five other interns, mainly college students or recent graduates in film studies.

Hilary, the boss, is right of me in the photo

Our major activity culminated with a Press Conference on April 3rd, when all of the Festival films were announced to the public. Concurrently, my job of pasting up clippings from the print media and gleaning stories from the internet grew from an inch high pile per month, to an inch pile per week, and now an inch pile per day, with the weekend and days leading to the opening last night, even fatter. Continue reading “My Film Festival” →