San Francisco Film Festival

Posted by Maximum Fun on 29th April 2006

The San Francisco International Film Festival is in full swing here in San Francisco. There are many, many films being shown, but programmer Sean Uyehara offers us some tips on upcoming films worth checking out…

Backstage, Dir Emmanuelle Bercot (France)
Backstage takes on the dark, frenzied world of fandom, immersing viewers in a surreal melodrama of desire in which Lucie, a starstruck teenager, develops an unsavory and dangerous relationship with her idol, pop icon Lauren.

Sean says: “It’s sort of like Aaron Spelling meets Antonioni… it’s the kind of film that’s crossing so many boundaries, it’s really a fun, crazy ride.”

Screens at the Kabuki in San Francisco, Tues May 02 / 7PM

Cock Byte: Masters of Machinima
Machine animation geniuses Rooster Teeth Productions, creators of the wildly popular online episodic parodies Red vs Blue and The Strangerhood, appear in person to present their greatest hits and new work, all made using the 3D graphics engines from videogames.

Sean says: “Our executive direct likes to say ‘they give machinima legs.’ There’s a lot of people tinkering with machinima, it’s really interesting, it’s really neat, but it needed a step forward in the evolutionary process to really turn into something that seems viable in the long term and that’s what Rooster Teeth is doing.”

Screens at the Aquarius in Palo Alto Wed, May 03 / 6:45

Adam’s Apples, Dir. Anders Thomas Jensen, Denmark
A pitch-black comedy/religious parable in which a truculent neo-Nazi ex-convict and a dementedly upbeat country priest square off amid Old Testament plagues centered on a parish apple tree.

Sean says: “It’s about someone who gets out of prison, doesn’t feel like righting himself, and then anything that you can imagine going wrong to him does. And it’s hilarious. Because it’s not happening to you.”

Screening at the Aquarius in Palo Alto, Tue, May 02 / 9:30 PM

Addictive TV, England/France
Trailblazing VJ outfit Addictive TV presents a “best of” selection from the acclaimed Optronica film and music festival and performs The Eye of the Pilot, a live mashup of 1950s 8mm film, art deco-inspired graphics and music.

Sean says: “Imagine your favorite DJ, doing your favorite music mix… some sort of mashup. And then taking your favorite films, your favorite TV spots, some archival footage, mixing it all up, and putting it together. It’s an absolutely overwhelming, mind-boggling experience.”

Showing/Performing at the Kabuki in San Francisco Mon, May 02 / 9:45 and
at the nightclub Mighty in SF Wed, May 03 / 9:00

Sean talks about watching 1400 films a year for the festival on this week’s show.