Opportunities: Center for Asian American Media Fellowship Program

Oct 17, 2011

Furthering CAAM's work to nurture Asian American media professionals and advance the field of Asian American media, the second annual CAAM Fellowship Program will connect young, talented individuals with leading professionals in the field. ELIGIBILITY: Participating fellows will have access to the leading Asian American talent in film, television and digital media. Each fellowship will be individually tailored to best fit the needs of the fellows and advisers. Fellowships will range from fully integrated collaborations to regular feedback on current projects to an ongoing dialogue about professional development. AWARDS: The CAAM Fellowship Program Retreat will allow the mentor-mentee pairs to spend two full days together in a quiet and peaceful environment where they can focus on the mentees' career, whether it is a script being developed or an acting career that needs some guidance. DEADLINE: October 17, 2011. WEBSITE: caamedia.org/filmmaker-resources/fellowship/caam-fellowship-program-2011/.

An Evening with John Lithgow

Oct 4, 2011

The Booksmith and Berkeley Arts & Letters join forces to bring celebrated actor John Lithgow to the Sundance Kabuki for an evening in discussion of his new autobiography, 'Drama: An Actor's Education.' More info/tickets at brownpapertickets.com.

An Evening with John Lithgow

Oct 4, 2011

The Booksmith and Berkeley Arts & Letters join forces to bring celebrated actor John Lithgow to the Sundance Kabuki for an evening in discussion of his new autobiography, 'Drama: An Actor's Education.' More info/tickets at brownpapertickets.com.

'Vigilante, Vigilante' Opens Can of Worms

Michael Fox
Aug 18, 2011

Filmmakers find themselves outside the 'buffer' zone as film about graffiti-abaters hits local screens, and streets. Editor's note: Vigilante, Vigilante: The Battle for Expression, a Bay Area-made film on graffiti "abatement," opened with a clamor last weekend at the Roxie, as San Francisco's Department of Public Works made an issue of cleaning up the film's street-art advertising campaign. The filmmakers responded that they've asked that their materials not be posted illegally, but that hasn't stopped DPW requesting them to cease and desist attracting audiences via wheatpaste. What follows is sf360.org's interview...

'Vigilante, Vigilante' Opens Can of Worms

Michael Fox
Aug 18, 2011

Filmmakers find themselves outside the 'buffer' zone as film about graffiti-abaters hits local screens, and streets. Editor's note: Vigilante, Vigilante: The Battle for Expression, a Bay Area-made film on graffiti "abatement," opened with a clamor last weekend at the Roxie, as San Francisco's Department of Public Works made an issue of cleaning up the film's street-art advertising campaign. The filmmakers responded that they've asked that their materials not be posted illegally, but that hasn't stopped DPW requesting them to cease and desist attracting audiences via wheatpaste. What follows is sf360.org's interview...

'The African Queen'

Aug 18, 2011

Canonized director John Huston's 'The African Queen,' now mostly remembered for its tumultuous production history, was also the director's biggest grossing film, securing Humphrey Bogart his first Oscar for acting. The Alameda Theatre screens this battle-of-the-sexes classic on film Wednesday and Thursday only. More info at alamedatheatres.com.

Teens Tackle Production at SFFS Young Filmmakers Camp

Kim Nunley
Aug 12, 2011

The second year of the Film Society's movie-making summer camp puts youth on location.

Teens Tackle Production at SFFS Young Filmmakers Camp

Kim Nunley
Aug 12, 2011

The second year of the Film Society's movie-making summer camp puts youth on location.

Teens Tackle Production at SFFS Young Filmmakers Camp

Kim Nunley
Aug 12, 2011

The second year of the Film Society's movie-making summer camp puts youth on location.

Film Society Awards Night Shines Light on ’70s, City

Susan Gerhard
Apr 29, 2011

Beginnings, endings and the dazzling cinema in between honored in SFFS's annual awards show.

Film Society Awards Night Shines Light on ’70s, City

Susan Gerhard
Apr 29, 2011

Beginnings, endings and the dazzling cinema in between honored in SFFS's annual awards show.

Film Society Awards Night Shines Light on ’70s, City

Susan Gerhard
Apr 29, 2011

Beginnings, endings and the dazzling cinema in between honored in SFFS's annual awards show.

Terence Stamp Honored with Owens Award

Dennis Harvey
Apr 25, 2011

Terence Stamp has treated acting not as a job, but as a restless quest for new frontiers.

Terence Stamp Honored with Owens Award

Dennis Harvey
Apr 25, 2011

Terence Stamp has treated acting not as a job, but as a restless quest for new frontiers.

Terence Stamp Honored with Owens Award

Dennis Harvey
Apr 25, 2011

Terence Stamp has treated acting not as a job, but as a restless quest for new frontiers.

Explosive Actors, Anecdotes Light Up SFIFF54’s Midnight Awards

Kim Nunley
Apr 24, 2011

Zoe Saldana and Clifton Collins, Jr., share candid thoughts with a raucous audience.

Explosive Actors, Anecdotes Light Up SFIFF54’s Midnight Awards

Kim Nunley
Apr 24, 2011

Zoe Saldana and Clifton Collins, Jr., share candid thoughts with a raucous audience.

Explosive Actors, Anecdotes Light Up SFIFF54’s Midnight Awards

Kim Nunley
Apr 24, 2011

Zoe Saldana and Clifton Collins, Jr., share candid thoughts with a raucous audience.

54th San Francisco International Film Festival Will Present Founder’s Directing Award to Oliver Stone

Apr 7, 2011

Press release: The San Francisco Film Society announced today that Oliver Stone will be the recipient of the Founder’s Directing Award at the 54th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21–May 5). The FDA will be presented to Stone at Film Society Awards Night, Thursday, April 28 at Bimbo’s 365 Club. The Film Society’s Youth Education program will be the beneficiary of the fundraiser honoring Stone. The soon-to-be-announced recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award for excellence in acting and Frank Pierson, recipient of the Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting will also be honored. More at sffs.org.

Uncomplicating the Casting Process

Kim Nunley
Apr 5, 2011

Hester Schell’s ‘Casting Revealed’ helps filmmakers hire quality actors.

Uncomplicating the Casting Process

Kim Nunley
Apr 5, 2011

Hester Schell’s ‘Casting Revealed’ helps filmmakers hire quality actors.

Uncomplicating the Casting Process

Kim Nunley
Apr 5, 2011

Hester Schell’s ‘Casting Revealed’ helps filmmakers hire quality actors.

Uncomplicating the Casting Process

Kim Nunley
Apr 5, 2011

Hester Schell’s ‘Casting Revealed’ helps filmmakers hire quality actors.

Uncomplicating the Casting Process

Kim Nunley
Apr 5, 2011

Hester Schell’s ‘Casting Revealed’ helps filmmakers hire quality actors.

Uncomplicating the Casting Process

Kim Nunley
Apr 5, 2011

Hester Schell’s ‘Casting Revealed’ helps filmmakers hire quality actors.

SFIAFF Director Primed for Debut

Michael Fox
Mar 7, 2011

Masashi Niwano, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival's new director, speaks about bringing new worlds to this world cinema event.

SFIAFF Director Primed for Debut

Michael Fox
Mar 7, 2011

Masashi Niwano, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival's new director, speaks about bringing new worlds to this world cinema event.

SFIAFF Director Primed for Debut

Michael Fox
Mar 7, 2011

Masashi Niwano, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival's new director, speaks about bringing new worlds to this world cinema event.

Rajendra Serber's Confident Steps into Film

Michael Fox
Apr 13, 2010

From Michael Powell to Carlos Saura to Sally Potter, a stratum of directors has progressively reimagined the relationship between dance and film.

Streetfilms' Two-Wheeled Revolution

Adam Hartzell
Mar 31, 2010

Pedestrians have always propelled cinema narratives, but the bicycle has rarely had a starring role.

Carmen Madden on Watching People, Writing Characters

Lisa Rosenberg
Nov 16, 2009

Writer/director Carmen Madden's writing reflects just how intimately she comes to see and know a screenplay's world and the characters that inhabit it.

A Challenge to Filmmakers

George Rush
Nov 3, 2009

George Rush skips legal concerns and instead speaks to a larger issue: the lack of quality independent filmmaking today.

Anita Monga and the SF Silent Film Festival

Sura Wood
Jul 11, 2009

During her tenure at the venerable Castro Theatre, film programmer Anita Monga made her mark shepherding the venue to international prominence.

Nights on the Towne: Film Society Awards Night

Susan Gerhard
May 4, 2008

You know a festival is working its way into your brain when, in a landscape of intersecting ideas, you begin to witness the collisions.

SFIFF51: The Miller Brothers on writing, pitching, acting, directing, and hitting one out of the ballpark

Susan Gerhard
Apr 16, 2008

Touching Home by Bay Area-raised identical twins Logan and Noah Miller is a largely autobiographical coming-of-age film that radiates sincerity.

Danny Glover, "Honeydripper," and Us

Dennis Harvey
Feb 27, 2008

In Honeydripper it will no doubt be pleasure to see Danny Glover play a familiar character: The good man trying to gain a leg-up when fortune has rained on his hopes.

Reviews: "Brand Upon the Brain!", "Golden Door"

Matt Sussman
Jun 12, 2007

Brand is no short supply of Guy Maddin's usual firecrackers: apostrophe, hyperbole, and of course, catastrophe.

Reviews: "Police Beat"; "The Page Turner"

Dennis Harvey
Apr 3, 2007

It's taken over two years for Police Beat to go from one of the most praised films at Sundance to a theatre near you.

Music Videos At the Museum

Max Goldberg
Nov 29, 2006

MTV's boat has long since sailed, but music videos are as ubiquitous on YouTube and Myspace as YBCA brings music videos to its downstairs gallery.

Reopening "Pandora's Box"

Dennis Harvey
Nov 7, 2006



Many stars are forgotten for a while, then “rediscovered” and newly appreciated by a later generation. But the case of Louise Brooks is somewhat unique — she was, really, only a “star” in retrospect. Her Hollywood profile was headed that-a-way when she foolishly (according to the industry) abandoned it to make a couple European movies. When she returned, her moment had passed.



A paltry if promising career and early dead-end-at the time, it constituted barely a blip on the radar. Yet those European films grew in stature over ensuing years, and with that the gradual realization that Brooks had been one of the great screen presences, however briefly. Her striking look — porcelain skin, alert features, sleek jet-black flapper bob — and naturalistic acting haven’t dated at all.



As a result, it seems there’s more interest in her with each passing year. The latest evidence is critic and historian Peter Cowie’s new book “Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever,“ published in time to commemorate the centenary of her birth. He’ll be signing copies and presenting a special commemorative film program at the Balboa this Sunday. The evening promises a rarely screened feature, a short and trailers showcasing Brooks, as well as “special guests, door prizes and more.” (Cowie will also appear the prior night at the Smith Rafael Film Center to screen a new 35mm print of her best-known vehicle “Pandora’s Box.”)



Why the fuss? Why, indeed, is there such a thing as The Louise Brooks Society (which is co-presenting this event with The Booksmith)? The explanation is all on-screen, in any role where she wasn’t entirely wasted.



Kansas-born Brooks started out as a dancer, first in touring troupes and then in Broadway revues. This led to Hollywood in 1925, where bit parts led steadily to larger ones, finally female leads in two good 1928 Paramount releases: Howard Hawks’ rollicking “A Girl in Every Port” and William Wellman’s more delicate “Beggars of Life.”



She hadn’t set the world on fire yet, but was certainly expected to graduate from starlet to star. Paramount was not pleased, however, when she chose — just as “talking pictures” were becoming the rage — to end her contract and accept a silent-film offer in Germany. This was G.W. Pabst’s “Pandora’s Box,” drawn from Franz Wedekind’s play “Lulu,” and with beguiling lack of affectation she played that titular seducer/destroyer of both men and women, herself finally destroyed by Jack the Ripper. Perhaps even better (if less shocking) than that famous classic was a second Pabst movie, “Diary of a Lost Girl,” in which her victimized innocent is indelibly touching. She also starred as an exploited beauty-contest winner in a French film, 1930’s “Prix de Beaute.” These are all wonderful movies in which she was superb. But for a long time they were little seen outside their home countries — particularly in the U.S., where silent cinema was already stone-cold-dead.



Returning to Hollywood, Brooks was now — at age 24 — a has-been. She unwisely turned a couple good offers and accepted a handful of humiliatingly poor ones, including bit parts. Those few who remembered her considered her “difficult” and past expiration date. Her last movie role was a nondescript heroine in a nondescript 1938 “Z” western, “Overland Stage Raiders” — one of a zillion such that John Wayne starred in before becoming an “A”-list star.



Found living in seclusion in the mid-‘50s, Brooks was surprised and delighted that latterday film buffs not only remembered but worshipped her. She returned the favor by writing very intelligently about her own movies and the art form in general (mostly famously in the essay collection “Lulu in Hollywood,” which is still in print). She admitted sabotaging her own career as readily as she enjoyed her new iconic status in retirement, dying at a no doubt satisfied age 80 in 1985 — secure in the knowledge that her legend would continue to grow.



[“Pandora’s Box” plays Sat., Nov. 11, at 7 pm, Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 4th St., San Rafael. $6.25-9.50. (415) 454-1222. “Celebrating Louise Brooks: An Evening of Rare Films,” issues Sun., Nov. 12, at 7:30 pm, Balboa Theatre, 2630 Balboa, SF. $6-8.50. (415) 221-8184.]

Mary Woronov Visits Midnight Mass

Dennis Harvey
Aug 3, 2006

An appreciation of the great actress of cult and mainstream films, before her appearance at a Midnight Mass screening of Death Race 2000.

Tracy Flannigan Watches Tribe 8 "Rise Above"

Dennis Harvey
Jul 10, 2006

SF360 spoke to the director of Rise Above: The Tribe 8 Documentary, showing at the Red Vic Movie House and an imminent DVD release.

Nothing and Everything Sacred in Reygadas' Films

Susan Gerhard
Mar 27, 2006

Filmmaker Carlos Reygadas discusses his life and work upon the release of his second film, Battle in Heaven.