6 Films to Watch for from the 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival

A scene from Adrian Sitaru's "Hooked." Image courtesy of San Francisco Film Society.

The oldest film festival on North American soil continues to buck trends, innovate, and focus on quality over commerce as it plows ahead seemingly unencumbered by a slumping economy that has sharply altered and downsized (and in some cases bankrupt) its peers. In its 52nd year, the San Francisco International Film Festival presented the roughly same number of programs as ever, while expanding its local Bay Area focus and maintaining a commitment to screening an impressively broad range of cinema from around the world. The festival wraps tonight with a screening of Alexis Dos Santos’ “Unmade Beds.”

The 15-day event kicked off fittingly, if weakly, with Peter Bratt’s “La Mission.” A cinematic ode to the rough but vibrant San Francisco neighborhood it is based in, the film stars Benjamin Bratt as an ex-con and one-time alcoholic who sets his life straight only to be confronted by his biggest challenge ever - his son’s homosexuality. While the plot flirts with several intriguing themes - gentrification, homophobia, interracial dating, and the relationship between power, respect and violence - the film bungles away the opportunity to offer any fresh perspectives on these matters by employing a soggy, made-for-TV approach that favors the use of dumbed-down cliches over genuine storytelling.

The rest of the big-ticket events boasted heavy hitters, and these didn’t disappoint one bit. Two of Hollywood’s biggest icons were feted with on-stage tributes and interviews: first Robert Redford was honored with SFIFF’s acting award, before regaling an animated audience with behind-the-scenes accounts of preparing for his role in “All the President’s Men”; his reluctant, almost embattled, stance on his good looks and fame; and his take on the troubling state of contemporary Hollywood. Two nights later directing awardee Francis Ford Coppola was joined onstage by George Lucas, Walter Murch, Carroll Ballard, and Matthew Robbins for a chatty evening that, much to the delight of those in attendance, quickly (d)evolved into a nostalgic session of reminisces about the good old 1970s and the beginning of American Zeotrope.

The most charmingly offbeat honoree turned out to be James Toback, who was being recognized for his contributions in screenwriting (“Fingers,” “The Pickup Artist,” “Two Guys and a Girl”). Toback talked affably and articulately - without the slightest hint of either hubris or remorse - on subjects ranging from his excessive gambling and hard drug use to his fascination with athletic black men and his writing process, which boils down to six months of inactivity, followed by a few days of frenzied typing. In between these playful anecdotes, he offered extremely cogent insights on how he makes movie dialogue breathe and the stubborn wrongheadedness of screenwriters who are inflexible about their work being altered throughout the production process.

Naturalism, innovation, and a willingness - if not a mandate - to be flexible were hallmarks of the festival’s most absorbing and inspired entries. Below I’ve included a list of six films for SFIFF52 that were, for me, the absolute standouts of this year’s crop. Naturally, this is an entirely subjective exercise, and to boot, one that is unfair by nature. While the festival screened 155 films, I was only able to see 35 of them, so inevitably there were gems I missed. If you attended the fest and have films to champion, please add your picks to the comment section below.

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Francis Ford Coppola and James Toback at SFIFF. Photo by Pamela Gentile. 6 SFIFF films to watch, arranged alphabetically: ”City of Borders” When Berkeley-based filmmaker Yun Suh heard that there was only one gay bar in all of Jerusalem, she set out to investigate, camera in hand. How could that be? After all, Israel’s capital is only a 45 minute drive from Tel Aviv - in many ways the GLBT center of the Middle East - and home to a large annual Gay Pride parade. What she finds is a fascinatingly rich and complex set of explanations, tangents, and colorful personalities. The city is teeming with challenges for the queer community, some expected and others less predictable: coupled with a familiar brand of homophobia based on inflexible moralist arguments are thornier complications - ranging from a well-organized, highly intolerant ultra-orthodox movement to a destructive rift between the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem GLBT leadership. An even harder obstacle to overcome is the institutionalized distrust for relationships between Jews and Arabs (something not at all uncommon amongst the generally liberal and progressive youth haunting Shushan, the lone gay bar). Yun Suh recognizes that this waterhole of a refuge is magnetically captivating precisely because of the fraught journeys its clientele must endure to get there. As she tracks the first openly gay City Council member, a Palestinian drag queen and a Jewish-Palestinian couple, she is careful to avoid reducing them to shallow archetypes for the sake of a neat cine-thesis. Instead, she strikes documentary gold by allowing each to shine individually, whether bearing their soul about hate-crimes or just giddily dancing with friends. [Article continues on page 2.] Page 1 of 2 Next Login to recommend this article » posted on May 7, 2009 Films to Snag Comments 1 banner14 says on May 7, 2009 at 4:12pm Everything Strange And New. FIPRESCI Prize winner. Hometown film. Nothing else like it. Login to Leave a Comment »