Barely two months into his new role as executive director of San Francisco Film Society, Noah Cowan held court for a packed audience at the Fairmont Hotel Pavilion Room, where he and other film society programmers announced their lineup for the 57th International Film Festival.
This year's showcase -- like its analogues in Toronto and Cannes and Telluride -- will
pair ebullient coming-of-age stories with "urgent, journalistic documentaries," and other films that evoke the frisson of danger, according to director of programming Rachel Rosen. And it will star James Franco.
Perhaps that's the film society's concession to younger patrons, who will ultimately have to keep San Francisco's art institutions alive. Or maybe it's an easy form of Hollywood cachet. Or perhaps Franco is using this medium-sized, highly aspirational gala as a testing-ground for his own artistic muse -- the festival's centerpiece film, Palo Alto, is based on his book of short stories; another film, Child of God, is his screenplay adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel.
Franco fans will get their share of the doe-eyed actor, too, since he'll appear in the first film (directed by Gia Coppola) and star in the latter. Unfortunately, he won't actually be available for in-person interviews, since the festival conflicts with his Broadway production of Of Mice and Men. Alas.
Additional highlights this year Boyhood, by Richard Linklater, who will also be feted with the festival's Founder's Directing award. (Other notable honorees include Spike Lee and Satyajit Ray, who also premiered work at SFIFF.) Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir will perform on Friday, May 2 to commemorate his festival biopic, The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir. No No: A Dockumentary (about Dock Ellis) will tell the story of a famed 1970s baseball star who pitched a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates on LSD. The festival's New World Stage will comprise works from Germany, France, China, Nepal, Sweden, Estonia, and the Phillipines. Francois Ozon will chronicle the odd journey of a teenage prostitute, from first deflowering to professional harlotry.
That's just a small sampling. But it's enough to show how San Francisco Film Society has flowered under new leadership. The San Francisco International Film Festival runs from April 24 to May 8; more information can be found on the film society's site: Festival.SFFS.org
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