sf indiefest

Roxie Cinema 2/14/2007 12PM

Roxie  2/17/2007 4:30PM

“[Nick Peterson] is one of the best young filmmakers I have come across in a long time. His unity of vision is rare and gives me hope for the next generation of American filmmakers.” - Gus Van Sant

Roxie Cinema 2/11/2007 2:15PM

Roxie  2/14/2007 2:15PM

World Premiere

Based on Bukowski's “Copulating Mermaid of Venice, CA,” this unsavory story follows two pathetic barflies. On their way to the pensione where they both live, they spot a parked ambulance. Presumably accustomed to corpses in this old port town, they decide to steal one and take it back to their apartment. Several drinks later, the body bag is opened to reveal a beautiful, freshly-dead young woman—and the best sex they’ve ever had. One falls helplessly and disturbingly in love, but when the sun comes up, he must let her go.

California Theater-Berkeley 2/13/2007 9:30PM

Roxie Cinema 2/14/2007 4:30PM

2/16/2007 7PM

“You Cannot Walk Straight When the Road Bends” - Romani Proverb.

The Rom people know music. And travel. So it’s not surprising that their music comes from every part of the globe. In Jasmine Dellal’s amazing “Gypsy Caravan,” five Gypsy bands from four countries on a North American concert tour astound audiences with styles ranging from flamenco to brass band, Romanian violin to Indian folk. And with humor and soul in their voices, they celebrate the best in Gypsy culture and the diversity of the Romani people in an explosion of song and dance.

Roxie Cinema 2/11/2007 7PM

2/16/2007 4:30PM

California Theater-Berkeley 2/14/2007 7PM

Many so-called independent films nowadays are more like polished calling-cards for the makers to get their three-picture deal and Hollywood perks. Julian Goldberger’s The Hawk is Dying is a gripping and and intense exploration of grief, obsession, and madness that has a raw impact more in common with the spirit of the independent films of the early 1980s. Paul Giamatti (Sideways) stars as Geroge Gattling, a Gainesville, Florida auto upholsterer, whose passion is falconry. His life is as constricted as the birds he seeks to tame are free. Living with his obese sister and her mentally challenged nephew, he pours his soul into his attempts to master his craft and train a magnificent red-tailed hawk. A tragic event drives him into obsessive madness. The film is carried by Giamatti’s riveting performance as a man lost in his quest to discover himself and his place in the world. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it was called “Entirely original…a beautiful and metaphorically film rich with genuine emotion and unexpected epiphanies.” With Michael Pitt, Rusty Schwimmer, Ann Wedgeworth, and Michelle Williams. (2006) 112 minutes

Roxie Cinema 2/14/2007 7PM

Victoria Theater 2/16/2007 9:30PM

World Premiere

“As a filmmaker, I believe in story. If by wonder, blood, chance, or commitment a tale moves me, I feel compelled to capture it. Great stories are not accidents; they bring aspects of the real into fierce focus. In this way they are truth.” - Director/Co-producer/Co-writer/Editor Greg Morgan

We are proud to present the World Premiere of Greg Morgan's “The Substance of Things Hoped For.” Morgan's film is an expertly acted and filmed, intelligently conceived, philosophically provocative, and deeply affecting spiritual speculative fiction—don't miss it.

California Theater-Berkeley    2/12/2007    9:30PM

Roxie Cinema    2/14/2007    9:30PM

                         2/17/2007    11:45PM

USA Premiere

“Unholy Women” is an omnibus film—three stories by three directors. Each tells the horrific tale of a woman, who for one reason or another, becomes very very scary.

“Rattle Rattle” (Kata Kata) Written and directed by Amemiya Keita.

One day, Kanako hears a rattling sound in front of the red building while walking back to her house. The moment she looks, something from above hits her very hard. She loses consciousness and wakes up dazed—but unhurt. As soon as she arrives home, she starts seeing a horribly deformed woman with supernatural powers.

Roxie Cinema 2/10/2007 4:30PM

2/18/2007 12PM

California Theater-Berkeley 2/14/2007 9:30PM

Oliver Meyrou’s Beyond Hatred is a calm and moving cinema-verite documentary about moving past anger and revenge. François Chenu, a young gay man, was beaten by three skinheads and thrown in a pond to die in Rheims, France.

Winner of the Teddy Award for Best Documentary at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, the film bears witness to the strength and dignity of Chenu’s parents and siblings as they travel from despair to hope. Told without narration, the story portrays the families, the victim, and the accused, and details the French legal system in its examination of the aftermath of this terrible attack. Austerely composed and flawlessly directed, the film is powerful without being preachy. Beyond Hatred is shot in the classic Verite style where the crew is invisible and the characters in this real-life tragedy speak on their own, and in their own way. In one bravura sequence, Chenu’s sister recounts her memory of the evening her brother was killed as the camera calmly surveys the park two years after the attack, accompanied by an evocative and sparse score by François Eudes Chanfrault.