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Feature

Best of the Fest

Our critics' recommendations from this year's films.

By Frako Loden

Published: April 23, 2008

Alexandra (Alexander Sokurov, Russia) Spare yet tactile, a mysterious mixture of lightness and gravity, Alexander Sokurov's Alexandra is founded on contradiction. Musing on war in...

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The Great Beyond

By Frako Loden

Published: January 2, 2008

Leaving home to find work, and the emotional baggage dragged along, is the theme of the stronger offerings in this year's Berlin & Beyond Film Festival , which screens independent films and...

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The Wilder One

By Frako Loden

Published: December 12, 2007

It's tough to forget goonish, heavy-lidded character actor Timothy Carey once you've seen him. He tosses beer in Marlon Brando's face in The Wild One . He shoots a racehorse in Kubrick's The...

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King Kang

By Frako Loden

Published: November 28, 2007

Los Angeles neo-noir meets multiformat video grit with varying success in Chris Chan Lee's sophomore effort Undoing . The film stars Sung Kang ( Better Luck Tomorrow , The Fast and the Furious:...

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Romania Has It

By Frako Loden

Published: July 14, 2007

The "it" cinema of the past few years has come from Romania, scooping up raves at film fests. But there hasn't been a local chance to view the winners as a group until the Revolutions in Romanian...

Feature

Asian Imports

By Frako Loden

Published: April 25, 2007

Whether it's because of the enormous changes occurring in Asia right now or because it simply makes for good movies, portraits of rebels and rebellion crop up in several films from that continent...

Feature

SFIFF Film Capsules

By Frako Loden

Published: April 25, 2007

Why Didnt Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad in Afghanistan? (Cyrus Frisch, Holland) Filmmaker Cyrus Frisch set out to record deteriorating relations between the native Dutch...

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Third Third I

The S.F. International South Asian Film Festival has the depth of an older series

By Frako Loden

Published: November 9, 2005

Is it only the third annual San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival ? It seems like it's been around much longer, given its quality and reach. (We're also impressed by the breadth of...

See/Be Seen

Walking Her Walk

The music of cities

By Frako Loden

Published: November 9, 2005

WED 11/9 Viv Corringham appreciates the racket of urban street noise; it inspires her to sing. The celebrated British recording artist brings her environmentally inspired soundscapes to...

Performance

A Filipino Dorothy

The Wizard in a tree

By Frako Loden

Published: November 2, 2005

ONGOING 11/3-20 The Wizard of Oz meets the dreaded Filipino fiend the aswang : Does this sound weird, even for a high-concept play? Maybe, but Banyan , by Bay Area playwright Jeannie...

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Love Among the Tombstones

A collection of cutting-edge films, including one on S.F.'s cemeteries

By Frako Loden

Published: September 14, 2005

Who knew that every strollable square foot of northwestern San Francisco once hid the remains of past citizens, going back to the Gold Rush? Hyperbole aside, that's the indelible impression left...

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11 Nights in Asia

The S.F. Asian Film Festival has a new venue, and plenty of great films

By Frako Loden

Published: August 10, 2005

The indefatigable Frank Lee has emerged after settling the uncertain future of his Four Star theater on Clement Street, and the San Francisco Asian Film Festival -- a candy store of recent genre...

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Flyaway Anime

Cool animated feature films from Miyazaki Hayao's Studio Ghibli

By Frako Loden

Published: June 1, 2005

Get an extended tour of Japan's powerhouse animation studio at the Berkeley film series "The Art of Anime: Studio Ghibli." Here's a chance to catch up, on the big screen, with Miyazaki Hayao's...

Film

More Than One Tsunami

By Frako Loden

Published: April 27, 2005

This year's selection of works from the neglected filmmaking countries of Malaysia and Indonesia reveals countless tsunamis, not all literal, that have swept the shores of these multicultural...

Film

Into the Jungle

By Frako Loden

Published: April 20, 2005

Setting out to cover Latin American cinema, it wasn't immediately apparent how many Argentine films would be in the mix. As it happens, they form the most interesting selection of...

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Planet Asia

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival goes global

By Frako Loden

Published: March 9, 2005

In its 23rd year, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival has gone global, no longer focusing specifically on the Pacific edge, but instead reaching into regions once...

Zoom Lens

Zoom Lens

"Neo-Eiga" is the local Asian film event of the year

By Frako Loden

Published: September 15, 2004

The fourth annual "Neo-Eiga" series achieves a spectrum of tastes, genres, and ideologies that makes it the local Asian -- and not just Japanese -- film event of the year. Eight movies, made...

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Film Frenzy

The S.F. Black Film Festival may be short, but don't let that fool you

By Frako Loden

Published: June 9, 2004

The sixth annual San Francisco Black Film Festival may be shorter than other local fests (just five days long, as compared to the San Francisco International Film Festival's two-week stretch),...

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Mann Made

Anthony Mann seems to have tried everything in his long movie career

By Frako Loden

Published: January 21, 2004

"Choosing the way to die -- what's the difference? Choosing the way to live -- that's the hard part." When grinning fugitive Robert Ryan points this fact out to bounty hunter James Stewart in...

Film

The Deep End

A quiet teenage love triangle slips into town

By Frako Loden

Published: December 31, 2003

When the year-end rains hit, you know it's the season of bloated film spectaculars, Oscar-baiting performances, and reviewers' Top 10 lists. But in the quiet week after the Hollywood Christmas...