#essential sf

[sffilmsociety]

Local Cinematic Luminaries: 2013 Essential SF Inductees

Essential SF is the Film Society’s ongoing compendium of the Bay Area film community’s most vital figures and institutions, and each fall a new group of local cinematic luminaries is inducted at Cinema by the Bay. At a short ceremony hosted by filmmaker Carlton Evans, this year’s inductees—sound designer Richard Beggs, experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky, Castro Theatre organist David Hegarty, film programmer Anita Monga and film collective Kontent Films—will be feted by special guest presenters and Film Society staff. Learn more about these local unsung  heroes below and join us in honoring them!

The San Francisco Film Society will present its fourth annual Essential SF event at 5:00 pm, November 24 at the Roxie Theater. This event is FREE and open to the public. To reserve a ticket to Essential SF, RSVP to [email protected].

2013 ESSENTIAL SF INDUCTEES

Richard Beggs

A sound designer and mixer on 65 feature films since 1976, Beggs has worked with Francis Coppola, Barry Levinson, Sofia Coppola, Alfonso Cuarón and other major directors. He won an Academy Award for sound for Apocalypse Now (1979) and a TEC Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Film Sound, and has received seven Golden Reel sound nominations. He is an associate fellow of Berkeley College at Yale University and sits on the board of directors of the San Francisco Arts Education Project. His most recent project is Gia Coppola’s Palo Alto.

   Nathaniel Dorsky

Nathaniel Dorsky was born in New York City in 1943 and has been making films since he was ten years old. He went to college for a year and then began working both in the film industry for a living and on his own poetic films since he was 20. He has received awards and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation and LEF, among many others. His book Devotional Cinema is an eloquent testament to the power of the moving image and art in general.

   David Hegarty

David Hegarty is currently in his 35th year as organist of San Francisco’s Castro Theatre. He also plays pre-film concerts at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto and is a monthly recitalist at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. An avid film music researcher, he specializes in transcriptions of great film music from Hollywood’s Golden Age. As a concert artist, Hegarty has appeared in such diverse venues as Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, the Crystal Cathedral, with the Oakland Pops Orchestra, and with the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall.

   Kontent Films

Founded in 2000, Kontent is a faction of award-winning and difference-making filmmakers banded together to form an artistic convergence, not necessarily a business model. The Kollective’s work spans feature films, shorts, commercials, brand films and television programming. Led by Executive Producer Teri Heyman and Founder Mark Decena, Kontent finds itself in its adolescent years unvexed by what they want to be when they grow up. Once, there were genres: big screens and small screens, creators and consumers. Content is now indivisible, story-driven, and collectively capable of anything. Especially if it begins with a K.

   Anita Monga

Anita Monga is Artistic Director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. A founding member of the Film Noir Foundation, Monga programs Noir City and advises and contributes to other film festivals. She programmed the Castro Theatre for many years and before that the York Theater and the Roxie Cinema.

[sffilmsociety]

A Band Apart: Essential SF

By Sean Uyehara Photos by Michael Rauner

This past weekend, we presented the third annual Essential SF, the Film Society’s newest edition in our growing compendium of people, organizations and films that we consider “essential” to Bay Area film culture.

There’s a necessary arbitrariness to the selection each year, as there is no way that we can include every person, film, thing and idea that comprises the Bay Area film community (of course), and that’s not really the goal anyhow.  So, the Essential SF list isn’t exhaustive.

And to that end, we were lucky to be able to present (each with a minor personal detail from me):

Judy Stone, longtime and formidable SF Chronicle movie critic. I first met Judy about ten years ago, and she is and remains a bit intimidating. I told her that I was relatively new to SFFS and she responded by giving me some quarters and asking me to run out and feed her meter.

H.P. Mendoza, writer, director, actor, composer, editor and producer, but as Tim Sika said at the ceremony, “Can he cook?” If there is someone who is able to combine quiet confidence with graciousness better, I haven’t met him. Despite his wonderful first feature Colma: The Musical, he hails from SF, not Colma. And, he has never driven a car. If you run into him, please offer a ride to the nearest BART station.

Terry Zwigoff, director. Terry’s appearance in the film I, Curmudgeon made me nervous about working with him. His films are cynical, smart and dark, so it’s not clear what he’s like personally. I had been exchanging emails with Terry leading up to the event and told him he should say some things about what it’s like to work in the Bay Area. I also said, “Should be easy.” His reply, “You think that’s easy?!” And I said, “Relative to coal mining.” Then, I waited for an email stating, “Something came up. I can’t attend.” etc. But Terry did show, and he brought the house down by reading web comments on an article about filmmaking from young people who want to be film directors. And, he gave us some insight to the Bay Area community as well.

Wholphin, a DVD subscription series based in SF and published by McSweeney’s. Wholphin producer Malcolm Pullinger accepted the award on behalf of himself and Wholphin founder Brent Hoff. Hoff was one of the first media distributors that I really conspired with here at the Film Society. We have talked about huge crazy ideas about inflatable outdoor screens, international short film excursions, residencies, music commissions and a ton of other things. We have managed to present a smattering of our ideas over the years, and I feel lucky to call Hoff a friend. That’s why it didn’t surprise me that instead of accepting the award he flew to New York for a business meeting.

Ninfa Dawson, patron saint of Bay Area film festivals. Ninfa has been involved in more film festivals than most staffers in the Bay Area combined. She can get scores of volunteers to show up and work at just about any event you would like. And, she does this with absolute grace and humor.

Seeing these wonderful and deserving people in the same room was gratifying, as was witnessing Michael Fox (film critic for SF Weekly, KQED and the originator of the Essential SF idea) run the evening.

New Film Society Executive Director Ted Hope suggested that we move the ceremony to Davies Symphony Hall for future presentations. So, stay tuned for more.