Exhibition | Fiscal Sponsorship | Resources

2009 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Highlighted film titles link to SFIFF pages that contain film synopses, credits, print sources, running times, countries of origin and ticket purchase links.

Speaking in Tongues
Veteran documentarians Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider tangle with the debate over bilingual education by following the diverse stories of four San Francisco public schoolchildren enrolled in Chinese and Spanish language-immersion programs.
SFFS Exhibition: 2009 SFIFF
Attendance: 360
Website: http://www.speakingintonguesfilm.info


PAST EXHIBITIONS

Highlighted film titles link to SFIFF pages that contain film synopses, credits, print sources, running times  and countries of origin.

October 17, 1961
One of contemporary Europe’s darkest moments—the still-uninvestigated 1961 massacre of Algerian protestors in Paris—is meticulously reconstructed in director Alain Tasma’s docudrama...
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 SFIFF
Attendance: 530
 
American Blackout
Ian Inaba’s American Blackout is a stylish, intelligent and provocative documentary that looks at the historic and systematic disenfranchisement of the Black vote through the lens of the political career of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia).
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 SFIFF
Attendance: 449
Youth Ed Attendance: 57
Website: www.americanblackout.com/
 
Bad Faith
Clara and Ishmael are gorgeous, happy, in love and in Paris. How nice is that? Like many cosmopolitan Parisian couples, the fact that she is Jewish and he is Muslim barely crosses the minds of these oh-so-secular lovebirds...until Clara announces that she's pregnant.
SFFS Exhibition: 2007 Youth Ed
Attendance: 456

The Boys of Baraka
Mavis Jackson tells her Black male Baltimore high school audience that they have three options by the time they reach age 18: “An orange jumpsuit and bracelets, a black suit in a brown box or a black cap and gown.”
SFFS Exhibition: 2005 SFIFF
Attendance: 1012
Youth Ed Attendance: 871
Website: www.pbs.org/pov/pov2006/boysofbaraka/
 
Brick Lane
A naive young Muslim woman moves from rural Bangladesh to London in this elegant adaptation of Monica Ali’s debut novel, one of Britain’s most acclaimed works of fiction in recent years.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 514
Website: www.sonyclassics.com/bricklane/
Co-presenter: Center for Asian American Media

Bus 24: The Diversity Bus (short)
The ethnic and cultural multiplicity of San Francisco comes to life on the #24 Muni from Bayview–Hunters Point through the city’s array of neighborhoods.
SFFS Exhibition: 2004 SFIFF
Attendance: 787

Checkpoint
The West Bank and Gaza Strip have been under Israeli military authority since 1967.
SFFS Exhibition: 2004 SFIFF
Attendance: 678

Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed
It is astounding as a contemporary viewer to witness the audacious feat that an African American woman dared to do 32 years ago.
SFFS Exhibition: 2004 SFIFF
Attendance: 390
Website: www.chisholm72.net/home.html
 
Encounter Point
Abstaining from the usual media headlines of hatred and conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, Encounter Point instead focuses on their commonality: loss.
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 SFIFF
Attendance: 363
Youth Ed Attendance: 59
Website: www.encounterpoint.com/index.php
 
L’ Esquive
“I wanted to show a different way of looking at kids in the projects,” Abdellatif Kechiche says of this courageous teenage romance…
SFFS Exhibition: 2004 SFIFF
Attendance: 838
 
Everyday People
Everyday People takes a swipe at the cold heart of capitalism, but this is political cinema with a delicate, bittersweet mood.
SFFS Exhibition: 2004 SFIFF
Attendance: 478
 
Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
Lolis Eric Elie, the award-winning New Orleans newspaperman who wrote, produced and narrates this deeply felt documentary, takes us on a tour of the city—his city…
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 949
Youth Ed Attendance: 74
Website: www.tremedoc.com/
Co-presenter: Museum of the African Diaspora

Heart of the Game
The politics of race, class and gender land center court in Ward Serrill’s entertaining documentary about the Birkenstock-shod coach of a high school girls basketball team in Seattle…
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 SFIFF
Attendance: 318
Youth Ed Attendance: 101
Website: www.heartofthegame.org/web/home.htm
 
James' Journey to Jerusalem
SFFS Exhibition: 2004 SFIFF
Attendance: 362
 
Medicine for Melancholy
After hooking up at a party, Jo (Tracey Heggins) considers her alcohol-fueled one-night stand with Micah (Wyatt Cenac) history, but he is eager to explore the possibility of a deeper connection.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 904
Website: www.strikeanywherefilms.com/
Co-presenter: Museum of the African Diaspora

Omar and Pete
After three decades in and out of prison, Omar hopes to break the cycle by participating in the Maryland Reentry Program. “I’m trying to save my life,” he declares.
SFFS Exhibition: 2005 SFIFF
Attendance: 402
Youth Ed Attendance: 14
Website: www.pbs.org/pov/pov2005/omarandpete/
 
Operation Turquoise
This unsentimental, sometimes brutal docudrama assesses the ostensibly humanitarian role of French troops after the Rwandan genocide of 1994 by viewing it through the eyes of both naïve and seasoned soldiers.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 275
Youth Ed Attendance: 72
 
Strangers in the Neighborhood
Set within the rarefied world of pigeon racing, Bisschops’s remarkable documentary shows a fascinating microcosm of the racial tensions that currently plague the Netherlands and offers the beautiful sight of pigeons in flight as a metaphor for escape.
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 SFIFF
Attendance: 274
 
They Chose China
Filmmaker Wang unearths rare and fascinating footage that reveals the story of individuals who, out of loathing for McCarthy’s America, chose a people they viewed as peace loving and who repaid their admiration until the tide turned with the Cultural Revolution.
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 SFIFF
Attendance: 464
 
The Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela
In this tribute to his late stepfather, B. Pule Leinaeng (“Lee”), filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris weaves a riveting exploration of family, exile and home.
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 SFIFF
Attendance: 435
Youth Ed Attendance: 21
Website: www.pbs.org/pov/pov2006/twelvedisciples/
 
Two Ladies
Kosher-cooking Muslims and Koran-reading Jews typify the surprising culture clashes that complicate and enliven the contemporary France of Philippe Faucon’s exquisitely observed drama.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 629
Youth Ed Attendance:

Under the Bombs
In July 2006, Southern Lebanon was caught up in a war between Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. Lebanese director Aractingi took his camera...
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFFS Screen
Atttendance: 169
Website: www.underthebombs.com/
 
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
Spike Lee’s epic documentary on the impact and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is a transcendent prayer for salvation.
SFFS Exhibition: 2007 SFIFF
Attendance: 1353
Youth Ed Attendance: 234
Website: www.hbo.com/docs/programs/whentheleveesbroke/


FISCAL SPONSORSHIP

HIghlighted film titles link to sffs.org "Current Projects" pages, alphabetically listing SFFS fiscally sponsored films, containing synopses and website links where available. Below each title is the filmmaker's name.

American Mosque (previous title Arson in September)
David  Washburn

Angel of Mercy
George Paul Csicsery

Bands in Barracks
Julie Cho

Connected (previously Seed)
Tiffany Shlain

Forty Winters
Valarie Jernigan

Imagining Home
Sue Arbuthnot

The Independent Revolution
Brandon Miller

Love Cemetery
Ben Galland, China Galland

The Pickled Head
George Csicsery

Progressive Pupil
Robin J. Hayes

Two in a Billion
Leslie Hill


RESOURCES

The following list of resources offers interested audience members more information and ways to become involved in Race Relations.

NAACP

Smithsonian Institute's Asian Pacific Program