Cinespot : 12th San Francisco Independent Film Festival

12th San Francisco Independent Film Festival

The 12th Annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival (IndieFest), featuring a bunch of independent films and videos from around the world, will be running from February 4th to 18th 2010 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco.

This year, the film festival is co-hosted with the Winter Music Fest, but since our website focuses on cinema only, we'll skip that part and spend more time to introduce the film festival alone.

Opening Night, Closing Night and other highlights

This year, IndieFest opens with Wa Do Dem, co-presented by the SF Film Society and featuring Norah Jones. The film won the top jury prize at the LA Film Festival.

Other highlights stressed by the organizer include Oh My God! It's Harrod Blank, a Berkeley produced indie, Corner Store, a local documentary, No One Knows About Persian Cats, winner of the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Award at Cannes Film Festival, and Limbo Lounge, another locally produced narrative.

The festival comes to a close with Harmony And Me, a raucous, highly musical comedy.

Asian attractions

Having browsed through the entire catalogue, it is no doubt that Asian cinema is a little left out this year. I am not sure if it reflects the taste of the film programmers this year or not, a great portion of the official selection is comprised of American and British productions, while a good small portion comes from Canada, Australia and some other European countries. Other than these areas, it doesn't seem to show a great variety of selection.

Without any representative from Africa, the only two Asian feature participants are The Blood of Rebirth from Japan and the previously mentioned No One Knows About Persian Cats by Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi.

Directed by notable independent filmmaker Toshiaki Toyoda, who first gained international stardom in the late 90s and also had his films Hanging Garden, Nine Souls and Blue Spring screened at the IndieFest before, The Blood of Rebirth is another bizarre period tale loosely adapted from a Japanese folklore. Set in a time when gods and demons ruled the Earth, our hero Oguri finds himself undead after helping a captive princess escape from their VD ridden lord. He takes the form of a Hungry Ghost and flees with the princess, but the lord is hot on their heels , hell bent on finding and punishing his two escapees. While it shows a promising storyline, the film is presented in a very stylistic manner. To most audience, it can be viewed as a "beautifully shot boring film, but for Toyoda's fan and artsy film regular, it can probably provide a better and more valuable viewing experience.

As mentioned, Bahman Ghobadi's No One Knows About Persian Cats is a proud winner of the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Award at Cannes Film Festival last year. It follows musical duo Negar and Ashkan after their release from prison. They decide to start a band, and their search for musicians takes on a tour of Tehran's underground indie-rock scene. Forbidden by the authorities to play in Iran, they plan to perform in Europe, but without money and passports it is not so easy. Exciting musical performances add to the real life resonance.

Apart from features, it does showcase a number of interesting short films, especially animations, from Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and various countries.

Information

The 12th Annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival (IndieFest) unspools February 4-18, 2010 at Bay Area theatres including the Roxie Cinemas, 3117 16th Street in San Francisco. Tickets are $10 in advance, $11 at the door for each screening and $20 for Opening Night (including the after party). 5-film vouchers are $45, 10-film vouchers are $85, $200 for FilmPass good for all films and parties. For tickets or more information, please call (415)820-3907 or check www.sfindie.com.

written by: staff (01/2010)
source: Larsen Associates / SF IndieFest