61st San Francisco International Film Festival at BAMPFA

April 5–15, 2018

  • Angels Wear White

  • A Man of Integrity

  • Minding the Gap

  • Godard, mon amour

  • Nathaniel Dorsky's The Dreamer

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Angels Wear White

    Vivian Qu
    China, France, 2017
    Thursday, April 5 6:30 PM

    The assault of two underage girls by a local official in a sunlight-bathed seaside town becomes the focal point for this seething study of the challenges women face in Chinese society.

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  • The Distant Barking of Dogs

    Simon Lereng Wilmont
    Denmark, Sweden, Finland, 2017
    Thursday, April 5 8:40 PM
    Simon Lereng Wilmont in Person

    In the midst of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, a loving, wise, and defiant grandmother raises her two young grandsons. Director Simon Lereng Wilmont lends sensitivity and entrancing visuals to a nuanced portrait of war and its corrosive effect.

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  • The Third Murder

    Hirokazu Kore-eda
    Japan, 2017
    Friday, April 6 6 PM

    Master director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest film is a tour-de-force examination of guilt and justice. The incomparable Koji Yakusho plays a man who confesses to a murder but may be hiding a more complicated truth.

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  • Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat

    Sara Driver
    United States, 2017
    Friday, April 6 8:30 PM

    Chronicling Jean-Michel Basquiat’s teen years in 1970s New York City, this documentary presents a fresh and vibrant look at the young artist as a reflection of the time and place where he grew up.

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  • The Price of Everything

    Nathaniel Kahn
    United States, 2018
    Saturday, April 7 1 PM
    Nathaniel Kahn in Person

    A major Sotheby’s auction is the focal point for this broad exploration of the exploding market in contemporary art, featuring incredibly candid interviews with collectors, curators, and artists.

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  • The Judge

    Erika Cohn
    Palestine, United States, 2017
    Saturday, April 7 3:30 PM
    Erika Cohn in Person

    Judge Kholoud Al-Faqih became the first female appointed to any of the Middle East’s Shari’a courts in 2009. This intimate portrait captures the determined and compassionate judge as she strives to achieve justice in a system that so often does not favor women.

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  • No Date, No Signature

    Vahid Jalilvand
    Iran, 2017
    Saturday, April 7 5:45 PM

    A car accident at night causes escalating damage and forces all involved to confront issues of moral responsibility in this second feature from Vahid Jalilvand, an impressive Iranian theater director.

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  • The Workshop

    Laurent Cantet
    France, 2017
    Saturday, April 7 8 PM

    A writing workshop on France’s Mediterranean coast becomes a microcosm for the fraught divisions in present-day French society in this film from the Palme d’Or–winning director of 2008’s The Class.

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  • Un traductor

    Rodrigo Barriuso, Sebastián Barriuso
    Canada, Cuba, 2018
    Sunday, April 8 12:30 PM
    Rodrigo & Sebastián Barriuso in Person

    Bringing to light a little-known piece of Cuban history, this moving and understated medical drama set in 1989 Havana tells the story of a Russian teacher drafted to serve as a translator for children from Chernobyl. Westworld’s Rodrigo Santoro stars.

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  • A Man of Integrity

    Mohammad Rasoulof
    Iran, 2017
    Sunday, April 8 3:15 PM

    Power struggles and moral compromises feed an escalating conflict when an uncompromising fish farmer clashes with his neighbor and a powerful company that sets its sights on his land. Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes.

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  • The Shape of a Surface: Experimental Shorts

    Sunday, April 8 6 PM
    arc in Person

    In this diverse program showcasing the film medium itself, history and the world are reframed. Featuring works by arc, Stephanie Barber, Paul Clipson, Nazli Dincel, Jim Jennings, Pablo Mazzolo, Alee Peoples, and Jennifer Separzadeh.

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  • First Reformed

    Paul Schrader
    United States, 2017
    Sunday, April 8 8 PM
    Paul Schrader in Person

    A minister finds newfound meaning and reawakened desire when a lovely parishioner seeks his counsel in this film from legendary writer/director Paul Schrader. With memorable performances by Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, and Cedric the Entertainer.

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  • Purge This Land

    Lee Anne Schmitt
    United States, 2017
    Wednesday, April 11 6:30 PM
    Lee Anne Schmitt in Person

    Weaving the story and letters of radical American abolitionist John Brown and the attack on Harper’s Ferry with her own personal history, Lee Ann Schmitt uses her signature essay style to create a profound portrait of America today.

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  • The Other Side of Everything

    Mila Turajlić
    Serbia, France, Qatar, 2017
    Wednesday, April 11 8:40 PM
    Mila Turajlić in Person

    In 1945, Mila Turajlić’s family apartment in Belgrade was divided and redistributed by the government; because of her mother’s activism, they were spied on from the very rooms they used to own. In this film, mother and daughter reflect on their complicated personal and political histories.

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  • Suleiman Mountain

    Elizaveta Stishova
    Kyrgyzstan, Russia, 2017
    Thursday, April 12 6 PM

    A young Kyrgyz boy is taken out an orphanage and into the lives of his supposed parents, who make ends meet by running cons on unsuspecting villagers, in this beautifully filmed tale that interweaves mythological and comedic elements.

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  • Hale County This Morning, This Evening

    RaMell Ross
    United States, 2018
    Thursday, April 12 8:30 PM
    RaMell Ross in Person

    Award-winning photographer RaMell Ross’s inspired and intimate portrait of an African American community in rural Alabama captures small but precious moments in black lives with rapturous attention.

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  • Shirkers

    Sandi Tan
    United States, 2018
    Friday, April 13 6 PM
    Sandi Tan in Person

    A lost-and-found film made in Singapore decades ago prompts this buoyant personal documentary about movie love, female friendship, and the urge for creative expression. Winner of the Directing Award, World Cinema Documentary, at Sundance.

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  • Tigre

    Silvina Schnicer, Ulises Porra Guardiola
    Argentina, 2017
    Friday, April 13 8:30 PM
    Silvina Schnicer and Ulises Porra Guardiola in Person

    In a boarded-up family estate in Argentina’s mysterious and ancient Tigre delta, three generations gather to decide whether to sell their property to developers, and interpersonal conflicts build to a powerful crescendo.

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  • Bisbee ’17

    Robert Greene
    United States, 2018
    Saturday, April 14 12 PM

    This hybrid film revisits the violent deportation of striking copper miners from Bisbee, Arizona, a century ago, tapping into the current political climate while questioning what is the “real” history.

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  • Minding the Gap

    Bing Liu
    United States, 2018
    Saturday, April 14 3 PM
    Bing Liu in Person

    In Rockford, Illinois, Bing Liu has been filming his friends on and off their skateboards for ten years. His film is less a documentary about skate culture than a fresh and powerful coming-of-age story.

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  • I Am Not a Witch

    Rungano Nyoni
    United Kingdom, France, 2018
    Saturday, April 14 5:30 PM

    With this strikingly beautiful first feature, Rungano Nyoni layers magic realism, satire, and social critique in the original and unforgettable story of a girl accused of witchcraft and exiled from her village.

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  • The Cleaners

    Moritz Riesewieck, Hans Block
    Germany, Brazil, 2018
    Saturday, April 14 8 PM
    Moritz Riesewieck in Person

    Compassionately portraying the Filipino workers who comb through thousands of online images in an attempt to monitor and delete offensive or incendiary social media posts, this film exposes the dark side of information technology.

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  • Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable

    Sasha Waters Freyer
    United States, 2018
    Sunday, April 15 1 PM
    Sasha Waters Freyer and Geoff Dyer in Person
    This gorgeous and lively look at Garry Winogrand and his work uses still images, home movie footage, and revelatory, recently discovered audio recordings to illustrate why many consider him to be the foremost photographer of post–World War II America.
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  • Wajib

    Annemarie Jacir
    Palestine, France, Germany, Colombia, Norway, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, 2017
    Sunday, April 15 3:15 PM

    In Annemarie Jacir’s charming and poignant new film, a Palestinian father and son living in Israel deliver wedding invitations over the course of an afternoon while personal and political tensions simmer in the background.

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  • Nathaniel Dorsky: Four Films

    Sunday, April 15 5:45 PM
    Nathaniel Dorsky and Steve Anker in Conversation

    Four ephemeral worlds emerge in this selection of shorts by Nathaniel Dorsky, this year’s recipient of the Persistence of Vision Award. The films are Autumn, Avraham, The Dreamer, and Intimations.

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  • Godard, mon amour

    Michel Hazanavicius
    France, 2017
    Sunday, April 15 8:15 PM

    Portraying Jean-Luc Godard at the pivotal moment when he made La Chinoise and fell in love with leading lady Anne Wiazemsky, Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) pays homage to Godard’s genius even as he cheekily sends up the director’s excesses and pretensions.

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