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
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable

    • Sunday, April 15 1 PM
    Sasha Waters Freyer
    United States, 2018

    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.

    Sasha Waters Freyer and Geoff Dyer in Person

  • Wajib

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

    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.

  • Nathaniel Dorsky: Four Films

    • Sunday, April 15 5:45 PM

    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.

    Nathaniel Dorsky and Steve Anker in Conversation

  • Godard, mon amour

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

    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.

  • Bisbee ’17

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

    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.

  • Minding the Gap

    • Saturday, April 14 3 PM
    Bing Liu
    United States, 2018

    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.

    Bing Liu in Person

  • I Am Not a Witch

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

    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.

  • The Cleaners

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

    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.

    Moritz Riesewieck in Person

  • Shirkers

    • Friday, April 13 6 PM
    Sandi Tan
    United States, 2018

    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.

    Sandi Tan in Person

  • Tigre

    • Friday, April 13 8:30 PM
    Silvina Schnicer, Ulises Porra Guardiola
    Argentina, 2017

    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.

    Silvina Schnicer and Ulises Porra Guardiola in Person

  • Suleiman Mountain

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

    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.

  • Hale County This Morning, This Evening

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

    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.

    RaMell Ross in Person

  • Purge This Land

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

    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.

    Lee Anne Schmitt in Person

  • The Other Side of Everything

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

    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.

    Mila Turajlić in Person

  • Un traductor

    • Sunday, April 8 12:30 PM
    Rodrigo Barriuso, Sebastián Barriuso
    Canada, Cuba, 2018

    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.

    Rodrigo & Sebastián Barriuso in Person

  • A Man of Integrity

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

    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.

  • The Shape of a Surface: Experimental Shorts

    • Sunday, April 8 6 PM

    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.

    arc in Person

  • First Reformed

    • Sunday, April 8 8 PM
    Paul Schrader
    United States, 2017

    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.

    Paul Schrader in Person

  • The Judge

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

    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.

    Erika Cohn in Person

  • No Date, No Signature

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

    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.

  • The Workshop

    • Saturday, April 7 8 PM
    Laurent Cantet
    France, 2017

    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.

  • The Price of Everything

    • Saturday, April 7 1 PM
    Nathaniel Kahn
    United States, 2018

    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.

    Nathaniel Kahn in Person

  • The Third Murder

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

    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.

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

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

    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.

  • Angels Wear White

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

    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.

  • The Distant Barking of Dogs

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

    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.

    Simon Lereng Wilmont in Person