Well it’s Closing Night already at our 54th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival, so they’ll have a ton of films in the Japantown area and, at the big Castro Theatre, they’ll have On Tour, an “unsentimental homage to the burlesque show.”
Check it out.
“Closing Night
Attend this fabulous new film and enjoy a Closing Night party with special guests to celebrate the wrap of another great Festival. Mix and mingle with a movie-loving crowd at the Closing Night party at the legendary party space the Factory. Dance the night away to music inspired by the Closing Night film and indulge in delicious hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. You must be 21+ to attend the party.
Acclaimed French actor Mathieu Amalric directs and stars in this unsentimental homage to the burlesque show and outsized female personalities barely contained by the proscenium stage. This chatty, bawdy entertainment reminds us that women have real bodies—and they want to run the show. All the women in On Tour—winner of last year’s jury award for Best Director and FIPRESCI prize at the Cannes Film Festival—are authentic American performers of what is dubbed the New Burlesque. Their acts are not only comic, theatric and erotic but also hypnotic, draped knowingly in feather boas, in a wink to audiences who think they’re watching just a striptease.
Keeping the acts and the narrative flowing is the troupe’s manager, Joachim (played by Amalric, in a performance that recalls his lovable alienated misfits in Arnaud Desplechin’s films). A former French TV producer who left France for the United States after some untold disgraces, Joachim has found renewed purpose with a bevy of burlesque queens. He accompanies them to France for a tour of the countryside that will be either a journey of redemption or an utter failure. For the sassy brassy ladies, it’s a different story. They’ve been promised Paris, but they are willing to give their all in the seedy theaters Joachim books for them in backwater towns along France’s west coast. They are pros after all and, in the end, the show must go on. —Beverly Berning”
All right, see you there!
And here are your winners, announced yesterday. Congratulations!
Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature Winners
Investigative Documentary Feature:
Crime After Crime, Yoav Potash (USA 2011)
· Winner receives $25,000 cash prize
Documentary Feature:
Better This World, Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway (USA 2011)
· Winner receives $20,000 cash prize
Bay Area Documentary Feature:
Better This World, Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway (USA 2011)
· Winner receives $15,000 cash prize and $2000 laboratory services from EFILM Digital Laboratories.
New Directors Award:
The Journals of Musan, Park Jung-bum (South Korea 2010)
· Winner receives $15,000 cash prize
FIPRESCI Prize:
The Salesman, Sébastien Pilote (Canada 2011)
Golden Gate Award Short Film Winners
Narrative Short: Blokes, Marialy Rivas (Chile 2010)
· Winner receives $5,000 cash prize
Documentary Short: Into the Middle of Nowhere, Anna Frances Ewert (Scotland, England 2010)
· Winner receives $5,000 cash prize
Animated Short: The External World, David O’Reilly (Ireland 2010)
· Winner receives $2,000 cash prize and Maya animation software provided by Auto Desk
Bay Area Short, First Prize: Tourist Trap, Skye Thorstenson (USA 2010)
· Winner receives $2,000 cash prize
Bay Area Short, Second Prize: Young Dracula, Alfred Seccombe (USA 2010)
· Winner receives $1,500 cash prize
New Visions: Lost Lake, Zackary Drucker (USA 2010)
· Winner receives $1,500 cash prize and 1,000 feet of Kodak film stock
Work for Kids and Families: Specky Four Eyes, Jean-Claude Rozec (France 2010)
· Winner receives $1,500 cash prize
Youth Work: Z-Man, Nat Talbot (USA 2010)
· Winner receives $1,500 cash prize
Youth Work Honorable Mention: The Snowman Kelly Wilson, Neil Wrischnik (USA 2010)
Youth Work Honorable Mention: The Math Test, Sam Rubin (USA 2010)
