EATING and DRINKING FILMS & MORE From THE SEATTLE FILM FESTIVAL

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By Vince Keenan

The 51st Seattle International Film Festival drew to a close on May 25, with a selection of entries available via streaming through June 1. At this year’s fest, I paid particular attention to nonfiction titles spotlighting the troika of subjects that matter most to EatDrinkFilms readers. Let’s begin with a libation.

Wine has its sommeliers, beer its cicerones. As the craft cocktail revolution took hold in the aughts, six authorities on spirits launched a program that would provide similar certification to bartenders. Continue reading →

More Loudly Anticipating the San Francisco Silent Film Festival

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Part Two- What I Will Be Seeing

By Meredith Brody

May 4, 2022

I learned my lesson early with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival: GO TO EVERYTHING.

The first year I attended, I cherry-picked only the movies I hadn’t seen before.  The ones I went to were such a revelation – both in the presentation and the group experience – that my heart hurt as I walked away.  What a MAROON I was. Even a movie I thought I knew well would be a fresh experience, featuring as it did not only live music, but one of the world’s great audiences. There’s a kind of euphoria that sets in when you commit to seeing everything on offer. Continue reading →

FELLINI 100 : A Celebration in Images, Words and Music

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by Gary Meyer

“Why don’t you make films in color?” Federico Fellini was asked shortly after his 1963 black and white hit 8 ½.  He explained that it was not his right to determine for the audience the exact color of, say, a blade of grass or the blue in the sky. I was a teenager with a passionate interest in all kinds of movies, especially the exotic foreign films playing at theaters like Mel Novikoff’s Surf Theatre, Pauline Kael and Ed Landsburg’s Studio & Guild Cinemas and at the San Francisco International Film Festival— this intriguing answer that made sense to me until his next feature came out where he more than broke his rule. Juliet of the Spirits was so overwhelming in its use of color one might have thought it was soon to be banned and he needed to splash every tint and tone across the screen while he could. I loved it in 1965 and can’t wait to see it again on the big screen as part of the Fellini 100 celebration through May 14, 2022 at BAMPFA.

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FELLINI IN MOTION

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We love Fellini and we love trailers that tease us to want to see the full features.

In March 2020 the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive was starting an extensive Fellini 100 series when Covid shut the Museum down.  But the Fellini Celebration is back, playing through May 14, 2022.

We are pleased to present a collection of trailers, interviews and appreciations of Federico Fellini in honor of his belated 100th birthday.

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The Truffle Hunters: A Flavorful Life

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By C.J. Hirschfield

You may assume that the stars in this delectable new documentary feature are human; and some of them are. But when you experience an exhilarating dog’s eye-view of a hunt to find the rare and wondrous fungus and hear the excited snuffling sounds of success, you understand that there would be no truffle hunt without some very canny canines. Both they—and the aromatic white Alba truffles they hunt—are worth their weight in gold.

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SHOOTING THE MAFIA: NOT ENOUGH MUSCLE

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By C.J. Hirschfield

There is no doubt that the story of octogenarian Italian photojournalist Letizia Battaglia is an interesting one. A talented artist/activist/elected official/ iconoclast who has experienced spousal abuse, sexual discrimination, and many long affairs with much younger men, she has for decades documented the atrocities of the Mafia in her home town of Palermo, Sicily.Screen Shot 2019-11-30 at 11.42.16 AM.png

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SEVEN FILMS I WANT TO SEE AT SF FILM

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by Meredith Brody

On my first sweep through the SF Film catalogue, even trying to be slightly discriminating and not greedily inclusive, I came up with 54 different films and events that I wanted to see. Fat chance! I knew there’d be overlaps in screening times as well as distances between venues that would cut down that list, as well as life intervening in a festival that occurs tantalizingly in your hometown.

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TASTY NEW ITALIAN CINEMA IN SAN FRANCISCO

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AS NEEDED _ 1. (L-R) Vinicio Marchioni, Luigi Fedele small.jpeg

What would and Italian film festival be without food and wine? Food and beverage lovers are in for treats at the 2018 New Italian Cinema. The opening night film, AS NEEDED, is a comic drama and culinary road trip to Florence, Italy about a veteran chef and a talented young chef with autism whose meeting take some unexpected turns. THE LAST PROSECCO is a witty thriller that unravels on the hills of Valdobbiadene, where Prosecco grapes grow. And THE LAST ITALIAN COWBOYS, a beautifully lensed documentary love song to the Maremma region and a unique perspective on how the cowboys on an organic, free-range ranch carry out Italy’s slow food traditions.

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