An excerpt from Walter Murch’s upcoming book on “The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design”
Award winning editor Walter Murch will be in conversation after a screening of “Her Name Was Moviola” on Friday, March 21 at the Smith Rafael Film Center @ 7pm. He will discuss the kind of editing equipment used for decades with celluloid and how his work has changed in the digital age. Moviolas and other equipment will be on display. For full information and to buy tickets go here.
Steve Sando founder and chef at Rancho Gordo has developed a special Marcella Bean and offers two recipes from The Bean Book: 100 Recipes for Cooking with All Kinds of Beans, from the Rancho Gordo Kitchen by Steve Sando with Julia Newberry. Continue reading
UNDERDOGS is a special film that follows minimum-security prisoners as they care for and train homeless dogs with behavioral issues that have made the dogs —- until now —- unadoptable. Positive Reinforcement helped both dogs and inmates find their way back home.
A Director’s Event with live music from the soundtrack and a film screening followed by a Director’s Q&A will take place on Thursday March 20, 2025 at the Sunrise Center, 645 Tamalpias Drive, Corte Madera from 6:30-8:30 pm. Tickets and more information here. Continue reading
By Farwa Ali (January 30, 2025)
Graceful veined hands turn the seashell over a few times in reverent contemplation. A few moments later artist Ann Arnold tosses the seashell back into the rippling cerulean waves lapping against the shore of San Francisco’s Baker Beach. It has completed its journey, traveling from the ocean into Arnold’s life; where she has acknowledged its value, captured its luminous existence in her painting, and respectfully returned it to the ocean from whence it emerged. Wrestling The Angel – an Artist’s Passage, does more than capture Arnold’s artistic journey.
We were thinking of the wonderful supporters of our film The Art of Eating- The Life of M.F.K. Fisher on Valentine’s Day and wanted to express our love and add a little romance, Mary Frances style, to your day.
by Meredith Brody (February 4, 2025)
We cinephiles contain multitudes. Luckily, the SF Bay Area continues to cater to its diverse audiences with a number of well-curated film festivals. One of my favorites has always been the annual Mostly British Film Festival, which colonizes (haha) the Vogue Theater for 8 days in February. Mostly British includes films from the UK, Ireland, Australia, India, South Africa, and New Zealand. Catnip for not only the Acorn and Britbox addicts, but for Anglophiles and others. Continue reading
San Francisco’s A Day of Silents Features a Stellar Lineup of Musicians and Films on Sunday, February 2, 2025.
by Meredith Brody. (January 28,2025)
The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. Photo by Pamela Gentile.
You’ve all heard that silent movies really weren’t SILENT: they all had live musical accompaniment, ranging from a solitary guy at an upright piano or a mighty Wurlitzer to up-to-110-member symphonic orchestras. When Carmine Coppola was about to go on tour in 1981 to conduct his new score for his son Francis Ford Coppola’s restoration of Abel Gance’s 1927 Napoleon, he reminisced about the silent movie palaces of his youth: “”When I was really young,” Mr. Coppola recalled, ”I would go to Broadway to see a movie. I remember The Thief of Bagdad, with Douglas Fairbanks; he always insisted on an original score. Those theaters – the Strand, the Rialto, the Rivoli, the Capitol – had 40-or 50-piece orchestras. It was so beautiful. I saw the Big Parade that way and What Price Glory and The Three Musketeers. ”
by Meredith Brody.
(January 14,2025)
It’s that time of year—Noir City takes over Oaktown. Better than any holiday for fans of femme fatales, thrillers, suspense, dark twists, and classic cinema.
(January 15, 2025)
“Where Winsome Women Turn Wicked!” is the theme of this year’s Noir City featuring 24 gritty thrillers in the best possible prints, in 35mm when available. All double bills—two movies for the price of one, “I think it’s important to make note of the problematic content and say things like, ‘Well, yes, the women had to be punished at the end of these movies,’ ” TCM host Alicia Malone told G. Allen Johnson for his excellent SF Chronicle article on the Festival. “But that also doesn’t negate the fact that for most of the film, you get to watch a powerful woman wielding her sexuality, using it as a weapon and drawing in these hapless men and getting to play, for these actresses, unlikable, complex characters. Women were front and center and very important in noir. And even though there was a lot of misogyny, a lot of face slapping and forced kissing, it also really gave them a chance to play these complex characters at a time when women didn’t have power.”
Recipes by Joan Nathan
(updated January 28, 2025))
My Life in Recipes is new cookbook from the James Beard Award–winning, beloved author that uses recipes to look back at her life, her family history, and her personal journey discovering Jewish cuisine from around the world.
Joan is appearing with book signings across the U.S.
Joan will be speaking on Thursday, January 30, 2025, 6-8pm at Clio’s in Oakland, CA about My Life in Recipes: Food, Family and Memories and A Sweet Year: Jewish Celebrations and Festive Recipes for Kids and Their Families: A Cookbook, and how making food with friends and family is now more than ever a delight and a requisite. Tickets and more info here.
Check more appearances by Joan here.
“You have to edit the material.
That assumes that some kind of a mind is operating in relation to the material.
Not all minds are the same.
Every aspect of filmmaking requires choice.
The selection of the subject, the shooting, editing and length are all aspects of choice.”
~ Frederick Wiseman
By Cari Borja
Quotes center me. I always begin with them. Whether at the start of a salon dinner, a birthday card, a performance installation, or a piece of writing. They lend focus. The above Wiseman quote does the same ~ his words, his films, his quote ~ a focus. Continue reading
