53rd San Francisco International Film Festival 22 April - 6 May 2010
FILMS/
PIRATE UTOPIAS
Shorts
81 minutes
SHOWTIMES
Sat, Apr 24 / 9:15 / Kabuki / PIRA24K
Thu, Apr 29 / 3:15 / Kabuki / PIRA29K
Sat, May 01 / 9:15 / Kabuki / PIRA01K
Doubling as a manifesto on leisure, this collection of innovative, humorous and challenging shorts elaborates a systematic approach to pleasurable non-productivity. The title “Pirate Utopias” comes from a tome that includes descriptions of poetic terrorism, wild children and amour fou. Notice: This program contains nudity and explicit sex, to be consumed and enjoyed in a darkened hall.
One and One Is Life
Master of animation, not to mention the figuration of our collective unconscious, Martha Colburn weaves a tale of reflection, war and Wonder Woman. (Martha Colburn, USA 2009, 5 min) In GGA competition.
Release
Profoundly simple and serene yet utterly confusing, this short adds to Bill Morrison’s considerable portfolio of archival films elevated to art, as an unadorned newsreel is transformed into a transfixing and growing pivot point. (Bill Morrison, USA 2009, 13 min) In GGA competition.
Fiddlestixx
The first episode in the chronicles of a super-sensitive, megalomaniacal, perhaps magic monkey: Fiddlestixx! (David and Nathan Zellner, USA 2009, 3 min)
Embrace of the Irrational
Commissioned by local alternative gallery Southern Exposure, this video contemplates just how the irrational permeates our clearly rational minds—”clearly rational” being shorthand for insecure and insane. (Jonn Herschend, USA 2009, 18 min) In GGA competition.
Spin
Max Hattler makes mandalas out of cultural fodder. In this short, a legion of soldiers get the Busby Berkeley treatment, turning war into a tragic musical. (Max Hattler, England 2009, 4 min) In GGA competition.
M
The detritus of our postindustrial age flickers beautifully in the form of machine collage. (Felix Dufour-Laperriere, Canada 2009, 8 min) In GGA competition.
Zef Side
What’s the band name? Die Antwoord . . . (The Answer). What was the question?
Blink
The military’s Flat Daddy program, which leaves a life-size cardboard cutout of soldiers gone to war with families back home, is hardly enough to keep a youngster from harm’s way. (Silas Howard, USA 2009, 12 min) In GGA competition.
The Little White Cloud that Cried!
Part of a commission by the Berlinale for a Jack Smith film festival, this campy cross between Flaming Creatures and Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising centers on male-to-female transsexuals and is yet another dazzler by the creator of Brand upon the Brain! (SFIFF 2007) and The Saddest Music in the World. (Guy Maddin, Canada 2009, 13 min)
—Sean Uyehara
Total running time 81 min. Presented in association with San Francisco Cinematheque.
