FILMS FROM THE UK, IRELAND, AUSTRALIA, INDIA, SOUTH AFRICA AND NEW ZEALAND
February 6-13, 2025
Mostly British Film Festival 2012
Mostly British Film Festival highlights under-the-radar flicks
http://www.sfexaminer.com/mostly-british-film-festival-highlights-under-the-radar-flicks/
By Anita Katz on February 2, 2012 12:00 am
The fourth annual Mostly British Film Festival gets rolling today, with neonoir dramas, an apocalyptic romance, a horror thriller, a dark sex comedy and documentaries new, old and very old on the bill. A wealth of English, Scottish, Irish and Australian styles, stories and talent is covered in 28 films screening over eight days.
Selections from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and South Africa screen at the 2012 Mostly British celebration, presented by the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation and the California Film Institute. Most shows run through Feb. 9 at the Vogue Theatre in San Francisco and the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael.
British cinema is foreign cinema, and even being subtitle-free and sporting recognizable faces won’t ensure that a British film will receive adequate promotion or be released at all on U.S. shores, says Jack Bair, co-founder of Mostly British and co-founder of the SFNTF.
Among foreign artists, “unless you’re an Almodovar, you aren’t guaranteed a space in theaters here,” Bair says. Mostly British, he adds, helps remedy that situation by bringing audiences a diverse quantity of movies “packaged as a festival.”
Theater-bound releases, notable oldies and acclaimed films without U.S. distribution share the slatBy Anita Katz on February 2, 2012 12:00 am
The fourth annual Mostly British Film Festival gets rolling today, with neonoir dramas, an apocalyptic romance, a horror thriller, a dark sex comedy and documentaries new, old and very old on the bill. A wealth of English, Scottish, Irish and Australian styles, stories and talent is covered in 28 films screening over eight days.
Selections from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and South Africa screen at the 2012 Mostly British celebration, presented by the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation and the California Film Institute. Most shows run through Feb. 9 at the Vogue Theatre in San Francisco and the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael.
film fest aids neighborhood cinemas
- Allen Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer Published 4:00 am PST, Sunday, January 29, 2012
British cinema is foreign cinema, and even being subtitle-free and sporting recognizable faces won’t ensure that a British film will receive adequate promotion or be released at all on U.S. shores, says Jack Bair, co-founder of Mostly British and co-founder of the SFNTF.
Among foreign artists, “unless you’re an Almodovar, you aren’t guaranteed a space in theaters here,” Bair says. Mostly British, he adds, helps remedy that situation by bringing audiences a diverse quantity of movies “packaged as a festival.”
Theater-bound releases, notable oldies and acclaimed films without U.S. distribution share the slate.
“Perfect Sense” opens the festival at 8 p.m. at the Vogue. Directed by David Mackenzie, the Glascow, Scotland-set drama stars Ewan McGregor and Eva Green as lovers struggling to hold on to their feelings for each other during a horrifying plague.
Friday is “British Noir Night,” curated by SFNTF board member and mystery-novel author (“The Smoke”) Tony Broadbent. He has chosen Stephen Frears’ “Gumshoe” (7:30 p.m.) and Mike Figgis’ “Stormy Monday” (9:30 p.m.) — the directorial debuts of both now-accoladed filmmakers — as 2012’s selections.
Both films are “very British,” says Broadbent, who describes “Gumshoe” as an entertaining noir and kitchen-sink-style film featuring an early-career Albert Finney. He describes “Stormy Monday,” whose cast includes Sting, as a “wonderful hit at Thatcher’s England.”
Australian selections include “33 Postcards,” Pauline Chan’s drama about a Chinese orphan and her mysterious Australian sponsor. Guy Pearce stars in the film, which screens at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Vogue.
From South Africa, screening at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Vogue, comes “Black Butterflies” — a biodrama about poet Ingrid Jonker.
Documentary highlights include Michael Apted’s entire “Up” series, beginning Saturday at the Vogue and continuing Feb. 18 and Feb. 25 at the Balboa. Apted follows a group of Brits by catching up with them every seven years.
“Knuckle,” at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Vogue, explores the world of Irish travelers who carry out family feuds via bareknuckle fights.
Ken Loach’s “Route Irish” closes the festival at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9 at the Vogue. Centering on a professional mercenary, this antiwar thriller contains the veteran British director’s trademark blend of politics and humanism.
And lots more — from a restored 1924 silent documentary to Nicolas Roeg’s “Performance” to two new releases featuring rising star Felicity Jones.
The Mostly British Film Festival is more than just a 4-year-old festival specializing in new and classic cinema from the former British Empire. It’s a commitment to a century-old tradition: going to movies in San Francisco neighborhoods.
“We believe in not only the romance but the importance of these neighborhood theaters,” said Mostly British co-director Jack Bair, whose day job is senior vice president and general counsel of the San Francisco Giants.
We’re sitting in a cafe across from the ballpark, along with MBFF Co-Director Ruthe Stein, the former Chronicle movie editor. Bair says that in the same way the Giants reinvigorated the China Basin neighborhood with a new ballpark, he and his Giants front-office colleague Alfonso Felder would like to reinvigorate city neighborhoods by purchasing and restoring classic theaters through their San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation. The nonprofit group took over the Vogue Theatre, the home base of the Mostly British festival, in 2007, and put in $150,000 worth of improvements. Mostly British started in 2009 as a way “to differentiate ourselves, and one way to do that is specialty programming,” Bair said.
“Part of the proceeds from the festival go to the theater,” he said. “It’s a fundraiser for the Vogue.”
Consider that the Vogue opened a century ago, in 1912 – the year the Titanic sank and Boston’s Fenway Park was built. That makes it one of the oldest continuously operated cinemas in the world, Bair said.
This year’s festival opens Thursday with “Perfect Sense,” a romance with Ewan McGregor and Eva Green, closes with master filmmaker Ken Loach’s film about modern mercenaries, “Route Irish,” and in between has a program devoted to Australian films, a night of neo-classic British noir (including Mike Figgis’ 1988 film “Stormy Monday,” with Melanie Griffith, Tommy Lee Jones and Sting), the entire “Up” documentary series, and an evening of Felicity Jones films – movies she made before becoming a breakout star in “Like Crazy.”
The “Up” series continues after the festival ends at the Balboa, which was just taken over by the neighborhood theater foundation. The festival will also show at the Smith Rafael Film Center during the second week of the festival.
OK, so it’s a solid local festival bent on preserving neighborhood theaters. But why British films?
“I go back to what George Bernard Shaw said: ‘We are still two cultures separated by a common language,’ ” chuckled Tony Broadbent, a British-born mystery writer (the “Smoke” novels) who is a member of the festival’s board and selected and will host the British noir night’s films. “But frankly, the British film (industry) couldn’t exist without the American film industry. … It seems like you hear about the death of British films every 10 years or so, but they’ve become part and parcel of both of our cultures.”
Broadbent, who was speaking by phone from his Mill Valley home, is one of several of the festival’s board members who are from the countries these films come from, a way of helping Bair and Stein keep it real.
San Francisco has specialty festivals for German, French, Taiwanese, Italian and many others, but not for films that are made in English outside the United States.
“People don’t think of them of foreign films – although the industry sure thinks of them as one,” Stein said. “The (American) independent films have taken over. ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ almost didn’t get distributed, almost went straight to video. But it got picked and won best picture.”
“Even the Oscar-nominated foreign films don’t get distribution in the United States,” Bair said. “I think we’ve found a good niche here and have gotten a lot of support.”
Mostly British Film Festival
When: Thursday through Feb. 9.
Where: Vogue Theatre, 3290 Sacramento St., S.F., (415) 346-2288; also at the Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael, (415) 454-1222, and the Balboa Theater, 3630 Balboa St., S.F., (415) 221-8184.
Tickets: Series pass, $99; General admission, $12.50 per screening; opening- and closing-night receptions, including screenings, $30.
Information: www.mostlybritish.org.
Highlights: “Perfect Sense” (opening-night film Thursday which stars Ewan McGregor), British noir night hosted by mystery writer Tony Broadbent (Friday, “Gumshoe” and “Stormy Monday”); the complete “Up” documentary series (Saturdays beginning at the Vogue and finishing at the Balboa); Felicity Jones double feature (Feb. 6, “Chalet Girl” and “Albatross”); and closing-night films “A Passionate Woman,” a romance, and “Route Irish,” a thriller (Feb. 9).
E-mail G. Allen Johnson at [email protected]. Sequel to open event