Whit Stillman meets Jane Austen in Love and Friendship…David Oyelowo and Dianne Wiest duke it out (emotionally) in Five Nights in Maine…Aliens turns 30…Kiyoshi Kurosawa travels between love and the afterlife in Journey to the Shore…Chantal Akerman and her mother explore a delicate relationship in No Home Movie…Anna Rose Holmer packs a punch with her feature début, The Fits…Slávek Horák’s Home Care rejoices and heals in the company of women…über-cinematographer Kirsten Johnson collages herself in Cameraperson…Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway’s The Return bravely tackles the lives of people affected by California’s “three strikes” law…Under the Sun goes undercover in North Korea…Check It chronicles a gay/trans gang in Washington D.C….Hanna Sköld’s Granny’s Dancing on the Table gives us a harrowing but beautiful tale set in the Swedish woods…get out your Kleenex and be prepared to make several bathroom trips for the epic and sure-to-be-satisfying Happy Hour by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi…one of our favorite cinematographers, Christopher Doyle, pays homage to his adopted hometown in Hong Kong Trilogy…Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghani’s Sonita honors Afghan refugee Sonita Alizadeh, a rap music enthusiast…a screening of queer classic The Watermelon Woman is sure to bring out cultural studies majors…Eiichirô Hasumi’s Assassination Classroom is sure to become a cult classic (it already is in Japan)…Iran, as always, gives us the best, including Babak Anvari’s Under the Shadow…Lewis Klahr’s Sixty Six is heaven-sent for both design aficionados and cinéastes…the always-wonderful Guetty Felin gives us some dreamy in Ayiti Mon Amour...and don’t forget, SFIFF’s Shorts programs are always worth the waiting in line!
The 59th San Francisco International Film Festival opens 21 April 2016, with screenings in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tickets are available at http://www.sffs.org/sfiff59
Leonine Films 