‘THE GREEN FOG – A SAN FRANCISCO FANTASIA’ to close 60th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF)

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The San Francisco Film Society has announced that Closing Night of the landmark 60th San Francisco International Film Festival will be The Green Fog – A San Francisco Fantasia, a new commission by the Film Society and Stanford Live in which the world-renowned Kronos Quartet will perform a new score by composer Jacob Garchik to accompany a visual collage by award-winning filmmaker and cultural iconoclast Guy Maddin. The Green Fog will take place at the historic Castro Theatre on Sunday, April 16 at 7:00 pm, followed by the Closing Night Party at Mezzanine.

“We are delirious with joy that such forces of contemporary culture have come together to create a singular new work for the city of San Francisco as a 60th birthday present to the SF International Film Festival,” said SF Film Society Executive Director Noah Cowan. “We look forward to a night where we experience the city anew as one of Guy Maddin’s fever dreams, interpreted through the images of myriad filmmakers who have been bewitched by the place and the sounds of the musicians that serve as our iconoclastic ambassadors to the world.”

Maddin, assisted by his Forbidden Room collaborator Evan Johnson, set himself the challenge and constraint to remake Vertigo without using any footage from the Hitchcock classic, creating a “parallel-universe version,” in his words. Using Bay Area-based footage from a variety of sources-studio classics, ’50s noir, documentary and experimental films, and ’70s prime-time TV-and employing Maddin’s mastery of assemblage technique, seen in work like My Winnipeg and Brand Upon the Brain, the result exerts the inexorable pull of Hitchcock’s twisted tale of erotic obsession while paying tribute to our fair city and the ways it looks and feels through the medium of cinema.

Composer Jacob Garchik, who was born in San Francisco and has worked with Kronos Quartet since 2006, fashions a score that collides and converses with Maddin and Johnson’s irreverent and loving footage to create a distinctive musical extravaganza. Both filmmakers and composer are excited to include a live Foley element, the “Old Hollywood” method of creating special sound effects.

San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet have combined a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually re-imagine the string quartet experience for more than 40 years. They have collaborated with recording artists including Paul McCartney, Laurie Anderson, Jarvis Cocker, Patti Smith, and David Bowie, and have performed scores by Philip Glass live for the films Mishima (1985) and Dracula (1931). At the 58th SF International Film Festival, they performed to Bill Morrison’s Beyond Zero: 1914-1918. They spend at least five months of each year on tour, so it’s a pleasure and a privilege to have them on their home territory for this very special event.

The performance will be followed by a rousing Closing Night Party at 8:30 pm at Mezzanine (444 Jessie Street), closing out the Festival’s 60th anniversary in style with cocktails, snacks, and live DJ sets. 21 and over only.   

Box office is now open online at sffs.org.