Noir City Film Festival

[Alan K.]

For the interest of the noir-minded folks on the board, I've posted a link to the annual Noir City Film Festival coming up in San Francisco on January 25-Feb 03 at the world famous Castro Theatre. I help produce the festival and it is a fantastic event that gets better every year. The link to the Noir City site is posted below and I hope to see some of you in San Francisco.

http://www.noircity.com/

[Dawtrina]

Oh wow, this looks awesome! I'm only a hop, skip and a jump away in Phoenix too, but sadly I doubt this is viable for me.

I guess it's possible we could fly over for a weekend or so but even if we do, we wouldn't be able to benefit from the great prices for the whole event. My wife and I bought VIP tickets for the Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival here in Phoenix a few months ago which we thoroughly enjoyed. We saw as much as was humanly possible, but that was just a three day weekend with the timetables crammed: it literally wasn't possible to see everything.

This looks more leisurely with the opportunity to catch everything but I doubt I could organise a ten day stay. Sassinfrassin.

[Jezebel38]

Moxie - every year I lookover the schedule, and every year I punk out because I can't deal with driving around The Castro area looking for parking! Maybe, on a weekday matinee, and if you play hooky from work. I was wondering if the organizers have ever given thought to putting a condensed version "on the road" the following weekend at another venue in the Bay area? This might also allow out-of-towners like Dawtrina to attend also.

[Alan K.]

Moxie - every year I lookover the schedule, and every year I punk out because I can't deal with driving around The Castro area looking for parking

Parking in the Castro district can be a challenge, but it is really no worse than L.A, New York or any other big city. We actually did employ two venues for the 2005 festival in San Francisco- the Balboa Theatre and the Palace of Fine Arts- but it wasn't a satisfactory situation. The Castro is one of the premier rep houses remaining in the country-1200 seats- and it is simply the best venue for Noir City. Suggestion: park away from the Castro and take the ample public transportation to the venue. That's what many of our attendees do. We regularly sell out at least 50% of the screenings.

Also: Noir City is in L.A. at the Egyptian and Aero Theatres in April, Seattle in February with other venues under consideration.

[Dawtrina]

I'm not counting myself out yet.

I work in a small team of eight people who are dispersed across four different cities in four different states. Only one is in San Francisco, he's reasonably new to the team and he needs some major training over the next couple of months to bring him to speed on a lot of processes. I'm the subject matter expert on about half of them and the single point of failure right now on a few which is a state of affairs that needs swift fixing.

If I could spend a week on site with him, away from my inbox and my meeting schedule, solidly training him up, the team would benefit hugely.

And, not uncoincidentally, I would have the evenings free to watch noir on the big screen.

I've sold myself. I just need to sell my manager on the idea too. Delicately phrased opportunistic discussions coming right up...

[jdb1]

This exchange is of great interest to me, as I have begun, for the first time in my life, to think about leaving NYC.

I am inexorably inching toward retirement age, and I'm thinking that this City is getting so ridiculously and prohibitively expensive; services are declining; population and overdevelopment are out of control, etc.

Reading about your having to go to all sorts of contortions, just to see a couple of movies, makes me stop: how can I leave NYC, after all? What if I want to attend a film festival - say, the oeuvre of Ann Doran, or the late period films of Flame, the Wonder Dog? Or suppose I feel the need for a pizza, or maybe an evening gown, at 3:00 A.M.? Where else but in NYC?

[Alan K.]

Reading about your having to go to all sorts of contortions, just to see a couple of movies, makes me stop: how can I leave NYC, after all? What if I want to attend a film festival - say, the oeuvre of Ann Doran, or the late period films of Flame, the Wonder Dog? Or suppose I feel the need for a pizza, or maybe an evening gown, at 3:00 A.M.? Where else but in NYC?

I'm at the age where I also ruminate about blowing town, but I still keep my oxfords planted in the City of Angels.

When the traffic gets to be too much, I think about pulling up stakes, but then how am I going to watch movies at the Cinematheque, the Silent Movie Theatre, UCLA, do research at the Motion Picture Academy or USC, go to the Farmer's Market, meet a friend at Musso's for martinis or have a 2:00 am meal at the Pacific Dining Car?

Philip Marlowe ruminated about a house in the country before realizing what he actually had was "...a hat, a coat and a gun". I'll still take the city life. too

[Moraldo Rubini]

I came to this forum to post the Noir City schedule, so I'm thrilled to see that Moxie beat me to it!

Every year I lookover the schedule, and every year I punk out because I can't deal with driving around The Castro area looking for parking! Maybe, on a weekday matinee, and if you play hooky from work.

Jeze! Get up here! CalTrain

I work in a small team of eight people who are dispersed across four different cities in four different states. Only one is in San Francisco, he's reasonably new to the team and he needs some major training over the next couple of months to bring him to speed on a lot of processes. I'm the subject matter expert on about half of them and the single point of failure right now on a few which is a state of affairs that needs swift fixing.

Sounds like a dire situation, Dawtrina. You definitely should train here, specifically from January 25-February 3. And there are some Bed and Breakfasts only blocks from the theatre if you're into the BnB thing.

This exchange is of great interest to me, as I have begun, for the first time in my life, to think about leaving NYC.

I am inexorably inching toward retirement age, and I'm thinking that this City is getting so ridiculously and prohibitively expensive; services are declining; population and overdevelopment are out of control, etc.

Reading about your having to go to all sorts of contortions, just to see a couple of movies, makes me stop: how can I leave NYC, after all? What if I want to attend a film festival - say, the oeuvre of Ann Doran, or the late period films of Flame, the Wonder Dog? Or suppose I feel the need for a pizza, or maybe an evening gown, at 3:00 A.M.? Where else but in NYC?

Don't do it, Judith! Once you leave, it's very difficult to move back. San Francisco can provide the cinematic aspect for your Utopia, but our pizzas? Just not the same. And if you order pastrami out here, the counterman asks if you want mayonnaise with it. It's just wrong. Rather than moving, you should just leave Brooklyn for a week or so. This will refresh you as well as remind you of how lucky you are. Why not a trip to San Francisco -- say, January 25?

So, did y'all see that Joan Leslie is going to make a personal appearance on January 25? They're going to show Repeat Performance and The Hard Way that night. The latter was shown on TCM last month, but it'd be swell to see it on the BIG screen. Has anyone seen Repeat Performance? It was Richard Basehart's debut (before Fellini found him).