The  S.F. Silent Film Fest premieres the Hitchcock 9  national tour Friday, with SFSF’s trademark live musical accompaniments. The three-day tour presents the Master’s nine surviving silents, all recently restored by the British Film Institute—many so rare that even the most devoted cineastes haven’t seen them. Miguel Pendás has seen three. The film historian, who contributed a chapter to The San Francisco of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, drops by to talk Hitchcock. (No spoilers, we promise!)

Today on Depth Perception: Director James Marsh (Man on Wire, Red Riding Pt. II, Wisconsin Death Trip) discusses his feature Shadow Dancer. Though set in 1993 Belfast, with a protagonist blackmailed into informing on her family’s IRA cell—a deadly-dangerous balancing act—it’s as much character study as thriller. Marsh acknowledges a bent for the macabre, and opens up about being perpetually tagged Man-on-Wire-guy. And breaking the Directors’ Secret Oath, he reveals which of his films is his favorite.

 

Director Kaylanee Mam talks about A River Changes Course, which just took the Golden Gate Award for Documentary Feature; the film also won the Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize.

The documentary traces the impact of development and globalization on Cambodians in three rural villages, where the livelihood of each is being crushed by those forces: farming, fishing, and forestry/hunting & gathering.

Mam, whose family fled Cambodia when she was a toddler, describes what it was like to visit her homeland for the first time as adult; the challenges of filming in such isolated and inaccessible locations; and why she left lawyering to become a filmmaker.

Another Depth Perception two-hour special, celebrating SFIFF.

Before Depth Perception returns to SFIFF 56 coverage, with interviews with directors Rama Burshtein (Fill the Void) and the Zuercher Bros. (The Strange Little Cat),  the program will open with a non-fest film:  Director Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye, Solo; Man Push Cart) and actpr Dennis Quaid (The Day After Tomorrow) join Pirate Jenny in conversation about their new film At Any Price, a tale of  farming families on the edge and father-son conflicts as a son comes of age.

SFIFF56 coverage continues with director Rama Burshtein and actor Hadas Yaron discussing the drama Fill the Void, opening in San Francisco theaters tomorrow. In unscheduled complement, Void deals with a young woman coming of age in an Orthodox Jewish community, as she is pressured to marry her recently deceased sister’s husband.

Pirate Jenny also chats with the Zuercher twins about the unusual film The Strange Little Cat, made while the two aer still in film school—a status which means something very different in Berlin than it would here.

Another two-hour Depth Perception special! Part I of San Francisco International Film Fest 56 coverage.

In a live interview, director Kaylanee Mam will discuss A River Changes Course (winner, Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize). The documentary traces the impact of development and globalization on Cambodians in three rural villages.

Next, animation experts Karl Cohen (Forbidden Animation) and Martha Gorzycki chat with Pirate Jenny about animation at SFIFF 56, focusing on the shorts program and the lovely feature Ernest and Celestine.

April Fool’s Story #2:

Graphic: The Wild Party, Filmlinc.com

DJ SIT-IN AT RADIO VAL TO PROTEST ELLISON’S PROGRAMMING CHANGES..

The DJs demands:  4 of 12 daily hours now covering America’s Cup must instead broadcast golf, “a much more aural sport,” according to spokesperson Malderor; RoboDJ to permanently loop the Listener Appreciation Party’s live performances (Nickelback, Maroon 5, and headliner Jason Mraz); and, of course, free beer. The protest group failed to consider that the spectacle of DJs in the Red Room, eating, trash-talking, and drinking Jameson’s, is not visibly different from any other day at the station, and therefore planned civil disobedience fell through when Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi  declined Ellison’s order to arrest them.

And a Happy April Fool’s to all.

STATION CHANGES IN EFFECT APRIL 1

Radio Valencia  is proud to announce its acquisition by Larry Ellison. Beginning today, we’re here for all your America’s Cup news, 12 hours daily. Asked for comment on the purchase, Ellis spokesperson Ami Lawless replied, “Enjoy the ads, bitches!”

In what we’re instructed to emphasize is completely unrelated news, The Metal Asylum will be replaced by BieberFever4Ever!, hosted by Michelle Shocked, and all remaining music slots will be devoted exclusively to the Steve Miller Band.

Happy April Fool’s Day!

(Thanks to Cheap Hooch for the Steve Miller Band!)

2hr. Special, 4-6 Thurs.Depth Perception  presents interviews with two top Southeast Asian directors, both of whom have new films in CAAM Fest ’13 (formerly Asian American Int. Film Fest). Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, Mississippi Masala, Salaam Bombay) talks about  The Reluctant Fundamentalist; groundbreaking director Deepa Mehta (Water, Hollywood/Bollywood, Earth, Fire) discusses filming the epic-scale adaptation of  Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie. Music today by Nitin Sawhney & more.