California Film Institute

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
File:California Film Institute logo.svg
California Film Institute's logo
Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center on 4th Street in San Rafael, California.

The California Film Institute, (CFI), is a film organization based in San Rafael, California. The organization presents the annual Mill Valley Film Festival, exhibits films year-round at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center and supports the CFI Education Program. The founder and current director of CFI is Mark Fishkin.

Programming

For over 20 years, the California Film Institute has been a beacon for film culture with a global reputation for excellence. The annual Mill Valley Film Festival, now in its 39th year, draws a huge international audience with programs ranging from Hollywood premieres to cutting-edge independent films. Set against the backdrop of scenic Northern California, the festival has become a destination event each fall and is a major milestone on the march towards awards season.

In addition, CFI acts as a year-round film-centric town hall through a diverse calendar of programming at one of the leading non-profit independent theatres in the country, the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, with films that address a breadth of social, environmental and cultural issues. Programming at this state-of-the-art three-screen facility includes documentaries, silent film, retrospectives, classics and contemporary international films as well as first run theatrical releases.

Working closely with 200 Bay Area schools and community groups, CFI Education provides Bay Area students and lifelong learners from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to interpret the world and themselves through film with a variety of programs including My Place, My Story, A Place in the World, Filmmakers in Schools, the Mill Valley Film Festival Children's FilmFest, Community Screenings and Summerfilm.

CFI seeks to broaden all aspects of film culture, offering a wide range of activities that engage emotions, inspire action, change perceptions and advance knowledge.

Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center

The Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center reopened on April 16, 1999, renovated from a 1938 theater and refurbished with the highest technical specs.[1][2] That opening weekend included Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn, Nick Nolte, Matthew Broderick and director Alan Rudolph as guests.[3] The theater is one of a few nonprofit theaters in the United States. The venue shows film that include independent documentaries, classic films, retrospectives, features, and international works.[4] The theater also hosts special events with filmmakers from around the world year-round.[2][5] The Film Center annually serves approximately 150,000 attendees.[6]

The Smith Rafael Film Center still maintains film projectors in all of its theaters. Richard Peterson, director of programming, sees film as a diversifying agent for the theater. "Film has been around for a hundred years," Peterson explains. "And if I want to show a movie from the 1940s that hasn't been digitized, the only way I can do that is on 35mm. The theaters that only want to show new movies will have to go digital, but we're going to keep showing old ones."[7][8]

In July 2011, The Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation selected the Smith Rafael Film Center to implement their collaborative Science on Screen programs with at $7,000 grant. The Smith Rafael Film Center was one of eight independent non-profit theaters in the United States to receive the grant.[9]

Mill Valley Film Festival

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Main article: Mill Valley Film Festival

Founded in 1978 by Mark Fishkin, the festival is held every October, and screens over 200 innovative US and international films for over 60,000 participants.[10] The annual event is consistently rated as one of the top film festivals in the nation.[11]

CFI Education

The CFI Education program is currently run by John Morrison. The institute also hosts filmmaking workshops, a year-long cinema appreciation curriculum, and over 100 free annual screenings for school groups.[12][13][14] Other activities include Q&A sessions hosted by various international filmmakers as well as seminars by industry professionals.

In August 2012, Mark Phillips, op-ed columnist for the Marin Independent Journal, called CFI Education "one of Marin's treasures."[15]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=California_Film_Institute&oldid=715460195"