news - archive

San Francisco International Film Festival
FIPRESCI president Michel Ciment appointed Guest Programmer

San Francisco, CA – Roxanne Messina Captor, Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society, announced the appointment of Michel Ciment, longtime editor of the influential French film magazine Positif, as guest programmer for the 46th San Francisco International Film Festival, April 17th – May 1st, 2003. Captor said “Michel has attended the Festival as a journalist and written film notes for the program, so he knows the Festival well. We recognized that he would complement and augment our programming team perfectly. I know that our audiences will be caught up by his passion for film and appreciate his discovery of and advocacy on behalf of important new works.” Although Ciment is based in France the scope of his interest in film is world-wide, so he will bring a unique selection of exciting new French and international films to the Festival.
Because of its tradition of intellectual and cultural individualism, and its proximity to and distance from Hollywood, the San Francisco International Film Festival is in an ideal position to provide constructive criticism and commentary on the annual state of the art. While in San Francisco Ciment will present the Festival’s inaugural State of Cinema address, an assessment of current cinema from his personal perspective.
Ciment first joined Positif in 1963 and became a member of its editorial committee three years later. Positif has no editor-in-chief and has been run for 50 years by a consensus-governed committee that meets every Sunday. The magazine is distinguished by its cutting-edge tone, rigorous historical research, appreciation of artistically ambitious Hollywood filmmakers, spirited advocacy for emerging filmmakers from all over the world and passionate defense of eroticism in cinema. He has said, “Criticism is both an intellectual and an emotional activity.” His influence has not only changed the way people regard film criticism, but has also encouraged new ideas and creativity in filmmaking. Ciment has lived out the highest ideals of cinephilia and maintained his passion for film by seeing only the films he wants to see and nurturing and defending the directors he loves. In a world dominated more and more by mainstream movies and multinational media, Ciment and Positif have been advocates for independent voices, discovery and innovation.
As an extension of his work at Positif, Ciment has written and edited books on directors as independent, creative, idiosyncratic and diverse as Joseph Losey, Francesco Rosi, Stanley Kubrick, Theo Angelopoulos, Elia Kazan, Erich von Stroheim, Jerry Schatzberg and John Boorman. He recently retired from a long-term post teaching American Studies at the University of Paris.
Ciment has received numerous honors and prestigious appointments during his notable career including Chevalier of the Order of Merit, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters, and is currently President of FIPRESCI. He has served on juries at the world’s most notable film festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Locarno. Most recently he attended the Telluride Film Festival on behalf of Positif to accept a special medallion for dedication to the celebration of film as an artistic medium and to present three rarely seen films. He will be in New York in December for the Museum of Modern Art’s tribute to Positif featuring a series of 50 films.

The San Francisco Film Society, presenter of the 46th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 17 – May 1, 2003), is a nonprofit arts organization whose goal is to lead in expanding the knowledge and appreciation of international film art and its artists.

Source: San Francisco Film Society (February 5, 2003)

top