Hello to the 15,000,

Our screening series FILMS ABOUT LOVE at the Edwin Johnson Theatre here at 1418 5th. St., Berkeley, continues to thrill me. Last week we showed THE CELEBRATION, a film I go to when I suspect myself of playing it safe. This film takes no prisoners. Its sheer energy and pacing drives forward in the grip of human need, lust, mendacity, and helplessness in the face of instinct. It’s a film with Shakespearean overtones, with class distinctions, betrayal, incest, retribution, redemption and has its say without any intrusive role models or good for ya social messages. It slices human behavior right down the middle and we see vulnerability, innocence and fear on one hand and cruelty and mendacity on the other. It’s a family film for people who know where the bodies are buried, and an object lesson to those who want to keep it all hid.

Next week, on April 11 we’re going to show IRREVERSIBLE, one of the best films on our program, brilliant but, for some, very tough to watch. But it goes beyond the fake screen violence of films like THE DEPARTED. It teaches us about cruelty even as it teaches about tenderness. But it does so without pointing to anything. You have to navigate its pell mell trajectory by yourself, with only your raw senses and native sense to guide you. It comes at you, as do all great films in the Realist tradition, without cheery genre guide books, without the reassuring presence of stars who would never stoop to scaring you with unwelcome evidence of who you really are. We’re on our own in this film, as we are in life, no matter how hard we try to forget it. We see both the claws of the beast and the feathers of the dove and can decide for ourselves what matters in a dangerous, implacable universe.

I want to give you preliminary notice of an event the San Francisco International Film Festival is putting on this year. On Saturday night, April 28, 6:30 PM they’re doing a program called CARVED FROM CONCRETE, about our films from NORTHERN LIGHTS through the 9 @ Night Film Cycle produced by the Tenderloin yGroup, the Direct Action World Cinema pieces, and PRESQUE ISLE, the co-production with the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking. There’ll be clips from the work, an on stage interview with yours truly conducted by the Festival Director, Graham Leggat, introduction of cast and crew members, and an overview of our new venture, Citizen Cinema. Also, thanks to Graham and the Festival, we will have frequent showings of a 10 minute piece about our films and which will show during the Festival’s on a large outdoor Eye Candy video screen, this year located in Justin Herman Plaza

I’d like to make sure we fill this house so I encourage everyone to spread the word through your world of friends, associates and other contacts. Tickets go on sale on April 5 through the San Francisco International Film Festivals venues. I’ll be giving you weekly updates on ticket sales and reminders to get out the vote. We need the true believers to turn out in force. I want to support the Festival in its decision to feature our work. Mark Fishkin and Zoe Elton at the Mill Valley Film Festival have done so from the beginning. My gratitude to Graham Leggat, Director of the San Francisco fest, for following suit.

As a wily incentive, anyone who attends and brings a guest can purchase any of the films on our web site, rob nilsson.com, at half price and get one free. Anyone who brings more than one paying guest can have two of our films free. Anyone who discovers the philosopher stone can have my job and my debt load.

Please RSVP for the screening of Irreversible as soon as possible at (510)527-7217 or rnilsson@robnilsson.com. Seating is limited.

-Rob Nilsson

P.S. We are optimizing our 15,000 list, and in the coming weeks will be sending out a “re-opt in” email. Make sure that you select to stay on our list of the 15,000 through the link in the email. Also, dont forget to support our relationship with the LPC Design Shop, for even $1 will make a difference in our future cinema and the education of Bay Area students.

Discussions on Irreversible are now taking place in the Citizen Cinema Forums located here: Irreversible : Love Screening #4