Hello to the 15,000,

A reminder to get your tickets for the show, CARVED FROM THE PAVEMENT: THE FILMS OF ROB NILSSON at the San Francisco International Film Festival, April 28, 7:00 PM at the Sundance Cinemas Kabuki on Post nr. Fillmore. We’ve got to sell a hundred more seats to fill the house so let’s roust out friends, family, recalcitrant delicatessen cooks, and itinerant bus drivers alike. We’re going to show scenes from the films in progress as well as clips from the past, introduce workshop members and other collaborators and promote cinema from ground zero, the heart and the heartland, film which tries to look at “the way things seem to be.” You can order tickets on line at HYPERLINK “http://www.sffs.org” www.sffs.org or call the Box Office at (925)866- 9559. Remember to let me know if you come with friends and want to take advantage of the Special deal I laid out last letter.

We’re also going to be showing the Direct Action film, OPENING, shot in Kansas City, up at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival on April 22, at the St. Anthony Main Cinemas, 219 Main St., SE Minneapolis at 12:30 PM. I’ll be running a Q&A session and also be present to introduce CINE MANIFEST, Judy Irolas’ documentary about our 70’s film collective with a Q&A to follow. That’s at St. Anthony Main Cinemas on the same day, at 7:00 PM. Please remember to let Minneapolis/St. Paul people know about these screenings.

Then we’ll be showing OPENING at the Silver Lake Film Festival in Los Angeles on May 6, Sunday, 7:30 at the Red Cat Cinema at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theatre, a Frank Gehry building at 631 W. 2nd. St., Los Angeles, (213)237-2800. Spread the word down there too. You can order tickets on the Silver Lake Film Festival web site.

Another interesting event will be a 24 hour opportunity for people worldwide to download OPENING. It is called The International Online, and is an initiative undertaken by the SF International Film Festival and jaman.com. We’ll fill you in on this program as it develops.

Our screening this past Wednesday on the Films About Love Series was IRREVERSIBLE, a French film by director Gaspar Noe. Notorious for audience walk- outs at Cannes and Sundance, this film also won Best Film at the Stockholm Film Festival and is, to my way of thinking, undeniably brilliant if extremely painful to watch in parts. But its survey of the human hive, the dark, violent side giving way to the meanders of an old love affair and a new one challenging the friendships of three modern Parisians, concluding with a depiction of lovers in post coital languor, the discovery of a pregnancy, and a lyrical Beethoven- fueled idyll of youth, birth and tenderness (capped by a reminder of an implacable universe which is completely uninterested in our tiny human dramas), is to me a tonic to the drab, uninspiring mass religions which keep most people drugged and pacified.

I think it’s one of the most remarkable films I’ve ever seen and some in the audience agreed and others were left cold, angered, or otherwise skeptical. I think it was Andre Gide who said a good piece of work should divide an audience and this one did. Two people walked out in the first 20 minutes (the violent part) although one returned for the discussion. So, the film served a purpose. I was very impressed with how articulate people were and how openly they expressed their feelings and thoughts. We had the type of discussion which this series was created to encourage.

I hope all of you who feel this type of discourse is rare today will join us for WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, (1974) John Cassavetes’ and his wife Gena Rowlands’ last great collaboration. It is a view of love as a force which can’t be contained, explained and by most people… sustained. But Mabel Longhetti, played by Gena feels it, lives it when everyone else, including her husband Nick (Peter Falk) is offended, mystified, and embarrassed by its intensity. When I saw it up in Sundance I wandered around in the snow for an hour. That’s my personal criteria of a film which gets its hands on you and won’t let go. I’ll never forget its impact on me, as strong as any of the other John’s works which have made him my only American directorial hero. I’m wondering how I’ll feel about it today.

It will play on Wednesday, April 25, here at the Edwin Johnson Theatre at 1418 5th. St., 7:00 PM. By the way, I use the term “theatre” in a special way. It is a small room with video projection designed by Charlie Wilson of Sonic Zen Studios, also in the building. A couple of people were looking for a marquee but this is definitely an under- the- radar operation. But, to me, we are screening the cutting edge, some of the most challenging films of the last 50 years, work that should be seen over and over again to keep us honest and on the questing edge.

But mostly I call it a theatre because of Edwin, our friend and a great cinematic figure. Although the world doesn’t know him now, they will when the work we did with him finally receives the attention it deserves. Edwin lived, and died, just a few feet from this room so it will always have his life giving spirit around to guide us.

Please RSVP rnilsson@robnilsson.com or (510)527-7217. Hope to see you then.

Don’t keep the faith. Invent it!

Rob