SF360 Revealed! Part Three: It Wouldn't Be SF If It Wasn't At Least Slightly Orgiastic

Okay, this next component of the SF Film Society's new SF360 program is a bit low-concept, but you're a smart cookie so you should pick it up pretty quick. Listen: "We want to explore the way new platforms help us bring new work to new audiences," Graham Leggat, Exec Direc of the SFFS told us in an interview. So to that end, they're going to select one film, then work with distribution partners like the Iron Weed film club to get that movie out in front of as many people as possible. "And then we'll have materials and organizational tools [for] clubs and discussions," Graham went on. "We'll get local celebrity chefs to creature recipies and add social value to the social aspect of the evening. ... And then at 8 on Wednesday night, the fireworks will go off and folks will turn on their DVD." This is all getting a bit highbrow for us -- "The city is in fact an expanded theater, where everybody focusses on one film at one time and discussing it, if they want to, online. So you have a citywide event that's distributed and yet concentrated. New platforms, new work, new social formations, new audiences, new experiences."

Whew. Let's catch our breaths, here. Celebrity chefs? Srsly? We're not totally sold on this one. While we like the whole one-city/one-book thing that the SF Public Library hosts, this "expanded theater" biznass takes it to a whole new level. IF they manage to find some magical film that a large majority of SF-types can agree on enjoying; and IF they can finaigle distribution channels that reach all of SF's nooks and crannies and underbellies; and IF we can all squidge out the time in our hectic modern lifestyles to participate in this cinematic simulcast ... well, then, maybe we'll be convinced.

We hereby nominate Xanadu for the inaugural event. It's a sure-fire hit!

This is part three of a five-part series examining the anticipated impact of the new SF360 program. Monday featured a local film-news website; Tuesday featured a suite of free tools for filmmakers and audiences; Thursday will focus on a network of projectors to be installed in local high schools; and Friday will cover a slew of new local fests.