|
|
| Press Materials, Reviews, Upcoming Screenings |
Complete List of Screenings:
(for info about each fest, please Google-thanks!)
***2005***
Sundance Film Festival (January)
San Francisco International Film Festival (April/May)
London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (April)
Boston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (May)
Seattle International Film Festival (May)
SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival (June)
Provincetown International Film Festival (June)
New York Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (June)
San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival (June)
Vienna Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (June)
Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (July)
Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (July)
North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (August)
Fresno Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (September)
Austin Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (September)
Milwaukee Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (September)
Manila Eksperimento Film Festival (September)
Vancouver International Film Festival (October)
VIENNALE - International Film Festival Vienna (October)
Flanders International Film Festival (October)
Seattle Queer Film Festival (October)
Rialto Lakeside Cinema, Santa Rosa (November)
Get Real Documentary Film Festival, Minneapolis (November)
Rafael Film Center, San Rafael (December)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (December)
International Short & Independent Film Festival--Dhaka, Bangladesh (December)
***2006***
Mar Del Plata International Film Festival (March)
UC Santa Cruz (March 8)
Turin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (April)
Pacific Film Archive (April 18)
Bryant-Lake Bowl Microcinema, Minneapolis (May 16)
2nd Puebla Experimental and Alternative Film Festival in Puebla, Mexico (September)
1st Lódz "A Million Different Loves!" International Queer Film Festival - Kino Charlie (October)
1st Leipzig "A Million Different Loves!" International Queer Film Festival - Kino UT Connewitz, Kino Prager Frühling (October)
Diversa, Buenos Aires International Gay, Lesbian and Trans Film Festival (November)
Museum of Modern Art, New York (November)
IFC Film Center, New York (November)
1st Gdansk "A Million Different Loves!" International Queer Film Festival (November)
1st Torun "A Million Different Loves!" International Queer Film Festival - Kino Orzel (November)
1st Kraków "A Million Different Loves!" International Queer Film Festival - Kino Ars (November)
1st Poznan "A Million Different Loves!" International Queer Film Festival - Kino Rialto (November)
1st Warsaw "A Million Different Loves!" International Queer Film Festival - CSW Kino Lab (December)
1st Wroclaw "A Million Different Loves!" International Queer Film Festival - Kino Atom (December)
***2007***
SF Camerawork, San Francisco - As part of the exhibition: Traces of life on the thin film of longing (January 9 - February 24, 2007)
1st Kathmandu International LGBT Film Festival - Russian Cultural Centre (February)
1st Mauritius International LGBT Film Festival (May)
TLVFEST - Second Annual GLBT Film Festival in Tel-Aviv (June)
Sign up for email updates on the home page to get all the latest news about when The Joy of Life is coming to your town!
|
Praise & Awards for The Joy of Life
(please click thru to read the full reviews)
2005 Marlon Riggs Award (for courage & vision in Bay Area filmmaking)
-- The San Francisco Film Critics Circle!
2005 Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award
-- Outfest, Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
2005 Best US Narrative Screenplay Award
-- The New Festival, New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
"Thrillingly minimalist. Gently hypnotic."
--Rob Nelson, The Village Voice
"Provocative and evocative, both political and erotic."
-- Harriete Yahr, MediaRights.org
"A cinematic love poem. . . Beautiful."
--Dennis Harvey, San Francisco Bay Guardian
"Another perfect film with a masterful screenplay."
--Brandon Judell, indieWIRE.com
"A beautiful, daring film."
--Loren King, Bay Windows
"Awesome."
--David Lamble, Claude's Place
"Simply stunning to behold."
--Candace Moore, AfterEllen.com
"Absolutely brilliant. A poetic and heartfelt adventure."
--Kathleen Wilkinson, SFGate
"Captivating."
-- Film Threat
"Should solicit strong interest from gay and lesbian fests."
--Scott Foundas, Variety
"The festival's best film. . . vividly evocative."
-- The Boston Globe (from review of Boston L&G Film Fest)
"The pick of the festival. . . one of the most sensuous documentaries you will ever see."
--Kelly Vance, The East Bay Express (from review of SF LGBT Film Fest)
"Lonely and beautiful, desolate and breathtaking, 'The Joy of Life' is unlike anything you’ve seen (or heard) before."
--Brian Moylan, The Washington Blade
"The simple and relentless 'Joy of Life' spurns stereotype and aspires to the universal."
--Peter Keough, The Portland Phoenix
“Transfixing, starkly powerful. . . unforgettable.”
--Jeffrey Anderson, San Francisco Examiner
". . . incredibly moving, vista-expanding, and, yes, life-affirming experience. . ."
-- Hell on Frisco Bay Blog
"Makes the ordinary extraordinary."
-- Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe
"Absolutely dazzling, utterly profound... A confessional piece of a rare and most touching honesty, tenderness, and devotion... A small gem not to be missed."
--Pablo Suarez, Buenos Aeres Herald
“Part dyke's own Sex and the City, part documentary, and all collage, The Joy of Life provides a lover's look at the pain and bliss of desiring, whether the desired be a beautiful woman, a dead friend, a place called San Francisco, or film itself.”
--Terri Sutton, City Pages
|
| Downloadable Press Materials |
Interviews & Features About The Joy of Life
(click thru to read/listen)
San Francisco Bay Guardian interview
(click thru to see the amazing picture)
GreenCine.com interview
(click thru to see my Top Ten movies list)
Radio Tania interview on KALW
(scroll down to "Jenni Olson" and click for mp3)
SFist.com interview
Cinematical interview
New York Times
(item from Sunday Arts section)
Suicide Watch
By ANDREW BLUM
Published: March 20, 2005
The board of directors of the Golden Gate Bridge recently voted to explore installing a barrier that would jeopardize the bridge's least welcome claim to fame: its status as the world's most popular place to commit suicide. That decision was the result of a distinctively San Francisco process in which psychiatrists, lesbian activists and - perhaps most surprisingly - documentary filmmakers had a direct effect on the making of public policy.
JULY 15, 2004 The Psychiatric Foundation of Northern California, which supports a suicide barrier, initiates meetings with bridge board members, reopening a decades-long debate in the Bay Area. The main sticking points: cost and aesthetics.
JAN. 11 The documentarian Eric Steel - who was given permission to set up cameras on federal land for a year to make a film about the "grandeur" of the bridge - e-mails bridge officials, revealing that the cameras have captured more than a dozen people jumping. His movie will now be "about the human spirit in crisis," he writes.
JAN. 14 The experimental filmmaker Jenni Olson publishes an op-ed article in The San Francisco Chronicle calling for a suicide barrier and recounting the death of her friend Mark Finch, former director of the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. "If there had been a suicide barrier on the bridge, Mark would probably still be alive today," she writes. The article is adapted from her script for "The Joy of Life," a combination of lesbian love story and documentary examination of the bridge as suicide landmark, that has its premiere the following week at Sundance. Working with the psychiatric foundation, she will later distribute the film to the bridge's board of directors.
JAN. 19 The Chronicle breaks the news that Mr. Steel has filmed people jumping. A San Francisco supervisor and bridge board member, Tom Ammiano, tells The Chronicle, "Whatever the intention of the film, you can't help but think of a snuff film"; a spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District says: "Are we angry? Absolutely." The barrier issue is rushed onto the agenda of the bridge's building and operations committee.
MARCH 11 Before a packed house, the board of directors votes, 15-1, to seek $2 million for studies and preliminary designs of a barrier. Jay Rosenblatt, a well-known Bay Area filmmaker, captures the proceedings for yet another documentary, this one on suicide. Roger Grimes, an engineer and advocate for the barrier since the 1970's, invokes Mr. Steel's film: "The bottom line is we are here because of a filmmaker who filmed people jumping off. Our dirty little secret is getting out to the world." Ms. Olson hands out copies of her film. Later that afternoon, a young man is persuaded by California Highway Patrol officers not to jump.
|
|
|
