Posted on August 25th, 2011 by editors
Graham Leggat — the irrepressible Scottish impresario who led the San Francisco Film Society on to greater glory during the past six years — died tonight at his home after an 18-month battle with cancer. Under Leggat, the Film Society made its annual San Francisco International Film Festival — the nation’s oldest — more important [...]
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Posted on June 23rd, 2011 by editors
After more than a year of exploring the possibilities, the San Francisco Film Society is coming to the neighborhood — but to Japantown, not the Clay Theater. The Film Society announced this morning that it will establish a year-round home and take over the programming of the stylish and high-tech Viz Cinema at the New [...]
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Posted on April 20th, 2011 by editors
Hollywood is in the neighborhood and they’re going to church — the Swedenborgian Church at Washington and Lyon. It snowed on the little church this week — or appeared to — when Nicole Kidman was filming scenes for Hemingway & Gelhorn, a new HBO film directed by Philip Kaufman, who lives just over the hill. [...]
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Posted on April 11th, 2011 by editors
In what locals are taking as a hopeful sign — quite literally — the historic neon marquee at the Clay Theater is lighted once again. It has been dark and broken for months, a tangible nightly reminder of the theater’s uncertain future. Now that the lights are back on — and Catherine Deneuve is back [...]
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Posted on January 26th, 2011 by editors
By Don Langley The film “Bhutto,” which earned high praise at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, is now playing at several dozen theaters throughout the country. But local producer-director Duane Baughman says it was most important to him to bring his documentary home to the Clay Theater on Fillmore. He invited his Washington Street neighbors [...]
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Posted on November 26th, 2010 by editors
SF Weekly offers a cover story this week on the uncertain future of Fillmore Street’s Clay Theater. “People don’t want the Clay Theater to die,” the Weekly says. “But judging from ticket sales, they don’t want to see films there either.” Read more
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Posted on October 28th, 2010 by editors
There’s been no breakthrough yet, but negotiations are continuing between the owner of the Clay Theater and the San Francisco Film Society, which hopes to make the theater its home. In addition, the owner’s architect has met with the CEO of Landmark Theatres, the current operator, about renovations that might make the theater attractive to [...]
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Posted on September 25th, 2010 by editors
The legendary poem “Howl” — which had its premiere on Fillmore Street in 1955 and is now the subject of a film showing at the Sundance Kabuki — was 29-year-old Allen Ginsberg’s first published work. But it instantly established him as a vital new voice for rapidly changing times. It all began on what Jack [...]
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Posted on September 3rd, 2010 by editors
By Thomas Reynolds Discussions between Clay Theater owner Balgobind Jaiswal and the San Francisco Film Society began last December after Landmark Theatres decided it could no longer afford to continue to operate the venerable theater, which has been showing films on Fillmore Street for 100 years. The lease had actually expired two years earlier. “The [...]
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Posted on September 3rd, 2010 by editors
The owner of the Clay Theater has invited leaders of the San Francisco Film Society to meet on September 13 to resume discussions about the Film Society’s desire to lease the historic Fillmore art house. Graham Leggat, executive director of the society, said he is eager to proceed. “It’s certainly progress,” Leggat said. “It’s a [...]
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