Berlin & Beyond Film Festival Programs Announced |
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SF & Bay Area full shutdown begins Sunday Dec. 6, at 10 pm. Outdoor dining, hair salons, gyms, drive in movies, barbershops, zoos, and more personal and recreational services are all required to close 10 pm Sunday night.
Additionally: The regional stay-at-home order prohibits private gatherings of any size, closes sector operations except for critical infrastructure and retail, and requires 100% masking and physical distancing in all others.
Self-Imposed Lockdown Starting Sunday Dec 6 at 10pm (unless otherwise noted)
- San Francisco
- Marin County – Noon Tuesday, December 8.
- Alameda County
- City of Berkeley – 12:01am Monday, December 7
- Contra Costa County
- Santa Clara County
Not Yet – Waiting for State mandate (expected Mid-December)
As of December 3, 2020 the Bay Area has an ICU capacity of 25.3% – Check for updates. If 15% is reached, then the region has 24 hours to institute lockdown
- San Mateo County
- Sonoma County
- Napa County
- Solano County
- Santa Cruz County
- Monterey County
What’s Banned:
- Personal Services (Hair, nail salons, massages) even outdoor operations required to close
- Outdoor dining (Take out and delivery still allowed)
- Zoos and outdoor museums (Outdoor botanical gardens and historic sites may remain open.)
- Drive in theaters and performances
- Outdoor playgrounds – public playgrounds including climbing structures and walls, slides swings, sand pits, etc. must close.
- Skate parks, roller and ice skating rinks, batting cages, go kart racing and miniature golf must close.
- Open air bus and boat operations
- Indoor gyms. Limited 1:1 personal training within gyms and fitness centers that was allowed under the previous health order must cease
- Outdoor gatherings with more than one household – Small outdoor gatherings, must limit themselves to members of 1 household with a maximum number of 12 people (down from up to three households or no more than 25 people). Face coverings must remain on at all times and no eating or drinking is allowed.
What’s Still Allowed (with restrictions):
- All retail must reduce capacity to 20% including grocery stores
- Hotels can only accept guests for essential workers
- outdoor gyms limited to 12 people
- Golf and tennis allowed.
This is an evolving news story and more updates are expected.
The Berlin & Beyond Film Festival,
with the support and collaboration of the Goethe-Institut San Francisco and the Special Projects and Unexpected Needs (SPUN) grant of Grants for the Arts, presents the virtual film festival, Berlin & Beyond in Focus, November 19-21, 2020.
- Ten feature-length films will be shown in a scheduled format with live Q&As or as an on-demand program (some will include pre-recorded Q&As). Interactive highlights will include engaging panels and community conversations (to be announced in a separate release).
- Most films are geo-blocked only for viewers in the Bay Area counties of San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, and San Mateo. All films will have a limited number of viewers. Though the virtual screenings are free, ticket registration is required.
- Details and tickets at berlinbeyond.com
- Cost for each online screening: free
- Ticket registration window: Nov. 5-6 for San Francisco city and county; Nov. 7 at noon and forward to include the other Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, and San Mateo.
SCHEDULED VIRTUAL CINEMA EVENTS
I Was, I Am, I Will Be (Es gilt das gesprochene Wort)
Followed by Q&A with Director Ilker Çatak
Directed by Ilker Çatak I (Germany, France, 2019, 122 min.)
Winner of the 2020 German Film Award Best Picture (Bronze)
Opposite worlds collide when Baran, a Turkish gigolo meets Marion, a German pilot, on the beaches of Marmaris. An examination of life’s unpredictability and progression from a troubled past, to a complicated present and the hopeful promise of the future.
In German, Turkish, and English; non-English portions with English subtitles
Cast: Anne Ratte-Polle, Oğulcan Arman Uslu, Godehard Giese, Jörg Schüttauf
Northern California Premiere
Trailer: vimeo.com/342013930
SWISS FILM & TALK – Saturday, November 21, 2020 at 1:00 PM
My Little Sister (Schwesterlein)
Followed by Q&A with Directors Stéphanie Chuat & Véronique Reymond
Directed by Stéphanie Chuat, Véronique Reymond (Switzerland, 2020, 99 min.)
Switzerland’s Official Entry to the 2021 Academy Awards for Best International Film Consideration
Lisa gives up her ambitions as a playwright in Berlin and moves to Switzerland with her husband. When her twin brother, a famous actor, falls ill with cancer, Lisa returns to the German capital, risking everything for their desire to be creative, and feel alive again.
In German, French, and English; non-English portions with English subtitles
Cast: Nina Hoss, Lars Eidinger, Jens Albinus, Marthe Keller
Northern California Premiere
Trailer: youtube.com/watch?v=49EPkmApHYU
CLOSING NIGHT FILM – Saturday, November 21, 2020 at 7:30 PM
Curveball – A True Story. Unfortunately.
Directed by Johannes Naber (Germany, 2020, 108 min.)
2020 Berlinale Special Gala Selection
This political satire tells the grotesque, at times even surreal, true story of how the Iraq war was started based on nothing but fake intelligence and the involvement of the German government and German secret service.
In German, English, and Arabic; non-English portions with English subtitles
Cast: Sebastian Blomberg, Dar Salim, Virginia Kull, Thorsten Merten, Michael Wittenborn
US West Coast Premiere
Trailer: vimeo.com/344756564
ON-DEMAND
The following films will be available to rent (for free) to watch during the festival period.
Automotive
Directed by Jonas Heldt (Germany, 2020, 80 minutes) Documentary Film
This documentary tells a story of a generation for which work as a basis of existence is neither safe nor identity shaping. A worker sorting car parts, and a headhunter in logistics automation, both work with the knowledge that eventually will be replaceable.
In German, English, Turkish, and Hungarian; non-English portions with English subtitles
North America Premiere
Cleo – If I Could Turn Back Time
Directed by Erik Schmitt (Germany, 2019, 99 min.)
Imaginative Cleo dreams of finding a magic clock that turns back time. When she meets Paul, they set off on a topsy-turvy journey through time and across the pulsating city of Berlin.
In German with English subtitles
Cast: Marleen Lohse, Jeremy Mockridge, Heiko Pinkowski, Max Mauff
California Premiere
youtube.com/watch?v=-Cr5RRtXw-E
Gipsy Queen
Directed by Hüseyin Tabak (Germany, Austria, 2019, 117 min.)
Best Leading Actress for Alina Serban at the 2020 German Screen Actors Awards
Ali, a courageous woman and single mother of two kids, struggles to provide for her family. While working in a rundown nightclub, she seizes at the chance to train as a boxer, for a chance of a better life.
In German and Romany with English subtitles
Cast: Alina Serban, Tobias Moretti, Irina Kurbanova
Special Encore | 24th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival Closing Night Film, February 2020
Trailer: vimeo.com/314261364
Lovemobil
Directed by Elke Lehrenkrauss (Germany, 2019, 103 min.) Documentary Film
Alongside the dark country roads of rural Germany, prostitutes from foreign countries work in old caravans. ln this uncanny world, the murder of one of the women takes place.
In German, English, and Bulgarian; non-English portions with English subtitles
Northern California Premiere
Stars Above Us (Sterne über uns)
Directed by Christina Ebelt (Germany, 2019, 102 min.)
Forced into homelessness, Melli, a single mother, takes her son Ben to a forest, while she continues to fight her way out of their desperate situation. For the good of her child, she has to make the most difficult decision of her life.
In German with English subtitles
Cast: Franziska Hartmann, Claudio Magno, Kai Ivo Baulitz, Nicole Johannhanwahr
North America Premiere
Undine
Directed by Christian Petzold (Germany, France, 2020, 90 min.)
Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize and the Silver Berlin Bear Best Actress for Paula Beer at the 2020 Berlinale
San Francisco Premiere
Undine works as a historian lecturing on Berlin’s urban development. But when the man she loves leaves her, the ancient myth catches up with her. Undine has to kill the man who betrays her and return to the water.
In German with English subtitles
Cast: Paula Beer, Franz Rogowski, Maryam Zaree, Jacob Matschenz
San Francisco Premiere
Trailer: youtube.com/watch?v=El4-2zrNppA
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl)
Directed by Caroline Link (Germany, Switzerland, 2019, 119 min.)
Best Children's Film at the 2020 German Film Awards
In 1933, Anna is not sure who Hitler is, but that man on the posters is changing her family’s lives. They must flee Germany, leaving everything behind. Based on Judith Kerr’s bestselling semi-autobiographical novel.
In German and Swiss German with English subtitles
Cast: Riva Krymalowski, Carla Juri, Oliver Masucci
Northern California Premiere
Trailer: youtube.com/watch?v=9J03rMFyFzA
Sadly, most of th e Bay Area’s outdoor ice skating rinks
for holiday skating won’t be opening this year.
- Many Bay Area seasonal ice rinks have announced that they won’t be opening due to the ongoing pandemic. Operators note everyone’s health and safety are paramount, plus, social distancing requirements and reduced capacities would make their businesses unprofitable.
- However, there are two rinks that will be open this season*. If you don't mind a mini road trip, Santa Cruz’s Boardwalk Holiday Ice Skating Rink will be open this year, November 14, 2020 – January 3, 2021. Also, heading to the far East Bay, Brentwood on Ice returns November 20.
Bay Area Holiday Ice Rinks closing this 2020~2021 season:
- Holiday Ice Rink at Embarcadero Center
- Norcal Ice in San Rafael
- Union Square Ice Rink
- San Jose’s Downtown Ice
- Santa Clara on Ice
- San Mateo on Ice Holiday Skating Rink
- Napa on Ice
- NorCal Ice (Marin)
- Walnut Creek on Ice
The dazzling Neiman Marcus Rotunda — adorned with its landmark stained glass dome — is one of the few remaining artifacts preserved from San Francisco’s
lost department stores.
the restaurant had hoped to reopen at some indefinite future time, according to a a few restaurant employees furloughed in March.
This story was reported in the
- The visual elements of the Rounda Cafe were maintained from the original City of Paris building, a department store that at one time was San Francisco's oldest, first making its appearance in 1851 at the Sutter and Kearny intersection, and eventually settling at the Geary and Stockton location in Union Square in 1896.
- The City of Paris building was remodeled by architects Arthur Brown, John Bakewell, and Louis Bourgeois who also designed San Francisco City Hall, the War Memorial House, and the Veterans Building. Amazingly, the City of Paris department store survived the 1906 Earthquake, though the resulting fire badly damaged the store interior.
- The City of Paris building was demolished by Neiman Marcus, which bought the building in 1974 with plans to build a brand new Neiman Marcus department store, with the promise to preserve the iconic stained-glass rotunda. The upheaval to one of San Francisco's treasured downtown buildings was all the more met with scorn when the new Neiman Marcus building opened as a glitzy, modern, out-of-place structure when it opened in 1983.
Read the history of the famed City of Paris building, here.
Read more on this story at SF Gate
Melanie posts:
SF Bay Area updates on upcoming events and what's happening now around town.
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