Date/Time
Date(s) - 06/04/2024
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
San Francisco Main Library
Category(ies)
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Jim Van Buskirk, a retired SFPL librarian, major movie buff, and public speaker, is the co-author of Celluloid San Francisco: The Film Lover’s Guide to Bay Area Movie Locations as well as other books, articles, blogs and radio broadcasts on San Francisco and film history.
San Francisco has appeared in hundreds of movies and television series, some famous, others obscure, from Eric von Stroheim’s 1924 Greed to Dirty Harry to The Matrix Resurrection. Using film stills and clips, this program demonstrates the Bay Area’s rich cinematic history, from Charlie Chaplin starring in silent films at Essanay Studio in Niles through Philo Farnsworth’s invention of television (remember The Doris Day Show?), sometimes becoming an inadvertent time capsule documenting long-gone sites. Among the many familiar (or not-so-familiar scenes) are the Alta Plaza Park steps being chipped in What’s Up, Doc?, the futuristic skyline in Towering Inferno and Bicentennial Man, and the geographically inconsistent chase sequence in Bullitt.
This four-part series, hosted every Tuesday night in June, celebrates San Francisco’s important role in the movies. These lively clip-filled programs are engaging, entertaining and educational. Beginning with a general overview of Bay Area in films and television, narrowing the focus to representations of the 1906 earthquake, before traversing the Golden Gate Bridge, and finally landing on Alcatraz.
Presented by San Francisco Public Library