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| Film society salutes a legend By Stacy Trevenon - [ stacy@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, January 9, 2008 2:00 PM PST For more than 25 years, Joan Saffa has been turning out award-winning nonfiction television programs. In recognition of this, on Friday, Jan. 11, the Coastside Film Society will present two of Saffa's films, along with the filmmaker herself, to meet her public. It will take place beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the sanctuary of the Community United Methodist Church at 777 Miramontes St. in Half Moon Bay. The evening's first feature will be "San Francisco in the '20s." Narrated by actor Ed Asner, this 60-minute film captures the spectrum of rollicking good times as well as the flavors of lawlessness and uncertainty that lurked beneath the surface of everyday life in the era of Prohibition, flapper flamboyance and the stock market crash. It will be followed by the 116-minute featured film "Keeping Score: MTT on Music," a behind-the-scenes guided tour of the music of great American composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990), through the eyes of noted San Francisco Symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the symphony itself. This work, according to film society publicists, offers something both for those familiar with Copland's music and those discovering it for the first time. The selections in the documentary cover a range of Copland works, from "Appalachian Spring" and "Billy the Kid" to lesser-known works in the composer's popular to classical musical scope. With a bachelor's degree in psychology from Cornell University and a master's degree in education from the University of Rochester, Saffa turned to filmmaking more than three decades ago, and since then has produced and directed award-winning television programs. She has created about 30 documentaries and contributed to numerous multi-part series that have aired on Turner Broadcasting, PBS, CNBC, the Disney Channel and HBO. Her work has brought her national and Bay Area Emmy awards, Cine Golden Eagles, a George Foster Peabody award, an ASCAP Broadcast Award and honors from San Francisco, Hawaii and New York film festivals. She has documented authors from Ken Kesey to Beryl Markham and others. She has produced a range of cultural, political and historical documentaries including "San Francisco in the '20s," "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight" and "Honor Bound," her Emmy-winning show on a World War II Japanese-American battalion. Her work has also fit in with national series including "We the People" with Peter Jennings, "Over Easy" with Hugh Downs and "Money in America" with Sylvia Chase. Most recently she has worked with InCA with David Kennard, creating "Keeping Score," which will be a series of shows on music. The pilot, on Tchaikovsky, aired in June 2004. Subsequent segments featured Beethoven's "Eroica," Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," and the American sound. Admission to this presentation of Saffa and her films is $6 per person at the door. For information, visit www.hmbfilm.org. |