Sights & Sounds is your weekly guide to the Bay Area arts scene through the eyes and ears of local artists. Our guest is Nomi Talisman: co-director along with Dee Hibbert-Jones of the Oscar nominated short documentary Last Day of Freedom, which is already a winner at the International Documentary Association Awards.
Talisman told KALW’s Jen Chien about three cool arts events happening around the Bay.
San Francisco Independent Film Festival (SF Indie) runs 2/11 through 2/25 at various venues in San Francisco. SF Indie is in its 18th year, and in addition to the films, the festival presents special events like the Roller Disco Costume Party, Big Lebowski Party, and this Sunday, a Super Bowl 50: Men in Tights comedy spectacular.
TALISMAN: I'm excited about the film Chuck Norris vs. Communism. It’s a story about a network of people who smuggled VHS tapes of American movies into communist Romania in the 1980s.
Tonight, 2/4, A Concert of Champions is presented by the San Francisco Symphony and NFL Films in honor of Super Bowl 50. NFL Hall of Fame running back Marcus Allen hosts while the orchestra live scores clips from NFL Films. The program features original and award-winning music by composers David Robidoux, Thomas Hedden, and Sam Spence.
TALISMAN: It's kind of interesting to see these two things, that might be considered by some to be opposites, trying to do something together.
Kronos Quartet’s Kronos Festival: Explorer Series is at the SFJazz Center this weekend. In seven concerts over four days, Kronos Quartet will present works that have been commissioned for them by composers in musical styles from around the world. The festival features guest performers David Coulter, Fodé Lassana Diabaté, KITKA, Ritva Koistinen, Abbos Kosimov, Andy Meyerson, Salar Nader, Mariana Sadovska, Homayun Sakhi, and Vân-Ánh Võ.
TALISMAN: It's pretty remarkable that Kronos is using their status as a platform to expose upcoming, emerging composers to new audiences.
