Rob Nilsson

Rob Nilsson is a San Francisco filmmaker whose work has been on the cutting edge of independent cinema. His 1978 Northern Lights (co-directed with John Hanson) won the 1979 Camera d’Or at Cannes and in 1989, his feature Heat and Sunlight won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.  In the last 30 years, he’s directed made some 30 films, often pioneering new technology in the process. His 1985 Signal 7, for example, was the first small format video feature to be blown up to film. He is also the creator of the Direct Action style of digital filmmaking, which originated in his Tenderloin yGroup’s Actors Ensemble, is featured in workshops conducted around the world. Recent awards include lifetime achievement recognition at the Fargo International Film Festival, the Kansas City Filmmaker’s Jubilee, Filmmaker of the Year at the Silver Lake Film festival, the Milley Award for Achievement in the Arts and the new Rob Nilsson Award, inaugurated by the Filmmaker’s Alliance of L.A. in 2008 to be given annually to independent filmmakers of merit.

With so much experience, we wanted to get Rob Nilsson’s take on 5 films featuring his hometown.

ROB NILSSON'S TOP FIVE SAN FRANCISCO FILMS

1. | 

Crazy Quilt

A 1966 feature film written and directed by John Korty, edited by David Schickele, shot, as I remember, in Marin County and maybe San Francisco. From the neo-realist tradition with narration by Burgess Meredith and adapted from the Alan Wheelis novel, The Illusionless Man and the Visionary. The man without illusions meets the woman with nothing but. Hard to find but well worth trying.

2. | 

Bushman

A 1971 feature film written and directed by David Schickele. Memorable footage from Portrero Hill, the Fillmore district and industrial areas around Hunter’s Point. A visiting Nigerian gets involved in the San Francisco State strike. A bomb is planted on him and he is arrested. Reality intervenes. Paul Okpokam, the lead actor, is actually arrested while filming and is sent to San Quentin. The film turns documentary as David spends a year trying to get him out. A film everyone should see.

3. | 

Glen and Randa

A 1971 feature co- written and directed by Jim McBride and shot mostly in the woods and shores of Marin County.  A post- apocalyptic feature film about feckless survivors searching for a lost city depicted in a Captain Marvel comic.  I loved its slack-jawed Bohos and “whatever” insouciance. Vincent Canby stood above it as judge and jury. Vincent Canby was wrong.

4. | 

Over Under, Sideways Down

Co-directed by Gene Corr, Steve Wax and Peter Gessner. Shot largely in the East Bay, a 1977 feature film about a factory worker and semi-pro baseball player (Robert Viharo) asked by fellow workers to join in a strike. Cine Manifest’s first feature. The collective’s second feature was Northern Lights, co-directed by John Hanson and myself.

5. | 

Nocturnal Jake

Directed by Deniz Demirer, director of photography, Jonathan Silvio. A dramatic 2008feature film shot mostly in the San Francisco Tenderloin about a young, modern-day jazz saxophonist played by David Boyce, a member of the Broun Fellinis. Jazz is back where it started, in dives (no longer smokey) with love of the music its own reward and life hardscrabble.  Kaleidoscopic, instinctive, smart and unwilling to explain itself away. Look for it.