Saturday night the San Francisco International Film Festival played host to “An Evening with Roger Ebert and Friends” preceding a screening of one of Ebert’s favorite 2009 films, “Julia” starring Tilda Swinton. The “friends” that the program referred to were actually a quartet of directors, including Terry Zwigoff (“Crumb,” “Ghost World,” “Bad Santa“), Errol Morris (“Vernon Florida,” “The Fog of War,” “Standard Operating Procedure“), Jason Reitman (“Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno,” “Up in the Air“) , and Philip Kaufman (“The Right Stuff, ” “Henry & June,” “Quills“). During the event, Ebert was presented with the Mel Novikoff Award, which “acknowledges an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the film-going public’s knowledge and appreciation of world cinema.” The historical Castro Theater often plays host to some of the more unique film events that San Francisco gets privileged with, but the popularity of the Roger Ebert event was surprising even to the locals. The line for the event stretched down the sidewalk and around three street corners. It was a crowd sprawling down to say the least. As Rachel Rosen, Director of Programming for SFIFF, invited Roger Ebert and wife Chaz to the stage, the audience took to their feet for the first of many times to applaud the man of the hour. After reading a letter from Tilda Swinton apologizing for missing the ceremony (due to a scheduling conflict with the production of Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin”), Rosen invited director Terry Zwigoff to the podium to get the night rolling. Zwigoff expressed a great deal of gratitude towards Ebert for being a champion of his earlier films before anyone else would, a sentiment echoed repeatedly throughout the night by all of the directors. “I first met him at Telluride Film Festival in 1984 where I had my first film, ‘Louie Bluie.’ I had only been accepted at one other festival before that down at Filmex, which is now called the LA Film Festival. I think 12 people showed up to see the film down there so I didn’t expect much when I went to Telluride. But one of the first people in line to see the film was Roger Ebert, which was a big deal to me. I remember that I was in the lobby selling LPs, which sort of dates the whole thing. They were soundtracks to the film and Roger wanted to buy a few. I said, ‘Just take a few, you know, I’m a fan.’ And he seemed rather put off by that, rather irritated. Like I was trying to bribe him or something.” When it came to the difficulties of getting press for his second effort, “Crumb,” Ebert was again instrumental in helping the film reach a wider audience. “Somehow, the New York Film Festival let us in and it did well there and Roger and his old pal Gene Siskel saw it and they started championing it on their show,” Zwigoff marveled. “They had it on there 3 or 4 times. The first time they did an early review to encourage theaters to actually book the film. And then after that they did it again when it came out to review it. And then after that to remind people to go see it a couple of times. Eventually, by then, all the other critics had gone along and come on board. Ultimately Roger argued for it at Oscar time and eventually it made it onto Roger’s list of great films which was probably a greater thrill for me than winning the Oscar.” Balancing the innate conflict in a friendship between a director and film critic was a topic Zwigoff remained self-conscious of as he addressed Ebert. He explained to the crowd, “I’m so socially retarded that I don’t think I’ve ever become friends with Roger in the traditional sense. I did have dinner with him and Chaz once, but [John] Malkovich’s whole crazy family was there so I couldn’t get a word in. He’s interviewed me a few times, he’s had me at Ebertfest. Part of it, you know, you got to keep a bit of professional distance from the guy reviewing your films as well. ” Zwigoff wrapped up his section of the presentation and invited Errol Morris up to the stage. Ebert called Morris’s “Gates of Heaven” one of the 10 greatest films of all time and Morris still looks at the assessment as his permission to keep making films. “I think this is true, many films later — you don’t really know if they’re good or bad. You really depend on someone to tell you that they’re really not as bad as you might think and in fact they might be good! For me, very early on in my career, it was Roger Ebert,” Morris said. “Anybody that does this long enough knows that there are 2, 3, 4 people that have made an extraordinary difference in their careers. For me, Roger is certainly one of those people. He champions unlikely films. His overlooked film festival is a perfect example of this. It’s my favorite trophy by the way, the golden thumb. It’s something I’m very, very proud of. Although I was disappointed to learn that it was not actually Roger’s thumb.” At this Ebert held up his thumb towards Morris and nodded proudly. Morris noticed, “Oh, is that your thumb? Well now I like it even more.” Explaining exactly how such a large audience could show up to see a man that has spent his life writing about films, Morris declares, “He’s not really just a film critic. He’s a cultural icon, quite clearly. He’s mastered every form of this sort of thing; as a writer, as a newspaper-man, as a television personality, now as a blogger. And I’m sure that in the future if there is a new kind of media invented or developed, he will master that as well.” When Morris introduced Jason Reitman to the program, the scope of Ebert’s influence suddenly became clearer. While Zwigoff and Reitman (and later Philip Kaufman) all have careers dating back decades, Reitman is relatively new on the scene. Yet the same man that helped ignite the careers of those directors in the ’80s did the same thing with Reitman in the ’00s. Like the others, Reitman recognizes Ebert’s ability to champion, “a film on the fringe, something small. And he will blow wind into the sails of this film and give it a life unimaginable. And I thought I’d be the first person to talk about but I realize that everybody is talking about it.” As far as his own experience, Reitman credits Ebert with pushing “Juno” into a level of recognition that it otherwise would not have attained.
“I remember arriving at the Toronto Film Festival with this tiny movie about teenage pregnancy starring an unknown Canadian actress named Ellen Page and I really thought that it would be a festival movie, it would not be seen otherwise. And I remember the movie ended and people started to clap and I saw Roger who was actually just sitting a few rows away from me and he nodded at me. By the next morning he had already started talking about the film and he had shown a spotlight on it. He gave people a reason to pay attention to it. I believe that Roger is one of the very few reasons people know the name ‘Juno.’ ” As he spoke, Reitman also built up to a tribute to Ebert’s online alter ego, @ebertchicago, saying, “He is America’s best friend that won’t stop nagging you until you see this film. Nowhere is this more evident than on Twitter. I know teenage girls that tweet less than Roger Ebert. The Roger Ebert twitter feed is one of the best publications we have running. I don’t mean it sarcastically; I mean it honestly. It’s thoughtful, it’s political, it’s funny, it’s daring, it’s self-effacing. His instincts to write and to share can only be seen as one thing: he wants you to experience what he has experienced.” Rounding out the presentation was Philip Kaufman who, unlike the other directors, chose to sit beside Ebert, ignoring the podium. His speech to Ebert was raw and heartfelt; he seemed the closest to a real friend of Ebert’s amongst the four directors. Besides seeing Ebert as a champion of films, he sees him as an accomplice in altering film culture. During the battle to get “Henry & June” into theaters, Kaufman recalls Ebert fighting alongside him. “Once, Roger called me, woke me up at about 6 in the morning. The ratings board had dropped the dreaded Rated X on the film, which meant essentially that it couldn’t be distributed. Roger had been fighting the same fight with the ratings system for years and was calling to tell me that the ratings board had backed down. Because Roger had led the forces of change, they were finally coming up with a new rating, NC-17.” Originally from Chicago, Kaufman takes a great deal of pride in his birthplace being the home to the world’s greatest film critic. “Everything you’ve read by this kid Ebert over all these years should be in the context, in the tradition of the Chicago writers. Tough, give-em-hell, non-compromising, no bullshit, tell it like it is, compassionate writers. Like them, Ebert spoke from his heart, spoke against the big boys, championed the little man against small-minded bullies. He told us the truth according to Ebert.” Ending the presentation, Kaufman was tasked with presenting Ebert with both the Mel Novikoff Award as well as a proclamation from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom stating that May 1st would from that point on be known as Roger Ebert Day in the city and county of San Francisco. Once the directors had finished their speeches and the crowd had quieted, Ebert unfolded his laptop to at last say a few words. For half a minute, the silent audience listened to the click of the keyboard echo through the theater in anticipation of Ebert’s reaction to the evening. Ebert finally sat up straight and hit the enter key, activating a computer generated voice announcing: “My little man is standing on his chair,” entertaining the audience immeasurably. Introducing “Julia” as an example of overlooked films, Ebert railed against the studio system and the direction that they are heading. “Incredibly, some studios have announced that they will no longer make what we think of as real movies. They will specialize entirely in 3D, franchises, sequels, special effects, and superheroes. We all know stories about how the best projects from even a few years ago could no longer be financed today. The studios are running like lemmings towards 3D. 3D is an annoying gimmick useful primarily for increasing ticket prices.” It was appropriate that it was before an audience in a historical theater that Ebert should speak about the importance of cinema as a communal phenomenon. Channeling Francois Truffaut, he gestured grandly as the computer pronounced what he’d typed. “Truffaut said the most beautiful sight you will see in a cinema is if you sit in the front and turnaround to gaze at all those eyes lifted up to the screen. They are a characterization of the movie and they are an audience. An audience forms a personality. It forms an identity. It is how we shape our collective dreams. I love my DVD collection. I love streaming video. But when I finally am able to see the restored ‘Metropolis’ I promise you it will not be at home on television.”
–Written by Sean Gillane