19th SAN FRANCISCO DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL CALL FOR ENTRIES
One of the oldest and largest documentary festivals in the US, we screen the best documentaries from around the world for two weeks at the Roxie Cinema, the oldest art house theater west of the Mississippi. Many of our titles end up with calendared runs at the Roxie later in the year. We get great coverage in San Francisco, the second largest film market in the country, plus industry reviews. The festival was attended by almost 10,000 doc lovers last year. A 10% increase in attendance over the year before! San Francisco is a very receptive town for documentaries and our fest has built a passionate following over the past 18 years.
ABOUT SF DOCFEST
SF DocFest is an annual festival devoted to documentary cinema. Since 2001, this two week-long event has brought the most weird and wonderful aspects of real life to the big screen.
“Docfest offers a zippy blend of politics, music, social issues and youth-oriented subcultures. The good news is that DocFest promotes documentaries as a vibrant, irreverent form of entertainment to a younger demographic, blasting the notion of educational films to smithereens. There?s no room for anything approximating – watch it, I’m about to blaspheme – the obsessively measured and utterly somnambulant musings of Ken Burns.” -Michael Fox, KQED
“Since its inception, DocFest (May 31-June 15 at the Roxie and the Vogue, with opening night at Alamo Drafthouse) has compiled a colorful scrapbook of genuine characters in contrast to the current events survey, educational seminar or social-issue forum that defines many documentary series. There are one or two people in Off the Charts you won’t soon forget, which could be said about nearly every film in DocFest. That’s one of the pleasures of scrapbooks.” -also Michael Fox, KQED
FILM FREEWAY FILMMAKER REVIEW EXCERPTS:
“A definite must for every doc filmmaker. Jeff and his crew of film lovers curate inspiring films from talented filmmakers. They were gracious hosts in one of the best cities in the world. The Roxie Theatre is a great venue where I’ve shown two films. Can’t wait to come back with my next film.”-Patrick G.
“SF DOC fest was a fantastic experience. In contrast to the SF Int’l, SF Doc Fest has a more punk rock aesthetic…very fitting for the Doc world. We screened our short film to 2 full houses. The audiences for both screenings were amazing. They were totally engaged and deeply appreciative of the work. Communication and outreach from the festival was also great. This is a fantastic festival and I would love to screen here again in the future.”-Paul B.
“This is perhaps one of the best documentary festivals I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of. We never had a screening that wasn’t entirely packed, the press that came out of it was unbelievable and the program staff are so smart and on top of everything. I’ll always continue to submit to this terrific festival.”-Spencer M.
“The spirit of this festival is spunky and fun, the staff warm and welcoming. The publicists (Karen Larsen Associates) do a great job at connecting press to particular stories. I especially appreciate how fast and personable everyone was–director, programmers, publicists, Roxie staff– in responding to queries before and during DocFest.”-Laurie C.