San Francisco Film Society’s Sean Uyehara on Non-Traditional Film Programming

The rapidly approaching San Francisco International Film Festival made for a good excuse to sit down recently with SF Film Society programmer Sean Uyehara to hear his thoughts on new media’s role in film. He’s a knowledgeable person to ask: in addition to leading film and music programming for the International Festival beginning this month, Uyehara plans content for the SF International Animation Festival in the fall and year-round live multimedia events for the bi-monthly screening program SF360 Film + Club.

Uyehara, who started as a volunteer screener for the film society’s awards series out of film school, got his first job in the publications department putting together the festival’s program guide. After becoming a programmer, he created KinoTek, a non-traditional programming thread “dedicated to exhibiting cross-platform technologies and emergent media,” in the words of the Film Society. KinoTek presentations at past International Film Festivals have included generative art, VJ performances, social and collaborative video, and live animation.

When asked about the types of personality traits that are important to unique festival programming, Uyehara identified the following characteristics:

• Curiosity: It’s imperative that a programmer be open to finding something good in an unexpected place, Uyehara said. “Otherwise forget it–much of what we do is turning over rocks and looking underneath.”
• Integrity: Knowing what value you’re able to offer audiences but not overstating your role is important. Uyehara also warns against exploiting projects by novice filmmakers and said that it’s important to work together so first-time distributors understand what they’ll get out of a project or festival.
• Foresight: A good programmer’s ability to look beyond their own film preferences and host screenings with projects that push boundaries is crucial. “I try to program things that are on the edge of my own taste,” said Uyehara, who said only showing films of interest to him would be a disservice to local audiences. “The important thing is creating a public program that will engage people on a social and cultural level, that has relevance. Our work isn’t done in a vacuum.”

He doesn’t work in one either, stressing that he’s one of several programmers and part of a large team that plans and executes the annual International Film Festival. Uyehara said he admires fellow SFFS programmer Doug Jones, whose work is reflected in the film lineup for this year’s festival announced last week, for his efforts to promote up and coming filmmakers and encourage their work to be shown.