The second annual San Francisco Urban Film Festival happens this November from the 3rd through the 8th, taking as its theme the idea of going “beyond dystopia.” In line with that, they’re screening Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, whose vision of 2019 Los Angeles has, for nearly 35 years, endured as a vision of the urban future. Its crowded streets and Babel of languages beneath constant rain and the glow of skyscraper video screens once stood for dystopia itself, but might Blade Runner urbanism still have something to teach our cities, San Francisco included?
I’ll appear at the screening, in any case, to talk about just that, giving a presentation to introduce the film and doing a Q&A with professor Pedro Lange-Churion afterward. You can find all the details here and follow the San Francisco Urban Film Festival on Twitter @SFUrbanFilmFest. And if you’d like a piece of preparatory viewing before you come, might I suggest my City in Cinema video on Blade Runner?