Film Society Displays Alum Pamela Gentile's Photographs

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- San Francisco Film Society Executive Director Noah Cowan recently hosted members at a fall happy hour in its Presidio HQ, where exquisite black-and-white photographs by SFFS photog, Pamela Gentile, were on view. For 26 years, Gentile, a former SF State film studies student, has built a mighty portfolio as the SFFS photographer. And those early studies served her well in accessing some of the biggest names in the biz who have been honored during the San Francisco International Film Festival, including her SFFS portrait of iconic director Akira Kurosawa. “When Noah introduced me, I was going to thank the Academy Awards, because that’s why my photography started,” she joked. “But in 1989, the academy did honor Kurosawa for lifetime achievement. At the time, Peter Scarlett ran the Film Society, and he hatched a plan to name an award for Kurosawa to lure him to San Francisco.” And, snap, a career was born.