Alum Elliot Lavine, Film Programmer, to Leave Bay Area for Oregon

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- Lavine is to movies what a feng shui master is to furniture. The master doesn’t make the furniture but knows where to place it in considered relationship with the other pieces — and what the combinations will mean. This philosophical approach to film has always been part of who he is, even decades before he had a theatre to program. Born in Detroit, Lavine came to San Francisco in 1975 to study film at San Francisco State. For 15 years, while working odd jobs, he made independent shorts and tried to launch a directing career. It wasn’t until age 42 that he found his true calling. A friend who worked at the Roxie box office told him the theater’s owner, Bill Banning, was looking for someone to write blurbs about upcoming films for its calendar. “Elliot’s programming is adventurous and humane,” says Anita Monga, artistic director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. “He’s a born advocate for the neglected and underappreciated.”