San Francisco Film Society Oral History Project Interview with ...

CLAUDE JARMAN: —was wonderful, he really was. He just was so sure of what he was doing, loved
the films, loved the city, “Whatever you want me to do,” not rushing in and out of town. OK, the next
year was ’75.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Wait. Let me make sure I’ve got everything for ’74 here. Let’s talk about
a couple of the documentaries that year: Hearts and Minds and Attica. Now I saw something, and I
wasn’t very clear on it, that said that this may have been the last time that Hearts and Minds was
shown. There was some sort of, I don’t know, legal issues or something.
CLAUDE JARMAN: I don’t know.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Those were very important political documentaries. Were the
documentaries becoming more of a force in the Festival?
CLAUDE JARMAN: Well, there were more being made, because you’re still dealing with Vietnam and
a lot of unrest, and there were a lot of features in that area. So, yes, I think it probably was.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Did you go looking for documentaries?
CLAUDE JARMAN: No, but we were always aware of them. And Attica was a huge story during that
time. And, I mean, that’s perfect festival fare.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: There was an interview published, I think, in California Living or
something with you; kind of a profile of you that year. You talked about some of the people you invited
for retrospectives year after year. Do you remember who those were?
CLAUDE JARMAN: Always Orson Welles and he always turned us down every year. I told you about
the letter that I wrote to him and delivered?
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: No, I don’t think so.
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