STERLING WALKS
THE CONVERSATION
I lived in the Bay Area for many years before I owned a car and so I got very used to walking everywhere, especially in San Francisco. My penchant for taking epic walks in The City never really faded once I became more mobile. Recently, though, I decided to channel that energy into SF Movie Walks, a series of film location tours I’ve hosted on social media, taking a film (or two) and covering the myriad places that film was shot across San Francisco, all on foot. Here’s the one I did for the legendary 70s thriller The Conversation, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
It seemed only fitting to end the tour at Cafe Zoetrope, which is at the base of the flatiron building at the tip of North Beach at 916 Kearny. It’s also home to some of the American Zoetrope studio offices upstairs. The final map is a little deceiving (I accidentally butt-paused my geo-tracker for a bit, explaining that stark 45-degree angle) but nine miles is still a good estimate if you want to take on this walk yourself.
I hope you enjoyed my Coppola constitutional. If you’re interested in checking out any other of my walk tours, look up #SterlingWalks on Instagram. And everyone is always welcome to join me, though few rarely do because (a) I usually start at 7am before the temperatures get hot, and (b) all the tours are typically 8-12 miles non-stop. But it’s fun to see who follows along vicariously, and I know I’m very excited about future walks (Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers will be next). But in the meantime, keep your eyes out for other past walks here at the CAFILM blog.
Be well everyone, and have a safe summer.
– Sterling Hedgpeth
Programming Manager, Mill Valley Film Festival and Doclands Documentary Film Festival