Watching Film Hawk, the new documentary that honors the life, work and legacy of Bob Hawk, viewers might wonder why the Bay Area film legend isn't better-known to the public, and to the industry he's devoted much of his life to. Hawk, who once programmed the Castro Theatre, has spent the last three decades championing independent cinema. As the opening moments of Film Hawk reveal, it was Hawk who brought filmmaker Kevin Smith to the attention of distributors. A teary-eyed Smith thanks Hawk for a career that's included Clerks (1994) and the bisexual romantic comedy Chasing Amy (1997). Hawk, openly gay, has produced or consulted on a number of LGBT-themed films. Many directors rely on his vast insight and knowledge of cinema in order to make their work more accessible to their audience.
Films Hawk has worked on include the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk (1984); The Celluloid Closet (1995), a documentary that recalls the gay subtext found in many Golden Age Hollywood films; and Small Town Gay Bar (2006), about a gay bar in the Mississippi Delta. Always up for a diverse array of cinematic challenges, Hawk's lengthy resume includes Spine Tingler: The William Castle Story (2007), a documentary honoring the legacy of B-movie maker/showman William Castle, who made millions offering drive-in fare to audiences before earning the industry's respect as the producer of the classic chiller Rosemary's Baby (1968).
On Saturday, June 18, Hawk returns to the Castro when the Frameline LGBT Film Festival screens Film Hawk at 3:30 p.m. Hawk will be presented with the Frameline Award, the festival's highest honor. Speaking to the B.A.R. from New York, where he currently lives, Hawk recalled his days at the Castro with great fondness. "It was the local moviehouse for the burgeoning gay community," he said. "This began in the pre-VHS days. The Castro was primarily a calendar house, it was mostly different double features every night."
He remembers that if the double bill was gay favorites like the Hollywood classics All About Eve and The Women, the theater would need to open the balcony. Simultaneous with his Castro job, Hawk worked at Film Arts Foundation, where he curated an annual film festival featuring works by Northern California film and videomakers. This festival lasted for 21 years.
"These two jobs were supposed to be half-time," Hawk recalled with a laugh. "I was actually doing two full-time jobs, but I was younger in those days. I didn't get much sleep, but I was learning tons and building my future."
Hawk credits one man for getting him started in the film business, former Castro Theatre owner Mel Novikoff, who passed away in 1987. Hawk refers to Novikoff as "the godfather of art-house exhibition in San Francisco."
New Jersey native Hawk lived in New York City during the 1960s, where he worked as a stage manager for many acclaimed off-Broadway productions. He soon became a familiar face in San Francisco when he began bringing some of those shows to the Bay Area. "I eventually became burnt out on stage managing, and returned to San Francisco in the mid-70s during the great gay migration," he recalled. "I worked in a restaurant while volunteering for an anti-Briggs initiative." (The Briggs Initiative was a 1978 California ballot initiative backed by anti-gay Senator John Briggs, which sought to ban gays from teaching in public schools.)
At about this time Hawk attended a work-in-progress screening of the groundbreaking gay documentary Word Is Out, where he first met the makers of The Times of Harvey Milk.
"Since 1996 I live in New York City again and thus closer to my family," Hawk said. "In some very concrete ways I am a New Yorker, though I think that San Francisco will always be my spiritual home. I've always been queer no matter where I am, but there's nothing as high or as magical as being queer in San Francisco."
So Hawk returns to the city where his film career began. "I'm amazed that it even exists," he said of Film Hawk . "I cannot be objective about it, but I trust filmmakers J.J. Garvine and Tai Parquet because I'd worked with them before. I just talked for hours about all facets of my life, uncensored and unfiltered. Needless to say, it's rather gay."
After decades of guiding filmmakers towards winning awards, it's Bob Hawk's turn to be honored. "I am absolutely thrilled to be receiving the Frameline Award on this 40th anniversary of the festival," he said. "Frameline is embedded in me on so many levels. I have not only championed independent film in general, but LGBT films especially. I know they've changed and saved lives, and at times have lifted us up. I'm honored to have whatever part I've played in this to be acknowledged."