Mark Twain wrote in 1865, “San Francisco is a city of startling events. Happy is the man whose destiny it is to gather them up and record them in a daily newspaper!” Much the same thing could be said for filmmakers today. Since silent films recorded the 1906 earthquake, San Francisco has been a city of visual wonders. In the 30s and 40s, directors sought to capture its smoky mysteries in film noir. In the 50s and 60s, cinema visited the city's many neighborhoods from Chinatown to Nob Hill, and in the sixties the hippies made the town a tied-dyed parade of counter culture. As the recent location for Gus Van Sant’s Milk, the city, from the city hall to the Castro, is cast as a major character in the drama.

We asked five different San Francisco types to tell us what films about san Francisco turned them on. Several, like Rob Nilsson and Jay Rosenblatt, see their town as alterative filmmakers. Others, like filmmaker Barry Jenkins and Festival head Graham Leggat, as recent transplants. See how their picks line up with yours.