April brings the San Francisco International Film Festival. This grand-daddy of American film festivals is a 15-day celebration of cinema featuring more than 175 films and live events, presenting 20 prestigious awards and attracting up to 80,000 attendees. 59th International San Francisco Film Festival April 21 - May 5 The Castro Theatre serves as one of its main venues for festival screenings and events, which run late April thru early…

The blade sign of the Castro Theatre is an iconic marker for this internationally renowned neighborhood. Added to the building in the late l 1930s, the marquee and neon were restored and the facade repainted in January 2008 to appear as it had in the 1970s for its role in the film Milk. The original theatre opened in 1910 at 479 Castro Street, now the site of Cliff's Variety. The…