April 15-29 The 2004 San Francisco International Film Festival offered up a cinematic panopticon of world affairs and lyrical lives far from the nauseating and ubiquitous Hollywood-centric, commodities-only menu, including some insightful pieces of a larger Middle East puzzle too complex to be wrapped up in one film. This year’s program took the pulse of creativity from Iceland to Peru to Lebanon to Afghanistan to find the peoples’ creativity is thriving and limitless, while sharply reminding us that cultures everywhere are endangered, under siege, and in horrific conflict. Reports from the front row: Middle Eastern Films | The SLA and Patty Hearst |In The Sumptuous Reel Worlds | Chisholm 72 Unbought and Unbossed At right: Control Room, directed by Jehane Noujaim.