Exhibition | Fiscal Sponsorship | Resources


PAST EXHIBITIONS

Highlighted film titles link to SFIFF pages that contain film synopses, credits, print sources, running times and countries of origin.

1000 Journals
Long fascinated by messages and doodles scrawled on bathroom walls and other public spaces, San Francisco graphic artist Someguy became a kind of 21st century Johnny Appleseed when in August 2000 he disseminated the first of 1000 blank journals.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 652
Youth Ed Attendance: 168
Website: www.1000journals.com
 
2nd Verse: The Rebirth of Poetry
It's the annual Brave New Voices Poetry Slam, a San Francisco event that in 2005 (the year recorded here) attracted some 350 teenage poets from 36 U.S. cities, plus a smattering of international participants.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 Youth Ed
Attendance: 242
Website: www.2ndversefilm.com/
 
The Art & Science of Lucasfilm
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 Youth Ed
Attendance: 285
 
The Bridge
The Bridge, a documentary exploration of the mythic beauty of the Golden Gate Bridge, the most popular suicide destination in the world, and the unfortunate souls drawn by its siren call.
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 SFIFF
Attendance: 1194
Website: www.thebridge-themovie.com/new/index.html
 
Bus 24: The Diversity Bus (short)
The ethnic and cultural multiplicity of San Francisco comes to life on the #24 Muni from Bayview–Hunters Point through the city’s array of neighborhoods.
SFFS Exhibition: 2004 SFIFF
Attendance: 787
 
Calavera Highway
When Armando and Carlos Peña hit the road to return their mother Rose’s ashes to Texas, they embark on a profound journey, confronting a past haunted by her estrangement from her family as well as the specter of their missing father.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 509
Website: www.calaverahighway.org/Home.html

D Tour
Pat Spurgeon, charismatic drummer for local indie rockers Rogue Wave, needs to keep playing music—and a new kidney. This remarkable travelogue follows his double quest during an eventful tour, mixing interviews with performances by Rogue Wave and Ben Gibbard.
SFFS Exhibition: 2009 SFIFF
Attendance: 885
Website: http://www.dtourmovie.com/

Empress Hotel
Light and Saraf, an acclaimed local filmmaking duo, spent years documenting the eccentric and colorful residents of a Tenderloin residential hotel for the recently homeless. This moving feature paints a multifaceted portrait of a neighborhood and its residents.
SFFS Exhibition: 2009 SFIFF
Attendance: 663
Website: http://www.lightsaraffilms.com/empresshotel.html/

Everything Strange and New
A carpenter who guts old houses dreams of a strange, new life without being able to envision its shape or form. Bay Area-based cinematographer/filmmaker Frazer Bradshaw’s semi-experimental narrative feature is an unflinching contemplation of spiritual inertia and downward mobility.
SFFS Exhibition: 2009 SFIFF
Attendance: 523
Website:   http://www.everythingstrangeandnew.com

Ferlinghetti
This portrait of poet and City Lights cofounder Lawrence Ferlinghetti traces a legendary and remarkably influential literary life, from the early Beats and the Howl censorship trial to the infamous anti-war banner hung outside the bookstore, “Dissent Is Not Un-American.”
SFFS Exhibition: 2009 SFIFF
Attendance: 838
Website: http://ferlinghettifilm.com/

Fog City Mavericks
Since the early days of cinema, when Charlie Chaplin honed his craft hereabouts and the Essanay Company made a legend of Bronco Billy, the San Francisco Bay Area has been a hotbed of moviemaking ingenuity.
SFFS Exhibition: 2007 SFIFF
Attendance: 1304
 
Girl Trouble
Girl Trouble is an intimate look at the compelling personal stories of three teenagers entangled in San Francisco’s juvenile justice system.
SFFS Exhibition: 2004 SFIFF
Attendance: 1001
Website: www.girltrouble.org/
 
Going on 13
A four-year study of how four young girls come of age in today's world.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 Youth Ed
Attendance: 26
Website: www.goingon13movie.com/

Medicine for Melancholy
After hooking up at a party, Jo (Tracey Heggins) considers her alcohol-fueled one-night stand with Micah (Wyatt Cenac) history, but he is eager to explore the possibility of a deeper connection.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 904
Website: www.strikeanywherefilms.com/
Co-presenter: Museum of the African Diaspora

La Mission
Peter Bratt’s powerful and moving film is an ardent love letter to the vibrancy of San Francisco’s Mission District and an urgent corrective to the violence that plays out in its streets.
SFFS Exhibition: 2009 SFIFF
Attendance: 1,741

Murch
There are film editors, and then there’s Walter Murch.
SFFS Exhibition: 2007 SFIFF
Attendance: 896
Youth Ed Attendance: 119
 
Piece by Piece
Students at DCTV take on the difficult issue of stereotyping; questions and solutions.
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 Youth Ed
Attendance: 80
Website: www.piecebypiecemovie.com/site.htm
 
Pursuit of Equality
On February 12, 2004, the City of San Francisco made history by issuing same-sex marriage licenses. Led by Mayor Gavin Newsom, the city continued to marry gay and lesbian couples until the California Supreme Court issued an immediate...
SFFS Exhibition: 2005 SFIFF
Attendance: 1319
Youth Ed Attendance: 15
Website: www.pursuitofequality.com/filmakers.html

Speaking in Tongues
Veteran documentarians Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider tangle with the debate over bilingual education by following the diverse stories of four San Francisco public schoolchildren enrolled in Chinese and Spanish language-immersion programs.
SFFS Exhibition: 2009 SFIFF
Attendance: 360
Website: http://www.speakingintonguesfilm.info 

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Longhaired 42-year-old Bittner, like the parrots who fly over San Francisco, is an anomaly—a penniless North Beach dharma bum living in one of the city’s most expensive neighborhoods and devoting himself (without pay) to studying these wild parrots.
SFFS Exhibition: 2004 SFIFF
Attendance: 466
Website: www.wildparrotsfilm.com/
 
Wonders Are Many
Award-winning director Jon Else revisits the subject of his 1981 documentary The Day After Trinity—J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb—but fashions a completely different film with this fascinating look at the making of the San Francisco Opera’s 2005 world premiere of Doctor Atomic.
SFFS Exhibition: 2007 SFIFF
Attendance: 749
Website: http://www.wondersaremany.com/


FISCAL SPONOSORSHIP

HIghlighted film titles link to sffs.org "Current Projects" pages, alphabetically listing SFFS fiscally sponsored films, containing synopses and website links where available. Below each title is the filmmaker's name.

Collectible
Ellen Lake

D Tour
Jim Granato

Forty Winters
Valarie Jernigan

Freewheel
Austin  Alward

Houseboat Wars
Marianne Dolan

Jazz Tour San Francisco
Frank Zamacona

My Garbage, My Neighborhood
Soumyaa Kapil

Pilots of the Golden Gate
G. Leo Maselli

Raging Grannies
Pam Walton

Star-Crossed
Florencia Manovil

The Signalman
Joseph Walling

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin
Arwen Curry




RESOURCES

The following list of resources offers interested audience members more information and ways to become involved in Local Bay Area Community.

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities

Bay Area Blues Society

Bay Area Council

Bay Area United Against War

Beat Museum

California Insitute of Earth Art & Architecture

Clown Conservatory at San Francisco School of
Circus Arts

Direct Access to Housing Project San Francisco

The Homeless Coalition San Francisco

Mission Cultural Center San Francisco

Museum of Children's Art (Oakland)

Museum of Modern Art

Northern California Independent Bookseller
Association

Oakland East Bay Symphony

Princess Projects

Rails-to-Trails Conservatory

San Francisco Center

San Francisco Country Dance Society

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

San Francisco School of Fine Arts

San Francisco Film Museum

The Fillmore