Studio 8 Film Festival Catalog 2024

Cover image: Poster design by Art Hazelwood

From the SFAA Board

The abrupt closure of the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) after 152 years was a profound and shocking event. The closure had far-reaching effects, not just on the institution itself but also on the broader artistic community it served The formation of the San Francisco Artists Alumni (SFAA) in response to this closure highlights the desire of former students and members of the SFAI community to preserve its legacy, support its artists, and perhaps address the void left by its closure It's a testament to the resilience and solidarity of artists coming together in the face of adversity.

As SFAA enters its fourth year, we reflect on the myriad of opportunities and experiences that have enriched our community. From preserving student transcripts to offering monthly artist lectures, we now proudly showcase our alumni's artwork on a global stage Our newsletters, social gatherings, and film screenings deepen our connections to one another and to our shared histories with SFAI.

SFAA is thrilled to present the inaugural Studio 8 Film Festival, celebrating works produced by SFAI alumni and faculty. We hope this event becomes an annual tradition. This year's film program, curated by Toban Nichols, April September and Marian Wallace, features different films each night at various theater venues, offering attendees a diverse and immersive experience

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Shapeshifter Cinema, Balboa Theater, Roxie Theater, the curators, and Art Hazelwood for the graphic design of the poster, catalog cover, and program Many thanks to the dedicated theater staff and SFAA volunteers whose tireless efforts made this event possible. Above all, we are deeply grateful for the filmmakers and artists who generously provided their work for public viewing, making this weekend of films possible Together, we celebrate the indomitable spirit of the SFAI community.

Start your summer off with a celebration of art and film!

Sincerely,

SFAA Board Members

PROGRAM

Friday, June 14

7-10PM

ALUMNI EXPERIMENTAL FILMS

curated by Toban

Nichols

Shapeshiers Cinema

567 5th St, Oakland, CA 94607

Knee Jerk by Kerry Laitala

Make ' em or Break ' em by Dean Snider

Garbage Castle by Jibz Cameron aka Dynasty Handbag

Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor by Lynne Sachs

Weaving of the Valleys of Love, Small Dazzled Nothings, Floating Land by Dimitra Skandali

Song for Rent, Aer Jack Smith by Malic Amalya

Winter Wheat by Mark Street

Ghosts by Deborah Fort

Let's Make A Movie by Tommy Becker

Mirage / Monte Kali by Liz Miller Kovacs

Illusion by Minoosh Zomoridinia

JOE DIMAGGIO part 1 by Anne McGuire

Transactions by Yin-Ju Chen

Alas, Departing by Dicky Bahto

SRL at BAM (video installation) by Marian Wallace

Saturday, June 15

6-9:30PM

JUNETEENTH SHORTS

curated by April September + Special Feature

Balboa Theater

3630 Balboa St, SF, CA 94121

6PM Juneteenth Shorts

Angela Davis: Walls into Bridges by Ed Guerrero

I'm Dying of Thirst by Nykelle DeVivo

Memories of a Refugee Camp by Tahsin Hyder/Doha Debates featuring Wesaam Al-Badry

Have You Sold Your Dozen Roses by Allen Willis

Fear of the Fire Next Time by April September

7:30PM Special Feature

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Ang Lee

SFAI alumni Peter Pau received the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

Studio 8 Film Festival 2024

Sunday, June 16

1-6PM KUCHAR-ESQUE curated by Marian Wallace + Closing Reception

Roxie Theater

3117 16th St, SF, CA 94103

1-3PM Kuchar-esque

Bloodsucker by Mike Kuchar

I, An Actress by George Kuchar

Asphalt Ribbon by George Kuchar

Happy Birthday! by Mike Kuchar

The screening will be followed by a live interview with Mike Kuchar hosted by V. Vale.

3–6PM Closing Reception

Join us in celebrating Studio 8 Film Festival 2024 around the corner from the Roxie at 518 Valencia St, SF, CA 94110!

CURATOR STATEMENTS

ALUMNI EXPERIMENTAL FILMS

Looking at the 150+ year history of the San Francisco Art Institute as a jumping off place for an alumni film festival was obviously going to be an exhausting task As with most creative ideas, it seemed so easy at first The idea was simple: put together a showcase of alumni experimental films. It wasn’t until I sat down and started to think of who’s work I admired and which artists and faculty should be represented that the gravity of those 152 years really struck

I wanted to show film work that was experimental and colorful because that’s something I find intriguing in my own work I wanted to look at a variety of filmmakers and artists from SFAI’s past and most current era and select films that are both at once exciting and meditative. In the past four years we’ve collectively been through the ringer of emotions all wrapped up in our own story and time spent at the school My hope with this first iteration of the film festival is to establish a yearly tradition of presenting as many works of art from our incredibly talented alumni and faculty that shows off the enormous legacy each of us have been handed in keeping SFAI alive in any and all ways

The artists represented form a through line from SFAI’s past with Studio 8 as a home for burgeoning filmmakers and onward to the artists like myself that came to the school for one thing and quickly pivoted to another medium to find their way I came as a painter and left as a multimedia artist and filmmaker an awakening I don’t think would have happened anywhere but the nurturing and oftentimes hard road I walked through the halls of SFAI. I hope this albeit small collection of films will show not just the breadth of incredible work done by our alumni and faculty but also a time-string stretching forward that gives us a peek at what may come

Toban Nichols

Curator, Studio 8 Film Festival, Friday night at Shapeshifters

May 2024

JUNETEENTH SHORTS

I miss SFAI The biggest reason is that I didn’t get an opportunity to know many of the brilliant artists roaming the hallways, both alumni and current students This series of films honors the legacy of Black and African diaspora filmmakers who contributed their talents to SFAI as alumni or instructors

I curated this series to include films I’ve seen and admired, as well as films I wish I had been a student to witness being created The selection includes both vintage and contemporary films from recent graduates, a former faculty member, and a now-deceased but influential experimental filmmaker and student

Two of the best friends I made at SFAI are Wesaam Al-Badry and Nykelle DeVivo. I love them dearly and am constantly inspired by their artwork Nykelle’s short film honors the victims of police violence, while Wesaam’s experimental film examines the propaganda used by the US military during the Iraq war, from which Wesaam was a refugee.

Thanks to the beloved SFAI Library Team, Jeff Gunderson and Becky Alexander, for recommending films by Ed Guerrero and Allen Willis Guerrero’s film offers a rare view into the world of Angela Davis post-incarceration It was difficult to find and hasn't been screened since 2018. Willis’s classic film, made in 1957 with words by beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, illuminates that the streets of America are not paved in gold

Lastly, I’ll be screening my film “The Fire Next Time,” which explores the impact of arson on unhoused and housed communities in West Oakland, CA

April September

Curator, Studio 8 Film Festival, Saturday night at Balboa Theater

KUCHAR-ESQUE

Production for each film was completed within a one-semester class Post production quickly followed so the class could see the finished film George called them “SFAI yearbooks ”

It is my immense pleasure to help to bring into being this large-screen showing of some of these class films. Mike had a hand in the programming, as did luck in the search and fate of what was available Please enjoy!

Marian Wallace

Curator, Studio 8 Film Festival, Sunday matinee at Roxie Theater

George Kuchar on his and his brother Mike’s filmmaking, interview by V Vale

GK: So we started making pictures, plus going to the movies! Best way to learn editing for us was to see the Hitchcock pictures Boy, the editing in that, you can see the way scenes are put together to convey the emotions and moods and stuff And Roger Corman, too: to show how crazy and wacky even grown-ups could be (who should know better!) to make those kinds of movies But the fact is that they worked on a limited budget and HAD to get it done because you had to make a movie if you had a movie career They had to make money, so they made their movies

V: I remember reading once that anything in a film is the actor; objects are actors in a movie… GK: I used to do it with eyebrows, also If they were sad (and they couldn't “act”), you drew the eyebrows down, and the same way with surprise And then if you put them in front of objects that convey sadness … you get it. Of course, we worked with non-actors because actors won't tolerate me! They want to know the motivation, they want to know a whole bunch of things, and I can't give it to them I DON’T KNOW How am I supposed to know–I’m still making the damn movie?! Eventually it GROWS! The character comes alive via the shooting. And we realize: “Oh, I see why that person's doing this and that ”

That's sometimes a way you make a movie Because if you know all the way in advance, you wouldn't want to make a picture it gets boring! Follow a blueprint: you know how it's going to turn out already?! This way it becomes more EXCITING. The same in editing: if you know exactly how you're going to edit the movie, it's just MANUAL LABOR, you gotta sit there and do it exactly the way it's planned I did that one time, and I almost fell asleep at the Moviola It's deadening So this way, I just go in there with the footage.

You generally know when a movie's over when you don't want to shoot anymore "I’ve had enough of this” and then pull the plug Then you take the footage, and you assemble it

I'm not guaranteeing that this is for “successful” pictures as far as people going to say "What the hell is this picture about?" They're probably going to do that But it has to be artistically interesting for YOU You feel that you've done something there’s something working for you

FILM GUIDE

(alphabetical order by director)

Malic Amalya

SONG FOR RENT, AFTER JACK SMITH (2019)

Digital video, 7:01

SFAI Alumni (MFA 2013)

https://wwwmalicamalya com

With Kate Smith singing God Bless America looped in the background, experimental filmmaker Jack Smith starred as Rose Courtyard a drag character based on Rose Kennedy in his 1969 film, Song for Rent In this adaptation, Barbarella Bush joins Rose in a campy exploration of US nationalism, queer assimilation, and denunciation

Closed Caption and Audio Description make Song for Rent, After Jack Smith more accessible to a wider audience, while playing a critical role in the film’s structure.

Dicky Bahto ALAS, DEPARTING (2022)

Digital video, 7:30

SFAI Alumni (BFA 2004)

https://dickybahto com

Dicky Bahto’s scratched black and white video is filled with hands, stretching toward heaven and to – and through – each other The yearning for connection is thwarted by connection denied, a common theme in the world these past two years, but not unique to this era Mid-piece, hands reach down for the first time, and then a face, like the face of God, slowly turning away before vanishing, like many people’s experience of religion But then, color was not something left behind after all? The arms spread from the heavens again, as if to display an invisible banquet

(Richard Allen, A Closer Listen)

Tommy Becker

LET'S MAKE A MOVIE (2014)

Digital video, 4:53

SFAI Alumni (non-degree 1999)

https://wwwtommybeckercom

Let's Make a Movie is a tribute to classic cinema and an invitation to connect through the process of filmmaking. Video, Text and Music: written, recorded, edited and performed by Tommy Becker.

Jibz Cameron aka Dynasty Handbag

GARBAGE CASTLE

(2019)

Digital video, 8:24

SFAI Alumni (BFA 1999)

https://wwwdynastyhandbag com/

Written by Jibz Cameron & Amanda Verwey

Directed by Jibz Cameron & Casey Rupp

Produced by Amanda Verwey, Casey Rupp & Jibz Cameron with Starburns Ind.

Camera - Andy Knapp

Editor - Trevor Ames

Production Design - Peggy Noland

Puppet Design - Papalexis

Sound Edit - Joe Kalish

Dynasty Handbag - Jibz Cameron

Yoyo - Maria Bamford

Alfred - Cole Escola (voice)

Alfred - Donna Kimball (puppeteer)

Yin-Ju Chen TRANSACTIONS (2008)

Digital video, 7:42

SFAI Alumni (MFA 2003) http://wwwyinjuchen com

In the short video Transactions (2008), a Taiwanese mother’s hands are seen sewing clothing with great skill, an effort she undertakes to finance her daughter’s studies in the United States The daughter is Yin-Ju Chen, whose work interprets social power and history through cosmological systems In this early film, she is heard speaking on the phone with her mother to coordinate a credit card bill from the distant country where she pursues her studies thanks to her mother’s relentless hard work But the conversation is not animated by gratitude, nor by intimacy, but by the primacy of numbers and a pragmatism that connects the mother and daughter across a great physical distance only by dry contractual or logistical obligations.

In the coldness of such an encounter, we might perceive the extractive logic of the US, the world of women who give beyond exhaustion, or the reduction of family duty to mechanic automation. But the film itself is also an act of love that recuperates the relationship between the daughter and the mother, and a testament to the hardship that love must always conquer. The daughter might be spending the money on art school, but the wisdom of the laboring hands keeps the accounts. Finally, the artist behind the camera completes the totality of the transaction by registering money as trivial compared to debts that are infinite.

Nykelle

DeVivo

I'M DYING OF THIRST (2017)

Digital video, 4:52 SFAI Alumni (BFA 2018) http://nykelledevivo.com

In I'm Dying Of Thirst, titled after Robert Glasper's and Kendrick Lamar's songs of the same name, I document myself placing handwritten stickers with the names of Black folk murdered by police onto local cop cars.

Deborah Fort GHOSTS (2024)

Digital video, 5:40

SFAI Alumni (MFA 1981)

https://wwwyoutube com/channel/UCXh3dp54eip8DZA00r4LbOQ

The Albuquerque Rail Yard was built in the late 1880’s to service the steam engines newly arrived in the west. The railroad brought commerce, innovation, diverse populations, disease, corruption, imperialism. The rail lines through the southwest often had a negative impact on indigenous culture and contributed to the decimation of the buffalo. When the diesel engine was introduced, the railyard was no longer needed, and like many outmoded technologies, was abandoned. Ghosts is a tour of abandonment and unseen loss filmed in the Albuquerque Railyard.

Ed

Guerrero

ANGELA DAVIS: WALLS INTO BRIDGES (1979)

Digital transfer from 16mm, 29:16, PBS

SFAI Alumni (MFA 1972) + Faculty (1969-1979)

https://en wikipedia org/wiki/Ed Guerrero

Viewers witness one consequence of the ’68 SFSU strike with the hiring of Professor Angela Davis who would go on to influence the work of activists worldwide for decades to come. We observe Professor Davis in conversation with Baldwin and in the classroom with her students, combining music, politics, and theater.

Tahsin Hyder

MEMORIES OF A REFUGEE CAMP (2019)

Digital video, 4:06

Doha Debates featuring Wesaam Al-Badry, SFAI Alumni (BFA 2018) https://wwwwesaamalbadrycom

Wesaam Al-Badry remembers every sound, every smell, and every moment of living in a refugee camp as a kid Now, through the lens of old family photos and archival images, he shares his story and the story of thousands of other Iraqi refugees like him.

George Kuchar

ASPHALT RIBBON (1977)

Digital transfer from 16mm, B&W, Sound, 19:00

SFAI Faculty (1971-2011)

http://wwwkucharbrothers org/george-kuchar

Adapted from a pamphlet of "sentimental essays" This film uses original text from the book, cuts it with sex, violence, rock n' roll, an actor driving a fake truck, and footage of actual trucks The story is an ode to American truck drivers. This film has original music by the students.

“A cinematic rendering of an essay on the nobility of truck drivers.” George Kuchar

George Kuchar

I, AN ACTRESS (1977)

Digital transfer from 16mm, B&W, Sound, 9:00 SFAI Faculty (1971-2011) http://wwwkucharbrothers org/george-kuchar

"This film was shot in ten minutes with four or five students of mine at the San Francisco Art Institute It was to be a screen-test for a girl in the class She wanted something to show producers of theatrical productions, as the girl was interested in an acting career By the time all the heavy equipment was set up the class was just about over; all we had was ten minutes Since 400 feet of film takes ten minutes to run through the camera that was the answer: Just start it and don't stop till it runs out I had to get into the act to speed things up so, in a way, this film gives an insight into my directing techniques while under pressure " George Kuchar

Cast and crew: Barbara Lapsley, Mark Baptista, Chonita Jones, Perry Carlson

Mike Kuchar BLOODSUCKER (1975)

SFAI Faculty (1971-2012)

Digital transfer of 16mm film, B&W, Sound, 21:00 http://wwwkucharbrothers org/mike-kuchar

A 16mm black and white remake of an 8mm color film done years earlier, this time with students enrolled in a 'dramatic narrative' summer workshop. Deep shadows dominate this spooky saga dealing with reincarnation and revenge. Mike Kuchar

Cast and crew: Karen Barbour, John Cavanagh, Mary Bellis, Ali Salehp, Afolabi Adesanya, Oyekan Adebayo, Martie Jackson

Mike Kuchar

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (2013)

SFAI Faculty (1971-2012)

Digital video, color, sound, 20:26 http://wwwkucharbrothers org/mike-kuchar

Misery doesn't like 'company' -- but 'company' does love a 'party', so come join in on a catastrophic celebration, and do 'hang on' tight -- because it's a steep ride down into the depths of a soul in meltdown mode! Mike Kuchar

Cast and crew: Sogol Rezvani, Li Le, Christopher Corrente, Linda Martinez, Marc Arthur, Linsey Wallace, Ryan Wylie, Jack Dooley, Miao Tian, Cheng Jiang, Alfredo Solis-Fuentes, Kevin Valor, Christopher Ando, Keyu Huang, Conrad Guevara, Rachel Mack, Junnan Jiang, Bharat Shankar, Jennifer Kroot, Tim Digulla, Mayumi Ota, Denise LaFrance, Eric Smith, Peter Berlin

Kerry Laitala KNEE JERK (2018)

Digital video, 5:52

SFAI Alumni (MFA 1997) + Faculty (2012-2019)

http://wwwkerrylaitala com

Knee Jerk is a moving image work that was made in an advanced processing workshop This short piece responding to the Kavanaugh hearings was created collaboratively with a group of students in one of my Personal Cinema classes at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) This course had a modular element, in which I provided opportunities for everyone to select certain workshops that they found most relevant to their artistic path The students who elected to participate in this workshop all agreed to collaborate on a piece I’d conceptualized while watching the 2018 hearings, each bringing ideas to the final product Educational film material was hand-processed, manipulated and re-contextualized by the voices of women at the U S Supreme Court justice’s confirmation hearing in 2018

Reproductive rights are in graver peril than they've been since I was a toddler A slew of states in the Midwestern and Southern U.S. have passed horribly restrictive laws designed to bring a Supreme Court challenge to Roe v. Wade, and now the Senate confirmed perhaps the most anti-choice justice yet nominated. Now, four years later, we have seen the corrupt Supreme court overturn Roe V. Wade and 26 states have enacted trigger laws against women's reproductive rights. The outrage continues....

Students who participated in this workshop include: Sarah Aineb, Colleen Donovan, Daniella Parrado, Izabell Navarro Perez, Gautama Ramesh, Sequinette

Ang Lee

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (2000)

Digital transfer of 35mm, 2:04:00 Cinematography by Peter Pau, SFAI Alumni (BFA 1983) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ang Lee

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a 2000 wuxia martial arts action adventure film directed by Ang Lee and written for the screen by Wang Hui-ling, James Schamus, and Tsai Kuo-jung. The film stars Chow Yun-fat, future Academy Award Winner Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen. It is based on the Chinese novel of the same name, serialized between 1941 and 1942 by Wang Dulu, the fourth part of his Crane Iron pentalogy.

The film was praised by critics for its story, direction, cinematography, and martial arts sequences. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won over 40 awards and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2001, including Best Picture, and won Best Foreign Language Film, Best Art Direction, & Best Original Score One of its many wins was by SFAI alumni Peter Pau who received the Academy Award for Best CinematographyThe film received the most nominations ever for a non-English-language film at the time

Anne McGuire JOE DIMAGGIO part 1 (1991)

Digital video, 4:00 SFAI Alumni (MFA 1994) https://wwwvdb org/artists/anne-mcguire

The artist stalks and serenades Joe Dimaggio in her car as he strolls the docks, unaware that McGuire is secretly videotaping his every step

McGuire’s use of her camera as a conduit for shared experience [is] at the heart of the piece that first brought her to a wider audience, Joe DiMaggio 1,2,3, a video in three parts about a chance encounter Sitting in her parked car in San Francisco’s Marina, McGuire’s camera was running when elderly baseball legend Joe DiMaggio unexpectedly walked into the shot In the tape, she follows him, continuing to shoot, and begins making up songs about her feelings for him as she drives

Liz Miller Kovacs

MIRAGE / MONTE KALI (2022)

Digital video, 4:59

SFAI Alumni (MFA 2000)

https://wwwmiller-kovacs art/video

Mirage / Monte Kali, 2022, is a surrealist video art piece filmed on location at Monte Kali, a huge white mountain made of the waste product of potassium carbonate mining near the mining town of Heringen, Germany The piece features a performance intervention and footage of mining equipment at work The distortion and effects in the video echo the disturbance in the landscape caused by this extraction industry The work blurs the boundaries between virtual and tangible existence, abstraction, and realism The video looks at the negative consequences of globalization and consumption and the fascinating aesthetic it creates: its residue

Lynne Sachs CAROLEE, BARBARA & GUNVOR (2017)

Digital video, 9:00

SFAI Alumni (MFA 1989)

https://wwwlynnesachs com

From 2015 to 2017, Lynne Sachs visited with Carolee Schneemann, Barbara Hammer and Gunvor Nelson, three multi-faceted artists who have embraced the moving image throughout their lives. From Carolee’s 18th Century house in the woods of Upstate New York to Barbara’s West Village studio to Gunvor’s childhood village in Sweden, Lynne shoots film with each woman in the place where she finds grounding and spark.

April September

FEAR OF THE FIRE NEXT TIME (2024)

Digital video, 9:00 SFAI Alumni (BFA 2019) https://aprilseptember.com

In this short video, I delve into the problem of increasing fires in West Oakland's unhoused communities and vacant properties Through interviews with residents, community leaders, and fire officials, I explore the complex factors contributing to these fires, such as inadequate housing options, economic disparities, and the challenges faced by marginalized communities The video sheds light on the urgent need for holistic solutions to address homelessness, improve fire safety, and promote equitable development in West Oakland, California

Dimitra Skandali

WEAVING OF THE VALLEYS OF LOVE, SMALL DAZZLED NOTHINGS, FLOATING LAND (2023)

Digital video, 8:00

SFAI Alumni (MFA 2013)

https://dimitraskandali.com

The site-specific installation of Dimitra Skandali, explores ideas around the evolution of landscape in a literary as well as a metaphorical realm. Engaging with organic material directly sourced and harvested from her motherland, the artist places emphasis on the wild flora of the island, which plays a pivotal role in her work and the way she understands our relationship with nature and the environment we all live in.

Dean Snider

MAKE 'EM OR BREAK 'EM (1983)

16mm transfer, color, sound, 0:57

SFAI Alumni (BFA 1976)

https://lightstruckfilm org/filmmakers/dean-snider

Sometimes it seems impossible to get anywhere in life! Make ‘em or Break ‘em is one of Dean Snider's 87 experimental films made between 1971 and 1994 (b 1949, d 1994)

Make ‘em or Break ‘em was originally 2 minutes in length, comprising one minute of re-edited and repeated sequences from a trailer for The Paper Chase, followed by material from a commercial for Banamex, ending with a Greyhound bus logo. The film was apparently later shortened by the filmmaker to comprise only the Paper Chase material the circulating print features the Banamex/Greyhound material removed and the print signed at the end by the filmmaker. However, the originals for the film, and one full print struck from the originals retain the Banamex/Greyhound material. But the removal of this material and signature/dating by the filmmaker on the circulating print suggest that it represents the final preferred version of the film. Interestingly, Marian Wallace remembers the film always having the Banamex material, whereas Michael Rudnick does not recall this and remembers the film only having the Paper Chase material. Regardless, the version of the film that seems to have been exhibited by Dean is the 1-minute version. Mark Toscano, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Mark Street

WINTER WHEAT (1989)

Digital video, 7:39

SFAI Alumni (MFA 1992)

https://wwwmarkstreetfilms com

Made by bleaching, scratching and painting directly on the emulsion of an educational film about the farming cycle The manipulations of the film’s surface created hypnotic visuals while also suggesting an apocalyptic narrative

Marian Wallace

SRL at BAM (video installation)

Digital video, 2003, 20 min - for installation

SFAI Alumni (BFA 1980, MFA 1982) + Faculty (2018, 2020) https://friendsindeed art/artists/marian-wallace

On Nov 12, 2003, just months before the demolition of the “old” Berkeley Art Museum, it was somehow arranged that Mark Pauline and his Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) would be permitted to stage one of their SRL shows at the site for some $pecial guests: radio-controlled animalistic machines seeking to cause each other harm amongst subversive props and fire, while creating ear-protection-worthy sound. Here are two angles of this 20-minute show.

For better or worse, a film can’t depict the “smell-around” which you could almost taste, or the live surround sound, whirring and blasting unexpectedly from different directions, or feel the heat of the pyrotechnics But here at least is a look at the visuals

Allen Willis

HAVE YOU SOLD YOUR DOZEN ROSES (1958)

Digital video, 10:00 SFAI Alumni (1950s)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen Willis

A portrait of San Francisco’s dump in the late 50s with an electric and moving poem by San Francisco’s own Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Minoosh Zomoridinia ILLUSION (2013)

Digital video, 4:43

SFAI Alumni (MFA 2015)

http://rahelehzomorodinia com

Illusion is an ongoing project that wanders through different environments as a metaphor for lost spirituality in the modern world Layers of visuals are projected onto various materials to evoke this feeling A segment of Rumi’s poem is scratched onto 16 mm film and projected onto thread, a short outdoor video with filters is projected onto fabric and mirrored by glass while being recorded with the camera

VENUES

BALBOA THEATER

3630 Balboa St, SF, CA 94121

For the last 12 years, CinemaSF, the local entity behind the Balboa Theater, has been working to create and sustain successful community spaces with engaging cinema, non-fiction, and live music serving our varied neighborhoods. We now run three locations in San Francisco and continue to branch out in our programming to cover more niche and varied interests, and provide a venue for local and traveling artists to play for an audience CinemaSF has begun the process of becoming a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

ROXIE THEATER

3117 16th St, SF, CA 94103

The Roxie Theater, a San Francisco landmark in the Mission District, brings people together to meet and connect through distinctive cinematic experiences Guided by the passionate belief that engaging with a movie doesn’t end with the credits, we invite filmmakers, curators, entertainers and educators to interact with our audiences. We provide inspiration and opportunity for the next generation, and serve as a forum for the independent film community reflecting the spirit of the diverse Bay Area population We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

SHAPESHIFTERS CINEMA

567 5th St, Oakland, CA 94607

Shapeshifters Cinema is an experimental microcinema located in Oakland, CA. Our mission is to provide a venue and support for contemporary artists working with experimental and artist-made film, video, sound, music and other types of mediated performance We host regular, live events, offer workshops on experimental moving image and sound production and operate a storefront shop specializing in print publications, DVDs, sound recordings and other artist-made media

CREDITS AND THANKS

SFAA Curatorial Team

Toban Nichols

April September

Marian Wallace

Venues

Shapeshifters Cinema

Balboa Theater

Roxie Theater

Special Thanks

Michelle Silva at kucharbrothers org

Stuart Bass

Paul Hizzle

Art Hazelwood

Kathleen Quillian and Gilbert Guerrero

Ujjayini Sikha

Diana Fuller

Steve Anker

Lex Sloan

Adam Bergeron

Mark Toscano

Karla Klarin

Judy Zhu

Selby Sohn

Contributors

Ben Zlotkin of Edition One Group

RE/Search

Fort Point Beer

Skylark Wine Company

Trader Joe’s

Donors

John Marx

Annie Reiniger-Holleb and all SFAA Donors

SFAA Board

Maria Theresa Barbist (President)

Annie Reiniger-Holleb (Vice-President)

Marian Wallace (interim Treasurer)

Toban Nichols (Co-Secretary)

Brianna Hyneman (Co-Secretary)

Cristina Velazquez

Jackie Buttice

Linda Connor

Lior Bar

SFAA Advisory Board

April Martin

Becky Alexander

Jeff Gunderson

Rye Purvis

SFAA Liaison Team

and all participating SFAI artists!

Cover image: Poster design by Art Hazelwood

Catalog design: Maria Theresa Barbist

NOTES