Citizen Film

This short film reveals the inspiration, motivation and political challenges at San Francisco City Hall during the frantic days leading up to the first government-sanctioned same-sex marriage.

Ian James has been creating leather goods for nearly a decade, but only recently realized his dream of opening his own shop. When James got laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, he took the plunge and opened his namesake boutique in San Francisco. James calls the shop—which includes both custom pieces and items that can be bought off the shelf—a “safe space for black people,” where culturally relatable creativity blooms in a gentrifying neighborhood.

Zakarya Diouf, winner of the San Francisco Foundation 2005 Community Leadership Awards (Helen Crocker Russell Award) - for his vision in unifying the African cultural arts community, for serving as a mentor and educator of young artists, and for his artistic contributions to the development of African-based performing arts.

The groundbreaking film that addresses anti-gay prejudice by providing adults with practical lessons on how to talk with children about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people. Part of The Respect for All Project.

CHOOSING CHILDREN is a pioneering film about parenting in non-traditional families and helped to open dialogue about the meaning and reality of the "modern family." This film takes an intimate look at the issues faced by lesbians and gay men who decide to become parents after coming out.

Moscow, January 1948. In the bitter cold, a large crowd attends the State Funeral of the Yiddish actor and director Solomon Mikhoels. An official proclamation mourns the death of "a great People's Artist of the Soviet Union." What people are really mourning is the death of the most popular Jewish theater in the Soviet Union, and the man who kept it alive against all odds for over 20 years. No doubt many suspected the truth: he had just been assassinated by Stalin's secret police.

Afatasi The Artist is a San Francisco based mixed-media conceptual artist and futurist. Her artwork—which includes textiles and fine art tapestry, small paintings and murals, metal work and clothing design—is a continuous exploration of the intersectionality of race, culture, gender, class, and geopolitics. “I like to create these things because there were so many who weren’t allowed to live this loudly,” Afatasi says, "and I know how much better the world would be if they had.”

"Throwing Curves" uses striking archival images, observational footage of the 97-year old industrial designer, Eva Zeisel, who is still an artist at work. this along with engaging interviews to capture her personality which is as daring and persuasive as her designs.

Under Their Skin: Tattoos of Memory and Resilience is a character-driven film featuring grandchildren of survivors (3Gs) who have made the controversial decision to tattoo their grandparents’ concentration camp numbers on their own bodies. The film follows subjects as they navigate personal relationships and public interactions that alternately celebrate and challenge their decision—and raise questions about the reenactment of trauma, and the act of transforming that trauma into healing. In interweaving storylines, we will meet 3Gs whose stories reveal that historical remembrance is an essential part of engaging with social issues and the rise of hate and intolerance today.

Making from-scratch meals for 5,000 kids is hard work for everyone, and it happens every day at the Berkeley Public Schools Central Kitchen. Part of the Lunch Love Community series.

"People of the Graphic Novel" is a playful introduction to the history of an art form: from the first "funny pages" to seminal artists including Will Eisner and Art Spiegelman.

In 2002, Sophie Constantinou interviewed Ron Padgett, Connie Lewellyn and Kenward Elmslie and recorded their recollections of Joe Brainard’s life, including his longtime partnership with Elmslie, and his works, including his noted garden collages. These moments were captured as part a series of short films catalyzed by Elmslie. Elmslie’s vision was to illustrate the artistic spirit of and collaborations among American writers, poets and artists from the late 50s to today.

Sylvia Rosales-Fike is the founder, president and chief executive officer of AnewAmerica Corporation. She has earned the Robert C. Kirkwood Award made to an individual in recognition of outstanding community service, commitment and inspired leadership. Sylvia has spearheaded social and economic development opportunities that empower individuals to improve their economic lives. Her innovative, passionate, and collaborative spirit enables immigrants to bring their own families out of poverty. Sylvia has founded organizations including CARECEN, Community Bank of the Bay, and AnewAmerica and received a San Francisco Foundation award in 2010.

In 2002, Sophie Constantinou and Bill Weir interviewed Padgett about his life and works, specifically his friendship and collaborations with the New York School of Poets. These moments were captured as part a series of short films catalyzed by Kenward Elmslie. His vision was to illustrate the artistic spirit of and collaborations among American writers, poets and artists from the late 50s to today.

Ron Padgett (1942- ) is a poet and editor whose artistic career took off during his teenaged years in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, along with Joe Brainard and Dick Gallup, he produced The White Dove Review, an art and culture magazine. Both Padgett and Brainard serendipitously moved together to New York City, where Padgett studied at Columbia University under the tutelage of Kenneth Koch and interacted with various Beat poets. He has taught poetry at various schools in the City, edited volumes such as the Full Court Press and Teachers & Writers Magazine and written volumes of poetry including 2013’s Collected Poems which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He also wrote “memoirs” of both Brainard and fellow Tulsan Ted Berrigan.

Legendary short story writer Lucia Berlin (1936-2004) captured moments of grace in the cafeterias and laundromats of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians.

“Factory-made wheelchairs are huge, heavy and ugly.” To counter this reality, wheelchair riders Ralph Hotchkiss and Omar Talavera began making beautiful, all-terrain wheelchairs. Their work draws on the resourcefulness of disabled people in the Third World, who have no choice but to build their own chairs. A well-crafted piece in its own right, Zimbabwe Wheel illustrates that wheelchairs can be truly empowering works of art: hand-crafted machines that are inexpensive, durable, and tailored to the needs of the rider.” Working on your chair is like working on your whole sense of self,” says a student, describing a feeling no factory-made chair can provide.

Fractured into a Turkish North and a Greek South, the island of Cyprus is divided by ethnicity, faith and land. through a tragic modern history, this island, historically shared by Greek-Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, now llies desecrated and divided. This documentary explores diaspora identity and national identity of immigrants and exiles through their bittersweet memories of the lost homeland.

Chris Renfro doesn’t just grow and harvest grapes on a hillside high above San Francisco’s Highway 280 to make delicious local wine. He is dedicated to building a sustainable food community that nourishes every member of the local economy and ecosystem. With the 280 Project’s mission to reclaim space, realize opportunity and revitalize community, Renfro brings both passion and vision to the notion that land ownership is a powerful path to self-determination.

A Foot in the Door tells the story of Kindergarten to College (K2C), the first universal children’s savings account program in the United States. Launched by the City and County of San Francisco, the program automatically provides a college savings account to children when they start kindergarten.