On a fateful San Francisco night in the early 60s, Condor nightclub performer Carol Doda was lowered to the stage on a floating piano, topless. Word spread quickly, setting off a wave of controversy and delight, with raids soon to follow. There was even a trial for the new celebrity. Doda’s dry wit and charisma made her an instant sensation of the night club scene: an empowered woman in full control. Or so it seemed.
Plot details are currently under wraps but expect another bird attack.
On April 18th, 1906, San Francisco witnessed its most devastating natural disaster, yet Frederick Funston, commandnig officer of the Presidio of San Francisco, gathered civilians to fight the fire, patrol the streets, and rebuild the city without authorization.
More birds attack Northern California, but this time in San Francisco.
Controversy erupts over a New-Deal-era mural of the namesake of San Francisco’s George Washington High School. The thirteen-panel artwork "The Life of Washington" by Victor Arnautoff offers a view of the Founding Father both celebratory and critical, referencing his involvements in slavery and Native American genocide.
IT CAME FROM AQUARIUS RECORDS tells the story about the San Francisco based independent record store, Aquarius Records. Having closed in 2016 after 47 years, this small apartment-sized store championed local, underground, independent, and challenging music to the masses - most memorably with their infamous bi-weekly, college essay-length, new-release lists. Six years in the making, interviewing collectors, musicians, and store owners, the film has a very personal angle, with lots of behind-the-scenes footage (and drama) that shows both the joy and excruciating stress that comes with running — and closing — a store like this, helped in no part by the changing city around them.
An original story about no-nonsense San Francisco cop Frank Bullitt, originally depicted by Steve McQueen in 1968. Premise TBA.
Michelle needs a break. A computer programmer who's fed up by what she sees as the greed and idiocy of the Internet, Michelle requests and is granted a monthlong sabbatical from her job in this 2001 independent film by Maria Breaux.
The film looks back at the life of a man named Oda and other Japanese Americans through the decades as they face great challenges and joys living in the United States.
This is the first 16mm Cantonese film in full colour, shot on 1940s state-of-the-art Technicolor film stock. Opera star Man-ha (Leung Bik-yuk) enjoys tremendous popularity during her performances in San Francisco, but drowns herself in the vices and temptations of the big city. Increasingly, she fails to show up for performances, almost causing the theatre to go bankrupt. When she sees her lover for the scoundrel that he is, she also sees the errors of her own ways and saves the theatre, restoring it to glory. Joseph Sunn Jue established the Grandview Film Company in Hong Kong during the 1930s and continued making films in the USA during wartime by collaborating with Chinese opera performers in exile there. Wong Hok-sing, an opera actor himself, directed, wrote and starred in this film. He staged a spectacular play-within-a-play at the end, not only to promote the art of Cantonese opera but also to boost solidarity among overseas Chinese through difficult times.
Tell Them We Were Here is an inspirational feature-length documentary about eight artists who show us why art is vital to a healthy society and reminds us that we are stronger together.
As only National Geographic can, The Great Quake tells the terrifying and inspiring tale of a pitched battle between man and nature told by the stories of people who lived through it. On April 18, 1906 the greatest natural disaster in American history strikes without warning. Concrete buildings explode into clouds of dust and rubble and fires break out by the thousands. For the next three days, San Francisco's corrupt and charismatic Mayor takes the helm of this city under siege, making decisions that are swift and radical. This is the terrifying and inspiring tale of a pitched battle between man and nature told by the stories of people who lived through it.
On June 13, 1978, the punk bands the Cramps and the Mutants played a free show for psychiatric patients at the Napa State Hospital in California. We Were There to Be There chronicles the people, politics, and cultural currents that led to the show and its live recording.
An innocent man walks through San Francisco clueless to the fact that the Blue Angels are in town practicing their air show. After several encounters with the city's more colorful characters, our hero snaps and runs amok, seeking shelter from the unknown terror above. The movies are just around the corner! Or in our hero's case, he's on their corner.
Feeling unhappy in his current home, a squirrel seeks an opportunity to break free and find the place he truly belongs.
San Francisco is known for its unpredictable weather from neighborhood-to-neighborhood. But what about the climate that flourishes within your couch cushions, or behind your television? Join Dr. Gary Webster in his studio as he explains. Pack accordingly.
It is well known that San Francisco is a city shrouded in fog. In this short documentary, a local Theoretical Meteorologist uncovers the surprising hidden truth behind San Francisco's notorious, world-famous fog. Or does he?
The bleak outskirts of San Francisco act as the backdrop for this view into a jaded generation. Floating through their mid-twenties, four strangers interweave on one fateful day none of them are prepared for.
Druid Heights is a short documentary film by Marcy Mendelson about a wild & wooly place. California’s hidden bohemia. Where sex, drugs and philosophy thrived among the eucalyptus just a few miles north of the Golden Gate.
Years ago, artists would walk around the muck at the edge of the San Francisco Bay in Emeryville, and build loads of sculptures out there on the flats, created from driftwood and found objects that drivers would enjoy as they motored south on the old Highway 17 (known in numerous radio ads as 'Highway 17, The Nimitz'). Grabbing material off someone else’s work was considered fair game and part of the fun, and contributed a kinetic dynamic to the ongoing display. Now the place is a park, and the sculptures are gone, but you can see what it used to be like in this neat and funny documentary by Ric Reynolds, augmented by Erich Seibert’s wonderful musique-concrète/time-lapse sequences. The flashback circus sequence includes Scott Beach and Bill Irwin. Sculptors interviewed include Walt Zucker, Tony Puccio, Robert Sommer, Ron & Mary Bradden, and Bob Kaminsky.