The San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) Film Department was founded in the late 1960s by Robert Nelson and Lawrence Jordan and for over 50 years attracted young artists who were excited by film as a form of poetic expression. The exceptional faculty — George Kuchar, James Broughton, Gunvor Nelson, Ernie Gehr, Al Wong, Janis Crystal Lipzin, Steve Anker, and the department’s founders — encouraged students to find their voices and stretch artistic boundaries in ways that reflected San Francisco’s freedom of lifestyle and radical experimentation. 

Personal Voices. Jan 25, 13h

This first of two programs, curated by Steve Anker and Mark Wilson, includes films that were made by alumni and others at SFAI while they were at the institute or in their later lives. Today’s selection can only begin to suggest the range and richness of the work made during the department’s existence.

Films

• Luminae (Dominic Angerame, 2023, 4 min., digital)
• Confessions (Curt McDowell, 1971, 11 min., 16mm)
• Florence (Peter Hutton, 1975, 7 min., 16mm)
• Catch (Vincent Grenier, 1975, 4 min., 16mm)
• If X, Then Y (Jacalyn White, 1986, 8 min., Super-8mm)
• Visible Inventory Nine: Pattern of Events (Janis Crystal Lipzin, 1981, 12 min., 16mm)
• Noema (Scott Stark, 1998, 11 min., 16mm)
• More Intimacy (Tony Wu, 1999, 5 min., Super-8mm)
• The Penfield Road (Diane Kitchen, 1998, 5.5 min., 16mm)
• Ephemerality (Marian Wallace, 1979, 3 min., 16mm)
• Alas, Departing (Dicky Bahto, 2022, 7.5 min., digital)

Running time: 79 minutes

Orbiting bodies. Jan 25, 15h

This program, the second screening in a two-part series curated by Steve Anker and Mark Wilson, includes films made between the 1970s and 2000s by alumni and allied institute figures at SFAI or later in their careers.

Films

• Retrospectroscope (Kerry Laitala, 1997, 5 min., 16mm)
• Redshift (Emily Richardson, 2001, 4 min., 16mm)

• The Shadow Line (Toney W. Merritt, 1985, 13.5 min., 16mm on digital video)
• The Dark Room (Minyong Jang, 2007, 4 min., 16mm)
• Moebius Strip (Luis Recoder, 1997, 13 min., 16mm)

• Shape Shift (Scott Stark, 2004, 3 min., digital)

• Poet in Orbit (Joel Singer, 1980, 2 min., 16mm on digital video)
• Same Stream Twice (Lynne Sachs, 2012, 4 min., 16mm on digital video)

• Riverbody (Alice Anne Parker, 1970, 7 min., 16mm)
• George (Henry Hills, 1976, 2 min., 16mm)

• Celestial (Gregg Biermann, 2018, 9 min., digital, live score by John Davis)

Running time: 66 minutes