Film
Northern Lights Re-Release
Winner of the 1979 Camera d'Or, Northern Lights, a unique work of political cinema from the late 1970s, dramatizes small North Dakotan wheat farmers' political struggle against the bankers and railroad magnates pushing them into bankrupcy. Two young lovers get swept up in the turmoil surrounding the formation of the populist Nonpartisan League in the mid-1910's. Shot on location in black-and-white 16mm with a cast of nonprofessional actors, this deeply moving, politically committed film is a masterpiece of American independent cinema. The 4K digital restoration of Northern Lights was created by IndieCollect and Metropolis Post in collaboration with directors John [...]
Object Permanence
Psychologist Jean Piaget’s concept of OBJECT PERMANENCE involves the understanding that people and things still exist even when you can't see or hear them. It is a key milestone in human cognitive development. The short sci-fi film OBJECT PERMANENCE explores the complexities of the human psyche and plays with the idea of presence. Life is transformed for best friends Drexciya and Echo when Drexciya’s employer, the California Aeronautics and Space Agency (CASA), reveals that it now possesses an interstellar object that has reached Earth. Echo finally finds the fulfillment he’s so desperate for in a connection with Drexciya’s colleague, Jency; [...]
Querida Fátima
After losing her 12-year-old daughter Fátima to a horrible attack and fleeing her home in a small town in Mexico, Lorena leads her family on a quest for justice against a corrupt system preying on thousands of women and girls each year, taking her fight all the way to the country’s Supreme Court.
Pleasure Seekers
Pleasure Seekers is a vérité feature length documentary following the intertwined lives of three women in Brooklyn, New York. Mayra, a first-generation immigrant from Ecuador, and mother reflects on her life once rooted in survival over pleasure, now reclaims her relationship to sex and aging. Her daughter Sam, a filmmaker in her twenties uninterested in marriage or children, returns home with a camera and a growing desire to understand her mother—and herself. Alongside her is Emily, her childhood best friend and practically a second daughter to Mayra, who is adamant about finding love. Finding intersectional and intergenerational perspectives on the [...]
The Shape of Light
In the world's epicenter of technological innovation, San Francisco cinema goers struggle to preserve their neighborhood movie theaters and keep the theatrical experience alive in times of a global pandemic, shifting social behaviors, and an ascendant streaming industry. Will they be able to safeguard cinemas as we know them? The Shape of Light chronicles multiple storylines in different neighborhoods of the Bay Area striving to preserve local movie theaters while facing an unprecedented global pandemic, a struggling economy, and a societal increase of individual isolation through the use of personal electronic devices. Over several years, we witnessed the solidarity, inventiveness, [...]
Queerly Beloved
“Queerly Beloved” is a feature ensemble about a group of queer and trans friends whose bonds are tested when they come together for a weekend wedding in the Redwoods. This multi-protagonist film depicts the beauty and hilarity of Bay Area queer community as friends, lovers, exes, and relatives navigate their intertwined relationships, threading and re-threading the fabric of chosen family.
Rebel Woman
Rebel Woman is a personal documentary short that traces a first-generation Afghan American woman's journey to understand her mother's quiet acts of defiance and the legacy of resilience passed down through generations. The film weaves together memories of pre-war Afghanistan and the immigrant experience in America, exploring the tensions between cultural expectations and personal freedom. In our current moment, when women's rights are threatened globally and immigrant voices are being silenced, Rebel Women offers an intimate reminder of strength, identity, reconnecting with a dying culture, and the powerful bond between mother and daughter.
West O. Dreaming
In 1933, Charlotte Beradt began collecting dreams of people in her Berlin neighborhood, and eventually published The Third Reich of Dreams. The film West O. Dreaming is a core sample of dreams during our time in history. The film portrays a series of dreams, each in creative collaboration with its dreamer. The project rises to the challenge of the near impossibility of representing dreams—a task which touches on language, meaning and the nature of consciousness.
Beyond the Gap
Beyond the Gap is a documentary that explores the educational achievement gap existing between young African-American males and other American students. Grandville Taylor, Deshon Smith and Raysean Jones, graduates of Washington High School in the San Francisco Unified School District, share their empowering stories of success to inspire other young African-American men and students of color to successfully overcome the achievement gap. This film will also provide possible solutions for educators, administrators, community members and families to eliminate the gap in educational opportunity.
Black Is Blue
BLACK IS BLUE is set in dystopian Oakland, where an ex-techie trans woman uses pirated AI technology to control a young trans lover, but their love and revenge plot against a DNA-harvesting corporation unravels, leading to a tragic end for all. Against the dystopian backdrop of another Bay Area tech boom gone bust, this is an erotic tale of a black trans couple brought together by technology. Their tragic love story is witnessed by a bot who stands by — eager to learn and protect— until it is transformed by them. Epic in presentation, taut and tense in character and [...]
