Film
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, [...]
The Jerome Project
The Jerome Project preserves, protects, and perpetuates the artistic legacy of Jerome Caja (1958 — 1995). The mission is to bring greater visibility and accessibility to Caja’s paintings and performances. The project includes several moving parts: a digital catalogue raisonné, a repository of art and ephemera available for academic research, and a feature-length documentary film about Caja, with an accompanying exhibition of his art.
Way of Life
Interweaving the stories of one of Montana’s only abortion and trans healthcare clinics and diverse Montanans fighting to define and defend individual freedoms, the feature documentary in-progress WAY OF LIFE explores ideological complexities and contradictions in the country’s rapidly intensifying battles over privacy and bodily autonomy–dangerous frontlines in a polarizing America.
WE BELONG (The Lex Doc)
The Lexington Club was the only dyke bar in San Francisco for 18 rowdy years (1997-2015). Ten years after its closure, WE BELONG tells the story of the bar, the patrons that found strength in its walls, and its impact on three profound decades of LGBTQ+ history. More than just a safe space, The Lexington Club was the breeding ground for a generation of Queer women-centered rebellion.
Year of the Cat
YEAR OF THE CAT follows filmmaker Tony Nguyen on an extraordinary quest to solve the mystery of his father, lost in the chaos of the Fall of Saigon 50 years ago. Told as an investigative home movie, this powerful documentary weaves together moments of humor and heartache, offering an intimate look at how the children of refugees are shaped by war and loss. As Tony delves into his family’s history, the film reveals the emotional lengths we go to in confronting the ghosts of the past—and the possibility of healing as we reclaim and transform our futures.
Dragon Babies
When filmmaker Kathy Trinh discovers forgotten footage from her kindergarten classroom, a simple search for her former classmates—thirty years later—becomes a journey of healing and longing for connection. Set in San Francisco’s Richmond District, DRAGON BABIES is a deep exploration of how unresolved grief, intergenerational trauma, and memory shape who we become—and whether closure is possible when we finally confront the truths we’ve carried since childhood.
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.
