Film
STREET SMART: Lessons from a TV Icon
STREET SMART: Lessons from a TV Icon is a feature documentary about Sonia Manzano — known to millions as “Maria” from Sesame Street. The film follows Sonia’s remarkable journey, from a young girl in the South Bronx finding refuge in television, to becoming the first Latina on American TV in a regular role, through 44 years on screen on Sesame Street, and now as the creator of Alma’s Way. Featuring interviews with luminaries, original animation, and scripted scenes that blend humor and heart, this inspirational documentary invites viewers to learn once again from this beloved icon. Written & Directed by [...]
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.
Pipe Dreams: Saving the Castro Theatre Organ
Pipe Dreams follows the battle over the future of the Castro Theatre, and its prized Wurlitzer pipe organ, at a time of unprecedented change in San Francisco.
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, [...]
Henrietta The Dragon Slayer
In a desolate high desert battlefield, Franc, a knight far from home, vanishes after being plagued by nightmares. His friend and a valiant, decorated war veteran, Henrietta discovers clues that lead her to a treacherous cliffside cave and a menacing chimera. Henrietta confronts the creature to rescue Franc, but can’t succeed with force alone. She must trust in her magical necklace if she wants to have a fighting chance. If you’d like to show your support for the Henrietta Film through other means reach out to Beth Barany here at bethbarany@gmail.com
BSU: AN INSIDE LOOK
In 1968, two young men bring the Civil Rights Movement to San Francisco State University, sparking national news and launching a student-led revolution that transforms the face of the American educational system. "BSU: An Inside Look" blends historical retelling, personal perspectives and contemporary resonance through archival photographs, strike footage and first-person interviews with James Garrett and Mayor Willie Brown, etc. Our intention is to show how B.S.U. organized a coalition that ultimately forced the administration to create the First Ever College of Ethnic Studies in the nation and its everlasting impact on academic curriculum in the US.
Home is a Hotel
Across America, cities are struggling with homelessness and housing affordability. How does one decades old solution – cramped Single Room Occupancy units – impact the lives of those who live in them? Home Is a Hotel takes you inside San Francisco’s SRO housing through intimate portraits of their residents filmed over six years. This character-driven, verité documentary immerses viewers in what it means to call a single room home in the heart of one of America’s richest cities. It’s the story of an immigrant single mom in Chinatown, a blind songwriter fighting harassment and eviction, an ex-couple in recovery co-parenting [...]
A Brief Diary of an Unimportant Man
A Brief Diary of an Unimportant Man is an experimental documentary told entirely through internal monologue, live-looped folk songs, and ambient sound captured in public spaces along the East Coast. It blends performance art, music, and hand-drawn animation to explore memory, grief, identity, and the absurd sanctity of karaoke.
Kizuna
Kizuna is an animist film & intergenerational prayer journey following the spirit of an unborn aborted child into the heart of a taiko drum and into the dusty fertility shrines of a mountain village facing depopulation and cultural loss.
