I remember going to BAVC Media’s first building, when they were on Potrero Hill, and the first classes they offered. This was when video was expanding from a recording medium to a storytelling medium and documentary format all its own. Fast forward to last year, when I was trying to figure out how to get my old videos archived. A friend told me about BAVC Media’s Preservation Access Program and how folks could apply to help underwrite their archiving activities. I applied and was, thankfully, chosen. I had already started sorting my decades worth of videos and found some really old ¾ “ tapes, ½” tapes, & old Beta tapes— an amazing collection of antiquity. The folks at BAVC Media said, no problem, we can check them all out and see what we can do.
The beauty of the program was that it allowed me to give them a large number of tapes that I had been unable to see in a very long time. And that meant that I might actually be able to save some of these old pieces, which had begun to live only in memory. It was a wonderful experience and everyone I dealt with at BAVC Media was fabulous!
Selected project
Hotel of Memories
“There’s never a dull moment at the Hotel of Memories, where wry humor and a mood-altering entropy continually reconfigure the rootless lives of its residents, and make every beat an unexpected, revelatory pleasure.” — Robert Avila, SF Bay Guardian
The Desire Line
“Deborah Slater’s new The Desire Line is as quietly atmospheric as it is rambunctiously explosive. It is also a lot of fun as you catch glimpses — a hand holding a foot, a striped tie, a letter, teacups — of Alan Feltus’s figurative paintings, reproduced in the Dance Mission Theater lobby, that inspired this fine hour-long piece.” — Rita Felciano, SF Bay Guardian
Gone in 5
“Always thoughtful, often quite funny, her takes on life’s vicissitudes have that sharp edge that makes you wince even as you grin.” — Rita Felciano, SF Bay Guardian
The Sleepwatchers
“The evening-length piece The Sleepwatchers is a journey through the landscape of sleep, both dreams and nightmares. Slater is one of SF’s most experienced dance-theater practitioners, and she knows how to get way deep down into an idea and make it physical. Oh, yes, she’s funny, too.” — K. Luce, SF Gate
Men Think They Are Better than Grass
“Accessing Slater’s works can take patience, but her creations stay with you because they are formally inventive, finely crafted, and engage the mind and heart long after you leave the theater. But rarely have the many strands she weaves together resulted in a piece as sprawling, ambitious, and poetic as her 20th anniversary premiere Men Think They Are Better than Grass.” — Rita Felciano, SF Bay Guardian
Meditations on the Everyday. Part of a performance for the 2015 San Francisco International Arts Festival, based on the poetry of Jane Hirshfield.
Echoes Made Visible. Commissioned by SFMoMA in 2011, this piece was a response to composer Bill Fontana’s Sonic Shadows during its closing weekend at the museum.
