|
February 12, 2021
Dear Cinema Community:
Happy Lunar New Year! I hope for prosperity, abundance, alliance, and hope for all of us as we continue to struggle in the pandemic and as we still face so much uncertainty. I am with you, along with the entire faculty and staff.
Happy Black History Month! I am entirely here for the wonderful events planned in the School of Cinema and across campus. On Instagram, Endowed Chair Assistant Professor Artel Great’s posts are full of joy, knowledge, and an archive of treasures in Black Cinema. Our Archive Project event last week was a tour de force presentation by Resident Curator Stephen Kane whose work on the archive spans almost a decade. He revealed the strength of our collections in African American and Native American films. I had no idea we had works by Spencer Williams and a trove of materials made by young Black and Indigenous filmmakers. I can imagine how inspiring this must be for the students who came into contact with their inheritance that night. Filmmaker-ancestors revealed by the work of this industrious and brilliant curator shared in our Race, Resistance and Rebellion programming this year! You can see the recording of the program along with the others of recent years on our Events page and the password is SFSUCinemaEvents. Thanks to Artie Farkas, our Tech Lead, for the great productions!
Next month, we launch a major program co-sponsored by the Division of Equity and Community Inclusion and the Institute for Community and Civic Engagement, a series focused on Women of Color in Hollywood. We will host 8 prominent and celebrated leaders in our industry, largely known for its inequitable representation, including in its highest ranks. As student event organizer and MFA student DJ Chan says, they will help demystify their paths in the industry and share their wisdom. These events begin on March 12 with producers Adrucia Apana and Rebecca Choi. And all these events will center students as moderators and interlocutors on stage. Join us!
A massive congratulations to the MA grad students who organized a most successful graduate conference focused on Mediating Democracy last week. It was a truly transnational event with presenters from as near as Berkeley and as far as Germany. UCLA Professor and Associate Dean Ellen C. Scott delivered a powerful and generous keynote and spoke with such brilliance about Black cinema history and the urgent work we need to do in our discipline. Congratulations to Tatiana Anoushian, President of the Cinema Graduate Students Association who led the team including Ailish Elzy, Jessica De Leon, Travis Svensson and John Vu. Heartiest thanks to all of you for shaping our conversations so beautifully. You inspire us! Shout out to Professor Steve Choe (MA Coordinator) and the Studies Faculty for supporting the MA students!
Lastly, please join us at our many events coming up! See the calendar below and our website: scroll down to “Events.” It is our way to build community, create networks, and share our collective culture—what makes us the School of Cinema and what binds us together. I am most looking forward to March 2, and the Listening Session organized by the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Access (EDIA) Committee. See you there, dear Cinema Community!
I am with you,
Celine
|
|
Celine Parreñas Shimizu, M.F.A., Ph.D.
Professor and Director
School of Cinema, SFSU
|
|
|
|
Dear Graduating Seniors,
As you may know, the university has started using the Degree Progress Report as the official audit for graduation. In many cases, advisors are finding that the DPR needs to be updated to avoid a graduation denial. It’s very important at this stage that you double check your DPR and make sure each requirement is marked with a green circle (completed) or yellow diamond (in-progress). If you find any red squares on your records, please consult with an advisor right away:
We look forward to celebrating with you in May!
Scott Boswell
Associate Professor // Undergraduate Advising Coordinator
Schedule an Appointment
|
|
SFSU COVID-19 News and Cinema Responses
|
|
|
Please go to this link for up to date campus operation communications during the Covid-19 crisis: news.sfsu.edu/covid-19
Please go to this link to see the SFSU CINEMA responses to the COVID-19 health crisis: cinema.sfsu.edu
|
|
SFSU Student Resources
During this Public Health Crises
|
|
|
You can find information about using the Hope Crisis Fund or donating to it at:
https://dos.sfsu.edu/content/sf-state-hope-fund-crisis-loan-application
Helpful resources are also located in this page maintained by the ARC, including information about the basic needs, the food pantry and short term loans:
https://advisinglca.sfsu.edu/content/student-resources
STUDENTS WHO ARE U.S. CITIZENS OR GREEN CARD HOLDERS, WHO HAVE LOST THEIR JOBS, PART-TIME OR FULL-TIME, CAN NOW APPLY FOR UNEMPLOYMENT FROM THE GOVERNMENT:
https://www.edd.ca.gov/unemployment/filing_a_claim.htm
|
|
CINEMA 325.02 - THE BEST OF EASTERN EUROPEAN CINEMA
|
|
|
February 19-20 (Friday 4:00p.m.-9:30p.m., Sat. 9:30a.m.-5:00p.m.)
One unit CR/NC
In one weekend you will be presented a bouquet of the very best films from Eastern Europe, from the 1950’s to the 1990’s.
You will see films from Poland, The Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary.
The films are by the great masters Wajda, Tarkovsky, Jires, Kusturica, Tarr, covering political upheaval, World War II, the artistic freedom of the 1960’s, surrealistic fantasy.
This weekend will be a profound, mind-blowing exposure to the possibilities of historical and stylistic cinema from the heart of Europe.
|
|
|
CINEMA 325.03 - GEORGE SLUIZER - DOCUMENTARIES AND FEATURES
|
|
|
|
March 5-6, (Friday 4:00p.m.-9:30p.m., Sat. 9:30a.m.-5:00p.m)
One unit CR/NC
You will have a unique opportunity to sample the brilliance and diversity of Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer. He began as a documentarian, making films all over the world, chronicling the lives of natives in the Amazonian jungle, Portuguese fishermen risking their lives off the coast of Newfoundland, Palestinians surviving the occupation of their land. And he went on to make a wide range of feature films, with Tony Perkins, Bibi Andersson, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Geraldine Chaplin, Kieffer Sutherland, shot in Brazil, Europe, Texas, Hollywood. He made one of the most frightening films ever made, THE VANISHING, the only adaptation of the work of Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, THE STONERAFT, and the last film of River Phoenix, DARK BLOOD. We will have his collaborators participate in the course, talking about the way he worked.
|
|
CINEMA 650.1 – MASTERCLASS WITH FILMMAKER CAVEH ZAHEDI: “PERSONAL DOCUMENTARY”
|
|
|
Friday, February 26, 4:00 - 7:00 pm
Caveh Zahedi is an autobiographical American independent filmmaker whose feature-length award-winning films include The Sheik and I (2012), I Am A Sex Addict (2005), In The Bathtub of the World (2001), I Don’t Hate Las Vegas Anymore (1994), and A Little Stiff (1991). He is also the writer/director of the ongoing BRIC TV series The Show About the Show. Zahedi’s films have screened in major festivals internationally, including Sundance, Rotterdam, Karlovy-Vara, and many others. Zahedi has received a Gotham Award and is a Guggenheim Fellow.
Synchronous Classtime: 4-7 pm
|
|
CINEMA 650.2 – MASTERCLASS WITH FILMMAKERCHRISTOPHER MUNCH: “SPECULATIVE HISTORY – FICTION FILMMAKING INSPIRED BY HISTORY”
|
|
Friday, March 12 - 4:00 - 7:00 pm
Christopher Munch is a producer-writer-director whose films include The 11th Green, (2020, starring Campbell Scott) a speculative history about a journalist exploring the legend of Eisenhower’s involvement in extraterrestrial events, Letters from the Big Man (2011, starring Lily Rabe), in which a forester has a life-altering encounter with a mystic Sasquatch; Harry and Max (2004), about two brothers -- both pop idols; The Sleepy Time Gal (2001, starring Jacqueline Bisset), about a dying mother’s search for a daughter put up for adoption at birth; Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day (1996, starring Michael Stipe), about a young man’s quixotic quest to save short-line railroad in the 1940s; and The Hours and Times (1992, starring Ian Hart), based on the friendship of Brian Epstein and John Lennon, a lauded work that received jury prizes at Sundance and Berlin. Munch’s films have played in competition at Sundance as well as at numerous other major international festivals. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, recipient of the IFP’s Someone to Watch Award, and was featured in two Whitney Biennial exhibitions.
Synchronous Classtime: 4-7 pm
|
|
|
Faculty Learn from Counseling and Psychological Services, Disabled Program and Resource Center, and the Division of Equity and Community Inclusion on how the School of Cinema contributes to SFSU as an Anti-Racist University.
|
|
|
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MAYURAN TIRUCHELVAM AND WRITTING PARTNER WILLEM LEE RECEIVED THE SFFILM AND KENNETH RAININ FOUNDATION GRANT FOR THEIR SCREENPLAY THE ENGINEERS.
|
|
WORLD PREMIERE - SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM BY DANIEL CHEIN
|
|
|
About A Home is a short doc co-directed by Daniel Chein and Elizabeth Lo, at the 2021 Slamdance Film Festival
Slamdance is offering full festival passes to students for $5.
|
|
MFA STUDENTS JOIN PROFESSOR JOHNNY SYMONS ON PRODUCTION TEAM OF PERFORMANCE VIDEO PROJECT.
|
|
|
Cinema MFA students were part of the production team of BLACK MAGIC, a new performance video celebrating Black queer resiliency and strength by interdisciplinary artist and recent SFSU guest Rashaad Newsome.
Professor Johnny Symons produced the video and was one of the DPs, along with MFA alum Andres Gallegos. Several other MFA students and alums were on the post-production team, including editor Alexander Irwin and visual effects artists David Mai, Mitch McGlocklin and Chris Wooten. BLACK MAGIC screens online through February 28th at the at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in NYC.
|
|
|
Undergraduate Student News
|
|
|
|
|
Dear Cinema Community,
I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy. My name is Ying Wencie Hoang and I am a third and final year student majoring in Cinema and minoring in Race and Resistance Studies.
Over the past 4 months, I have been working on pitching, writing, editing, and directing three (3) documentaries in my role as a Publicity Assistant for the College of Liberal and Creative Arts. Today is the premiere date of one of the documentaries. The documentary is called Our Stories: College from Home.
About Our Stories: College from Home
The inevitable effects of COVID-19 have taken their toll on the world, let alone SF State students. View their stories, embodying resilience, compassion and raw vulnerability, as seven students share their experiences navigating this unprecedented year. Despite housing insecurity, long-distance relationships and loneliness, they have discovered a sense of community and University resources to help them.
Link to documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNHlRus6VZc
Thank you to all of the students who shared their stories with me. Without their voices, this vision would not have been able to come to life.
Feel free to share this documentary with your peers and community! I would love to hear your thoughts.
Warmly,
Ying Wencie Hoang (she/her)
yhoang1@mail.sfsu.edu
|
|
|
Courtney Pratt (BA Cinema 2020, Animation Minor) Courtney Pratt’s animated thesis film, “The Ballad of Lucky Dave,” won Best Animated Short at the 2020 Cannes Short Film Festival in September. Cannes Short Film festival showcases the best of international short filmmaking in the world’s most famous film festival city, Cannes, France. Courtney’s film will screen at the Hollywood International Golden Age Festival next month.
Veronica Wang (BA Cinema 2019, Animation Minor) publishes blog posts for the Asian American media organization Kollaboration.” Her latest post on “Asian Representation in Animation” can be found at this link:
https://www.kollabsf.org/kollabblogposts/2020/8/6/asian-representation-in-animation
|
|
FACULTY LISTENING SESSION
|
|
|
|
Students are invited to present concerns and ideas related to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Access (EDIA) in the School of Cinema to the faculty on Tuesday, March 2nd 5pm-7pm. As faculty, we hope that this Listening Session will be an opportunity to listen and learn about the EDIA issues in the School of Cinema that affect you, and how we can better address these concerns and issues. During the Listening Session, we are inviting students to 1) present their concerns in relation to EDIA, and 2) ideas for solutions and changes they would like to see within the School of Cinema. For example, students may be interested in
· sharing experiences they have had around EDIA issues,
· talking about desires for curricular changes, such as the inclusion of specific material within the curriculum
· discussing ideas for changes to approaches to group work
· addressing classroom dynamics, either between teachers and students, or among students
The event will be moderated by Wei Ming Dariotis, Professor of Asian American Studies, College of Ethnic Studies and Faculty Director of the SFSU Center for Equity and Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CEETL). The School of Cinema faculty members who attend will be there to listen and respond to students as needed rather than lead the event. We also have a Qualtrics form available where you may submit comments, ideas, and thoughts anonymously:
https://sfsu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6nAuIeepM3Sb4fI
To register for the event go to: tinyurl.com/EDIAListeningSession
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to Assistant Professor Laura Green, Chair of the School of Cinema EDIA Committee, at lagreen@sfsu.edu
|
|
WOMEN OF COLOR IN HOLLYWOOD SERIES
|
|
|
“Development & Executive Producing” - Adhrucia Apana and Rebecca Choi, March 12, 3-4 pm:
Join the Zoom
Women of Color in Hollywood
UCLA’s 2020 Diversity Report showed that film executives and directors are still overwhelmingly white men. We would like to demystify who gets to work in Hollywood by inviting a series of women of color to speak at the School of Cinema.
This series is co-sponsored by the Division of Equity and Community Inclusion, Institute for Civic and Community Engagement, Black Unity Center (BUC), Asian American and Pacific Islander Retention and Education (ASPIRE), Office of Diversity, Student Equity, and Interfaith Programs, Latinx Student Services, and LGBTQIA+ Student Life.
|
|
SPRING 2021 - THE ARCHIVE PROJECT - IMAGINE OUR FUTURE:
|
|
CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH WITH VETERAN FILMS
|
|
VIRTUAL EVENT – DON’T MESS WITH ME: COMBATING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN SOUTH ASIA THROUGH ART AND ENGAGEMENT
|
|
|
|
Co-hosted in partnership with the Asian Art Museum in celebration of the Margaret F. Williams Memorial Fellowship in Asian Art. A conversation with Indian artist Jas Charanjiva about her work “Don’t Mess with Me,” currently on view at the Asian Art Museum. A panel will discuss sexual violence against women in South Asia and how artists and organizations like The Asia Foundation are working to address and combat the abuses.
Featuring
Jas Charanjiva, Artist
Abby Chen, Senior Associate Curator and Head of Contemporary Art, Asian Art Museum
Nandita Baruah, Country Representative, India, The Asia Foundation
Moderator
Jane Sloane, Senior Director, Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality Program, The Asia Foundation
FREE - Register to attend.
|
|
NEW LABOR MOVEMENTS: CREATION / EMERGENCE
|
|
|
New Labor Movements: Movement IV. Creation/Emergence
Streaming February 16–18 in the Roxie Virtual Cinema
In Conversation: Jenn Nkiru, Elegance Bratton, Jovan James, Leila Weefur, and Rizvana Bradley
February 18, 12pm • Zoom webinar
Curator Leila Weefur invites contemporary filmmakers to explore acts of movement as a profound catalyst for societal and individual change in American and Black life. The fourth and final chapter of the series, Creation/Emergence, screens exclusively online and features films by Keisha Rae Witherspoon, Jenn Nkiru, Terrance Daye, Onyeka Igwe and Elegance Bratton and Jovan James. A free online conversation with the curator and select filmmakers moderated by UC Berkeley's Rizvana Bradley takes place on February 18.
For SFSU Cinema Students, please mention this notice and use your SFSU email address to get access to the limited number of comp tickets available by writing an email to: info@roxie.com
|
|
February 13 - April 19
Withdrawal from Classes or University for Serious Compelling Reasons
February 19 - 20
CINEMA 325.02 - The Best of Eastern European Cinema.
(Friday 4 pm -9:30 pm, Sat. 9:30 am -5 pm)
February 26
CINEMA 650.1 - Masterclass with Filmmaker Caveh Zahedi: “Personal Documentary” Caveh Zahedi, 4-7pm
March 2 -
Faculty Listening Session, 5-7 pm
March 5 - 6
CINEMA 325.03 - George Sluizer - Documentaries and Features,
(Friday 4:00p.m.-9:30p.m., Sat. 9:30a.m.-5:00p.m.)
March 12
Women of Color in Hollywood
“Development & Executive Producing” - Adhrucia Apana and Rebecca Choi, 3-4pm
March 12
CINEMA 650.2 - Masterclass with Filmmaker Christopher Münch:
"Speculative History" 4-7pm
|
|
Tours of the School of Cinema are suspended for the Spring Semester of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are now providing a virtual tour of our facilities via this link below. Thank you to Professor Weimin Zhang for producing it for future members of our community at SFSU School of Cinema.
This VR film was created in collaboration with faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students in this unprecedented and stressful situation right before the closure of the campus. The VR tour provides an easy and friendly opportunity for the tenure-track candidates, prospective graduate, and undergraduate students to virtually visit the School of Cinema.
vimeo.com/398305869
|
|
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ENRICHES AMERICA’S STORY BY CONNECTING WITH MINORITY COMMUNITIES, FUNDED BY ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION
|
|
Community Documentarians with the American Folklife Center
The American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress will expand its collection by funding and supporting individuals and organizations in collecting and archiving contemporary community-driven cultural expressions and traditions that may otherwise be absent from the national record. The Library will offer fellowships to individuals to work within their communities to produce ethnographic cultural documentation, such as oral history interviews and audio-visual recordings of cultural activity, from the community perspective. The center will archive the collections from this fieldwork to preserve and showcase this rich and valuable cultural documentation.
Internship and Fellowships for Students from Minority-Serving Institutions
The Library will expand internship opportunities and enhance outreach to students attending historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribal colleges and universities and institutions that serve Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The internship and fellowship programs offered will provide experiential learning opportunities to develop a new generation of diverse talent for cultural heritage organizations. The Library has begun work in this area by creating new training opportunities through a pilot program with Howard University in Washington, D.C.
https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-21-002/?loclr=ealn
|
|
INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY FOR BLACK SCREENWRITERS
|
|
|
|
