Personal Voices

The San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) Film Department was founded in the late 1960s by Robert Nelson and Lawrence Jordan and for over 50 years attracted young artists who were excited by film as a form of poetic expression. The exceptional faculty — George Kuchar, James Broughton, Gunvor Nelson, Ernie Gehr, Al Wong, Janis Crystal Lipzin, Steve Anker, and the department’s founders — encouraged students to find their voices and stretch artistic boundaries in ways that reflected San Francisco’s freedom of lifestyle and radical experimentation. This first of two programs, curated by Steve Anker and Mark Wilson, includes films that were made by alumni and others at SFAI while they were at the institute or in their later lives. Today’s selection can only begin to suggest the range and richness of the work made during the department’s existence.

Stay for part two of the program, Orbiting Bodies, at 3 p.m.

Films

Luminae (Dominic Angerame, 2023, 4 min., digital)
Confessions (Curt McDowell, 1971, 11 min., 16mm)
Florence (Peter Hutton, 1975, 7 min., 16mm)
Catch (Vincent Grenier, 1975, 4 min., 16mm)
If X, Then Y (Jacalyn White, 1986, 8 min., Super-8mm)
Visible Inventory Nine: Pattern of Events (Janis Crystal Lipzin, 1981, 12 min., 16mm)
Noema (Scott Stark, 1998, 11 min., 16mm)
More Intimacy (Tony Wu, 1999, 5 min., Super-8mm)
The Penfield Road (Diane Kitchen, 1998, 5.5 min., 16mm)
Ephemerality (Marian Wallace, 1979, 3 min., 16mm)
Alas, Departing (Dicky Bahto, 2022, 7.5 min., digital)

Running time: 79 minutes

Accessibility Information

Accessibility accommodations such as American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and assisted listening devices are available upon request 10 business days in advance.

Please email publicengagement@sfmoma.org, and we will do our best to fulfill your request.

Meaningful support provided by the Susan Wildberg Morgenstein Memorial Fund.