Course Catalog

Bay Area Documentary Filmmakers

The Bay Area has an international reputation as a bastion of documentary filmmakers. Over the last 40 years, local filmmakers have gravitated to exposing contemporary social injustices at home and abroad and reviving ignored or forgotten history. There are only three places in the country—New York, Los Angeles and the Bay Area—where a different lineup of independent documentary filmmakers could be assembled for a class year after year. Bay Area doc makers are a highly political breed, dedicated to exposing social injustices at home and abroad and reviving ignored or forgotten history. Each session of the class features a recent film followed by a discussion with the director. We’ll focus on the practical and ethical challenges of making documentaries, from conception through production and post production to distribution. FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: Christopher Beaver (May 20th) (Sneak preview, 2019, 54 min) Chris Beaver’s new documentary examines the complexities around sourcing, using and conserving water in Las Vegas. Christopher Beaver is a writer, producer and director whose films include the Emmy-winning Dark Circle (1982, with Judy Irving), which received a Certificate of Special Merit from the Academy Awards documentary committee. His environmental docs include Treasures of the Greenbelt, Secrets of the Bay, Tales of the San Joaquin—A River Journey (nominated for the International Documentary Association’s Pare Lorentz Award) and Tulare, The Phantom Lake. Chris presented Racing to Zero, a solutions-oriented film tracing San Francisco’s efforts to divert all waste from landfills, in the Spring 2015 Bay Area Documentary Filmmakers class. Chris’s website: www.cbfilms.net FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: Dan Goldes (May 21st) 5 Blocks (rough cut, 2019, 50 min) traces the current development and dramatic change of San Francisco’s mid-Market neighborhood. Website: www.5blocksproject.com Dan Goldes has produced, directed and edited three short docs: ub2 (2013, exploring language relating to HIV), Equal Justice Under Law (2015, inspired by the U.S. Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision) and Arrested (Again) (2017, a profile of nonviolent activist Karen Topakian), each of which played more than two dozen festivals. He graduated from the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking, and he and 5 Blocks are part of the incubator residency program of the San Francisco Ninth Street Independent Film Center. He has sat on screening committees of the San Francisco Green Film Festival and Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival. 5 Blocks marks his feature debut. *This workshop is not included in Course Package discounts, so must be paid in full to attend.

This class is not available at this time.

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