FILM SERIES
Wednesdays in September
San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch
100 Larkin Street, San Francisco
6:00 to 8:00 PM
Curated by Catherine Nueva España
This year’s festival theme, Resilient City: Strength by Design, investigates the ways in which architecture and design arts can proactively respond to urban resiliency challenges that affect our environmental, social and economic sustainability. This year’s Film Series includes a diverse range of documentary films, art projects, and archival footage that explore the ways in which design collaboration and community participation contribute to the resiliency of our built environment. The films also explore how generations of recording and archiving the changes in our neighborhoods strengthen our collective memory of places as we move forward with change.
Aftermath: Triumph of a City
(2013) 45 mins.
Directed by Virginia Wright
Discussion with Ruchika Kaur from Thornton Tomasetti Structural Engineers to follow
In 2011, an earthquake hit New Zealand’s South Island, which includes the city of Christchurch. While the initial quake only lasted for 10 seconds, the damage was severe because of the location, previous quake damage, and the shallowness of the earthquake's epicentre in relation to Christchurch. Aftermath looks at the ways in which Christchurch took the opportunity to completely re-think the city’s design, focusing on long-term structural and environmental sustainability and livability, with the help and input of ordinary citizens, politicians, planners, and designers. After the screening, structural engineer Ruchika Kaur, who worked in Christchurch immediately after the earthquake, will discuss earthquake resiliency, particularly with respect to San Francisco.
Supported by New Zealand American Association of San Francisco
This film will be preceded by a short film, (dis)connected, directed by Maria Jaakkola (2015), 10 mins.
SEPT
07
These Walls Speak
(2014) 35 mins.
Directed by Carla Wojczuk
Discussion with the filmmaker to follow
The murals of Balmy Alley in the Mission were created in the 1980s by 30 artists who covered the entire block with vivid depictions of the culture and political and economic struggles of Central America. The murals also captured a particular moment in San Francisco’s history, recording the lives and resilience of refugees who fled their war-torn countries and made the Mission district their home and their canvas. The idea of “placa,” to leave a mark, refers both to the murals which have become a mainstay of San Francisco’s landscape and to the rich cultural contributions of Central Americans to the city.
This Project was made possible in partnership with Precita Eyes Muralists and with support from Cal Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This film will be preceded by a short film, Island of Secret Memories, directed by Loni Ding (1988), 20 mins. This short film is co-presented with the Center for Asian American Media
SEPT
14
SEPT
21
Lost Landscapes of San Francisco
(2013) 78 min.
Created and presented by Rick Prelinger
Rick Prelinger is a guerrilla archivist who collects the uncollected and makes it accessible. Prelinger will present this "Lost Landscapes of San Francisco" film, an eclectic montage of lost and rarely-seen film clips showing life, landscapes and labor in a vanished San Francisco as captured by amateurs, newsreel cameramen and industrial filmmakers. The audience makes the soundtrack and is invited to identify places, people and events, ask questions and interact with one another while the film plays. How we remember and record the past reveals much about how we address the future.
SEPT
28
Concrete Love: The Böhm Family /
Die Böhms: Architektur Einer Familie
(2014) 85 min.
In German with English subtitles
Directed by Maurizius Staerkle-Drux
Presented by the Goethe Institut
The Pritzker Prize-winning architect Gottfried Böhm learned his trade from his father. At the age of 94, Gottfried still works every day, with his wife, Elisabeth, who was an architect, and his sons Stephan, Peter and Paul, who are also architects. Intimate yet epic in its illustration of a design-oriented family, Concrete Love is unique in its depiction of the family’s commitment to public projects, the resiliency of their designs, and their faith in the lasting power of architecture.