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Guest Post: Camp, Exploitation, Shit, Champagne, and Vaudeville 2.0

SFFILM Rainin Grantee D’Arcy Drollinger on Vaudeville 2.0

When the 2020 SFFILM Festival was canceled in March, D’Arcy Drollinger was denied the Castro Theatre world premiere experience for Shit & Champagne, D’Arcy’s epic debut film adaptation of the popular stage show. Luckily for us all, Frameline44 has saved the day with the presentation of the film’s premiere in the best possible circumstances afforded us in this year outside of cinemas: at the drive-in!

Shit & Champagne is a project that is close to the hearts of the SFFILM Makers team, having received SFFILM Rainin Grants for both screenwriting and post-production. We hope you’ll be there at Frameline’s event to cheer along with us for D’Arcy and the entire Shit & Champagne crew! On this exciting occasion, we asked D’Arcy to share some thoughts on the evolution of the film.

Stage to Screen, Shit to Champagne
by D’Arcy Drollinger

Shit & Champagne is my first feature film. Honestly, it is my first film, period. Everyone told me I was crazy to jump right into a feature film without making a few short films first. Everyone told me I was crazy to produce, direct, and star in my first feature film. Everyone told me that adaptations from stage never work as films. So, going into this project I already knew I was working against the odds. Truth be told, if I had known what I “didn’t know” then, I might not have jumped in guns blazing in the same way. In this instance, maybe ignorance was power.

I have made a career out of what I call “Vaudeville 2.0.” Bawdy, loud, lewd, over the top stage productions that combine drag, high camp, slapstick, and commedia dell’arte. All of these things are seen often as “not serious” or fluff, but to be done right they take exacting precision, dedication and craft. I’ve also had a lot of success adapting parody version of film and TV scripts for stage. With this combination, I knew it was inevitable for me to transition into film. The time was right. And while I didn’t understand the mechanics of making a film, I understood what made a film work and how to make people laugh.

The challenges of camp in cinema seemed less daunting until I actually tried to do it. There are already huge hurdles to adapt a stage production for film, but throw in drag and a vaudevillian troupe of actors and the puzzle becomes extraordinarily more difficult.

I knew that films like Shit & Champagne had worked before — I had proof from my heroes like Mel Brooks and the Zucker Brothers, Charles Busch and John Waters — but the medium of film always felt like a mystery. I could produce and direct a stage production with my eyes closed, but the creation of film felt elusive.

Shit & Champagne uses comedy and gender-bending performances in hopes to open audiences to new gender possibilities. This film enlisted a cross-section of actors, performers, and drag kings and queens of the LGBT arts community in San Francisco. And running alongside the ridiculous comedy narrative of Shit & Champagne is also a story where outcasts find each other, where heart does emerge and where friendship is sacred.

While this is a period piece, the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink sensibility allows for a broader canvas to tell the story, and thus we are referring to it as a “soft period” piece. Shot with a heightened aesthetic and saturated colors, we’re aiming for a look that is both authentic and modern.

I was inspired by 70’s exploitation films like Coffy and Foxy Brown starring Pam Grier, and Savage Streets with Linda Blair. But I am also a big fan of 70’s TV heroines — Charlie’s Angels, Wonder Woman, the Bionic Woman, Police Woman — Champagne too is a whole lot of woman! I wanted something that felt like John Waters and Russ Meyer collaborated with Mel Brooks and Quentin Tarantino.

In many of the classic exploitation films, an “everyday” person is thrust into the middle of a crime ring. When their family members and loved ones are killed and the police do nothing, they are forced to take the law into their own hands — thus creating our unsuspecting hero. In many of these films, the “bad guys” run a drug racket (usually heroin), which leads to enlisting the drug addicts into a prostitution ring. I was searching for a drug more comedic than heroin, when I stumbled upon Michael Musto’s column in the Village Voice, which was about the sewage problem in many of the NYC nightclubs due to the new trend of “booty bumps.” I ran with that idea, and suddenly I had a very funny and slightly gross plot on my hands.

We first produced Shit & Champagne as a stage play in New York, where it ran for nine months. It was remounted in San Francisco twice — in 2014 where it was extended three times, and then brought back by popular demand to be the inaugural production for the grand opening of my nightclub, Oasis, in 2015. The San Francisco productions attracted a serious cult following — the self-proclaimed “Shit Heads” who would attend the live performances, dozens of times, leading the audiences in chanting lines and repeating callbacks to the actors in a Rocky Horror fashion. I hope that the film audiences will feel the same.

D’Arcy Drollinger has written, directed, and starred in the original feature film Shit & Champagne as well as the multimedia stage productions of Bitch Slap, Disastrous, The Temple of Poon, Mr. Irresistible, Project: Lohan, Scalpel!, The Possession of Mrs. Jones, Pink Elephants, Above and Beyond the Valley of the Ultra Showgirls, Suburbia 3000, and The Cereal Killers. Other credits include The Producers (first Broadway production) and Hairspray the Musical (first Broadway production). D’Arcy is the owner of Oasis, the premier drag club in the US, voted San Francisco’s best nightclub / cabaret.

D’Arcy continues to produce, adapt, and direct the live drag parodies Sex and the City Live, The Golden Girls: The Christmas Episodes, Star Trek Live, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Live, and Three’s Company Live. D’Arcy is the creator of Sexitude, the body-positive, age-positive, sex-positive dance experience based in San Francisco.

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Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Education Fund Essay Contest

The winners of the Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Education Fund Essay Contest are in! Read the Winning Submissions below

Originally scheduled to screen in the Family Films shorts program at the 2020 SFFILM Festival, Camrus Johnson’s animated short film Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad was shown online as part of SFFILM at Home on April 23. Johnson charmed the virtual audience with an engaging Q&A that explored the creative process, directed toward youth storytellers.

Following the event, SFFILM Education and the Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Education Fund invited elementary, middle, and high school attendees to participate in an essay contest inspired by the online discussion. Students were asked to respond to the following writing prompts:

1. How did Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad and online Q&A with Camrus Johnson make you feel?
2. How do you feel in general right now?
3. During this difficult time, how are you staying connected to the people you love?
4. Are you staying creative while sheltering in place?

The SFFILM Education team and director Camrus Johnson reviewed all of the submissions, and we’re excited to present the winning essays.

Winner: Daphne Neel (Franklin High School)

TURNING AROUND
Nobody ever realizes what they have until it’s too late. We assume that everything and everyone is going to be “ok” because we don’t want to believe that they’re not. We can stay close to people even if we don’t talk. We can believe in something, even if we can’t see it. We’re capable of all these things, all these thoughts, and yet we don’t like to accept what’s there. Everybody gets scared. Everybody tries to ignore the signs, even when they’re right in front of you.

In watching Camrus’ film, I realized that not everything is going to turn out like you thought, and not all heroes last forever. Expressing your feelings is hard. You want to ignore them, and you want to act like everything is ok, because we don’t like facing the truth. The truth is so strong, so powerful, it keeps a hold on us. It weighs us down because we allow it to. Why? Because of fear? Because we thought that if we could ignore just long enough, that would make it a dream? It’s not a dream anymore; it’s a nightmare. A nightmare that we want to escape, a reality we don’t want to face, but everything catches up to us.

No matter how long we run, we will never escape what we don’t want to see: the truth. We’re not ok. We’re not. But what’s so wrong about admitting it? You aren’t weak; in fact, you’re strong enough to realize that no, things aren’t perfect. Nothing is going to play out the way you wanted it to, and you don’t know how long the things you have are going to last.

Instead of being scared, instead of running away, turn around. Turn around and face what is going to catch up to you, because facing it yourself will only make you fall, while running away will pull you down. Everybody trips over their shoelaces, but you need to decide whether you’re going to tie them before you get back up. Anyone and everyone can decide to be a hero, but your heroes aren’t there to solve your problems, they’re there to support you and to encourage you to get back up. They can help you fight off the battles, but they won’t fight your war. You might need your heroes, but your heroes need you too. So, are you going to run again? Or are you going to let the truth drag you down before you decide enough is enough?

Runner-up: Thalia White (Live Oak School)

ART TO SPREAD A MESSAGE
When I saw the short film Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad by Camrus Johnson, it really impacted me. The film was beautiful in a way that would make anyone watching feel deeply connected to Camrus and his story. As I watched and later heard Camrus talk about the film, it became clear he created this art to help his father and the people in similar situations feel heard and understood. The idea of creating art to help people through their pain is astonishing, and Camrus shows it through this beautiful film. But the reason this message is so meaningful to me is because of how much it connects to me personally.

Now, let’s go back to the summer of 2019.

Near the end of August, I was talking to my mom, and she told me about something that would change my life: The Butterfly Effect. The Butterfly Effect was a change-making group of kids around my age in the Bay Area — their mission: to change the world for the better. Their main goal — to free the children at detention centers on the border. And their project? To create forty-two thousand paper butterflies to represent each of the 42,000 children that were separated from their families at the borders. They chose butterflies because, as we say, “butterflies teach us that migration is beautiful.” They hoped to use these butterflies to create massive displays of stunning artwork that would hang in public buildings to spread awareness for the cause.

When I learned about this organization, I knew that I had to join their impactful cause and be a part of their vision. I had felt a lot of pain and fear when I learned about the detention centers at the border, and I wanted to turn that fear into hope. I immediately reached out to their leaders to ask if I could help collect and display butterflies. They agreed, and by the next week, my friends and I had started helping lead the effort in SF, and began collecting butterflies at our school. We worked with our library to host events and talk at school assemblies. In less than a month, the four girls and I had collected and strung two thousand paper butterflies and shipped them to the team in Oakland. The Butterfly Effect project was becoming a lot more known around the world, and we were so glad we could do our part. Then, in January, The Butterfly Effect got a display of fifteen thousand butterflies in the Rotunda of one of the Senate buildings in DC, And at the center of the display was my two thousand butterflies, distinctively arranged in a vibrant rainbow of color. Along with that, we would be going to DC to personally deliver butterflies to US Senators and to talk to key government officials such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I remember walking through the halls of all those important buildings, feeling like I had a real voice. The most inspiring thing I was ever told was when a Congresswoman Jackie Speier from California told me “To others, we seem like very important people, but really, we work for the whole country. The people of the country are the real bosses.” That influenced me to realize that I could and was making a change in the world.

Even now, we continue to work hard on spreading our message to the world, meeting weekly over zoom even while in quarantine, including making two PSA’s that have been seen and heard by a total of 6 million people. The Butterfly Effect group started as one girl who wanted to make a difference. But kids around the world have come together to make a big change through one artistic vision.

Just like Camrus did in his film, I found making art to help people to be a wonderful and powerful experience that helped bring people together during their most challenging times. I learned a lot about myself and the world, and that one small intention from the heart can make a big difference.

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Guest Post: The Power of Storytelling in a Time of Isolation

FilmHouse Resident Tasha Van Zandt talks the importance of stories and storytelling

COMMUNITY AND CONNECTION THROUGH ART: THE MAKING OF “ONE THOUSAND STORIES”
by Tasha Van Zandt

“We tell our stories in order to live.” — Joan Didion

Storytelling is at the core of humanity. Long before humankind developed the tools to read or write, we shared information in the form of oral storytelling. Humans have been sharing stories since we first learned to communicate, and it is the device that has always connected us. As generations grow older, it is the stories we tell that are passed down that shape our future generations and the way we understand the world. As we look back on our history, it is the stories of our past that shape our present.

From the Chauvet Cave paintings found in France, to the songlines of Indigenous Australians, to the Epic of Gilgamesh, to the Egyptian hieroglyphics, these stories give messages to future generations. Today, we tell stories through countless methods, and they are the web that guide the way we structure our lives. Through the experience of processing stories, we are able to expand our understanding and better connect with the world around us. Story at its most basic level is a device designed to unify people and is the way that we relate. In reality, we are all storytellers, building the web of the understanding of the world around us through the tales we tell. When we ask “how are you?” on a daily basis, we are asking for a story. We are asking each other every day to be storytellers in some small way. It is the tool that connects us all and holds the profound ability to build cultural bridges that lead to greater global understanding.

For me, being a storyteller is at the core of who I am. Documentaries are one of the most profound forms of storytelling as they allow others to see the world from a new perspective. They so often can be a tool for connection, education, and growth. Documentaries often motivate us to evaluate and ask critical questions of ourselves and the world around us, leaving us with answers that can transform our own worldview. As a documentary filmmaker, I’m driven to telling stories that spark change and create impact. I’ve been drawn to the power of stories since as far back as I can remember. Now, in this time when we are all part of the same story due to the pandemic, I have been thinking more deeply about storytelling as a tool for connection and community. As the first generation in my mother’s family to be born in the United States, stories were the tool that connected me with our history and expanded my worldview. The stories my family told bolstered my own personal history and connected me with the path I wanted to pave. It is through storytelling that I realized the power of connection and community.

My short documentary film One Thousand Stories: The Making of a Mural explores this power of storytelling as a tool for connection. The film follows renowned French artist JR in the creation of his first ever video mural project, The Chronicles of San Francisco, which brought together over 1,200 people into one work of art. I happened upon the project very serendipitously while walking through the Outer Sunset in San Francisco. I stumbled upon a 53-foot semi-truck trailer emblazoned with a large pair of wheat-pasted black and white eyes on the side. Upon further inspection, I realized that the truck was serving as a mobile photo and video studio for artist JR, whose work I had admired for years. JR and his team were on their first day of a month-long project called The Chronicles of San Francisco, which documented the residents of the city through video portraits and audio recordings. As I approached the truck, I was invited to become one of the first participants of the mural on the very first day.

Upon entering the truck, I was fascinated by JR’s process, and noticed that there was no one to document the creation of the piece itself. After introducing myself and my work as a documentarian to JR, I asked if I could come back the next day to begin following their journey in the creation of this piece. Given the small space within the truck and the rapid pace of the project, I documented the process as a one-person crew, handling the camerawork, as well as sound. After all was said and done, the project brought together people from all walks of life into a single work of art from locations across the city. Over the course of a month, JR and his team set up his mobile studio in 22 locations around San Francisco, where he interviewed and photographed people across the city’s multifaceted communities. Everyone was photographed in the same light and same way, and no one was turned away. Long-inspired by the work of Mexican painter Diego Rivera, who completed three murals in San Francisco beginning in 1931, JR reimagined how a whole city and its diversity of residents can be represented together through art.

Throughout the project, I gathered as much coverage as possible to create an immersive edit with my editor Dana Laman, who is a close collaborator of mine. Together we worked for months after the project was complete, going through the footage to build the film in a way that felt immersive and true to the experience of the creation of the piece. The mural itself is a project that celebrates the power of connection through storytelling. In the completed work, a digital mural scrolls across a seamless bank of screens, bringing together the faces and untold stories of the people we encounter every day. As you go through the mural, you can click on the face of each participant and hear their story through an app that the team created.

Throughout the creation of the project, I was moved by JR’s energetic embrace of the artistic process. He was constantly in such a present state of awareness with each participant, and was able to forge a genuine connection with so many people on such a large scale which was transformative to be able to see. One of the aspects that I find most beautiful about this mural is that everyone was able to choose how they wanted to be represented in the mural. In this way, it truly became a collaborative and participatory work of art between the artist and participants. It has been very special to reflect on this project during this time of isolation, and it’s a reflection of community within a city that is often divided. To see so many individuals united in one project is a powerful experience, and especially now that the world has changed so dramatically due to the COVID crisis, it truly feels as if this mural has become a time capsule into the past. The notion that JR was able to amass these disparate voices and characters into a single mural is a remarkable feat that has transformed my personal perspective on the power of art.

Much like JR stitched together the portraits and images to make the mural, my editor and I worked to stitch together the footage to create the edit that is One Thousand Stories. After the film was complete, it screened with JR’s mural at SFMOMA, and later was selected to screen in the Golden Gate Awards competition at the 2020 San Francisco International Film Festival as well as DOC NYC, Big Sky International Film Festival, the Museum of Moving Image, and the International Center For Photography. The film was the first of many collaborations with JR, and I have since had the opportunity to work with JR on the TIME magazine Guns in America project, The Chronicles of New York City project, and The Chronicles of Cuba project. Currently, we are in development together on a feature-length documentary about his work at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi.

It’s been very special to reflect back on this project currently at this time of isolation. At the time of making the documentary and observing the creation of the mural, it certainly felt like a unique experience, but we could have never expected how truly remarkable it would become today. Currently, I am a 2020 SFFILM FilmHouse Resident, which has been a transformative anchor this year. With the pandemic, we’ve all had to adapt to immense change, but the robust and thriving film community in the Bay Area has been wonderfully supportive. The FilmHouse community has felt like a space where we can adapt and move forward into this new world together, and it’s been a privilege to learn from so many other filmmakers in this time.

Stories, much like life itself, have three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Right now, it feels like we are all at the beginning of a new story, one which none of us can fully predict the ending yet. As Margaret Atwood once said, “when you are in the middle of a story it isn’t a story at all, but only a confusion. It’s only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story.” Although this is a time of great uncertainty, it can also be a time of discovery as well in the way in which we choose to build our new ending.

Storytelling, and specifically the craft of filmmaking, is such an important tool to transport us into perspectives outside of our own and build bridges that can lead to greater empathy. I fully believe in the power of film as a tool for change. The stories we tell matter. They shape our futures, and record our pasts. When I recall the mural that JR and his team created, I imagine the way in which future generations may regard it in a similar manner as the cave paintings or frescos of the past, as a document of a moment in time that helps us reshape our future.

Tasha Van Zandt is a documentary film director, cinematographer, and Emmy-nominated producer who has traveled on assignment around the globe across all seven continents. Her most recent film, After Antarctica, is a feature-length documentary that follows the life of one of National Geographic’s most celebrated polar explorers. The project is supported by the Sundance Institute, Film Independent, and SFFILM, and will be released in early 2021. Van Zandt’s previous film, One Thousand Stories, offers an intimate look into the creation of the artist JR’s first interactive mural which was exhibited at the SFMOMA. The film was selected for the 2019 DOC NYC Festival, the 2020 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, was selected to screen in the Golden Gate Awards competition at the 2020 San Francisco International Film Festival. One Thousand Stories can currently be streamed via several virtual cinemas nationwide. Her award-winning documentary series Five Minutes from Home with Stephen Curry garnered millions of views around the world, and featured guests such as E-40, Daveed Diggs, and many more. Her work has been commissioned by TIME magazine, the Guardian, PBS, NPR, Google, and Adobe, among many others. Throughout the year, Van Zandt leads photography and filmmaking expeditions around the world for National Geographic in places such as Tanzania, Iceland, Australia, and Japan. She is a 2019 Film Independent Documentary Lab Fellow, a 2019 Sundance Institute Fellow, a 2020 SFFILM Sloan Stories of Science Fellow, and a 2020 SFFILM FilmHouse Resident.

For more information about SFFILM’s artist development programs, learn more here.

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SFFILM’s Youth Filmmakers Camp 2020

Students and Instructors Reflect on Remote Learning and the Importance of Film Education

Reflections on Teaching the Art & Craft of Film During a Pandemic
by Maddy Leonard with support from Davia Schendel, Rachel Gamson, and Jeanette Paak

When I found out that SFFILM was not going to have Youth Filmmakers Camp in person in July of 2020, I knew I still wanted to find a way to serve the young artists in our community in a fun and innovative way. Since teens were going to be forced to spend their summer in isolation, I proposed that we redesign camp to build an online resource and community support system for young filmmakers to gather, learn, grow, and develop stories they care about.

These are the goals I had going into camp:

Create meaningful relationships that students can draw from in the future — account for one-on-one time with teachers, so that students feel supported and have the opportunity to build a mentor/mentee relationship with their teachers.
Develop students’ independent filmmaking skills, so that they can emerge from camp as more self-sufficient filmmakers.
Train skills for online media creation that will help students be creative and innovative filmmakers and use the resources they have at their disposal to create art and film.
Finish camp having created several small but polished projects that students can add to their portfolios.
Provide the opportunity for students to learn from a diverse group of filmmakers.
Create safe spaces where students can ask questions and discover what working in the film industry feels like.
Introduce students to online and free resources that can be used to experiment with film outside of camp.

With these goals in mind, I began outlining a two-and-a-half-week-long schedule for campers that consisted of Zoom lectures, pre-recorded lessons, Zoom “check-ins, workshops, film screenings, guest presentations, and student activities. I understood that students had been forced to have classes on Zoom since the beginning of the pandemic, and they were probably suffering from Zoom fatigue, so my co-teacher Davia Schendel and I designed a daily curriculum that was diverse in terms of platform. Campers would spend a few hours a day doing solo work, and a few hours a day on Zoom in either large or small groups.

Campers were divided into two groups: beginner and advanced campers. The beginner campers started a few days earlier than the advanced ones, so that they could get oriented in the world of filmmaking by learning some basic terminology and film history. Once the advanced campers started their session, the students spent most of their time collaborating as one large group. Campers were engaged daily in Zoom lectures and supplementary activities on topics around film production, theory, and history, media literacy, and the social and cultural impacts of film. Outside of that work students were doing with their instructors, they also had the opportunity to speak with some pretty incredible guest speakers.

We had the pleasure of having Jonas Rivera, a producer from Pixar who produced Up, Inside Out, and Toy Story 4, as our first guest lecturer. Jonas shared his journey working for Pixar and the behind the scenes making of these beloved films. Jonas’s extensive art knowledge proved to be valuable during the story development process at Pixar, and campers learned much from him about how different aspect of the creative process intersect. He reassured the campers that they could always be part of the filmmaking creative process no matter the level of their technical skills by advising that “understanding art is equal to being an artist.”

Daniel Freeman was our second guest lecturer at camp. Daniel is a SFFILM FilmHouse resident who is currently working on a feature-length narrative film called Teddy Out of Tune. The campers loved chatting with Daniel about his process. He stressed how important it is for filmmaking to be accessible to everyone, and gave the campers excellent advice about how to get started on films with a minimal budget.

We were extremely lucky to have another FilmHouse resident come speak at camp. Reaa Puri, a cinematographer, director, editor, and founder of Breaktide Productions, brought her two other co-founders to camp to speak about their filmmaking careers. Breaktide is a production company that is owned and operated by women of color, and they work to democratize filmmaking while elevating underrepresented voices behind the scenes and in front of the camera. Gabby, an advanced camper, told me her favorite activity at camp was the guest speakers, because “they really offered insight into what it’s like to make films as a career.” She added, “my favorite lecture was from Breaktide Productions, because as a girl it was so inspiring to hear from an all-female team. I learned that film is a process, and about all the steps that are generally taken before and during the movie-making process.”

Anaiis Cisco, a filmmaker from Brooklyn and an Assistant Professor of Moving Image Production at Smith College, spoke with the campers about halfway through camp. At the beginning of her scheduled hour, she took the time to learn every student’s name and hear about their filmmaking interests. This activity not only helped Anaiis get to know the campers, but it also helped the campers get to know each other a little better outside of the normal camp day proceedings. Many of them described how they developed new interests during camp and were excited to dive deeper into these aspects of filmmaking.

The day after Anaiis’s lecture, Andy Jimenez of Pixar Animation Studios spoke with the campers about his collaborations on several films, such as One Man Band and The Incredibles. Incorporating his pre-production documents and animatics for both live action and animation, Andy shared an incredible wealth of materials that the campers were truly fascinated by. Sharing with campers that the road of an creative artist can be winding, Andy reassured them that everything one does in life will become part of their art practice in surprising and very useful ways.

Alice Wu, director of Netflix’s The Half of It, joined us for a very special guest lecture towards the end of camp. She shared some background information about how The Half of It came to be, but focused a lot of her time connecting on a personal level with the campers. She was very honest and vulnerable about the lessons she’s learned throughout her career. She reflected on her experience with us by saying “I really loved getting a chance to chat with the young filmmakers at SFFILM. The way they think about storytelling, about their lives, is so fresh and sophisticated — so much more sophisticated than I was at their age — and I say with pleasure that these kids are almost certainly coming for our jobs! And it’ll be a good thing.”

The last filmmakers to join us as guest lecturers were Anne Flatté and Marlon Johnson. This director/producer duo spoke to the campers about their newest film River City Drumbeat, a documentary about music, love, and legacies set in the American South. They also facilitated a lengthy discussion with campers about the ethics of documentary filmmaking and sparked the curiosity of these young filmmakers.

Our last presenter was SFFILM’s very own Rosa Morales, who works as part of the SFFILM Makers team. Rosa had a wonderful conversation with campers about how to market yourself as an artist and filmmaker, and helped them understand how they can stay involved with SFFILM in the future if they are ever in need of support or funding.

Among my favorite parts of camp were the moments when the campers, other instructors, and I had radically honest conversations about how film and media play into this moment in US history. I was so impressed by the introspective comments students shared about representation in the media they consume, and how they want to make the film industry a more just industry to work in. Here are just a few examples of the insights campers shared while Davia was lecturing about diversity, representation, and allegory:

“There’s a big shift happening in representation in media — we’re not all the way there yet, but let’s not disregard our accomplishments.” — Rose

“She-ra in the new She-Ra and the Princesses of Power was the first lesbian kiss I had ever seen, and the first gay main character. As someone who was obsessed with 80s She-ra as a kid… I was again inspired by her in the new one as a lesbian main character. It really helped me come out to my family.” — Shayla

“The show Sex Education on Netflix… represented women so well and in an accurate way. They represent them with goals other than chasing boys or dating which I thought was important. I really appreciated women being seen as powerful without having to actually be tough.” — Gabby

Here are some other very insightful reflections students had when we were discussing why it’s important to learn the history of race in film:

“I thought that the evolution of black representation in film was interesting… I found that it was important to have diversity in the film industry because it inspires younger girls and people of color and gives role models to them.” — Ella

“I think that diversity in film is extremely important. As children we are very impressionable, and seeing ourselves on screen makes us realize that we can do anything. When movies are more diverse, they are relatable to a broader group of people. It is also important to portray different groups of people in diverse roles so that they aren’t just playing the same types of roles every time. I think that studying film is important, because it is a big part of our society today.” — Grace

“We need to study film to learn about our past just as we study history in schools. It is extremely important to make sure you understand the mistakes of the past so as a nation and society we do not repeat them. But like any part of history we must be careful and think about who is the one creating the film and what biases they might have. In the early years of film, there was not much diversity in the cast and crew, now as we are entering a new era of digital film we are realizing the importance of having diversity in organizations such as Hollywood to inspire different types of people across many generations.” — Lathrop

Over the course of camp, I was really impressed by the vulnerability these teens were willing to share with each other. They really connected as a group, and made plans to stay in touch after camp to support each other’s art. These campers didn’t just learn how to make films but they learned how to support other filmmakers. It was really special to be able to see the constant encouragement they had for each other’s projects, and the friendships that they formed.

Maddy Leonard (she/her) is a filmmaker, artist, and the former Education Program Coordinator at SFFILM. She is a creative educator who has spent half a decade teaching youth about film and media literacy, and mentoring youth as they produce their own films. She has a degree in Cinema and Women and Gender Studies from San Francisco State University, and has a passion for learning from and creating socially aware documentaries and experimental films.

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The Will of Giants

In conversation preeminent film historian David Thomson, the grandson of the primary inspiration for Citizen Kane’s titular Charles Foster Kane, William R. Hearst III.

On a ferocious, rain-swept Thursday evening in downtown San Francisco, the winds battered against the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as enthusiastic film lovers sat down to drink in a bit of living history, in the form of a long-awaited conversation that would take place between preeminent film historian David Thomson, and a man who is the grandson of the primary inspiration for Citizen Kane’s titular Charles Foster Kane, William R. Hearst III. As SFFILM’s Executive Director, Noah Cowan, expressed before the two took the stage… “It took me two years to get up the nerve to ask Will if he’d be willing to do this.”

The intensity of the bleed-through between the real-life William Randolph Hearst, and the on-screen depiction of newspaper tycoon-cum-failed Presidential candidate, Charles Foster Kane, continues to fascinate film fans and historians alike nearly eighty years since the film first arrived amid a hailstorm of controversy. Hearst sought to bury the movie, and many took his side against the awesomely talented, headstrong Orson Welles, whose equal roles as reckless provocateur and dazzling cinematic storyteller engendered uphill professional struggles that would ultimately leave him a seemingly distraught, morbidly obese old man whose fate didn’t seem so far removed from that of his portrayal of Kane nearly two generations prior.

Those hoping the Hearst clan are still harboring any kind of grudge against the film would have been disappointed to hear Will say how much he was a fan of the film upon first seeing it in college, and how he continues to find the film’s characters a fascinating marriage of composites of key figures from his grandfather’s heyday. The only thing he personally finds inaccurate is the portrayal of Xanadu, the film’s version of the Hearst family’s San Simeon estate. “Xanadu was really dark and depressing, and the San Simeon I think of is white walls and so much sunlight!”

Of course, the sheer technical innovation of the film’s narrative structure, married with Greg Tolland’s stunning black and white photography, in-camera visual effects, and Welles’s magnetic, multi-generational performance, come together to create an emotionally enthralling experience with Kane’s sheer abundance of craft so evident nearly four generations later. The theme of powerful men using the media to gain prominence to satisfy an unending need for more continue to resonate in America (perhaps uncomfortably so in 2017) and the film still serves as an uncannily relevant mirror into the dark underbelly of a nation built upon the feverish appetites of men like Charles Foster Kane.

Cheers,
James J. Jefferies