Get Involved Locally

Applications for this program are currently closed; check back in July 2020 for the next round of residencies.

Bay Area Artist Residencies

SFFILM’s FilmHouse residency program provides Bay Area-based documentary and narrative filmmakers with artistic guidance, office space, a vibrant creative community, and mentorship from established film industry professionals.

FilmHouse—which supports narrative and documentary feature films by making office space available for residencies to independent filmmakers actively engaged in various stages of film production—is located at a beautifully renovated location at 644 Broadway on the border of San Francisco’s Chinatown and Italian North Beach districts. Made possible by the generous support of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and San Francisco Film Commission, FilmHouse provides critical support to local and visiting filmmakers by fostering a thriving creative community that encourages collaboration, resource sharing, peer-to-peer feedback and networking opportunities. A major component of SFFILM’s Artist Development program, FilmHouse functions as a vibrant workshop and creative hub for filmmakers of all kinds.

FilmHouse currently holds 40 filmmakers engaged in 12-month residencies, all working in early project stages of screenwriting and pre-production. In addition to 12-month residencies, throughout the year there are roughly 10–20 visiting filmmakers from other Artist Development programs that utilize the FilmHouse work space.

All residents have access to consultation from the SFFILM Makers Mentor Advisory Board, as well as to a robust guest speaker series featuring lectures and presentations by leading industry professionals, resident-led workshops and work-in-progress screenings, invitations to SFFILM networking events, and numerous other community-building programs.

SFFILM Makers Mentor Advisory Board

Nels Bangerter, Editor
Chi Do, Impact Strategist
Blye Faust, Producer
Jennie Frisbie, Manager/Producer
Steve Holmgren, Business and Legal Affairs
Jim LeBrecht, Sound Designer/Director
Carrie Lozano, Funding and Editorial Strategy
Kim Parker, Producer
Nicole Perlman, Writer
Dawn Porter, Director
Ellen Schneider, Coach and Strategist

The SFFILM Makers team hosts dozens of events throughout the year designed specifically for the Bay Area’s independent filmmaking community. These include filmmaker panels, work-in-progress screenings, live script readings, pitch workshops, networking mixers, and more. Guest speakers from across the country are frequently invited to share their expertise—recent events have covered topics such as fundraising, navigating the distribution landscape, making the switch from documentaries to fiction films, engaging film journalists, and the pros and cons of crowdsourcing, among many others. Filmmaker programming takes place at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s vibrant creative hub and residency space for local filmmakers.

Want to get involved and attend filmmaker events? Get added to the invite list by signing up for any level of SFFILM membership and selecting the Filmmaker Add-On. All members with the Filmmaker Add-On have access to filmmaker events at FilmHouse.

New events are being added to the schedule all the time—watch this space for the latest news on what’s coming up!

2021 FILMHOUSE RESIDENTS – 12-MONTH TERMS
Meet the filmmakers currently calling FilmHouse home and learn more about what they’re working on.

Natalie Baszile* – Good People – narrative feature, screenwriting
Christopher Cole – Rolling Stone – narrative feature, development
Ruth Gebreyesus – Hard to Swallow – episodic documentary, production
Marjolaine Grappe* – The Only Game in Town – documentary feature, development
Lucas Guilkey – Untitled Prison Hunger Strike Film – documentary feature, pre-production
Charlotte Gutierrez – John Juan – narrative feature, screenwriting
Yvan Iturriaga* – American Babylon – narrative feature, development
Jonathan Kiefer* – So Fast They Follow – narrative feature, screenwriting
Patricia Lee – Hannah’s Biography – narrative short, development
Luke Lorentzen* – Untitled Iceberg Documentary – documentary feature, development
Morgan Mathews – Black Butterflies – hybrud feature, development
JoeBill Muñoz – Untitled Prison Hunger Strike Film – documentary feature, pre-production
Reaa Puri* – K For Kashmir – documentary feature, development
Theo Schear – Hard to Swallow – episodic documentary, production
Tsanavi Spoonhunter – Holder of the Sky – documentary feature, pre-production
Ellie Wen* – On the Line – documentary short, pre-production
Sephora Woldu* – Aliens in Eritrea – narrative feature, screenwriting/development

*Returning Resident