US
"Throwing Curves" uses striking archival images, observational footage of the 97-year old industrial designer, Eva Zeisel, who is still an artist at work. this along with engaging interviews to capture her personality which is as daring and persuasive as her designs.
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Depicts what happens when students K-8 discuss LGBT-related topics in age-appropriate ways. Shot in six public and private schools (in San Francisco and New York City, as well as Madison, Wisconsin, and Cambridge, Massachusetts), It’s Elementary models excellent teaching about family diversity, name-calling, stereotypes, community building, and more.
May 1996
CHOOSING CHILDREN is a pioneering film about parenting in non-traditional families and helped to open dialogue about the meaning and reality of the "modern family." This film takes an intimate look at the issues faced by lesbians and gay men who decide to become parents after coming out.
Nov 1984
Moscow, January 1948. In the bitter cold, a large crowd attends the State Funeral of the Yiddish actor and director Solomon Mikhoels. An official proclamation mourns the death of "a great People's Artist of the Soviet Union." What people are really mourning is the death of the most popular Jewish theater in the Soviet Union, and the man who kept it alive against all odds for over 20 years. No doubt many suspected the truth: he had just been assassinated by Stalin's secret police.
Nov 2008
The Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good is dedicated to inspiring and preparing students at University of San Francisco to pursue lives and careers as ethical leaders. In this short film from Citizen Film, former colleagues, friends, and students honor the Center’s namesake, beloved public servant and former California lieutenant governor Leo T. McCarthy. McCarthy instilled values of equity and justice in all the lives he touched, and by founding the McCarthy Center, his legacy lives on.
Charlotte Biltekoff is the author of “Eating Right in America” where she traces the food reform movements throughout American history. She questions socially accepted ideas about “good and bad eaters” and what those assumptions reveal about food, culture, and the struggle over moral values.
"People of the Graphic Novel" is a playful introduction to the history of an art form: from the first "funny pages" to seminal artists including Will Eisner and Art Spiegelman.
Jul 2012
On the way to creating a new future, the New Jewish Filmmaking Project is rediscovering the past. 11 young storytellers, ages 15-25, collaborated with Citizen Film’s team of documentary professionals to create a multimedia exhibit that offers a set of signposts for what Jewish identity has been and is becoming.
At Ella Hill Hutch Community Center in the Fillmore, magic is happening. Throughout the 2024 school year, Magic Zone students in Citizen Film's filmmaking and media production class collaborated in painting murals that represent their community, cultivating a beautiful garden, learning how to cook nutritious meals and documenting community stories through still photography, video and graphic design.
This documentary was produced by Citizen Film and Young Community Developers, in collaboration with a coalition of organizations, enterprises, city agencies, and community partners. To create the documentary, Citizen Film’s Tamara Walker facilitated and captured constructive dialogue between African American officers and the communities they police, helping officers understand how they are perceived by the community, and how the community is perceived by them.
Citizen Film partnered with co-producer WTTW Chicago Public Media, the National Writing Project (NWP), Facing History and Ourselves, PBS LearningMedia and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s American Graduate program to provide content for high school civics, history and language arts classes around the country. This content includes a suite of video assets designed to frame classroom discussions and writing about civic themes. We also partnered with PBS to create a short film illustrating the impact of this education campaign on students.
This playful short film was produced in collaboration with the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco as part of a multimedia installation entitled "We are not permanent but we are not temporary." The installation was designed to explore the impermanence of life, searching, wandering, and the welcoming of strangers.
This short film reveals the inspiration, motivation and political challenges at San Francisco City Hall during the frantic days leading up to the first government-sanctioned same-sex marriage.
Jun 2004
This intimately photographed film offers a peak into the lives of a culturally diverse group of young American Jews.
Chris Renfro doesn’t just grow and harvest grapes on a hillside high above San Francisco’s Highway 280 to make delicious local wine. He is dedicated to building a sustainable food community that nourishes every member of the local economy and ecosystem. With the 280 Project’s mission to reclaim space, realize opportunity and revitalize community, Renfro brings both passion and vision to the notion that land ownership is a powerful path to self-determination.
Ian James has been creating leather goods for nearly a decade, but only recently realized his dream of opening his own shop. When James got laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, he took the plunge and opened his namesake boutique in San Francisco. James calls the shop—which includes both custom pieces and items that can be bought off the shelf—a “safe space for black people,” where culturally relatable creativity blooms in a gentrifying neighborhood.
A Foot in the Door tells the story of Kindergarten to College (K2C), the first universal children’s savings account program in the United States. Launched by the City and County of San Francisco, the program automatically provides a college savings account to children when they start kindergarten.
The East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation has earned the John R. May Award for transforming neighborhoods and creating new economic opportunities for low-income communities. EBALDC's innovative projects weave together housing, economic development, and historic preservation, reaching deep into diverse communities. The John R. May Award honors organizational initiatives in response to a significant contemporary problem.
In 2002, Sophie Constantinou and Bill Weir interviewed Padgett about his life and works, specifically his friendship and collaborations with the New York School of Poets. These moments were captured as part a series of short films catalyzed by Kenward Elmslie. His vision was to illustrate the artistic spirit of and collaborations among American writers, poets and artists from the late 50s to today.
Apr 2016