Programs surveying fifty plus years of filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute that will be held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on January 25, 2026. Curated by Steve Anker and Mark Wilson, the programs include 22 films by SFAI alumni and staff made between 1971 and 2024.
SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE FILMMAKING – A FIFTY YEAR SURVEY
22 Short Experimental Films Surveying Fifty Years of Filmmaking at SFAI
Curated by Steve Anker and Mark Wilson
Sunday January 25th 2026 – 1pm and 3pm
An event related to SFMOMA’s exhibition People Make This Place: SFAI Stories
Program One – Personal Voices: 1:00pm
https://www.sfmoma.org/event/personal-voices/
The SFAI Film Department was founded in the late 1960s by Robert Nelson and Lawrence Jordan and for over fifty years attracted young artists who were who were excited by cinema’s potential for personal poetic expression. The exceptional faculty — George Kuchar, James Broughton, Gunvor Nelson, Ernie Gehr, Al Wong, Janis Crystal Lipzin, Steve Anker and the department’s founders — encouraged students to find their voices and stretch artistic boundaries that reflected San Francisco’s freedom of lifestyle and radical experimentation. These two programs of films include films by alumni and others close to the department that can only begin to suggest the richness of this heritage.
Luminae by Dominic Angerame (2023, 4 min., digital, b&w, sound)
Confessions by Curt McDowell (1971, 11 min., 16mm, color, sound)
Florence by Peter Hutton (1975, 7 min., 16mm, b&w, silent)
Catch by Vincent Grenier (1975, 4 min., 16mm, color, silent)
If X, Then Y by Jacalyn White (1986, 8 min., Super-8mm, color, sound)
Visible Inventory Nine: Pattern of Events by Janis Crystal Lipzin (1981, 12 min., 16mm, b&w, sound)
Noema by Scott Stark (1998, 11 min., 16mm, color, sound)
The Penfield Road by Diane Kitchen (1998, 5 ½ min., 16mm, color, sound)
Ephemerality by Marian Wallace (1979, 3 min., 16mm, color, sound)
Alas, Departing by Dicky Bahto (2022, 7 ½ min., digital, color, sound)
79 minutes total time
Program Two: Orbiting Bodies – 3:00pm
https://www.sfmoma.org/event/orbiting-bodies
This program examines affinities shared in the work of SFAI alumni artists spanning
the decades. Sometimes the bodies are those of the SFAI community flowing together, sometimes the stationary orbit of one’s partner in front of the camera, or a child’s repetitive revolutions around a parent as they both age. Other times these bodies are planetary, keeping ancient celestial time. Threaded through the projector in inventive ways, film can even split off from its usual path and orbit itself. Working with the instruments of this time based medium, these films question our perception of time, occasionally in collaboration with composers of another time based medium — music. The work and community of SFAI artists orbit one another across those decades.
Retrospectroscope by Kerry Laitala (1997, 5 min., 16mm, b&w, silent)
Redshift by Emily Richardson (2001, 4 min., 16mm, color, sound)
The Shadow Line by Toney W. Merritt (1985, 13.5 min., 16mm on digital, b&w, sound)
The Dark Room by Minyong Jang (2007, 4 min., 16mm, color, silent)
Moebius Strip by Lúis Recoder (1997, 13 min., 16mm, b&w, silent)
Shape Shift by Scott Stark (2004, 3 min., digital, color, sound)
Poet in Orbit by Joel Singer (1980, 2 min., 16mm on digital, b&w, sound)
Same Stream Twice by Lynne Sachs (2012, 4 min., 16mm on digital, b&w/color, sound)
Riverbody by Alice Anne Parker (1970, 7 min., 16mm, b&w, sound)
George by Henry Hills (1976, 2 min., 16mm, color, silent)
Celestial by Gregg Biermann (2018, 9 min., digital, color, live score by John Davis)
66 minutes total time