Exhibition | Fiscal Sponsorship | Resources


PAST EXHIBITIONS

Highlighted film titles link to SFIFF pages that contain film synopses, credits, print sources, running times and countries of origin.

Age of Stupid
An archivist (Pete Postlethwaite) on the dying planet Earth circa 2055 looks back at our species’ current reluctance to address climate change in this cautionary, pre-apocalyptic tale that blends verité storytelling, cutting-edge graphics and gallows humor. 
SFFS Exhibition: 2009 SFIFF
Attendance: 540
Website: http://www.ageofstupid.net/


Al Franken: God Spoke
Love him or loathe him, the sharp-tongued liberal pundit Al Franken is on a mission.
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 SFIFF
Attendance: 764
Youth Ed Attendance: 52
Website: www.godspokefilm.com/
 
American Blackout
Ian Inaba’s American Blackout is a stylish, intelligent and provocative documentary that looks at the historic and systematic disenfranchisement of the Black vote through the lens of the political career of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia).
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 SFIFF
Attendance: 449
Youth Ed Attendance: 57
Website: www.americanblackout.com/
 
Ask Not
November 2008 will mark the 15th anniversary of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy with very little to celebrate.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 495
Youth Ed Attendance: 16
Website: www.asknotfilm.com/
Co-presenter: San Francisco LGBT Community Center
 
Bamako
Set in the Malian capital of its title, Abderrahmane Sissako's Bamako centers on a show trial in which the plaintiff, “African society,” argues against exploitation by the defendant, the World Bank.
SFFS Exhibition: 2007 SFIFF
Attendance: 727
Co-presenter: MOAD: The Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco Black Film Festival
 
Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed
It is astounding as a contemporary viewer to witness the audacious feat that an African American woman dared to do 32 years ago.
SFFS Exhibition: 2004 SFIFF
Attendance: 390
Website: www.chisholm72.net/home.html
 
The Dignity of the Nobodies
This is activist cinema at its best: passionate, informative and uncompromising.
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 SFIFF
Attendance: 693
Website: www.pinosolanas.com/la_dignidad_info.htm
 
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Michael Moore, move over: There’s a new guy exposing America’s big-business buffoons, and his name is Alex Gibney.
SFFS Exhibition: 2005 SFIFF
Attendance: 730
Website: www.enronmovie.com/
 
The Fall of Fujimori
Ellen Perry documents how political oppression, murder and corruption in Peru were effectively promoted in the name of democracy and counterterrorism.
SFFS Exhibition: 2005 SFIFF
Attendance: 477
Website: www.falloffujimori.com/
 
Flow: For Love of Water
Water is the very essence of life, sustaining every being on the planet. 'Flow' confronts the disturbing reality that our crucial resource is dwindling and greed just may be the cause.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 746
Youth Ed Attendance: 22
Website: www.flowthefilm.com/
 
Ghosts of Cité Soleil
In 2004, 200 years after Haiti became the first independent black republic and 13 years after Jean-Bertrand Aristide became the country’s first democratically elected president, Haiti once again found itself in turmoil.
SFFS Exhibition: 2007 SFIFF
Attendance: 706
Website: www.ghostsofcitesoleil.com/

Good Cats
With a sharp eye and unwavering comic mastery, Ying Liang charts the social attitudes and tragic victims of the New China in the story of a man pressured by his wife and shady boss down a path of greed and corruption.
SFFS Exhibition: 2009 SFIFF
Attendance: 458

In the Loop
BBC sitcom vet Armando Iannucci’s hilarious satirical farce takes aim at the “secret” buildup to the current war in Iraq, with government political hacks and fixers in London and Washington scurrying to control leaks and loonies.
SFFS Exhibition: 2009 SFIFF
Attendance: 556
Website: http://www.ifcfilms.com/viewFilm.htm?filmId=1576

The Judge and the General
A Chilean judge chosen to investigate criminal charges against former dictator General Augusto Pinochet undergoes a transformation…
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 910
Website: www.pbs.org/pov/pov2008/judgeandthegeneral/index.html
Co-presenter: World Affairs Council of Northern California
 
Kimjongilia
Through a series of extraordinary interviews with North Korean refugees, N.C. Heikin’s stylistically inventive documentary presents a devastating indictment of Kim Jong-Il, one of the world’s most elusive dictators. 
SFFS Exhibition: 2009 SFIFF
Attendance: 522
Website: http://www.kimjongiliathemovie.com/

Latent Argentina
When most people think of Argentina, they think of the inflation, poverty and helplessness that plagued the country in the wake of the financial crises of recent years.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 600
Co-presenter: Global Exchange

Oblivion
Heddy Honigmann returns to her native Peru for her latest deeply humanist exploration of everyday resilience and resignation. In Lima, “the forgotten city,” in the shadow of the presidential palace, bartenders and buskers create their own reality to survive an economy in ruins.
SFFS Exhibition: 2009 SFIFF
Attendance: 620
Website: http://www.heddy-honigmann.nl

The Orange Revolution
“It’s exhilarating to watch what happens when ordinary people... recognize their own power and decide to take action,” says Steve York, director of this politically charged documentary.
SFFS Exhibition: 2007 SFIFF
Attendance: 387
Youth Ed Attendance: 71
Website: www.orangerevolutionmovie.com/
 
The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear
Adam Curtis has created a controversial, myth-shattering three-part BBC series to top his magnificent Century of the Self (SFIFF 2003).
SFFS Exhibition: 2005 SFIFF
Attendance: 927
 

Recycle
In this vivid documentary, filmmaker Mahmoud al Massad digs into the politics, piety and poverty of his native city in Jordan through the life of husband, father and former mujahadeen-turned-cardboard collector Abu Ammar.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 449
Co-presenter: Arab Film Festival

 
Secrecy
In today’s wired world most of us enjoy the luxury of free flowing information 24 hours a day. So why does the United States government spend more time and money than ever before making sure we don’t have access to certain information?
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance: 629
Youth Ed Attendance: 93
SFFS Focus Attendance: 383
Website: www.secrecyfilm.com/
 
A Social Genocide
The government must resign! Kick them out! In December 2001, Argentina was in a state of siege—thousands of people filled the streets banging on pots and pans, protesting decades of corrupt leadership that resulted in devastating economic ruin.
SFFS Exhibition: 2005 SFIFF
Attendance: 506
 
Standard Operating Procedure
Oscar-winning documentary The Fog of War, Errol Morris focused on the tragedies of conflicts past; in his new film, he turns his attention to the most recent, Iraq, using one moment—the Abu Ghraib prison scandal—to reflect on an entire military and...
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 SFIFF
Attendance:  576
Youth Ed Attendance:
Website: www.sonyclassics.com/standardoperatingprocedure/
 
The Sugar Curtain
Born in Chile in 1971, Camila Guzmán Urzúa was the daughter of a guerrilla filmmaker, Patricio Guzmán, who would soon become one of the most notorious figures in Latin American cinema.
SFFS Exhibition: 2007 SFIFF
Attendance: 609
Youth Ed Attendance: 87
 
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai
The dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy—a movement for which this charismatic woman became an iconic inspiration.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 Youth Ed
Attendance: 193
Website: takingrootfilm.com/
 
They Chose China
Filmmaker Wang unearths rare and fascinating footage that reveals the story of individuals who, out of loathing for McCarthy’s America, chose a people they viewed as peace loving and who repaid their admiration until the tide turned with the Cultural Revolution.
SFFS Exhibition: 2006 SFIFF
Attendance: 464
 
The Third Monday in October
Fall 2004. Election season is in full swing and the presidential candidates are out in force, campaigning with gusto and making their platforms known: Curly fries for the cafeteria! New themes for dances! No more chairs attached to desks! Bush and Kerry may be busy debating Iraq and the economy, but for 11 presidential hopefuls from three states, junk food and bathroom stalls are the issues of import in the elections for middle school student government.
SFFS Exhibition: 2007 SFIFF
Attendance: 359
Youth Ed Attendance: 952
Website: www.thirdmondayinoctober.com/
Co-presenter: League of Young Voters

 
Unprecedented
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election is the riveting story about the battle for the Presidency in Florida and the undermining of democracy in America.
SFFS Exhibition: 2008 Youth Ed
Attendance: 188
Website: www.unprecedented.org/

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
Spike Lee’s epic documentary on the impact and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is a transcendent prayer for salvation.
SFFS Exhibition: 2007 SFIFF
Attendance: 1353
Youth Ed Attendance: 234
Website: www.hbo.com/docs/programs/whentheleveesbroke/


FISCAL SPONSORSHIP

HIghlighted film titles link to sffs.org "Current Projects" pages, alphabetically listing SFFS fiscally sponsored films, containing synopses and website links where available. Below each title is the filmmaker's name.

Counting To Five
Robert H. Martin

Houseboat Wars
Marianne Dolan

Miss Representative
Jennifer Siebel Newsom

Never Forget- A Memoir from the Cultural Revolution
Ji Li Jiang

An Ordinary Couple
James M Gianukos

Progressive Pupil
Robin J. Hayes

Star-Crossed
Florencia Manovil

The Trust
Tamara  Perkins





RESOURCES

The following list of resources offers interested audience members more information and ways to become involved in Politics & Government Reform.

Active Voice

Apollo Alliance

Business for Social Responsibility

Campaign Against Child Labor

Climate Group

Inter-Parliamental Union

Rutgers Center for American Woman and Politics

White House Project and Women's Media Center