Mrs. Vera’s Daybook
Writer/Producer/Director: Robert James
Producer/Editor: Nick Blond
Cinematography: Rudy Behrens
A new feature length doMrs. Vera’s Daybook tells a story of historic activism and community art through the works of two San Francisco artists, who also happen to be long-term AIDS survivors. During one of the darkest periods in US History, two men decide to bring joy and color to a broken community for which an entire movement has emerged. Supporters, fellow activists and members of the Queer Art Community join the film to help paint this vivid portrait of perseverance, compassion and outrageous dime-store fashion. Having received the coveted Community Grand Marshall appointment for the SF PRIDE Parade in 2019, our film subjects celebrate 25 years of making sensational art together.
Website: Mrs. Vera’s Daybook
Lost and Found
Generations Filmmakers: Tez Anderson, Perry Bradstreet, David Cooney, Michael Johnstone and Angel VanStark
The arrival of a mysterious package leads a disenchanted queer youth to an encounter with the colorful Mrs. Vera in Lost and Found.
Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria
SCREAMING QUEENS, the 2005 Emmy Award-winning film by Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker, introduces viewers to street queens, cops, and activist civil rights ministers who recall the riot, and paint a vivid portrait of the wild transgender scene in 1960s San Francisco.
SCREAMING QUEENS tells the little-known story of the first known act of collective, violent resistance to the social oppression of queer people in the United States. In 1966–three years before the famous riot at New York’s Stonewall Inn launched the gay liberation movement on the East Coast–transgender prostitutes in San Francisco’s impoverished Tenderloin neighborhood fought back against a police raid at Compton’s Cafeteria.
SCREAMING QUEENS, narrated by transgender historian Susan Stryker, integrates the story of the riot itself into the broader fabric of American life–showing how it was connected to urban renewal, anti-war activism, the civil rights and sexual liberation movements, and grass-roots struggles for economic justice.
No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon
No Secret Anymore:The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, directed by JEB (Joan E. Biren), chronicles the lives of two women who were partners in love and political struggle for 56 years.
Del and Phyllis are known as the founders of the modern lesbian civil rights movement. When they courageously launched the Daughters of Bilitis in 1955, it became the first public organization for lesbians in America. This inspiring film follows their story through half a century, tracing the emergence of lesbians from the fear of discovery to an expectation of equality. The film is available on Amazon Prime, Vimeo, Kanopy and from Frameline Distribution.
More about Phyllis Lyon: In Memoriam
Perfect Surf by Jenny Rogers
Shot on location in Bedford, UK from September 15-18, 2008, the week the global markets went into free fall, Jenny Rogers’ PERFECT SURF is the global economic meltdown staged as a surf spectacle — a free fly competition in the world’s largest wind tunnel.
Performed by the top free flyers from all over the world (Austria, Australia, England, France, Spain, South Africa & the U.S.), Wall Street becomes Surf City complete with the actual soundtrack from the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) that fateful week. A modern experimental re-interpretation of the surf classic “The Endless Summer”, PERFECT SURF completes the search for the perfect wave, finding endless summertime and eternal youth through the alchemy of science & cinema. Paradise is found here in the surf scene, in flight and in the promise of the endless free fall—HAIR in AIR; beach party film meets sci-fi flick; CinemaScope meets HD digital video in the world’s largest wind tunnel.
More information: http://jenrogers.com/video.html
American Master Series of San Francisco Bay Area Photographers
Robert Burrill’s films featuring master photographers, Ruth Bernhard, Oliver Gagliani, and John Wimberley, offer three doorways of mystery and imagination.
Robert Burrill’s American Master Series of San Francisco Bay Area Photographers – Ruth Bernhard
Ruth Bernhard was convinced that her photographs were making themselves with her help. And if she was obedient at listening, her intuition told her exactly what to do next.
Robert Burrill’s American Master Series of San Francisco Bay Area Photographers – Oliver Gagliani
OLIVER GAGLIANI considered his camera to be a musical instrument and he considered himself to be a prospector capturing the ‘Presence of the Past’. Oliver wrote, if Music is the language of the soul, then Photography is the language of the Spirit.” Learn to go inside listen to your inner life.
Robert Burrill’s American Master Series of San Francisco Bay Area Photographers – John Wimberley
John Wimberley knows that photography offers a window into a mystical universe that creates miracles all around us – and if you listen to the flirts that are constantly calling for your attention – you can learn to recognize them.