Tag: San Francisco Film Society

It Broke My Heart But The Mission Remained Intact

Post author By Ted Hope
Post date November 20, 2014

You’ve given me the support I needed to go forth and try to get this done. Granted, I had enough support from the beginning to actually believe there was a chance I could not just make movies, but make good movies. That is a real gift, an advantage few have. Courage, faith — those things were there, but so was doubt and fear. Love and hate. The wolves in battle.

What if it didn’t work? And then when that was true, when it did stop working, or at least start to stop working for most, what made me think I could help build something better?

What gives us the strength to make big decisions? To change our path? To take on new burdens?

Tags community, Fandor, Film Courage, film support organizations, privilege, San Francisco Film Society, support, video

Truly Free Film

Mission Check: My Next Step Is Announced

Post author By Ted Hope
Post date January 9, 2014
12 Comments on Mission Check: My Next Step Is Announced

If you read this blog, you know I am a champion of mission check. You might now be wondering a bit about mine. A year or so ago, I reported to you that when asked to consider a project I responded:

“I am taking a hiatus from producing any projects for the time being. Instead, I am trying to advance an independent film infrastructure that can truly support a diverse and ambitious film — in it’s broadest & most innovative definition — culture, one where the artist and their supporters are direct beneficiaries of the work they generate, where risk is both rewarded & encouraged, & audiences are active participants in the community. I am running Fandor in hopes I can help the progression move quicker & others may navigate the paradigm shift to abundant, accessible content more smoothly & less painfully.”

Only of course then I did not say Fandor, did I? But

Tags Fandor, mission statement, San Francisco Film Society

Truly Free Film

Advancing Film Education, Media Literacy, & the Educational Market For Film

Post author By Ted Hope
Post date January 7, 2014
45 Comments on Advancing Film Education, Media Literacy, & the Educational Market For Film

By Joanne Parsont

In a world saturated with screens and immersed in media, it is not just advisable to teach young people about film, it’s imperative. We all recognize the power of film to both inform and transform, and what better place to make that happen than inside a classroom (or inside a theater full of kids), where students are primed to be enlightened and inspired? As young people have become round-the-clock media consumers and creators, it has become that much more important for teachers to use media effectively in the classroom, for filmmakers to learn how to talk about their work in an educational context, and for students to be exposed to media professionals.

At the San Francisco Film Society, we’ve been working in the educational community for more than two decades, and it is some of the most gratifying work we do. As we’ve steadily built up our Education programs over the last few years, we’ve been trying to find a way to share that work—and the experience and resources we’ve cultivated—with the greater film and education communities outside the local Bay Area. So we are really excited about the great new web portal we just launched: FilmEd.

FilmEd. is

Tags Educational Market, FilmEd, Fruitvale Station, Guest Post, Joanne Parsont, media literacy, San Francisco Film Society

Truly Free Film

10 Things We Learned About Sustainable Filmmaking While Working on the Documentary Seventh-Gay Adventists

Post author By Ted Hope
Post date December 5, 2013
11 Comments on 10 Things We Learned About Sustainable Filmmaking While Working on the Documentary Seventh-Gay Adventists

by Stephen Eyer

For the past five years, my wife and producing partner, Daneen Akers, and I have been working full-time on a social documentary film called Seventh-Gay Adventists (http://www.sgamovie.com) about three gay and lesbian members of a conservative church and their challenge to reconcile their faith and sexuality. We spent the last year on the road traveling with the film in the U.S., Canada, and Australia at film festivals, churches, and community centers. Our last major festival screening will be on Dec. 5th as part of Frameline’s Encore series (http://www.frameline.org/now-showing/events/frameline-encore-seventh-gay-adventists) in San Francisco. Although we’ve been asked at filmmaker gatherings before if we’re selling marijuana on the side to make rent, we’ve actually been making enough to both pay for our expenses and fund the film primarily through cultivating an engaged and motivated grassroots community that believe in this film.

The following are 10 things we learned about how to sustain yourself as a filmmaker while making films that can have a positive impact on the world.

Tags Guest Post, Michelle Turnure-Salleo, Roxie theater, San Francisco Film Society, Seventh-Gay Adventists, sustainable creative life

Truly Free Film

The San Francisco Film Community’s Continual Rise

Post author By Ted Hope
Post date November 11, 2013
9 Comments on The San Francisco Film Community’s Continual Rise

The best things in life bring multiple rewards.

If you can solve a problem by improving other things simultaneously, you know everyone is going to win. Besides, we all have way too much to get done, that it only makes sense to kill two birds with one stone whenever humanly possible. I think the San Francisco Film Society and I may have just accomplished this remarkable feat. Let’s see

Truly Free Film

Towards A Sustainable Investor Class: Vetted 3rd Party Affirmed Projects

Post author By Ted Hope
Post date October 17, 2013
55 Comments on Towards A Sustainable Investor Class: Vetted 3rd Party Affirmed Projects

Let’s say you were one of Twitter’s initial hires. The IPO has made you a multi-millionaire. Being in the Bay Area you’ve had a front row seat (courtesy of The San Francisco Film Society) how strategic film investments at critical times can make great cinema live (BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, FRUITVALE STATION, SHORT TERM 12, TEST, and so on). You have an idea that if contribute a bit here and there you can help bring the Bay Area Cinema Renaissance into being. Now you are trying to figure all you need to know about investing in film. Where are you at? What more do you need to know?