Zeina Barakeh
PsyClone Calafia, 2023
3:00 min.
PsyClone Calafia is inspired by San Francisco's essence as a center of progressive culture and innovative technology. Extrapolating from California's rich history, the animation depicts the toppling of colonial monarchs and conquistadors of the Americas, using images sourced from both local and international museums. The images are organized on a bridge structure mirroring the iconic façade of the 49 South Van Ness building. The symbolic griffin belongs to Queen Calafia––a fictional character from Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo’s 16th century novel The Adventures of Esplendián––and after whom California was named. The second scene represents a glimpse into a speculative future, referencing human enhancement and global warming.
Lindsay Rothwell
Threshold, 2023
3:07 min.
Threshold is a site-specific exploration of the architecture of 49 South Van Ness and its place within the city. The Pavilion’s curtain wall, floor, and curved screen wall serve as thresholds signaling shifts between the real built conditions and projected imagined spaces. The video is geolocated and shows both the real topography, and the path of the sun as viewed from the building’s location in San Francisco. Light and shadow mark the passage of time and dissolve the foundations and boundaries of architecture into the infinite.
David Bayus
Polis, 2023
3:00 min.
Polis (“city” in Greek) is an animated short depicting shapes and movements observed in San Francisco. Buildings expand and contact, build themselves up and tear themselves down. Figures are depicted simply, with an emphasis on the chaos and connections that describe the routine of daily life.
Selina Trepp
Nothing is forever in the constant flux of building and maintaining, 2023
1:10 min.
The 49 South Van Ness building houses the Planning Department, the Department of Building Inspection and the Department of Public Works. These are City Departments concerned with maintaining a livable environment for all in this shared urban space, they are the backbone, handling the building and maintenance of the city. The animation reflects this dynamic that flows through the city.
Organic space transforms and vistas morph one into the other, they are transformed by being cared for and rebuilt. Each space is equally beautiful, mostly abstract with moments of figuration. The general mood is optimistic, nothing is forever in the constant flux of building and maintaining. The space itself is alive.
Miguel Arzabe
Trajectory San Francisco, 2023
3:12 min.
Trajectory San Francisco captures vignettes of the city from different perspectives and times of day. Through a bubble's erratic journey the viewer witnesses a built environment that is forever in flux- constructed, eroded, repaired, retrofitted. The precarious existence of the bubble alludes to the fragility of the human condition.
Susana Barrón
Workers at Night, 2023
3:00 min.
After most people have gone to bed, an area near Needles Rock becomes a nocturnal hive of activity where maintenance workers emerge and weave around the foundation of the Golden Gate Bridge. The hard hat lights and the soft glow from their phones flicker like luminescent fireflies against the night sky. At the start of the video, ice covers the landscape as it once did in 1976 in San Francisco. Through this piece, I aim to capture a moment in time and invite viewers to see beyond the visible and delve into the unseen.
Kota Ezawa and Alcatraz Canoe Journey 2019
Co-Directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat
Alcatraz is an Idea, 2023
1:30 min.
Alcatraz is an Idea is a looped video animation depicting scenes from the Alcatraz Canoe Journey held in San Francisco Bay on Indigenous Peoples Day in 2019. The voyage and gathering honored the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz by Indians of All Tribes. The Alcatraz Occupation was one of the most important protests in United States history, marking a turn towards the recognition of Indigenous rights. Indigenous peoples from up and down the west coast participated.
The animation follows the canoes as they depart Aquatic Park and paddle around Alcatraz Island. One canoe, made by Ohlone people out of tule reeds, is featured twice. It was the lone canoe to touch Alcatraz that day.
Organizers of this gathering intended for it to be seen, in part, as a work of performance art. But the patina of news and social media have prevented this artwork from being seen as such. By manually redrawing the archival footage into frame-by-frame illustrations that distill these images to their essential colors and shapes, Ezawa is giving viewers the opportunity to see and experience this important piece of recent Indigenous history as it was intended: art. Ezawa worked closely with Alcatraz Canoe Journey co-organizer and co-director, Julian Brave NoiseCat, to ensure the animation depicted the event, people and performance the way they wanted to be seen.
Patrick Sean Gibson
Legends of the 7 x 7, 2023
2:49 min.
For Legends of the 7 x7, Patrick Sean Gibson wanted to celebrate and highlight some of his favorite San Franciscan using his hand-painted watercolor animation technique. He chose 49 individuals who have inspired him in some way, painting each 6 times—a total of 294 paintings! Individuals include: Margaret Kilgallen, Robin Williams, Harvey Milk, Vicki Manalo Draves, Maya Angelou, Ruth Asawa, Michael Jang, and Tommy Guerrero, to name a few.
Jeremy Rourke
Flower Tower, 2023
2:33 min.
When Sutro Tower’s construction was completed in 1973, Herb Caen wrote in the SF Chronicle, “I keep waiting for it to stalk down the hill and attack the Golden Gate Bridge.” We will have to keep waiting for that, as Jeremy Rourke’s animated tower descends the peaks for a mere street level hike. By diving antennae first into the video wall at 49 South Van Ness Avenue, it leaves behind a calm and steady downpour of flowers hand-picked from our city’s sidewalks.
Aron Kantor
Reverberations, 2023
3:00 min.
Reverberations presents a spectrum of queer bodies in motion through playfully hypnotizing visuals. Using mirrors and kaleidoscopes to explore the motif of repetition that calls to mind the extravagant staging of Busby Berkeley musicals, the video speaks to intuited and improvised movements which can organically translate into communal actions. Evolving through three stages of magic ritual: consecrating the space, building a playground, and joyous expression, Reverberations invites the spectator into a ritual which is ultimately intended to generate a sense of queer joy with each viewing.
Chitra Ganesh
Coherence, 2023
1:56 min.
The sequence of movements in this animation is inspired by a breath work practice known as coherent breathing, which has been developed as a synthesis of meditation and concentration practices that have roots in many ancient cultures. This breath work paired with movement aids with aligning the sympathetic nervous system, and has proven very helpful for treating anxiety, depression and PTSD, and building capacity and spaciousness within ourselves to better endure the stresses of everyday life. Screened at 49 South Van Ness, Coherence gives the viewer an opportunity to experience coherent and potentially synchronized breathing and a possible moment of tranquility while waiting in or passing through a highly trafficked administrative space.
