Thousands of participants in a San Francisco-based alternate reality game end up getting more than they bargained for. Told from the players’ perspectives, the film looks over the precipice at an emergent new art form where the real world and fictional narratives merge to create unforeseen and often unsettling consequences. Examining counter-culture, new religious movements and street art, this film takes the viewer on a journey into a secret underground world teeming just beneath the surface of everyday life.
Cash Crop (2010)
Undercover for nearly 2 years, award winning director and musician, Adam Ross is finally going public with his latest film. CASH CROP is a feature length documentary road trip throughout California to the Emerald Triangle and the heart of the American Dream exploring America’s largest cash crop: marijuana.
Hot Tubs (2010)
1973 was a turbulent time. The world was overcome with war and social change. Yet on Mountain Drive, deep in the hills of Santa Barbara, California- the good times were rollin'. The redwood tub was in and clothes were out. Author, publisher, Noel Young, was there to document it in Hot Tubs, the book that launched a movement. Come steam a while...dream a while- with the group that revolutionized the way we relax and gave birth to the modern day spa. This is the story of....Hot Tubs.
Cavalcade of San Francisco (1940)
This Traveltalk series short celebrates San Francisco, past and present.
Riding Giants (2004)
Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.
Mudflat (1980)
Years ago, artists would walk around the muck at the edge of the San Francisco Bay in Emeryville, and build loads of sculptures out there on the flats, created from driftwood and found objects that drivers would enjoy as they motored south on the old Highway 17 (known in numerous radio ads as 'Highway 17, The Nimitz'). Grabbing material off someone else’s work was considered fair game and part of the fun, and contributed a kinetic dynamic to the ongoing display. Now the place is a park, and the sculptures are gone, but you can see what it used to be like in this neat and funny documentary by Ric Reynolds, augmented by Erich Seibert’s wonderful musique-concrète/time-lapse sequences. The flashback circus sequence includes Scott Beach and Bill Irwin. Sculptors interviewed include Walt Zucker, Tony Puccio, Robert Sommer, Ron & Mary Bradden, and Bob Kaminsky.
Druid Heights (2015)
Druid Heights is a short documentary film by Marcy Mendelson about a wild & wooly place. California’s hidden bohemia. Where sex, drugs and philosophy thrived among the eucalyptus just a few miles north of the Golden Gate.
The Saga of Macrame Park (1974)
Alexandra Jackonetti recounts the building of a children's playground of macrame in Bolinas, Calif., including her conception of the project and the process of obtaining community financial support, knotting of macrame, and erection of the structure.
Mr. Christmas (NaN)
Every Christmas, Bruce Mertz lights up the neighborhood with the 50,000 lights covering his house. For decades he's obsessively added to his display, creating beautiful, towering fixtures that people travel across the country to see. In this offbeat, touching portrait, we learn what drives him, and discover how a kid who grew up on a farm with no electricity became Mr. Christmas.
The Hippie Temptation (1967)
CBS TV news special hosted by Harry Reasoner explores the way-out world of the Hippies and the Haight-Ashbury psychedelic 1960s LSD scene. Footage of LSDs users experiencing bummer trips. The Diggers, the Oracle and cool street and Golden Gate Park scenes with hippies tripping out. The Grateful Dead are interviewed and are shown performing "Dancin' in the Streets" on a flatbed truck in Golden Gate Park. The Hippie Temptation!
Last Men Standing (2016)
“Last Men Standing,” the first feature-length documentary from The San Francisco Chronicle, Northern California’s largest newspaper was selected for entry into a series of prestigious LGBT festivals being held in the U.S. and Canada this spring. One of the few newspapers to write, direct and produce a feature-length documentary, this film follows the lives and experiences of eight long-term AIDS survivors.
Desert Utopia: Mid-Century Architecture in Palm Springs (2010)
Southern California’s Coachella Valley, including the communities of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs, boasts hundreds of extraordinary midcentury modern homes, public buildings and commercial structures. Modern designers such as William F. Cody, Albert Frey, William Krisel, John Lautner, Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler, Donald Wexler, E. Stewart Williams left their collective mark on this desert paradise. Desert Utopia: Mid-Century Architecture in Palm Springs traces the history of modern architecture in Palm Springs from the first bold forays into modernist design to the preservation challenges facing the region today. Director Jake Gorst’s film features rare archival images and footage as well as interviews with historians, homeowners and the architects who helped create this mecca of modernism.
Mondo Topless (1966)
Mondo Topless is a 1966 pseudo documentary directed by Russ Meyer, featuring Babette Bardot and Lorna Maitland among others.
575 Castro St. (2009)
Images set to a tape recording that slain San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk made in November 1977 to be played in case he was killed.
The Second Wave (2013)
Spring 2012 the Swedish band La Fleur Fatale embarked on a journey to and through California. During two weeks they played with legendary psych musicians and met people who was part of making the 60's into what it later became both musically and spiritually, connecting the past with the present both musically and politically. What is the difference between then and now? Is the Anonymous movement now what 60's anti war movement was back then? The band themselves only knew about the shows they are supposed to play on the trip through California, they are lead on the journey by their manager that call in the next destination. In The Second Wave we find people and bands like La Fleur Fatale of course, Ebbot Lundberg (TSOOL), Strawberry Alarm Clock, James Lowe(Electric Prunes), Duncan Faure(Bay City Rollers, Rabbit), Patrick Campbell-Lyons (Original Nirvana) and more. The people behind this documentary have been working pro bono, by love to the band and the project itself.
The Bridge (2006)
The Bridge is a controversial documentary that shows people jumping to their death from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco - the world's most popular suicide destination. Interviews with the victims' loved ones describe their lives and mental health.
The Bohulano Family (2014)
Home movie collection of the Bohulano Family of Stockton, CA. Footage dates between the 1950s-1970s.
Stronger Than Carr (2019)
A filmmaker moves his family cross-country only to arrive in their new city, Redding, California, as a fire tornado rips through neighborhoods during the deadly 2018 Carr Fire. As the smoke clears he sets out to investigate several heroic stories, discovering why people in Northern California are “Stronger Than Carr”.