fbpx

Street Art in Cinema Film Festival

Celebrating 40 years of mural-making and community engagement, Precita Eyes is hosting its first-ever Street Art in Cinema film festival at the historic Grand Theater, revived as a new art and technology space by Gray Area Foundation. The day-long event (3:00pm - 11:00pm) will feature five documentary and narrative films highlighting the social, political and artistic merits, and cultural motivations and styles, of the art form. Meet Founder and Director, Susan Cervantes, and local artists who will be in attendance, along with other admirers of murals and public art! (Image: Growing Together, 2016 Precita Eyes Muralists. Photo by Mariana López.)

Afternoon Program 3:00pm - 6:30pm
Welcome from Precita Eyes Founder and Executive Director, Susan Cervantes

A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe Boone (2015) Directed by Marlene "Mo" Morris
Long before Black Lives Matter became a rallying cry, Edythe Boone embodied that truth as an artist, an educator, and a great-grandmother. A New Color illuminates timely social issues and shows how the work of one resilient woman reverberates throughout a community to inspire a powerful chorus: “Our lives matter and we will not be disempowered by those who judge us for our age, gender, or the color of our skin.”

Frida (2002) Directed by Julie Taymor
Starring Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo and Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera, this American biopic drama depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, as well as her volatile relationship with famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.
“A dynamic portrait of an artist by an artist, one as wry, audacious and erotically charged as its flamboyant subject” —Philadelphia Inquirer

Evening Program 8:00pm - 11:00pm
Welcome from Precita Eyes Founder and Executive Director, Susan Cervantes

These Walls Speak: Balmy Alley and Living Legacies of the Community Mural Movement (2014) Co-directed by Carla Wojczuk and Julian Rowand. The short documentary examines the politics of place, community resistance, counter-history, and expressions of identity through the early community mural arts movement in San Francisco’s Mission District.

Mele Murals (2016) Directed by Tadashi Nakamura
A story about the transformative power of art through the unlikely union of graffiti and ancient Hawaiian culture.
"Nakamura’s visual selections are so rich, I became envious of anyone lucky enough to have even carried a boom mic for the production." —Brandon Diaz, TheHundreds.com

Style Wars (1983) Directed by Tony Silver
Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winning documentary on hip hop culture and its American roots.
“A remarkable document of graffiti culture at its apex. After seeing Style Wars, one can’t help but long for a bit of the chaos and creativity of the graffiti years.” —Martin Edlund, New York Sun
“A breakthrough documentary.” —A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Partner

Precita Eyes Muralists

Celebrating 40 years of mural-making and community engagement this year, Precita Eyes Muralists Association and Center is a community-based mural organization founded by Susan and Luis Cervantes in San Francisco’s Mission District. Its mission is to not only enhance the urban environment, but also to reach out to educate the community at large. Precita Eyes does this by bringing art into the everyday lives of neighborhoods and communities in a way which is meaningful to them. It shares a deep commitment to making artworks accessible, both physically and conceptually, to viewers from diverse backgrounds who may not be regularly exposed to the arts. Artist, educator, and veteran of the SF community mural art movement, Susan Kelk Cervantes is the founding director of Precita Eyes Muralists. Cervantes is responsible for numerous collaborative community murals considered some of the finest in the Bay Area such as Leonard Flynn Elementary School, Mission Playground Pool, Precita Valley Community Center, Bayview Foundation, the S.F. Women’s Building, and many others. In addition to studio and mural painting Susan works in various mediums including mosaic, painted ceramic tile, bronze relief and “polyfresco”.