We are an interdisciplinary storytelling organization that produces an annual film festival, year-round film-based discussion events, and long-term community storytelling projects to make our cities more healthy, inclusive, and culturally abundant.
SF Urban Film Fest collaborates with cultural, academic, grass-roots, and civic organizations including the Roxie Theater, SPUR, the University of San Francisco, SFMOMA, Tenderloin Museum, Exploratorium, Imprint City, Bay Area Video Coalition, The Bauhinia Project, and others. Projects are often jointly initiated to combine film and community planning, most recently with Young Community Developers in the Bayview and SOMA Pilipinas Cultural Heritage District in SOMA. In recognition of their impact on empowering communities using storytelling and film, the SFUFF are Artists in Residence at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
In pursuit of our mission, SFUFF empowers the communities of color affected to confront urban issues by centering their stories and community-generated policy solutions. Our bottoms-up strategy is informed by our theory of change that we must work in the overlapping spheres of narrative, spatial, and social justice simultaneously. For us, narrative justice means we focus on generating culture (stories we tell about ourselves) of and with communities whose voices have been marginalized. Spatial justice means we make urban planning more equitable and just. We promote social justice through diverse representation internally and in folks we work with, including curators, filmmakers, panelists, staff, and volunteers.
