 UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE CLOSING THE BOOKS AT UC BERKELEY EXTENSION Produced and Directed by Eliza Hemenway UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE: Closing the Books at UC Berkeley Extension is a 26:30 minute point of view documentary, shot on digital video, combining traditional devices of documentary storytelling with a strong poetic sensibility. It is accompanied by an edgy original soundtrack written and performed by Tim Barsky. The story is told through a combination of interviews, archival footage, vérité sequences, and architectural shots of the campus. |
|
 San Francisco State University Students, 1936 Photo courtesy of J. Paul Leonard Library |
||
| FILMMAKERS STATEMENT My goal as a filmmaker is to combine media activism with the art of filmmaking. It is my intention to make films with compelling narratives and a strong artistic vision that can work toward positive social change. Uncommon Knowledge is a story about a community I was a part of. It is a story about a beautiful campus, its history, and the many people who were affected by its closure. The campus serves as a microcosm for larger social issues of privatization and access to public education. This is a story that is happening all around us, in our communities, on national and global levels—it is the story of privatization and the systematic loss of our public spaces. Uncommon Knowledge is a portrait of privatization as it is unfolding, in real time. Campus History The UC Berkeley Extension campus is nearly six acres large (that two city blocks squared) and located in the heart of San Francisco. Ringed with historic buildings, all of which make perfect teaching spaces, the campus is the original home to San Francisco State University. Boasting a 150 year history of Public Use, its public zoning predates the Golden Gate Park. San Francisco made its first public contribution to the campus in 1851. The city purchased the land for $30,000 in order to construct an orphanage. The orphanage was completed in 1854 and remained in operation until the San Francisco State Normal School was established in the 1920's to accommodate a growing need for public school teachers. The school continued to grow, added a liberal arts curriculum and eventually changed its name to San Francisco State University. By 1957, needing more space, San Francisco State moved to its current location in the Lake Merced area. With the campus empty and UC Berkeley Extension claiming an urgent need for expanded quarters, the Governor of California approved an act of emergency legislation that transferred the campus to UC Regents. There was one caveat in this transfer; the campus property was to be put to "university uses." As a publicly zoned campus, the University has never paid taxes on the site. UC Berkeley used the campus for its continuing education program for over fifty years. Unfortunately, during that time, they neglected the infrastructure and failed to bring the historic buildings up to code. Despite years of economic boom, renovations were limited to cosmetic upgrades while money was funneled into the rental of additional facilities around the Bay Area. UC representatives claimed that the deteriorated state of the campus was too expense to maintain and bring up to current seismic and disability codes, and thus there was no alternative but to shut it down. After abruptly closing the campus in 2004, the Regents partnered with private A.F. Evans and submitted a proposal to San Francisco's planning department seeking to permanently end public use zoning on the campus. Prior to closing, the campus was a vital hub of art, education and community, serving up to fifteen thousand students a year. For the past four years (and counting) UC has been paying over two million dollars a year for rental space in San Francisco as the campus sits empty. Update: Since Uncommon Knowledge was completed two significant developments have occurred: 1. The campus has officially been registered as a National Historic Landmark. 2. The city of San Francisco approved UC’s proposal to privately develop the campus. Development has not yet begun on the campus. Community Activists are working hard to appeal the city’s decision with the goal of preserving public use on the campus, as well as the historic architecture. WHAT YOU CAN DO HELP GET THIS FILM SEEN: If you would like to host a screening of Uncommon Knowledge, please contact the filmmaker at eliza@hemenwaydocs.com Stay up to date on preservation efforts. Sign up for the Save the UCBE Street Campus list-serve. Click Here to sign up on the listserve. KEY PERSONNEL All of the key-personnel possess solid technical skills, but equally important, they are all artists and storytellers with a shared vision for the film. My approach as a director is to work with key personnel to achieve the best they have to offer both technically and artistically, and bring their skills together to create a powerful documentary that is not only technically solid, but articulates a strong artistic vision. Producer/Director Cinematographer, Editor ELIZA HEMENWAY, M.A. is a documentary filmmaker and media artist who has worked in still photography, radio and film. She holds a M.A. in media studies and a B.F.A. from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University. Hemenway is the founder and director of Trinity Productions, an independent documentary media production company, as well as the founder of the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival, which she directed in 2007. Eliza is also a film reviewer for KRCB-FM and serves as a guest judge for the Red Cross Young Filmmakers Showcase. She is currently working on Family Matters, a series of short experimental documentaries exploring themes of marriage, divorce and raising children. Additional Editor SERENA WARNER has been editing for ten years. Since 2000, Serena has spent the majority of her professional time working for Francis Ford Coppola at his legendary film company, American Zoetrope, where she edits documentaries and featurettes. Her work has screened at the Telluride Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival, among others. Composer TIM BARSKY is a graduate of Brown University, he has also studied at the Berklee School of Music. In 2002 he co-founded Everyday Theater with Jess Ivry to create new works integrating jewish folklore & hip-hop theater. In late 2003 Everyday presented The Bright River a hip-hop retelling of Dante's Inferno with a live soundtrack. Due to its success, Everyday restaged "River" in the spring of 2004 at The Ashby Stage. Traveling Jewish Theater's co-produced of the show in San Francisco at Project Artaud and in Berkeley at the Julia Morgan Center. "River" has received rave reviews in publications including The SF Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, & SF Examiner. Barsky has performed in venues including The Exit Theater, The Blackbox Theater, and in London, UK at The Finborough Theater. A former artist-in-residence at AS220 in Providence RI, he has also been a guest lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London. http://www.timbarsky.com http://www.everydaytheatre.org Research and Development JENNIFER VIALE, M.A., received her Master's in International and Intercultural Management from the School for International Training and currently works in continuing education programming at San Francisco State University. In addition, she is a freelance writer and has experience with nonprofit organizational development, and marketing research and development. Graphic Designer JAIME BORSCHUK has a BFA in photography from the University of Iowa and has studied graphic design at UC Berkeley Extension and California College of the Arts. Borschuk's clients have included artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers. She currently lives in San Francisco and works as the Graphic Production Manager for Metromint water and in her spare time enjoys sewing, yoga, swimming, cooking and making music with her band The Matinees. http://www.makeswift.com Web Designer ANDREW ENOCH has built websites for quantum physicists, spoken worders, subliminal kids and architects, stand-up comedians, childrens schools, radio stations and record labels, and for many, many people making sound. He is a huge fan of Eliza Hemenway and thinks others should be too. http://www.aenoch.com ADVISORS Production Advisor ELLEN BRUNO, M.A., received her masters degree from Stanford University in Documentary Filmmaking. She is known for her trilogy: Samsara, Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy and Sacrifice. All three films premiered at the Sundance Film festival Bruno was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1998, a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1997, fellowships from the Western States Media Arts and a Shenkin Fellowship from Yale University School of Art. http://www.brunofilms.com Technical Advisor: Sound KURT NANGLE graduated from UC Irvine in 1989 with a degree in Biology. After taking a film editing class he changed his career path and jumped into the San Francisco Independent film scene. He worked as a Director of Photography and Gaffer on several independent films and music videos. Relocating to Los Angeles, he worked as both a gaffer and grip on feature films, music videos, and commercials. He also shot several independent short films including Hurricane Belle, Last Day, Booze and Undertaker. He recently co-directed and produced the short film Only You Can Be Me which has aired in several local and national film festivals. http://www.onlyyoucanbeme.com Technical Advisor: Editing ALEXANDRA NANGLE produced the film Trailer and was Assistant Director for Sweet Underground which screened at the Los Angeles International Film Festival. Trained as an AVID film and video editor in Los Angeles, Nangle’s editing work includes commercials, industrials and several short films. She was the sole editor on the documentary film Poetic License that screened at several festivals and aired on PBS. She co-directed and produced the short film Only You Can Be Me which screened at festivals such as the Rhode Island International Festival, San Francisco IndieFest, The Ashland Independent Film Festival and the Film Arts Foundation Film Festival. http://www.onlyyoucanbeme.com Scholarly Advisors JON GARFIELD is the Director of New College Center for Education and Social Change and serves as faculty in the Media Studies department. He conducted masters and doctoral studies in the sociology of media and communications at the New School for Social Research and UC Santa Barbara; taught sociology and media studies at several institutions; and studied communication theory with such luminaries as Jurgen Habermas, Peter Berger and Edmund Carpenter. A New College faculty member for over fifteen years, Garfield previously held academic positions at Adelphi University, Antioch University San Francisco, and UC San Francisco. KAI LUNDGEN-WILLIAMS holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the State University of New York at Binghamton. He currently teaches classes in social and political thought, with particular attention to the historical development of capitalist modernity, gender, race, sexuality, and alternative practices of everyday life. He is working on a book entitled “Exuberance: Economies of Scarcity and Practices of Abundance,” a study of alternatives to the modern capitalist devotion to scarcity as a way of being, and a research project on trauma, denial, and recovery in the social body.
their generous support of this film: Angee Adams, Rob Anderson, Tim Baskerville (for the Angel photo), Michelle Blair, Cynthia Boardman, Bode Gravel Company, Jaime Borschuck, Cassandra Brush, Mark Citret, Andrew and Rebekah Enoch, Jon Garfield, Katie Gogl, Marc Henrich, Katrina Jankowski, Carrie Hemenway, Dan and Cynthia Hemenway, Thor Hemenway, Janna Kafales, Alex and Kurt Nangle, Mary Pinto, Cynthia Servetnick, Elena Sheehan, John Stringer, Lavon Tabek, David Weinstein and Laura Foner, Jennifer Viale, Jane and Roger Wade, and Eduardo Waller. BACK TO FILM PAGE |
||||
