CWF LEAD ARTIST: LISE SWENSON
GRANT AMOUNT: $35,000
       
 

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MISSION MOVIE


Joe (left, Shoresh Alaudini) and Nadia (Lana Nasser) on the set of Mission Movie

Project Title: Mission Movie
Recipient Organization: Southern Exposure
Lead Artist: Lise Swenson
Genre and Date Awarded: Media Arts, June 2001
To Be Presented: December 2003

Media artist Lise Swenson and Southern Exposure are creating a film exploring the changing character of San Francisco's Mission District, engaging that neighborhood's artists, community organizers, business people, cultural workers, and others in telling their stories. The final video will be approximately 90 minutes in length, shot in digital video, digitally edited, and mastered to a broadcast video format. The artist and organization anticipate Mission Movie 's being screened in local schools and galleries, presented in film festivals, and used as a tool for community organizing and education. Lise Swenson writes, "My artistic vision of this project is to create a beautiful, compelling, high-profile narrative that investigates and brings to light one of the issues closest to my heart: the change and ongoing negotiation of space in the neighborhood I have lived and worked in for many years."

Like many major cities in the United States, in the late 1990s and the year 2000, San Francisco underwent unprecedented growth and gentrification due to the boom of the e-commerce economy. Families, local businesses, non-profit organizations, and artists who once lived in low-income neighborhoods were priced out of their living and working spaces as rents and property values soared. San Francisco has long been known for its richness in racial, cultural, and class diversity, and the economic boom threatened this diversity. Through Mission Movie, the collaborators are creating a narrative that represents the many visions and voices that reflect the Mission District, including those who have moved there recently, in an effort to understand the complexity of this multi-faceted neighborhood. The project's goal is to bring forward the anger and fear many have felt into a conversation about the place and a deeper understanding of what the neighborhood still is and can be.

Mission Movie is made up of many layers of community involvement. Central to its operations is the core team, a group of six artist/filmmakers who initially convened in June of 2002 and are the primary guiding force. Secondarily is the community advisory group, 15 individuals from the broader community, brought together to tell their stories upon which the script is based. This group has stayed on board throughout the process and has been the project's eyes and ears, its checks and balances. The community advisory group includes widely varying perspectives--from Latino teenagers born and bred in the neighborhood to regional directors of corporations, from administrators from the Mayor's Office to Mission activists. Beyond the two primary, guiding groups, Mission Movie has involved more than 150 people in cast, crew, and volunteer positions from the greater Bay Area, all of whom have come to the project with an interest in the messages and content of Mission Movie . During this extensive process, Southern Exposure has been host to the myriad meetings, auditions, screenings, and social gatherings, offering a home to the ever-expanding " Mission Movie family."

Lise Swenson has been producing and exhibiting work since 1982. She creates single channel videos, multiple monitor video installations, performance, and agit prop. She identifies herself as a media artist, activist, and educator, seeing a seamless relationship among these roles. She has gained public notice in all three areas, with her work being exhibited internationally, screened at numerous festivals, and garnering many awards and grant. She has been teaching since the mid 1980s, founding the video department at New College in 1987, and lecturing at San Francisco State University. Swenson is founder of TILT, a production-centered media literacy organization that has created award-winning works with low-income teenagers. TILT's approach to inclusive media production shapes the process for Mission Movie . This film will be Swenson's first feature-length narrative work.

Southern Exposure was founded in 1974 on the premises of Project Artaud, the oldest artist-owned live/work space in San Francisco. It has evolved into a non-profit, artist-run organization that presents diverse, innovative contemporary art, and related programs, such as panels, symposia, performances, and educational activities. Southern Exposure offers a forum and resource center to artists and the public. All programs focus on fostering a challenging and energetic environment for debate on contemporary art and culture. Mission Movie allows Southern Exposure to do what it does best: support an artist's professional development, lead a community-based conversation and collaboration, and promote the creation of artwork that is aesthetically, conceptually, and culturally powerful.


In Mission Movie, Mark (left, Jakob Bokulich) and Roger (far right, Benjamin Rosas) must find a way to make the neighborhood kids (Christian and William Simmons) understand the value of a mural project; photograph by  Katy Raddatz, San Francisco Chronicle

LEAD ARTISTS

Lise Swenson

RESUME HIGHLIGHTS

Work Experience

  • Founder/director of TILT (Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools), 1/98-present
  • Lecturer, Inter-Arts Center, San Francisco State University (1/95-present)
  • Consultant on call for the Performing Arts Assistance Program, Zellerbach Family Foundation (3/98-present)
  • Media Artist-in-Residence, Young Audiences (1996-1999)
  • Lecturer, San Francisco Art Institute (1998)
  • Visiting Artist/Lecturer, Art Department, University of California, Davis (1996)
  • Instructor, Bay Area Video Coalition (1990-2000)
  • Teacher, East Bay School of the Arts (1987-1990)
  • Co-Founder/Co-Director, Artists Television Access (1986-1989)
  • Core Faculty, New College of California (1987-1989)
  • Assistant Manager, San Francisco International Video Festival (1984-1986)
  • Producer/Director, freelance consultant (1984-present)
  • Manager, San Francisco State University Student Union Art Gallery (1983-1984)

Video Installations

  • Mystery Ball Benefit, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California (2000)
  • Audio and slide projection in conjunction with Art Strikes Back Committee, San Francisco Arts Commission Grove Street windows, San Francisco, California (2000)
  • Five-monitor excerpt from "47 Portraits," The ArtCouncil Awards Exhibition, Jernigan Wicker Fine Arts, San Francisco, California (2000)
  • One monitor, one audio channel video installation, ATA Window, San Francisco, California (2000)
  • Comet Launch Party, reinstallation of "Fear, Fine, a Window on Valencia Street, Autopia and Talking Present," The LAB, San Francisco, California (2000)
  • "The Deconstruction Zone," ATA window (June 2000)
  • "Women 2000," group exhibition, Laney College Art Gallery, Oakland, California (2000)
  • "47 Portraits," solo exhibition, The LAB, San Francisco, California (2000)
  • "Visions and Viewpoints," M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco, California (1999)
  • "The Deconstruction Zone," Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, California (1999)
  • "High Speed Art," curated by Session Gallery at the San Francisco Art Commission Gallery (1998)
  • "withinsight," project director of eight youth, multiple adult collaboration, Zeum, San Francisco, California (1998)
  • "Narrative Structures," ART TECH, Silicon Valley Institute of Art and Technology, San Jose, California (1998)
  • "Pet My Dog," IAC On Line Gallery (1996)
  • "A Window on Valencia Street" (in collaboration with Tim Costigan), Artists Television Access, San Francisco, California (1994)
  • "American Female," Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, California (1994)
  • "Untitled," Women's Building, San Francisco, California (1994)
  • "I Believe," Southern Exposure, San Francisco, California (1991)
  • "Talking Present," New Langton Arts, San Francisco, California (1989)
  • "Fear," Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, California (1989)
  • "Super 8 Family," Artists Television Access, San Francisco, California (1989)
  • "Fine," Artists Television Access, San Francisco, California (1989)
  • "Untitled," in collaboration with Barry Schwatz," Townsend Club, San Francisco, California (1989)

Selected Video Exhibitions

  • "415," gala screening of new youth narrative collaboration, CELLspace, San Francisco, California (1999)
  • "Bombard Me with the Message," New Langton Arts PSA showcase (1999)
  • "Lost in the Translation," WRO 99, International Media Art Biennale, Poland (1999)
  • "sap: the residue of the san francisco art scene," Lanai Motel, San Francisco, California (1998)
  • "3 Stimulus Transmit," cable show and screening, Cable cast Channel 53, screening, Bay Area Video Coalition, San Francisco, California (1998)
  • "Fire Circus," group show, San Francisco, California (1997)
  • "Sixteen Eyes, solo show, The Lark Theater, Larkspur, California (1997)
  • "Love Between a Boy and a Girl," group show curated by Lynn Hershman, San Francisco Cinematheque (1995)
  • "The Swenson Tapes: A Retrospective," solo show, The LAB, San Francisco, California (1993)
  • "Unlike Athena, group show, Artists Television Access, San Francisco, California (1993)
  • "VIRTUAL: ACTUAL: REAL," in collaboration with Barney Haynes, V2 Gallery, Den Bosch, Holland (1992)
  • "Tail Over Her Back," group show, Other Cinema, San Francisco, California (1991)
  • "I Believe," group show, San Francisco Cinematheque (1991)
  • "Skin Your Eye," solo show, McKenna Theater, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California (1991)
  • "We Peel Your World," group show, San Francisco Cinematheque (1991)
  • "Freight," group show, A Gallery, San Francisco, California (1990)
  • "Jenny and Martin," group show, New College of California (1989)
  • "American Gulag," group show, in collaboration with Scott MacLeod, Plagiarism Festival, San Francisco, California (1988)
  • "Hey Joe," group show, Sincere Technologies, Oakland, California (1988)
  • "45 Second Spot," group show, Club 9, San Francisco, California (1987)
  • "12 Noon," group show, Projects UK, Newcastle, England (1987)
  • "Rendezvous With Death," group show, Media Gallery, San Francisco, California (1987)
  • "The Urban Landscape," group show, Artists Television Access," San Francisco, California (1986)
  • "Chicago is..." group show, Aris AIDS Benefit, San Jose, California (1986)
  • "3 Generations," group show, Martin Weber Gallery, San Francisco, California (1985)
  • "Bits," solo show, The 16 th Note, San Francisco, California (1985)
  • "Democratic Convention 1984," group show, The LAB, San Francisco, California (1984)
  • "Night of the Venetian Blinds," group show, San Francisco State University Art Gallery, San Francisco, California (1884)

Awards and Grants

  • ArtCouncil individual artist award (2000)
  • LEF Foundation for "Flashpoint" (2000)
  • "Goldies '99 Award," San Francisco Bay Guardian (1999)
  • Phyllis Wattis Residency, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (1999-2000)
  • Support for the "Labor Memoir" book and movie project, San Francisco Arts Commission (1999)
  • LEF Foundation, for Valencia Gardens movie-making project (1998-99)
  • Zellerbach Family Fund for Valencia Gardens Movie-Making Project (1998-99)
  • Latham Foundation, certificate of excellence, PAWS PSA (1998)
  • San Francisco State University, "Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Activities," honoring instructors with recent creative accomplishments (1996)
  • Bay Area Video Coalition Artist Equipment Access Award (1995, 1993)
  • SECA Invitation for single channel video, "12 Noon," San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1988)
  • Film Arts Foundation personal works grant in collaboration with Barry Schwartz (1988)

Festivals

  • 24 th San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, San Francisco, California (2000)
  • "Seattle Underground Film Festival," Seattle, Washington (1999)
  • Mill Valley Film Festival, Mill Valley, California (1999)
  • Cinema 16, New Orleans Film and Video Festival, New Orleans, Louisiana (1999)
  • The Zeitgeist International Film and Video Festival, the Zeitgeist, San Francisco, California (1999)
  • 10 Filmfest Dresden, International Festival for Animation and Short Films, Dresden, Germany (1998)
  • New Arts Program, Experimental Category, Second Place, touring throughout the United States (1998)
  • alt.youth.media, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, New York (1996)
  • Este Lugar: Boarders Film Festival, Messella, New Mexico (1996)
  • Cine Estudiantil '96, San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico (1996)
  • 6 th International Video Week, Saint-Gervais, Geneva, Switzerland (1995)
  • The Third Annual Festival Cine Latino, San Francisco, California (1995)
  • Wired Youth at the Exploratorium, San Francisco, California (1995)
  • Mill Valley Film Festival, Mill Valley, California (1994)
  • Visual Artists' Film and Video Festival, San Jose, California (1994)
  • The Living Room Festival, KQED, Channel 9, San Francisco, California (1994)