Film

At SFAI, students study filmmaking in the broader context of contemporary art practice.

Our programs investigate the full range of moving-image genres, including experimental, narrative, documentary, animation, and hybrid forms. Student learn the craft of filmmaking in courses that teach skills of production and postproduction, enabling them to realize their ideas. The curriculum is flexible, keeping current with the ever-changing digital arena from multi-platform to alternative distribution.

Our courses encourages students to push the boundaries of the medium by integrating film with gallery-based objects, performance, and sound-based works. A variety of methods of display—from traditional theatrical screening, to single- and multi-channel installation, to alternative contexts such as emerging small screen and interactive formats—are explored.

STUDY

UNDERGRADUATE

GRADUATE

Check the courses for Continuing Education.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), in association with ZAZ Corner, presents Tunnels of the Mind, a selection of 18 recent works by SFAI-affiliated artists, appearing on a Jumbotron in Times Square, New York City, in June 2020.

Curated by SFAI Film Department Chair Orit Ben Shitrit, the selection of work reveals a vast diversity of forms and voices, a signature of SFAI’s highly personal and multi-disciplinary approach to art. Tunnels of the Mind spans distinct forms of moving image including, but not limited to: Structuralist Film, Video Art, Animation, Nonlinear Narrative, Detritus Cinema, Dance on Film, Computer Generated/ 3D, Experimental Film.

Mads Lynnerup - Jewish Folktales Retold.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Miguel Novelo (BFA Film, 2018) is an interactive filmmaker and visual artist: infusing traditional and new techniques, like 16mm and VR video, with performance and new genres. Through sound, image, and tactility, his videos create active experiences of realities in fictional, digital worlds.

Use your mouse to explore this VR interview, where Miguel discusses his practice and communal approach, which includes founding the Campeche Film Festival in 2014 in his hometown of Campeche, Mexico.