Elizabeth "Betita" Martinez: San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Awards 2008

We Can Be Heroes

March 2024 •English

Sometimes, finding your tribe requires a bit of magic. For attendees of a live action role-playing (LARP) camp in upstate New York, the deeply accepting environment has given neurodivergent, queer, and self-proclaimed "nerdy" teenagers the space and community for self-discovery that they have never found anywhere else. As the campers immerse themselves in this imaginative world, they discover inner strength, heal from past traumas, and emerge as the heroes they are meant to be, both in the fantasy realm and in real life.

Summer Solstice

December 1974 •English

"The operations that dislocate a film like Summer Solstice– I hope irreparably– from being a movie about the locomotion and eating habits of cows, a dairy farm document, or what have you, are finally of a whole lot less concern to me than the following things: how it looks, the sense that probably it was done deliberately, the pleasure or displeasure– the intrigue, possibly– of attempting to retrieve the manner in which it was done while one is watching." -HF

The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel

September 2020 •English

Two decades after the initial exposé of the corporation, this follow-up unveils a world now fully remade in its image and perilously close to fascism.

England's Lionesses: Inside the Pride

December 2022 •English

Behind the scenes with the Lionesses during an incredible year for women’s football

Two Pandemics

November 2021 •English

Seven Asian-Americans discuss their experiences with racism and the spike in Asian-directed hate crimes as a result of COVID-19.

Glowing in the Dark

January 1997 •English

Set against a backdrop of spectacular neon footage of Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, the film is an illuminating exploration into the vibrant history and contemporary use of neon. The movement, power, and raw exuberance of neon is revealed through a fascinating demonstration of how neon is made, a montage of notable neon installations and commentary from a colorful array of neon experts.

Look at Life: Change at the Tower

January 1967 •English

A look at the day-to-day running of the historic Tower of London and coping with up to 16,000 visitors each day. A stunning display of the Crown Jewels.

A Friend is A Blessing

September 2022 •English

At a mobile home park in small-town Northern California, five best friend retirees navigate their golden years with grace, humor, and wisdom, and reflect on the importance of genuine human connection.

Inside the Bruderhof

Invalid date •English

In one picturesque village in Sussex, life is very different. There’s no crime, debt or homelessness, everyone has a job but no-one earns a wage, and none of the children watch television, use social media, play video games or have a mobile phone.

Riots and Rumours of Riots

January 1981 •English

Radical resistance in the postwar British Caribbean community, from the 1948 Nationality Act to the 1958 Brixton riots.

Tupac Amaru, algo está cambiando: something is changing

April 2012 •Spanish

Black Pénélope

September 1991 •French

A discovery of the pictorial art that Ndebele women traditionally practice in South Africa: painting the walls of their houses.

The Numbers Start with the River

January 1971 •English

The Numbers Start with the River is a 1971 American short documentary film about small-town life in Iowa. Produced by Donald Wrye for the United States Information Agency, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

The Crossroad Of Rock

June 1988 •Estonian

Documentary film written by music critic Artemiy Troitskiy. It depicts the variety of Soviet and Baltic rock music and offers its viewer an idea that all this forbidden music is not really dangerous for society. Featuring music bands: "Круиз" (Tambov), "In Spe" (Estonia), "Новый мир" (Estonian hard-rock), "Великие Луки" (punk-rock from Tallinn). Moscow music scene represented by: "Тупые", "Нюанс", "Звуки Му". Leningrad music scene: "Джунгли", "Алиса". Also appearing: "Воплі Відоплясова" from Kiev and "Антис" from Lithuania. Not credited: Roman Neumoev with "Инструкция по выживанию" and Oleg Sudakov with "Гражданская оборона".

Druid Heights

August 2015 •English

Druid Heights is a short documentary film by Marcy Mendelson about a wild & wooly place. California’s hidden bohemia. Where sex, drugs and philosophy thrived among the eucalyptus just a few miles north of the Golden Gate.

Ricochet

May 2021 •English

When a young woman is shot by an undocumented immigrant on Pier 14 in San Francisco, the incident ignites a political and media furor that culminates in Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States. In the eye of this storm, two public defenders fight to reveal the truth.

A Day in the Life of a Consumer

June 1993 •German

The film shows one day from waking up in the morning all the way to waking up again the next morning. The everyday situations that many commercials are made of, the little dramas that they create and solve through the product or service they sell, are stitched together into one day. This is a film about the everyday in (German, or Western-European) society because the commercials are part of the everyday of most people (everyone who watches television) and they depict an ideal image of society. The film abundantly uses repetition as an editing technique, in visual ways as described above, but also because commercials can be read in different ways. For instance, Brat baking foil shows up at the evening dinner sequence, when an ovendish is put on the table, and again later on in the sequence about going out to a classic concert, because the clip has classic music.

A Love Letter to Coopers Cafe

Invalid date •English

During the summer of 2023, my father decided to hang up the boots and walk away from the family business of 25 years. This is my love letter to the cafe in which my family and I have worked, encapsulating the good vibes and cheery nature the business held for a quarter of a century.

Honour Me

January 2021 •English

Abused by her family, forced into marriage, raped, pregnant at 13 then hunted down for violating her family’s honour. This is the shocking, compelling true story of Sameem’s struggle to break free from her past and fight back against her upbringing.

Before They Fall

August 2021 •English

Conservation groups, First Nations, and scientists come together in this timely short film, as a decades-long battle to protect endangered old-growth forests in BC escalates at Fairy Creek (the last unprotected, intact valley on southern Vancouver Island). The film explores the characters’ individual relationships with ancient forests, and why it’s imperative we collectively protect them. It touches on potential solutions, like a transition away from old-growth in the future of logging, and Indigenous sovereignty.