• Notes on the Port of St. Francis

  • ZigZag

The Films of Frank Stauffacher

  • Photo of the artists Barbara Stauffacher Solomon in 1955.
    In Person

    Artist and graphic designer Barbara Stauffacher Solomon’s Art Wall installation is currently on view at BAMPFA. She was married to Frank Stauffacher and worked with him on his Art in Cinema series until his death in 1955.

A commercial artist, Frank Stauffacher started the groundbreaking Art in Cinema series of experimental and independent film at the San Francisco Museum of Art (now SFMOMA) in 1946 to help foster a community of adventurous cinemagoers. The series also encouraged a number of local artists to begin making films, and by 1948, Stauffacher too had picked up a camera, first photographing two films for James Broughton and then making three of his own, all shot in the San Francisco Bay Area. These city symphonies beautifully celebrate the region’s history, landscape, and urban sites.

Films in this Screening

Mother’s Day

James Broughton, United States, 1948

FILM DETAILS 
Cinematographer
  • Frank Stauffacher
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 16mm
  • 22 mins
source
  • BAMPFA

Sausalito

Frank Stauffacher, United States, 1948

FEATURING
Barbara Stauffacher

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 16mm
  • 11 mins
source
  • J. Paul Leonard Library, San Francisco State University

ZigZag

United States, 1948

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • Color
  • 16mm
  • 8 mins
source
  • Academy Film Archive

Notes on the Port of St. Francis

Frank Stauffacher, United States, 1951

FILM DETAILS 
Narrator
  • Vincent Price
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 16mm
  • 22 mins
source
  • BAMPFA