• Arts
  • Creative Work Fund

Documentary filmmaker Sophie Constantinou is collaborating with Collective Impact to produce and show three short films and several ancillary audio and video clips focused on pressing issues identified by residents of San Francisco’s Western Addition. The project, Buchanan Stories/Buchanan Change, continues the artist’s work with the neighborhood’s multi-generational struggles and frames an ongoing conversation about how redevelopment can be conducted by, with, and for the community rather than being imposed on a community from the outside. The artist will use a cycle of community storytelling, filmmaking, and engagement activities to create conversations and inspire civic participation. She will work closely with community organizer Tamara Walker and Collective Impact, which operates the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center and has deep roots in the Western Addition/Fillmore District where it serves more than 600 youth and young adults annually with after-school, summer enrichment and workforce-development programs. A working group of 28 community organizations focused on key issues affecting neighborhood youth and the larger Buchanan Mall area are integral to this project. For 25 years, Sophie Constantinou has directed and produced work acclaimed for tackling complex, place-based issues. She has worked with the Buchanan Mall community since 2010. The creation and screenings of the project’s three films will take place over two years.