Blog

This special night will be a benefit for the Eviction Defense
Collaborative. Speakers from the EDC will be on hand as well as one of the
contributors to Boom. Learn what is currently going on in the struggle for
affordable housing and enjoy this historic and timeless feature-length
work by local producers – Whispered Media.

Boom the Sound of Eviction:

Enthralled by dreams of instant wealth during the dot-com boom, the world
largely ignored the resulting housing crisis that plagued San Francisco –
“Mecca of the New Economy.” Now the bubble has popped, but the high-tech
industry has changed the city’s landscape forever.

Boom explores the relationships between the dot-com boom (and bust) and
community displacement and gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area,
particularly in the largely working class and Latino Mission District.

By turns humorous and scathing, Boom delves into the ironies and
contradictions of the “New Economy” and delivers a potent social critique
that is ambitious in its scope while remaining close to the human scale.
The viewer moves easily between dot-com party crashing at one end of the
economic spectrum and painful moments with evicted families at the other.
Boom features interviews with dot-com workers, real estate developers, and
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, as well as those who challenged the new
economic order through community organizing, electoral politics, and
direct action.

In addition to doggedly pursuing the daily drama of San Francisco
gentrification and resistance, the filmmakers have amassed an enormous
amount of material from which to fashion their motion picture. Boom’s
eclectic pallet of imagery includes 60’s-era tourist movies, educational
films of the 1950’s, and the filmmakers’ own original footage, documenting
an era that has come and gone. Dramatic footage of communities in conflict
brings you out into the streets while experts and community members
themselves offer analysis of the social and historic forces that have
shaped the current political landscape.

Boom’s dynamic soundtrack features music by popular artists such as
Antibalas, Aztlan Underground, ColdCut, Fugazi, Michael Franti &
Spearhead, Mushroom and Tortoise, as well as original sound design by Alex
Theory.

For more information about Boom – The Sound of Eviction, please visit
http://www.boomthemovie.org.

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The Eviction Defense Collaborative:

The Eviction Defense Collaborative (“EDC”), a non-profit, legal clinic and
community resource for tenants who are facing possible eviction. The EDC
helps those facing eviction by making funds available to them and by
providing free advice and counsel. The EDC is located in the heart of San
Francisco’s Mission District. The EDC also provides legal services to
tenants who are in eviction proceedings and is often the only resource
available to clients who lack the financial ability to retain an attorney.

—   —   —   —   —   —

Conact Jeff from Whispered Media at
 jeff@whisperedmedia.org
or
conact Colleen from the EDC at
 colleen_edc@sbcglobal.net

Thirty years ago, America’s lesbians and gays – a largely closeted,
fragmented and shunned community – experienced a profound turning point.  On
June 27, 1969, in what is considered the birth of the modern gay civil
rights movement, the homosexual, bisexual and transgendered patrons of the
Stonewall Bar in New York City spontaneously united and fought back against
chronic police harassment, jeers and arrests.

From the emergence of the ‘70s Gay Liberation Movement and Womyn’s music
festivals to the onslaught of AIDS, the vibrant Gay Games movement and Ellen
DeGeneres’ highly publicized coming out performance, AFTER STONEWALL
presents a story as compelling, rewarding and provocative as the individual
lesbians and gays who defined the era.  1999, 90min.
answer@actionsf.org

A SUMMER OF CINEMA  Benefit Series Starts tonight  with the
  screening  of  “Reckless Claudia”. A 1970s Mitchell brothers classic
  from the golden blue period of Deep throat fame. The
  pristine Melodrama 16mm.print was discovered by chance in the
  Mission. There will be a cartoon and real beef hot dogs offered along
with vegetarian ones and chocolate dipped chilled bananas (with or
without nuts). Surprise Musical guests will perform pre-show festivities.
Beverages. Screening starts promptly at8:30 pm. Come Kick off Our Summer
of cinema with a “tongue-in- cheek” look into pornography’s past. Get
your groove on and come.