Tue 31 Jul 2007
“Following Sean”
Posted by MH under California Documentary Project
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Don’t miss “Following Sean” on POV tonight. In 1969 Ralph Arlyck turned his camera on Sean, a precocious 4-year-old who lived upstairs from him in a crashpad full of hippies in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury. Arlyck’s candid short film, in which Sean talked casually about smoking pot, garnered great acclaim — and sounded alarms — at the time. Now, 30 years later in the Council-supported film “Following Sean,” Arlyck returns to find Sean, his freewheeling father, his sarcastic communist grandma and the rest of his boisterous family. Seamlessly blending rare archival footage with vivid portraits of 60s survivors, and bravely exposing his own personal dramas, Arlyck follows Sean along an epic time-trip filled with moments of surprising tenderness and humor. Be sure to catch this captivating Council-supported film. Check local listings for times. To buy a DVD of the film, visit the docudrama website.
Photographer Joel Pickford e-mailed us that he is spending the summer in Madison, Wis. studying the Lao language in an intensive program at the University of Wisconsin. His interest in Lao stems from his documentary work on the Hmong in Fresno, which has occupied him for more than two years. While in Wisconsin, he has presented a slide lecture about his Hmong project at the Southeast Asian Studies conference. For more about his project, supported by the Council under the California Documentary Project, visit Pickford’s 
Just a reminder that the California Documentary Project film “Prison Town, USA,” Po Kutchins and Katie Galloway’s documentary about how the prison industry has affected the town of Susanville, Calif. is on the PBS series “
Worth checking out in San Francisco is “A Serving of Love: The Passion of Bill Sorro,” a California Story Fund exhibit about long-time Filipino activist Bill Sorro, who led the fight for the International Hotel in San Francisco’s historic Manilatown District. Opening Sat., Aug. 4 and running through Oct. 6 at the International Hotel Manilatown Center, 868 Kearny St. 
For almost two years, photographer and journalist David Bacon has been documenting the lives and communities of indigenous Mexican farmworkers with the help of a California Documentary Project grant. Now you can view an exhibit of Bacon’s work in Fresno through Aug. 23. The exhibit, called “Living Under the Trees,” is being presented by 
If you live in the L.A. area be sure to catch “From Where They’re Standing,” an exhibit of black-and-white photos taken by 23 students from Eagle Rock and Watts. The kids worked with artist and photographer Gail Brown, who did a similar project with Latino kids in Los Angeles several years ago as part of the Council’s California Documentary Project. 
