A non-profit production company making documentary films for the general public on social and politi
Snitow-Kaufman Productions produces media for the general public on social issues.
We'll be at the screening of "Town Destroyer" at the United Nations Association Film Festival at Stanford on Thurs. Oct 26 - and were just on KWMR radio to talk about it:
October 17, 2023 - Town Destroyer documentary about George Washington, historic murals and national monuments with filmmakers Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow.
Historic Club available to rent. Ask about becoming a member. Concerts, dinners, lectures, plays, and more.
Fresno area friends! We're coming to screen TOWN DESTROYER Friday Oct 6th, 5:30 at CineCulture, Cal State Fresno. Hope to see you there!
"Promoting cultural awareness through film and post-screening discussions."
Looking forward to the screening of TOWN DESTROYER at Berkeley's Hillside Club Thursday Sept. 28, 7pm - We'll be there! Hope Bay Area folks can join us!
Historic Club available to rent. Ask about becoming a member. Concerts, dinners, lectures, plays, and more.
Especially don't miss the dynamic speech by SAG-AFRA President Fran Drescher, who says that this strike is in the tradition of those who "broke down the gates of Versailles."
We are joining in solidarity with the actors' union SAG-AFTRA--Alan's union--as well as the Writers Guild--already on strike--as our leaders announced today we are going on an "existential" strike against the studio/streaming/AI system that wants to digitize actors out of their jobs. Here's the most militant press conference by union leaders that we've seen in a long time--and they make clear what the strike means not only for everyone in creative fields, but also asserting that actors are are part of the working class. "We work!"
SAG-AFTRA officials are announcing the results of a vote to strike on Thursday after Hollywood actors failed to reach a deal with studios and streaming servi...
Honored and delighted that Town Destroyer won the Student Choice Award at the just-concluded Ouray Film Festival. So meaningful to us!
Our award-winning documentary TOWN DESTROYER is coming to the Pacific Film Archive this Saturday June 10th, 4:30pm - It's the East Bay Premiere and we'll be there with our editor Gregory Scharpen! Join us for the screening and discussion!
Town Destroyer explores the ways we look at art and history at a time of racial reckoning. The story focuses on a dispute over historic murals on display at San Francisco’s George Washington High School; the murals depict the life of George Washington: slave owner, general, land speculator, presid...
An honor and delight to receive this from a wonderful festival!
The film Town Destroyer struck a chord with our documentary jury who wanted to acknowledge it as an important look at a contemporary social justice issue.
The film is playing Friday, June 2nd, 1pm at Coast Cinemas. Congratulations to directors Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow on this recognition.
Great talking this morning with our Executive Producer Peggy Berryhill (Muscogee), the First Lady of Native Radio, on KGUA - 88.3 FM on the Mendocino coast, in advance of the screening of TOWN DESTROYER at the Mendocino Film Festival this coming Friday June 2! We're looking forward to being there with Peggy soon!
Looking forward to the Mendocino Film Festival where they'll screen "Town Destroyer" on June 2nd. We'll be there! Here's an interview by Forthright Media in anticipation:
As a nation, we are in the throes of a re-examination of history, but whose history, and who gets to tell it, and how do we live today with various versions of our history, that were memorialized i…
Certainty is not your friend!
Fierce battles over how to interpret American history and who gets to tell the story often seem to center on powerful works of art. The focus of our new documentary film "Town Destroyer” is on one such fight: how to deal with the image of a murdered Indian in Victor Arnautoff 's Depression-era “...
Wonderful screenings of Town Destroyer at FilmFest DC this week!
TOWN DESTROYER is screening coast to coast this spring and we're traveling with it! Tell your friends! Up next: Thursday April 20 5pm at Stanford's Levinthal Hall, Wednesday April 26 6pm in FilmFest DC at Landmark's E St. Cinema.
Art lines the halls of San Francisco's George Washington High School and so does heated controversy. Masterful New Deal–era murals by Victor Arnautoff, a left-wing artist and student of Diego Rivera, extolled the school's namesake and told a daring truth for 1936: The Father of Our Country was a s...
We're delighted to be screening Town Destroyer at the University of Pennsylvania's Wolf Humanities Center at 5pm April 12. We will be there for the discussion of George Washington, the Town Destroyer, and the battles over representing history in art. Here's our most recent encounter with the Founder at Washington Square Park in Manhattan. https://wolfhumanities.upenn.edu/events/town-destroyer
Excited to announce our documentary "Town Destroyer" screens Sat Mar. 16 at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival, Fri Mar. 24 at the Salem Film Fest, and Sat Mar 25 at the Sarasota Film Festival! More screenings coming up thru the spring/summer...
So excited our film TOWN DESTROYER will be part of the Sebastopol Film Festival. We'll be there for the screening on Saturday March 18!
The Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival is an annual celebration of non-fiction films and filmmakers from around the world.
A great film festival this weekend in honor of MLK Jr. - the films can be streamed for free - we're honored they'll be showing our film "Blacks and Jews" as well as many other classic films!
Find festival details and view film trailers
Deborah and I will be doing a webinar with The Living New Deal about our film "Town Destroyer," and the murals at George Washington High School. This coming Tuesday 5pm Pacific.
A Living New Deal Webinar
"Town Destroyer"— Arnautoff and the Art of Controversy
A webinar with filmmakers Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow
Tuesday, November 29, 2022 5pm-6pm PDT
What is role of the artist in reflecting America to itself? Victor Arnautoff was one of the most prolific artists in San Francisco. His mural at George Washington High School, "Life of Washington,” is widely interpreted as a critique of America’s founding myths. Yet, some see the mural as racist, leading to calls for its removal. Filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman will discuss the making of their latest film, "Town Destroyer," and answer questions following their presentation. Join the conversation. Free
Register here:
What happens when art no longer reflects current societal views? This is the focus of "Town Destroyer," a film about the New Deal muralist Victor Arnautoff’s 1936 work, "The Life of Washington,” and how a high school mural became a media firestorm. Some students, parents, and observers found the...
A Living New Deal Webinar “Town Destroyer— the Art of Controversy" A webinar with filmmakers Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow Tuesday, November 29, 2022 5pm-6pm PDT What is role of the artist in reflecting America to itself? Victor Arnautoff was one of the most prolific artists in San Francisco. ...
We'll be talking about filmmaking and New Deal Art this coming Tues Nov 29th! Join us!
A Living New Deal Webinar “Town Destroyer— the Art of Controversy" A webinar with filmmakers Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow Tuesday, November 29, 2022 5pm-6pm PDT What is role of the artist in reflecting America to itself? Victor Arnautoff was one of the most prolific artists in San Francisco. ...
A great week screening "Town Destroyer" at the Roxie - wonderful crowds, discussions, community. Thanks to our co-sponsoring/benefit organizations: Precita Eyes Muralists, The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, The California Institute for Community, Art and Nature, and The Living New Deal.
Exciting screenings of "Town Destroyer" at the Roxie continue this week, with after film discussions and special guests on Weds and Thurs.
"Town Destroyer" sold out at the Roxie last night but will be screened there for the coming week. Join us for the discussion!
“Town Destroyer” examines the history of the George Washington mural.
"Town Destroyer" opening tonight at the Roxie in SF. Great ink from Dennis Harvey!
Plus: 'I Didn't See You There' on disability, 'Battleground' on abortion, and 'Good Night Oppy' on cute little Mars rovers
https://eastbayexpress.com/talk-of-the-town/ Kelly Vance at the East Bay Express says: Town Destroyer may well be the all-time most hot-button item in Kaufman and Snitow’s toolkit.
Documentary shows how an historical mural upset the cultural balance 80 years later Here’s an election-season open-ended rhetorical question on which to chew: How liberal is liberal enough? But before we get into any barroom brawls or Thanksgiving family feuds, let’s check in with a couple of pu...
The San Francisco Examiner and the Chronicle (Datebook Pick) are reviewing our new film "Town Destroyer" which opens at the Roxie this Friday Nov. 4 for a week of benefit screenings. Come join us. We'll be there every night. Go to Roxie.com for schedule.
https://www.sfexaminer.com/culture/why-the-debate-about-the-controversial-mural-at-george-washington-high-school-goes-on/article_8e2182ea-5963-11ed-aeb9-bf368f2dcbdc.html
“Town Destroyer” sheds new light on our first president. The film by Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman also illuminates a work of art that roiled San Francisco and the nation.
So excited our new film TOWN DESTROYER will open at the Roxie Cinema in San Francisco on Nov. 4th!
TOWN DESTROYER – our new film examining the controversy over New Deal murals at San Francisco’s George Washington High School - just had its World Premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival, and was, in the words of the senior documentary programmer, “The most talked-about film at the Festiva...
Great to be on NPR this morning!
Students of color at a high school, a law school and two universities have objected to the way historical murals have portrayed Native Americans and African Americans.
Great to be with our Executive Producer Peggy Berryhill on Rose Aguilar's KALW show "Your Call" this morning!
Town Destroyer examines how a changing society should reckon with controversial works of art Published October 11, 2022 at 8:00 AM PDT Listen • 52:10 On this edition of Your Call, we're discussing Town Destroyer, a new documentary that focuses on murals at San Francisco's George Washington High S...
Our "Town Destroyer" opening at the Mill Valley Film Festival was amazing. A wonderful screening, panel discussion and party. Next screenings at the Festival are Friday Oct 14 1:15 at the Rafael Theater in San Rafael, and Saturday Oct 15 1:45 at the Roxie Cinema in San Francisco....Join us!
Looking forward to the Premiere screenings of TOWN DESTROYER at the Mill Valley Film Festival! Hope to see you at the theater!
Among the best are documentaries that offer intricate and nuanced reporting
Tickets on sale now for the World Premiere of our new documentary Town Destroyer at the Mill Valley Film Festival!
https://www.mvff.com/events/town-destroyer/
Is art’s role to provoke or placate? What happens when it no longer reflects current societal views? These questions and many more were the subject of hot debate when Victor Arnautoff’s thirteen-panel mural “The Life of Washington” became an object of local controversy, then a media firestor...
So excited that our new film TOWN DESTROYER will premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October!
"A fascinating microcosm of today's culture wars." --Dennis Harvey, San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle
Coming to the finish line - with our editor Gregory Scharpen - with our film TOWN DESTROYER! Looking forward to screenings soon!
Excellent piece by Rebecca Solnit in response to despair.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/03/abortion-roe-v-wade-womens-rights-rebecca-solnit
You can take away a right through legal means, but it is harder to take away the belief in that right. The uproar over the court’s hideous abortion decision is a reminder of how unpopular it is
Amen, Jane Fonda!
“That way they’d be free of governmental restrictions by those who care about ‘the sanctity of life.'”
It's your last chance to see Dewey Crumpler's wonderful show at the Richmond Art Center. https://richmondartcenter.org/exhibitions/dewey-crumpler/
Dewey Crumpler: Crossings is the first survey of Dewey Crumpler’s ‘shipping container’ work to be exhibited in the Bay Area.
Art Gets In The Mind!
https://email.linkingarts.com/t/ViewEmail/r/B10EF07B2FC7470E2540EF23F30FEDED/8EB615033089AFE4CE8D7D458793328C?alternativeLink=False
We are coming down the home stretch and hope to finish our film "Town Destroyer" later this summer. As we edit this movie exploring the impact of New Deal painter Victor Arnautoff’s 1936 “Life of Washington” murals, we regularly ask ourselves an existential question: "When the world is falling...
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