Truly CA Podcasts: Shorts
Truly CA Shorts is KQED's monthly podcast of short documentary films by California filmmakers. Serious to absurd, the truth is always stranger than fiction!
2012
- Plasticity
View Ryan Malloy's short film, Plasticity, which profiles three innovators who are redefining the use of urban space in San Francisco.
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- Poetry Inside Out
View Joyce Lee's short film, Poetry Inside Out, which captures the struggle of bilingual kids who are crossing boundaries of culture and language within Bay Area public schools.
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2011
- The Legend of Toilet-Seat Charlie
View Jeremy Kaller's short film, The Legend of Toilet-Seat Charlie, which explores one man's love of rock 'n' roll and his relationship with the community that cherished him.
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- One Plastic Beach
View Tess Thackara and Eric Slatkin's short film, One Plastic Beach, which follows artists Richard Lang and Judith Selby Lang to Kehoe Beach, where they collect their art supplies: plastic debris.
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- Roz (and Joshua)
View Charlene Music's short film, Roz (and Joshua), which tells the story of a mother's love for her child.
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- An Architect's Vision
View Mina T. Son's short film, An Architect's Vision, which is a glimpse into the world of Chris Downey, an architect who is blind.
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2010
2009
- Close to Home
View Theo Rigby's short film, Close to Home, which follows the story of a father broken from the loss of his son, and a daughter waiting for the father that she once had.
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- Sealed Off!!!
View Elliott Kennerson's short film, Sealed Off!!!, which examines the controversy of whether La Jolla's "The Children's Pool" should be made into a seal preserve or returned to the people.
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- My Eyes Were Fresh
View Jane Levy Reed's short film, My Eyes Were Fresh: The Life and Photographs of John Gutmann, a profile of an artist who made an important contribution to the history of modern photography.
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- Devil's Teeth
View Roger Teich's short film, Devil's Teeth, a meditative mix of film and video portraying the Farallon Islands' last sea urchin diver.
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2008
- One Strong Arm
View Loren Mendell and Tiller Russell's short film, One Strong Arm, a portrait of an arm wrestler who is half-paralyzed.
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- Shelf Life
View Don Bernier's short film, Shelf Life, a short documentary exploring one man's passion for collecting skulls.
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- de Young
View Peter Max Lawrence's short film, de Young, an experimental portrait of the museum's building in San Francisco.
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2007
- Live from Tent City
Live from Tent City documents the dedicated citizens of the city of Richmond, California, and their efforts to stem their city's rising crime rate. In 2006, the Tent City movement was started, when residents of the East Bay city camped out in a local park for 30 days in response to increasing gun violence in the streets.
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- Christmas at the Bait Shop
Some of Keith Fraser's best friends are birds. Join him at the famous Loch Lomond bait shop in San Rafael CA as he distributes Christmas presents to some of his favorites: snowy egrets Wee Willie and Wee Willie Junior, great blue herons Nasty and Nasty Junior, and his closest buddy, an endearing Heermann's gull named Ahab.
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- Pump
Pump is an experimental short that involved mounting a Super 8 camera to various parts of a fixed gear bicycle and riding around the city of San Francisco. Inspired by the city symphonies of Dziga Vertov, Pump molds the urban energy of their compositions with a more visceral moving perspective. The physicality of a bicycle offers a personal viewpoint that humanizes movement through industrial spaces and hybridizes traditions of hand-held and automotive camera movement.
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- No Angels In the Outfield
View Larry Warner's short film, No Angels In the Outfield, a look at a unique baseball team where you can say it's three strikes and you're in.
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- Howdy Partner
View Christie Herring's short film, Howdy Partner, a spirited visual meditation on how one slippery word means more -- and, consequently, less -- than we may think.
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- Leonard and the Mountain
View Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer's short film, Leonard and the Mountain, a portrait of Leonard Knight a man who has spent fourteen years building a three-story religious monument out of mud and old paint out in the California desert.
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- Ghost Mountain: An Experiment in Primitive Living
View John McDonald's short film Ghost Mountain, the story of the original hippie family who chose to live a seventeen-year back-to-nature dream, only to see their desert isolation take its toll. (Running Time: 16:00)
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- Gumbasia
View Gumbasia, the first clay-animated film produced by Art Clokey, the creator of Gumby and Davey and Goliath.
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- Old Soles
Old Soles is filmmaker Leigh Iacobucci's portrait of Carlos Lopez, a 70-year old cobbler, and his unique shop on Haight Street.
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- Amy
Filmmaker Susan Rivo reveals her lifelong attachment and deep bond with a stuffed animal received at birth in this poignant and hilarious personal narrative.
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- Chickens in the City
Chickens in the City is a chicken-level view of backyard coops in San Francisco. The film playfully explores the ways in which keeping chickens has helped shape the philosophies behind what and how urban chicken-owners eat. When is the last time you looked YOUR dinner in the eye?
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2006
- The Rocks
Welcome to Tatvium Rocks better known as Vasquez Rocks in L.A. County. This desert park is one of L.A.'s hidden gems. Here's why ...
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- The Recyclergy
For decades the San Francisco Bay Area has been a hub for the recycling movement. Even the garbage companies have a long history of recycling practices. After the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, community, non-profit recycling centers appeared in schools, garages, and neighborhood centers -- with the goal of bringing recycling to their cities. Now in 2006, only two non-profit recycling organizations remain in San Francisco.
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- Grease
Grease explores our society's dependence on gasoline and the choices we have as average consumers. The film profiles a group of people in Sebastopol, California who have converted their diesel cars to run on vegetable oil.
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- The Desert Rose
The Desert Rose is a glimpse into the life of Dixie Evans, an almost 80-year-old burlesque dancer. A Marilyn Monroe look-alike who would show a lot more than her famous role model; Dixie now runs the world's only Burlesque Museum in Helendale, CA.
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- Hush
In Mike Seely's Hush, Nature Sounds Society founder Paul Matzner invites the viewer to experience "natural quiet," an environment free from human-made noise.
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- Night Visions
Night Visions is a reflection on life and loss as seen through the eyes of a young soldier returning from service in Iraq.
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- Unhitched
Erin Hudson and Ben Wu's Unhitched is a portrait of Northern California community that has transformed travel trailers into permanent homes.
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