Posted by Larry Gleeson
San Francisco IndieFest Announces
Launch of RESISTANCE OF VISION
Politically-focused film festival will tour the United States
throughout 2025-2026, beginning with screening events
in San Francisco, Boston, and Wichita
Following a couple months of unprecedented political upheaval, filmmakers and the film industry are still scrambling to find footing to address or even oppose what is happening in this country. The RESISTANCE OF VISION touring film festival is the first concrete thing I’ve seen in the film festival world. The first “shot across the bow” may be coming courtesy of San Francisco IndieFest. The stalwart Bay Area film festival has launched a politically-focused touring film festival Resistance of Vision designed and set to screen in cities across the U.S. this year and next.
The debut will be comprised of four short film programs screening in Boston, Wichita, and San Francisco in May. Each screening event will discussions and panels highlighting community organizing efforts in the city hosting the film festival.
The new film festival is the brainchild of San Francisco IndieFest founder/director Jeff Ross, with veteran film curator, documentarian, and cinema exhibition consultant Anna Feder serving as the Director of Programming. The Resistance of Vision film festival will be available for booking for groups seeking to hold spaces for dialogue, organizing, and action within their communities. Partnerships with national organizations will support each program to assist with resources, audience building, and calls to action. Participating filmmakers will receive screening fees for all bookings and presentations.
Regarding the inspiration for creating Resistance of Vision, Ross said, “Following the results of the last year’s election, I felt an urgent need to push back on the planned changes we are now seeing take place by the new regime in the best way I know how, through shared experiences and storytelling. By experiencing the lives of others, we build empathy and are moved to action. According to the Washington Post’s famous slogan, ‘Democracy dies in darkness’, by exposing the stories of real people and their real lives, we make sure the keep the lights on important stories.”
Noted for her work with the successful and influential Bright Lights Cinema Series at Emerson College, Feder was a natural choice to take on the programming reins for Resistance of Vision. Feder said, “First and foremost, I am an activist. I am also a cultural worker who believes in the power of seeing our stories reflected back to us on screen and gathering in community. I see this touring film festival as a way to fight back against the forces of repression that have seeped into every corner of our lives. The antidote to despair is action. And the program that I will be putting together will have calls to action baked in. As a queer Jewish woman, the call to Tikkun Olam (translates to “repairing the world”) is an obligation to engage in the work of envisioning and working toward a better world.”
Resistance of Vision will be committed to showcasing stories of resilience and the fight for liberation that are often excluded by corporate-controlled exhibition channels. Lively discussions following the screenings with filmmakers, film participants, activists & academics local to each community will be included after every program to allow audiences to dig deeper into the subjects and issues presented on screen.
The call for submissions began earlier this month with April 1st set as the deadline. Notifications will go out on April 13, programs will be offered VOD in each participating geographical area May 1-4, and the live presentations will take place on May 3rd and 4th in San Francisco, Wichita, and Boston. Additional screening dates and locations will be added throughout the U.S. as the tour is set to run through the beginning of 2026. In addition, there will a corresponding access to screenings online during each of in-person event.
The four short film program topics announced for the inaugural festival are Gender Justice, Environmental Justice, Racial Justice, and Labor and Housing Justice. Audience Awards and Jury Prizes will also be awarded to films/filmmakers in each of those categories.
Programs for the 2025-2026 Resistance of Vision Film Festival will include; OUR BODIES, OUR CHOICE (Gender Justice): a program dealing with bodily autonomy, including transgender and reproductive healthcare, and other issues affecting individuals based on sex or gender; THIS IS AN EMERGENCY (Environmental Justice): a program dealing with our relationship to the natural world and efforts to fight laws and institutions that fail to protect our environment and actively contribute to the worsening climate crisis; FIGHT THE POWER (Racial Justice): a program dealing with all forms of racial discrimination, including Indigenous communities around the globe and stories of individuals and organizations fighting for a more just and equitable world; and WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? (Labor and Housing Justice): program dealing with labor concerns, including union organizing and mobilizing for a living wage and housing justice, and protecting the rights and dignity of the unhoused.
For more information go to: https://sfindie.com/festivals/resistance-of-vision-touring-film-festival/.
