WatcH thE TraiLeR
ABouT tHe FiLm
Art is a reflection of the place from which it emerges. Tell Them We Were Here chronicles artists living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area and how they extend the historical legacy of Bay Area activism. Embedded within the art practices of these eight artists we see the most pressing issues of our time, Prison Reform, Homelessness, Racial Equity, Feminism, Environmental Justice, Income Inequality. In an age of hypercapitalism, these artists represent an empowering alternative worldview, one that emphasizes creativity and community over capital.
The film follows the work of artists Sadie Barnette, Amy Franceschini (Futurefarmers), Jim Goldberg, Tucker Nichols, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Alicia McCarthy, Nigel Poor (Ear Hustle), and Michael Swaine.
Framed within the last 25 years of art-making in the Bay Area, the film is not an all-encompassing historical document, but rather a glimpse into a select group of artists who’ve chosen a less worn path. It touches on the disappearance of cultural communities due to gentrification and economic instability and reminds us of how vital creative communities are to healthy societies and political change.
The title, Tell Them We Were Here, is a statement made to the director by legendary poet and author Bill Berkson. It is a reminder that We are the Archive and the champions of our own history. The stories we choose to tell, are the ones that live on in history. We hope this film represents a reminder to communities around the globe, that creativity exists everywhere, and as Camus stated “every creation is a gift offered to the future”.
The supporting cast includes Devendra Banhart, Dena Beard, René de Guzman, Tommy Guerrero, George McCalman, Cliff Hengst, Larry Rinder, Apsara DiQuinzio, Glen Helfand, Tabitha Soren, Ramekon O’Arwisters, Eleanor Coppola, Ala Ebtekar, Erin O’Toole, Matt Gonzalez, Ana Teresa Fernández, Hal Fischer, Kevin Killian, Phil Ross, Jim Melchert, and Natasha Boas.
Music by Marc Capelle, Vetiver, Virgil Shaw, Clare Rojas (Peggy Honeywell), Tommy Guerrero, Kelley Stoltz, Devendra Banhart, Fruit Bats, Monte Vallier, and Pat Mesiti-Miller.
Run time: 1 hour 28 minutes
FiLmMakers
Griff Williams is an American painter, publisher, and gallerist. In 1993 he founded Gallery 16 and the pioneering fine art printmaking workshop Urban Digital Color in San Francisco. The exhibition and publishing program has worked with hundreds of artists including Lynn Hershman Leeson, William Kentridge, Deborah Oropallo, Jim Isermann, bell hooks, Rex Ray, Margaret Kilgallen, Mark Grotjahn, Paul Sietsema, Arturo Herrera, Michelle Grabner, and Ari Marcopoulos.
Williams has also designed and published dozens of acclaimed books with the Gallery 16 Editions imprint. His recent books include The Gay Seventies: Hal Fischer (Gallery 16 Editions) and a monograph on the life and artwork of the late San Francisco artist Rex Ray including essays by Rebecca Solnit and Christian Frock (Chronicle Books).
His paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums including the San Diego Museum of Art, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, and the San Jose Museum of Art. His work has been reviewed in Art in America, Flash Art, and Artnews.
Keelan Williams, born and raised in the Bay Area, is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Loyola Marymount’s School of Film and Television Production. Williams has directed, produced, shot, and edited short films, documentaries, concert films, and music videos.
His first short film, Everything Old Is New Again, was an Official Selection at The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary at Film Outside the Frame. Tell Them We Were Here is his first feature length documentary.
Awards & Festivals
PasT ScreEninGs
Gallery 16 – San Francisco, CA, April 26th 2024
Princess Cinemas – Waterloo, Ontario, April 15th 2024
Black Theatre – Oslo, Norway, Friday March 29th 2024
San Francisco Public Library – September 23rd 2023
Sausalito Center For The Arts – July 20th 2023
Chiang Mai University – Thailand, July 14 2023
Outdoor Film Series X The Far Out West Community Garden – San Francisco, June 3rd 2023
Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco – May 24th 2023
Smith Rafael Film Center – May 18th 2023
Nevada City Film Festival X Sierra College – May 5th, 2023
Orange County Museum – Jan 12th, 2023
SFMOMA – Nov 10th, 2022 (ft. Sadie Barnette, Tucker Nichols, & Jim Goldberg)
Balboa Theater – May 21st, 2022
Verge Center For The Arts – Sacramento, April 28th, 2022
Sebastopol Film Festival – March 24th, 2022 (Opening Night Film)
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival – Feb 21st 2022
BAMPFA Feb, 10, 2022 (ft. Tucker Nichols, Larry Rinder, Nigel Poor)
Centre Pompidou Málaga – Spain, November 15, 2021
Headlands Center for the Arts – Nov 8th, 2021 (ft. Vetiver)
Newport Beach Film Festival – October 24th 2021
Moments FIlm Festival – Sep. 15th – Oct. 9th, 2021 (Madrid, Malaga, Sevilla)
Nevada City Film Festival – Aug. 29th – Sep. 2nd 2021
Rialto Bozeman – Montana, August 1st (Presented by Eli Ridgeway Gallery, Bozeman Film
Society & Tin Works Art)
Roxie Theater, June 18th-26th 2021
San Francisco Documentary Film Festival – June 5th 2021 (ft. Sadie & Rodney Barnette, Rene
DeGuzman, Nigel Poor)
DOXA Documentary Film Festival – May 11th 2021
BAMPFA – May 11th 2021
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ReActiOnS to ThE FilM
[T]he Williamses see art as more than the exclusive domain of museums, galleries and collectors, but as an essential component of a healthy society — something that can make communities not just more beautiful, but more functional. [Read full review here]
—G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
Structured as a series of intersecting, beautifully photographed studio visits and conversations, Tell Them We Were Here shows how these artists have engaged with the legacies of Bay Area activism and social consciousness through their work. …They reflect on the influence of historical counter-cultural movements, as well as contemporary social and economic challenges, in fostering an art scene less concerned with money and power than with imagination, innovation, community, and care.
—Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator, BAMPFA
Griff Williams and his filmmaker son Keelan Williams, came to the mutual conclusion that the Bay Area’s progressive politics and its special, often-defiant otherness naturally reflect in the work of the region’s visual artists. [Read full review here]
—dsmiller, East Bay Express
Griff and Keelan Williams’ feature pays tribute to San Francisco as a longtime “refuge for weirdos and artists” whose makers continue to expand notions of what and where art can be, as well as who can make it. [Read full review here]
—Dennis Harvey, 48 Hills
This hopeful yet realistic tour of the artist community offsets the prevailing worry that San Francisco’s artistic mojo is getting snuffed out because of skyrocketing rents and other Big City maladies. That doesn’t paint a complete picture, the father-son filmmaking team of Griff and Keelan Williams observes in Tell Them We Were Here. Their film acknowledges the hardships of living here and the hobbling effects those have had on the creative community. But their focus mainly shifts to highlighting and celebrating resilient Bay Area artists who are — as the film’s title attests — eking out a modest living while they create and inspire and put community and connection over profit and fame. [Read full review here]
—Randy Myers, Bay City News Foundation
