Tangled Roots
Through intimate interviews with both her Jewish relatives in America and her German Lutheran relatives abroad, she discovers a rich family tapestry spanning three continents, shaped by war, courage, prejudice, and fear. Tangled Roots gives a personal voice to a rarely-heard minority, a generation of German children branded forever by their parent’s actions during the war. The film also gives an original voice to the countless Jewish friends and family changed forever by the horrors of the Holocaust.
Editor: Shirley Thompson
Director: Heidi Schmidt Emberling
San Francisco in the Movies: Bogart & Beyond
The history of San Francisco’s involvement in film from Bogart, to Hitchcock, to George Lucas, to Pixar.
Editors: Shirley Thompson & Dee Watt
Director: Ken Swartz
San Francisco at the Movies: the Silent Era
The story of how San Francisco rivaled Hollywood during the Silent Era of filmmaking. Fascinating 1920s footage of San Francisco.
Editor: Shirley Thompson
Director: Ken Swartz
Yield to Total Elation
YIELD TO TOTAL ELATION explores the life and work of the enigmatic and visionary artist Achilles G. Rizzoli. A mundane architectural draftsman by day, the architectural transcriber of the divine by night, Rizzoli created elaborate Beaux-Arts influenced monuments which would never be built. Accompanied by his witty and poignant commentary, the drawings served as translations for the voices and the hallucinations that haunted him. By deftly weaving Rizzoli’s words, archival footage, photos and evocative present day scenes of San Francisco’s historic architecture, the film tells the story of Rizzoli’s life and his work — an exaltation of architecture as pleasure, as memorial, as redemption.
Editor: Shirley Thompson
Director: Pat Ferrero
Surfing for Life
Surfers stills stoked in their 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Winner of Audience Award for Best Documentary, Hawaii International Film Festival, 2000.
Editor: Shirley Thompson
Director: David L. Brown
Producer: Roy Earnest
San Francisco in the 20’s
I had the great fortune to edit three documentaries at KRON in San Francisco. The whole film is now online thanks to the Bay Area Television Archive…watch here.
Northern California Emmy Award for Outstanding Editing
Editor: Shirley Thompson
Director/producer: Joan Saffa
Writer: Charlie Pearson
Executive Producer: Jim Swanson
Homes and Hands
Three tenacious and visionary communities deliver the American dream of owning a home to low-income residents through community land trusts.
Editor: Shirley Thompson
Director: Debra Chasnoff
Producer: Helen S. Cohen
It’s Elementary
This film changed the world when it was released in 1996. The first film to give adults, including teachers, practical lessons on how to talk with kids about gays, lesbians and prejudice.
Editor: Shirley Thompson
Director: Debra Chasnoff
Producer: Helen Cohen
Frontline: School Colors
The second documentary I ever edited was a 3 hour long Frontline; an examination of race in America through the story of a tumultuous year at Berkeley High School. Boy was I lucky to be on this team! I co-edited with lead editor Ken Schneider. Learned a LOT! I don’t have a trailer for this film but you can watch it online HERE.
Editors: Ken Schneider & Shirley Thompson
Director: Scott Andrews
Producers: Scott Andrews, Stephen Olsson, Inez Robinson-Odom