School of Cinema Summer 2026 Newsletter

Table of Contents

Faculty News | Alumni News | Student News | Programs and Events | Clubs and Groups | Prospective Students

Faculty News

Assistant Professor Mihaela Mihailova publishes article in Screen 

Assistant Professor Mihaela Mihailova published her latest peer-reviewed article, "Discriminators for gender equality: deepfakes in feminist filmmaking," in Screen, a leading international journal of academic film and television studies. 

The open-access piece can be found in Volume 67, Issue 2 (2026).

Assistant Professor Rafael Flores premieres “Ashes of the Monarca” at LA Latino International Film Festival & Oakland International Film Festival 

At the beginning of the summer “Ashes of the Monarca”, the newest documentary produced, shot and edited by Flores premiered at the Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival.  It tells the story of an undocumented filmmaker returning to Michoacán, Mexico for the first time since childhood, traveling on a special permit known as "advanced parole" and risking not only her safety, but the possibility of being denied reentry to the United States at the discretion of immigration authorities. As she walks the streets of her youth, haunted by memories and the unresolved disappearance of her uncle, she confronts the shadows of family, loss, and the political violence that shaped her homeland. 

The Bay Area premiere of the film will take place on September 16^th from 5 – 8 p.m. at Northeastern College in Oakland as part of the Oakland International Film Festival.

Alumni News

Cinema alumni, Anna Rotke, recognized for feature editing credit in new Insidious movie, Out of the Further 

Former SFSU Cinema alumni, Anna Rotke was recently recognized for her outstanding work on the Insidious movie Out of the Further.  In the film, Amelia Eve stars as Gemma, a young mother raising her daughter in the house she grew up in. Her happy life is disrupted when dreams and disturbing events reveal that demons from the supernatural realm known as The Further can permanently cross over and escape into the real human world. Lin Shaye also reprises her iconic role as Elise Rainier. 

Learn more about Anna on IMDB and Instagram.

The film was released in August and you can watch the final trailer on YouTube.

Student News

SFSU Cinema Undergraduate Documentary Selected for Silicon Valley African Film Festival 

SFSU Cinema undergraduate Jae LeNoir’s documentary Where I Got My Name: Down in Mississippi has been selected for the 17th annual Silicon Valley African Film Festival. The intimate investigative documentary follows LeNoir’s father, Gerald LeNoir, as the family travels to Marion County, Mississippi, tracing their ancestors to the plantation where they were enslaved and confronting the legacy that followed emancipation. Directed and edited by LeNoir through Magnum Opus Films, the project combines family history, genealogy, archival research, and documentary filmmaking to reclaim a history nearly lost to time.

Cinema M.F.A. candidate Naomi Garcia Pasmanick premieres short documentary at Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema Film Festival 

“Chispa = Spark: Connecting Neighbors in South East San Francisco” at the Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema Film Festival. 

Chispa = Spark tells the story of Chispa, an interactive art trade project designed by San Francisco legends Kate Connell and Oscar Merlara, who beyond curating art, spark the light of community in the South East neighborhoods of San Francisco. The screening will be on Saturday, September 12th at 7 p.m. at Precita Park, Precita Avenue at Folsom Street, San Francisco and is free and open to the public. 

Programs and Events

"Love & Revolution in a Crumbling World Order" 

A book talk and speculation on resistance and liberation.

Date: Thursday, August 27  
Time: 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Location: Coppola Theater (Fine Arts 101)

Speakers

• Radhika Singh, author of the novel "Earthly Playing Field" (2026)
• Dr. Rama Ali Kased, Associate Professor Race and Resistance Studies
• Mayuran Tiruchelvam, Associate Professor School of Cinema

Earthly Playing Field — a speculative tale connecting ongoing People’s movements against global imperialism through a queer, Sufi love story. On projecting a liberated future; the role of faith and love in the Palestinian resistance movement; disrupting alienation within the imperial core; and practicing radical imagination as a love letter to the revolutionary spirit.

Roma has a steady job, a mortgage, and a surrogate family in Queens. But as she moves through her daily routines, the powerful Empire that rules her world bares its teeth elsewhere — crushing freedom movements across the planet, including the Punjabi farmers’ uprising where her younger brother struggles on the frontlines.

Roma’s life is upended when her older brother entrusts her with a strange gift: an ordinary-looking plant that manifests a sophisticated bioengineered technology. The ‘cell’ opens a portal for an extraterrestrial spirit-body bearing news of a liberated future — and the potential to hack AI warfare — propelling Roma and her family into the core of a rising resistance.

As dreams and dialectics converge, Roma meditates on the role of faith, ruminating on mystic poetics and anticolonial legacies while yearning for a bewitching woman whose heart will only ever belong to the revolution. 

Clubs and Groups

Prospective Students

School Tours

Dear Prospective Students,

The School of Cinema offers in-person tours of our facilities. Please make an appointment by contacting the Cinema Office at cinema@sfsu.edu.