Lise Swenson

Current

• Owner/Director at Saltwater LLC
• Owner at Left Coast Films
• Professor at City College of SF

2 more...

Past

• Director at Mission Movie

Education

• San Francisco State University
• San Francisco State University

Recommended

1 person has recommended Lise

Connections

111 connections

Industry

Media Production

Lise Swenson’s Summary

Lise Swenson Bio

Lise Swenson is an active member in the media arts of the Bay Area. As a filmmaker she creates documentaries, experimental documentaries, feature length fiction and short experimental video art works. Swenson also creates multi-monitor video art works and video installations built in response to specific sites.

In 1984 she co-founded and co-directed Artists’ Television Access, a non-profit media arts access and education facility. In 1995 Swenson founded Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools, a nonprofit that works within school programs and community organizations to teach the fundamentals of media literacy and moviemaking. She has also been teaching filmmaking and experimental fine art practices at the college level since 1987.

Swenson’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and she has received numerous awards and grants, including the San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award for outstanding achievement in film and video in 1999. Swenson was also the recipient of a Creative Work Fund grant which enabled her to seed production on her first feature length social justice film. “Mission Movie” released in 2004, is a fictional adaptation of true-life stories from the Mission District of San Francisco. Mission Movie went on to screen at 20 festivals internationally, winning five awards, two for Best of Festival.

In 2005 Swenson was named Filmmaker in Residence at San Francisco Arts Commission and was the inaugural Artist in Residency at the new de Young museum. In 2007 she completed production on “Strange Culture”, a film by Lynn Hershman Leeson. Swenson served as producer and assistant director on this ground-breaking combination documentary and fiction feature film which launched its festival run with a premier at Sundance, followed by multiple screenings at high profile international festivals and a theatrical release and is now available on DVD.

Lise Swenson’s Specialties:

Writing, Producing, Directing, Shooting, Story Consulting, Concept Design

Additional Information

Lise Swenson’s Interests:

Visual arts, bicycling, camping, riding freight trains, dogs and dancing.

Lise Swenson’s Groups:

BAVC, SFFS, BAWIFT, ATA Advisory Board

•    Bay Area Women in Film & Media

Lise Swenson’s Honors:

2007 Athena Foundation Grant
BAVC HD Residency Grant
2006 San Francisco Women’s Film Festival, Best Work in Progress
2005 LEF Foundation Grant
Telly Awards, Silver, Best Directing
Starbucks Community Foundation Grant
San Francisco Arts Commission Grant
LA Femme Film Festival, Outstanding Achievement Award
San Francisco Women’s Film Festival, Best Feature
Cinequest 15, winner Viewer’s Voice
2004 Boston Latino International Film Festival, 3rd place, Best Feature,
New York International Latino Film Festival, Best of Festival and $5000 HBO award
2003 LEF Foundation Grant
Starbucks Community Foundation Grant
2002 Bay Area Video Coalition Artist Equipment Access Award
2001 Creative Work Fund Grant
2000 ArtCouncil, artist award fellowship
LEF Foundation Grant
1999 Bay Guardian Goldies Award
Yerba Buena Gardens Phyllis Wattis Residency
San Francisco Arts Commission Grant
LEF Foundation Grant
Zellerbach Fund Grant
1998 New Arts Program, 2nd place

Lise Swenson’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch