The mission of San Francisco State University's Cinema Department is to foster the unique artistic and critical voice inherent to each of our students.
The Cinema Department was founded amid the political activism and artistic experimentation of the 1960s. Today, as then, the department is committed to a curriculum which recognizes cinema to be an independent, powerful and unique medium in the world. SFSU Cinema's programs combine theory and practice; students are encouraged to engage in scholarship and to pursue production in all forms of cinematic expression.
In the 1990s, a new facility was constructed, featuring a 2500 square-foot shooting stage, greatly enlarging the department's post-production studios and labs, and beginning the transition from analogue to digital processes. A new screening room, the Coppola Theater (FA 101), equipped for both 16mm and 35mm projection and featuring a Dolby sound system, was named for former Dean of Creative Arts August Coppola, whose efforts were primarily responsible for funding the new building. Digital upgrades to sound and editing labs have further modernized the department's production facilities.
