Town Destroyer

2022, 53 minutes

Town Destroyer explores the ways we look at art and history at a time of racial reckoning. The story focuses on a passionate dispute over historic murals at a public high school depicting the life of George Washington: slaveowner, General, land speculator, President, and a man Seneca leaders called “Town Destroyer” after he ordered their villages destroyed during the Revolutionary War. The controversy becomes a touchstone for a national debate over public art and historic memory.
Produced and Directed by Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman
Executive Producer: Peggy Berryhill (Muscogee)
Editor: Gregory Scharpen
Original Music: Carla Khilstedt and Matthias Bossi

For a deeper dive into the work and ideas of artist Dewey Crumpler, who appears in TOWN DESTROYER, check out our short documentary POST ATLANTIC.

Broadcast across the U.S. on PBS World “America ReFramed” series in 2023.

Now available from Bullfrog Films. To preview or purchase the film:
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/towd.html
Educational/Institutional, community group, and home video rates available

“Not to be missed.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Fiery, Nuanced, Remarkable. Town Destroyer sheds new light on our first president. It also illuminates a work of art that roiled the city and the nation.” —San Francisco Examiner

“A fascinating overview of a case that encapsulates many of the bitterest divisions of our era.”
Dennis Harvey, 48 Hills

Town Destroyer prompts a critical examination of the role and limits of provocation in art, especially in regards to who provokes whom.” —Jonathan Cordero, Exec. Director, Assn. of Ramaytush Ohlone, the original peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula

“For a documentary to even-handedly and adroitly cover a complex, painful, and controversial subject requires not only talent, but a clarity of vision and cinematic compassion. Award-winning Bay Area filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman have accomplished just that in their timely Town Destroyer.” —C.J. Hirschfield, Eat, Drink, Films

Help us distribute this film:


Contributions of any size are welcome and will be acknowledged. Make checks payable to “Snitow-Kaufman Productions” and send to: Snitow-Kaufman Productions, P.O. Box 7402, Berkeley, CA 94707.

A production still of Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow shooting footage on location in front of the controversial mural at George Washington High School in San Francisco

Company Town

2016, 77 minutes

The once free-spirited city of San Francisco is now a “Company Town,” a playground for tech moguls of the “sharing economy.” Airbnb is the biggest hotel. Uber privatizes transit. And now these companies want political power as well. Meanwhile, middle class and ethnic communities are driven out by skyrocketing rents and evictions–sparking a grassroots backlash that challenges the oligarchy of tech. Is this the future of cities around the world? The feature-length documentary, “Company Town,” is the story of an intense election campaign to determine the fate of the city at the epicenter of the digital revolution. Produced and directed by Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow. Edited by Manuel Tsingaris. 2016, 77 minutes

Broadcast on over 150 PBS stations in October and November, 2017.

If you missed the broadcasts, the film is Now Available from Bullfrog Films
To preview or purchase the film:
www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/ctown
Institutional, community group, and home video rates available

Mill Valley Film Festival
Sonoma International Film Festival
Roxie Cinema, San Francisco
Elmwood Theater, Berkeley
Stranger Than Fiction–IFC Center, New York City

“It may just be the finest political film of the year.” –Film Critic Kelly Vance, East Bay Express

“Catnip for political junkies.” — Film Critic Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle

“Fascinating, wonderful, and lively.” — Tim Redmond, 48 Hills

“Company Town” is a shot of political energy, just when we need it most — a valentine to the weird and wild hurly-burly of the electoral process at the grassroots level, from where true democracy springs.” — David Talbot, founder of Salon and bestselling author of  “Season of the Witch” and “The Devil’s Chessboard”

“I was thrilled by Company Town‘s virtuoso storytelling, its compassion, and the message that democracy can actually win the fight (sometimes!) against our corporate overlords.”  — Josh Kornbluth, Monologuist & Filmmaker

“Riveting…This high minded film lets the personal stories it has uncovered speak the truth to us in a way that “disrupts the disrupters…the best kind of story-telling.” — Steven Hill, Huffington Post review by the author of “Raw Deal: How the Uber Economy is Screwing American Workers”

“Drones in my Backyard”

2013, 13 minutes

Drones in My Backyard is a funny and scary video mash-up about the coming of aerial drones to the United States. One day a drone appears in the filmmaker’s backyard, hovering over his head. It’s the catalyst for an extended meditation and free association on the presence of drones in war-making, the role of drones in surveillance, and the thrill of flying when you put on goggles to see what the drone sees. Whether it’s the Predator, The Argus, or cute little Hummingbirds, drones of all shapes and sizes are flying to a rock and roll beat. We see them following us… and listen to the incessant buzzing of cameras overhead.

World Premiere: Mill Valley Film Festival, 2013
Silver Chris Award, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
Science Books & Films Best Video of 2014

“Does a spectacular job of exploring the implications of drones entering our domestic air space…[A]sks all the right questions.” Ken Rinaldo, Director, Art and Technology Program, Ohio State University

To preview or purchase the film: www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/drone
Institutional, community group, and home video rates available