I am an artist and activist working in the San Francisco Bay Area, exhibited internationally, and daughter of Specs Simmons from Roxbury Boston, later, Newton when the family "moved up". I am working on a documentary film about my father and his world famous bar in San Francisco's North Beach, Specs' 12 Adler Museum Cafe". You can view the short on my film on my website at ellysimmons.com. After a several year hiatus whenI stopped working on the film twice to save my thirty year marriage, for my daughter and I, but he left me anyways, so I am now finishing the piece, in the midst of a very difficult divorce and in a hard economy. My father now has Parkinson's and time is of the essence in completing the film. All of this is not to gripe, this is just the reality in which I am working to complete this film that honors extremely important Jewish values and heritage in a time that needs as much hope as possible.
My film on my father will be a triptich portrait, the man and his personal history, the bar and it's offbeat and famous denizens and the neighborhood of North Beach, filled with artists, musicians, poets, hotel and restaurant workers, lawyers, business people and everyone else! I am honoring the activist, labor oriented, music and art driven culture in which I was raised. San Francisco was a working class town at the time of the inception of Specs' Bar. We opened in April of 1968 in the height of the major changes in American Culture, the women's movement, the anti war movement, the many minority power movements, black, chicano, Native American, Asian American, etc. Our bar was a nucleus for organizing and much of the genesis of the environmental movement was brainstormed over beers in Specs. Soon, I will have a new short incorporating recent footage, which will be posted on my website and facebook and kickstarter. Any ideas as to funding and any direct donations would be greatly appreciated! My artwork is in museum and private collections nationally and around the world, sales of art now also go directly to supporting the making of the film.! Enjoy!
I am an artist and activist working in the San Francisco Bay Area, exhibited internationally, and daughter of Specs Simmons from Roxbury Boston, later, Newton when the family "moved up". I am working on a documentary film about my father and his world famous bar in San Francisco's North Beach, Specs' 12 Adler Museum Cafe". You can view the short on my film on my website at ellysimmons.com. After a several year hiatus whenI stopped working on the film twice to save my thirty year marriage, for my daughter and I, but he left me anyways, so I am now finishing the piece, in the midst of a very difficult divorce and in a hard economy. My father now has Parkinson's and time is of the essence in completing the film. All of this is not to gripe, this is just the reality in which I am working to complete this film that honors extremely important Jewish values and heritage in a time that needs as much hope as possible.
My film on my father will be a triptich portrait, the man and his personal history, the bar and it's offbeat and famous denizens and the neighborhood of North Beach, filled with artists, musicians, poets, hotel and restaurant workers, lawyers, business people and everyone else! I am honoring the activist, labor oriented, music and art driven culture in which I was raised. San Francisco was a working class town at the time of the inception of Specs' Bar. We opened in April of 1968 in the height of the major changes in American Culture, the women's movement, the anti war movement, the many minority power movements, black, chicano, Native American, Asian American, etc. Our bar was a nucleus for organizing and much of the genesis of the environmental movement was brainstormed over beers in Specs. Soon, I will have a new short incorporating recent footage, which will be posted on my website and facebook and kickstarter. Any ideas as to funding and any direct donations would be greatly appreciated! My artwork is in museum and private collections nationally and around the world, sales of art now also go directly to supporting the making of the film.! Enjoy!
www.ellysimmons.com
facebook: elly simmons (the one with myself and my blond friend from Australia).