Salsa Cubana dancing May 13 at the Noe Valley Town Square. It was sizzling. Photo by Art Bodner
Vol. XLVII, No. 6
June 2023
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THE NOE VALLEY VOICE Noe Filmmaker Has Secret Song In SF Doc Fest
Somewhere Over The Rainbow in Noe Valley
Director’s Debut Inspired by Music Teacher
There Are June Pride Events, Including a ‘Sistory’ Tour
By Matthew S. Bajko
By Kit Cameron
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oth of Samantha Campbell’s children attended the private San Francisco School in the city’s Portola District. It is how the Hoffman Avenue resident came to know the school’s longtime music teacher Doug Goodkin. When she learned that Goodkin planned to retire in 2020 after 45 years at the school, Campbell decided tracking Goodkin’s last year of teaching would make a compelling subject for her first documentary. Goodkin agreed to be filmed, as did his music instructor colleagues James Harding and Sofia Lopez-Ibor. They all follow the Orff Schulwerk approach to music education, which combines lessons on music, movement, speech, math, and drama in
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touch to elephants, she has been sharing
oe Valley, on the quieter side of Castro hill, nevertheless has a robust set of events for June Pride Month. To start, you are not going to want to miss the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence when they share their “Sistory” Wednesday, June 7, at 7 p.m., at Bethany Methodist Church. The self-proclaimed “order of queer and trans nuns” has used humor and wit to fight against bigotry, complacency, and guilt for over 40 years. From their response to the AIDS crisis to the more recent dust-up with a major league baseball team, the Sisters have been out in front of just about every major political or social change in San Francisco since their founding in 1979. Sister Morticia Mourningwood, who also is a member of Bethany, says, “We are nuns to those who know not who to worship. We minister to those who might have had church walls used against them. And we stand on the shoulders of countless Sisters before us who gave their lives so that we may keep this platform.” Pride Month continues at the church for the next three Wednesday evenings. On June 14, the documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria will give us the story of trans women and drag queens who fought back against the police at the Tenderloin cafeteria in 1966. The 2005 film, directed by Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker, points out that the uprising occurred three years before the more famous Stonewall Inn battle in New York. June 21 brings a second sobering documentary: Call Her Ganda, about the 2005 murder of a Filipina trans woman named Jennifer Laude and the subsequent trial of Joseph Pemberton,
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All in the Mix: Making a documentary often presents challenges, like a pandemic shutdown, say. Still, Noe Valley director Samantha Campbell was able to keep the music playing in The Secret Song, her film about popular teacher Doug Goodkin (center). Photo courtesy Lansia Wann
a manner similar to how children play. “It is a really amazing amount of organization and technique that the children have to engage in. I thought
everyone should see this because it seemed so transformational for the CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
A Touching Way Of Talking to Animals That’s What Anne Snowball Hopes to Share With Humans By Kit Cameron
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n a hill high up in Noe Valley, with a terrace filled with the flicker and buzz of hummingbirds, sits the home of a miracle worker. Anne Snowball, body healer, therapist, and “elephant whisperer,” is saying hello to her recently deceased cat. “A day after Tango passed, a gray squirrel made its way up to my deck. They never come here. I knew it was him.” As she spoke, a frisky gray squirrel crossed in front of her open sliding door. “Well, there he is, come to check up on me. Hi, Tango!” For three decades, Snowball has been
Noe’s Elephant Whisperer Anne Snowball communes with animals of all kinds, including the hummingbirds and squirrels near her home on Grand View Terrace. Photo by Kit Cameron
interpreting the language and special needs of animals. When not traveling to Asia and Africa to offer her therapeutic