Over the weekend, San Francisco art coalition Futurefarmers and artists from MOCA's “Art in the Streets” exhibition hosted a planting party for the new Margaret Kilgallen Memorial Farm. The party marked an unofficial opening to a series of collaborative “Food X Film” projects sponsored by the Levi's Film Workshop at the Geffen Contemporary. Attendees were invited to plant seedlings in the bike garden, which is exactly what it sounds like: a garden on bicycles.

The Farm will serve as the centerpiece for a short documentary titled Wild Goodness to be shot, edited, and premiered at the workshop over the next three weeks. During that time, the Workshop will also host a series of programs, comprised of film premiers and second-run screenings as well as hands-on film making workshops, all of which center around food.

Film workshops held at Levi's include stop motion animation with food artist Clare Crespo of YummyFun.com (7/9), and “chicken screen tests” with cinematographer Tobin Yelland (7/3). Based on Andy Warhol's famous screen tests in the 1960's, this seminar covers the basics of 16mm black and white cinematography. Learning to work with difficult actors (live chickens) is a bonus.

Across town, the Workshop has curated a series of food-themed screenings at the Silent Movie Theater. This Wednesday chef Suzanne Goin of Lucques will offer an introduction to Marcel Pagnol's very French film classic, Cesar. Then in July, Animal's John Shook and Vinny Dotolo, and Tara Kolla of Silver Lake Farms will also make their way over to Cinefamily, for introductions to Martin Scorsese's Italianamerican (7/7) and John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (7/12), respectively. Each screening will be followed by a small reception on the Cinefamily's Spanish patio, with food themed appropriate to each film. (Fingers crossed for Scorsese's mother's meatballs.)

The event culminates on July 14 with a big party celebrating the harvest of the Margaret Kilgallen Memeorial Farm. Once constructed, the garden will be maintained by Kolla and others from Silver Lake Farms. The herbs grown therein will be passed on to its members. Along with live music and “unique” food prepared on-site, the party will include premiers of three short films about growing, preparing, and serving food: Wild Goodness (Aaron Rose), about the building of the farm, Ludo Lefbvre (Lorenzo Fonda), and Kogi BBQ (Ace Norton).

The Levi's Film Workshop is a temporary venue housed inside the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. For a complete schedule of events, including exact times and other such details head to their homepage. Note that workshops are free, but tickets to screenings at the Silent Movie Theater cost $10.

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