Porchlight, San Francisco’s longest-running storytelling series, is partnering with CinemaSF to bring the magic of live stories and independent film together under one roof. The partnership kicks off with "Lights, Camera, Traction: Perilous Tales of Movie Making".
Hosted by Porchlight co-founders Beth Lisick and Arline Klatte, storytellers for this raucous evening will include comedian Scott Capurro; Emmy and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Amanda Micheli; actor, writer, and everyone’s cousin Susan Mohun; director, playwright, and producer Jonathan Moscone; actor, mentalist, and Owner, Small Car Big Time Tours Reed Kirk Rahlmann and filmmaker Keelan Williams. The evening will also feature music from Marc Capelle, Porchlight’s musical director.
Proceeds from the event will go directly to supporting CinemaSF and its mission to keep neighborhood theaters alive and accessible to the community.
"Independent cinema has always been about community," say Adam Bergeron & Jaimi Holker, longtime keepers of the flame of CinemaSF. "By joining forces with Porchlight, we’re ensuring that San Francisco remains a vibrant home for independent voices in film and storytelling.
About CinemaSF
CinemaSF, which recently became a nonprofit organization, is dedicated to keeping the tradition of independent and international film alive. With historic venues and a community-driven approach, CinemaSF fosters the cultural vitality of San Francisco’s cinematic landscape and ensures that local theaters remain a gathering place for generations to come.
Storyteller Bios
Scott Capurro
Scott Capurro was reared in San Francisco. At age 3, he swam the English Channel. Since 1993, he’s avoided AIDS by telling unsavory jokes in every English speaking country. Scott is trusting and thus surrounded by duplicity, yet he continues challenging himself, because he’s physically challenged and emotionally unavailable, aka married.
Described by San Francisco Weekly as “stand-up in the very best possible sense – deadpan, ever-alert and hilarious”.
Scott has appeared in Mrs. Doubtfire, where, effortlessly, he played a homosexual; and Star Wars: Phantom Menace, where, breathlessly, he wore a body stocking. A gay designer who sports two heads might’ve been a predictable sequel; instead Scott waddled off to the UK, in search of a compassionate, creative culture.
Disappointed and slightly bloated, Scott spends hours each day playing classical piano, conversing in French and managing his meds. He knows (wink, wink) several death row inmates and George Clooney. Well, he met George once. They’re both vegetarians. Actually, Scott is. Clooney said he was, to impress Scott. Guys on death row eat anything.
Amanda Micheli
Amanda Micheli, founder of Runaway Films, is an Oscar and Emmy-nominated director whose authentic, character-driven stories often feature women bucking the odds in a male-dominated world. In her latest film, HALFTIME, international icon Jennifer Lopez lays bare her evolution as a Latina, a mother, and an artist. HALFTIME opened the 2022 Tribeca film festival before its world premiere on Netflix.
Amanda first made a splash in 1995 with JUST FOR THE RIDE, about the legendary cowgirls who founded the first professional sport in America, which garnered her a student Oscar and International Documentary Association Award. Her 2005 documentary feature DOUBLE DARE explored the struggles of the blue-collar stuntwomen who take the hits for Hollywood stars. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was an audience favorite at festivals worldwide before its PBS and theatrical release.
In 2008 Amanda earned an Academy Award nomination for LA CORONA, which followed an unlikely beauty pageant in a Colombian women’s prison. Her 2018 film VEGAS BABY, which examines the complexities of America’s fertility industry, earned an Emmy nomination for PBS. Her other credits as a producer and cinematographer include SLOMO, THIN, CAT DANCERS, and MY FLESH AND BLOOD.
Amanda has also been a visiting lecturer at Stanford, a Creative Director at MasterClass and a proud member of the US Women’s Rugby Team. Susan Mohun grew up acting in San Francisco regional theatre, then leapt into film and television where she specialized in the kind of roles you’d miss if you blinked, sneezed, or looked down at your popcorn. She managed to snag parts in Clueless, Party of Five, the short-lived sitcom Madman of the People, Virtuosity, and Angels in the Outfield—proof she at least hovered near the cultural zeitgeist of the ’90s. She also starred in several student films she prays will never see daylight, and holds the rare distinction of being rejected from every pharmaceutical and feminine-hygiene commercial she has ever auditioned for. Susan has never been able to shake the line she flubbed for her final Tampax screentest, “I can’t believe it has wings!”
Susan still rakes in about $423 a year in residuals so tonight, drinks tonight are on her! In between cashing those checks, Susan earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College, taught theater and journalism, and raised two wonderfully dramatic children with a remarkably stable and nonjudgmental husband.
She’s currently working on a novel and a TV pilot set in San Francisco—because someone has to remind Hollywood that the city is more than overpriced toast and tech bros. Her ultimate dream? To star in something smart, funny, and actually well-written. Until then, she’ll keep being Hollywood’s favorite “wait, why does she look so familiar?” (Answer: you have either mistaken her for the Little House on the Prarie actress or you’ve met one of her 32 cousins who all share the same Celtic skin tone and truck-driver laugh.)
Jonathan Moscone
Born and raised in San Francisco, Jonathan Moscone is a director, playwright and producer. From 2000-2015, he served as artistic director of California Shakespeare Theater. From 2015-2022, he served as Chief of Civic Engagement and Producer of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, developing a myriad of community led creative project and helping lead the successful ballot measure to restore the Hotel Tax Fund for the Arts. From 2020-2023, he served as a Council Member then Executive Director of the California Arts Council, the State’s arts agency. Jonathan received his MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama and received the inaugural Zelda Fichandler Award, given by the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation for “transforming the American theater through his unique and creative work.” He lives in San Francisco with his husband, Darryl Carbonaro, cat Turtle, and dog Lucy.
Reed Kirk Rahlmann
Reed Kirk Rahlmann not only had the honor of being in "Howard the Duck," which became a cult favorite, he also had a role in the Bill Cosby spy parody "Leonard Part 6," which justifiably became nothing. If he had been in "Ishtar," he would have had a hat trick for being in the three biggest bombs of the 1980's.
He occasionally performs as mentalist Sebastian Boswell III. Should you be curious about his act, you can see it on Youtube. It includes hammering a nail in his nose. Really.
Currently he mostly acts in the driver's seat of a convertible MINI Cooper, talking about the history of San Francisco while giving private tours of they city. He and his company, Small Car Big Time Tours, were featured on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle.
He has hosted the Balboa Theater Oscar Party many times. You should come next year. It's more fun than watching at home, and you won't have to worry about your friends damaging the sofa when the inevitable fistfight breaks out about what film should win Best Casting, which will be a new category in 2026."
Keelan Williams was born and raised in The San Francisco Bay Area, now based in Los Angeles. His films have been screened at film festivals across the world including San Francisco, DOXA, Newport Beach, Big Sky, and featured at the Berkeley Art Museum, The Headlands Center for the Arts, Center for Contemporary Art in Toruń, and the Centre Pompidou in Málaga
He graduated from Loyola Marymount’s School of Film and Television Production. Williams has directed, produced, shot, and edited both long and short-form documentaries, concert films, and music videos.
His debut feature-length documentary, Tell Them We Were Here, about the unique and vibrant art scene of the Bay Area, premiered at the Berkeley Art Museum, earned the SF Chronicle’s highest possible rating - the little man jumping out of his seat, and won Best Documentary Feature at the Nevada City Film Festival.
