SF’s City Hall Under Attack (For a Movie)

San Francisco’s City Hall is getting under siege tonight, but don’t be alarmed. It’s just for filming a 2017 ABC miniseries “When We Rise” which chronicles the gay rights movement in the U.S. starting in 1969 staring Guy Pearce along with Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie O’Donnell and directed by Gus Van Sant

On Friday night, film crews will be recreating the White Night Riots, which took place in 1979 – a series of violent protests against the lenient sentencing of Dan White who had assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.

Film crews will start setting up around 9pm on Friday, April 29, 2016 and will be filming all night. Watching a movie being filmed is often boring with long stretches of nothing happening. But if you do want to watch, make sure to stay at least 1 block away from the filming, be extremely patient and obey the cops and stay out of the shots.

About Friday Night’s Filming at City Hall: Film crews will be shooting a recreation of the White Night Riots which happened in the 1970s in front of City Hall. The production will have large billowing smoke effects, lighting that will mimic flames in the basement windows of City Hall, and a clash between actors dressed as police and rioters. Please do not be alarmed.

There will be street closures in the following locations to facilitate the safety of this event:

• Polk between Golden Gate and Hayes
• McAllister between Larkin and Van Ness ( 1 lane open to exit Civic Center Garage to Larkin Street)
• Grove between Van Ness and Larkin

And if you miss the filming in front of City Hall, film crews will be filming near Duboce and Noe on Saturday night.