Epic “Night Watch” Film Night on a Barge Cruises SF Bay (Sept. 17-19)

Join in for the West Coast debut of Shimon Attie’s Night Watch, a floating media arts installation.

Night Watch will travel San Francisco Bay and the Oakland Estuary on the evenings of September 17 – 19 from 6:15pm – 9pm. During these three nights in September, onshore activations — exhibitions, panels, and screenings — will be presented by Night Watch partner organizations.

Night Watch features video portraits on a 20ft-wide, hi-resolution LED-screen, which will travel along the Bay aboard a large, slow-moving barge to allow for on-shore public viewing.

Displayed on the screen are silent, close-up video portraits of 12 refugees who were granted political asylum in the United States. Night Watch will activate and animate the San Francisco Bay from September 17 to 19, raising awareness around issues of immigration and the need for safe harbor for political asylum seekers. The silently-displayed images largely feature members of international LGBTQ+ communities and unaccompanied minors who fled violence and discrimination in their homelands of Colombia, Honduras, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Peru, and Russia.

During its run in the San Francisco Bay, the barge hosting Night Watch will travel slowly, hugging the city’s shorelines and allowing for intimate and sustained encounters with people on land at pre-publicized locations, including Angel Island, Fort Mason, Minnesota Street Project (War Water Cove), Jack London Square, among other sites.

Over forty organizations have partnered to support and program around the Night Watch art event, which is co-produced by BOXBLUR at Catherine Clark Gallery and the Immersive Art Alliance. For complete listings of viewing sites, activations, programs, and partners visit the project webpage.

Shimon Attie’s Night Watch Floating Media Arts Installation

September 17: Launch Party for Night Watch
5 – 6:45pm | Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture presents their Fall Arts Preview Party with artwork across the campus.  Food trucks on-site at Fort Mason.

The barge will arrive and be viewable from Fort Mason center at approximately 7:15pm.

• 6:30 – 9:00 pm | Cowell Theater: (400+ seat theater) SF Dance Film Festival, Lenora Lee Dance, a screening of Shimon Attie’s video, The View From Below and also Painful Slience by Ido Bartana and Nadim Badiee. Music in the lobby from Callesson. Fort Mason programming includes music, dance, film, art, and partner organizations. Tabling by non-profit organizations providing services to refugees and immigrants. Free. Pre-registration for seats at the Cowell Theater is required.
• 7:30 pm – 8:45 pm | Exploratorium, Waterbar, EPIC Steak

After its opening night visit to Fort Mason, Night Watch continues along the San Francisco shoreline, traveling east, passing by Fisherman’s Wharf. It will be viewable from Pier 15, adjacent to the Exploratorium, It will then travel to Waterbar and EPIC Steak restaurants, at the base of the Bay Bridge, where it will stop at the shoreline (7:45pm – 8:15pm) for programmed music by Classical Revolution.

Viewing times can only be approximate due to wind and tides.

September 18 : Night Watch in SF

The second evening of Night Watch in SF. Multiple SF viewing sites, panel discussion at Minnesota Street Project, procession to Warm Water Cove with Mission Delirium.

Night Watch will be visible Saturday evening the 18th as it passes Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (6:15pm), Pier 39, Pier 15 (7:15pm), and rests adjacent the Exploratorium for 20 minutes. After passing Rincon Park, it will reach Warm Water Cove at approximately 8:15pm with musical activation by Mission Delirium.

Please note the off-site activation at Minnesota Street Project (Ticketed + Free for Students)

• 5 – 6pm | Night Watch cocktail hour with artist Shimon Attie at 1275 Minnesota Street includes cocktails, panel discussion and procession. $100.
• 6 – 7:15pm | Panel discussion at MSP features artists Shimon Attie, Zeina Barakeh, Ana Teresa Fernández. Also non-profit representatives Jilma L. Meneses (CEO, Catholic Charities) and Blaine Bookey (Legal Director at the San Francisco-based Center for Gender and Refugee Studies). Moderated by Elena Gross, Director of Exhibitions and Curatorial Affairs, MoAD, and Board Member of Immersive Arts Alliance. Includes panel discussion and procession. Sliding scale ($10, $15, $25).
• 6 – 7:15pm | Live simulcast for students of the panel discussion at 1150 Minnesota Street. Followed by a musical procession to Warm Water Cove for Night Watch. Free. Pre-Registration and Student ID required.
• 8 ­– 9pm | Musical procession led by Mission Delirium, a 15-piece brass marching band. The procession will march three blocks from Tennessee and 24th Streets to Warm Water Cove to view Night Watch from the shore. Free.

September 19: Night Watch in Oakland (free)

On its final evening, Night Watch will travel the shoreline of the Oakland Estuary and Brooklyn Basin (6:15pm – 8:15pm) with music programmed (onshore) by Classical Revolution.