Sam Tagatac Digital Archives at UC Santa Barbara and California Revealed

It is with great honor and privilege to announce that the entire collection of the late Filipino-American documentary filmmaker Sam Tagatac has been digitized and is now available to the public online. Taken in the 1970’s, Sam footage captures never before seen footage of everyday life of Filipino-Americans in San Francisco neighborhoods such as the now demolished Manilatown, the South of Market, and further to the fields of Delano, California.

The digitization of this historic community record was made possible through the work of the “Sa Amin: Our Place” documentary, produced by People Power Media and executive produced by SF Urban Film Fest. The “Sa Amin” team uncovered the donated film reels in the UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) Library archive. UCSB helped us connect to Sam, who gave permission to use his footage for the documentary. We were saddened to hear of Sam’s passing, which occurred about six months before “Sa Amin” was first screened for the SOMA Pilipinas community in the summer of 2022.

After watching “Sa Amin”, UCSB Library staff applied for and was awarded a grant to digitize the Sam’s remaining collection of 144 motion picture film and 16 audiotape reels. Because of the interest of the filmmakers and the community, UCSB worked with California Revealed, who digitized Sam’s entire collection and has made them available to the public online. The collection consists mainly of Sam’s work in progress documentary about Filipinos in San Francisco and consists of over 20 hours of visual and audio files.

“Sam’s footage and interviews are such a treasure and a gift to the community. It’s like uncovering an ancient mural. Because of the nature of filmmaking at the time, Sam may have been the only or one of the few people that has even seen or heard this footage and sounds, until now. The digitization of this footage is monumental for our community’s history and identity!” says Dyan Ruiz, Co-Director of Sa Amin and Co-Founder of People Power Media.

Acknowledgements

California Revealed

This project was supported by California Revealed and administered in California by the State Librarian. The program is made possible by funding from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act.