A fourth-generation San Franciscan, Suzanne Girot’s personal connection to that city includes the famous Mechanics Statue featuring her great-grandfather’s gorgeous body at a busy downtown intersection. Her 1996 short film, The Statue, attempts to capture the significance of the statue through her 101-year old grandmother’s fading memory.

Other films present  a review of Cuba’s art scene in 1989 (Havana Bienal); the medical marijuana debate with Brownie Mary (Let Our People Grow); the art and science of dumpster diving (The Ultimate Dive); the power of music to express a quadriplegic man’s passions (Mister Spazzman).

The artist’s video/mixed media installations feature her plastic waste sea lion family (One Water in San Francisco, Dead Sea Lion Scrolls in Santa Cruz); garbage (Big Mountain  in Point Reyes Station); and two in Salvador, Brazil dealing with material culture (Bagagem(baggage) and Dona Cadu).

While in Brazil the artist met the all-girl drumming group Banda Dida, who became the subject of her popular 2004 documentary Girl Beat-Power of the Drum.