Frank Stauffacher

Frank Stauffacher (1917 – 24 July 1955) was an American experimental filmmaker, best known for directing the cinema series "Art in Cinema" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from 1946 to 1954.^[1]

Frank Stauffacher
Born	1917 (1917) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	July 24, 1955(1955-07-24) (aged 37–38) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupation	Experimental filmmaker
Spouse	Barbara Stauffacher Solomon ​ ​ (m. 1948)​
Relatives	Jack Stauffacher

He was the cinematographer for Mother's Day (1948) and Adventures of Jimmy (1950), two films by James Broughton. His brother, Jack Stauffacher, is a well-known printer and typeface creator.^[2] On December 18, 2013, Notes on the Port of St. Francis was selected for the Library of Congress's National Film Registry.

From November 1948 until his death in 1955 from a brain tumor, Stauffacher was married to graphic artist Barbara Stauffacher Solomon.

Stauffacher's short film Zigzag was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.^[3]

Selected filmography

• Sausalito (1948) impressionistic film of Sausalito, California
• Zigzag (1948) color film of neon signs
• Notes on the Port of St. Francis (1951) with narration by Robert Louis Stevenson read by Vincent Price

Bibliography

• Frank Stauffacher, Art in Cinema (San Francisco: Society for Art in Cinema, 1947) first edition
• Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, Memoir of North Beach, SF and Frank Stauffacher n Zyzzyva magazine