One of the amazing things about San Francisco is how almost every part of the city is iconic of the whole. New York, to pick an example, has a billion well-known buildings and monuments, but if you saw a picture of an average street, you’d be hard pressed to specifically identify from which large east coast city it came. But a shot of a random street in San Francisco, with the omnipresent hills and bay windows, can only be from San Francisco. This is especially true in video, and whenever I see footage shot here, I fall in love a little.

Once I’d definitively decided to move here, about a year and a half ago, I started watching the well-known Sony Bravia commercial featuring José Gonzalez and dreamed of living here. (Seriously, I downloaded a high-res copy and I watched it before I went to sleep an embarrassing number of times.) Even now that I call this city my home, I still get sentimental watching that video, thinking about the time I just wished I could call it my home. A few months ago that I found this hilarious video clip of Star Wars invading San Francisco. As silly as it is, it once again made me feel great to live in a place so beautiful and so unmistakable.

And then yesterday I was fortunate enough to stumble across some amazing vignettes of San Francisco directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who apparently lives here. Actually, having just skimmed his Wikipedia entry, I now realize that I’ve eaten at the restaurant he owns, Cafe Zoetrope. Who knew? Anyway! He has short youtube-but-way-better movies for eight neighborhoods in San Francisco. Each area includes three videos: a short interview with Coppola, a more abstract video of the neighborhood, and and interview with someone who lives nearby.

The website involves all kinds of Flash weirdness, so I can’t link directly to it. If you want to watch, go to the Louis Vitton Journeys site, hover over FFC’s picture on the far left, and then select “San Francisco with Francis F. Coppola”. After watching a 20-second introductory clip, you can watch the segments about my neighborhood by clicking right smack-dab in the middle. Mission, represent!