Limited Engagements & Special Screenings

Ongoing

Recent releases, restored classics, and special guests grace the Barbro Osher Theater.

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  • Paige Taul: 71

  • Neutra: Survival Through Design

  • Drylongso

  • Tukdam: Between Worlds

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Upcoming Films

  • Black Life: An Evening with Paige Taul


    • Saturday, February 18 5 PM
    Paige Taul and ruth gebreyesus in Conversation

    Black Life is thrilled to welcome Oakland-born filmmaker Paige Taul back to the East Bay for a screening and conversation about her films. Primarily shot on 16 and super 8mm film, her works “engage with and challenge assumptions of Black cultural expression and notions of belonging.”

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  • Neutra: Survival Through Design

    PJ Letofsky
    United States, 2019
    • Saturday, February 25 12 PM
    Lisa Heschong, Richard Jackson, Lindsay Baker, and Raymond Richard Neutra in Conversation; Introduced by PJ Letofsky

    Austrian American architect Richard Neutra (1892–1970) designed 350 buildings around the world and was noted for his vision of environment, ecology, and livability. This information-rich documentary will be of interest to generalists and specialists alike in the areas of twentieth-century architecture and restoration, psychology, and aesthetics.

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  • Tukdam: Between Worlds

    Donagh Coleman
    Finland, Ireland, Estonia, 2022

    Copresented with the Center for Buddhist Studies and the UC Berkeley Anthropology Department, cosponsored by the Insitute for South Asia Studies and the Himalayan Studies Initiative

    • Thursday, March 2 7 PM
    Donagh Coleman, David Perlman, and Jacob Dalton in Conversation

    In what Tibetans call tukdam, deceased meditators have shown no signs of death for days or weeks. Juxtaposing ground-breaking scientific research and Tibetan perspectives, this creative documentary challenges our notion of life and death—and where we draw the line between them.

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  • BAMPFA Student Committee FilmFest


    Free Admission

    • Friday, April 7 7 PM
    Student Filmmakers in Person

    Join the BAMPFA Student Committee for their annual festival showcasing short films made by students in Berkeley and the wider Bay Area.

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  • Black Life: Circling the Archive with Filmmakers Dwayne LeBlanc and Tayler Montague


    • Saturday, April 29 4 PM
    Dwayne Leblanc, Tayler Montague, and ruth gebreyesus in Conversation

    Filmmakers LeBlanc and Montague join Black Life cocurator ruth gebreyesus in person to share their films and discuss influences on their approach to filmmaking. The program also features a 35mm restored print of Charles Burnett’s first film, Several Friends. 

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  • Drylongso

    Cauleen Smith
    United States, 1998
    • Sunday, May 7 5 PM
    Cauleen Smith in Person

    “An enduringly rich work of DIY filmmaking Drylongso remains a resonant and visionary examination of violence (and its reverberations), friendship, and gender” (Film at Lincoln Center).

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  • Film & Video Makers at Cal: Works from the Eisner Competition 2023


    Free Admission

    • Sunday, May 14 2 PM
    UC Berkeley Student Filmmakers in Person

    Student filmmakers join us for a screening of this year’s prizewinners and honorable mentions in the film and video category of the Eisner Prize competition, UC Berkeley’s highest award for creative media making.

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Past Films

  • Women Talking

    • Monday, January 30 6:30 PM
    Sarah Polley
    United States, 2022

    Graced with an extraordinary cast, Polley’s thoughtfully executed adaptation of Miriam Toews’s best-selling novel chronicles a radical “act of female imagination” to consider the healing power of language and what is required to escape systematic criminal abuse in an isolated religious community. 

    Frances McDormand, Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, and Naima Karczmar in Conversation

  • Chinese Animation: The Screen and the Scroll

    • Sunday, January 15 4:30 PM

    This program features animated shorts created by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio that feature painting and folk art that link screen with scroll. The screen becomes a site for the painterly projection of dreams, nightmares, and fantasies.  

    Introduced by Julia Irwin and Linda C. Zhang