On View

exhibitions
film series
event series

  • Kazuo Miyagawa: Cinematographer and Visual Stylist

    October 23–November 28, 2021

    One of film’s most talented cinematographers, Kazuo Miyagawa worked with many of the great Japanese directors, including Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, Kon Ichikawa, and Masahiro Shinoda, all represented in this series, which foregrounds his artistry on the big... View

  • New Time: The Future Is Feminist

    October 24, 2021–January 29, 2022

    Conceived in dialog with BAMPFA’s major exhibition New Time, The Future Is Feminist brings together a diverse range of works made since 2000 by women filmmakers representing an array of feminist voices and aesthetics, variously observational, confrontational,... View

  • The Black Film Ambassador: The Ecstatic World of Albert Johnson

    October 30–November 26, 2021

    Dedicated to a pillar of the Bay Area film scene, film critic, curator, and educator Albert Johnson (1925–1998) the films in this series gesture toward the breadth of his interests and provide a welcome opportunity to celebrate his brilliant legacy.

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  • Afterimage: Walter Murch in Conversation

    November 6–20, 2021

    Walter Murch, whose accomplishments have earned him respect and praise as “the film editor’s editor” and “a sound and image guru,” is our guest for Afterimage, sharing his wisdom on editing and sound design in three in-depth conversations.

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  • Marguerite Duras: The Seamless Past and Present

    November 11–28, 2021

    The celebrated French author and filmmaker Marguerite Duras is the focus of this trio of works, including the Bay Area premiere of Suzanna Andler. Also featured are Alain Resnais’s Hiroshima mon amour and a new restoration of Le navire Night.

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  • Big Screen: Highlights from a Year of Virtual Cinema

    December 2, 2021–February 16, 2022

    Now that we are back in the Barbro Osher Theater, we want to share some highlights from the past year of virtual cinema as an affirmation of the importance of seeing films on the big screen and with an audience. 

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  • Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope

    December 3, 2021–February 27, 2022

    Fifty years after the founding of American Zoetrope, we celebrate the studio and its co-creator, Francis Ford Coppola. Along with Coppola’s works, the series features films by George Lucas, Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, and more.

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  • F. W. Murnau: Voyages into the Imaginary

    January 8–February 27, 2022

    This series, featuring the lyrical cinema of one of the most admired and influential directors of the silent era, F. W. Murnau, showcases restored versions of his extant work with live piano accompaniment.

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  • Ball of Fire: Barbara Stanwyck

    January 14–February 26, 2022

    Barbara Stanwyck was the screen archetype of the independent woman, with her wits about her, alert, and often on the make. This spotlight showcases many of her best roles and demonstrates her remarkable talent.

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  • Djibril Diop Mambéty

    January 21–February 20, 2022

    Djibril Diop Mambéty’s debut, Touki Bouki, was “unlike anything in the history of African cinema” (N. Frank Ukadike). Made nearly twenty years later, Hyenas and Le franc likewise showcase “his signature mix of wild narrative style” and “impeccable political commitment,” which,... View

  • Documentary Voices 2022

    January 26–April 20, 2022

    Our annual series features an international array of recent and historical documentaries and nonfiction films.

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  • Streaming: Animation! Speaking with the Makers

    January 29–March 13, 2022

    In this hybrid series, shown in-theater and via BAMPFA’s streaming platform, we interview filmmakers who specialize in animation and ask them to discuss how they develop their stylistic approaches, and how they distill time, gesture, and mood, frame by frame, into the basic unit... View

  • Animation! Speaking with the Makers

    January 29–February 26, 2022

    In this hybrid series, shown in-theater and via BAMPFA’s streaming platform, we interview filmmakers who specialize in animation and ask them to discuss how they develop their stylistic approaches, and how they distill time, gesture, and mood, frame by frame, into the basic unit... View

  • Recent Films of Nathaniel Dorsky

    February 5–6, 2022

    We are delighted to present eight recent additions to our film collection: new silent 16mm films by local filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky, most made during the COVID-19 pandemic, photographed in San Francisco across different seasons.

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  • Contemporary Indigenous Media

    February 10–April 14, 2022

    In our first series to explore the breadth of Indigenous media currently being made in the Americas, we place works in relation to one another across geographies and stylistic approaches, with filmmakers from South and North America in conversation.

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  • Federico Fellini 100

    March 4–May 14, 2022

    Romantic. Elegant. Fantastical. We welcome back to the BAMPFA screen one of the greats, Federico Fellini, a “larger-than-life maestro who created an inimitable cinematic style combining surreal carnival with incisive social critique” (Criterion).

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  • Chinese Portraits

    March 5–17, 2022

    A collection of narrative and documentary works on artists, writers, and ordinary citizens in China, presented in conjunction with the Townsend Center’s In Dialogue with China: Art, Culture, Politics.

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  • Limited Engagements & Special Screenings 2022

    Ongoing

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

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  • Wayne Wang in Person

    March 11–April 17, 2022

    From defining Asian American identity on-screen in Chan Is Missing and The Joy Luck Club to adapting the writing of Paul Auster and working with Jennifer Lopez, Wayne Wang is a filmmaking original. This series features new restorations of his work.

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  • Streaming: Free Films for Members

    Ongoing

    Our ongoing series of free films for members.

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  • Souleymane Cissé

    March 31–April 17, 2022

    An overdue tribute to one of the giants of world cinema, Malian director Souleymane Cissé, a former projectionist, jailed dissident, and fiercely antiauthoritarian, proudly African filmmaker whose work includes Brightness, The Wind, Baara, and The Young Girl.

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  • 65th San Francisco International Film Festival at BAMPFA

    April 22–May 1, 2022

    BAMPFA is proud to partner with the SFFILM Festival, an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and a major cultural event in the Bay Area.

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  • The Films of Márta Mészáros

    June 3–July 20, 2022

    “Since my first film I have attempted in a very deliberate and stubborn way to portray women capable of making independent decisions,” wrote acclaimed Hungarian filmmaker Márta Mészáros, who at age ninety is the subject of this major retrospective featuring new digital... View

  • Film Preservation: Celebrating The Film Foundation

    June 4–August 27, 2022

    This series showcases an impressive range of world cinema that has been preserved thanks to a concerted effort by The Film Foundation and the World Cinema Project over more than thirty years.

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  • Indelible Moments: May I Have This Dance

    June 12–August 25, 2022

    A selection of films in which a dance scene crystallizes the experience of the movie, a moment leaving its imprint more than the plotline or even the characters.

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  • Forever Kinuyo Tanaka

    July 8–August 28, 2022

    Celebrated for her performances in films by iconic directors, Tanaka also made a significant contribution to the golden age of Japanese cinema as a director. This series features new restorations of all six of Tanaka’s films, along with works representative of the scope of her... View

  • From the Front Page to the Front Lines: The Essential Sam Fuller

    July 29–August 31, 2022

    Ten essential films from Samuel Fuller’s influential oeuvre confront prejudice and inequity head-on, chronicling the grit, resilience, and soulful struggle of misfits, foot soldiers, petty criminals, detectives, and reporters surviving in the face of moral misgivings or... View

  • Free Outdoor Screenings—Indelible Moments: May I Have This Dance

    August 4–25, 2022

    Bring a blanket or lawn chair to BAMPFA’s huge outdoor LED screen for three free screenings.

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  • African Film Festival

    September 7–October 29, 2022

    After two years of pandemic-related cancellations or virtual screenings, we are proud to welcome the African Film Festival back to BAMPFA. This year, open your eyes to new horizons, new heroes, and new narratives.

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  • Alternative Visions

    September 7–November 30, 2022

    This year our annual series showcases current and historical experimental films by local filmmakers, as well as works by artists from Brazil, Canada, Iran, Poland, Rwanda, and the United Kingdom.

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  • Undoing Time: Cinema and Histories of Incarceration

    September 8–November 16, 2022

    Including historical and contemporary documentaries, essay films, and works of fiction, this series reflects on the inherent racism and inhumanity of the prison industrial complex while celebrating courageous voices and acts of resistance from inside and outside of prison... View

  • Elaine May: Age of Irony

    September 9–30, 2022

    Highly regarded as a comedian, screenwriter, playwright, and actress, Elaine May had a more tempestuous ride as a film director—often at odds with the Hollywood studio executives. Her films are championed by many for their ironic humor, sense of spontaneity, authenticity, and... View

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