On View

exhibitions
film series
event series

  • Dennis Feldman: Photographs

    July 31–October 13, 2019

    Photographs from two series, Hollywood Boulevard, 1969–1972 and American Images, demonstrate the artist’s achievements as an affecting social documentarian and explorer of what he calls “a world contained in a frame.”

    View
  • Abbas Kiarostami: Life as Art

    August 2–December 21, 2019

    Iran’s most influential director, Kiarostami made films that blended fiction and documentary, minimalism and spontaneity, poetic vision and humanist spirit. We present a near-complete retrospective of his work.

    View
  • Strange

    August 21, 2019–January 19, 2020

    Featuring works from many cultures and time periods that resonate with the spirit of Surrealism, this exhibition explores the improbable, uncanny, mysterious, and miraculous as sources of artistic inspiration.

    View
  • The San Quentin Project: Nigel Poor and the Men of San Quentin State...

    August 21–November 17, 2019

    Following the evolution of artist Nigel Poor’s collaboration with men incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, this exhibition features visual documents, photographs from the prison’s archive, and episodes of the award-winning podcast Ear Hustle.

    View
  • In Focus: Abbas Kiarostami

    August 28–September 25, 2019

    Lecture/Screening Series

    Complementing our Abbas Kiarostami retrospective, special guest lecturers offer varied perspectives on the great Iranian director’s work.

    View
  • Arts + Design Thursdays @ BAMPFA: Responsible Design from Bits to...

    August 29–November 21, 2019

    This lecture series examines the role of the designer in articulating new methods connecting the conceptual knowledge for asking why with technical skills for asking how.

    View
  • War and Peace

    September 1–27, 2019

    Back by popular demand! Sergei Bondarchuk’s Academy Award–winning adaptation of Tolstoy’s revered novel was hailed by Roger Ebert as “the definitive epic of all time”; it demands to be seen on the big screen. 

    View
  • Alternative Visions 2019

    September 4–November 13, 2019

    Our annual series of avant-garde and artist-made films returns with a stellar roster of in-person guests, as well as programs of strange and wonderful surrealist works from around the world.

    View
  • Arts + Design Mondays @ BAMPFA: Equity and Democracy

    September 9, 2019–April 13, 2020

    Join Berkeley Arts + Design and dozens of UC Berkeley campus organizations every Monday as we explore the connections among creative practice, social movements, and the strategic research of our public university.

    View
  • Berkeley Film Foundation: Celebrating Ten Years of Local Filmmaking

    September 12–October 27, 2019

    The Berkeley Film Foundation is an essential lifeline for East Bay filmmakers. We celebrate BFF’s tenth anniversary with a diverse selection of films—many with makers in person—including two free screenings on BAMPFA’s  outdoor screen.

    View
  • Out of the Vault: Native American Reelism

    September 12–November 14, 2019

    Drawn from the BAMPFA collection, three programs of films by and about Native Americans explore geographical belonging and dislocation, political and social action, and questions of representation.

    View
  • Kader Attia / MATRIX 274

    September 18–November 17, 2019

    Part of French-Algerian artist Kader Attia’s ongoing investigation of the concept of repair and healing from the trauma of war, this exhibition presents his seminal installation J’accuse.

    View
  • No Regrets: A Celebration of Marlon Riggs

    September 19–November 25, 2019

    In his lucid and provocative video essays, Marlon Riggs grappled with African American culture, representation, and identity. This retrospective presents all of his films, in dialogue with works by other filmmakers.

    View
  • Looking Back at the British New Wave

    September 21–November 30, 2019

    Look back at 1950s and ’60s British cinema and rediscover the England of Angry Young Men and working-class heroes, boundary-crossing writing and innovative direction, and electrifying acting by the likes of Richard Burton, Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, and Julie Christie.

    View
  • Hinges: Sakaki Hyakusen and the Birth of Nanga Painting

    October 2, 2019–February 2, 2020

    The first US exhibition focused on Sakaki Hyakusen, the founding father of the Nanga school of painting in Japan, this presentation reveals his pivotal role in the history of eighteenth-century Japanese art and highlights the conservation of his masterpiece Mountain Landscape.

    View
  • In Focus: The British New Wave

    October 2–23, 2019

    Lecture/Screening Series

    Film historian David Thomson expands on our British New Wave retrospective with a series of four illuminating presentations on the writers, directors, and actors of sixties Britain.

    View
  • Terry Fox: Resonance

    October 2–December 15, 2019

    Two of Terry Fox’s video and audio works are being presented at BAMPFA in conjunction with Terry Fox: Resonance, a multivenue celebration organized by Dena Beard and Constance Lewallen.

    View
  • Zheng Junli: From Shanghai’s Golden Age to the Cultural Revolution

    October 3–November 16, 2019

    Anchored by new restorations from the China Film Archive, this series explores the extraordinary career of Zheng Junli, an actor, director, film theorist, and victim of the Cultural Revolution.

    View
  • 42nd Mill Valley Film Festival at BAMPFA

    October 5–12, 2019

    BAMPFA is pleased to partner with the Mill Valley Film Festival to present selected screenings from MVFF42 in the Barbro Osher Theater.

    View
  • Dennis Feldman: Photographs

    October 16–December 15, 2019

    Photographs by an affecting social documentarian and explorer of what he calls “a world contained in a frame.”

    View
  • BAMPFA AR—Augmented Time

    October 23–December 15, 2019

    A Project by Luisa Caldas

    Using augmented reality as a medium, BAMPFA AR—Augmented Time tells the story behind the new BAMPFA building by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

    View
  • Jacques Tati: Comedy as Choreography

    October 25–November 30, 2019

    Revel in the modernist comedy of Jacques Tati—both his slapstick exploits as Monsieur Hulot and his astonishing talent behind the camera.

    View
  • Strange: Surrealist Tendencies in Cinema

    November 6–10, 2019

    Encounter uncanny landscapes, enigmatic characters, and other mysteries and wonders in these screenings presented in conjunction with the exhibition Strange.

    View
  • Soviet Silent Cinema: Peter Bagrov on Treasures from the BAMPFA...

    November 6–10, 2019

    Lecture/Screening Series

    Film archivist Peter Bagrov joins us to share his deep expertise on Soviet cinema with this series of silent classics and rarities from the BAMPFA collection.

    View
  • Sylvia Fein / MATRIX 275

    November 13, 2019–March 1, 2020

    This career-spanning centenary tribute of Sylvia Fein showcases a wide array of works drawing on both the personal and the fantastical.

    View
  • Art Wall: Edie Fake

    November 20, 2019–June 27, 2021

    Edie Fake’s mural envisions affordable housing for transgender elders, using architecture to celebrate the uniqueness of trans bodies and the possibilities of queer space.

    View
  • Perspectives on History: Romanian Cinema Since 1989

    December 6, 2019–February 27, 2020

    Thirty years after the fall of the Ceauşescu regime, this series samples the best in Romanian cinema from the last three decades.

    View
  • Afterimage: J. Hoberman on Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan

    December 11–12, 2019

    Film critic and historian J. Hoberman presents two films and offers his insights on the intersection between politics and pop culture in Ronald Reagan’s America. 

    View
  • Richard Misrach: Untitled (OF 104-91: Swimming Pool), from 1991: The Oakland-Berkeley Fire Aftermath, 1991; archival pigment print; 59 1/2 x 75 in.; BAMPFA, gift of the artist.

    Lands of Promise and Peril: Geographies of California

    December 11, 2019–August 23, 2020

    Cal Conversations

    This student-curated exhibition maps California’s many contradictions as a place of beauty and brutality, prosperity and inequality, sanctuary and exclusion.

    View
  • Agnès Varda: An Irresistible Force

    December 20, 2019–February 28, 2020

    Vive la Varda! We pay tribute to a founding mother of the French New Wave, who died at age ninety in 2019—an inspiring and vital artist to the end.

    View
  • Film to Table Dinners at Babette 2020

    Ongoing

    Delectable dinners following screenings of the films that inspired them

    View
  • Talks & Conversations 2021

    Ongoing

    Artists, curators, scholars, and others share their insights on BAMPFA exhibitions, the arts, and other cultural topics.

    View

Pages