Resource Guide

BAMPFA's collections, archives, and records offer a robust repository of information, housed within several databases and search portals. This guide provides information about what information is available and were to find it.

Current Information about BAMPFA

Current information about BAMPFA can be found on our site at bampfa.org as well as by using our main search at bampfa.org/search. You may also access current information by date via the calendar, or by categories such as current exhibitions, current film series, upcoming exhibitions and films, or events.

News and Press Releases

The main search at bampfa.org/search will return results for news items (since 2009) and press releases (since 1999). Press releases are also archived chronologically in the BAMPFA Press Room.

Films and Film Series

The main search at bampfa.org/search will return all information for film series and individual film screenings since 2015, and partial information from 1979 to the present. If you are having trouble finding something, you may want to try searching our archived site, which contains detailed information about the films shown from 1979 to 2015, such as cast, director, and credits. Incomplete records on the current site contain links to the older, more complete versions.

Exhibitions

The main search at bampfa.org/search will return results for select exhibitions from 1995 to 2000, all exhibitions from 2000 to the present, and all MATRIX exhibitions since the program's inception in 1978.

Art Collection

The BAMPFA art collection consists of nearly 25,000 works of art, representing a tremendous diversity of global cultures and historical periods. The main search at bampfa.org/search will return many results from the collection. The Collection Space portal offers more advanced search functions.

Film, Video, and Book Collection

The BAMPFA film and video collection has particular strengths in West Coast avant-garde film, international animation, Soviet cinema, early video art, and the largest collection of Japanese films outside of Japan. The BAMPFA Film Library and Study Center maintains a collection of thousands of books and periodicals covering film history, criticism, and theory, in addition to more specialized topics such as video art, film archiving, and screenplays, among many others.

BAMPFA film, video, and book catalogs are available via OskiCat, UC Berkeley's Library Catalog. BAMPFA’s OskiCat holdings can also be searched via the main search at bampfa.org/search and the results will lead to the original OskiCat records.

CineFiles

CineFiles is a repository of scanned images of reviews, press kits, festival and showcase program notes, newspaper articles, and other documents from the Film Library's extensive collection covering world cinema, past and present. 

BAMPFA’s extensive CineFiles records can be searched at bampfa.org/cinefiles.