Dance

Sorry I Missed Your Show: Tonic

Presented by YBCA & Fresh Festival

Saturday, February 10, 2024, 3:30–5 PM

Watch a recording of experimental dance work Tonic created by Kathleen Hermesdorf and Albert Mathias, followed by a panel conversation featuring Mathias and others who worked closely with Hermesdorf.

Public Programs

Exploring Leymusoom Garden

Conversation, performance, and screening presented by YBCA

Saturday, February 3, 2024, 1–4 PM

Explore BAN9 artist Heesoo Kwon’s Leymusoom Garden through traditional Korean games and performance, a conversation with Kwon and her multidisciplinary collaborators, and a screening of Kwon’s most recent video work.

Screenings & Films

California Newsreel – Forward to the 6th Decade

Presented by YBCA

Saturday, January 13, 2024, 3–5 PM

Experience a selection of films from the past 20 years advancing the causes of health and social justice, led by outgoing co-director Cornelius Moore and incoming executive director Rachel Poulain of California Newsreel.

Screenings & Films

fragments: films by Emily Chao

Bay Area Now 9 Looping Film Program

January 3–31, 2023, 11 AM-5 PM

A cycle of four films from filmmaker Emily Chao that offer fragments of memories of people and places, experiences both shared and private, and new considerations of familiar views.

Screenings & Films

Spectral Evidence

A showcase of expanded cinema

Saturday, December 9, 2023, 12–2 PM

A dynamic film program from Shapeshifter Cinema, featuring three sets of kinetic, multi-projector, and multimedia performances.

Workshops

Material Cinema Workshop

Workshop presented by Shapeshifters Cinema

Saturday, December 2, 2023, 12–5 PM

Learn how to repurpose castaway mid-century 16mm film through scratching, painting, puncturing, boiling, bleaching, and more in this hands-on material cinema bonanza with filmmaker Ellie Vanderlip.

Screenings & Films

Prismatic Permutations: Expanded Cinema Performances

Bay Area Now 9 Looping Film Program

December 1–30, 2023, 11 AM–5 PM

An hour-long program of select expanded cinema performances that have been presented by Shapeshifters Cinema over its 11-year history.

Screenings & Films

Canyon Cinema Across Time and Space

Bay Area Now 9 Looping Film Program

November 1–30, 2023, 11 AM–5 PM

A selection of films from the Canyon Cinema collection tracing six decades of experimental filmmaking in the Bay Area.

Screenings & Films

APAture 2023: Unearthing, a film showcase

In partnership with Kearny Street Workshop

October 29, 2023, 2–4:30 PM

A film showcase featuring Adamu Chan, as a part of Kearny Street Workshop’s annual multi-disciplinary arts festival, APAture.

Screenings & Films

San Francisco Cinematheque: Contemporary Views from the Bay Area

In partnership with San Francisco Cinematheque

October 21, 2023, 3–5 PM

Nine works by ten contemporary Bay Area filmmakers, a cross-section of the Bay Area’s ever-vibrant multi-generational community curated by Steve Polta, artistic director of San Francisco Cinematheque.

Screenings & Films

Canyon Cinema: Contemporary Bay Area Film

In partnership with Canyon Cinema

October 14, 2023, 3–5 PM

An afternoon of contemporary Bay Area works on film and video from the Canyon Cinema catalog, curated and hosted by executive director Brett Kashmere.

Screenings & Films

San Francisco Cinematheque’s CROSSROADS Film

Bay Area Now 9 Looping Film Program

October 6–31, 2023, 11 AM–5 PM

Experience selections from fourteen years of CROSSROADS, San Francisco Cinematheque’s annual film festival in this ongoing daily screening.

Screenings & Films

I Hear a Butterfly

Sunday, June 25, 2023

This new short film shares vibrant stories of migration and resilience.

Screenings & Films

Peter Sellars: this body is so impermanent…

Watch in person at YBCA or stream on YBCA.org

August 12–14, 2022

+ Read more

Screenings & Films

Sa Amin (Our Place)

Presented by SF Urban Film Fest & SOMA Pilipinas

Friday, June 17, 2022, 6–7:30 PM

+ Read more

Screenings & Films

Diasporas of Resilience

SF Urban Film Fest

Saturday, October 2, 2021

An afternoon of film programs and artist talks around immigration to the South of Market, the power of mutual aid, and the power of writing a community narrative.

Screenings & Films

SoMa Social Landscapes

SF Urban Film Fest

Saturday, September 25, 2021

An afternoon of exploring the social landscapes of the South of Market with artist talks, film screenings, and panel discussions.

Events

Generations of Filipinx Power

SF Urban Film Fest

Saturday, August 28, 2021

A night of artist talks, one-act plays, and film screenings celebrating Filipinx power in South of Market.

Festival

SF Urban Film Fest 2021

SF Urban Film Fest

February 14–21, 2021

This year’s festival explores enduring injustices and environmental destruction alongside the resilience of neighborhoods and the communities that fill them.

Screenings & Films

Bayview is Alive: Film Screening & Panel

Presented by SF Urban Film Fest

December 17, 2020, 4-5:30 PM

Short films based on historic murals highlighting the Bayview’s everyday heroes and a panel discussion featuring Bayview community leaders.

Screenings & Films

AFTER LIFE (we survive) presents Rea Tajiri’s LORDVILLE

On view on YBCA.org

December 11, 6 PM–December 13, 2020, 11:59 PM

Watch Tajiri’s documentary and a new conversation between the artist and AFTER LIFE curator Thea Quiray Tagle.

Screenings & Films

Jeffrey Gibson: Nothing is Eternal

Presented by YBCA and the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art

October 30–November 3, 2020

Conceived during this pandemic era, the immersive video work depicts the American flag in unsettling stillness, as a marker of territory, and projected onto bodies, while set to a heartrending soundtrack.

Screenings & Films

Pocket-Size Cinema in Spain: Experiments in Super-8

Presented by San Francisco Cinematheque

February 27, 2020, 7:30 PM

A program of contemporary and historic films made in Super-8mm by Spanish filmmakers.

Screenings & Films

let me tell you what home looks like

SF Urban Film Fest

February 8, 2020, 7 PM

As cities gentrify, black artists and activists create new narratives, shift the audience gaze, amplify unheard voices, and showcase their resilience.

Screenings & Films

Diaspora: Identity and the Pathos of Global Labor

SF Urban Film Fest

February 6, 2020, 6:30 PM

Films and a panel discussion explore personal experiences of diaspora within the global labor market.

Screenings & Films

Be Water: Civil Disobedience and the Fight for Democracy in Hong Kong

SF Urban Film Fest

February 3, 2020, 6:30 PM

Alex Yong Kang Chow co-curates this event looking at the Hong Kong demonstrations from the lived experience of the student protestors.

Festival

SF Urban Film Fest 2020

SF Urban Film Fest

February 3–8, 2020

Exploring Place and the Populist Revolt, investigating how cities are ground zero for the struggle to find or hold on to a place, for both incumbents and newly arrived.

Screenings & Films

Interludes: New and Recent Films by Nathaniel Dorsky

Presented by San Francisco Cinematheque

January 23, 2020, 7:30 PM

New and recent works by the master filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky.

Screenings & Films

Celebrating Jonas Mekas 2: Walden

Presented by San Francisco Cinematheque

December 8, 2019, 5 PM

Cinematheque closes its 2019 exhibition year with a rare screening of Mekas’ legendary film.

Screenings & Films

Everywhere at Once: Films by Sylvia Schedelbauer

Presented by San Francisco Cinematheque

November 7, 2019

Sylvia Schedelbauer appears in person to present a retrospective of recent films.

Screenings & Films

Something Between Us: Films by Jodie Mack

Presented by San Francisco Cinematheque

October 24, 2019

Jodie Mack appears in person to present a collection of works.

Screenings & Films

Makino Takashi: Memento Stella

Presented by San Francisco Cinematheque

September 26, 2019

Makino Takashi appears in person to present this digital video work.

Screenings & Films

Remembering Phil Solomon

Presented by San Francisco Cinematheque

August 8, 2019

This tribute includes several of Solomon’s greatest films.