SUNDAY, April 15

A selection of five experimental short films from the venerable Canyon Cinema of San Francisco: Stan Brakhage’s An Avant-Garde Home Movie, Emily Breer’s Superhero, Henry Hills’ Bali Mecanique, Sharon Couzin’s Shells and Rushes, and Luther Price’s Jellyfish Sandwich.

Canyon Cinema first emerged in filmmaker Bruce Baillie's Canyon, California backyard in 1961. Local films were projected from the kitchen window onto an army surplus screen, and free wine and popcorn were given out to the audience. Moving to other basements and backyards, from Canyon to Berkeley to San Francisco, Canyon Cinema gained energy and purpose and attracted larger audiences.

In 1967, a group of filmmakers – among them Bruce Conner, Larry Jordan, Robert Nelson, Lenny Lipton, and Ben Van Meter – founded Canyon Cinema, Inc., as a distribution company. The inventory of films distributed through Canyon Cinema traces the history of the experimental and avant-garde filmmaking movement from the 1930s to the present. You won’t see these films at your local multiplex!

Approximate running time 75 minutes.

See Canyon Cinema