Together with a number of other local venues and bookstores, we celebrate the publication of Left in the Dark: Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres. This unique and beautiful book features over fifty color photographs of San Francisco movie theaters intermixed with writings on the city's cinema culture. Local scholars and exhibitors from Rebecca Solnit, Laura Horak, and Eddie Muller to Chi-hui Yang, Melinda Stone, and Gary Meyer contributed essays on topics ranging from Chinatown theaters to architecture and the cinematic experience. A number of writers will read selections from their essays and McBride will present a slide show of her photographs. She gained access to the interiors of a number of theaters, whether movie palaces or small neighborhood haunts, some of which are no longer showing films, and her photographs reveal both the grandeur of their architecture and the everyday details surrounding film exhibition.

Left in the Dark: Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres, by R.A. McBride, edited by Julie Lindow, published by Charta Art Books, will be available at the program as well as in the BAM/PFA Bookstore. Purchase a copy at the event and receive the 10 percent members' discount!