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Film Series

Past Film Series

  • Les Blank: A Life Well Spent

    June 7–July 27, 2024

    This summer, BAMPFA showcases many of Les Blank’s films in recent digital restorations. We also host filmmakers who collaborated with Blank, as well as several individuals who were subjects in his films.

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  • Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Cinema

    June 8–August 31, 2024

    All of Hayao Miyazaki’s feature films—environmental allegories, fantasy epics, and intimate family adventures—populated by a bestiary of snarling, grotesque demons and cute, cuddly sprites (appearances can be deceiving) are presented here in their original Japanese versions.

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  • Film Noir Classics: America’s Dark Dreams

    June 14–August 8, 2024

    From The Maltese Falcon (1941) to The Killing (1956), BAMPFA’s series offers viewers a chance to see many archival 35mm prints and digital restorations of film noir masterpieces and revel in the plot twists of these vastly entertaining and suspenseful mysteries, melodramas, and crime thrillers.

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  • Made in Italy: Morricone, Leone, and More

    July 12–August 31, 2024

    BAMPFA celebrates the legacy of composer Ennio Morricone (1928–2020) with a series of films he scored for great Italian directors, including Marco Bellocchio, Liliana Cavani, Sergio Leone, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Elio Petri, Gillo Pontecorvo, and Lina Wertmüller.

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  • Hiroshi Shimizu: Notes of an Itinerant Director

    July 19–August 28, 2024

    One of the great directors of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema, Hiroshi Shimizu depicts the struggles of people on the margins with a light touch, avoiding melodrama and inflecting even the most serious stories with humor and profound humanity.

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  • Something Different: The Films of Věra Chytilová

    July 26–August 30, 2024

    This is a series of films roiling with unruly energy and feminist fury from Věra Chytilová, “one of the Czech New Wave’s most rebellious, irreverent and boundary-breaking talents” (Sight & Sound).

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  • The Films of Lynne Ramsay

    August 22–25, 2024

    BAMPFA is honored to present a retrospective of Lynne Ramsay's extraordinary films this August.

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  • Cities & Cinema: Los Angeles

    September 6–October 3, 2024

    From Chinatown to La La Land to restored independent films, this series considers a diverse selection of works that foreground the history, architecture, and neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Special guests include May HaDuong, Director of the UCLA Film & Television Archive, and Los Angeles–based Italian journalist Luca Celeda.

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  • Special Screenings

    Ongoing

    Recent releases, restored classics, and special guests grace the Barbro Osher Theater.

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  • Alternative Visions

    September 11–November 20, 2024

    Alternative Visions features new restorations of great films by Man Ray and Nicolás Guillén Landrián, classic works on film by Pat O’Neill, and artists in person, including Shu Lea Cheang, Charif Kiwan, Lewis Klahr, Jennifer Reeves, Scott Stark, and Amanda Strong.

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  • Silent Cinema Pioneers: From Alice Guy-Blaché to Lois Weber

    September 14–25, 2024

    A chance to see works by four pioneering directors of the silent era: Alice Guy-Blaché, Louis Feuillade, Cecil B. DeMille, and Lois Weber. Professor Anne Nesbet will give short lectures for the film programs on September 18 and 25, both of which are presented with live piano accompaniment by Judith Rosenberg. Also screening is Pamela B. Green’s 2019 documentary on Guy-Blaché, which helps reclaim her place in film history.

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  • Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy

    September 28–29, 2024

    Explicit, beautiful, and visceral, Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy comprises a unique ensemble portrait of queer Los Angeles youth navigating 1990s nihilism amidst the fallout from the Reagan/Bush era, the culture wars, and the mounting death toll from AIDS.

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  • Movie Matinees for All Ages

    September 28–November 30, 2004

    BAMPFA’s movie matinees are a wonderful way to introduce young people to the joys of the big-screen cinematic experience—and for all of us to rediscover the pleasures of Saturday afternoon at the movies.

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  • Mill Valley Film Festival at BAMPFA

    October 4–13, 2024

    BAMPFA is pleased to partner with the Mill Valley Film Festival to present selected screenings from MVFF47 in the Barbro Osher Theater.

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  • Hong Kong Cinema with Paul Fonoroff

    October 17–27, 2024

    Film collector and former television personality Paul Fonoroff returns to BAMPFA with a program that draws from the golden age of Hong Kong cinema from the 1980s and 1990s.

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  • Cuban Cinema without Borders

    October 23–November 16, 2024

    Through captivating storytelling, this series celebrates the resilience of independent Cuban cinema and the enduring legacy of trailblazers like Nicolás Guillén Landrián. Explore themes of exile, motherhood, and nationhood in a formally stunning collection of fiction, documentary, and experimental films that reflect on Cuban lives and imaginaries in the island and its diasporas.

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  • Sergei Parajanov: Centennial Celebration

    November 1–22, 2024

    This is a centennial tribute to the legendary Armenian poet-filmmaker Sergei Parajanov, who worked across transnational boundaries and struggled against the Soviet authorities, who banned and censored his films.

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  • Jia Zhangke: Filmmaker in Residence

    November 7–30, 2024

    One of the world’s foremost filmmakers, Jia Zhangke, joins us for a weeklong residency during which he will engage in conversations with leading experts about his distinctive body of work, which reflects sweeping cultural and economic change in China since the late 1990s.

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