A series of stark, scathing, and playful films from the former socialist republics of Eastern Europe, where absurdity was a fact of life under authoritarian rule—and a source of cinematic creativity.
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Enjoy newly released films and restored classics selected by our curators, now available in your own home.
ViewIn conjunction with a Cal Performances appearance by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, we feature films about, by, and influenced by Bausch, whose work transformed the visual and emotional vocabulary of dance.
ViewNow available for streaming, three award-winning, recently restored films by Hungarian master István Szabó: Confidence, Mephisto, and Colonel Redl, parables of life under political oppression and individual morality in the face of momentous events.
ViewWe’re grateful to our members for standing with BAMPFA during our temporary closure. To show our appreciation, we’re offering a series of free streaming films just for members.
ViewIn Nostalgia for the Light, The Pearl Button, and The Cordillera of Dreams, Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán explores his country’s traumatic history through cinematic meditations on landscape, geography, and time.
ViewThree documentaries by boundary-breaking filmmaker Madeline Anderson—Integration Report 1, A Tribute to Malcolm X, and I Am Somebody—deliver on-the-ground reports from the front lines of the civil rights movement and the labor struggles of the sixties.
ViewA four-film sampler of twenty-first-century Romanian cinema: Cristi Puiu’s slacker thriller Stuff and Dough, Radu Muntean’s chronicle of revolutionary chaos The Paper Will Be Blue, Alexandru Solomon’s sardonic meta-movie The Great Communist Bank Robbery, and Lucian Pintilie’s... View
Our annual experimental cinema showcase moves online this year with streaming programs of contemporary and historical avant-garde works and special guest presentations on handmade film, Latin American animation, and more.
ViewDiscover the vital history and vibrant present of experimental filmmaking in Latin America with three programs of short works, introduced by curator and author Jesse Lerner and complemented by livestreamed conversations with filmmakers.
ViewThe films in this miniseries reflect on the experiences of people living in transit, from African and Middle Eastern refugees trying to reach Europe to Latin American and Asian immigrants in the United States. Several filmmakers will join us online to discuss their work.
ViewThe fall installment in our members-only free streaming series features three programs by Shirley Clarke, one of American cinema’s true independents.
ViewThree recent documentaries chronicle the achievements and challenges of exceptional women working in science and technology. Livestreamed talks with women in STEM complement the films.
ViewThis installment in our ongoing series of free films for members travels from a struggling cinematheque in Uruguay to the streets of Tbilisi and the steppes of Kyrgyzstan.
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