This email newsletter is packed with so many amazing events and opportunities coming up at Shapeshifters over the next few months, including the next Gravitational Lensing: Feminist Film Dialogues program (Friday), the Makeshift Spring Market (Sunday) and the launch of this year’s Summer Youth Media Makers Camp! We are so excited to let you know about all these great things, but first we need to turn your attention to our emergency fundraiser. We are asking the community to help us raise $60,000 over the next two weeks to cover rent, insurance, and other pending fees and payments related to the operational costs of our multi-faceted art organization and business. If you are in a position to support our organization, please donate now to help ensure its future.

Do-Over Music Series - Huegel / Glenn / WK / Cooper
Thursday, March 5, 2026
7pm
Admission: $10 (discount for members)

The Do-Over Music Series at Shapeshifters Cinema, organized by Lisa Mezzacappa and Jordan Glenn, is a monthly series of sound performances presented by a rotating cast of local luminaries and special guests. The first set features performances of creative - improvised - composed - electronic - acoustic - music. The second set opens up to a live improvised collaboration of sound and visuals made using images culled from the Shapeshifters 16mm film collection.

Set 1 (7pm): Warren Huegel & Jordan Glenn DRUM DUO

Set 2 (8pm): expanded cinema + improvised music with:

Isabelle WK (guitar)
Chris Cooper (guitar)
Warren Huegel (drums)
Jordan Glenn (drums)
Films, film loops and other visual interventions by the Shapeshifters Performance Group (Ellie, Kathleen & Gilbert)

Gravitational Lensing, Program 13: Memory, Archives & Reclaiming History
Presented in association with San Francisco Cinematheque
Friday, March 6, 2026
7pm
Admission: $15 (discount for members)

Memories and archives are not stories set in stone—their contents can be dismantled and re-configured in as many ways as there are perspectives. Sometimes they need to be reconstructed from nothing, or re-inscribed after new information comes to light, or just plain corrected. The films in this program pull threads from personal memories and experiences, weaving new stories through dominant narratives to make a fuller historical tapestry.

Screening: Crow Requiem (2015, DV) by Cauleen Smith, Slow wave (2023, DV) by Pooja Kadam, The Letter From Tomorrow (2023, 16mm shown on DV) by Nataliya Bek-Gergard, Why some people be mad at me sometimes (2024, DV) by mahlet cuff, Tracing History (2023 DV) by Jalena Keane-Lee, Dominion (2023, DV) by Bea Mariano, Agua y mas agua (2022, double-8mm shown on DV) by Francesca Svampa, Birthmarks (2007, DV) by Naima Lowe and Oolite (1995, 16mm film) by Anna Geyer.

Makeshift Spring Market
Part of a boardwalk-wide event in collaboration with Furry + Punk Mart
@ Shapeshifters Cinema, Shapeshifters Café & Oakland Secret
Sunday, March 8, 2026
12-6pm
Free admission

Join us Sunday, March 8th for a boardwalk-wide bonanza, with vendors, food, music and more hosted by Shapeshifters Cinema, Shapeshifters Café and Oakland Secret. Dozens of artist-vendors will be set up in and around the entire Bret Harte Boardwalk selling all kinds of handmade and crafted wares! Artists who will be setting up for the Makeshift Market (at Shapeshifters) include Rock Paper Scissors Collective (zines, prints), Anna Firth (riso prints, stickers) Octavia Veeder (gemstone jewelry), Desert Glass Jewelry (jewelry, bolo ties), Dogbotic (sound-based recordings, DIY kits, books), Sadie Greyduck (stained glass), Miriam Campos-Quinn (riso prints), and more. Shapeshifters storefront shop will be open where we have re-stocked some of our most popular items. Shapeshifters Café will also be open for food and drinks, including a selection of our housemade beers on tap. Come out and support local artists and arts venues. Admission is free!

The Lizard Point & Aux Meadows
March 12, 2026
7pm
Admission: $15 (discount for members)

Named after the opening track of Brian Eno's Ambient 4: On Land, The Lizard Point are Conor Devlin (Half Film, [the] caseworker) and Geoffrey Scott (Slowness). The Transatlantic duo craft elegant instrumentals that evoke a nocturnal, pastoral space. This performance is a celebration of their third LP, In The Red Earth, which will be released March 10, 2026 on Hidden Shoal Recordings.

Oakland-based Aux Meadows is an instrumental "ambient country" and Cosmic Americana trio formed in 2021 by J. Imwalle (synth), C. Royalty (guitar), and S. Dawson (lap steel/dobro). Known for their "lonesome planet sound," they blend traditional country instrumentation with ethereal, spacey, and experimental textures.

The Refracted City - New Films by Mark Street
Co-presented by Canyon Cinema
Friday, March 13, 2026
7pm
Admission: $14 (discount for Friends of Canyon and Shapeshifters members)

NYC-based filmmaker Mark Street will present a program of recent short films rooted in the tradition of street photography. These films toggle between representation and abstraction as he uses magnifiers, lenses and other objects to twist and bend the urban landscapes of New York City, Paris, Belfast and other cities. Juxtaposing the familiar and the unexpected, this work reveals an idiosyncratic view of city vignettes captured while wandering, camera in hand, eyes open wide.

Street's films will be followed by a selection of city-themed shorts from the Canyon Cinema collection curated by Street in collaboration with Brett Kashmere, Zachary Epcar and Ashley Rose Tacheira. A Q&A and discussion with Street will conclude the screening.

SCREENING: River of Days by Mark Street (2025, 7 mins.), all day and all of the night by Mark Street (2025, 13 mins), Lunette by Mark Street (2024, 8 mins.), Clear Ice Fern by Mark Street (2023, 12 mins.), The Grain of Belfast by Mark Street (2022, 6 mins.), An Insomniac's Reward by Mark Street (2026, 6 mins.), Homage to Jean Tinguely's Homage to New York by Robert Breer (1968, 9.5 mins.), Feriado by Azucena Losano (2021, 2 mins.), Manhattan One, Two, Three, Four by Tomonari Nishikawa (2014, 3 mins.), New York (Near Sleep) For Saskia by Peter Hutton (1972, 10 mins.)

Summer Camp Registration is Now Open!

The Shapeshifters Summer Youth Media Makers Camp is a week-long, hands-on, workshop-style camp for youth, ages 12-17 to learn a variety of DIY, experimental film and sound-based processes from experienced Bay Area-based artists and educators. This year we are offering two sessions: June 22-26 and July 20-24 covering panorama crankies, found sound, cut paper collage animation, multimedia poetry, material cinema, shadow puppets, virtual sound making, apparent motion, creative coding and phytography. Guest artist-instructors this year are Cheryl E. Leonard, Lydia Greer, Risa Lenore & Jon Leidecker. 

Find out more and register now

Shapeshifters members are the heart of the organization.

By joining the Shapeshifters Membership Program, you become part of an engaged, diverse, creative community working in and around experimental moving image, sound and time-based art.

In exchange for your generous support, we offer a wellspring of fantastic benefits including:

• 10% discount on tickets, registrations and everything purchased in both the cinema and café (Seer level, $60)

• A special, limited edition beer mug (with original image designed this year by Anna Firth!) + one free beer at every on-site event you attend (Clairvoyant level, $100)

• Shapeshifters T-shirt or tote bag (Conjurer level, $150)

• One free admission to every screening hosted in our cinema (Magus level, $300)

• Named sponsorship of one Shapeshifters Fellow (Shapeshifters level, $500)

Help ensure the future of Shapeshifters Cinema. Become a member now.

Want to support the organization without committing to a membership? Consider making a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor, San Francisco Cinematheque, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. All donations go directly towards covering the costs of operating our venue, without which we can’t continue to do what we do. And if the company you work for offers matching donations, you can double your impact! Every donation makes a huge difference and is greatly appreciated.

We have re-stocked our collection of the popular 6-in-1 flipbook series (and added a new one!) in our shop. These are innovatively-designed flipbooks made in Spain featuring six different image sequences in one book. Each book focuses on work by pioneering artists related to pre-cinema and early cinema history, including Eadweard Muybridge, Étienne-Jules Marey, Georges Méliès, Lotte Reiniger, The Lumière Brothers and Josepth Plateau. We have a limited stock of each book. Get them while you can!

Other recent additions to our shop include Lynne Sachs and Lizzie Olezker’s Hand Book: A Manual on Performance, Process, and the Labor of Laundry, Marielle V Jakobson’s Star Core LP and Analog Cookbook, Issue #8: All Recipes.

Take a look at all the items available in the Shapeshifters Shop.

We also have gift cards! Shapeshifters gift cards can be purchased in any amount you choose and can be used in both the cinema and café. That means that your recipient can use it to buy whatever they want! A latte, a book and a ticket to a film screening; or, a beer, a record and admission to a workshop. The variations are endless! Not only are you giving your favorite creative person access to a treasure trove of great things (and experiences), you are also supporting your favorite microcinema/brewery/café. It’s a win-win scenario! Buy a gift card now.

ATA Monthly Open Screenings: Artists’ Television Access (ATA), the stalwart experimental microcinema holding ground in SF’s Mission District since 1984, hosts Open Screenings every first Thursday. This free community film/video show welcomes short format work (15 min or less) from all genres made by independent filmmakers, experimental artists, rogue visionaries and inspired tinkerers who work with the moving image. ATA’s Open Screenings happen the first Thursday of every month at 8:00 pm. Entries must be received by 7:00 pm on show night. Find out more.

CROSSROADS 2026 Call for Submissions Extended: San Francisco Cinematheque seeks submissions of recent films, videos and works of performance cinema for CROSSROADS 2026, the seventeenth iteration of our annual film festival. CROSSROADS 2026 will be held September 4–6, 2026  at Gray Area/Grand Theater in San Francisco. Submission deadline has been extended to March 31, 2026. Find out more.

Extremely Shorts 2026 Call for Submissions: Submissions for Aurora Picture Show’s 29th annual Extremely Shorts Film Festival are now open. Extremely Shorts is an open-call, juried competition of three-minutes-or-shorter films and videos of all kinds and from around the world. Screenings will be presented at Aurora Picture Show in Houston, TX in late May, with some participating filmmakers in attendance and receptions. Deadline to submit is March 10, 2026. Find out more.

Roxie Mixtape #9 Call for Submissions: The Roxie is calling all Bay Area filmmakers to be a part of its on-going mini-festival, Roxie Mixtape, a Bay Area tradition featuring diverse and engaging short works showcasing talented voices from The Bay. All submitted films will be considered for screening on May 20th, in the Big Roxie theater. All genres are welcome, including but not limited to animation, documentary, narrative, experimental, live performance with a film component, music video, and found footage. Deadline to submit is April 2, 2026. Find out more.

Creative Capital 2027 Open Call: Creative Capital For Artists seeks proposals from individual artists in all 50 states for new artistic works in Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Film, and Literature. The Creative Capital Award provides unrestricted project grants of up to $50,000 to individual artists to create new work. The new State of the Art Prize provides unrestricted artist grants of $10,000. The application portal opens on Monday, March 2, 2026. Deadline for submission is April 2, 2026. Find out more.

Found Footage Magazine Call for Submissions: Authors are invited to submit essays, interviews, video-essays, film and book reviews for Found Footage Magazine, Issue #12. Deadline to submit is June 1, 2026. Find out more.