It’s Gift Card Wednesday!

Until another name settles, we’re declaring today Gift Card Wednesday. Why struggle with the dilemma of choosing the right gift when you can let your recipient choose for themself? 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 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.

Do-Over Music Series - Holiday Extravaganza
Djll / Brown / Wright / Jordan / Evangelista / Glenn
Thursday, December 4, 2025
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): sound performance by:

Ari Brown - trumpet
Tom Djll - electronics/trumpet

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

Cory Wright - reeds
Lewis Jordan - alto sax
Karl Evangelista - guitar
Jordan Glenn - drums
Shapeshifters Cinema Performance Group - expanded film projections

PLUS!!!!! Bring a plate of your favorite cookies to share for the cookie potluck! Homemade latkes will be provide and house-made beer will be available on tap, as always, for purchase.

Punk Rock Docs - Louder, Faster, Shorter & I Get Knocked Down
Presented in partnership with Nixed
Sunday, December 7, 2025
5pm
Admission: $10 (discount for members)

Punk Rock Docs is a monthly film series highlighting the origins and legacy of DIY/punk music and culture in the Bay Area and beyond.

Louder, Faster, Shorter is a short film by Mindaugis Bagdon documenting 5 of the 14 bands (UXA, Dils, Avengers, Sleepers and Mutants) who performed at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens in March 1978 for the punk rock benefit show in support of striking Kentucky coal miners.

I Get Knocked Down is a surreal, punk version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol told through Dunstan Bruce, the former frontman of the anarchist band Chumbawamba, 20 years after his fall from grace, as he reckons with his past and tries to square it with his life as a middle-aged, retired radical. This is the untold story of Chumbawamba and Dunstan's personal redemptive voyage as well as a call to arms to those who think activism is best undertaken by someone else.

You Don't Know Me: A selection of films from the 7th Cosmic Rays Film Festival
Friday, December 12, 2025
7pm
Admission: $12 (discount for members)

The Cosmic Rays Experimental Film Festival was founded in 2017 by filmmakers and educators Sabine Gruffat and Bill Brown to showcase non-commercial short films, live-cinema, and new media projects to audiences in the Triangle region of North Carolina and across the Southeastern U.S. You Don't Know Me is a selection of films from the 7th iteration of the festival. This program includes films that question the roles our bodies play in an age of disembodiment—the data they generate, the avatars they adopt, and the traces they leave behind. Films that ask if we're evolving into something new, or just heading for extinction.

Program: "I’m Not Your Monster" (2024) by Karen Yasinsky, "Lizzy" (2024) by Susanna Wallin, "Exo Gestus #2" (2024) by Yvette Granata, "Listening In, Resounding Out" (2023) by Eislow Johnson & Dominic Bonelli, "Night Music" (2024) by Edwin Rostron, "Species of Analogy" (2023) by J.M. Martínez, "File No. 2304" (2024) by A. S. M. Kobayashi, "An egg, the white is gone but the yellow remains" (2023) by Mohamed Thara, "ESP" (2024) by Laura Kraning, "The Big Day of Coloane" (2023) by Keng U Lao

Zoe Beloff: Life Forgotten & Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse People
Friday, January 16, 2025
7pm
Admission: $10 (discount for members)

NYC-based media archeologist Zoe Beloff joins us to screen two of her latest films—both set in the artist's Lower East Side neighborhood, both looking at its history as a place of immigrants and at different ways that popular entertainment brings people together.

Set in New York's Lower East Side in the early years of the twentieth century, Life Forgotten (2025, 16mm film shown on DV) centers on a real storefront cinema—Frank Seiden's Variety Theater—where silent movies were presented with improvised dialog and Yiddish ballads by Frank and his sons to an audience that didn't hesitate to join in or argue back. It was a welcoming space for women and the film follows a group of radical young garment workers who gather here to figure out how to fight for women's rights and change their world. Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse People (2025, DV) is a work of remembrance that asks but does not answer the question how does everyday art bring people together? One by one, the community that is the Mouse People, recite the text of Franz Kafka's short story in quiet places on New York's Lower East Side. The film presents Josephine's story, as something transmitted across time, something that comes from inside the body of an oppressed people; spoken alone, summoned mysteriously, at the edge of consciousness. Why was it that Josephine's voice so captivated them?

Tangible Media: Magnetic Tape & Creative Reuse
Instructor: John Davis
Sunday, December 14, 2025
12-5pm
In-person at Shapeshifters Cinema
Admission: $60 (+ $25 materials cost) (Discount for Shapeshifters members)

Registration for this workshop is still open!

For artists and consumers alike, the rapid shift from analog to digital media platforms over the past few decades presented both an economy of means and a seemingly unlimited range of possibilities. Though some artists, driven perhaps by nostalgia or curiosity, continue to work with obsolete media, inspired by the fundamentally unique materials and aesthetic properties inherent in them.

This workshop, led by musician/filmmaker John Davis, digs into the past to mine some veins of discarded media culture—more specifically, the creative use (and re-use) of magnetic audio tape technology. We'll take a brief look into its history and look at some of the ways the technology has been used creatively and unconventionally. We'll also demonstrate some accessible ways of using the media, while covering practical tips and strategies for sourcing playback and recording machines, new and used tapes, as well as some related tools and equipment. Participants will be encouraged to independently expand on the information provided, as the workshop serves as a jumping off point for those curious about working with magnetic tape for artistic exploration and experimentation.

Build Your Own Crankie
Instructor: Risa Lenore
Sunday, January 11, 2026
12-5pm
In-person at Shapeshifters Cinema
Admission: $75 (+ $25 materials cost) (Discount for Shapeshifters members)

Learn how to make a "crankie" with puppeteer and artist Risa Lenore, artistic director of Possibly Puppets Handmade Theatre. A crankie is a pre-cinematic device consisting of a moving panorama, or painting that scrolls through a viewing frame when turned with cranks. Participants will learn about crankies and how they work and then build one with simple materials and an illustrated scroll. This is a beginner-friendly workshop, open to everyone. Colored pencils, markers, scroll paper and prepared crankie kits will be provided. Participants will need to bring a short story, a song or a poem to illustrate, along with imagination, a playful attitude and the most basic drawing skills. If desired, Risa will help you create simple paper puppets to accompany your crankie. We will share and film our projects at the end of class and you will go home with your very own crankie!

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.

Our storefront shop is a thoughtfully-curated collection of publications, prints, recordings and other limited edition, handmade and singular items—made primarily by artists who have performed or presented in our space over the years. 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.

Cauldron Film Festival Call for Submissions: Cauldron Film Festival (Salt Lake City) seeks unorthodox film narratives, rogue documentaries, avant-garde cinema, video mashups, abstract video art, genre-bending storytelling of all kinds with an eye towards innovation, iconoclasm, personal visions, and any/all unique motion picture experiences for its next festival happening in Feb/March 2026. Deadline to submit is December 15, 2025. Find out more.

Single Frame Call for Submissions: Single Frame has opened up its call for entries of experimental documentary shorts under 20 minutes for its 5th annual event happening on April 19, 2026 at UNEXPOSED, a microcinema facilitating the growth of experimental and avant-garde film in the Triangle, NC. Deadline to submit is January 1, 2026. Find out more.

CROSSROADS 2026 Call for Submissions: 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. Early submission deadline is January 31, 2026. Find out more.

Prismatic Ground Film Festival Call for Submissions: Prismatic Ground is a New York festival centered on experimental documentary and avant-garde film, and for the first time accepting performance, music and poetry/live reading submissions. Hosted with media partner Screen Slate at handful of venues across NYC, the festival will hold its sixth edition April 29-May 3, 2026. Deadline to submit is March 1, 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.

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.