Gravitational Lensing: Feminist Film Dialogues
Program 14: Speculative Histories
Friday, April 17, 2026
Presented in association with San Francisco Cinematheque
7pm
Admission: $15 (discount for members)

The films in this program, each in their own way, open up space to consider history and historical events—personal, cultural and societal—through multi-faceted lenses. Using speculation as a tool, the filmmakers are able to address absence, loss, inaccessibility and occlusion. When evidence is sparse or completely absent, speculation becomes a generative method for circumnavigating the unknowable by flooding the void with possibilities. These films reach their own conclusions by asking questions rather than providing answers.

Screening: Dream of Me (2007, Super-8 film/DV shown on DV) by A. Moon, Voice On the Line (2009, DV) by Kelly Sears, Light Signal (2022, 16mm film) by Emily Chao, Three Missing Letters (2021, DV) by Lana Lin and H. Lan Thao Lam, Un-tidal (2022, 16mm film shown on DV) by Masha Vlasova and Across the Street (1982, 16mm film) by Lynn Marie Kirby

Find out more about the Gravitational Lensing series

ZETI EP Release w/Robert Nance & Roco Córdova + Expanded Film by Ellie Vanderlip
Friday, April 24, 2026
7pm
Admission: $15 (discount for members)

ZETI is the experimental minimalist folk project by Margaret Stutt which explores spaciousness - constriction, light- dark, form - formlessness on accordion and keys. Celebrating the release of It is what it is - Prevail EP on cassette.

Robert Nance is a composer and producer creating immersive sonic cocoons through the use of guitars, synthesizers, electronics, and field recordings. His works seek to build lusciously abstract environments that invite listeners to engage as actively or passively as their own experience unfolds.

Roco Córdova is a vocalist, composer, producer and improviser whose music fuses diverse influences with electronic media, chance operations, gradual processes, noise, improvisation, and timbral techniques of composition.

Ellie Vanderlip is an experimental filmmaker who maintains an expanded cinema practice driven by the delights of found midcentury 16mm film, the potency of light, and other discarded visual ephemera.

Vital Signs Film Series
WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU, by Hong Sangsoo
+ City of Nature, by Kota Ezawa
Sunday, May 3, 2026
2pm
Admission: $15 (discount for members)

Vital Signs is a new film series organized by Bay Area filmmaker and curator Jonathan Kiefer to showcase new and recently-released, feature-length, contemporary, independent and artist-made films that have shown around the international film festival circuit but may or may not have been picked up by distributors and are otherwise hard to find. Films may feature obscure themes, unusual perspectives or eccentric material, but they have all been sifted through the Vital Signs filter so you can be sure they are all films worth leaving your home to see in community with like-minded art film/film art appreciators. Screenings will take place at Shapeshifters every first Sunday at 2pm.

Kicking off the series is WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU (2025) by Hong Sangsoo with opening short City of Nature (2011), by Kota Ezawa.

In his 33rd feature, Sangsoo spins a bitterly comic fable on the trials of living simply and righteously in our world. Donghwa is a fledgling poet in his thirties. He rejects material aspirations and seeks to lead a life dedicated to truth and beauty. Then he meets and has some drinks with his girlfriend's family. (TRT: 108 min. Korean with English subtitles.)

Do-Over Music Series - Taylor / Carson / Pascucci-Clifford / Levis / NC
Thursday, May 7, 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): Sound performance by Matthew Evan Taylor (reeds + electronics)

Set 2 (8pm): Nathan Clevenger's Burden of Dreams with:

Brett Carson - organ
Mark Pascucci-Clifford - vibes
Jason Levis - drums
NC - guitar
Films, film loops and other visual interventions by the Shapeshifters Performance Group (Ellie, Kathleen & Gilbert)

Crystal Powers
Saturday, May 16, 2026
7pm
Admission: $15-20, sliding scale

A journey of discovery in which we wake up together and discover we were never asleep, only to fall deeper into the most delicious dream. Persephone Possum reads from her body of weird-horror prose and queer surrealist theater. Filmmaker Linda Izcali Scobie and musician Beverly Bradley weave together luminous worlds of delight. Sadie Greyduck and Miriam Campos-Quinn gather dried moss for a nest of mirrors and chimes: fairy ambient bass, synth + handmade 16mm film projections.

Lamfanti Presents: Amusement Ride(s)
Sunday, May 24, 2026
7pm
Admission: $12 (discount for members)

Schools out for summer! Dreams of fun and adventure emerge as children escape the shackles of regimented learning (and parents cope with keeping their offspring occupied). To celebrate, Lamfanti Presents (the sporadic, itinerant presentation series founded by Antonella Bonfanti and Jeff Lambert) is excited to showcase a group of moving image artifacts dedicated to amusement rides, theme parks, and related ephemeral activities. Centered around the late great Tomonari Nishikawa’s 16mm Amusement Ride (2019), the program is designed to thrill and delight. 16mm works by Stan Brakhage and Sophie Michael will be presented alongside other projected surprises to guide you on a temporal journey exploring dark rides, the magic of movement while seated, and the world as amusement park. Strap in and enjoy the ride.

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.

Sign up for both sessions and get a 10% discount (applied automatically).

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.

Sacramento State University, Open Faculty Positions: The Film Program at Sacramento State University seeks to fill two faculty positions: an Assistant Professor who specializes in contemporary approaches to narrative and/or documentary filmmaking, with an emphasis on short film storytelling; and an Assistant Professor in Cinema Studies whose research focuses on narrative film history, indigeneity, migration, diaspora, decolonization, and/or ecology & climate change. Positions are open until filled. Find out more.

Teach at Kala: Kala Art Institute (Berkeley) is currently accepting class proposals to teach art classes and workshops for their July-December 2026 season that explore a range of mediums, from relief printing to figure drawing to ceramics, weaving, and more. Priority deadline for submissions is April 10, 2026. Find out more.

Catapult Development Grant for Documentary Films: The Catapult Development Grant is now accepting applications for its 2026 program. Launched in 2010, the Catapult Development Fund provides early-stage support to documentary filmmakers when funding is hardest to find. In 2026, they will offer fifteen grants of up to $25,000 to filmmakers in development with a documentary feature or short. Deadline to apply is April 20, 2026. Find out more.

Media City Film Festival Call for Submissions: Media City Film Festival is a trailblazing international festival for film and digital art, presented in Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan since 1994. Media City seeks entries for its 28th edition which will take place in person in Windsor–Detroit, September 15–19, 2026. Deadline to submit is May 1, 2026. Find out more.

Little Scuzzy Film Fest Call for Work: Initiated in 2012, Little Scuzzy is a rag-tag event held on a farm on the outskirts of Carbondale, IL. Films are screened outdoors with festival-goers setting up blankets and chairs around fire pits. They are seeking work by artists who especially feel aligned with this ethos. This year’s fest will take place on Saturday, June 13, 2026. Deadline to submit is May 15, 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.

California Arts Council, Region 3 Bay Area Individual Artist Fellowship: California Arts Council, in association with Kala Art Institute, is offering a new fellowship program that supports individual artists and culture bearers across all disciplines in the Bay Area. By providing unrestricted funding, the fellowship empowers artists at pivotal moments in their careers, enhancing their ability to contribute meaningfully to California’s diverse communities. This grant program identifies three career tiers in which artists may benefit from this support: Legacy Artist, Established Artist and Emerging Artist. Deadline to apply is June 5, 2026. Find out more.