We have a few days left on our membership drive and we are just over ¼ of the way to reaching our goal. Our annual budget relies on our bringing in (or getting close to) $10,000 in new and renewed memberships. Without that critical income source, our ability to continue operating is greatly impacted.

Let us put it this way—joining as a member is a shared investment—your membership fee contributes to the Shapeshifters general operating fund, which allows us to continue organizing another year of great film programs, performances and workshops. In addition, it gives you a full year of discounts (at $60), free beer (at $100), free admission (at $300) plus access to film making and editing equipment and invitations to member events, like last Friday’s Haunted Happy Hour Member Party that we threw before the highly anticipated and sold-out Haunted Frame film screening.

Speaking of which, did you catch our interview on KTVU, Channel 2 News last Thursday? It was a slightly surreal experience to be on the evening news talking about experimental film, but the hosts were generous and we did our best to make some kind of sense to an audience that may not be familiar with the kinds of things we show in our space. We made a slight, post-air adjustment to the banner text to set the record straight. Other than that, we feel pretty good about the convo.

Word is out! Experimental film is awesome! Join the Shapeshifters Membership Program and be a part of the revolution!

Do-Over Music Series - Ivers / Lee / O'Kane / Mezzacappa
Thursday, November 5, 2026 • 7pm
Admission: $10 (discount for members)
★ The café will be open before the screening for Happy Hour from 4-7pm ★

Set 1 (7pm): sound performance by:

John Ivers - bass clarinet/electronics
Michelle Lee - bass flute

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

the above artists +
Suki O'Kane - percussion
Lisa Mezzacappa - bass

Plus, films, film loops and other visual interventions by the Shapeshifters Performance Group (Ellie, Kathleen & Gilbert)

Black Hole Film Collective
Friday, November 13, 2026
7pm
Admission: $15-30 (sliding scale)

The Black Hole Collective Film Lab (BHCFL) began in 2014 as an organized effort to provide an affordable community film lab in Oakland, California. With its focus on non-commercial photochemical image-making in the "digital age," BHCFL is part of a growing international network of artist-run film labs working toward the reclamation of photochemical filmmaking from a rapidly disappearing industry in an effort to preserve this endangered tradition of artmaking.

Presented as a companion to the upcoming Alternative Visions program at Pacific Film Archive (on Wednesday, November 18th) this program features both single-channel and expanded cinema work from current and former collective members, representing a wide variety of approaches to image making and development.

Program includes Night Swing (2025, 16mm pinhole film) by TT Takemoto, F-Line (2013, 16mm film) by Silvia Turchin, Goodbye Pig (2014, 16mm film) by Anna Geyer, water, clock (2023, 16mm film) by Zach Parinella, stell by CL Schweitzer (2026, 16mm film + performance), Untitled (2026, expanded performance) by Nicky Tavares, Ansias (2018, super-8 shown on DV) by Norma Còrdova, field (16mm double projection) by tooth, No Land (2019, 16mm film) by Emily Chao, last gleaming sketch #1 (2019, 16mm shown on DV) by Alix Blevins, Whisper of the Tides (2025, 16mm shown on DV) by Michelle Segura, Luminous Experiences (2020, Super-8 shown on DV) by Lauren Iverson and Shining Leather (Bolex Workshop Film) (2026, 16mm film) by Black Hole Film Collective.

London, by Sebastian Brameshuber
Sunday, December 6, 2026
2pm
Admission: $15 (discount for members)

Bobby drives back and forth on the highway that links Vienna and Salzburg to visit his friend who is in a coma. He picks up other travellers to save money on petrol including the soldier questioning what it means to fight, the supermarket trainee heading to see family, the academic looking at the history of the highway, the queer woman about to get married—different paths, different accents, different stories, most of them true. Mountains and forests rush by outside, broken up by junctions, barriers and bridges, the quality of light shifts along with the seasons. Neither a documentary, nor entirely fiction, London is a quietly political portrait of today's Europe via its in-between spaces and those passing through them.

Watch the trailer

In German with English subtitles
Running time: 120 minutes

Computerless Animation Workshop
Instructor: Anna Firth
Sunday, November 22, 2026 • 12-5pm
Admission: $70 (discount for members)

Spend a Sunday with the Animation Video Lunchbox! We'll start with a quick history of this obscure analog technology with a cult following and then jump into some hand-drawn animation on paper. We'll experience the instant feedback of the "pencil test" process that the Video Lunchbox is famous for while working together to create mini animations. After a lunch break, we'll gather to capture the final animations into the Lunchbox through a security camera and enjoy a mini screening of the results. At the end of the day, you'll leave with an animated clip made in a little vestigial box from animation's past and a new experience with computer-less animation.

Provided materials: Punched paper, light boxes, animation peg bar, pens, pencils, erasers, collage materials, animation lunchbox, decommissioned b&w security camera, CRT TV

The Shapeshifters Membership Program provides crucial, sustaining support for our small, DIY, volunteer-run organization. By joining the membership program, you become part of an engaged, diverse, creative community working in and around experimental moving image, sound and time-based art. Each level offers a range of access to members-only resources and events, discounts, comps and more—including access to Super-8 and 16mm film cameras and editing equipment.

Take a look at all the great perks waiting for you when you join the Shapeshifters Membership Program.

The Shapeshifters shop features a variety of media (LPs, audio cassettes, books, prints, DVDs and more) all made by artists who have presented or performed in our space, and/or that represent and celebrate the spirit of our DIY, creative community.

Recent additions to the Shapeshifters shop include Agnes Martian’s The Future Light Cone audio cassette, Sadie Greyduck’s audio casette baa, Covering the Surface audio cassette by Marcia Bassett & Sergej Vutuc, 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 available items.

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.

Cosmic Rays FF Call for Submissions: The Cosmic Rays Film Festival (Chapel Hill, NC) is an annual celebration of short films that expand our idea of what film is and what it can be. The festival presents several programs of short films that are formally inventive, speak with a personal voice, and are inspired by the possibilities of film as art. Deadline to submit is November 16, 2026. Find out more.

CROSSROADS 2027 Call for Submissions: SF Cinematheque seeks submissions of recent films, videos and works of performance cinema for CROSSROADS 2027, the eighteenth iteration of their annual film festival. CROSSROADS 2027 will be held September 3–5, 2027 at the San Francisco venue known as Gray Area. Early submission deadline is January 31, 2027. Find out more.

Call for Submissions, Found Footage Magazine, Issue #13: Found Footage Magazine is an independent film journal devoted to the inventive use of existing images in film & video arts. They are currently accepting submissions for essays, interviews, video-essays, film reviews, and book reviews that explore the inventive ways in which archives and existing images can be reworked and recontextualized through moving image art for the forthcoming issue #13 (2027). Deadline to submit is June 1, 2027. Find out more.