Shapeshifters Cinema

05/23/2026

It took us a minute to pin this one down because Frameline was busy launching this year’s film fest. But we are excited to announce that we will now be showing “Happy Birthday, Marsha!” by Tourmaline & Sasha Wortzel tomorrow night (Saturday, May 23rd) in Gravitational Lensing: Feminist Film Dialogues, Program 15: Women, War & Resistance.

About the program:

Since the beginning of time, women have always been considered the weaker s*x. But when it comes to war, they no doubt have the upper hand. The films in this program show the many ways women (as well as non-binary and trans people) have stood up to the tyranny of war and patriarchal violence with little more than a strong sense of justice, a powerful life force and a righteous feminist touch.

Screening: Rat Life and Diet in North America (1968, 16mm film) by Joyce Wieland, Black & White (2019, DV) by Zoe Aiano & Anna Benner, Viet Flakes (1962-67, 8mm film shown on 16mm film) by Carolee Schneeman, The Lines of Your Face (2023, DV) by Tara Baghdassarian, Lysistrata (2024, multi-projector expanded cinema performance) by Lydia Greer & Facing West Shadows, RUN! (2019, 16mm film) by Malic Amalya, I Was Born in 1988 (2022, DV) by Yasaman Baghban and Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2018, DV) by Tourmaline & Sasha Wortzel

🔗 Ticket link in bio 🔗

05/19/2026

Gravitational Lensing: Feminist Film Dialogues
Program 15: Women, War & Resistance

Presented in association with San Francisco Cinematheque

Saturday, May 23, 2026
7pm
Admission: $15 (discount for members)

Since the beginning of time, women have always been considered the weaker s*x. But when it comes to war, they no doubt have the upper hand. The films in this program show the many ways women (as well as non-binary and trans people) have stood up to the tyranny of war and patriarchal violence with little more than a strong sense of justice, a powerful life force and a righteous feminist touch.

Screening: Rat Life and Diet in North America (1968, 16mm film) by Joyce Wieland, Black & White (2019, DV) by Zoe Aiano & Anna Benner, Viet Flakes (1962-67, 8mm film shown on 16mm film) by Carolee Schneeman, The Lines of Your Face (2023, DV) by Tara Baghdassarian, Lysistrata (2024, multi-projector expanded cinema performance) by Lydia Greer & Facing West Shadows, RUN! (2019, 16mm film) by Malic Amalya, I Was Born in 1988 (2022, DV) by Yasaman Baghban

🔗 Tickets at link in bio 🔗

05/05/2026

Workshop alert! Join us Saturday, May 16, 2026
From 11am-3pm for Introduction to 16mm Filmmaking with Silvia Turchin

In-person at Shapeshifters Cinema
Admission: $70 + $50 materials fee (Discount for Shapeshifters members)

Learn how to shoot on motion picture film in this beginner-friendly 16mm filmmaking workshop with filmmaker and educator Silvia Turchin. Attendees will be exposed to the history and practice of 16mm filmmaking, learn how to load, expose, focus, and shoot 16mm film with a Bolex H16, and receive a digital scan of the footage captured during the workshop. No prior experience with filmmaking necessary! All materials provided.

04/28/2026

Join us Wednesday, May 13, at
7pm for The Third Transmission: A Chainletter Screening

Admission: $10 (discount for members)

Miss Video 4 You is an alternative video distribution network inspired by and keeping alive the legacy of (pre-internet) DIY and feminist-led media distribution projects like Big Miss Moviola/Joanie 4 Jackie and print zine exchanges. For every 10 videos Miss Video receives, a compilation is made and saved onto a single USB that then gets re-distributed, along with a printed copy of a collaborative zine to all of the participating contributors. Third Transmission is the third chainletter in the series, with works spanning nearly 50 years, made by 10 artists across 10 towns, 2 oceans, 3 countries, 3 continents.

Screening: Babylon (2023, Berlin, Germany) by Alicia Nieto, The Great Path to a Foreign Body (2026, São Paulo, Brazil) by Lau Mota, Snooping (Richmond, USA) by Lenny Farinholt, Who Do You Think You Are (1986, Saunderstown, USA) by Mary Filippo, Prelude (2025, New York, USA) by Paulina Jamieson, Another Great Day (1980, New York, USA) by Ruth Peyser, Embryonic (2023, Ann Arbor, Michigan) by Jackie Blue, Shifting Borders (2025, Middletown, USA) by Tess Usher & Frances Mitchler, Los Angeles Movie (2025, Los Angeles, USA) by Ankha Cros-Rohig, The Red 70s (2015, Cedar Rapids, USA) by Derek Caterwaul

04/27/2026

Join us Sunday, May 3, at 2pm for the first installment in the Vital Signs Film Series for WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU, by Hong Sangsoo
+ opening short, City of Nature, by Kota Ezawa

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.)

04/14/2026

Join us this Friday, April 17 for Gravitational Lensing: Feminist Film Dialogues
Program 14: Speculative Histories

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

04/13/2026

Summer approaches! And we still have spots available in both sessions of our teen summer camp (ages 12-17)! Join us for Session 1 - Monday, June 22—Friday, June 26 or Session 2 - Monday, July 20 —Friday, July 24 and learn a variety of DIY, experimental film and sound-based processes from experienced Bay Area-based artists and educators. Campers will come away with basic knowledge of experimental media history and practice, a deeper understanding of visual and auditory sense perceptions, and a foundational toolbox to continue making creative, DIY moving image and sound projects using simple and accessible resources and processes.

This year we are offering two sessions, in June and July. Each session will feature different processes, so campers can sign up for one or both sessions.

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

Scholarships are available for students registered in a Title I school. Please contact us for more information: connect at shapeshifterscinema dot com

Shapeshifters Cinema is a 40-seat experimental microcinema located in Oakland, CA.

04/11/2026

LOW TICKET WARNING! Join us this Sunday for Flow State: a reflection on film inspection and archiving
Co-presented by Canyon Cinema

Sunday, April 12, 2026
7pm
Admission: $12 (discount for members)

Flow State is a celebration of film inspection and archival work. Film archivist and library assistant Autumn Armstrong has curated this program of work by renowned filmmakers Toney Merritt, Sandra Davis and Christopher Harris—films that were personally inspected by her while working as an intern at Canyon Cinema. New work by Toney Merritt will be screened as well! Autumn will share some thoughts about her experiences working as a film archivist after the program.

04/10/2026

We are overwhelmed by the tremendous support of the community.

Thanks to you, we managed to raise $52,745 (88% of our target goal) from 384 individual donations over the past four weeks. Times are tough, to say the least, and we know we were asking kind of a lot, but this really was a lifeline. We are back from the brink and more determined than ever to keep this space active and vital—where folks can come together in creative community to make great things happen.
We look forward to seeing you in the cinema and/or café soon!

With much gratitude,
Kathleen, Gilbert & Ellie

PS: The fundraiser remains quietly active, so if you still want to make a donation to the GoFundMe campaign, we would be thrilled to receive it. If you would otherwise prefer to make a tax-deductible donation (and/or arrange a matching donation with your employer) you can do that through our fiscal sponsor SF Cinematheque.

03/18/2026

Our fundraiser continues. We still need a lot of help. Any amount will get us closer in this collective effort. Sharing is a great help too. Link in our bio to donate❤️

Thank you so much to the 238 of you who have contributed so far ❤️📽️

in gratitude,
Kathleen, Gilbert, and Ellie