San Francisco Cinematheque: Our Mission

San Francisco Cinematheque cultivates the international field of non-commercial artist-made cinema. San Francisco Cinematheque inspires aesthetic dialog among artists, stimulates critical discourse, and encourages appreciation of artist-made cinema across the broader cultural landscape.

Cinematheque’s Mission is accomplished through our work in three primary areas: Curated Public Programming, Publications and Archives.

Public Programs: Each year, San Francisco Cinematheque presents approximately 35 public screenings of artist-made film, video and performance to Bay Area audiences, with an eye for presenting contemporary and historic work from all eras and geo-political locales These screenings include curated thematic programs, in-person artist presentations, guest-curated programs, collaborations with other film and art organizations and more. See our screening archive here. In addition, San Francisco Cinematheque presents the annual CROSSROADS film festival. See the history and details of CROSSROADS here. Additionally, Cinematheque regularly curates and presents programs at local arts organizations and international film festivals.
Coming Soon! Cinematheque will premiere its online streaming video channel. Stay tuned for details!

Publications: San Francisco Cinematheque creates publications documenting the field of artist-made film, including most recently, Perpetual Motion, on contemporary “performance cinema” and Cinematograph 7: Speaking Directly.  2021 will see the publication of Craig Baldwin: Avant to Live!, a 350+ page celebration of the filmmaking and curatorial work on the acclaimed artist (full details here). Additionally, Cinematheque maintains an online store of hard-to-find and micro-published books documenting the field.

Archives:  San Francisco Cinematheque maintains a research archive which contains over 600 publications & periodicals and thousands of files on information on artists, presenting institutions, and curatorial topics. This archive is accessible to the public as a benefit of membership. For inquiries about Cinematheque’s research archive, please contact sfc@sfcinematheque.org.