Founded by filmmaker Bruce Baillie in 1961, San Francisco Cinematheque is the Bay Area’s dedicated venue for avan-garde/experimental, underground and personally expressive film and video work, and one of the premier exponents of experimental/avant-garde film and video in the US. With a base of support strongly grounded in the Bay Area artistic community, Cinematheque proudly contributes to national and international cinematic discourses. We are dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of film/video works that challenge the boundaries of moving-image art and question the hegemonic role of mainstream media forms.
Our mission is to make works of experimental/avant-garde film and video an important part of the broader cultural landscape. As an advocate for such work, and as an exhibitor, Cinematheque acts as a catalyst for dialogue and education relating to the history and current practice of experimental film and media, providing a forum for future innovations in the field.
CROSSROADS is Cinematheque’s annual film festival celebrating recent (and rediscovered) artist-made film, video and performance cinema. Founded in 2010, CROSSROADS features a diverse lineup of contemporary work from the international community, annually in San Francisco. In its fifteen years of existence, CROSSROADS has grown into a significant international film/video showcase, having become a choice festival for filmmakers to premiere and screen work, and a destination festival for engaged curators, film enthusiasts, like-minded filmmakers and loyal community members. Since 2022, CROSSROADS has been presented annually at the San Francisco venue known as Gray Area.
The Crossroads Film Festival, now in its fifteenth year, continues to showcase an eclectic array of international, boundary-pushing cinema from both established and emerging filmmakers.
— Hannah: Crossroads 2024. Screen Slate Bay Area.
CROSSROADS […] is not only a marvelous and wide-ranging film and video festival; under the stewardship of Artistic Director Steve Polta, it has evolved into a vital one for those of us hoping to keep abreast of new directions in the field. It’s also a realm of improbable discovery and surprise. … It’s a beautiful thing to get your face blown off, aesthetically speaking…
— Michael Sicinski: A Blistering Light at Crossroads Film Festival. Fandor, Keyframe Daily
CROSSROADS has quickly become an essential festival for contemporary moving-image art […]. CROSSROADS seeks to productively befuddle our conception of what moving-image art can be rather than reaffirm ingrained perceptions of whatever it is we call artist’s cinema, experimental film, or media arts.
— James Hansen: Pleasure in Dissonance—CROSSROADS 2015. The Brooklyn Rail
“Because of the sheer breadth of work on display… the annual Crossroads festival in San Francisco offers a fairly reliable core sample of the current state of experimental cinema”
— Michael Sicinski: Crossroads 2024: Winds of Change. In Review Online
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