In The Maritime Frequencies (2025) by Greta Snider

“We’ll remember the earth as if it were a dream.” This film is an exploration of the coastal landscapes of San Francisco, using darkroom developers made from the solutions of our times—bay water, hand sanitizer and “safe” detergent—in a conversation about how we internalize our climate emergency, letting mortalities large and small emerge only when the night puts our guard down. Inspired by the San Francisco Bay, dreams and novelist Octavia Butler’s vision of a future California. Featuring Bill Basquin, Ivy Jeanne, Juan Aguirre, Annalise Velasquez, Valerie Soe, Mark Klatte and Mayuran Tiruchelvam. (Greta Snider)

Archipelago of Earthen Bones—To Bunya (2024) by Malena Szlam

This film is part of a film constellation stretching across the Pacific, from Chile to Australia. Szlam trains her camera on far-flung volcanic landscapes, by turns barren and verdant. The dazzling in-camera multiple exposures of the film evoke the layered histories of Mount Beerwah to the titular Bunya Mountains, tracing a path along the central eastern ranges of Australia, which were illuminated in the afterglow of Hunga-Ha’apai eruption. The film’s environmental evocations are further deepened by field recordings and sonified atmospheres from Lawrence English. Filmed across the lands of the Turrbal, Yuggera, Jinibara, Gubbi Gubbi, Wakka Wakka, Jarowair, Barrumgum, Quandamooka and Butchulla Peoples in Australia. We acknowledge them as the Traditional Custodians and Knowledge Keepers of these lands. (TIFF Wavelengths) bay area premiere

Organized Forgetting (2025) by J.M. Martínez

Oscillating between positive and negative 16mm black-and-white film is a sensorial attunement to the layered mysteries of oceanic zones. Abstracted studies and sonic traces of communicating species dwelling in the intertidal and midnight zones of the Pacific Ocean. Biosonar clicks of whales and vocalizations of seals are interrupted by the sounds of tanker engines, radar pings from commercial ships and the growing chorus of ocean mining. In the depths, the mammal with the largest brain tries to communicate through the noise of our dominion. What does it mean to listen, to intrude and to belong? (J.M. Martínez) world premiere

A Patriot of These Woods (2024) by Karel Doing

A Patriot of These Woods is a film that is inspired by the novel The Baron in the Trees (1957) by Italo Calvino. Calvino’s book tells the adventures of a boy who climbs up a tree to spend the rest of his life inhabiting an arboreal kingdom. (Karel Doing) bay area premiere

Shades of Blue (2025) by Antoni Orlof 

Taking a moment to look back, longing. These images, the cutouts of life. A quiet absence comes in with the light. Only my inabilities and a glimpse of hope remain. (Antoni Orlof) north american premiere