Arthouse 50: 49 Square Miles Surrounded by Reality: The City Envisioned by Canyon Cinema

Presented by Canyon Cinema Part of our Arthouse 50: Celebrating our 50th anniversary as an Arthouse In celebration of The Roxie Theater’s 50th year, this program assembles films made by former and current Canyon staffers, offering manifold views of our shared Bay Area home. Urban landscapes familiar and defamiliarized; flipped upside down, reversed, layered, blurred, shrouded, screwed and glued, but unmistakably SF. Together, these irreverent depictions evince the city’s charm, complexity, and transformation across five decades. Screening Line-up (approximate running time: 70 minutes): Pacific Far East Line (Abigail Child, 1979, 12 minutes, color, silent, 16mm) An urban landscape film constructed from materials gathered over two years looking out at downtown San Francisco. The elements “folded” and mixed, Time redefines Space: the erector and helicopter appear as toys within a schizy motor-oil-ized ballet mechanique. By the Sea (Toney W. Merritt, 1982, 2 minutes, color, silent, 16mm) A film made from my old studio apartment on Telegraph Hill. A portrait of sorts. Cable Car Melody (Charles Wright, 1986, 26 minutes, color, sound, 16mm) You will look down Hyde Street and see San Francisco Bay in the background. In the foreground a cable car will move across the surface of the screen, while almost everything else will change, from shot to shot, to create a melody. Premonition (Dominic Angerame, 1995, 10 minutes, b&w, sound, 16mm) “Roads, bridges, street lamps and underpasses are all harbingers of an untold urban tale, set in the vacant San Francisco Embarcadero Freeway before its destruction. We are led through a desolate cityscape as if we were actually penetrating it. A bridge covered with graffitied sperms heading towards downtown, is a metaphor for the man-made womb that is the city. Premonition’s approach is as lucid as it is perplexing.” (Images Festival) Revolver (David Sherman, 1992, 9 minutes, color, sound, 16mm) Revolver incorporates diary observations, found and physically manipulated images as well as experiments of shooting through handmade pinhole lenses. This film is an attempt to come to terms with the isolation and displacement that confronts the contemporary urban dweller; a personal journey through social, physical and psychic landscapes that are both beautiful and tragic. Light motivates growth and decay. Abstractions push and pull in the passage of time toward an exceedingly anxious future. Decked Out (Linda Izcali Scobie, 2014, 1 minute, color, sound, 16mm) Return to Forms (Zachary Epcar, 2016, 10 minutes, color, sound, digital video) A constellation of objects, each emerging into the soft peach-light void of an indeterminate condominium space. Founded in Bruce Baillie’s backyard in 1961, Canyon Cinema (San Francisco, CA) is dedicated to educating the public about independent, noncommercial, experimental, avant-garde, and artist-made moving images. We manifest this commitment by providing access to an unrivaled collection of films to universities and cultural organizations worldwide, and cultivating scholarship and appreciation. We ensure the experience of rare film works in their original medium while also reaching out to new audiences through our growing digital distribution project. Note films start right at the listed showtime.
 Discounted for members. All ticket sales are final.