Canyon Cinema
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Canyon Cinema is a San Francisco based filmmakers' cooperative specializing in the distribution of avant-garde and experimental film. The organization was officially founded in Canyon, California in 1967 by Bruce Conner, Larry Jordan, Robert Nelson, and other underground filmmakers looking for an organizational structure to distribute their work. Previous to this Canyon Cinema had existed for a number of years as a "floating cinematheque," a series of informal screenings that were held in the backyard of filmmaker Bruce Baillie, and soon moved to the basements and backyards of other Bay Area artists and filmmakers. Today Canyon Cinema stands alongside The Film Makers Cooperative as one of the only major sources for prints of avant-garde and experimental film in America.
In 2007, the film historian Scott MacDonald published Canyon Cinema: The Life and Times of an Independent Film Distributor - University of California Press. Bringing alive a remarkable moment in American cultural history, Scott MacDonald tells the colorful story of how a small, backyard organization in the San Francisco Bay Area emerged in the 1960s and evolved to become a major force in the development of independent cinema. Drawing from extensive conversations with men and women crucial to Canyon Cinema, from its newsletter Canyon CinemaNews, and from other key sources, MacDonald offers a lively chronicle of the life and times of this influential, idiosyncratic film exhibition and distribution collective. His book features many primary documents that are as engaging and relevant now as they were when originally published, including essays, poetry, experimental writing, and drawings.
Current Staff:
Dominic Angerame, Executive Director
Lauren Sorensen, Assistant
Current Board of Directors (All filmmaker members):
Nathanial Dorsky
Maïa Cybelle Carpenter
Michelle Silva
Tomonari Nishikawa
Brady Lewis
