In 2025, Refle-x-périmental continues to pay tribute to the work of experimental film cooperatives that emerged from the 1960s onwards, embracing independence, rebellion, and the (re)invention of both avant-garde cinema and thought. After celebrating the co-ops founded in New York, Hamburg, and Amsterdam, as well as the 50th anniversary of the Paris Films Coop, the winter season will open with a focus on the West Coast of the United States.

A Special Memorial Screening

San Francisco Cinematheque and Canyon Cinema present a special memorial screening in honor of the recently departed pioneering lesbian feminist filmmaker Barbara Hammer (1939–2019).

Before becoming an accomplished painter and blues guitarist, Mike Henderson studied with Robert Nelson in the SFAI Film Department; between the 1960s and 1980s he sustained a filmmaking practice, creating a remarkable body of work that renders black experience and the joys and struggles of making art with humor and idiosyncrasy. He joins us to present his film The Shape of Things alongside canonical work from Nelson and George Kuchar, two of the filmmakers and teachers most closely associated with film at SFAI, and Bruce Conner, whose work and legacy has helped to define alternative cinema in the Bay Area.