Bay Area treasure George Kuchar—sorely missed since his untimely death in 2011—is celebrated worldwide for his wild and wooly lo-budget melodramas and voluminous meandering video diaries. To know George was to love George, and to be ever warped by his inspiring irreverence and sardonic wit. San Francisco Cinematheque celebrates Primary Information’s publication of The George Kuchar Reader, an expansive 340-page compendium of the legendary raconteur’s writings, ramblings, recommendation letters, scripts, UFO visitation narratives and more. The book’s editor (and Anthology Film Archives’ Curator of Collections) Andrew Lampert appears in person to read excerpts and discuss this legend. The program will include a screening of Kuchar’s 16mm Corruption Of The Damned and video The Exiled Files Of Eddie Gray.

Duchamp du film offers a new and challenging reading of the work and influence of Marcel Duchamp on modern and contemporary filmmaking, inviting to reconsider some experimental practices of film in terms of aesthetic proposals made by the artist throughout his career. Although the artist produced a single film, Anemic Cinéma (1925-1926), the figure of Marcel Duchamp appears throughout the history of the filmic avant-gardes of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as in postwar American art, up to productions that fall within the category of experimental and artist's film. Conceived by the Centre Pompidou film department, and curated by Enrico Camporesi and Jonathan Pouthier, under the supervision of Philippe-Alain Michaud, this program consists of six screenings as a complent to Marcel Duchamp's exhibition (La Peinture même, curated by Cécile Debray) held at the museum from September 24, 2014 to January 15, 2015.

Sight Unseen is pleased to partner once again with The Baltimore Museum of Art, in conjunction with the closing of German Expressionism: A Revolutionary Spirit, to present a rare screening of early experimental cinema produced during the extremely evocative era of German Expressionist art. Featuring the first abstract film, Walther Ruttmann's Lichtspiel Opus I, Opus II, Opus III and Opus IV, followed by the first animated film, Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed, this special event stands the test of time as a celebration of the livelihood and longevity of avant-garde cinema.

Oliver Shell, Associate Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, will introduce the screening and explore the cross-pollination of visual art and cinema in 1920s and 30s Germany.