SF Cinematheque announces Crossroads 2012 May 18–20 at San Francisco's Victoria Theatre. Founded by filmmaker Bruce Baillie in 1961, San Francisco Cinematheque is an internationally recognized arts institution and the Bay Area’s premier venue for avant-garde/experimental, underground and personally expressive film and video work.
Cinematheque is dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of film and video works that challenge the boundaries of moving-image art with the goal of making experimental cinema a part of the larger cultural landscape. CROSSROADS is Cinematheque’s annual film festival, a showcase for and celebration of recent and rediscovered avant-garde film/video work. Established in 2010, CROSSROADS is intended as a much-needed Bay Area/West Coast equivalent to such lauded festivals as the New York Film Festival’s Views from the Avant-Garde series and the Toronto International Film Festival’s Wavelengths showcase. CROSSROADS 2012, curated by Cinematheque Artistic Director Steve Polta, is this festival’s third manifestation.
Running May 18–20, CROSSROADS will present a total of 52 films, videos and performance works by 47 filmmakers from around the world screened over 8 feature-length programs. Highlights of this festival include a tribute to Cinematheque founder and experimental-film matriarch Chick Strand (1931–2009); an in-person presentation of the “complete works” of Basque filmmaker Laida Lertxundi (featured in this year’s Whitney Biennial); and a special program—Apparent Motion—celebrating the Art of Live Projection with three film/music collaborative teams: Gerritt Wittmer & Paul Knowles, Kerry Laitala & John Davis, and, from Norway, Greg Pope & John Hegre (Jazkamer).