History

Canyon Cinema History

Overview
Beginning in the late 1950s, a growing movement brought together independent film artists whose work reflected a remarkable diversity in style and content. Variously called avant-garde, underground, and experimental, these artist’s works shared a vision of filmmaking as a form of personal expression, free from the demands and constraints of commercial filmmaking conventions.

This movement gained momentum on the West Coast with the birth of Canyon Cinema in the Bay Area. Begun as a “floating cinematheque,” it has developed into one of the principal distribution sources for independent, experimental and avant-garde film today. Its collection constitutes a history of the movement from the 1940s to the present.

Beginnings
Canyon Cinema first emerged in filmmaker Bruce Baillie’s Canyon, California backyard in 1961. Films were projected from the kitchen window onto an army surplus screen. Free wine and popcorn were given out to the audience who came to watch the films made by local filmmakers. Moving to other basements and backyards, from Canyon to Berkeley to San Francisco, Canyon Cinema gained energy and purpose and attracted larger audiences.

Around the same time, filmmaker Chick Strand (1931-2009) established the Canyon CinemaNews, a monthly journal through which filmmakers could share opinions, technical tips and discoveries. The journal became a vital organ of the growing movement. Arising as it did from the underground (literally, from basements, storefronts and backyard sheds), the independent film movement began to require an organizational structure that could accommodate the diverse nature of the films that had then emerged. In 1967, a group of filmmakers, among them, Bruce Conner (1933-2008), Larry Jordan, Robert Nelson, Lenny Lipton, and Ben Van Meter, founded Canyon Cinema, Inc, as a distribution company. It was established as a cooperative, owned and operated by the filmmaker members. Earl Bodien lent the use of his apartment for this operation, being paid for only the phone bill, and he, along with Edith Kramer volunteered to run the business. The first catalog listed 40 films by 25 member-filmmakers. Filmmaker members wrote their own descriptions (and still do) of their films for the Canyon Cinema Catalog.

Present Structure
At present, Canyon Cinema has 340 members worldwide and distributes more than 3,200 films and DVDs. Despite Canyon’s dramatic increase in scale, we remain a democratic, artist-run company committed to the principles upon which Canyon Cinema was founded.

Filmmakers become shareholders and have their films distributed by Canyon Cinema through submitting their work to the Canyon Cinema Review Committee. The Review Committee evaluates each film using a criteria of excellence based upon unique creativity and artistic merit as demonstrated through integrity of form and content. Shareholders deposit prints of their films and DVDs for sale, supply descriptions, and pay a nominal distribution fee. The films on deposit with Canyon remain the property of the artist. Shareholders are eligible to run for the Board of Directors and are elected by the votes of the other shareholders.

We are the only distribution organization that has been consistent in the equitable return of artist revenues; more than 40% of Canyon’s gross income is returned directly to the filmmakers. The money that Canyon Cinema returns to the artists helps them continue making their films.

Canyon Cinema represents the films of many established experimental filmmakers, and also distributes many films by emerging filmmakers. These younger filmmakers continue to explore new realms of creativity, making significant contributions to further the potential of cinema as an art form. Through the distribution of these works by young as well as established filmmakers, Canyon Cinema remains a vital force in the future of film culture.

Acclaim and Outreach
Canyon Cinema’s cultural vitality is evidenced by the Library of Congress’s inclusion on the National Film Registry of films by our filmmaker members Kenneth Anger, Bruce Baillie, Stan Brakhage (1933-2003), Shirley Clarke (1919-1997), Bruce Conner (1933-2008), Les Blank, Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967), Pat O’Neill, Len Lye (1901-1980) and others. Indeed, Canyon Cinema has become THE print source for these and other comparably influential works which are regularly projected in international museums, cinematheques, universities, schools, and art galleries.

In August 2009, Stanford University Library acquired the Canyon Cinema paper archives. They will be preserved and digitized, making available to the public a valuable research trove on the history of experimental cinema.

Canyon Cinema has published eight comprehensive catalogs as well as regular supplements containing practical and descriptive information that are often used as a primary reference source for teachers, curators, students, writers and the general public. Canyon Cinema provides colleges and universities with films, programming information and materials for their research and curriculum. With the increasing importance of visual literacy in American education and the unfortunate liquidation of many public-access film libraries, the continued existence of Canyon Cinema is imperative.

In addition to Canyon’s extensive involvement in education, we are committed to public outreach through a variety of our programs.

• Internships:
  Canyon Cinema offers a comprehensive internship program that allows college students academic credit for work in our office. We train interns in the cataloging and preservation of films and the processes of independent film distribution.
• Research and programming assistance:
  Every day, the staff of Canyon Cinema provides research materials and support to curators, film festival programmers and educators. We maintain a 16mm screening room used by the educational and exhibition community to preview films. Our website is also a research and marketing tool and we hope to continue expanding it in the future, not only to serve our filmmaker members, but the worldwide film and academic communities.
• Presentations to the public:
  Canyon Cinema is active in sharing its films with the public. When funding allows, we organize Canyon Cinema film programs in the Bay Area as well as internationally at film festivals and museums. If you are interested in some of these programs, they are available to rent. Please see a selection of these programs available for rent here.

Undoubtedly, Canyon Cinema has become synonymous with Bay Area independent and experimental film. As we have actively grown over the past forty years, Canyon has chronicled the history of this unique genre. As with any non-commercial art form, experimental film requires an infrastructure that promotes, distributes and exhibits work. Canyon Cinema is one of the rare organizations that serves this function.

Dominic Angerame
Executive Director, Canyon Cinema