Must-See Films & Events at BAMPFA This Summer

Summer feels like the wrong season to deal with the emotional gloom of a Bela Tarr movie. Then again, a Summer 2026 Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive (hereafter “BAMPFA”) film program featuring movies about controversially reforming career criminal Alex DeLarge or a wife dealing with personal alienation in industrialized Ravenna couldn’t be accused of proffering mindless entertainment. One could wish for more unpredictable fare than what’s to be found this Summer 2026 at BAMPFA.  That’s not to claim that there are no surprises to be found this quarter.

For example, this is the first year for the “Frameline50 At BAMPFA (June 19-26, 2026)” film series. On tap for BAMPFA’s inaugural satellite season are a quartet of films from the longest  running LGBTQ+ film festival in America.

The films to be presented are: “Gugu’s World (7:00 PM on June 19, 2026),” Allen Deberton’s tale of an 11-year-old openly queer boy whose precarious childhood is threatened when his guardian grandmother develops Alzheimer’s;  Cheri Gaulke’s personal documentary “Acting Like Women (3:30 PM on June 21, 2026),”  which recounts her time in the 1970s and 1980s with the Women’s Building of Los Angeles and her involvement in the feminist performance art scene; a restoration of Srdan Karanovic’s long-unavailable period drama “Virgina (7:00 PM on June 24, 2026),” about a poor Serbian family’s daughter who gets raised as a boy with ensuing complications; and finally “Mary Oliver: Saved By The Beauty Of The World (7:00 PM on June 26, 2026),” which is Sasha Waters’ portrait of the beloved openly lesbian American poet who revealed her passions through her poetry.

Bay Area avant-garde filmmakers and life partners Nathaniel Dorsky & Jerome Hiler have long been attendees of BAMPFA’s programs.  The “Nathaniel Dorsky & Jerome Hiler: Film Offerings (August 14-29, 2026)” film series inverts their role from viewer to subjects of viewing with a quartet of programs of their works.  “Hours For Jerome, Parts 1 & 2 (7:00 PM on August 14, 2026)” offers a quartet of films about the duo’s East Coast life together.  “Five Films By Nathaniel Dorsky (1:30 PM on August 16, 2026)” includes a famed landscape meditation and a response to the deaths of friends George Kuchar and Carla Liss.  “Four Films By Jerome Hiler (7:00 PM on August 21, 2026)” are cinematic experiments in color and philosophy, which include Hiler’s most recent film.  Finally, “Arboretum Cycle (3:00 PM on August 29, 2026)” is a cinematic septet filmed at the San Francisco Arboretum which uses light to reflect on Shakespeare’s Seven Ages Of Man.      

That reverence for the natural world will also be found in several of the selections in the “Some Nostalgic Place: The Films Of Isao Takahata (July 2 - August 28, 2026)” film series.  It’s a retrospective of films made by the late Studio Ghibli co-founder.  Takahata’s primary films, such as “Pom Poko” and “Grave Of The Fireflies,” can be found in this series and are indeed worth seeing on a big screen.  But something should be said for a couple of the lesser known entries here:

“Gauche The Cellist (5:00 PM on July 19, 2026)” was Takahata’s feature film debut.  In the early days of the 20th century, young Gauche lives in the countryside and performs with the community orchestra.  The boy is rehearsing into the wee hours for his big performance of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony (the one known as “Pastoral”).  However, a succession of anthropomorphic animals disrupt the boy’s rehearsal.  

“The Story Of Yanagawa Waterways (3:00 PM on July 25, 2026)” bears the distinction of being Studio Ghibli’s only live action film.  The documentary looks at the history of people living with water on Kyushu island’s Yanagawa region.  That history stretches from the earliest Kyushu human settlers over two millennia ago to the 1960s industrial activity which seemingly polluted Yanagawa’s canals beyond repair.  However, never underestimate the power of a people determined to restore the canals’ beauty and rescue these waterways from their “mosquito city” reputation.

The fruits of a different sort of rescue can be seen in the “Film Preservationist Ross Lipman In Person (July 9-11, 2026)” film series.   Lipman as a film preservationist has worked to ensure significant American independent and experimental films can be enjoyed by future generations.  This series features a quartet of films restored by Lipman: “Wanda (7:00 PM on July 9, 2026)” is divorced housewife Wanda Goronski (director/writer Barbara Loden), whose odyssey to find a place for herself outside of traditional roles in blue-collar America leads her to a “relationship” with abusive petty criminal Norman Dennis; Rob Epstein’s indelible documentary “The Times Of Harvey Milk (7:00 PM on July 10, 2026)” recounts the life story of the legendary and inspirational San Francisco politician; the “Crossroads And The Exploding Digital Inevitable (4:00 PM on July 11, 2026)” program consists of Bruce Conner’s famed assemblage of footage of the Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests and Lipman’s documentary essay about Conner’s film; and Kent Mackenzie’s “The Exiles (7:00 PM on July 11, 2026)” follows a group of Native Americans from Arizona living in Los Angeles’ Bunker Hill neighborhood over the course of one long Friday night.

A far less enjoyable weekend can be seen in the French film noir classic  “Elevator To The Gallows.”  That film along with “Rififi” are just two of the digitally restored classics to be seen in one of the quarter’s big series “French Noir: From The Shadows Into The Light (June 4 - August 28, 2026).”  This series is obviously an opportunity to see such seminal crime films on the big screen.  But it’s also an opportunity to see how the French have applied the noir sensibility to films over a longer period of time than the 1930s and 1940s.

Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Doulos (4:30 PM on June 13, 2026)” is a roundelay of betrayals among criminals.  Ex-con Maurice Faugel (Serge Reggiani) plots a robbery with accomplices Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and Remy.  The success of the robbery is compromised by the presence of a doulos (slang for a stool pigeon) in the gang.  But that betrayal is just one of many that happens over the course of the story.

Long before online trolling became a thing, the same task was accomplished via poison pen letters.  See how such letters change life in a small French town in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s thriller “Le Corbeau (The Raven) (7:00 PM on July 26, 2026).”  The title is the name of the anonymous author of a letter accusing doctor Remy Germain of an affair with a married woman.  Soon practically everyone in the town receives a letter from The Raven, with devastating results.

Marcel Carne’s French realist classic “Le jour se leve (7:00 PM on July 3, 2026)” can be described as film noir with a heavy dash of romanticism thanks to poet Jacques Prevert’s script contributions.  How did foundry worker Francois (the legendary Jean Gabin) wind up murdering a man and preparing to face a police assault on his apartment?  An extended flashback tells a story of a florist’s assistant with a similar name, a dog trainer, and a question of paternity.

In Francois Truffaut’s comic thriller “Shoot The Piano Player (6:30 PM on July 18, 2026),” a former concert pianist takes on the new identity of Plyne’s bar pianist Charlie Koller (Charles Aznavour).  Even in such a low setting, Charlie is incredibly attractive to women.  But when a pair of very angry gangsters come seeking loot stolen from them, the piano player’s life is about to get turned upside down again. 

 A must-see rarity is Georges Lautner’s “The Seventh Juror (7:00 PM on August 9, 2026).”  Gregoire Duval (future film director Bertrand Blier) murders a woman.  But when the victim’s boyfriend gets wrongfully accused of the crime, a guilt-stricken Duval manages to get onto the trial jury and works to get the man acquitted.  The good news is Duval succeeds.  The bad news is…

One of this quarter’s Special Screenings (Ongoing) happens to be connected with the French film noir series.

That film is a restoration of the Jean-Luc Godard classic “Pierrot Le Fou (3:00 PM on July 12, 2026),” which is doing double duty as both a film noir series selection and part of the celebration of critic/writer David Thomson’s new book A Sudden Flicker Of Light: A Revisionist History Of Movies.  In Godard’s take on the “lovers on the run” story, suddenly unemployed and unhappily married Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) decides to escape his bourgeois lifestyle by running away with ex-girlfriend Marianne Renoir (Anna Karina).  However, the duo wind up being hotly pursued by the cops and OAS gangsters.

Serge Loznitsa’s drama “Two Prosecutors (7:00 PM on June 5, 2026 and 4:00 PM on June 28, 2026)” takes viewers to 1937 Russia during the Stalinist Purges.  Young prosecutor Kornyev learns that Old Bolshevik and Party stalwart Stepniak is rotting in Bryansk prison.  Stepniak’s crime is learning about the corrupt practices of the N.K.V.D. for which he was tortured to make a false confession.  Kornyev’s efforts to obtain justice for Stepniak soon earn him the hairy eyeball from Stalin era bureaucrats.

As a prelude to the upcoming West Coast Estonian Days (happening at the same time as Pride Weekend), the BAMPFA will screen Meel Paliale’s dramedy “Rolling Papers (7:00 PM on June 25, 2026).”  20 year old Sebastjan works a monotonous job as a store clerk in Tallinn.  When he meets the mustached hedonistic dreamer Silo, his life gets upended and the duo wind up walking the streets, smoking pot, and dreaming of escaping to Brazil.

Monica Vitti’s characters in her films with director Michaelangelo Antonioni definitely didn’t have coming-of-age problems.  What difficulties they did have can be seen in the series “Summer With Monica Vitti (June 11-August 13, 2026).”  (Ingmar Bergman fans will recognize the series title as a pun on Bergman’s “Summer With Monika.”)  Antonioni turns out to be just one of the directors who got great performances from Vitti.

Antonioni’s first color film “Red Desert (6:30 PM on June 21, 2026 and 7:00 PM on August 13, 2026)” uses color as a commentary on the clash between nature and industrial progress.  Giuliana (Vitti) is a wife and mother left mentally unwell by a recent auto accident.  Her husband Ugo may manage a Ravenna petrochemical plant but he has zero clues about his wife’s alienated state.  Even an affair with Ugo’s business associate Corrado does little to increase Giuliana’s sense of connection.

In Antonioni’s Cannes Special Jury Prize winner “L’Eclisse (7:00 PM on June 18, 2026 and 7:00 PM on August 8, 2026),” Vitti is Vittoria, a literary translator bouncing back from a breakup by embarking on a love affair with young stockbroker Piero (Alain Delon).  Yet her feelings about the stockbroker resembles that of the titular eclipse.

Luciano Salce’s “I Married You For Fun (7:00 PM on July 1, 2026)” adapts Natalie Ginzberg’s titular play.  Vitti plays Giuliana, an extroverted bohemian, who falls in love with and eventually marries the traditional bourgeois lawyer Pietro.  Their living together and personality clashes soon expose their class differences, a problem made acute by a visit from Pietro’s mother and sister.

“Help Me, My Love (7:00 PM on July 16, 2026)” is the first of Vitti’s collaborations with director/star Alberto Sordi.  Giovanni Machiavelli (Sordi) considers himself a thoroughly modern husband.  But he soon regrets his suggestion to wife Raffaella (Vitti) that they have an open marriage when she starts falling for the handsome Valerio Mantovani. 

“I Know That You Know That I Know (6:30 PM on July 26, 2026)” happens to be Vitti’s final film with Sordi.  Fabio Bonetti (Sordi) is a complacent banker who’s been married to Livia (Vitti) for the past 20 years.  He’s happy to focus primarily on his work and football.  However, when a private investigator records Livia’s activities by mistake, Fabio’s world turns upside down as he realizes he knows very little about what his wife and his daughter Veronica do when he’s not around.

On the other hand, viewers know what Vivien Hillgrove has been up to thanks to her acclaimed documentary memoir  “Vivien’s Wild Ride (7:00 PM on August 1, 2026).”  The film uses its subject’s impending loss of sight to reflect on her life of great loves and losses.  Whether it’s remembering her meeting the daughter she gave up for adoption decades ago or her encounters with famed Bay Area film directors, viewers will be glad they joined Hillgrove’s trip.

Hillgrove’s cinematic memoir is just one of the selections in “Made In Berkeley: The House That Zaentz Built (August 1-30, 2026).”  The house in question is Berkeley’s Fantasy Studios building.  Saul Zaentz’ enterprise may have been the home of famed jazz and rock label Fantasy Records.  But it also produced such Best Picture Oscar winners as “The Unbearable Lightness Of Being,” which Hillgrove worked on.  More importantly, it’s been a major resource for documentary film makers.

Marlon Riggs’ acclaimed “Tongues Untied (7:00 PM on August 29, 2026)” is a cinematic essay on the nature of Black gay identity.  Racial prejudice silences Blacks in white society both gay and straight, while homophobia silences queer Blacks in straight Black society.  Interwoven with the film are Riggs’ own recounting of his experiences as a Black gay man.

Steven Okazaki’s “White Light/Black Rain (7:00 PM on August 7, 2026)” recounts the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki through the stories of 14 hibakusha (Japanese exposed to the bomb) and four Americans who played various roles in the bombing missions.

Denise Zmekhol’s personal documentary “Skin Of Glass (3:30 PM on August 30, 2026)” tells of her journey to Sao Paulo to see the current fate of her father’s titular architectural masterpiece.  Once a symbol for Brazil’s push towards modernism, the skyscraper has now become a decrepit shelter for hundreds of homeless people.

Finally, the other big film series this quarter is “A Complete Stanley Kubrick (June 12 - August 30, 2026).”   Not only will lucky viewers get to see all of Kubrick’s completed feature films, but there will also be screenings of some of his early short documentaries and a couple of films later finished by other directors.  Of course the “recreational pharmaceuticals ingestion time”-worthy “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the decidedly uncensored “Eyes Wide Shut” will be shown as part of the series.  But here are some other ones to consider:

“Killer’s Kiss (7:00 PM on June 27, 2026)” is Kubrick’s film noir on a shoestring budget effort.  Veteran welterweight boxer Davey Gordon and taxi dancer Gloria Price happen to be neighbors in the same New York City apartment building.  When they fall in love with each other, they decide to leave their city jobs behind and move to Seattle.  However, Gloria’s ruthless employer Vinnie Rapallo is willing to kill people to keep Gloria.

In the World War I-set anti-war drama “Paths Of Glory (7:00 PM on July 8, 2026),” Brigadier General Mireau orders a suicidal attack on the well-entrenched German position known as The Anthill in hopes of gaining a promotion.  When the attack unsurprisingly fails, Mireau decides to order a CYA trial to blame the attack’s failure on the supposed cowardice of a trio of unfortunate soldiers.  Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) attempts to defend the scapegoated men, but this definitely isn’t a fair trial.   

Kubrick adapts William Makepeace Thackeray’s “Barry Lyndon (5:00 PM on June 14, 2026 and 6:30 PM on August 22, 2026)” into a ribald epic.  It tells how impoverished genteel Irishman Redmond Barry (Ryan O’Neal) slowly screws, scams, and swordfights his way into the English aristocracy and then recounts what misadventures befall him in English high society.

Not for the faint of heart, “A Clockwork Orange (7:00 PM on July 19, 2026)” features violent sex and bouts of ultra-violence.  In a near future dystopian Britain, Alex DeLarge (a memorable Malcolm McDowell) leads his gang of droogs in acts of ultra-violent crime.  When a betrayal results in Alex being sent to prison, he hopes to reduce his sentence by becoming a guinea pig for the experimental Ludovico technique.  But the results might not be what the government wants.

Blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo wrote the screenplay for the historical epic “Spartacus (2:30 PM on August 8, 2026).”  In the first century BC, Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) serves as a slave in a corrupt Roman Republic.  His ferocious refusal to cooperate with the Roman authorities eventually results in his being selected and trained to become a gladiator.  But when Spartacus leads a slave revolt, he soon becomes a symbol of freedom for the oppressed.  There’s a reason why “We are all Spartacus” is an immortal line of movie dialogue.