Chase Joynt: State of Firsts, 2025
Opening Week: Mill Valley Film Festival at BAMPFA
October 3–12
Mill Valley Film Festival at BAMPFA starts this Friday! Catch the best new movies from around the world in the Barbro Osher Theater.
This year's MVFF program at BAMPFA includes powerful documentaries The Alabama Solution (with filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman in person) and State of Firsts; Steal This Story, Please!, an intimate portrait of journalist Amy Goodman, with Goodman and the filmmakers in person; the Cannes Camera D'Or winner The President's Cake, and more!
BAMPFA members get special pricing on all MVFF48 screenings! Not yet a member? Join today starting at just $40/year.
Everything Is Now: J. Hoberman in Person
In Person: J. Hoberman
BAMPFA welcomes J. Hoberman to discuss his book Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York Avant-Garde—Primal Happenings, Underground Movies, Radical Pop. He will also present a program of films representing the cross-pollination of poetry, painting, film, music, and performance the book chronicles.
Series: Alternative Visions
Flowers of Shanghai
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1998
Introduction: Ziwei Chen
Digital Restoration
Tony Leung Chiu-wai stars in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s period-piece reverie set in a Shanghai brothel circa 1890. “‘Surrender’ is the key to this visually ravishing masterpiece” (Phillip Lopate).
Series: Cities & Cinema: Shanghai
The Alabama Solution
Directed by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman, 2025
In Person: Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman
In a damning indictment of Alabama’s broken state prison system, investigative filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman unearth decades of outrageous abuse, deplorable conditions, and shocking injustices that demand action.
Promised Sky
Directed by Erige Sehiri, 2025
A rich and potent examination of immigration issues within Africa, Erige Sehiri’s moving and poignant drama portrays three female Ivorians trying to make a life for themselves in Tunisia.
Sun Ra: Do the Impossible
Directed by Christine Turner, 2025
In Person: Christine Turner
This documentary on Sun Ra chronicles the Afrofuturism pioneer, from his early days in Alabama to his rebirth as an interplanetary ambassador, liberating Black people one cosmic, free-jazz skronk at a time.
No Other Choice
Directed by Park Chan-wook, 2025
A withering corporate satire forms the backbone of Park Chan-wook’s new film about a laid-off paper executive (Lee Byung-hun) who arrives at a radical solution in order to get his job back.
Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro
Directed by Mikio Naruse, 1938
Mikio Naruse brings emotion and wit to the story of the relationship between a samisen player and a ballad singer during the Meiji era. “A musical treat” (National Film Theatre, London).
Steal This Story, Please!
Directed by Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, 2025
Introduction: Amy Goodman, Carl Deal, Tia Lessin, and Karen Ranucci
This intimate portrait of longtime activist and journalist Amy Goodman depicts a life lived on the frontlines of global crises while holding politicians accountable and speaking truth to power.
Directed by Hasan Hadi, 2025
Forced “patriotic” duty becomes a challenging adventure for one determined little girl chosen to bake Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s birthday cake in Hasan Hadi’s exceptional first feature.
Directed by Michio Okabe, 1968
Introduction:
Miryam Sas
A queer pop collage epic, Crazy Love reflects the revolutionary zeitgeist of the late 1960s. “Challenging established social norms and codes of sexual behaviour, it is a testament both to a liberated, experimental moment in art and film, and to an iconoclastic filmmaker” (Queer East Festival).
Series:Alternative Visions
Accessibility
If you have any questions about accessibility or need accommodations to attend a film screening, please contact us at bampfa@berkeley.edu or (510) 642-1412 (Wed–Sun, 11 AM–7 PM) as soon as you can. Advance notice helps us fulfill your request.
Berkeley Art Museum
and Pacific Film Archive
2120 Oxford St.
Berkeley, CA 94720
