Anthology Film Archives

Anthology Film Archives The home of experimental cinema in NYC. Anthology is a center for the exhibition, preservation, and study of independent and artist-made film and video.

Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema. Founded in 1969 by Jonas Mekas, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, and Stan Brakhage, Anthology in its original conception was a showcase for the Essential Cinema Repertory collection. An ambitious

attempt to define the art of cinema by means of a selection of films which would screen continuously, the Essential Cinema collection was intended to encourage the study of the medium’s masterworks as works of art rather than disposable entertainment, making Anthology the first museum devoted to film as an art form. The project was never completed, but even in its unfinished state it represented an uncompromising critical overview of cinema’s history, and remains a crucial part of Anthology’s exhibition program. In the decades since its founding, Anthology has grown far beyond its original concept to encompass film preservation; the formation of a reference library containing the world’s largest collection of books, periodicals, stills, and other paper materials related to avant-garde cinema; and a remarkably innovative and eclectic film exhibition program. Anthology screens more than 900 programs annually, preserves an average of 25 films per year (with 800 works preserved to date), publishes books and DVDs, and hosts numerous scholars and researchers. Fueled by the conviction that the index of a culture’s health and vibrancy lies largely in its margins, in those works of art that are created outside the commercial mainstream, Anthology strives to advance the cause and protect the heritage of a kind of cinema that is in particular danger of being lost, overlooked, or ignored

08/28/2026

TRUE NORTH
SPECIAL SCREENING – FILMMAKER MICHÈLE STEPHENSON IN PERSON!
September 8 at 7:00

“This propulsive cinematic confrontation with Canada’s anti-Black racism explores the pivotal, yet often overlooked, Canadian civil rights movement. Filmmaker Michèle Stephenson (AMERICAN PROMISE; STATELESS; GOING TO MARS: THE NIKKI GIOVANNI PROJECT) artfully weaves a haunting soundscape with dynamic archival footage and intimate new interviews, immersing us in Black life in 1960s Montreal. The film culminates in the 1969 Sir George Williams Affair, where 200 students, many of them Haitian immigrants fleeing the Duvalier regime, occupied a ninth-floor computer lab at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) to protest blatant institutional bigotry. This rare footage feels hauntingly prescient against the backdrop of recent student protests, serving as a stark reminder that these cycles of resistance are deeply etched in our collective history. By shining a light on these unsung stories, Stephenson reframes the 1960s civil rights movement not as a strictly American phenomenon, but as a continent-wide, ongoing struggle for survival, justice, and dignity.” –FULL FRAME DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

Preceded by Dawn Wilkinson's DANDELIONS

See our website for full program details.

WHAT GODMILOW TAUGHTSeptember 4-6Jill Godmilow, who passed away last fall at the age of 81, was a crucial part of the fi...
08/26/2026

WHAT GODMILOW TAUGHT
September 4-6

Jill Godmilow, who passed away last fall at the age of 81, was a crucial part of the film cultural community in New York and beyond, thanks to her work as a filmmaker; her parallel career as a teacher, scholar, and writer; and her founding in 1985 of the non-profit Laboratory for Icon & Idiom (which evolved into IndieCollect, an organization dedicated to the rescue, restoration and reactivation of independent cinema). Anthology presented a retrospective devoted to Jill’s work in 2021, and had the honor of commemorating her by hosting her memorial earlier this year. To further celebrate her life and career, we welcome another filmmaker whose work we’ve been devoted to over the years, and who was deeply influenced by Jill’s filmmaking, Mireia Sallarès, who will present her filmic tribute to and extended interview with Godmilow, WHAT GODMILOW TAUGHT (2010-14).

Alongside WHAT GODMILOW TAUGHT, we’ll be screening several of Godmilow’s other acclaimed films, as well as Sallarès’s extraordinary, five-hour documentary LAS MUERTES CHIQUITAS, a film that Godmilow passionately advocated for, and from which she in turn took inspiration. Up until her death, she was at work on a film that would’ve paid explicit homage to LAS MUERTES CHIQUITAS: ECSTATIC OR**SM, an excerpt of which we’ll be including in this program.

This series is presented with the support of the Institut Ramon Llull.

See our website for full program details.

MIX NYC PRESENTS: EARLY INTERIORITY – VINTAGE TRANS CINEMASeptember 3 at 7:30 & 9:30 (encore screening!)This program gat...
08/24/2026

MIX NYC PRESENTS: EARLY INTERIORITY – VINTAGE TRANS CINEMA
September 3 at 7:30 & 9:30 (encore screening!)

This program gathers rare vintage short films that open a portal to trans feminine interior life between 1967 and 1982. We meet these women in moments of quiet confidence, everyday mundanity, and enduring glamour. Through deeply intimate portraits, these films unearth buried pieces of trans history while illuminating how the world has long constricted trans women’s freedom to be. Made under a police state, these portraits mirror the experiences of trans femmes today. Each woman captured becomes a living testament to ancestral resilience and the enduring necessity of trans documentation.

This program is co-curated by Thee Rose and Rosalina Michele for MIX NYC, one of the oldest q***r experimental film festivals in the world.

For more details, see https://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/calendar?view=list&month=09&year=2026 -62008

Tonight, 5/13, the Robert Creeley series continues with Programs 2 and 3 at 6:45 and 9:00 respectively. Program 2 will b...
05/13/2026

Tonight, 5/13, the Robert Creeley series continues with Programs 2 and 3 at 6:45 and 9:00 respectively.

Program 2 will be presented by special guests Will Creeley and Grayson Goga!

ROBERT CREELEY, PGM 2: BRUCE JACKSON & DIANE CHRISTIAN
Bruce Jackson & Diane Christian
WILLY’S READING
1982, 16 min, 16mm
Filled with the levity and sweetness of new life, this family picture invites us into a sun-dappled afternoon of poetry and stories as Creeley shares anecdotes from his life interspersed with readings to his newborn son.

Bruce Jackson & Diane Christian
CREELEY
1988, 59 min, 16mm
A ranging yet intimate portrait of Robert Creeley in his 50s, CREELEY mirrors the itinerancy of the poet’s own life, with interviews, conversations, and readings taking place over several years and in many locations, including Naropa, Harvard, and of course, Buffalo, where Creeley and his growing family began to settle in the 1980s. Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian, longtime friends of the Creeleys, map the constellations of Creeley’s personal and working life, showing that the two were so entwined as to be indistinguishable.

Grayson Goga & Grace Stalley
FOR WILL
2016, 13 min, digital
In this film – which functions as a profound complement to the earlier WILLY’S READING – we catch up with Will Creeley, now in his 30s with a son of his own, as he reflects on his father’s life and continuing influence, ten years after the poet’s death in 2005.

Total running time: ca. 95 min.

(Stills from CREELEY by Bruce Jackson and Diane a Christian)
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