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

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)
bartell

SHIGEKO KUBOTA: TWO-WAY COMMUNICATIONMay 17 – 18“Shigeko Kubota: Two-way Communication” presents a selection of films an...
05/11/2026

SHIGEKO KUBOTA: TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION
May 17 – 18

“Shigeko Kubota: Two-way Communication” presents a selection of films and videos made or programmed by Japanese-American artist-curator Shigeko Kubota (久保田 成子, 1937-2015) during her time as video curator at Anthology Film Archives from 1974 to 1983. Kubota is widely recognized as an early video and Fluxus artist, but equally important was her role as a community organizer and cultural mediator who advocated for women video artists and fostered international exchange between the United States, Japan, and beyond. Through initiatives such as Video Talk Shows, Curator’s Choice, and Open Screenings, she created forums where artists, curators, and scholars gathered to discuss timely topics related to video art.

The series encompasses three separate programs. The first – “Video is Vengeance of Vagina” – is drawn from the works that Kubota programmed at Anthology. The second program – “Tokyo-New York Video Express” – traces a 1974 screening and performance event curated by Kubota in Tokyo in collaboration with the Japanese video collective Video Hiroba. The third program – “Video as Two-way Communication” – presents Kubota’s own video works, situating her curatorial work as an extension of her own bold and whimsical character, and reflecting her close collaboration with the New York avant-garde and experimental film and video community during the 1970s and 80s.

Guest-programmed by Gladys Lou, the series is part of the exhibition “‘Curator Diary’: The Curatorial Work of Shigeko Kubota”, on view at the Hessel Museum of Art, April 4-May 24, 2026. The exhibition is curated by Gladys Lou as part of the requirements for the master of arts degree at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.

A panel discussion with Barbara London, Bob Harris, and Lumi Tan will take place on Sun, May 17 from 5:45-6:45, and will be free of charge!

See our website for full program details.

05/05/2026

Tickets going fast for our screening of TENDERNESS OF THE WOLVES (1973) on Thursday, May 7th as part of ‘s Narrow Rooms monthly film series.

“It is beautifully and enthusiastically performed and it doesn’t contain a single superfluous or redundant camera movement. Like Mr. Fassbinder’s own early films, TENDERNESS OF THE WOLVES is cryptic, tough-talking and swaggering in the manner of someone who means to shock his elders. Like the early Warhol work, TENDERNESS seems to be sending up everyone and everything, but, unlike the Warhol movies, it takes filmmaking – the possibilities of the discipline – with complete seriousness.” –Vincent Canby, NEW YORK TIMES



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