{{Short description|American non-profit film corporation}} {{Infobox organization | name = Canyon Cinema | logo = Canyon Cinema logo.png | formation = {{start date and age|1967}} | founders = Bruce Baillie | founding_location = Canyon, California | type = 501(c)(3) | tax_id = 46-0649341<ref>{{cite web |url=https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/detailsPage?ein=460649341&name=Canyon%20Cinema%20Foundation&city=San%20Francisco&state=CA&countryAbbr=US&dba=&type=CHARITIES,%20DETERMINATIONLETTERS,%20COPYOFRETURNS |title=Canyon Cinema Foundation |publisher=Internal Revenue Service |access-date=August 29, 2022}}</ref> | status = Nonprofit organization | location = San Francisco, California, United States | leader_title = Executive director | leader_name = Brett Kashmere | website = {{Official URL}} }}
'''Canyon Cinema''' is an American nonprofit organization for distributing independent, avant-garde, and artist-made films. After starting in the 1960s as an exhibition program, it grew to include a nationwide newsletter and a distribution cooperative. Its exhibition activities were split off to form the San Francisco Cinematheque.
==History== [[File:Bruce Baillie 2.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Co-founder Bruce Baillie at a Canyon Cinema Salon screening in 2016]] Canyon Cinema informally began in 1960 as an exhibition outlet in Canyon, California. Filmmaker Bruce Baillie got a projector and army surplus screen to put on shows in his backyard. Chick Strand and Ernest Callenbach became involved, and they began holding screenings around the Bay Area. Programming was intended to distribute the work of experimental filmmakers' that otherwise were not accepted by mainstream distributors. Early programming included popular cinema, particularly from Castle Films, and avant-garde cinema but over time came to focus exclusively on the latter.<ref name="macdonald">{{cite book |last=MacDonald |first=Scott |author-link=Scott MacDonald (media scholar) |year=2008 |title=Canyon Cinema: The Life and Times of an Independent Film Distributor |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-25087-7}}</ref>
Callenbach, an editor for ''Film Quarterly'', had the idea to publish a regular newsletter. The first issue of the ''News'' came in December 1962, and the publication later became the ''Cinemanews'' and the ''Canyon Cinema News''.<ref name="macdonald"/>
Distribution activities began in 1966 with the establishment of a film distribution office. The Canyon Cinema Cooperative formally incorporated on February 26, 1967. Later that year, the growing exhibition program was made into Canyon Cinematheque. Income from distribution declined during the 1970s, resulting in a reorganization of Canyon's operations. The cinematheque was split off as San Francisco Cinematheque, which obtained nonprofit status in 1977.<ref name="macdonald"/>
Canyon expanded its mission in 1994 to include the sale of videotapes. It later began offering DVDs for sale as well.<ref name="macdonald"/>
Stanford University obtained Canyon's business archives, including ''Cinemanews'', in 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/june/canyon-cinema-archives-060810.html |title=Stanford acquires archives for experimental, underground filmmaking |last=Haven |first=Cynthia |date=June 8, 2010 |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=August 29, 2022}}</ref> In 2013 the Canyon Cinema corporation was dissolved, following the transfer of its assets and operations to the Canyon Cinema Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://canyoncinema.com/about/history/ |title=History and Today |publisher=Canyon Cinema |accessdate=2013-08-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141215233020/http://canyoncinema.com/about/history/ |archive-date=2014-12-15 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Description== Canyon Cinema distributes a collection of more than 3,400 works from approximately 280 artists. These include 8 mm, Super 8, 16 mm, and 35 mm film prints as well as digital media. It holds a free salon series at the New Nothing Cinema.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://canyoncinema.com/about/ |title=About |publisher=Canyon Cinema |access-date=August 29, 2022}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== {{refbegin}} * Anker, Steve, Robert Nelson, Edith Kramer, Diane Kitchen, and Dominic Angerame. "Canyon Cinema: Ideals and Institution". In ''Radical Light: Alternative Film & Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945 – 2000'', edited by Steve Anker, Kathy Geritz, and Steve Seid, 176–187. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. * Goldsmith, Leo. [https://4columns.org/goldsmith-leo/canyon-cinema-50 "Canyon Cinema 50"]. 4columns. April 27, 2018. * Kashmere, Brett. "Effecting Repair: A Canyon Cinema Report on the 'Rediscovery' of Toney W. Merritt". ''The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies'' 62, no. 1 (Fall 2022): 170–175. * Pinar, Ekin. "Canyon Collective Artists: Micropolitics in West Coast Experimental Film, 1960–79". PhD diss. University of Pennsylvania, 2015. {{refend}}
==External links== * {{Official website}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Artist cooperatives in the United States Category:Cinema of the San Francisco Bay Area Category:Cooperatives in the San Francisco Bay Area Category:Experimental film festivals Category:Filmmaker cooperatives Category:Film organizations in the United States Category:Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco