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OMCA Opens Two Film Exhibitions Celebrating the ‘Year of the Bay’

(Oakland, CA) October 31, 2013—On Saturday, November 9, the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) presents two film exhibitions exploring interconnections of humans and nature in the San Francisco Bay Area. A Cinematic Study of Fog in San Francisco and Bay Motion: Capturing San Francisco Bay on Film will both be on view in the Gallery of California Art from November 9, 2013 through June 29, 2014. These two film projects are a part of OMCA’s multi-exhibition celebration of the ‘Year of the Bay,’ complementing the photography exhibition Peter Stackpole: Bridging the Bay and major multidisciplinary exhibition Above and Below: Stories From Our Changing Bay.

A Cinematic Study of Fog in San Francisco—a video work by acclaimed filmmaker Sam Green and cinematographer Andy Black—is based on an ongoing investigation of fog, a remarkable weather phenomenon that profoundly characterizes the San Francisco Bay. Known for their work together on the Academy Award-nominated film The Weather Underground and other pioneering, experimental documentary features, Green and Black showcase a visually compelling experience of fog and the rich feelings it evokes. At once sublime, quirky, and deeply existential, A Cinematic Study of Fog in San Francisco heightens our awareness of our environment and highlights how the complex systems of wind, air, and water around us engage the life of our minds and stir emotions. A Cinematic Study of Fog in San Francisco is presented in partnership with the Exploratorium’s Bay Observatory and Cinema Arts Program.  

Bay Motion: Capturing San Francisco Bay on Film presents a unique selection of film from the Prelinger Archives—a collection of over 60,000 “ephemeral” (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films—examining how the San Francisco Bay and the surrounding region have been captured on film by amateur, professional, and industrial camera people. Bay Motion is an immersive, multiple-screen video installation that offers a rich and often surprising body of archival moving images, many never before seen by the public. This journey through informal film history provides viewers with a kaleidoscopic and entertaining story of the Bay and its people from the beginning of cinema through the 1970s. Complementing the exhibition is a film program by Rick Prelinger on February 22, 2014, titled Lost Landscapes of Oakland. This program is the first East Bay-focused installment of Rick Prelinger’s celebrated ‘Lost Landscapes’ series, which combine eclectic historic and ephemeral footage with vibrant discussion and audience participation.