Oakland's Shapeshifters Cinema is marking Halloween with "The Haunted Frame," an evening of spooky experimental film on Friday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m. The cinema calls it a "special Halloween cine-séance" of films by artists "who aren't afraid to look into the darkness." KTVU featured the program Friday morning.
What's on the program
According to the cinema's listing, the lineup includes:
- Secure the Shadow...'Ere the Substance Fade (1997, 16mm) by Kerry Laitala
- The Magician's House (2007, 16mm) by Deborah Stratman
- Evil of Dracula (1997, 16mm) by Martha Colburn
- Tuning the Sleeping Machine (1996, 16mm) by David Sherman
- Of This Beguiling Membrane (2020) by Charlotte Pryce and She Sank On Shallow Bank (2005) by Clifton Childree, both 16mm films shown on DV
The night closes with an amended, abridged version of Häxan, Benjamin Christensen's 1922 silent film about witchcraft. Edan Mor (sax), Kaitlin McSweeny (cello) and Kevin Corcoran (drums) will play live sound for it.
Tickets and getting there
Admission is $15, with a Halloween discount for members. Shapeshifters is at 567 5th St. in Oakland, a one-story Victorian on the historic Bret Harte Boardwalk in the Jack London District. The theater seats only 40, so arrive early. The cinema says its café will be closed before the screening for a special event. Shapeshifters also runs a small brewery behind the cinema.
Shapeshifters began in 2012 as a monthly expanded-cinema series and is fiscally sponsored by San Francisco Cinematheque. For more spooky film options this weekend, see our roundup of Halloween screenings at Bay Area repertory theaters.