Call for Participation: Canyon Cinema @ 65 Community History Project + Publication

    


            



Calling all Canyon Cinema filmmakers, board members, staff members, interns, volunteers, and enthusiasts, past and present! In recognition of our 65th year, we invite brief personal reflections (in the range of 250 to 1500 words) on the organization’s history, community, and impact across its many decades and configurations. Contributions can take any form, including: personal stories related to memorable screenings; artists’ POV about opportunities supported or bolstered by Canyon; archival tales; unusual ephemera; overlooked photographs of artists at work or at Canyon-assisted screenings; inscrutable visual essays; contemplations of Canyon’s impact on artists and/or the community of viewers; kitchen table conversations and cross-generational dialogues; internal Canyon foibles regarding mishaps or unexpected outcomes; previous staffers’ recollections; memories of cinema encounters that were startling, or paradigm roiling; impressions of aesthetic re-inventions; experiences of the spectatorial sublime. And so on.
Selected pieces will be published on our Canyon Cinema Connects microsite and in a forthcoming issue of the Canyon Cinemazine. Honoraria are available for published writing.
Texts, proposals, and queries can be emailed to info@canyoncinema.com with the subject line, “Submission for Canyon @ 65”. An editorial committee will review submissions on an ongoing basis through November 15, 2026.
 
About Canyon Cinema
Founded in Bruce Baillie’s backyard in 1961, Canyon Cinema is dedicated to educating the public about independent, noncommercial, experimental, avant-garde, and artist-made moving images. We manifest this commitment by providing access to an unrivaled collection of films to universities and cultural organizations worldwide, and cultivating scholarship and appreciation. We ensure the experience of rare film works in their original medium while also reaching out to new audiences through our growing digital distribution project.