Please join us for the latest installment of our Virtual Tea Room, a biweekly online conversation series for Curator’s Circle members in which curators and other museum staff discuss upcoming projects, share their thought processes, and offer a peek at what makes them tick. Each event includes a presentation and Q&A.

Our featured guest on Thursday, August 6, is BAMPFA Film Curator Kathy Geritz with The Art of Curating Film: The Enduring Influence of Edith Kramer and Adrienne Mancia.

The film exhibition programs at BAMPFA and New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) are among the most revered and influential in the country, their renown fueled by two enterprising female film curators: Edith Kramer at BAMPFA and Adrienne Mancia at MoMA. Standouts in a male-dominated field, these innovative curators brought breadth to their institutions’ cinematic presentations, seeking out new perspectives and voices and championing artists with powerful visions. Kramer worked at BAMPFA for thirty years as a film curator and was director of the Pacific Film Archive for much of that time. She and Mancia—whose tenure at MoMA extended over three decades—spoke almost every week as they navigated very different institutional cultures, with disparate budgets, community relationships, and staff structures. While neither sought the limelight, their differing approaches to expanding the public’s knowledge of a film history international in scope exemplify the art of film curating. Join curator Kathy Geritz for first-person insights and accounts drawn from her interviews with Kramer and Mancia, which she’s currently editing for publication. 

Kathy Geritz has been curating film at BAMPFA since 1986. Originally focusing on artist-made cinema, she, like her mentors Kramer and Mancia, eventually expanded her perview to curate an annual documentary film series and other programs highlighting international cinema.

This event is open to Curator’s Circle members at the $1,000 level and above. Space is limited, and reservations will be taken on a first come, first served basis. Registered participants will receive an email with a secure event link on August 4. 

Please contact Director of Special Events Masha Berek at mberek@berkeley.edu for more information or to register.