Berkeley Film Foundation

The Berkeley Film Foundation is very happy and proud to announce the recipients of our 2026 documentary grant awards. This year, BFF is distributing $320,000 to 30 documentary projects, including nine grants to student filmmakers enrolled at local universities. This year’s grantees represent the extraordinary range, ambition, and creative vitality of independent documentary filmmaking in the East Bay.
Please read our full press release linked in our bio for the full list of winners!

SKIN OF GLASS is closing the MADE IN BERKELEY film series, celebrating the exception films made at the Fantasy building in Berkeley across four decades. Join us on Sunday for this special screening with director Denise Zmekhol live in-person.

Denise Zmekhol’s 2023 Skin of Glass is an exploration of her overlapping history with a São Paulo skyscraper. When she learns that squatters occupy the landmark tower her late father designed in the early 1960s, the documentarian returns to her hometown to investigate. The Edifício Wilton Paes de Almeida, nicknamed the “Pele de Vidro” (Skin of Glass) for its windowed facade, was the first building of its kind in South America, a shiny symbol of Brazil’s promising future. Zmekhol recalls an idyllic childhood that gave way to estrangement from the man whose structure would become a dilapidated eyesore, weaving together family photographs, archival material, testimonials from friends and colleagues, and drone footage of the decaying high-rise.

Following the film, Denise Zmekhol will be in conversation with James Holston, a Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Co-Director of the Social Apps Laboratory at UC Berkeley.

MADE IN BERKELEY: THE HOUSE THAT ZAENTZ BUILT
Home to the jazz and rock label Fantasy Records, headed by Saul Zaentz, Berkeley’s Fantasy Studios building was also, from the early 1970s, a storied site of filmmaking. Zaentz produced a number of critically acclaimed and award-winning literary adaptations, including a trio of Academy Award Best Picture winners: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, and The English Patient. Along with Zaentz’s lauded fiction films, the studios serve as a vital resource for documentary filmmakers in the Bay Area and beyond. Copresented with the Berkeley Film Foundation.

Sat, Aug 29 @ 7 PM — TONGUES UNTIED by Marlon Riggs — Preceded by THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM: FOOT SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday (US, 2011) — Introduction by Artel Great

Tongues Untied is about the silence that envelops the lives of Black gay men. This exhilarating work is a loquacious attempt to break free of the homophobia and racism that mute the possibilities for human fulfillment. Marlon Riggs creates a poetic pastiche that has the emotional uplift of gospel music and the sobering impact of reportage. The words of gay poets, personal testimony, rap tableaux, dramatic sequences, and archival footage are woven together with a seductive palette of video effects. Riggs dares to speak the words that could conjure a life into being: “Black men loving Black men is the revolutionary act.” 

Preceded By
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement

This Oscar-nominated short follows an eighty-five-year-old African American veteran of the Civil Rights Movement as Barack Obama is elected president.

“Made in Berkeley: The House Zaentz Built” Summer Film Series at BAMPFA:

Sat, Aug 29 @ 7 PM — TONGUES UNTIED by Marlon Riggs — Preceded by THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM: FOOT SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday (US, 2011) — Introduction by Artel Great

Sun, Aug 30 @ 3:30 PM — SKIN OF GLASS by Denise Zmekhol — Denise Zmekhol in conversation with Teresa Caldeira

Wed, Aug 26 @ 7 PM — NO STRAIGHT LINES by Vivian Kleiman — Vivian Kleiman in conversation with Mel Y. Chen

From Tom of Finland to D***s to Watch Out For, comics and zines have been firmly embedded in q***r culture since before Stonewall, continuing through the AIDS epidemic and into today’s modern obsession with superheroes. This deeply q***r artform finally gets its true moment in the limelight thanks to Vivian Kleiman’s extensive documentary exploring over seventy years of history. Featuring interviews with trailblazers like Alison Bechdel, Howard Cruse, Rupert Kinnard, and Mary Wings, No Straight Lines explores how the once underground world of q***r comics grew to encompass the many mediums, styles, and inspirations that make this artform what it is today.

Made in Berkeley: The House Zaentz Built
Summer Film Series at BAMPFA:

Wed, Aug 26 @ 7 PM — NO STRAIGHT LINES by Vivian Kleiman — Vivian Kleiman in conversation with Mel Y. Chen

Sat, Aug 29 @ 7 PM — TONGUES UNTIED by Marlon Riggs — Preceded by THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM: FOOT SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday (US, 2011) — Introduction by Artel Great

Sun, Aug 30 @ 3:30 PM — SKIN OF GLASS by Denise Zmekhol — Denise Zmekhol in conversation with Teresa Caldeira

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Come see the final 3 films of our MADE IN BERKELEY series Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive - accompanied by filmmakers and special guests:

NO STRAIGHT LINES
Wednesday, August 26, 7 PM
Director Vivian Kleiman and Mel Y Chen in conversation

TONGUES UNTIED
Saturday, August 29, 7 PM
Introduced by Dr. Artel Great

SKIN OF GLASS
Sunday, August 30, 3:30 PM
With director Denise Zmekhol in person

Details and tickets at Bampfa.org

LAST CHANCE for tickets to see PROMISES with co-director Justine Shapiro in person! Screening Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive as part of the film series, Made in Berkeley: The House Zaentz Built

Filmed between 1995 and 2001, Promises is a portrait of seven Palestinian and Israeli children—living in close proximity in Jerusalem and the West Bank—and their perspectives on the conflict that divides them. Twenty-five years later, moments of hope, like a meeting between Israeli twins and a Palestinian runner, who connect through a love of sports, serve as a poignant reminder of political failure. As Julie Salamon noted in her New York Times review: “Wisdom does emerge from the mouths of these children, who are anything but innocent. ‘In war both sides suffer,’ one of the twins says. ‘Maybe there’s a winner, but what is a winner?’”

Made in Berkeley: The House Zaentz Built — Summer Film Series at BAMPFA:

Wed, Aug 26 @ 7 PM — NO STRAIGHT LINES by Vivian Kleiman — Vivian Kleiman in conversation with Mel Y. Chen
Sat, Aug 29 @ 7 PM — TONGUES UNTIED by Marlon Riggs — Preceded by THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM: FOOT SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday (US, 2011) — Introduction by Artel Great
Sun, Aug 30 @ 3:30 PM — SKIN OF GLASS by Denise Zmekhol — Denise Zmekhol in conversation with Teresa Caldeira”

Sat, Aug 15 @ 3:30 PM — PROMISES by Justine Shapiro, B.Z. Goldberg, Carlos Bolado — with Justine Shapiro in person.
Filmed between 1995 and 2001, Promises is a portrait of seven Palestinian and Israeli children—living in close proximity in Jerusalem and the West Bank—and their perspectives on the conflict that divides them. Twenty-five years later, moments of hope, like a meeting between Israeli twins and a Palestinian runner, who connect through a love of sports, serve as a poignant reminder of political failure. As Julie Salamon noted in her New York Times review: “Wisdom does emerge from the mouths of these children, who are anything but innocent. ‘In war both sides suffer,’ one of the twins says. ‘Maybe there’s a winner, but what is a winner?’”

Made in Berkeley: The House Zaentz Built” Summer Film Series at BAMPFA:

Wed, Aug 26 @ 7 PM — NO STRAIGHT LINES by Vivian Kleiman — Vivian Kleiman in conversation with Mel Y. Chen

Sat, Aug 29 @ 7 PM — TONGUES UNTIED by Marlon Riggs — Preceded by THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM: FOOT SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday (US, 2011) — Introduction by Artel Great

Sun, Aug 30 @ 3:30 PM — SKIN OF GLASS by Denise Zmekhol — Denise Zmekhol in conversation with Teresa Caldeira

Sun, Aug 9 @ 2 PM — THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING by Philip Kaufman — Vivien Hillgrove in conversation with Pat Jackson

This adaptation of Milan Kundera’s novel chronicles the intersecting affairs of a philandering surgeon, Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis); a free-spirited artist, Sabina (Lena Olin); and an earnest waitress/photographer, Tereza (Juliette Binoche), leading up to and in the aftermath of the 1968 Prague Spring. With cinematography by Sven Nykvist, a script cowritten by Luis Buñuel collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière, editing by Walter Murch, and documentary footage of the invasion by Czech New Wave director Jan Němec, The Unbearable Lightness of Being elegantly depicts the collision of human hope and desire with soul-crushing totalitarianism. Featuring
Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin, Erland Josephson.

“Made in Berkeley: The House Zaentz Built” Summer Film Series at BAMPFA

* Sat, Aug 15 @ 3:30 PM — PROMISES by Justine Shapiro, B.Z. Goldberg, Carlos Bolado — with Justine Shapiro in person
* Wed, Aug 26 @ 7 PM — NO STRAIGHT LINES by Vivian Kleiman — Vivian Kleiman in conversation with Mel Y. Chen
* Sat, Aug 29 @ 7 PM — TONGUES UNTIED by Marlon Riggs — Preceded by THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM: FOOT SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday (US, 2011) — Introduction by Artel Great
* Sun, Aug 30 @ 3:30 PM — SKIN OF GLASS by Denise Zmekhol — Denise Zmekhol in conversation with Teresa Caldeira”

“Made in Berkeley: The House Zaentz Built” summer film series at BAMPFA
Friday, Aug 7, 2026 * 7 PM (86 mins)
WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN by Steven Okazaki, in Person

Focusing on the stories of those who experienced the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, Berkeley-based, Academy Award–winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki (Days of Waiting) weaves together the testimonies of fourteen hibakusha (those exposed to the bomb) with paintings by survivors and rarely seen archival footage, along with interviews with Americans who participated in the mission. Intimate and chilling, White Light/Black Rain gives voice to the stories—too often ignored in favor of debate and politics—of those who lived through nuclear war, and continue to live in its haunting shadow.
Get your tickets today. Link in our bio.🎟️

Fri Aug 7 @ 7 PM — WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN by Steven Okazaki in Person
Sun Aug 9 @ 2 PM — THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING by Philip Kaufman
Sat Aug 15 @ 3:30 PM — PROMISES by Justine Shapiro, in Person, B.Z. Goldberg, Carlos Bolado
Wed Aug 26 @ 7 PM — NO STRAIGHT LINES by Vivian Kleiman, in Person
Sat Aug 29 @ 7 PM - TONGUES UNTIED by Marlon Riggs, United States, 1989
Sun Aug 30 @ 3:30 PM - SKIN OF GLASS by Denise Zmekhol, in Person.