Shapeshifters
Cinema and Brewery

About Us

Shapeshifters Cinema and Brewery is a 40-seat experimental microcinema housed in a beautiful, one-story Victorian located on the historic Bret Harte Boardwalk in Oakland’s Jack London District.

Shapeshifters started in 2012 as a monthly, volunteer-run series focused on expanded cinema. In the fall of 2018 we signed the lease on our own space with a vision of providing a broader range of experimental and expanded film, art and performance as well as a microbrewery and a taproom. We have been working on securing permits and finalizing plans to build out the space, which we anticipate to be fully operational by summer 2020. In the meantime, we continue to host our monthly expanded cinema series at which you will always find a special microbrew (currently created off-site) by head brewer Gilbert Guerrero.

Membership

We are excited to launch the new Shapeshifters Cinema and Brewery Membership Program! Once we are fully operational, our membership program will be a critical way for us to continue as a sustainable, creative, arts-focused venue in Oakland. If you signed up for a membership during our recent Indiegogo campaign, your membership privileges start immediately, but the timeline won't officially begin until the brewery and taproom are open. For anyone still interested in signing up to become a member, please contact us directly.

Cinema

Our intimate, 40-seat cinema is able to host a range of performances and events by contemporary artists working in film, video, sound, music, multimedia and performance. Along with screenings and performances, you will also find workshops, salons, artist talks and lectures. Our focus is primarily on experimental and artist-made.

Upcoming Programs & Events

Natural Formulas: Films by Karissa Hahn and Andrew Kim
Friday, May 29, 2020
8:00 pm (doors open at 7:30 pm)
Admission: Free
Presented in association with BAMPFA
Artists in person

Los Angeles-based filmmakers Andrew Kim and Karissa Hahn present recent solo and collaborative moving image work. Kim’s 16mm films explore the limitations of the medium and the abilities of human perception, celebrating the magic that occurs somewhere between the two. Working in various analog, digital and hybrid formats, Hahn’s performative moving image works accumulate a storm of ‘spectra ephemera,’ interrogating the technographic overload of the digital age.