Workshops
Material Cinema (Off-site)
Instructor: Ellie Vanderlip
Saturday, May 10, 2025
1-4pm
In-person at The Sunnyvale Public Library, 665 W. Olive Ave., Sunnyvale, CA
Free Admission! Register here
Learn how to repurpose castaway mid-century 16mm film through scratching, painting, puncturing, bleaching, and more with filmmaker and Shapeshifters co-director Ellie Vanderlip at the Sunnyvale Public Library. Participants will review various "destructive" methods and examples and then jump into experimenting themselves, with each student creating their own sample loop of techniques to take home. Film and art materials will be provided. This workshop is crafted for both those who are new to these processes and those who are interested in deepening their knowledge.
Cel Painting Animation Workshop
Instructor: Anna Firth
Sunday, May 18, 2025
12-5pm
In-person at Shapeshifters Cinema
Admission: $50-75 (Discounts for Shapeshifters members, students and low income)
Try your hand at handmade animation in this beginner-friendly workshop with Oakland-based experimental animator, Anna Firth. Part history lesson and part materials introduction, participants are invited to paint a simple scene, one transparent layer at a time. We will use a slightly DIY approach using supplies you can easily source from local craft stores so you can continue to paint cel with your new skills. Materials provided and any level of experience welcome! Feel free to bring any of your favorite materials (collage/drawing/photos/etc.) to customize your background art.
Storytelling Through Geography: Filmmaking with Google Earth
Instructor: Kirk Pearson
Sunday, May 25, 2025
12-4pm
In-person at Shapeshifters Cinema
Admission: $40 (Discount for Shapeshifters members)
Join us for a hands-on, 4-hour workshop led by Kirk Pearson, who will teach you how to stitch satellite images into stunning art films using Google Earth. Whether you're an artist, filmmaker, or just curious about new creative tools, this session will show you how to harness the cinematic power of all those spy satellites your tax dollars supported. You will learn how to direct compelling flyovers and zooms, how to make photorealistic flying sequences, how to script camera movements, the best way to render your footage, and various web browser tricks that will help make sure the program doesn't crash on you. By the end, you'll have created your own short video using nothing but your imagination and the planet itself. No previous experience necessary. Participants will need to bring a laptop with a web browser and Google Earth Studio installed.
Cutout, Collaged and Scored—Animating Our Paper Archive
Instructor: Jeremy Rourke
Sunday, June 1, 2025
10am-4pm
In-person at Shapeshifters Cinema
Admission: $75 (Discount for Shapeshifters members)
What kinds of latent energies are held within photos, letters, drawings, mail, and other keepsakes? Animator Jeremy Rourke will lead participants in the discovery process as we cut out and collage items from our personal paper archives in a series of short, animated experiments. No originals need be destroyed, that's what photocopies are for! This a DIY, use-what-we have endeavor. Writing prompts, field recordings, and a loop station will form the basis of our sound design process. Participants will need to bring a phone/iPad/computer with Stop Motion Studio installed. No prior animating experience is necessary to participate. Everyone is welcome!
Movement Imagined: 16mm Pinhole Camera Workshop
Instructor: Tetsuya Maruyama
TWO DAY WORKSHOP
Monday, June 9 & Wednesday, June 11, 2025
6-9PM, both days
In-person at Shapeshifters Cinema
Admission: $120 (Discount for Shapeshifters members)
In this workshop with visiting artist Tatsuya Maruyama (founder of the artist-run Megalab film lab in Rio de Janeiero) participants will learn how to create a pinhole camera to capture images on 16mm film using modified 35mm photographic film canisters and vintage Japanese matchboxes. Participants will then hand-process their film and create negative and positive copies through simple contact printing to allow the freedom to work directly with the surface of the film with light, in the same way a painter leaves their gesture on a canvas.
A Few Good Magic Tricks
Instructor: Kirk Pearson
Thursday, July 10, 2025
7-9pm
In-person at Shapeshifters Cinema
Admission: $25 (Discount for Shapeshifters members)
Magic is the oldest performing art in the world—which means we've had thousands of years for some terrible tricks to be invented. Magic has been hijacked by bad magicians doing bad magic, and frankly, it's time for a comeback. Because when a trick is good—really good—it can be transcendent. A Few Good Magic Tricks is a low-stakes workshop for anyone who wants to dabble in the dark arts of sleight-of-hand, misdirection, and charmingly-suspicious behavior. Instructor Kirk Pearson will share approachable tricks that are fun to learn, impressive to perform, and built on time-tested techniques and simple props. You will not only learn how the tricks work, but also why they work—plus the performance skills that turn a trick into a miniature miracle of theatrical mischief. This is magic for regular humans—artists, weirdos, introverts, extroverts, skeptics, believers, and the magic-curious. All genders, ages, and experience levels are welcome. No experience necessary. Props will be provided. Smirks encouraged. Top hats optional.
The Shapeshifters Summer Youth Media-Makers Camp is a week-long, hands-on, workshop-style camp for youth, ages 12-17 to learn a variety of DIY, experimental film and sound-based processes from experienced Bay Area-based artists and educators. Camp takes place at Shapeshifters Cinema from June 16-20, 2025. Find out more and register now!
