Date and Time
- Sunday, Jun 7, 2026 2pm - 4:30pm
Location
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 3rd St
Details
Join us as we celebrate the work of longtime Canyon Cinema artist member Michael Wallin (1948–2016). A stalwart figure of the Bay Area film community, Wallin made vast and varied contributions to experimental film culture and LGBTQ+ cinema both locally and internationally. Wallin began making independent films in 1968 while apprenticing with Canyon Cinema cofounder Bruce Baillie, emerging as a pioneer in the radical, queer San Francisco avant-garde cinema of the 1970s and 1980s. Alongside the work of Barbara Hammer, James Broughton, and Joel Singer, among others, Wallin’s films bridged a gap between the issue- and identity-based New Queer Cinema and the formalist experimental film practices of the time. In addition to working as a lab technician, freelance editor, and camera operator, Wallin was the manager of Canyon Cinema from 1975–78 (and later a board member) and taught film production and theory at California College of the Arts, Antioch University, and the San Francisco Art Institute. He also owned and operated a San Francisco–based negative conforming business for many years.
