Programmed by Jesse Trussell
In the overwhelming heat of August, what’s better than going to a chilly theater and watching a big sci-fi movie? We’re doing summer theater escapism BAM style, with arthouse spins on the space saga, time travel, technology run amok, and visitors from another world. Featuring films by Jean-Luc Godard, Andrei Tarkovsky, Chris Marker, John Akomfrah, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Wong Kar-wai, David Cronenberg, Andrzej Żuławski, and more—come beat the heat with some high-art genre flicks.
In the overwhelming heat of August, what’s better than going to a chilly theater and watching a big sci-fi movie? We’re doing summer theater escapism BAM style, with arthouse spins on the space saga, time travel, technology run amok, and visitors from another world. Featuring films by Jean-Luc Godard, Andrei Tarkovsky, Chris Marker, John Akomfrah, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Wong Kar-wai, David Cronenberg, Andrzej Żuławski, and more—come beat the heat with some high-art genre flicks.
Leadership support for
BAM's strategic initiatives provided by the
Jerome L. Greene Foundation 
Leadership support for
BAM programming provided by
Leadership support for
BAM's strategic initiatives provided by 
Leadership support for
BAM Film provided by
The Thompson Family Foundation
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FilmAlphaville
Aug 21 & 22, 2026
Alphaville
Aug 21 & 22, 2026Jean-Luc Godard’s brilliant mashup of dystopian sci-fi, French New Wave, and 1950s American pulp noir follows private eye Lemmy Caution on his mission to capture or kill the creator of a fascist computer. -
FilmSpace is the Place
Aug 21—24, 2026
Space is the Place
Aug 21—24, 2026Touching down in Oakland after years in space, avant-jazz bandleader Sun Ra sets out on a mission to rescue the Black population from earthly exploitation in this Afrofuturist adventure. -
FilmSolaris
Aug 21—25, 2026
Solaris
Aug 21—25, 2026Andrei Tarkovsky’s consciousness-bending landmark of philosophical science fiction follows a psychologist dispatched to a space station, only to confront a ghost from his past. -
FilmLa Jetée + The Last Angel of History
Aug 22—24, 2026
La Jetée + The Last Angel of History
Aug 22—24, 2026Two short features—Chris Marker’s haunting, revolutionary La Jetée and John Akomfrah’s hybrid documentary The Last Angel of History—traipse across time and space to offer disparate visions of the future. -
FilmMemoria
Aug 22—27, 2026
Memoria
Aug 22—27, 2026Startled at daybreak by a loud bang of unknown origin, a botanist sets out on a quest to discover the source of the sound in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s unconventional celebration of the cinematic experience. -
FilmStalker
Aug 22—26, 2026
Stalker
Aug 22—26, 2026One of the most immersive and rarefied experiences in the history of cinema, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker embarks on a metaphysical journey through an enigmatic post-apocalyptic landscape. -
Film2046
Aug 23—27, 2026
2046
Aug 23—27, 2026Named for the apartment where the two almost-lovers of In the Mood for Love found each other, Wong Kar-wai’s 2046 twists the strands of a writer’s life as he womanizes, gambles, and tries to move on. -
FilmeXistenZ
Aug 23—27, 2026
eXistenZ
Aug 23—27, 2026Jennifer Jason Leigh is a game designer targeted by assassins while playing a virtual-reality game she created in a fast-paced sci-fi action puzzler by body-horror maestro David Cronenberg. -
FilmOn the Silver Globe
Aug 23 & 24, 2026
On the Silver Globe
Aug 23 & 24, 2026After abandoning a dystopian Earth, dissident astronauts crash land on an earthlike planet and set out to establish a new human civilization, only to discover they carry the seeds of their own slow demise. -
FilmBorn in Flames
Aug 23—26, 2026
Born in Flames
Aug 23—26, 2026Lizzie Borden’s prescient postpunk provocation features a band of radicals—led by Black, lesbian, and working-class women—who lash out against a world where racism, sexism, and inequality are the norm. -
FilmTetsuo: The Iron Man
Aug 25 & 26, 2026
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Aug 25 & 26, 2026A “metal fetishist” driven mad by wounds he has created by driving metal into his flesh is killed and buried by a businessman, who soon begins to discover metal thorns and scabs erupting on his own body.
