Bay Area Film Society

BAFS will be screening the award winning documentary Sugarcane on Friday 11/8. This the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning.
In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada, sparking a national outcry and setting off searches across North America. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools is coming to light.
Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation, SUGARCANE illuminates the heartbreak and beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to survive.

The BAFS are kicking off the 2024-2025 Season with Thelma on Oct 18th, 5pm and 7:30pm at . Remember to check out our website (link in bio) for upcoming films, reviews, new merch and more!

For the entire month of June you can support local growers, eat healthy AND support your local Film Festival when you chip up at the Chequamegon Food Coop in Ashland, Wis.
The Big Water Film Festival is the co-op "chip up" partner in June, with all donations supporting the film festival. The 2025 festival will be held Jan. 17-18 at the historic Bay Theater, Ashland.

Congratulations to Jeff Opperman on winning our raffle basket at the year end party last night! Thank you for all the generous donations from , , , !

Final Clue: Given the director’s nationality, it’s a perfect film to end on!

Clue #2: Given the film’s title, maybe we should have played it earlier in our season….

First Clue: This film fits well with one of our major themes of the 2023-2024 BAFS season. *Look closely and you can see a little of the film’s poster being revealed!

There is still a chance to become a member of the Bay Area Film Society before our Season End Bash! Go to our website (link in bio) to become a member. Our Season End Member and Sponsor Private Party will take place on May 4th at from 5-7pm with free pizza and salad along with a cash bar and espresso drinks for purchase. The evening will conclude with a private FREE screening of a mystery movie at sponsored by A to Z plumbing. Clues for the film will drop next week, see if you can figure it out…

The W.A.T.E.R.S. club (Worldly Aware Teens Encouraging Resource Sustainability) at Ashland High School is screening the film "Kiss the Ground" in honor of Earth Day. Screening is on Friday, April 26th at 7:00 PM at Ashland High School auditorium. Trailer follows: https://youtu.be/K3-V1j-zMZw?si=ZbMzphmrn27asca6

Please join us for a screening of the film "Perfect Days" on Friday, April 12th at 5:00 and 7:30 PM. David Fear of Rolling Stone raves "‘Perfect Days’ features the best screen performance in recent memory. Wim Wenders’ Oscar-nominated story of a Japanese toilet cleaner going about his daily business doesn’t sound like much — until its star turns it into a less-is-more masterclass. Without Yakusho, it would still be the German filmmaker’s strongest narrative feature in 30 years... With him, this small, unassuming tale turns into the kind of earthshaking character study that reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place."

Winner of this year's Oscar for Best International Feature Film, please join us Friday, March 22nd for The Zone of Interest. "Hard to watch, but impossible to forget, this masterwork from Jonathan Glazer concerns a N**i family impervious to the genocide happening just over the wall at Auschwitz. It’s a wake-up call issued from the bowels of hell. We ignore it at our peril." - Peter Travers of ABC News. 5:00 and 7:30 PM screenings.

We love the Academy Awards! Fill out our attached ballot with your movie picks and you could be the Big Winner of a complimentary 1year BAFS membership along with 4 tickets to any upcoming screening, and some BAFS merch. Ballots can be dropped off @ the Bay Theater in Ashland during open hours or scanned & sent back to the BAFS e-mail. All ballots must be received no later than 2 pm on Sunday, March 10th.

bayareafilmsociety.org

Join us Friday, February 23rd for The Persian Version. Variety calls it the "Sundance-blessed dramatic comedy about the wide rift between an immigrant mother and her Iranian American daughter which braids comedy and tragedy, vibrant aplomb and thoughtful soberness."

Join us this Friday, February 2nd, for Hayao Miyazaki's "The Boy and the Heron". "This may be Miyazaki's most expansive and magisterial film. If it is not the most instantly stunning, that might be because he takes the time to deliver worlds within worlds, layers under layers, to create an overwhelming experience by the end. " - BBC.com. "No one needed further proof that he’s a master. This meditation on grief and growing up does solidify the position, however, that Miyazaki remains the greatest living animator today, period. " - Rollings Stone

16th ANNUAL BIG WATER FILM FESTIVAL Welcome to the 16th Big Water Film Festival, which will run as a live Festival on January 19-20, 2024, and as a virtual Festival from January 20 to February 18, 2024.

We are still showing Anatomy of a Fall at The Bay Theater this evening at 6:30. If you purchased tickets online and are unable to attend due to weather, please contact us via email no later then February 1, and we will honor your ticket at a future movie. 

The Big Water Film Festival is back , in person! January 19th - 20th!

This year’s Big Water Film Festival is in-person and online with 4 blocks of film starting on the evening of Friday, Jan. 19th and continues through Saturday, Jan 20th’s afternoon and evening. You can come to one block for $10 or purchase a ticket for all 4 blocks for $25. Please support this wonderful local event! You can find all the details at https://16thbigwaterfilmfestival.eventive.org/welcome

Straight off of their win at The Golden Globes, join us this Friday for one showing at 6:30 PM of Anatomy of a Fall at The Ashland Bay Theater. Hope to see you there!

Join us Friday, January 12th for one showing at 6:30 PM of "Anatomy of a Fall". Rolling Stone raves Anatomy of a Fall "Is the Year’s Most Gripping Murder Mystery" and " Is, simply put, one of the best movies about good marriages gone bad ever made".

Join us Friday, January 12th for one showing at 6:30 PM of "Anatomy of a Fall". Rolling Stone raves Anatomy of a Fall "Is the Year’s Most Gripping Murder Mystery" and " Is, simply put, one of the best movies about good marriages gone bad ever made".

Last minute gift needed? Holiday ticket package of 6 Bay Area Film Society movie tickets and a sticker for $40. Available through 12/29/23. Just email us at [email protected] if interested.

Join us next Friday, November 10th , for the film that Vanity Fair describes as "A nervy eco-thriller that doubles as a persuasive piece of activist messaging; Daniel Goldhaber’s film vibrates with urgency." David Fear of Rolling Stone raves "The way that filmmaker Daniel Goldhaber pulls off what feels like a tightly wound Hollywood potboiler on what we imagine is little more than a studio caterer’s budget is, in itself, a textbook how-to example." Hope to see you there! 5:00 & 7:30 PM.

Looking for some last minute movies to get you ready for Halloween? Look no further. Thanks to Vince Leplavy for "The Demonic Dozen". Twelve horror films to revisit , or view for the first time!

The Demonic Dozen - Bay Area Film Society Selections by Vince LePlavy Former BAFS volunteer and film aficionado Vince LePlavy selects twelve gruesome gems: “They say the hallmark of a truly great horror film is one that not […]