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The Do List

Fraenkel Gallery Celebrates 45 Years with a Film Festival

Sarah Hotchkiss
The San Francisco gallery, known for its photography shows, presents artist-selected films at the Roxie.
Blue-lit close-up of person's face
A still from Masaki Kobayashi's 'Kwaidan,' 1964, selected by Hiroshi Sugimoto. (Janus Films)

To Jeffrey Fraenkel, founder of San Francisco’s Fraenkel Gallery, celebrating their 45th anniversary with a film festival is equal parts no-brainer and “why not?”

“I asked the entire staff to think outside of the box, since we don’t want to repeat ourselves, and we definitely wanted to do something new and fresh,” he says. Previous milestones have been marked by thematic exhibitions, hefty publications and in-gallery picnics.

The Fraenkel Film Festival is not coming completely out of left field. Film is a form of photography, Fraenkel emphasizes, a collection of thousands of still images that come together as motion in the viewer’s mind.

So the gallery put out the call to 10 of their artists: What films would you like to share with others? The resulting 11-day festival, proceeds of which will benefit the Roxie, is an eclectic assortment of classics and arthouse flicks, spanning 1943’s Casablanca to 2016’s Moonlight. Part of the fun in the assortment is seeing which two films each artist chose.

Carrie Mae Weems, whose poetic, expansive photographic work often addresses her own family history, selected Moonlight, Barry Jenkins’ quiet film depicting three moments in the life of a Black boy/teen/man. She also picked Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries, the story of an older man facing his past decisions, present relationships and impending death while making a long car ride from Stockholm to Lund.

Man with back to camera looks at woman standing in living room
Still from Michaelangelo Antonioni’s ‘Blow-Up’ (1966), selected by Christian Marclay. (Warner Bros. Pictures)

“Each artist’s choice is such an interesting reflection of who they are,” Fraenkel says. The other nine festival “programmers” are Kota Ezawa, Christian Marclay, Lee Friedlander, Robert Adams, Sophie Calle, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Nan Goldin, Martine Gutierrez and Richard Misrach.

Each night of the festival is given over to a particular artist, with their films showing back to back — perfect for a double feature. Many will be shown in 35mm, including Wild Strawberries, The Straight Story, Casablanca, Kwaidan, Paths of Glory and The Truman Show. The closing film, The Right Stuff, will begin with a conversation between writer-director Philip Kaufman, now 87, and photographer Richard Misrach.

For Fraenkel, organizing a film festival is more than a fun experiment in format. It’s aboout the fundamental importance of viewing art in person, together.

“While we can all watch movies at home whenever we like,” he says, “nothing compares to watching a film in a real theater and sharing that experience with others.” It is, he says, “a profound psychological experience.”

Group of people laugh, hug and dance, some blurred in motion
Still from Lars von Trier’s ‘The Idiots’ (1998), selected by Sophie Calle. (MUBI)

While the gallery’s artists were given free rein in their selections, Fraenkel did add one of his own favorites to the mix: Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2000 adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey, O Brother Where Art Thou?

“Out of the 20 films that were chosen, no one selected either a Coen brothers film or a John Waters film. That was a surprise to me,” Fraenkel says. The gallery has a relationship with both directors. Joel Cohen curated an exhibition of Lee Friedlander’s photographs for the gallery last year; Waters’ own work has been shown at the gallery, and he curated a group show for a Fraenkel project space in 2016.

“So I took the prerogative here of adding an opening night,” he says. “I think it is one of their great and underseen movies.”

The single addition is a minimal intrusion into the festival’s conceptual framework, representative of Fraenkel’s ego-less approach to running the gallery for the past 45 years. And even in this celebratory moment, the festival proceeds will be funneled towards another deserving cause.

“Does anyone not love the Roxie?” Fraenkel asks. “It’s been there for only 110 years, so it’s a little bit ahead of Fraenkel Gallery, but it has just this beautiful DNA that one can feel the moment one walks in.”

The Fraenkel Film Festival takes place July 9–20, 2024 at the Roxie Theater (3125 16th St., San Francisco). Tickets are $16 per film, $72 for a six-film pass or $200 for an all-films pass. Click here for tickets and more information.

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