EDITH KRAMER Edith Kramer: a Leader of the Pacific Film Archive and Film Curation

Oral History Center University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California EDITH KRAMER Edith Kramer: A Leader of the Pacific Film Archive and Film Curation Interviews conducted by Kathy Geritz, Martin Meeker, and Garbiñe Ortega in 2014 Copyright © 2016 by The Regents of the University of California ii Since 1954 the Oral History Center of the Bancroft Library, formerly the Regional Oral History Office, has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Edith Kramer dated October 26, 2015 and with Garbiñe Ortega dated December 30, 2015. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Excerpts up to 1000 words from this interview may be quoted for publication without seeking permission as long as the use is non-commercial and properly cited. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to The Bancroft Library, Head of Public Services, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000, and should follow instructions available online at http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/collections/cite.html It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Edith Kramer, “Edith Kramer: A Leader of the Pacific Film Archive and Film Curation” conducted by Kathy Geritz, Martin Meeker, Garbiñe Ortega and in 2014, Oral History Center of the Bancroft Library, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2016. iii All of the former and current directors/senior film curators of PFA (except for Lynda Myles). From left to right: Susan Oxtoby, Sheldon Renan, Peter Selz (former director of BAM/PFA), Edith Kramer, Tom Luddy. Photo courtesy of Susan Oxtoby, 2015. iv Table of Contents—Edith Kramer Interview 1: January 16, 2014 1 Kramer’s early interest in her father’s home movies — A family of moviegoers — Graduate school in art history at Harvard — Pioneering a course in film at the University of Oregon in Eugene — Cultural change in the 1960s — A move to San Francisco — Enrollment in a photography course and in Robert Nelson’s filmmaking course at the San Francisco Art Institute — A successful accident in filmmaking — Working at the Canyon Cinema Cooperative — Starting a film series at the Co-op — Moving the series to the San Francisco Art Institute — Kramer takes a job at SFMOMA, curates film series there — Tom Luddy and Sheldon Renan invite Kramer to join staff of Pacific Film Archive as assistant curator — Teaching at UC Davis and UC Extension and elsewhere — Teaching film without film departments — A checkered path to curatorial role — Developing administrative and public service skills — Labor and management at BAM PFA — The influence of the discipline of art history — Job classifications at UC Berkeley — Film programs as stepchildren of art museums — Curating and programming film— Immersion in work — And perspective with time — Film publications and theory — Kramer receives the Jonathan Dennis Award at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival — A disaster with guest speaker at PFA — Kramer’s role as guide to films — Memory of Barney Rossett’s offer of a job at Grove Press — The lure of New York — “You have to be selective, and that’s part of storytelling” — “Education should always be creative” — Range of Kramer’s film programming at PFA — Challenge of retrospectives — Double bills and shorts — “Primal Screen” series — Inspiration and ideas — More about “Primal Screen”— The logistics of the BAM PFA theater — Research and programming — Luchino Visconti series — Yasujiro Ozu series Interview 2: January 23, 2014 34 Programming films — “I’m an armchair curator” — Surveying new films, talking to colleagues — The glut of new work — DOX, the Village Voice, Variety — Partnerships — Program notes — Gatekeeping — Local, national, and international film audiences — Planning festivals and year-long programming — Building an audience — The films of Hayao Miyazaki — Ethnic communities and film — BAM museumgoers — Ever-changing audience at a university — Pordenone Film Festival — Film canons around the globe — “Film 50” series — Teaching — Audiences for theme-based or auteur-based series — Series based on current events or politics — The popularity of Satyajit Ray — Genre in American film — Noir, comedies, Westerns — Introductions at film screenings — Writing the program — Kramer’s thoughts about being a public figure — The bureaucracy of the university — The appeal of the small — Nancy Goldman’s CineFiles project at PFA library — Kramer’s years at PFA — Job titles — BAM Director Jackie Baas v Interview 3: March 13, 2014 64 Influence of Henry Geldzahler and other colleagues from the Harvard Art History Department — The Brattle Theater — Kramer’s early interest in films and her access to cinema — MoMA — Creating a new profession: film programming and curation — Canyon Cinema members’ refusal to apply for (or be limited by the conditions of) grants — Choosing themes for programming — Politics and access to films — Animation — Filmmakers at screenings of their films — Archival access — “Theater Near You” series — Annual SF noir film festival — Film programming now — Kramer’s work with experimental film — Amos Vogel — Individual filmmakers and constraints on Kramer’s programming — Titling series — Typical week at PFA — Keeping abreast, finding prints, investigating film rights, budgeting, making phone calls, communications among PFA staff — Radical shift: foregrounding curator’s thinking about programming — Midnight screenings, double bills — Office work and homework — Funny stories — Kramer’s communities — “Good phone” — Relationships with distributors, shippers, people in all positions — Kramer’s growing reputation — One-on-one communication vs. meetings — Problems with hierarchical structure at PFA — Kramer’s more holistic approach to work — Cultivating donors Interview 4: March 27, 2014 97 More about typical work week — Harrowing incidents, funny stories — Changes in BAM PFA’s theatrical vs. non-theatrical status — Film rental fees — Collecting Eastern European and Soviet films during the Cold War — 16mm and 35mm films — Kramer’s relationships with artists — Travel — Grants — Print quality and film projection — Technological changes and new equipment — The PFA screening booth — Matinees and evening screenings — “Film 50” — Educational outreach — The Consortium for the Arts — Linda Artel and children’s film programming at PFA — Premieres — PFA’s relationship with San Francisco International Film Festival — And with the Asian American Film Festival — Kramer’s selectivity — Festivals — Paying artists and distributors — University restrictions on sponsorship — Blockbuster screenings (Robert Frank, Toshiro Mifune) — Guest introducers — Screenings in Wheeler — Post- screening Q and A — Mainstream theaters — Film criticism: form vs. content — Generational change in audiences and film trends — Skype, Facebook, social media and new platforms for viewing films — Seeing films without interruption in communal settings — William K. Everson and his collection — Reflections on highs and lows of a career, and on the rewards of a job well done Interview 5: April 24, 2014 136 In-depth discussion of film series — Programming for the Berkeley Art Museum space — “Primal Screen” series: Kramer’s aesthetics and objectives — Shaping an audiences reaction to films — Program notes and series’ introductions — Kramer’s “thing about movies” — Quoting Andrew Sarris and Roland Barthes — Erwin Panofsky and Ernst Gombrich — PFA colleague Judy Bloch — “Curating vi is a process of learning in public” — Dennis Jakob’s outburst — Kramer’s lectures at Eastman House — The Ozu film series at PFA — Film programming: like planning a menu — Creating a “film family” — Getting to know your audience Interview 6: September 25, 2014 160 Different theaters, different audiences — Audiences at the PFA — Cross-over with BAM members — Canyon Cinema’s audience — Promise of change in the 1960s — Robert Johnson’s Rolling Renaissance — Kramer’s thoughts on Berkeley and San Francisco audiences — SFMOMA’s audience and after-show get-togethers — PFA regulars: Mrs. Carlton — Kramer’s experiences as a young “consumer” of films — Harvard —Film programming and experiences at the Brattle Theater — Film as an art form — The discipline of art history and Kramer’s approach to film

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