Mission and History

Mission

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A collectively run, non-profit organization based in Portland, Oregon, Cinema Project works to promote public awareness of avant-garde cinema from the past and present. Featuring artists, curators, and scholars from around the world, our semi-annual series of screenings, lectures, and discussions function to broaden public engagement with, and deepen critical understanding of, innovative experimental film and video art.

Organizational History

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A volunteer-run organization, Cinema Project has organized and presented more than 100 unique programs since it was founded, in 2003, by film enthusiasts Jeremy Rossen, Pablo de Ocampo, and Autumn Campbell. Collective members today include Heather Lane, Mia Ferm, Michael McManus, and Melinda Kowalska.

Cinema Project has hosted internationally recognized filmmakers such as Walid Ra’ad, Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Sharon Lockhart, Peter Kubelka, Naomi Uman, Saul Levine, Ernie Gehr, and Rose Lowder. It has presented large-scale retrospectives of artists including Yoko Ono, Chantal Akerman, Peggy Ahwesh, Bruce Conner, and Joseph Cornell. In 2008, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts awarded Cinema Project a three-year grant in support of its visiting artist and curator program. In 2009, Cinema Project partnered with the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar to sponsor regional fellowships, which allowed collective and board members to attend the seminar. Cinema Project has also partnered with national and international film institutions including Images Festival in Toronto, the Northwest Film Center, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), Peripheral Produce, San Francisco Cinematheque, Canyon Cinema, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, Anthology Film Archives, and Academy Film Archive. Locally, Cinema Project curates programs on an annual basis for the Portland International Film Festival and PICA’s Time-Based Arts Festival.