Effecting Repair:
A Canyon Cinema Report on the “Rediscovery” of Toney W. Merritt
by Brett Kashmere (Fall 2022)
A Canyon Cinema Report on the “Rediscovery” of Toney W. Merritt
by Brett Kashmere (Fall 2022)
SELECTED SOLO AND GROUP SHOWS
November 2025 - Chicago Film Society - Music Box Theater
“LONESOME COWBOY”
“LONESOME COWBOY”
October 2025 - SFMOMA, San Francisco
SFAI: PEOPLE MAKE THIS PLACE
“BY THE SEA”
SFAI: PEOPLE MAKE THIS PLACE
“BY THE SEA”
October 2025 - Anthology Film Archives - NY,NY
VISIONS OF UNEARTHLY SPLENDOR - This program showcases a selection of otherworldly, enchanting, and psychedelic California Film and Video works, (in the early 1970’s). Curated by Jordan Stein
“LONESOME COWBOY”
VISIONS OF UNEARTHLY SPLENDOR - This program showcases a selection of otherworldly, enchanting, and psychedelic California Film and Video works, (in the early 1970’s). Curated by Jordan Stein
“LONESOME COWBOY”
September 2025 - Roxie Cinema, San Francisco
Studio 8 Film Festival - SFAI Alumni Films - Curator
“APART/A PART”
Studio 8 Film Festival - SFAI Alumni Films - Curator
“APART/A PART”
September 2025 - Other Cinema at ATA
KINO CRITTERS - KORNELIA BOCZKOWSKA’S -THE ANIMAL SHOW
“FRAGMENT #21: THE BIRDS AND THE BEASTS” (World Premiere)
Curated by Kornelia Boczkowska -Another installment of Toney Merritt’s Fragment Series, “THE BIRDS AND THE BEASTS is a hypnotizing meditation on nature and sounds that combines time lapse footage of the bird feeder with the trail camera footage of the mountain lion shot in real time. Set to a self-composed piece drawn from Merritt’s sound library, THE BIRDS AND THE BEASTS unique rhythm and two-part structure captures what it means to live in the wilderness through juxtaposing the power and majesty of the cougar with the spirit and freedom of the birds. A fragment of the seemingly mundane reality, the birds and the mountain lion turn into something more meaningful: a reflection on multi-species relations and our peaceful co-existence with animals.-KORNELIA BOCZKOWSKA-FILM SCHOLAR
KINO CRITTERS - KORNELIA BOCZKOWSKA’S -THE ANIMAL SHOW
“FRAGMENT #21: THE BIRDS AND THE BEASTS” (World Premiere)
Curated by Kornelia Boczkowska -Another installment of Toney Merritt’s Fragment Series, “THE BIRDS AND THE BEASTS is a hypnotizing meditation on nature and sounds that combines time lapse footage of the bird feeder with the trail camera footage of the mountain lion shot in real time. Set to a self-composed piece drawn from Merritt’s sound library, THE BIRDS AND THE BEASTS unique rhythm and two-part structure captures what it means to live in the wilderness through juxtaposing the power and majesty of the cougar with the spirit and freedom of the birds. A fragment of the seemingly mundane reality, the birds and the mountain lion turn into something more meaningful: a reflection on multi-species relations and our peaceful co-existence with animals.-KORNELIA BOCZKOWSKA-FILM SCHOLAR
August 2025 - The Beat Museum, San Francisco
Experimental Film Screening curated by Dominic Angerame
“ASIAM”
Experimental Film Screening curated by Dominic Angerame
“ASIAM”
April 2025 - 20th Experiments In Cinema Film Festival
Albuquerque, NM
"A PART/APART"
Albuquerque, NM
"A PART/APART"
December 2024 - University of Wisconsin, Madison Cinema
Lonesome cowboy
Curated by The Association of Moving Image Archivist, Archival Screening Night.
Lonesome cowboy
Curated by The Association of Moving Image Archivist, Archival Screening Night.
September 2024 - Other Cinema at ATA
EARTH AIR FIRE, WATER - KORNELIA’S INTERAKTIVE ECO-KINO “APART - A PART” (World Premiere)
Curated by Kornelia Boczkowska
“The title itself contains a Buddhist-like koan. Fascinating how breaking ‘apart’ the word brings us into coherence as ‘a part’ of nature. A linguistic mystery visualized, eyes wide open. This must be the footage from the Amazon(?) you mentioned some months ago that you recalibrated to provide a POV experience of merging with the rowboat paddling through the jungle grasses, bringing us into kinship with the riverway. I loved seeing the wildlife cam footage of the bear and the mountain lion...your stewardship of the land merging with the travel footage. And the fire sequence resembled a flaming flower!” (Kathleen Sweeney - EcoArtivist)
EARTH AIR FIRE, WATER - KORNELIA’S INTERAKTIVE ECO-KINO “APART - A PART” (World Premiere)
Curated by Kornelia Boczkowska
“The title itself contains a Buddhist-like koan. Fascinating how breaking ‘apart’ the word brings us into coherence as ‘a part’ of nature. A linguistic mystery visualized, eyes wide open. This must be the footage from the Amazon(?) you mentioned some months ago that you recalibrated to provide a POV experience of merging with the rowboat paddling through the jungle grasses, bringing us into kinship with the riverway. I loved seeing the wildlife cam footage of the bear and the mountain lion...your stewardship of the land merging with the travel footage. And the fire sequence resembled a flaming flower!” (Kathleen Sweeney - EcoArtivist)
May 2024 - Toney W. Merritt - As I Am
The Roxie Theater, San Francisco
Screening line-up: A Fire’s Poem (2022), A Kiss of Death (1974), By the Sea (1982), Conquest Piece (1982), Lonesome Cowboy (1979), Not a Music Video (1987), Asiam (1982), Masked Incident (1979), The Shadow Line (1985), Welcome to the House of Raven (1997), EF (1979)
Special thanks to Brett Kashmere for helping make shows like this possible through his article in JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies entitled: Effecting Repair: A Canyon Cinema Report on the “Rediscovery” of Toney W. Merritt
The Roxie Theater, San Francisco
Screening line-up: A Fire’s Poem (2022), A Kiss of Death (1974), By the Sea (1982), Conquest Piece (1982), Lonesome Cowboy (1979), Not a Music Video (1987), Asiam (1982), Masked Incident (1979), The Shadow Line (1985), Welcome to the House of Raven (1997), EF (1979)
Special thanks to Brett Kashmere for helping make shows like this possible through his article in JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies entitled: Effecting Repair: A Canyon Cinema Report on the “Rediscovery” of Toney W. Merritt
March 2024 - 62nd Ann Arbor Film Festival
Ann Arbor Michigan
Special Program - An Animal is Not a Metaphor
“Turkey Vultures”
Curated by Kornelia Boczkowska
March 2024 - Canyon Cinema Discovered
Playing in the Dark: Watery Experiments-Hammer Theater-San Jose
“By The Sea”
Curated by Chrystel Oloukoi for Canyon Cinema Discovered
October 2023 - Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Canyon Cinema: Contemporary Bay Area Film
San Francisco, CA
"A Fire's Poem" (2020)
"Fire is a living entity that requires—no demands—respect. Trail camera footage of the 2020 Walbridge Fire on the ridge above our home." (Toney W Merritt)
September 2023 - San Francisco Cinematheque Crossroads Film Festival - Program 8
Gray Area - San Francisco, CA
"A Fire's Poem" (2020)
"Fire is a living entity that requires—no demands—respect. Trail camera footage of the 2020 Walbridge Fire on the ridge above our home." (Toney W Merritt) world premiere
August 2023 - San Francisco Plays Itself
UCLA - Billy Wilder Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
"Fine French Phrases and Other Fables"- U.S., 1976
"Playing with doubles, looking at the Transamerica Pyramid, and a sense of humor. Toney Merritt’s film is an amusing piece of looking and language."
November 2022 - Camera Obscura Eighth Annual Report - Hotel Petaluma- Petaluma, CA
"The Shadow Line"
October 2022 - Canyon Cinema Discovered-Insurgent Articulations-Roxie Theater-SF
"B.L.M."
"The brief yet powerful B.L.M. (Toney W. Merritt, 2020) focuses on the occupation of the putatively public sphere by police while simultaneously constructing a new platform of resistance." - Curated by Ekin Pinar for Canyon Cinema Discovered
October 2022 - Canyon Cinema Discovered-Trajectories of Self-Determination: Experimental Cinema's Embrace of Jazz-Roxie Theater-SF
"Not A Music Video"
"In Not a Music Video (1987), whose title sends up the then fledging genre being popularized on MTV, Merritt presents a charmingly intimate portrait of tenor saxophonist Glenn Spearman, a powerful player in the Northern California avant-garde jazz community. With the informal energy of a home movie, this film humbly presents a genial study of a musician at work and play. It begins and ends with shots of the filmmaker's smiling collaborators holding clapboards for the camera and laughingly scatting jazz phrases. Between these sync-sound bookends of loose interaction is the centerpiece of the work, a commanding solo performance by Spearman, filmed by an expressive camera that responds understandingly to the dynamic shifts in the tenor saxophonist's lines. The playing incarnates a virtuosic display of post-Coltrane lyricism that leaps from written melodies to a controlled guttural roar evoking the fiery howl of Frank Wright, the saxophonist's mentor and link to the first generation of free jazz players. Along with Michael Snow and Phil Niblock, Merritt was one of only a handful of avant-garde filmmakers who turned their cameras towards the core performers of what Archie Shepp called "Fire Music." - Curated by Juan Carlos Kase for Canyon Cinema Discovered
October 2022 - Canyon Cinema Discovered-Playing in the Dark: Watery Experiments-Roxie Theater-SF
"By The Sea".
Toney Merritt's By the Sea (1982) offers a "portrait of sorts" of the San Francisco Bay, filmed by the Bay Area artist from his apartment. Filled with enigmatic humor, the film reports on a ship lost in the wild Atlantic Ocean. Yet, a massive, slow moving vessel occupies the frame, so large that it even exceeds it in length, never fully captured by it."- Curated by Chrystel Oloukoi for Canyon Cinema Discovered.
2022 An Evening with Christopher Harris at MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York City
“Masked Incident”
2022 This Gradient World: Disarticulations: Dances, Sketches and Gestures, Film Studies Center, The University of Chicago
“Lonesome Cowboy”, “Three Masked Pieces”, “EF”
2021 Thousand Suns Cinema, Media City Film Festival, Ontario, Canada
“Revolution”, “EF”
2021 Grass Hopper film-projectr.edu
Streaming: “EF”, “ASIAM”, “Masked Incident”, “The Shadow Line”, “Not A Music Video”, “Welcome to the House of Raven”, “A Dreadful Day”
2021 An Evening with Toney Merritt at the Light Box Film Center, Philadelphia, PA
“Game”, “A Kiss of Death”, “Lonesome Cowboy”, “EF”, “Notes”, “Masked Incident”, “Revolution”, “ASIAM”, “The Shadow Line”, “Not A Music Video”, "Welcome to the House of Raven”, “A Dreadful Day”, “B.L.M.”
2017 Hippie Modernism: Cinema & Counter Culture 1964-1974, BAM Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA
“What’s This”
2016 Canyon Cinema Salon with Toney W. Merritt, New Nothing Cinema, San Francisco, CA
2012 We Like ‘Em Short Festival, Eltrym Theater, Baker City, Oregon
“Calling Down The Shaman”
2011 Radical Light/Alternative Film/Video in SF Bay Area 1945- 2000, ATA/PFA, San Francisco/Berkeley, CA
“By The Sea”
2001 Film Arts Foundation Silver Anniversary Show, Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, S.F., CA
“Lonesome Cowboy”
2000 Rooftop Screening at S.F.A.I., San Francisco Cinematheque, S.F., CA
“Welcome to the House of Raven”
1999 Sonoma Sampler Film Cafe - Sonoma County Museum of Visual Arts, Santa Rosa, CA - Curator
“Sarah From Roberts", "Welcome to the House of Raven”
1995 Facing Eden: 100 Years of Landscape Art in the Bay Area
De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Film Program curated by Steve Anker/San Francisco Cinematheque
“BY THE SEA”
1994 Odun de, Odun de, San Francisco Cinematheque
“Asiam”
September 1992 - BAMPFA, Berkeley, California
WHEN THE BODY SPEAKS: FIGHTING WORDS - Curated by Lynn Sachs
“CONQUEST PIECE”
“The woman in Toney Merritt’s CONQUEST PIECE (1981-82, 530 TRT) is also trying to speak. Earnest in her efforts, she discovers her biggest obstacle is the film itself.” - LYNN SACHS
1992 Selected Works: Black Visions at the Center Arts, Humboldt State University Arcata, CA
October 1988 San Francisco Cinematheque, SF, CA
Laura Dunphy/Toney Merritt
Cinematheque welcomes back Bay Area filmmaker Toney Merritt with three recent films and videotapes. Merritt has been active in San Francisco on many fronts: as artist, teacher, and curator.
“I believe that personal film is equivalent to strangers exchanging ‘snap shots’ with one another. While it may already be apparent that they come from different backgrounds,vthey soon realize how much they really have in common with one another. So it is with personal film, and I stress personal as opposed to experimental: as I, for one, am not experimenting with anything. What you see is what you get.”—T.M
1986 Selected Works, San Francisco Cinematheque, San Francisco, CA
Independent Cinema Series - Black Filmmaker’s Hall of Fame: Retrospective of Work: Oakland, CA
Film Arts Foundation Festival - Roxie Theatre, S.F., CA
“The Shadow Line”
1983 21st Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan
“Conquest Piece” - Prize winner/tour
Emergency Filmmaker’s Show, Roxie Theatre, San Francisco, CA
Black Experiments in Film - Curator for San Francisco Cinematheque, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Filmmakers at Chicago Filmmakers, Chicago, IL
Canyon Co-op Show at the Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA
1981 The Paris Cinematheque, Paris, France
“EF”, “Lonesome Cowboy”, “Conquest Piece”
London Co-op, London, England
“EF”, “Lonesome Cowboy”, “Conquest Piece”
Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY
“Lonesome Cowboy”
Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA
“By The Sea”
Alumni Show: San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Ethnic Arts Festival, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1980 Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan
1980 St. Carmen’s Choice, LA Independent Film, (OASIS): Los Angeles, CA
"Lonesome Cowboy" & Other Films by Toney Merritt, (one-person show), The San Francisco Cinematheque, San Francisco, CA
1980 Selections from The Cinematheque, Rocky Mountain Center, Boulder, CO
1979 Frontal Exposure - KQED 32, San Francisco, CA
Group Show, The San Francisco Cinematheque - San Francisco, CA
New San Francisco Filmmakers, The S.F. Cinematheque, S.F., CA
1978 New San Francisco Filmmakers, The S.F. Cinematheque, S.F., CA
1975 Ultra Films, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
“A Kiss of Death”
1975 Ann Arbor International Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan
“A Kiss of Death”
Ann Arbor Michigan
Special Program - An Animal is Not a Metaphor
“Turkey Vultures”
Curated by Kornelia Boczkowska
March 2024 - Canyon Cinema Discovered
Playing in the Dark: Watery Experiments-Hammer Theater-San Jose
“By The Sea”
Curated by Chrystel Oloukoi for Canyon Cinema Discovered
October 2023 - Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Canyon Cinema: Contemporary Bay Area Film
San Francisco, CA
"A Fire's Poem" (2020)
"Fire is a living entity that requires—no demands—respect. Trail camera footage of the 2020 Walbridge Fire on the ridge above our home." (Toney W Merritt)
September 2023 - San Francisco Cinematheque Crossroads Film Festival - Program 8
Gray Area - San Francisco, CA
"A Fire's Poem" (2020)
"Fire is a living entity that requires—no demands—respect. Trail camera footage of the 2020 Walbridge Fire on the ridge above our home." (Toney W Merritt) world premiere
August 2023 - San Francisco Plays Itself
UCLA - Billy Wilder Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
"Fine French Phrases and Other Fables"- U.S., 1976
"Playing with doubles, looking at the Transamerica Pyramid, and a sense of humor. Toney Merritt’s film is an amusing piece of looking and language."
November 2022 - Camera Obscura Eighth Annual Report - Hotel Petaluma- Petaluma, CA
"The Shadow Line"
October 2022 - Canyon Cinema Discovered-Insurgent Articulations-Roxie Theater-SF
"B.L.M."
"The brief yet powerful B.L.M. (Toney W. Merritt, 2020) focuses on the occupation of the putatively public sphere by police while simultaneously constructing a new platform of resistance." - Curated by Ekin Pinar for Canyon Cinema Discovered
October 2022 - Canyon Cinema Discovered-Trajectories of Self-Determination: Experimental Cinema's Embrace of Jazz-Roxie Theater-SF
"Not A Music Video"
"In Not a Music Video (1987), whose title sends up the then fledging genre being popularized on MTV, Merritt presents a charmingly intimate portrait of tenor saxophonist Glenn Spearman, a powerful player in the Northern California avant-garde jazz community. With the informal energy of a home movie, this film humbly presents a genial study of a musician at work and play. It begins and ends with shots of the filmmaker's smiling collaborators holding clapboards for the camera and laughingly scatting jazz phrases. Between these sync-sound bookends of loose interaction is the centerpiece of the work, a commanding solo performance by Spearman, filmed by an expressive camera that responds understandingly to the dynamic shifts in the tenor saxophonist's lines. The playing incarnates a virtuosic display of post-Coltrane lyricism that leaps from written melodies to a controlled guttural roar evoking the fiery howl of Frank Wright, the saxophonist's mentor and link to the first generation of free jazz players. Along with Michael Snow and Phil Niblock, Merritt was one of only a handful of avant-garde filmmakers who turned their cameras towards the core performers of what Archie Shepp called "Fire Music." - Curated by Juan Carlos Kase for Canyon Cinema Discovered
October 2022 - Canyon Cinema Discovered-Playing in the Dark: Watery Experiments-Roxie Theater-SF
"By The Sea".
Toney Merritt's By the Sea (1982) offers a "portrait of sorts" of the San Francisco Bay, filmed by the Bay Area artist from his apartment. Filled with enigmatic humor, the film reports on a ship lost in the wild Atlantic Ocean. Yet, a massive, slow moving vessel occupies the frame, so large that it even exceeds it in length, never fully captured by it."- Curated by Chrystel Oloukoi for Canyon Cinema Discovered.
2022 An Evening with Christopher Harris at MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York City
“Masked Incident”
2022 This Gradient World: Disarticulations: Dances, Sketches and Gestures, Film Studies Center, The University of Chicago
“Lonesome Cowboy”, “Three Masked Pieces”, “EF”
2021 Thousand Suns Cinema, Media City Film Festival, Ontario, Canada
“Revolution”, “EF”
2021 Grass Hopper film-projectr.edu
Streaming: “EF”, “ASIAM”, “Masked Incident”, “The Shadow Line”, “Not A Music Video”, “Welcome to the House of Raven”, “A Dreadful Day”
2021 An Evening with Toney Merritt at the Light Box Film Center, Philadelphia, PA
“Game”, “A Kiss of Death”, “Lonesome Cowboy”, “EF”, “Notes”, “Masked Incident”, “Revolution”, “ASIAM”, “The Shadow Line”, “Not A Music Video”, "Welcome to the House of Raven”, “A Dreadful Day”, “B.L.M.”
2017 Hippie Modernism: Cinema & Counter Culture 1964-1974, BAM Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA
“What’s This”
2016 Canyon Cinema Salon with Toney W. Merritt, New Nothing Cinema, San Francisco, CA
2012 We Like ‘Em Short Festival, Eltrym Theater, Baker City, Oregon
“Calling Down The Shaman”
2011 Radical Light/Alternative Film/Video in SF Bay Area 1945- 2000, ATA/PFA, San Francisco/Berkeley, CA
“By The Sea”
2001 Film Arts Foundation Silver Anniversary Show, Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, S.F., CA
“Lonesome Cowboy”
2000 Rooftop Screening at S.F.A.I., San Francisco Cinematheque, S.F., CA
“Welcome to the House of Raven”
1999 Sonoma Sampler Film Cafe - Sonoma County Museum of Visual Arts, Santa Rosa, CA - Curator
“Sarah From Roberts", "Welcome to the House of Raven”
1995 Facing Eden: 100 Years of Landscape Art in the Bay Area
De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Film Program curated by Steve Anker/San Francisco Cinematheque
“BY THE SEA”
1994 Odun de, Odun de, San Francisco Cinematheque
“Asiam”
September 1992 - BAMPFA, Berkeley, California
WHEN THE BODY SPEAKS: FIGHTING WORDS - Curated by Lynn Sachs
“CONQUEST PIECE”
“The woman in Toney Merritt’s CONQUEST PIECE (1981-82, 530 TRT) is also trying to speak. Earnest in her efforts, she discovers her biggest obstacle is the film itself.” - LYNN SACHS
1992 Selected Works: Black Visions at the Center Arts, Humboldt State University Arcata, CA
October 1988 San Francisco Cinematheque, SF, CA
Laura Dunphy/Toney Merritt
Cinematheque welcomes back Bay Area filmmaker Toney Merritt with three recent films and videotapes. Merritt has been active in San Francisco on many fronts: as artist, teacher, and curator.
“I believe that personal film is equivalent to strangers exchanging ‘snap shots’ with one another. While it may already be apparent that they come from different backgrounds,vthey soon realize how much they really have in common with one another. So it is with personal film, and I stress personal as opposed to experimental: as I, for one, am not experimenting with anything. What you see is what you get.”—T.M
1986 Selected Works, San Francisco Cinematheque, San Francisco, CA
Independent Cinema Series - Black Filmmaker’s Hall of Fame: Retrospective of Work: Oakland, CA
Film Arts Foundation Festival - Roxie Theatre, S.F., CA
“The Shadow Line”
1983 21st Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan
“Conquest Piece” - Prize winner/tour
Emergency Filmmaker’s Show, Roxie Theatre, San Francisco, CA
Black Experiments in Film - Curator for San Francisco Cinematheque, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Filmmakers at Chicago Filmmakers, Chicago, IL
Canyon Co-op Show at the Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA
1981 The Paris Cinematheque, Paris, France
“EF”, “Lonesome Cowboy”, “Conquest Piece”
London Co-op, London, England
“EF”, “Lonesome Cowboy”, “Conquest Piece”
Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY
“Lonesome Cowboy”
Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA
“By The Sea”
Alumni Show: San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Ethnic Arts Festival, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1980 Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan
1980 St. Carmen’s Choice, LA Independent Film, (OASIS): Los Angeles, CA
"Lonesome Cowboy" & Other Films by Toney Merritt, (one-person show), The San Francisco Cinematheque, San Francisco, CA
1980 Selections from The Cinematheque, Rocky Mountain Center, Boulder, CO
1979 Frontal Exposure - KQED 32, San Francisco, CA
Group Show, The San Francisco Cinematheque - San Francisco, CA
New San Francisco Filmmakers, The S.F. Cinematheque, S.F., CA
1978 New San Francisco Filmmakers, The S.F. Cinematheque, S.F., CA
1975 Ultra Films, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
“A Kiss of Death”
1975 Ann Arbor International Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan
“A Kiss of Death”