Blog

  • yes you can rent ATA and you should definitely do so

    yes you can rent ATA and you should definitely do so

    One of San Francisco’s best-kept secrets no more is that ATA’s screening room is available for rentals. Long the connect for experimental film and media makers, intermedia art collectives, cohorts of students and their beloved faculty from USF, SFSU, and City College, and the go-to for independent film festivals needing a small room with a large punk house reputation, ATA is formally announcing its rental program after 40 years of word of mouth.

    The program is proud to continue support for community-based arts and culture collectives, neighborhood groups, and low-income individual artists and cultural practitioners($150 per show!) and introduces nonprofit / education rates are for 501(c)3 organizations and educational institutions, film production rates for media creator and producer use of ATA for location shooting and screening, and private event rates are for individual and groups to host events in ATA’s space.

    Read about rental fees and how to book here, and start booking your screenings, readings, lectures, workshops, film shoots, and private gatherings at ATA.

    The previous sentence does not mention bangers, another cop-calling tradition at ATA. ¡viva bangers! Out of love for our neighbors ATA no longer books live music and DJ shows. Live music with your film? Welcome in.

    image from Jeremy Rourke’s I’ll Be Around, the experimental animated documentary about ATA.

  • 48 Hills Gives ATA the Pick!

    48 Hills Gives ATA the Pick!

    We learned that 48 Hills is carrying on the beloved tradition of asking its editors where the good is in the Bay. Come to find out: it’s ATA. ¡viva!

    Check out what Charles Lewis III has to say about us here, and please comment, like, and subscribe.

    We feel seen!

    48 Hills is asking for your opinions about the things. Jump here to let them know how you feel.

    [ Image of Andrew Wirth working on the ATA Window Gallery in September 2025 ]

  • atasite.org down but not out

    atasite.org down but not out

    Starting August 6, 2026 atasite.org began to fail miserably. What we thought would be a quick fix has turned into an archive project, with our key messages about us, our programs, and how to engage and support slowly coming back online while we learn about who we were in 2009, 2014, 2020, and yes, February 4, 2026. It seemed like we were restoring website navigation but indeed we were reviewing, kind of at 3 in the morning, the evolution of ATA programs from its 1986 origins as hands-on place to claim commercial media tools for non-commercial, and often subversive, purposes to it’s place today as a hub for culturally-aware, underground media and experimental art, and a supportive community for the exchange of non-conformist ideas

    While the website spins back up, we continue to provide an accessible screening venue and gallery for the presentation of programmed and guest-curated screenings, exhibitions, performances, workshops and events.

    To all of you who reached out to us to let us know we were throwing website errors, thank you. It’s good to know in a world of platform messaging that this site still serves an important purpose for our collective day-to-day.