Andy Warhol Exposed: Newly Processed Films from the 1960s

Be among only the second audience ever to experience newly debuted films Andy Warhol created in the 1960s, which just made their first premiere earlier this year.

Co-presented by San Francisco Cinematheque

In 2024, Katie Trainor, the Museum of Modern Art’s film collections manager, and Greg Pierce, the Andy Warhol Museum’s then-director of film and video, worked together to process more than 80 one-hundred-foot rolls of unprocessed black-and-white and color film left untouched by Warhol and his associates from the early days of Andy Warhol’s Factory filmmaking.

Some 60 years after the rolls were exposed to light, what was uncovered was beautifully grainy raw footage from material shot for Sleep, Kiss, Batman Dracula, and Couch, as well as five unseen screen test portraits featuring Factory regulars like Naomi Levine and the lately lamented Sally Kirkland, along with others we invite the audience to help identify. The footage also captures Warhol’s wanderings throughout the Frank Stella opening at the Leo Castelli Gallery on January 4, 1964, as well as explicit material shot on the Factory couch and in the Factory stairwell. And as an added bonus, five film rolls shot by Factory cinematographer Danny Williams showcasing Gerard Malanga, Paul Morrissey, Edie Sedgwick, the Velvet Underground, and Andy Warhol will also be seen for the second time.

Katie Trainor and Greg Pierce will introduce the screening and share more about the process of bringing this work to light — from the rolls not included in the screening to how the rolls reaffirm what we know and new understandings of Warhol’s filmmaking.

Please note: This screening contains explicit material.

Program length: approximately 71 minutes. Silent.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility accommodations such as American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and assisted listening devices are available upon request ten business days in advance.

Please email publicengagement@sfmoma.org, and we will do our best to fulfill your request.
 

Meaningful support provided by the Susan Wildberg Morgenstein Memorial Fund.