![\"woman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Rev.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIn Oakland, Jonathan Kiefer\u2019s Vital Signs screens \u2018new good films to watch with new good friends.\u2019<\/p>\n
Jun 16, 2026<\/p>\n
Updated 1:09 pm PT<\/p>\n
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A still from ‘Revelations of Divine Love,’ a 2025 film made on a shoestring budget about Julian of Norwich, a 14th-century Christian mystic.\u00a0(Vital Signs Film Series)<\/p>\n
Jonathan Kiefer knows a little something about the inertia and distractions that can keep you from getting out of the house.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite being a bona fide film buff \u2014 Kiefer is a filmmaker, a Roxie Theater<\/a> employee, and a California College of the Arts<\/a> film professor \u2014 he was surprised \u201cand a little sad\u201d at how rarely he was actually going to the movies. Earlier this year, he decided to take matters into his own hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vital Signs Film Series<\/a> (aka \u201cmonthly proof of cinematic life\u201d) launched last month at Oakland\u2019s Shapeshifters Cinema<\/a>, a 40-seat theater best known for its experimental offerings. What Kiefer pitched wasn\u2019t their ordinary fare \u2014\u00a016mm shorts, expanded cinema events, DIY workshops \u2014 but Kathleen Quillian and Gilbert Guerrero, Shapeshifters\u2019 founders, were game.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOutside of the experimental film and the programming that we do, how do we just keep expanding?\u201d Gilbert says. \u201cWe have this space, it\u2019s just sitting here empty.\u201d Why not host a weekend matinee?\u00a0<\/p>\n The series kicked off on May 2 with the prolific South Korean director Hong Sansoo\u2019s What Does That Nature Say to You<\/a>. A short animation by fellow CCA faculty member Kota Ezawa<\/a> opened the program. The series\u2019 second offering, Caroline Golum\u2019s Revelations of Divine Love, screens this Sunday, June 21.<\/p>\n Vital Signs hopes to fill an untapped niche in the Bay Area film ecosystem. Not quite experimental and not quite mainstream, Vital Signs movies might be touring the international film festival circuit; they likely won\u2019t be playing on a Bay Area screen anytime soon. Kiefer describes them as \u201cadventurous stuff that is kind of indie, art house, slightly strange, noncommercial, very boutique offerings.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe if you\u2019re lucky, they\u2019ll wind up on the streaming platforms,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut then with this type of film especially, it\u2019s not as good just to watch it at home as it is to be in even a small room with just a few people.\u201d<\/p>\n Made on a budget of around $200,000, Revelations of Divine Love tells the story of the 14th-century Christian mystic Julian of Norwich<\/a>, who recounted her visions in what is now considered the oldest surviving English-language text written by a woman.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou might think this is going to be cheeky to a point of detachment and super hipster, holding the audience at arm\u2019s length, but it\u2019s a very sincere piece,\u201d Kiefer says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n Golum, who\u2019s based in Brooklyn, will be in attendance for a Q&A after the Shapeshifters screening.<\/p>\n Kiefer\u2019s pitch came just as Shapeshifters was making its own ask. In March, the cinema launched a GoFundMe<\/a> to raise $60,000 to help cover immediate expenses. \u201cThe biggest donor to our organization over the years has been an unnamed shadow donor,\u201d the GoFundMe explains, \u201cand that has been us \u2014 the founding directors \u2014 who have kept the engine running with regular financial infusions from out of our own pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Vital Signs puts that indie mentality into practice, building a community of adventurous moviegoers one hard-to-see film at a time. Ben Rivers\u2019 Mare\u2019s Nest<\/a> is scheduled for July 5, Patrick Wang\u2019s A. Rimbaud<\/a> for Aug. 2. Future screenings will include Artemis Shaw\u2019s Removal of the Eye<\/a> and Sofia Bohdanowicz\u2019s Measures for a Funeral<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s no accident the series launched in spring, Kiefer says: \u201cYou start to see flowers blooming, and there\u2019s a hope that\u2019s associated with that.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"small](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Too-Much-is-Never-Enough_02-06-25_2000.jpg\")
\u2018Too Much is Never Enough,\u2019 a collaborative expanded cinema performance at Shapeshifters Cinema on Feb. 6, 2025 <\/p>\n