{"id":414468,"date":"2026-07-27T22:59:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T22:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/414468\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T22:59:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T22:59:18","slug":"films-made-at-saul-zaentzs-berkeley-studio-spotlit-at-bampfa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/414468\/","title":{"rendered":"Films made at Saul Zaentz’s Berkeley studio spotlit at BAMPFA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Saul Zaentz at work in Fantasy Studios. Courtesy: BAMPFA <\/p>\n

Few film producers were better at balancing art and commerce than Saul Zaentz, who died in 2014 at age 92<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With money flowing into the Fantasy Records coffers courtesy of Credence Clearwater Revival\u2019s brief but hit-laden reign from 1968-71, Zaentz and several partners created a boutique production company in West Berkeley responsible for a glittering roster of films. As popular with audiences as they were acclaimed by critics, \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest,\u201d \u201cAmadeus\u201d and \u201cThe English Patient\u201d racked up major ticket sales along with Oscars.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another side to Zaentz\u2019s love of film that had nothing to do with the bottom line. In a region brimming with passionate and often innovative documentary filmmakers, Zaentz turned the Fantasy Building into a buzzing hive of production. The presence of Zaentz\u2019s world-class Fantasy Studios, which closed in 2018<\/a>, meant that a film\u2019s post-production could take place entirely in-house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While there are still filmmakers at work in the Fantasy building at Tenth and Parker streets, \u201cMade In Berkeley: The House That Zaentz Built<\/a>\u201d highlights the output of the building\u2019s golden age. Presented at BAMPFA in partnership with the Berkeley Film Foundation, the program runs Aug. 1-30 and includes many filmmakers in conversation before the screenings, starting with the doc that inspired the series, \u201cVivien\u2019s Wild Ride<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Vivien Hillgrove\u2019s \u201cVivien\u2019s Wild Ride\u201d (2025). Courtesy: BAMPFA<\/p>\n

A first-person film written, directed and co-edited by Vivien Hillgrove, it\u2019s an intimate and exuberantly creative portrait of the award-winning editor as she loses her sight (with a gorgeous score by Berkeley composer Todd Boekelheide). Her story runs through both sides of the Fantasy building as Hillgrove worked on documentaries made there and on Zaentz feature productions like Philip Kaufman\u2019s \u201cThe Unbearable Lightness of Being<\/a>\u201d (which Hillgrove also discusses before its Aug. 9 screening).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVivien\u2019s Wild Ride\u201d premiered last year at BAMPFA as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival. Curator Kate MacKay felt it offered a glimpse into a singular cinematic world that included Hillgrove\u2019s work at Fantasy with Walter Murch, the legendary editor, writer and sound designer who won two of his three Academy Awards for \u201cThe English Patient.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt captured a real culture,\u201d MacKay said, \u201cand how different it was here than in Hollywood. It\u2019s a really brilliant, personal, beautifully made movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The series includes celebrated films like the late Marlon Riggs\u2019s \u201cTongues Untied<\/a>,\u201d the groundbreaking 1989 poetic celebration of Black men loving Black men, and Vivian Kleiman\u2019s deep dive into the world of queer comics, 2021\u2019s \u201cNo Straight Lines<\/a>.\u201d Justine Shapiro, Carlos Bolado and B.Z. Goldberg\u2019s 2001 portrait of Palestinian and Israeli children, \u201cPromises<\/a>,\u201d is also on the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Marlon Riggs\u2019s \u201cTongues Untied\u201d (1989). Courtesy: BAMPFA<\/p>\n

The series connects Fantasy\u2019s deep history to the present scene via filmmakers still active in the Saul Zaentz Media Center<\/a>, even while facing a harrowing landscape denuded of funding sources. Berkeley filmmaker Steven Okazaki, who\u2019s represented by 2007\u2019s devastating look at the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, \u201cWhite Light\/Black Rain<\/a>,\u201d recalls the building in its heyday as a hive of creative chaos.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A reception in the lobby of the Fantasy building. Courtesy: BAMPFA<\/p>\n

\u201cFantasy was run in a crazy Berkeley way then,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the early 1980s I was editing in different rooms and \u2018The Right Stuff\u2019 was being cut and mixed there, mostly on the third floor, but all over the building. Someone would come in and say, \u2018You\u2019re moving, they want this floor.\u2019 When I went to pay the rent, because I hadn\u2019t gotten an invoice, they acted like I was hassling them. Sorry! I ended up not paying any rent for six months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lax attitude about rent was a feature, not a bug for Zaentz when it came to documentarians. \u201cSaul was politically and socially very liberal, and the documentary filmmakers dealt with a lot of issues he was in favor of,\u201d explained Paul Zaentz, Saul\u2019s nephew, an attorney who started on the music side of Fantasy. After a few years he went on to work for the film production company, ultimately co-producing Anthony Minghella\u2019s \u201cThe Talented Mr. Ripley.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Zaentz helped pave the way for a wave of filmmakers to move into the Fantasy building in 1985 after a major rent increase in an Emeryville complex led to an exodus. It was already an important hub for documentary production, but the arrival of some two-dozen filmmakers, including Connie Field, Bill Jersey and Marlon Riggs, brought an unprecedented concentration of activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe initial rents were about $100 a month, which probably didn\u2019t pay for the security and power,\u201d Zaentz recalled. \u201cOne of the decisions we made as a company was we couldn\u2019t give money to individuals, because that would entail picking favorites. The company\u2019s support was through rent, but we as individuals could give to films.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Steven Okazaki\u2019s \u201cWhite Light\/Black Rain\u201d (2007). Courtesy: BAMPFA<\/p>\n

Kleiman was part of the Emeryville cohort that moved to Fantasy in 1985. She left the building after it was sold to Wareham Development in 2007<\/a> but ended up moving back about five years later and continues to make documentaries there (her latest, \u201cA Grain of Truth,\u201d premiered at the Sebastopol Film Festival in April).\u00a0<\/p>\n

She had met Riggs at the Emeryville center and went on to collaborate on his landmark films \u201cTongues Untied,\u201d \u201cColor Adjustment,\u201d and \u201cBlack Is\u2026 Black Ain\u2019t,\u201d (which she completed after his death in 1994). While it\u2019s easy to romanticize the Fantasy building milieu, Kleiman says the building was more of a diverse neighborhood than a unified scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an experimental filmmaker who never talked to anyone and no one else talked to him,\u201d Kleiman said. \u201cBut what happens here is amazing. One day Rick Goldsmith is screening down the hall and he needs a certain cable, and of course I have that cable. And vice versa. Someone has an intern and we see they\u2019re great, and they end up working on someone else\u2019s project.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMade In Berkeley\u201d concludes on Aug. 30 with Denise Zmekhol\u2019s 2023 film \u201cSkin of Glass<\/a>,\u201d a thoughtful exploration of the evolving meaning of a S\u00e3o Paulo skyscraper designed by her architect father. It\u2019s entirely fitting that the series ends with a disquisition into the way real estate shapes a society, because no factor has twisted Berkeley\u2019s documentary scene more profoundly than rising rents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Denise Zmekhol\u2019s \u201cSkin of Glass\u201d (2023). Courtesy: BAMPFA<\/p>\n

Making a documentary has always been a herculean effort. It\u2019s not unusual for a filmmaker to apply for dozens of grants while taking five or 10 years to raise funds to finish a feature-length project. When a Berkeley apartment rented for $150 in the late 1970s, making films was a navigable path for filmmakers not blessed with a trust fund. Zaentz not only subsidized filmmaking. By taking the documentary community under his wing at the Fantasy Building, he added a shot of glamor that could prove useful in a field known for gritty independence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt created this zeitgeist with its reputation,\u201d Kleiman said. \u201cFilms at Fantasy were able to get loans to pay for productions because of the gravitas around Zaentz filmmaking. When I would tell a potential funder my office is here, they wanted to come and see the place. I\u2019d invite them in at 5 p.m. to have a glass of wine and see some footage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated stories<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Fantasy\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tFantasy Studios, internationally renowned film and music studio, to close its doors<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tJuly 29, 2018Oct. 4, 2022, 1:46 a.m.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Green\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tGreen Day and Santana recorded at Berkeley\u2019s Fantasy Studios. Tenants won a fight to preserve its former building for arts<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tApril 26, 2024May 21, 2024, 2:16 p.m.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Berkeley\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tBerkeley\u2019s Fantasy Studios closure came because of financial struggles<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tJuly 31, 2018Aug. 4, 2022, 1:18 p.m.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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