Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Shih Chieh Huang creates a sculptural ecosystem using found and collected objects — including toys, plastic bags, electrical devices, and sensors — into beautiful, ethereal installations that seem unexpectedly organic and life-like. For his exhibition at YBCA, he will create a work that reflects on the Bay Area’s rich legacy in both the machine performance movement and the countercultural aesthetics of psychedelia.

Arrested for the murder of her wealthy businessman father, convicted on false evidence and sentenced to death, Kyoko is determined to prove her innocence. With the aid of an older convict, she makes a daring escape and reunites with her fiancé. But with the police closing in, can they unmask the real killer in time? The film is closer in sensibility to the era's “women's pictures,” whose typical themes were female suffering and sacrifice, than the women-in-prison exploitation pics of the 1970s. On the other hand, Death Row Woman provided the template for several of Shintoho’s frequent themes, from its woman-on-woman brawls to its (mild by later standards) depictions of same-sex desire. (1960, 78 min, digital)