Caroline Leaf’s animated work springs from her expert storytelling and pioneering animation techniques. One significant contribution to filmmaking is her technique of manipulating sand on a light-box, which she began as a student at Harvard. She later worked as an animator and director at the National Film Board of Canada. Her film The Street garnered an Academy Award nomination in 1976. On this episode, she screens the remarkable The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend and parts of The Street and The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa which were works-in-progress at the time. 

Mary Beams’ hand-drawn films carry themes of memory, erotic fantasy and feminism. She taught animation at Harvard from 1972 to 1977, and by 1988, she was a partner in Media Ink, Inc., with a weekly animated political spot on NBC’s Sunday Today Show. She has also taught at the University of South Florida and Northern Illinois University. Here, she screens The Tub, Solo Film, Going Home Sketch-book, Piano Rub, and her work-in-progress, Quilt Film.

Screening Room was a Boston television series that ran for almost ten years from 1972-1981. It offered independent filmmakers a chance to show and discuss their work on a commercial (ABC-TV) affiliate station. The series was developed and hosted by filmmaker Robert Gardner (Dead Birds, Forest of Bliss).

Many of the filmmakers presented on the show - Jan Lenica, John and Faith Hubley, Emile DeAntonio, Jean Rouch, Ricky Leacock, Jonas Mekas, Bruce Baillie, Yvonne Rainer and Michael Snow - are now considered some of the most influential contributors to their respective fields of modern experimental film, documentary, and animation.

Nearly 100 programs were produced during the years Screening Room was broadcast. Twenty seven episodes have been edited for release in 3 categories: Animation, Documentary, and Experimental Film.