Tuesdays at the Café are here!
Join us at Café Valor on Tuesdays, for a lunchtime break with a little extra flavor! Each week, Tuesdays at the Café bring something new to enjoy—from pop-up shops and live performances to Watch & Listen film screenings and more. Pull up a seat, relax, and see what’s happening at the Café.
Good food. Good vibes. Something new every Tuesday.
Tuesday, October 6 , 2026
12:30 – 2:30pm | Film Screening MIckey Mouse (1880s – 1930s)
The Opry House 1929: Running an opera house, Mickey performs a vaudeville show all by himself.
Dancevidaniy 2013: Mickey squares off against Peg Leg Pete in a Russian folk dance battle to rescue Minnie from his clutches.
The Band Concert 1935: a 1935 animated short film directed by Wilfred Jackson. It is the first Mickey Mouse cartoon in color.
The Barn Dance 1929: an animated short starring Mickey Mouse. It was released in 1929 by Celebrity Productions. It was the fourth cartoon in the Mickey Mouse series.
Tuesday, September 29th, 2026
12:30 – 2:30pm | Film Screening Vaudeville (1880s – 1930s)
Musical Comedy & Soft Shoe: A relaxed, graceful style of tap performed without metal taps. Dancers relied on rhythm, slide steps, and stage presence, often wearing soft-soled shoes on a sand-sprinkled stage.
Tap & Stepping: The energetic heartbeat of vaudeville. Born from a fusion of African American rhythms, Irish clogging, and English hornpipes, it grew from street corners into elite stage acts.
Toe Work: Ranged from classical ballet routines to “toe-tapping,” where performers executed rapid tap sequences while balanced entirely on the tips of their pointe shoes.
Tuesday, September 15th, 2026
12:30 – 2:30pm | Film Screening Black Tights (1960)
Black Tights (1-2-3-4 ou Les Collants noirs) is a 1961 French anthology film featuring four ballet segments shot in Technirama and directed by Terence Young. The dances in the film were abridged versions of ballets created for the stage by the dancer and choreographer Roland Petit, who appears in the three of the four sequences along with his wife, the ballerina Zizi Jeanmaire. The film is also known as Un deux trois quatre! in France (short title).
Tuesday, September 8th, 2026
12:30 – 2:30pm | Film Screening The Broadway Melody (1929)
The Broadway Melody was written by Norman Houston and James Gleason from a story by Edmund Goulding and directed by Harry Beaumont. Original music was written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, including the popular hit “You Were Meant for Me”. The George M. Cohan classic “Give My Regards to Broadway” is used under the opening establishing shots of New York City, its film debut. Bessie Love was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Today, the Technicolor sequence survives only in black and white. The film was the first musical released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was Hollywood’s first all-talking musical.
Tuesday, August 25th, 2026
12:30 – 2:30pm | Documentary Screening Art Around Every Corner (2025)
Created by husband-and-wife duo James and Vicky Wall, Art Around Every Corner offers a deep dive into the stories, processes, and inspirations behind some of Leeds’ most iconic murals. It shines a light on the creative spirit that defines the city’s public art scene. The Walls hope the film will resonate beyond the creative community, inspiring both artists and non-artists alike. “We want it to reach people who don’t think of themselves as creative,” says Vicky Wall. “Maybe they’ll watch it and think, ‘I could give that a go.’ Creativity should be for everyone.”
Tuesday, August 18th, 2026
12:30 – 2:30pm | Film Screening All Americans (1929)
Released on July 20, 1929, All Americans is a 20-minute musical short film directed by Joseph Santley and produced by Paramount Pictures at Paramount Studios in Astoria, New York. It is a variety-style showcase celebrating the American “melting pot” through international musical acts that step into a giant pot and emerge transformed into Broadway-style performers.
Tuesday, August 11th, 2026
12:30 – 2:30pm | Film Screening Ballet Mécanique (1924)
Ballet Mécanique a 1924 avant-garde silent film by French artist Fernand Léger in collaboration with American filmaker Dudley Murphy. Starring Kiki de Montparnasse. This is one of the earliest and best example of experimental cinema. Claimed by the Dadaist and Cubist movements, this mad mad film is a cornucopia of fibrillating images, geometric figures, kaleidoscopic objects and so forth. All glued together with a cacophonous and bizarre music score by George Antheil. The film was originally premiered on 24 September 1924 at the Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik in Vienna without music accompaniment due to disagreement between the director and the composer.
Tuesday, May 5th, 2026
12 – 1pm | Panel Discussion
Visibility, Voice and Impact: AAPI Artists in Performing Arts and Film
The panel features two prominent artists: longtime Bay Area filmmaker Valerie Soe and Oakland Ballet’s Resident Choreographer Phil Chan. Bay Area media host Michelle Meow, producer of The Michelle Meow Show at the Commonwealth Club, moderates the conversation. Both panelists have work in major upcoming events. Oakland Ballet’s Dancing Moons Festival, April 30th – May 2nd, May 5th and May 8th – 9th, features Chan’s choreography. CAAMFest, the leading festival of films from Asian America and beyond, presents the Bay Area premiere of Soe’s The Auntie Sewing Squad Resistance Playbook on May 10th.
San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center
401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 110 | San Francisco CA 94102
P: 415.621.6600 F: 415.621.5091