Cinema by the Bay, a three-day tribute to the innovativeness and diversity of Bay Area filmmakers, will pay tribute to avant-garde legend Chick Strand, who, along with fellow director Bruce Baillie, founded San Francisco Cinematheque, a film society comprised of pioneering auteurs, in 1961. It was then that she and Baillie began showing films outdoors in Canyon, California, and Canyon Cinema, a San Francisco-based filmmakers’ cooperative specializing in the distribution of experimental film and video, was born.

Nearly 50 years later, both organizations continue to flourish thanks to her years of tireless service. Strand, who studied anthropology at Berkeley and taught for 24 years at Occidental College, made several documentary-style films about her experiences in Mexico, including Cosas de Mi Vida (1976), one of a series of portraits of a Mexican-Indian boy orphaned at age 7. Born Mildred Strand in 1931, she passed away July 11. She was 77.

After Day Comes Night & After That, Day Comes Again will honor her legacy tonight at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Films to be screened include By the Lake, Coming Up for Air, Artificial Paradise, Loose Ends and Cartoon le Mousse. Among the special guests in attendance will be experimental filmmaker Dominic Angerame, former San Francisco Cinematheque director Steve Anker and film scholar Irina Leimbacher. Advance tickets are available through the Yerba Buena box office, or through their official site.