The collection contains organization files, maintained by administrator Douglas Edwards, on independent and experimental films screened at the theater, including correspondence, programs, press releases, clippings and reviews, and grant applications. There is information on American independent filmmakers, including resumes, filmographies, film synopses and reviews, pictorial material, and photographs.

Encounter Cinema (1979-1985) is the outgrowth of programs launched in 1973 by Theatre Vanguard, a small, nonprofit center for performing and media arts in Los Angeles that focused on independent, avant-garde and/or noncommercial endeavors in film, music, dance, theater, poetry, and performance art. In 1978 the founding and principal patron of Theatre Vanguard closed the theater. Douglas Edwards, who had been the center's theater administrator and film adviser, founded Encounter Cinema with two new co-sponsoring organizations, the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum and the UCLA Film Archives. The series exhibition site was moved to Melnitz Theater at UCLA. Due to funding problems, Encounter Cinema folded in February 1985.

2.8 linear ft. of papers

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