The SF Bay Area premiere of Nova '78 — a restored documentary of the 1978 Nova Convention featuring Burroughs, Patti Smith, Zappa, and Ginsberg — screens once at Gray Area on August 12 as part of the two-day Deliria 2 event. One night, limited seats.

The SF Bay Area premiere of Nova '78 — a restored documentary of the 1978 Nova Convention, directed by Aaron Brookner and Rodrigo Areias, 78 minutes — screens once at Gray Area, 2665 Mission St., San Francisco, on Wednesday, August 12, at 6:20 PM. Organizers are explicit: one showing only, limited seating. If you want to see it, Wednesday is your shot.

The film was restored from newly rediscovered archival footage of the original Nova Convention, a 1978 New York gathering of artists and thinkers that put William S. Burroughs, Patti Smith, Frank Zappa, Laurie Anderson, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, and Robert Anton Wilson in the same room. The screening anchors Deliria 2: Cyberpunks Mutants & Mondoids, a two-day event running August 12–13 organized by Ken Goffman (R.U. Sirius), founding editor of Mondo 2000, the early-'90s cyberculture magazine that predated Wired.

The rest of the two-night program is its own draw. Guillermo Gómez-Peña performs a hybrid ethno-techno language piece with la pocha nostra. Cyrnai — Carolyn Fok's long-running analog synthesis project — plays live. R.U. Sirius performs with Phriendz. Talks come from Hugo Award–winning author Annalee Newitz and from Shira Chess and Bart Nagel, presenting from Freaks in the Machine: Mondo 2000 in Late 20th Century Tech Culture. Craig Baldwin's Tribulation 99 is also on the film program. Both nights are MC'd by David Gill of the Point Reyes Reality Investigation Center, with sonic work from 'Know – 1' and ambient textures by Kimric Smythie, formerly of Survival Research Laboratories.

Logistics: Gray Area Grand Theater, 2665 Mission St., SF 94110. The 24th Street Mission BART station is two blocks south — take the train. Ticket prices for Deliria 2 were not confirmed at press time; the Mondo 2000 event page at mondo2000.com/deliria2 directs to Gray Area's box office at grayarea.org. Age restriction was not specified for this event; a prior Deliria event at Gray Area was 21+, so verify before you go.

If you have one night: Wednesday. Nova '78 doesn't repeat, and the seating is limited.