In These Times: Experimental Shorts

Please note: This event has been canceled. 

With Roger Beebe and Talena Sanders in person

An exploration of landscapes, cityscapes, bodies, technology, sexuality, feminism, and anti-capitalist themes in search of meaning, connection, the self, resolve, and greater ideals. The program of shorts concludes with a projector performance by Roger Beebe paying tribute to the filmmaker Norman McLaren. Following the performance and discussion, Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby, of Duke and Battersby, will screen a work-in-progress of their most recent film.

We Carry With Us Our Mother

Dir. Olivia Ciummo. United States. 2019, 5 mins. Planetary events and blood red landscapes blend with ethereal sounds as text leaves clues about difficulties with the mind and body. New York premiere.

Garden City Beautiful

Dir. Ben Balcom. United States. 2019, 12 mins. One sunny afternoon in the Midwest, suspended in a time between, two commuters daydream about a life lived otherwise. New York City premiere.

Zen Basketball

Dir. Mike Hoolboom. United States. 2020, 5 mins. In a series of simple frames, the often misunderstood practice of Zen takes shape as basketball bliss. Now in retirement, the greatest defensive player of the amateur leagues continues to practice on a remote island, far from the madding crowds. His techniques and dedication undergo continual refinement, revealed here in this startling exposé. North American premiere.

Eastern State

Dir. Talena Sanders. United States. 2019, 5 mins. Eastern State brings a found archive of decades of footage documenting the lives of the patients and employees of one of the oldest mental health institutions in the United States into dialogue with Barbara Loden’s 1970 film Wanda. Through digital video corruption, VHS artifacting, stroboscopic effects, direct animation, and overlays, this collage film considers the fidelity of nonfiction media to represent lived experiences of isolation. New York premiere. *flicker warning

Standing Forward Full

Dir. Alee Peoples. United States. 2020, 6 mins. A helter skelter is an amusement ride with a spiral slide built around a tower. Like this film, an exorcism attempt of an unrequited desire, itʼs either moving too fast or at a complete standstill. Disorienting but exciting. New York premiere.

Curious Fantasies

Dir. Jesse McLean. United States. 2019, 8 mins. The language and imagery related to celebrity perfumes (both descriptive and visual) are a starting point to think about consumer desires and the corruptness of branding. “Give us your songs, your smells, and we will give you everything.” The rich get richer, everyone smells poorer. New York premiere.

BECOMING

Dir. Ariel Teal. United States. 2018, 8 mins. Embodying a body after trauma. Blowjobs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and memory are interwoven in an attempt to process and find bodily autonomy. Content warning: The film contains text dealing with sexual trauma. New York premiere.

LIVE PERFORMANCE: Lineage (for Norman McLaren)

Dir. Roger Beebe. USA. 2019. 15 mins. 16mm projector performance. Lineage is a loop-based “orchestral” film performance for four 16mm projectors. Using as a point of departure Norman McLaren’s abstract animations in Lines Horizontal as well as reworked footage from two documentary portraits of McLaren in his prime and in his later life, the film explores the ways in which abstract marks made in a variety of ways—laser printing and etching, contact printing and hand-processing—result in strange and surprising sounds. New York premiere.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS: Civil Twilight at the Vernal Equinox

Dirs. Emily Vey Duke, Cooper Battersby. Canada.

Tickets: $15 ($11 seniors & students / $9 youth ages 3–17 / free for Museum members).(Members may contact [email protected] with questions regarding online reservations.)