ASK THE INSECTS Steve Reinke

Experimental Video 8:00 2005

It begins with the death of the reader and ends with the death of the author, and in between he stops to muse on rain falling upward, the “useless biodiversity” of insects (“life is mostly decoration”), and signal deconstruction, and beautiful noise, and burning books. His style is abrupt and associative: he jumps and jumps again, producing small, beautiful abysses. Nine micro-essays on animation and death–with many appearances including Goethe, Pink Floyd and Bambi–leading to a final encounter and introduction.

UNTITLED FILM, No. 9 David Butler

Experimental Video 5:23 2006 Chicago Premiere

“Untitled Film, No. 9 is a lyrical pop meditation which endeavors to reveal the secrets of love and loss, God and the Universe, and the Meaning of Life in five short minutes.” –David Butler

BOXCARTOON Matt Marsden

Animation Video 10:25 2006 World Premiere

Boxcartoon is an animated ‘exquisite corpse’ collaboration in which the filmmaker selected three animators with a similar interest in the fantastic and grotesque to create glimpses of the unearthly.

HANDS AND BODY Rachel Walker Animation Video 3:03 2007 Chicago Premiere

“This stop-motion piece examines gestures of the body and their psychological meaning. The girl’s movement is both erratic and destructive, precise and caressing.” – Rachel Walker

NOCTURNE Mary Benedicto & Garman Herigstad

Experimental Video 4:45 2007 World Premiere

“Star-like shapes flicker in fields of night time abstract landscape with a space age backdrop of sound.” – Mary Benedicto

THE GLASS David Fine

Documentary Video 11:42 2007 World Premiere

The Glass’reveals an unsettling underbelly to the world of youth hockey, one in which the parents, not the players are the violent instigators, and the boys themselves are content to play video games or join the army. Suburban life shouldn’t be this unpleasant.

HOTEL LIGHTS– A.M. SLOW GOLDEN HITS Myke Adams

Music Video 2007 4:04 2007 World Premiere

“This is a music video about misconnections and obsessions.” – Myke Adams

REGARDING THE PAIN OF SUSAN SONTAG (NOTES ON CAMP) Steve Reinke Experimental Video 4:00 2006 Chicago Premiere

Continues the journey from the final sequence of Ask the Insects. We turn away from the graveyard, enter the schoolyard, approach the old crippled tree spinning and sit under it to draw a little cartoon for the New Yorker, while–through some sort of temporal displacement–New Year’s resolutions are being made. This is a rehabilitation of the “tired indexicality of [the] photograph.”

ALL DAY LONG Andrew Semans

Short Video 19:00 2007 Chicago Premiere

“Two teenagers are in love in New Jersey: What begins as an experiment in rule-breaking and youthful romance deteriorates into an exercise in disillusionment. Atmospheric and closely observed, All Day Long is a bittersweet portrait of the frustrations of adolescence and the persistent unwillingness of reality to meet expectations.” –Andrew Semans