Filament

A NIGHT OF MOVING IMAGES Friday, September 27, 2024, 7 PM, Rhizome DC The following selection of shorts showcases a dazzling array of techniques, such as stop motion, direct animation, and photogrammetry (as well as one project shot with a Game Boy camera). They also draw inspiration from a diverse range of themes, from conspiracy theories to ancient myths. About half of them were shot on film and half digitally. They represent a fraction of the talent found throughout the DMV, and we couldn’t be happier to share them with you tonight. The Film & Video Open Call is organized by Alexander Atienza with film projection capabilities generously provided courtesy Osheen Keshishian. Thanks to Layne Garrett for his support and Takoma Park Silver Spring Co-op for the catering. Please consider donating so we can continue providing challenging, community-driven cultural programming. Rhizome DC is a community-run arts organization, alternative music venue, and DIY screening space founded in 2015 and based in the Takoma neighborhood of Washington, DC. Filament is a new screening initiative promoting investigation, stewardship, and community among DC-area filmmakers and moving picture artists.

LE REPAS Adrien Picquenot, 2017, 2’14”, digital An amoral tale in a negative world. This stop-motion mute film starring Emmanuelle Vacherand was shot in a setting painted in reversed colors, with the actress wearing reversed make-up as well. A negative effect was then applied to the images, inverting light and shadows and creating an unsettling atmosphere.
TAKEOFF Nathan R. Smith, 2022, 3’33”, digital A portrait of DMV artist Kelow Latesha.
GLORIA Jillian Banner, 2024, 4’29”, digital A music video for the band Kiernan’s song Gloria. I shot this on Super 8 film during a trip to Zion National Park, after a quick trip to a Spirit Halloween store to buy an astronaut helmet. The video depicts an astronaut exploring a new terrain. It was an experiment for me, having never shot on Super 8 prior to this.
RAIN Vasilios Papaioannu, 2024, 6’, digital Rain, as circular shapes of memory imprinted on the fast paced celluloid or as liquid moving sculptures of the present in digital form, documents a verbal interaction between two people.
THE ARCHIVE IS ON FIRE Anna Hogg, 2023, 9’47”, digital Concrete objects and spaces of remembrance are poised against the ephemeral, the unarchivable. We see a sense memory of an archive in the act of destroying itself. The sun magically settles between the crevice of two trees; an obsessive lens roams partially burned fragments; fire consumes the frame.
DATASTREAM (MINEBANK RUN) Tara Youngborg, 2023, 4’47”, digital In this video piece, I have created a portrait of a site (Minebank Run in Parkville, Maryland), to consider the ways in which we can know a space through data, and the many ways through which data-driven ways of knowing will fail us.
SO MANY THINGS ARE NOT SO Mark Burchick, 2023, 13’, digital So Many Things Are Not So is a film reckoning with where we are in this polarized media landscape. Using the belief in life on Mars as a case study to explore how conspiracy culture has infiltrated all aspects of our lives, I hope to show how emergent forms of media have been weaponized for the purpose of misinformation and disinformation.
MOM Gabriel Achilles Bellone, 2023, 42”, 16 mm An incident from my childhood.
IS A THRESH HOLD CJ Hibbeln, 2023, 3’14”, 16 mm A 16mm experiment using negatives, hand-painted & hand-scratched film to call upon the experience of moments when the veil is thin between reality and what lies beyond.
MICRO EMULSION SCORE Timothy Wisniewski, 2024, 7’, 16 mm A 16mm film experiment in visual rhythm and color, assembled by hand using recycled 16mm film leaders and black and white and color photocopiers. Microemulsion Score was originally conceived as part of an expanded projection performance in collaboration with Butoh dancer Azumi Oe in 2023 but took on a life of its own after the show and was modified and re-edited as a single film.
SPRING FORTH Andrew Tamburrino, 2023, 6’, 16 mm An incantation: Barriers fall and nature reclaims. Winter has melted away and life begins anew. Happiness and love and joy and color flourish in the springtime light. Pollination transforms the earth, as new sprouts reach skyward for warmth and nourishment. Demeter and Persephone’s harvest emerges through metamorphosis; and Athena, who once was born from her father Zeus’ head, provides fertile soil for the new world that arises.
AN EVENING WITH THE PEOPLE’S COURTESAN. Tushar Gidwani, 2024, 22’, 16 mm Against the canvas of the Palestinian Genocide, a collapsing Healthcare System in the US, and rise of fascist governments across the world, one of New England’s only desi drag artists made it their credo to build conscious, anti-capitalist spaces that entertain, inform, and champion community.
MYSELF TWO SECONDS TO CRY Erik Sutch, 2024, 16’, digital with live elements As I grow older, I’ve seen digital traces of friends who have died young disappear. When I think of the times shared with these people, I think of a location. I’m going back to these locations, shooting with three cameras and telling the stories alongside the captured video footage.
TEMPLE FOREST Jayden Barber, 2024, 21’38”, 16 mm with live elements Temple Forest explores the blurred line between the experience of meditation and dissociation. Fragments of memory collected over the span of two years disjointedly woven back together again — slow, dreamlike movements of nostalgia and transcendentalism.