Genres: documentary

  • Persistence of Vision

    Persistence of Vision is the story of a man who, against his doctor’s advice, was determined to make short films while he still could. From age 16 to age 30, Lorne Marin embarked on a burgeoning career as an experimental filmmaker. Now, thirty years later, his body dictates most of his life choices, yet his artistic urges remain. Lorne has lived the past fifty odd years with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease often described as “tunnel vision.” Today, his vision is limited to a circle about one inch in diameter. Persistence of Vision showcases the films Lorne made thirty…

  • Oya: Something Happened On The Way to West Africa!

    I wanted to tell a tale not often heard about gender and Indigenous Yorùbá Spirituality. Ọya: Something Happened On The Way To West Africa! follows my journey as a Queer gender-non-conforming Nigerian returning home to connect with Òrìṣà (African God/dess) tradition, and follow a trail back to the powerful legacy of my great grandmother, Chief Moloran Ìyá Ọlọ́ya.  This personal and political story vibrantly investigates the heritage of command, mythology, gender fluidity, womyn’s power and the hidden truth behind the power of indigenous Yorùbá spirituality.  As I encounter obstacles of a national strike and anti-gay marriage legislation to find the roots of the practice, will I be able to find affirmation…

  • Weaving with Spanish Threads: an Immigrant’s Tale

    In the early 20th century, tens of thousands of Spaniards were driven from their homeland by poverty. Several thousand went to Hawaii to work under contract in the pineapple and sugar cane plantations, and most of these settled permanently in California after their contract were up. Our documentary tells their story, a story reminiscent of that of many other immigrant groups from Europe. We focus on one specific immigrant, Francisco Pérez, 98 years old when we interviewed him. His interview is supplemented by interviews with descendants of other of the immigrants and by on-location footage from Spain, Gibraltar, Hawaii and…

  • Evolution: A Theme with Variations

    “Evolution: A Theme with Variations” is a journey through music and art from the Renaissance to the present. We hear and see a musical theme performed in stylized examples from six eras – Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, French Impressionistic, and Twentieth Century – accompanied by images of art and architecture selected from works created in these eras. A final variation combines all the above styles as it retraces its path back to a Renaissance bacchanal or dance. Another facet of creation appears throughout the film: the musician and his/her instrument, often shot alone, surrounded by darkness, to symbolize that art…

  • Overpass

    Beginning with an afternoon drive down a Los Angeles highway, Overpass weaves together intimate stories of histories of racial and domestic violence against the backdrop of the infamous OJ Simpson car chase in 1994. In this lyrical, experimental short, filmmaker Kami Chisholm draws from television news reports, archival footage, and her own family history to explore the gaps between celebrity spectacle and the mundane realities of interpersonal violence endemic to US society.

  • Animal Tracks

    An exploration of North American culture’s estranged and precarious relationship with animals. To examine these relationships, the camera travels through man-made environments that have been constructed for the containment and/or display of animals.

  • Expansion

    Multi-image superimpositions follow the contemporary movements of two women as the filmmaker tries to draw us into their dance. The in-camera choreography combined with percussive sounds expand the dance steps, making the audience want to join in the experience.

  • In the Hollow

    In May 1988, girlfriends Claudia Brenner and Rebecca Wight were attacked while hiking the Appalachian Trail by a ‘mountain man’ named Stephen Roy Carr. IN THE HOLLOW tells the story of the shooting, Wight’s death, and Brenner’s desperate survival (and later transformation into an advocate for hate crime legislation in the U.S.) as she returns to the trail for the first time since the shooting.  The film combines documentary and narrative film elements, using the actual locations on the trail and dramatizations written by Claudia Brenner and director/screenwriter Austin Bunn based on her testimony. The film follows Brenner as she…

  • Morning Light

    An experimental documentary following the narrative of George Griffiths and his son, Blair, in the early 1980s. The film is a triptych made up of three unique short films, each roughly corresponding to a section of a book written by George’s widow, Margaret, which details the very same narrative.

  • Take it apart and put together again

    Take it apart and put together again is an experimental film about the start of the Swedish Chopper club called Sofia Hogs, founded in 1968 at Söder in Stockholm. The club was inspired by the Flower Power Movement and the film Easy Rider. The film draws from an inside personal perspective, childhood, reflections, memories and photographs from several family photo albums. Linus Winstam aka DJ Bruce Leenus, creator of the film’s sound collage, is also the son of the one of the persons who speaks in the film. The film is supported by The Swedish Arts Grants Committee