THANK YOU TO
Michigan Theater
The 60th AAFF kicks off with Pat Oleszko’s new performance Patty’s Infernal, and George Manupelli’s FIVE SHORT FILMS (1963). The ensuing screening of experimental, documentary, personal, and animated films features farewells and eternity; a long dream; scented candles; three “brief” improvisations; an all-purpose tool; social gatherings; materiality and digitality; ecstatic sound; and an absurdist dance.
Patty’s Infernal (In-Person Only)
Pat Oleszko
New York, NY | 2022 | 15 | performance
We’re at the Gates of Hell.
As Ingrates of near Heaven
wreaking Waste on every level.
Floods, Fire, Famine.
Pestilence, Poverty, Politicks,
The Plague.
Here the relentless, feckless Climate Primate
bleeds the way with
the damned selling dis/dress.
Is it time to celebrate the
demise and foul of the Specious
saving nothing for the las’ laugh.
Stave your strife, savor life, and also mine.
Be/where the Writhing Tide.
FIVE SHORT FILMS (In-Person Only)
George Manupelli
Ann Arbor, MI | 1963 | 8 | 16mm on digital
Digitized by Anthology Film Archives
An early work by George Manupelli, in five parts, featuring black and white 16mm abstraction with sound by Manupelli, Robert Ashley, and Gordon Mumma.
Salidas
Michael Fetter Nathansky
Berlin, Germany | 2020 | 10 | DCP
Salidas (“Departures” in Spanish) is a fictional dance film which tells the story of Giralda, an undertaker who accompanies deceased human beings into their afterlife. Interpreted with the means of Spanish flamenco dance and music and set at an old East German ship canal lift, the film creates an associative fusion between Northern and Southern Europe, movement and silence, and farewells and eternity.
Lockdown Dreamscape
Nicolas Gebbe
Frankfurt am Main, Germany | 2022 | 7 | HD Video
WORLD PREMIERE
When spending a lot of time at home in isolation, the walls begin to move. The sense of time fades, the days pass quietly, everything seems to repeat itself endlessly. Spaces, conversations, visual impressions, and sounds merge and make everything seem like a long dream.
Cinnamon, Thunderstorm
Jennifer Levonian
Sabaris, Spain | 2021 | 4 | HD Video
After reading a magazine article titled “Six Tips for When You’re Dying Inside,” a woman holed up in her apartment follows the advice to “create a tranquil corner” in her home by lighting scented candles. The different smells combine and magically bestow her with the power to shoot flames out of her eyes and shape-shift.
The Man I Want to Be
Peter Sparling
Ann Arbor, MI | 2020 | 6 | SD Video
WORLD PREMIERE
When I think back at the angst spent figuring out my “masculinity,” I’ve got to laugh. Even at 70, I look in the mirror and wonder: “Who is that?” What is it I idealize in a (my) male body? How long must adolescent fantasies dictate my self-image? How does that self-image embody my sexuality or vice versa? Once again, The Prelinger Archives provides delightful, hilarious framing.
Amazon Woman
Anna Vasof
Vienna, Austria | 2021 | 4 | HD Video
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
The head does it all. While other body parts have their separate functions as instruments, the head is an all-purpose tool. The head’s universality: object-oriented media magician Anna Vasof celebrates it, and at the same time questions its primacy. In 24 ten-second shots, her video Amazon Woman demonstrates what a head—always Vasof’s—can do.
How to Behave at a Party
Allison Radomski
Atlanta, GA | 2021 | 2 | HD Video
WORLD PREMIERE
Do you feel weird around other people? Are you anxious at social gatherings? Do you often find yourself trying to seem like a normal, happy person, and then coming up short? Look no further, friend. Even though I’ve never, ever had those problems in my whole life, this distorted Super 8 microshort is here to give you all the good advice.
The Stream XI
Hiroya Sakurai
Uji, Japan | 2020 | 8 | HD Video
In the man-made waterways of rice paddies, the water in nature must follow artificial rules. In that way nature is made abstract, giving rise to a new form of beauty distinct from the natural state. The theme of this work is the liveliness of water as it follows the man-made course.
Frozen Jumper
Tina Frank
Vienna, Austria | 2020 | 7 | HD Video
UNITED STATES PREMIERE
Frozen Jumper, an abstract musical short film consisting of two parts, revolves around the question of materiality and digitality.
An Example of Lee-Roth Fog Isolated Under Laboratory Conditions
Ryan Betschart
Los Angeles, CA | 2022 | 3 | HD Video
WORLD PREMIERE
Spiritual mists are a stand-in for the nuts and bolts details surrounding the life of enigmatic Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth. A personality perfectly captured in eruptions of ecstatic sound.
John L
Nina McNeely
Los Angeles, CA | 2021 | 5 | 4K Video
An absurdist dance and animation extravaganza about when cult followers turn on their leader. Music: Black Midi.