SPONSOR
Wana Brands
COMMUNITY PARTNER
Michigan Psychoanalytic Society
DONOR
Cynthia Nicely
Somewhere Higher
Mohammad Gorjestani
Detroit, MI | 2022 | 24 | DCP
Recreational use of cannabis has been legal in Michigan since 2018—but consumers know the activity is still stigmatized. In this vibrant anthology, cannabis users tell us the other side of the story. They tell us that the perspective and clarity offered by cannabis far outweigh the vague, supposed risks. Whether they’re a poet seeking inspiration, a boxer recovering after a fight, or a young Muslim seeking a closer relationship to God—they each tell us how herb has helped many Michiganders process grief, be more creative, and engage more completely with their loved ones.
Cactus Touch
Michael Langan
Seattle, WA | 2022 | 2 | DCP
A prickly sensory playground tempts one daring young finger to embark on a spiritual journey. I want to touch it. Should we touch it? Yes! NO. Nononono. YESSSSSSSS...
rough cut botanical
Wendy Kirkup
Glasgow, UK | 2022 | 8 | Digital File
North American Premiere
rough cut botanical interweaves multiple images of plant and animal life while a voice speaks to the materiality of its subject matter and to film itself. Inspired by audio description, it playfully explores how two people may speak their space together. Shot on 16mm, the film uses a matte box, an old cinematic technique to create multiple exposures.
In Passing
Anna Johnson
Minneapolis, MN | 2022 | 9 | Digital File
World Premiere
Two people wander through uncanny environments within a strange yellow house. Guided by dream logic, they move towards a point of transformation.
Hysteresis
Robert Seidel
Berlin, Germany | 2021 | 6 | DCP
North American Premiere
Hysteresis intimately weaves a transformative fabric between Robert Seidels’s projections of abstract drawings and queer performer Tsuki’s vigorous choreography. Using machine learning to mediate these lagged re-presentations, the film intentionally corrupts the AI’s strategies to unveil a frenetic, delicate, flamboyant visual language of the hysteria and hysteresis in this historical moment.
Pyrotechnics
Onyou Oh
Valencia, CA / Jeju, South Korea / Puerto Princesa, Philippines | 2021 | 12 | DCP
When the theater puts up fireworks by itself, an imaginary cinema rises from a woman’s eyes as a vision.
The Stream XII-II
Hiroya Sakurai
Uji, Japan | 2022 | 5 | Digital File
North American Premiere
In the artificial environment of the reed fields, wind and fire—elements of nature—follow the rules of the artificial. As a result, nature is made abstract, giving rise to a new form of beauty distinct from the natural state. For the twelfth film in the series The Stream, I did not limit the stream to liquids, but extended it to include the air. I shot wind, flames, smoke, and clouds as motifs representing the air.
Conversations With A Koel Bird
Yuan Li Elizabeth Xu
Singapore / Providence, RI | 2022 | 7 | Digital File
North American Premiere
I am in Providence, RI. My brother is in Singapore. We talk about the koel bird.