Sponsor
College for Creative Studies
Education Partner
U-M Department of Middle Eastern Studies
Community Partner
MEMCO
Donor
Martha Darling & Gil Omenn
From Our Side
Simone Massi
Pergola, Italy | 2022 | 5 | DCP
North American Premiere
History flows, the darkness wets our clothes.
I’m outside
Nina Alexandraki & Elefteris Panagiotou
Brussels, Belgium | 2023 | 49 | DCP
World Premiere
Confined in a small room on the eighth floor of a half-abandoned building, Jamal searches for the words that would solve the labyrinth of life and existence. The voices of his North African friends, imprisoned in detention centers, come from the mountains around the metropolis of Athens.
I Can Feel It Coming
Karin Fisslthaler
Vienna, Austria | 2022 | 8 | DCP
United States Premiere
Air is visible only in the things that it moves: wafting curtains, billowing meadows, swaying trees. Supported by Susanna Gartmayer’s bass clarinet compositions, Karin Fisslthaler composes an abstract experience from dynamic images that make the wind visible, audible, and perceptible in its essence—as a warm wave, as swirling chaos, as an icy, whistling storm.
After Bed
TT Takemoto
Daly City, CA | 2023 | 3 | digital file
United States Premiere
Pulsing flashbacks from the Summer of Love reawaken a queer California classic.
Immortals
Mark Durand
Gaspé, QC, Canada | 2023 | 5 | DCP
North American Premiere
"Immortals" is an experimental documentary short film shot in 8mm that explores the introspection of an artist, Bettina Szabo. The film delves into her relationship with her sense of belonging, her body, her imagination, and nature. Sometimes one must lose oneself to find oneself better, and burn everything down to start anew on a solid foundation.
Survived from Illusions
Qi Zhuang
London, UK | 2023 | 5 | digital file
World Premiere
Accompanied by rhythmic music and traditional Chinese opera singing, this work describes a state of mind that struggles with the world of dualism. Like all dualisms, “hope” corresponds to “despair,” or “hopelessness,” and the appearance of hope must be accompanied by a chaotic, complex journey. The feeling of hope is like looking for a glass of water in a desert or a sea of fire, which may be an illusion, or the sea of fire is an illusion, or both.
de-composition
Laura Kraning
Buffalo, NY | 2023 | 3 | digital file
United States Premiere
A textural macro collage of a rust belt landscape—scratched, splattered, dripping, cracking, and bursting to the surface. Photographed and meticulously edited over one year in Buffalo, NY, the reverberant tones of the New York Central rail line provide the rhythmic pulse to a rapid cascade of multihued material decay and metallic de-composition.