Call My Sister, Last Year
Director: Dylan Simon
Country of Origin: United States
WORLD PREMIERE
Synopsis: An experimental video shot and edited on VHS video about gender identity and transformation.
Midsummer
Director: Masha Vlasova
Country of Origin: United States / Finland
Synopsis: Midsummer is a cyanotype photogram film, where the sunlight, along with plants, insects, and water, are all employed in the process of filmmaking. The production of the film began in Finland, during Juhannus, the celebration of the longest day of the year in, when the sun doesn’t set. Blank 16mm film strips are coated in cyanotype emulsion and exposed to sunlight with natural materials, capturing the fleeting moments of nature's cycle. The landscape is both material and collaborator, where its physicality is literally imprinted into the filmic surface. The film explores the ephemeral nature of life, the swift passage of time, and the interplay between humans and the environment. Each frame captures not only the landscape but also the transient and dynamic processes of nature, creating an image that is at once tangible and elusive, grounded in the physical world yet imbued with a sense of mystery.
Talking with Hands - Organic Machine
Director: T.J. Masters
Country of Origin: United States
WORLD PREMIERE
Synopsis: Taking inspiration from classic genre films made on 16mm, this music video short features one mad scientist's frustrated attempts to break through to his own home-brewed Large Language Model that communicates via sign language (viz., "talking with hands"). The classic and by-now expected twist once the machine gains its sentience does not end well for the protagonist.