MONO XVI FESTIVAL OF CINEMA ARTS NOV 30TH DEC 1ST, 2ND, 3RD & 4TH

FIVE NIGHTS OF CINEMA ARTS

PLEASE CLICK ON THE NIGHT BELOW TO EXPAND FULL DETAILS AND PROGRAM NOTES.
ALL NIGHTS ARE FREE TO ATTEND THANKS TO THE NEA, NYSCA, OUR PARTNERS AND SPONSORS BELOW

* WED NOV 30TH "THE MEADOW" by Maya Edelman & "FOR CYNTHIA" by Nora Rodriguez

THIS OPENING NIGHT OF OUR 16TH ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM ! JOIN US FOR THE CELEBRATION OF COMMUNITY AND CINEMA!

Hosted by 718 Studios DOORS AT 7:00 PM SCREENING BEGINS AT 8 PM SHARP
718 STUDIOS IS LOCATED AT 130 Thames St. Brooklyn, NY ARRIVE EARLY FOR LIMITED SEATING ALL AGES, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC & FREE TO ATTEND Two commissioned traditional animations shot on 16mm film on our Oxberry Animation Stand at MONO NO AWARE to have their world premiere on opening night! ARTISTS IN PERSON!

THE MEADOW, 2022 / 16MM HAND DRAWN CELL ANIMATION by MAYA EDELMAN (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK)

A mysterious girl and a black dog wander and sometimes intersect along the sides of highways, flanked by a dystopian landscape inspired by the Meadowlands area of New Jersey. The frame by frame animated piece will be comprised of individual pencil drawings made on paper, and will explore private grief as related to the grief of environmental damage.

Maya Edelman is an animator and illustrator who was born in Kiyv, USSR and moved to New York in 1993, where she studied animation and film at Pratt institute and is currently living and working. Her animation work includes collaborations on award winning projects, including the Mushrooms episode of Broad City for which she won an EMMY award, animation for the Oscar winning documentary Icarus, and animation direction and design for award winning animated documentary shorts including The Shawl and More Than I Remember. She currently works as a visual development artist for animation. Her installation for MTA art and design “Dream City” is currently on view at Fulton Center in lower Manhattan.

FOR CYNTHIA, 2022 / 16MM 2-D CUT OUT & HAND DRAWN ANIMATION by NORA RODRIGUEZ / (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK)

Part radio drama, part tree care manual, this animation is a story about a story. At its center is a piece of family lore that has passed through so many hands it becomes surreal and nonsensical. For Cynthia is about the ways family history is blurred through the relay of telling, and how the telling itself becomes a strange heirloom.

Nora Rodriguez is a media artist and educator. Her work has screened at REDCAT in LA, the Block Cinema in Chicago, Pioneer Works, The Filmmaker's Coop, Anthology Film Archives, La Mama, and BRIC in New York, among other venues.

**THE MEADOW & FOR CYNTHIA were commissioned by and received full production support from MONO NO AWARE. The films were captured at the MONO NO AWARE learning lab by the artists using an Oxberry Anmation Stand on 16mm color film supplied by the organization and scanned in house to 4K. Optical sound exhibition prints were struck from a digital edit back to film by our partners at ColorLab, MD.

* THURS DEC 1ST "STEPPING INTO THE FRAME" by Lauren Noelle Oliver

Co-presented by the GOWANUS DARKROOM & MONO NO AWARE

Hosted at CPR - Center for Performance Research DOORS AT 7:00 PM PROGRAM BEGINS AT 7:30 PM SHARP
CPR - Center for Performance Research 361 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11211 ALL AGES, FREE TO ATTEND, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC VERY LIMTED SEATING * MUST RSVP - MASKS MUST BE WORN, PROOF OF VAX & BOOSTER WILL BE MANDATORY

STEPPING INTO THE FRAME, 2022 / 16MM TRIPLE PROJECTION PERFORMANCE by LAUREN NOELLE OLIVER (QUEENS, NEW YORK)

Stepping into the frame, by Lauren Noelle Oliver, is an intimate glance into the artist’s paradoxical self-portraiture practice. Best known for her still photographic work, Oliver now turns her gaze to her process. Through the use of a 16mm bolex, the artist has opened her self-portraits beyond the moment of capture, allowing viewers into her unique process. Oliver often meticulously pre-plans each of her shots but, because she must step out of the frame to reset the camera between each image, it is impossible for her to recreate each scene exactly. Viewers are brought to a better understanding of the ephemeral nature of Oliver’s photography and the fluidity and freedom behind her portraits.

Lauren Noelle Oliver is a New York City-based multidisciplinary artist who uses photography, filmmaking and performance to explore her multicultural identity. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography from SUNY Purchase. Her photographs have been featured on i-D, Buzzfeed, F-stop Magazine, and The Luupe. Her first monograph, “Temple of the Self”, published by Monolith Editions in 2020, is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lauren works between the Gowanus Community Darkroom and the International Center of Photography where she teaches and helps coordinate educational programming.

STEPPING INTO THE FRAME was commissioned by and received full production support from MONO NO AWARE. The film was captured by the artist using a Rex-5 Bolex Camera & Crystal-sync motor on 16mm color film supplied by the organization. Exhibition prints were timed, printed and developed by our partners at ColorLab, MD. The film was edited on a 4-plate Steenbeck flatbed editing table, spliced with a CIRO Guillotine Splicer, and test performances were run at the MONO NO AWARE Mirco-cinema.

Fellow Organizers

Gowanus Darkroom is a community darkroom located in Gowanus Brooklyn. They provide photographers with the facilities needed to produce traditional darkroom photographs. They offer hourly rentals, monthly membership, studio rental, and regular classes and workshops. Their goal is to help preserve the art of analog photography and provide an affordable service for students to practice and learn. Gowanus Darkroom and MONO NO AWARE have been in collaboration since 2015.

CPR – Center for Performance Research is dedicated to supporting artists in the development of new work in contemporary dance and performance. CPR focuses its activities in three key areas: creative and professional development support; providing affordable space for artists; and public programming. Curated and open-call programs focus on providing artists with rehearsal, residency, and performance support, which generates time and space for research and dialogue, and creates opportunities to share work in a variety of contexts. CPR’s subsidized space rental program helps to ensure that artists can access CPR’s flexible studios and performance space at affordable rates to create and share their work. By presenting work to the public through performances, work-in-progress showings, salon-style discussions, exhibitions, and festivals, CPR exposes local audiences and its community to contemporary artistic practice and process. CPR was host to MONO NO AWARE's educational initiatives from 2011-2017.

* FRI DEC 2ND PROGRAM ONE : "SELF-REFLECTING PROPHECY"

GALLERY DOORS AT 7:00 PM PROGRAM BEGINS AT 7:30 PM SHARP - INSTALLATIONS ON VIEW * FRIDAY NIGHT ONLY 718 STUDIOS 130 Thames St, Brooklyn, NY 11237 LIMTED SEATING, ALL AGES, FREE TO ATTEND AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

BEAM / 16MM DUAL-PROJECTION INSTALLATION BLINN & LAMBERT (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES)

“Beam” is a two-channel animation that utilizes a hybrid process of rotoscoping, digital animation, long-exposure analog photography and ultimately 16mm film. Both channels are composed of overlapping layers of color created frame by frame, in-camera, which are then projected on top of each other creating a complex abstracted space of overlaid light. In the animation, the viewer moves continuously around a pirouetting spotlight as it scans the softly implied space of a large room. Projected on top of each other, the separate color palettes and staggered timing of the two channels create an unpredictable whole with the already-unpredictable process we have used to create this image: a moving light drawn with moving light.

Blinn and Lambert is the collaborative name of Nicholas Steindorf and Kyle Williams. We are based in Brooklyn, NY. In 2016 we began working together to expand our practices in optical media, special effects, installation, and animation. As Blinn and Lambert, we have exhibited at Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, NY; Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn, NY; American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, NY; Selena’s Mountain in Ridgewood, NY; ArtSpace in New Haven, CT; and PIX Film in Toronto. Together we have been awarded residencies at the LIFT Film Studio Immersion Program in Toronto and at the Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred University, Alfred, NY. Our shows have been reviewed in publications such as New York Times, Brooklyn Rail, and ArtCritical.

BIRTHDAY SONG / 16MM TRIPLE-CHANNEL INSTALLATION ERICA SHEU 徐璐 (LOS ANGELES, CA UNITED STATES)

I wanted to make a film for birthday / I wrote down as many notes as I could / until I couldn't keep up / I started to film but nothing interested me / I decided to print and cut / and thought of Interior Scroll / I pulled a long strip out / and used it as a bookmark

Erica Sheu / 徐璐 makes short films, expanded cinema and installation. Her work is often about diary filmmaking, cross-generational memories, language and history, collective singularity, and/or Taiwanese identity politics. Her experimental short films have been shown at NYFF Currents, TIFF Wavelengths, IFFR Bright Future, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periferico, EXiS, among others. Sheu works and lives in Los Angeles.

COAL / 16MM SINGLE-CHANNEL INSTALLATION JANIKA HERLEVI (OSTROBOTHNIA, VAASA, FINLAND)

A woman is shoveling coal into a furnace "dragon" in her cellar. Shot on super8, then scanned and printed by hand, then shot back to super8 frame by frame and finally on 16mm. The initial image gets tattered with the interference of the imperfect human hand. A woman’s work is never done.

Janika Herlevi (b. Finland 1978) is a visual artist / printmaker living and working in the west coast of Finland in the city of Vaasa. She received her BA in Visual Arts in 2001 and has since been involved in the arts with her main focus on drawing, printmaking and lately also analog film. She is a member of an artist-run film lab Filmverkstaden also situated in Vaasa, Finland.

DURATIONAL PROGRAM / PERFORMANCES

THREE FACES SCRATCHED IN CLOTH / 16MM TRIPLE-PROJECTION PERFORMANCE WITH OPTICAL SOUND PEACHES GOODRICH (PHILADELPHIA, PA, UNITED STATES)

3 endlessly looping animated faces. Both image and sound are made by removing emulsion with a box cutter. The audio was created by carving rudimentary patterns and frequencies into the film's optical track. The loops, traveling in and out of phase with each other, produce varying and ever shifting visuals, beats and rhythms.

Peaches Goodrich is an illustrator, filmmaker, animator, and musician. Born in Atlanta, currently in Philadelphia, Peaches collaborates with Sam Sharpe on the smorgasbord comics anthology Viewotron, creates experimental 16mm film animations, and performs with the disco-punk outfit Boston Cream.

AND SO SHE WORKS... FROM HOME... AS DOES SHE / 16MM DUAL-PROJECTION PERFORMANCE WITH OPTICAL SOUND SIMONE BARROS (DURHAM, NC, UNITED STATES)

The diptych, AND SO SHE WORKS... FROM HOME... AS DOES SHE compares two women working, both from home. The work of their hands, each of their tools and the concentration in their eyes transpire in parallel, dual projection. Side by side, the disparate women work in solitude. Then, one woman’s tool apparats in the other woman’s home. Inversely, the other woman’s tool materializes in the one woman’s home. A headache strikes one woman, then the other. While their work breaks down, a synchronic pain develops. All the while, a third embodied women ties the women to a history of feminine labor.

Simone Barros is currently completing research and experimentation in 16 mm, digital cinema and audio at Duke University’s MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts. Simone has taught filmmaking at Pratt Institute, Cleveland Institute of Art, and Cuyahoga Community College. Kelly Gildea and Melissa Guimaraes with immense kindness and generosity appear in AND SO SHE WORKS.. FROM HOME... AS DOES SHE.

THREE CITIES WINTER ‘19 / 16MM PROJECTION W/ STEEL GUITAR PERFORMANCE CONNOR KRAMERER (QUEENS, NY, UNITED STATES)

Motion cartography. 165 minutes filmed on three 3-minute rolls, each brought to a city and exposed in every ward/borough/arrondissement to construct multiple exposure maps in-camera in the winter months approaching 2020.

Connor Kammerer works with sound and images and lives in Queens, New York.

DUST IN THE WIND / 35MM SLIDE PROJECTION WITH LIVE NARRATION HSUAN-KUANG HSIEH (LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES)

Dust in the Wind is a single channel 35mm slide installation, made of 80 photographic slides of a site-specific translucent white flag flying on Elephant Hill in east Los Angeles. Spliced in between the images are fragmented texts, sourced from the English subtitles in the Taiwanese film 戀戀風塵 Dust in the Wind (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1986). Accompanying the image is the Taiwanese narration against the mechanical sound of the slide projector. The work explores the obscurity of a liminal state, things caught in the in-between, immersed in the surreal and real, static yet in motion, not in one place nor the other, language and translation, lost and regain.

Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh is a Taiwanese multimedia artist and filmmaker who currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Her practices include experimental film, projection art, photography and video installation. While rediscovering her roots in Taiwanese heritage and history, her work often explores the multicultural identity of the Asian diaspora, with particular interests in land as a source of identity, reminiscence objects and physical memory.

THE FOLLY / 16MM SINGLE-PROJECTION WITH LIVE NARRATION HASABIE KIDANU (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES)

In Ivan Vladislavic’s 1993 surrealist novel The Folly, two neighbors clear a plot of land into a tabula rasa to give way to a magnificent new structure. They frenzy over what is a house constructed solely from imagination, color, light, air, and mist. My film is inspired by the special effects of early 20th century cinema, and in it I become a frenzied builder myself. Cast as the third character, I look at the parallels between the novel’s themes and my studio: the unknown, building from fragments, illusion, madness, progress.

Hasabie Kidanu (b. 1990) is a visual artist working in printmaking and film - some are experimental animations, others documentary style film essays. Literature, folktales, and poetry that speak to metropolises as places of constant flux and embedded history inform her work. She heavily references techniques of early cinema, experimental filmmakers of the 70s, and surrealist Soviet animators. Her films have been screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Jan Van Eyck Akademie, and Film Madrid. She has been a member of the Blackburn Printmaking Studio in New York since 2014. Hasabie is one fourth of Digital Ancestors, an independent publishing co-operative based in Brooklyn, New York.

PULSOS SUBTERRANEOS / UNDERGROUND PULSES / 16MM MULTI-PROJECTION PERFORMANCE WITH LIVE SOUND ELENA PARDO (MEXICO CITY, MEXICO) MILLIE WISSAR ((LIMA, PERU & VANCOUVER, CANADA) MISHA MARKS ((WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND & MEXICO CITY, MEXICO)

Visible and underground territories, both physical and intangible, two regions of Mexico that currently experience or fight against mining companies: Zacatecas and Oaxaca.

Elena Pardo, Visual artist and director of documentary films, experimental cinema, and animation films. One of her lines of work is exploring the possibilities of photochemical film material. Since 2005 she has been part in the expanded cinema collective Trinchera Ensamble. She is also co-founder of Laboratorio Experimental de Cine [Experimental Film Laboratory] (LEC), an art project that surfaced in 2013. LEC engages in the dissemination, production, educational activities, and programming of content in different film formats. Elena also collaborates in audiovisual training programs in Oaxaca and Mexico City.

Millie Wissar is a sound artist born in Lima, Peru. She currently lives in Vancouver, Canada where she works as a sound designer and audio director for indie games at A Shell in the Pit Audio. As an artist, she has collaborated on projects with Pulsos Subterráneos, Cities and Memory, Santo Noise 2020 and The Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. In 2020 she worked with filmmakers Alex Gelis and Jorge Lozano for the program, LUXANDO, part of the VUCAVU Expanded project supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. Her sound piece was a sonic interpretation to Joyce Weiland’s Hand Tinting (Canada, 1967). Through her field recordings Millie explores topics that revolve around memory, noise and nature. Her curiosity for acoustic ecology led her to take an artist residency in Camp - France 2019, where she met her mentors, Leah Barclay, Annea Lockwood and Grant Smith. Performing in front of them inspired her to continue exploring soundscapes through field recordings, live streams and active listening, as well as participating more in the acoustic-ecology community. As an electronic music dj she explores latin inspired bass beats and experimental techno, playing at clubs and festivals around Vancouver.

Misha Marks, Wellington, New Zealand, 1983 Multi instrumentalist, composer and improviser from Aotearoa New Zealand based in Mexico City since 2008 and working in the field of adventurous music. Misha plays guitar, electric bass, baritone horn, tuba and accordion and plays in a broad range of projects, including free-improvisation, Mexican brass band, no-wave punk, afrobeat and music for theatre. He is an active in the vibrant creative music scene of Mexico City as a member of projects such as Generación Espontánea, Doquier, Champetos del Jùjú, Zancudos Tadeo and Carlos Marks among others, and has toured extensively internationally performing in festivals such as No Idea (Austin, TX) High Zero (Baltimore, MD) Wien Modern (Viena, A) Jogja Noise Bombing (Jogjakarta, Indonesia) Sarajevo Jazz Festival (Bosnia Herzegovina) and Finse Jazz Festival (Norway) to name a few.

OPTIPUS: THE MUSHROOM ARCHIVE / 16MM MULTI-PROJECTION PERFORMANCE WITH LIVE SOUND & POETRY BRADLEY EROS (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) LARY 7 (MANHATTAN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) SCOTT KIERNAN (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) RICHARD SYLVARNES (QUEENS, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) RACHAEL GUMA (QUEENS, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) GABRIEL GUMA (QUEENS, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) MASAMI TOMIHISA (QUEENS, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) LELE DAI (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) AVA WITONSKY (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) LINH VU (MANHATTAN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) BENJI SANTOS (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) LILY SAROSI (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES)

THE MUSHROOM ARCHIVE is a collaborative expanded cinema composition featuring live music, poetry, and performance. We aspire to weave together a spectrum of elements of the mycelium underground and its visual fruiting bodies, including death, decay, regeneration, remembrance, transformation, and the biomorphic ecology of the body and mind. In this, we hope to evoke the connective and regenerative potential of mycelium.

Optipus is a nomadic group of chameleon artists, cine-scientists in search of a laboratory, shape-shifting according to site-specific requirements. The group embraces the ephemeral cinema of unfixed forms and open composition. It is a magnetic field, derived from the psychic urge to build, via collective energy and desire, that also contains its opposite, the destructive impulse, seen in its wild sway towards the dangers of pure experimentation, obsolete media, and an attraction to aesthetic decay, technological destruction and failure. Optipus’s members emerge in myriad collaborations, producing works and events, soundtracks and invented instruments, video edits and film loops, and expanded cinema and immersive installations. Optipus has been seen at various venues including The Kitchen, Anthology Film Archives, The KnockDownCenter, The Parrish Museum, Participant Inc., New York University, MANA Contemporary, Microscope Gallery, Bobby Redd Project Space (The Church), Millennium Film Workshop and others. We use (or misuse?) film projectors {35mm, 16mm, Super 8mm, R8} + slide projectors (35mm & magic lantern), Overhead projectors, and video projection & cameras (hand-held, live recording & re-mixing), plus shadow play, liquid light, transparencies, gels, external lenses, loops, hand-processed & hand-painted celluloid, objects, foley, mirrors, mylar, contact mics, mobiles, synths, strings, percussion, samples, transistor radios, music boxes, toys, appliances, & mutable and myriad screen surfaces . . .

INTER-PROGRAM DJ / HOUSE DJ SPAWTR (BROOKLYN, NY, US) & MARCO ENRI ( BROOKLYN, NY, US)

Making his DJ debut DJ SPAWTR is a full time Barista and part time Actor chasing his dream of moonlighting as a DJ. He is so incredibly grateful to Steve and the entire team at MONO NO AWARE for this opportunity. Dreams come true. With SPAWTR is Marco Enri, a techno and ambient producer from Texas whose live sets invite dancing and contemplation through house techno and experimental electronic groove.

* SAT DEC 3RD PROGRAM TWO : "OUT OF SHADOWS CAST"

GALLERY DOORS AT 7:00 PM PROGRAM BEGINS AT 7:30 PM SHARP - INSTALLATIONS ON VIEW * SATURDAY NIGHT ONLY 718 STUDIOS 130 Thames St, Brooklyn, NY 11237 LIMTED SEATING, ALL AGES, FREE TO ATTEND AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

TOUCHING THE RUMBLE OF MELTING / 16MM INSTALLATION NUNG-HSIN HU (LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES)

“Touching the Rumble of Melting” 16mm film installation reflects on my journey to the Arctic Circle where I experienced heart-pounding emotions when a seemingly serene Arctic landscape collapsed, abruptly. The iceberg images I had taken were collaged onto the soundtrack of 16mm film. After the “optical soundtrack” of the film projector transforms the iceberg images into audio, the sound is again converted into vibration frequency by the tactile speakers. The speakers are attached to an aluminum plate and produce rumbling sounds and vibrations in response to the iceberg images. As the whole film installation moves with the smallest of stimuli, this reflects how the global environment intertwines with the fragile polar landscape. In addition, the collage on the soundtrack also includes the iceberg image from the French silent fantasy film “The Conquest of the Pole '' directed by Georges Méliès (1912) which was made during the period of the Heroic Age of Polar Exploration. The vibration frequency from the installation juxtaposing early fictional imagination and the modern polar expedition echoes over 100 years of human intervention in the polar region.

Touching the Rumble of Melting is supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.

Nung-Hsin Hu (胡農欣) is a Taiwanese-born U.S.-based interdisciplinary artist who interweaves video, sculpture, performance, and installation in her practice. Her work intends to reveal the invisible status, articulate the unconsciousness, and perform the vulnerability through a poetic and whimsical approach. Her current projects utilize analog film as the main media, applying the light-sensitive, nostalgic, and ephemeral features to address a sense of loss and collective grief in this uncertain era, as well as touching on the subjects of time, memory, and mortality. Hu also combines traditional and direct filmmaking techniques and infused language literacy with optical soundtracks to bring movement and sound components into film installations. Her newly completed artist’s book “Three Suns” is also an analogue film inspired project. Her recent exhibitions include Incurable Nostalgia (18th Street Arts Center, Los Angeles, 2020), The Hours After (Singapore Art Week, Singapore, 2021), and Future Alchemy (Jakarta Biennale, Jakarta, 2022). Hu has received various grants, including the Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, National Culture and Arts Foundation of Taiwan-International Exchange Grant, and Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning—Van Lier Fellowship. She has also participated in international residencies including Casa das Caldeiras in São Paulo, the Treasure Hill Artist Village in Taiwan, the Arctic Circle Residency Program in Norway, SHIFT residency at the EFA Project Space in New York, SÍM residency in Iceland, and the 18th Street Arts Center in Los Angeles.

EVERYTHING COMES FULL CIRCLE / 16MM INSTALLATION LILAN YANG (PROVIDENCE, RI UNITED STATES)

Following Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) filming locations from Houston, Texas to Los Angeles, California, Lilan Yang used a 16mm Bolex camera to capture the vastness of the American West. The footage drew her to reminisce about snippets of her everyday life. She contemplates how we perceive the world through analog optical apparatuses and how memories are multidimensional yet fragile. Our recollections of people and places can be distorted, unrecognizable, and fictitious. These memories would eventually diminish with the passing of time. Everything Comes Full Circle is a personal attempt to remember things that will soon be forgotten. The original footage was shot in Kodak 16mm film stocks during the summer of 2021 and edited digitally with voiceover. Later the digital moving images were inkjet printed on clear film spliced together with perforations cut out with a laser cutter. Each run of the projection makes the printer ink slowly melt, and the film will eventually fall into decay over the course of time.

INTO THE NIGHT / KINETIC SCULPTURE RAY CHANG (BURBANK, CALIFORNIA UNITED STATES)

'Into the Night' is a kinetic sculpture piece utilizing the concrete barrier that runs along the Santa Monica Pier as a motif. Throughout a day, the shadows produced by the barrier became a study of forms and patterns; dissecting elements not immediately recognizable as is. By recreating these patterns in miniature 3d forms, the sculpture puts these observations in motion and projects them onto a viewing screen.

Ray Chang is a Taiwanese-American artist, currently based in Los Angeles. His practice is based in cinema and its principles, and traverses a range of forms including animation, sculpture, mechanical design, lighting, sound, and installation. His more recent work investigates the complexities of the contemporary world and the nature of cinema through the creation of performative sculpture-machines.

DURATIONAL PROGRAM / PERFORMANCES

MERE DIL MERE MUSAAFIR / 16MM SINGLE-PROJECTION WITH LIVE NARRATION JULIA ZANIN DE PAULA (BENTO GONÇALVES, BRAZIL) IMAN SELACHII (LAHORE, PAKISTAN)

Mere Dil Mere Musaafir (My Heart, My Traveler) is a visual expression of the unknown through the eyes of different cultures and languages. Brazilian director and editor, Peruvian cinematographer, Polish performer, Pakistani producer and voice-over artist, and Chamorro producer.

JULIA ZANIN DE PAULA is an award-winning Brazillian filmmaker and designer based in New York. Her latest film, A Mother of Monsters, screened at over 40 festivals including SITGES, Festival de Cinema de Gramado, and the NOLA Horror Film Festival, receiving 18 awards on the circuit. With 7+ years experience on commercials, including work with Volkswagen, Coca-Cola, Ray-Ban, Polaroid, and Mastercard, as well as directing narrative shorts and music videos, Julia’s work has been screened around the world and celebrated for its fantastic realism. Julia has an eye for finding beauty in the bizarre and horror in the peculiar — One eye, to be precise. Born blind in one eye, Julia was drawn to the camera’s one lens, and found her flair for filmmaking at an early age.

IMAN SELACHII was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan. In her work, she aims to combine her cultural roots with hip hop and poetry. She is a poet and a lyricist, and also explores blending genres in her music. Her artist name is Iman Selachii stemming from her passion for sharks and their conservation. Look out for her upcoming musical album.

WHEN THE SEEDS SAY ENOUGH / S8MM DUAL-PROJECTION PERFORMANCE WITH LIVE SOUND & NARRATION DOMINICK RIVERS (BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA, UNITED STATES)

WHEN THE SEEDS SAY ENOUGH is a study on the power of film and video in relation to memory and loss with specific focus on the materiality of film and the material culture of death. By employing alternative photographic processes, this work draws attention to the meaning invested in antiquated technology and visual language, as well as its role in our conception of videographic memory. Using the personal archive as a raw material, WHEN THE SEEDS SAY ENOUGH challenges the postmortem canonization of individuals by extending their temporal influence. This work is an act of eulogy, an open letter to my late brother, with the thematic centerpiece being what remains of our childhood home. The left channel of the diptych, hand-developed in caffenol, invokes lived experience, whereas the right channel, culled from home videos, is a visual representation of videographic memory. This effect is achieved through mordançage and then creating a cyanotype of the Super 8 film. This performance, featuring a live score and narration, is a modification of a larger installation-based project.

Dominick Rivers is an experimental filmmaker who employs alternative photographic processes in his work. By integrating technically outdated forms, he uses video work, framed by larger installations, to examine the popular media used to capture and sentimentalize memory. His research is focused on developing substitutions to alternative photographic processes to demonstrate that commonly accepted techniques can be made more accessible, environmentally sustainable, and remain emotionally exigent. Dominick is also a multi-instrumentalist who writes, records, and produces the soundscapes and musical accompaniments to his work.

NOWADAYS / MULTI-FORMAT MULTI-PROJECTION PERFORMANCE TESSA HUGHES-FREELAND (NEW YORK, NEW YORK UNITED STATES)

A response to a request from a visual artist who was conceiving of an international performance across technology. My multiple projections were to be projected onto a dancer in Spain and the musicians were to be coming from elsewhere. Due to technical and equipment problems the performance never happened, but the multiple projection piece does.

Tessa Hughes-Freeland works in a variety of formats and mediums, and her films have been shown in diverse venues, ranging from internationally prominent museums to seedy bars in gritty neighborhoods. Her work is best described as "confrontational, transgressive, provocative and poetic". Her films have screened internationally in North America, Europe and Australia and in prominent museums and galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and the KW Institute of Contemporary Art in Berlin. In 2018 a program of her films was included in the “No–Wave, Transgression” Film Series at MoMA. Recently she has had solo exhibitions in New York City, Woodstock and in Gothenburg, Sweden. Five of her films were also included in an exhibition touring through museums in Asia Hughes-Freeland has been a juror for several festivals, and has programmed extensively, most recently for “Punk Lust: Radical Provocation 1971-85“at The Museum of Sex. She was also President of the Board of directors for the New York Film-makers Co-operative for several years.

DEVOTION / 16MM SINGLE-PROJECTION WITH LIVE SOUND SARA SCUR (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) HUGO WAI (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES)

This is an experimental piece about intimacy, innocence, lust and what happens when we meet each other on that plane.

Sara Scur studied both theatre and on camera performance at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. She self published a book of poetry in 2019. She enjoys sticking her hands in many forms of expression which includes Devotion, her first film. Sara’s artwork is mostly influenced by her heartbreaks and depression (so you know it’s good). Her and Hugo Wai formed The Slutty Pizza Rats during quarantine days. Hugo Wai is a part-time musician (barely). Hugo Wai was born in Bangkok, Thailand and moved to Los Angeles as a troubled teen (used to not wear seatbelts). He moved to NEW YORK CIT-AY to get away from his loving family. After meeting Sara Scur (New York City based artist) at a roller disco, they formed a band, the Slutty Pizza Rats. Hugo Wai is not an artist.

THE LOVESICK SERPENT / 16MM SINGLE CHANNEL-PROJECTION WITH LIVE SOUND CHAE YU (SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA)

Tales of the lovesick serpent “Sangsabaem” is a Korean folklore about a protagonist who dies from the pain of unrequited love and turns into a snake to express their suppressed emotions to the object of affection.

Chae Yu is a filmmaker based in Seoul, Korea. She studied film and digital media at Dongguk University. Her films has been presented in multiple festivals including Image Forum Tokyo, Seoul Independent Film Festival, Seoul International ALT Cinema & Media Festival, and Busan Cinema Center. Her latest film screened at Los Otros and Hanoi DOCLAB as part of AAMP (Asian Artist Moving Image Platform) Forum Festival.

CONTENT WARNING / 16MM SINGLE-CHANNEL PROJECTION WITH SPOKEN WORD PERFORMANCE AYANNA DOZIER (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES)

Content Warning comments on a variety of issues facing Black women's access to reproductive health care and sexual assault therapy. Culled from personal anecdotes and memory, I film several performers recounting my experiences with sexual justice to an audience. The sound is removed to enable me to provide audio via a live reverse lip sync. By having the same performer voice this archive of moving images of other performers, I aim to destabilize the singular status of assault testimony. While the piece is structured to be performed as a live one-time performance, the silent visuals alongside a printed transcript can be played on a loop as an extended installation if desired.

Ayanna Dozier is a Brooklyn-based artist-writer working across film (both motion picture and still), performance, and installation. She recently completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University. Following the conceptual artworksby prominent feminist artists of the genre, like Ana Mendieta, Adrian Piper, and Lorna Simpson, Dozier combines performance and discourse from her scholarly training to embody andchallenge the records of history. Her films have screened at film festivals across the United States and the United Kingdom which includes; Prismatic Ground (2022), Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival (2021), Open City Docs (2020), and Aesthetica Film Festival where she was the recipient of Best Experimental in 2020 for her film Softer. She is the 2022 fall recipient of the Field Residency at Field Projects and is currently working on a manuscript on the life and art of abstract film and visual artist, Camille Billops. Helina Metaferia is an interdisciplinary artist working across collage, assemblage, video, performance, and social engagement. Her work integrates archives, somatic studies, and dialogical practices, creating overlooked narratives that amplify BIPOC/femme bodies. Metaferia’s work has been supported by several residencies including MacDowell, Yaddo, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, and MASS MoCA. She is currently a 2021-2023 artist-in-residence at Silver Art Projects at the World Trade Center in New York City. Her work has been written about in publications including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Artnet News, and Hyperallergic. Metaferia is an Assistant Professor at Brown University in the Visual Art department, and lives and works in New York City. Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow is a 1.5 generation Jamaican-American interdisciplinary artist living and working in Queens, NY. Her work often explores performance and installation art drawing from the nostalgia of her homeland, Caribbean folklore, fantasy, feminism, globalism, spirituality, environmentalism, and migration. She holds a BFA with honors from New World School of the Arts, University of Florida and an MFA from Hunter College, CUNY. Lyn-Kee-Chow’s work has garnered a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award in Interdisciplinary Art (2012), Rema Hort Mann Artist in Community Engagement Award (2017), Franklin Furnace Fund (2017-18), Culture Push Fellowship for Utopian Practice (2018), and Queens Art Fund (2019). She is also a faculty member at School of Visual Arts, NY.

SEVEN SINS OF MEMORY / 16MM MULTI-PROJECTION PERFORMANCE WITH LIVE SOUND IEVA BALODE (RIGA, LATVIA) MAKSIMS ŠENTEĻEVS (RIGA, LATVIA)

The work is based on a book "Seven Sins of Memory" written by American psychologist Daniel Schacter. It explores seven different types of how human mind remembers and forgets. The method was later used as a guidance for seven parts of performance using seven different methods of film printing and projection. Material of the work contains footage of black and white Soviet propaganda film "War of the Fatherland" which has been reproduced and copied using 16mm contact printing technique and various colour light manipulations on colour print film. The sound is then made accordingly to those parts too using tape loops, theremin and optical sound of used film loops. Significant part of the sound are archival voice recordings of Latvian soldiers who survived WW2 used from the Latvian National Oral history collection.

Ieva Balode (born in 1987, Riga, Latvia) is an artist and film activist working with photochemical film and image. With her works she takes part in international exhibitions and festivals presenting her work both in installation, as well as cinema and performance situation. As a film activist she is a founding member of Baltic Analog Lab - artists collective providing a space and platform for photo-chemical film production, research and education. She is also a director of experimental film festival "Process" happening in Riga from year 2017.

Maksims Shentelevs is an architect and phonographer based in Riga, Latvia. Active in field recording since 2002. Treats sound gathering as non-intervention policy into nature observation. In his field research mainly interested in biotopes referring habitats of insects and small beings. Recently involves self-made instruments as tools for interplay with nature. Since 2006 works on site specific research project soundscape mapping. In 2007 initiated sound art project bērnu rīts [the children's matinee]. In 2008 based cd-r label molmika. Organizes sound workshops, lectures and performances. Often in collaboration with Patrick mcGinley and John Grzinich

INTER-PROGRAM DJ / HOUSE SCUBA ROB (BROOKLYN, NY, US)

Rob is a filmmaker most of the time. But when he is not, he's scouring the depths of the internet and local record stores for music to make you move.

* SUN DEC 4TH "DEPRIVATION" by Caity Arthur

Presented in partnership with The Wythe Hotel Cinema DOORS AT 7:00 PM SCREENING AT 7:15 PM SHARP PLEASE RSVP BELOW TO RESERVE A SEAT 7:15 PM SCREENING HAS SOLD OUT PLEASE RSVP HERE FOR THE 8:30 PM SCREENING OF DEPRIVATION
WYTHE HOTEL CINEMA 80 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11249 LIMTED SEATING, ALL AGES, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND FREE TO ATTEND

DEPRIVATION / 16MM FILM WITH OPTICAL SOUND - CAITY ARTHUR (BROOKLYN, NY, US) & CHANDLER ARTHUR (BROOKLYN, NY, US)

Just a year after losing their partner, Chuck is still battling nightmares and paranoia, leading them to believe that what appears in the shadows is all in their mind. They quite quickly find themself unable to explain the unusual hauntings and surreal visions that seem to keep intervening. Are these delusions of sleep paralysis a product of repressed grief, or are they actually real? Centered on the repercussions of trauma, Deprivation asks what limitations there are when it comes to blurring reality from personal fear.

CAITY ARTHUR (they/them) is a director, analog filmmaker, SFX artist, and experimental photographer with a focus on clown drag and horror. Some of their most recent projects include directing videos for the artist Junglepussy, supporting her on a North American tour alongside Tame Impala, in addition to their work editing and producing at Vice Media (and previously for Condé Nast). As a filmmaker, their work is influenced stylistically by Japanese and European horror films where narratives often intersect with fantasy and domesticity. Like their first short, a vampire horror film (LILITH) set in present day, DEPRIVATION explores the psychological effects of holding onto trauma from their perspective.

CHANDLER ARTHUR (b. 1994, New Jersey - She/Her/They) is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Chicago, Illinois. Her multi-layered practice, which focuses on themes of femininity, power, and individuality is expressed through her vibrant illustrations and colorful character design. Her work primarily showcases women of color and creates empathetic narratives inspired by her lived experiences. Her work has been featured with RAW Artists Showcases and Braided Magazine, and has worked with Def Jam Records (2020); Walker Nickel Design (2020); Ace Hotel Chicago (2021); Jukebox Collective (2021); and Junglepussy.

CAITY ARTHUR - DIRECTOR / CINEMATOGRAPHER / PRODUCER / SET STYLIST / ART DIRECTOR

CHANDLER ARTHUR - ORIGINAL COMIC ILLUSTRATOR & WRITER

LIV MAINS - ASSOCIATE PRODUCER / PRODUCTION COORDINATOR / WARDROBE LEAD / SET STYLIST

STEVE COSSMAN - EXECUTIVE PRODUCER / VFX - STOP MOTION ANIMATOR

CRISTAL JEFFERSON - GAFFER

NINA CARELLI - SFX MUA

KHARI LUCAS - SOUND DESIGNER / FILM SCORE COMPOSER

MATT JEON - EDITOR / SPECIAL EFFECTS

CHANDLER ARTHUR - GFX ANIMATOR

STEPHANIE PARK - COLORIST

SUSAN MOON - SCRIPTWRITER

COY DILL - WARDROBE ASSISTANT

KOI KING - LEAD 1 - CHUCK

IDALIS RIDEOUT - LEAD 2 - JES

NICOLE COURTNEY - COWORKER

KE'RON WILSON - BEAUTIFUL PERSON 1

ELIYA WEST - BEAUTIFUL PERSON 2

-DEPRIVATION was commissioned by and received full production support from MONO NO AWARE. The film was captured by the artist using an AATON LTR Camera and ARRI lighting kit on 16mm color film supplied by the organization. Optical sound exhibition prints were timed, printed and developed by our partners ColorLab, MD.

Organizers:

Wythe Hotel is the original boutique hotel in Williamsburg Brooklyn, focused on culture, food, community, and warm, genuine service. We are staunchly local, and mindful of our role in Brooklyn’s proud history of welcoming people from all over the world.

MONO XVI PROGRAM SUPPORTED BY:

 
 
 

YEAR ROUND PARTNERS OF THE ORG

MONO XVI FESTIVAL HOST VENUES & TRANSIT

2022 FOOD & BEVERAGE SPONSORS IN KIND

MONO NO AWARE is proud to promote the 16mm Optically Printed work “VOLCANO: WHAT DOES A LAKE DREAM?” by Diana Vidrascu as our festival call for entries image this year. Diana Vidrascu (1987, Romania) is a filmmaker based in Paris, France. Working with film, photography and installation, Diana Vidrascu questions the narrative devices of cinema by challenging the limits of the narrative discourse and codes of the film genres.