__Runaway__

Meg Knowles (Dir), 70 minutes, NY Premiere, USA

__WNY Centerpiece__

Buffalo-based filmmaker Meg Knowles retraces the steps of her sister, who in the summer of '73 ran away from an upscale New England summer camp, hitchhiking cross-country to California. Weaving a tale of teen angst gone off the rails, a mother’s patient desperation and a sister’s disbelief, Knowles’ warm, personal documentary begs the question: does retracing your steps heal old wounds or make new ones?

______________________________________________________________

__Runaway is [available online](https://www.buffalofilm.org/lineup/events/runaway/ "Runaway - Rent Online"), and will also be screening at the Dark Alley Drive-in on Friday, October 9, 2020 from 7:30 - 9:30 PM.__

[Watch the filmmaker Q+A here!](https://vimeo.com/467169945)


Screening w/ Filmmaker Q&A

Runaway

In the summer '73 Content Knowles runs away from an upscale New England summer camp, hitchhiking cross-country to California.

Dark Alley Drive-in

__Givers of Death (G.O.D.)__

Addison Henderson (Dir), 97 minutes, Special Presentation, USA

A hitman (Addison Henderson) searches for redemption while on the run from a cop seeking revenge (Jonathan Sterritt), in this apocalyptic, sci-fi tale. Co-staring JJ Alfieri and Louis Lombardi.

[Please note that this screening will only occur once at the Dark Alley Drive-in on Sunday, October 9, 2020 from 10:00 - 11:59 PM. It will not be accessible as part of our online festival.](https://buffalofilm2020.eventive.org/schedule/5f70176ce2317500fbc898f1)

Givers of Death (G.O.D.)

A hitman searches for redemption while on the run from a cop seeking revenge, in this apocalyptic, sci-fi tale. 

__BIFF Shorts: WNY Stories__

Celebrating unique perspectives, voices and stories from Western New York.

__________________

__Bound by Spring__

Susan Kehl (Dir), 18 minutes, World Premiere, USA

An emotionally distant father (Mick O'Keefe) and daughter (Tina Mistric) find common ground on a stone that wields the power to transport them to a different world.
__________________

__attention at tension__

Azalia Muchransyah (Dir), 9 minutes, World Premiere, USA

University at Buffalo PhD candidate Azalia Muchransyah ponders anxiety, her career, global politics, isolation, motherhood and a Western New York winter through the COVID19 pandemic in a video journal told entirely through her computer screen.
__________________

__Enid & Mami__

Julia Reagan (Dir), 18 minutes, Festival Premiere, USA

Director Julia Reagan’s moving and often humorous short documentary explores the bond between a mother, a feisty Westside, Buffalo-based senior citizen and her daughter – an educator, pastor, and caretaker to her mother. 
__________________

__Maxine__

Brandon Schila (Dir), 30 minutes, World Premiere, USA

This nod to no wave cinema, finds Frazier (Singer Jazmine) traversing a lonely WNY landscape, as she takes time off from performing for a self-discovery.
__________________

__Father__

Erika Mary Frase (Dir), 10 minutes, Buffalo City Premiere, USA

The worlds of two men with different life experiences collide when they realize that they’re not so different after all.
__________________

__From A Distance__

Akram Shibly (Dir), 22 minutes, World Premiere, USA

Syrian-American siblings (including WNY-based director Akram Shibly) reflect on the impact of the refugee crisis during a visit to Lebanon, uncovering the personal price the catastrophe has had on their family from a distance.

______________________________________________________________

__BIFF's WNY Stories Shorts Block is [available online](https://www.buffalofilm.org/lineup/events/biff-shorts-wny-stories-2020/ "BIFF Shorts: WNY Stories - Rent + Watch Online"), and will also be screening at the Dark Alley Drive-in on Saturday, October 10, 2020 from 7:30 - 9:30 PM.__

______________________________________________________________

[Watch the Virtual Red Carpet Interview for *Enid & Mami* here!](https://vimeo.com/468071018)


BIFF Shorts: WNY Stories

Celebrating unique perspectives, voices and stories from Western New York.

__Go/Don’t Go__

Alex Knapp (Dir), 95 minutes, WNY Premiere, USA

Heartbroken and paranoid, wallflower Adam (writer/director Alex Knapp) traverses a barren landscape.
_________

Screening with:

__Bodies__

Jacob Anderson (Dir), 10 minutes, WNY Premiere, USA

Amy (Amelie Hoeferle) and Andy (Jaxton Jordan) make a shocking discovery in the woods after a carefree day.

______________________________________________________________

[Please note that this screening will only occur once at the Dark Alley Drive-in on Saturday, October 10, 2020 from 9:45 - 11:45 PM. It will not be accessible as part of our online festival.](https://buffalofilm2020.eventive.org/schedule/5f5ecc9b0b804700701314ff)

[Watch the filmmaker Q+A here!](https://vimeo.com/466919291)


Go/Don’t Go w/ Bodies

Heartbroken and paranoid, wallflower Adam traverses a barren landscape.

__Evidentiary Bodies__, Barbara Hammer

2018, 9:30 min, color, sound, three-channel HD video

__On View Oct 8–28__ @ [Eleven Twenty Projects](http://eleventwentyprojects.com/), 10am-8pm Tues-Sat, by appointment only

Barbara Hammer’s critically acclaimed, three-channel installation __Evidentiary Bodies__ presents its audience with a rather personal portrait that explores the landscape of the artist’s body and mind through carefully crafted performance and self-reflexive imagery that draws out themes of cancer, mortality, longing, love and loss. An audio-visually rich, moving-image-triptych, __Evidentiary Bodies__ envelops its audience and asks them to breathe deeply with the artist.  Hammer’s first and only multi-channel installation is a hauntingly beautiful piece inside and out, and is not to be missed. As Hammer herself put it, “This could be empathy.”

To __reserve__ a timeslot to visit, please __send an email to info@buffalofilm.org__ with __“Barbara Hammer: Evidentiary Bodies”__ in the subject line, and with your first/last name and desired date/time in the body of the email. Visits are organized every hour on the hour, and participants can stay up to 40 minutes to enjoy multiple, consecutive viewings.  Due to Covid restrictions at the gallery, masks are required, and no more than one party (up to 5 ppl) will be allowed a reservation at a time.

____________________________________________________________________

__About the artist:__

[Barbara Hammer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Hammer) (1939-2019) is an internationally celebrated artist who favored film as her medium of choice, and created over 90 moving-image-based works over the course of her 50-year career  (though she might say, each filmmaker is really just making one film).  Not only a prolific, but a pioneering artist, she made significant and lasting contributions to lesbian and queer cinema. She studied film at San Francisco State University, and after coming out as a lesbian, she “took off on a motorcycle with a super-8 camera” and in 1974 made her breakout piece *Dyketactics*, one of the first lesbian films. Her trilogy of experimental documentaries on lesbian and queer histories are considered canonical cinema: *Nitrate Kisses, Tender Fictions,* and *History Lessons*. Upon diagnosis with Stage III Ovarian Cancer in 2006, Barbara turned her attention to the body, the self, and representation in a different way, making her award-winning 2009 film, *A Horse Is Not A Metaphor*, a celebratory film that embraces life through cancer, and in the 13 years following her initial diagnosis, Hammer made seven new films.

In 2017, she created the [Barbara Hammer Lesbian Experimental Filmmaking Grant](https://www.queer-art.org/hammer-grant) to be awarded annually to support the creation of visionary moving-image artwork by self-identified lesbians, and the [SFSU Queer Cinema Project ](https://queercinemaproject.sfsu.edu/about-us)an award for LGBTQIA+ student filmmakers towards completion of an LGBTQIA+ themed film.  Before she left this world in 2019, Hammer became an advocate for dying with dignity and embracing one’s mortality, exploring these concepts in *The Art of Dying*, a performative lecture at the Whitney Museum of Art in October 2018 and in __Evidentiary Bodies__, the breathtaking installation we present to you now. She lived happily with her partner Florrie Burke for over 30 years.

There have been numerous retrospectives of [Barbara Hammer](https://barbarahammer.com/)’s work, including:
Museum of Modern Art, New York City (September 15 – October 13, 2010)
Tate Modern, London (February 3 – 26, 2012)
Jeu de paume, Paris (June 12 – July 1, 2012)
Toronto International Film Festival Cinematheque Free Screen (Winter 2013)
Whitney Museum of Art, New York City (October 10, 2018)
La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Barcelona (09 June, 2020 – October 18, 2020)

Hammer is also a BIFF alum, and presented her feature-length homage to and character study of Elizabeth Bishop –* Welcome to This House* – at the festival in 2015.

_________________________________________________________________

__Evidentiary Bodies__ and promotional materials courtesy of The Barbara Hammer Estate and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.

Our deepest gratitude to Florrie Burke. Thank you to Chet Catherine Pancake + Karl McCool as well.

Additional credits: Producer/Director/Editor: Barbara Hammer. Cinematography: Angel Favorite. Music: Norman Scott Johnson. Sound Processing: David Lawrence Goldman. Sound Editing/Composition: Barbara Hammer. Final Edit/Sound Mix: Paul Hill. Thanks to The Wexner Center for the Arts, Artist Residency.

And thank you to Burchfield Penney Art Center, John Malinowski and Scott Propeack for the generous installation support.


BIFF Offscreen

BIFF Offscreen: Barbara Hammer’s Evidentiary Bodies

Barbara Hammer’s first and only multi-channel installation is a hauntingly beautiful piece and is not to be missed!

Eleven Twenty Projects

__BIFF Offscreen: The Vasulkas – Orbital Obsessions + Art of Memory__

__On View Oct 8–12__ on The Front Lawn @ [Burchfield Penney Art Center](https://www.burchfieldpenney.org/), nighly from sunset to sunrise

 __Orbital Obsessions__, Steina Vasulka
1977, 24:30 min, black & white, sound, three-channel, ½” reel-to-reel video to HD video

In __Orbital Obsessions__, Steina Vasulka *moves the moving image*. Video imagery is simultaneously performed, recorded, and played live as source signals are processed, keyed and redirected to create a variety of events, wherein performance becomes a piece in real time.  Using two cameras – one pointed into the studio and surveying it in a continuous, cyclic pan around the room, another pointed into a monitor and changing perspective throughout the piece.  Woody zooms, pulls focus and pans while Steina walks with a monitor pointing back at the camera rotating slowly atop a tripod mounted to a motorized wheel, with a reel-to-reel player cycling through a ½” video underneath.  Everything is spinning and the audience is drawn into the spatial distortion of the maelstrom that the motion and objects create in concert.  Steina uses her body and movements to cut through interlacing signals and to further interrupt and interact with the physical and electronic spaces. A grey-black-white-bleeding image and mise-en-abîme highlight the interaction between body and machine, with the feedback distortion and the 60-cycle hum keeping time for the orchestral.  Shot in their beloved Buffalo studio in ‘77, as Steina says as the video begins its twirl into a constantly kinetic, circular pan around the room – “*that might be really interesting, alright*.”  

_________________________________________________________________________

__Art of Memory__, Woody Vasulka
1987, 36:30, color, sound, three-channel, ¾” U-matic video to HD video

Shot on location in Taos, New Mexico, __Art of Memory__ is one of Woody Vasulka’s most iconic works, and features landscape imagery of the American ideological West mixed together with seminal photographic and cinematic images of destruction from catastrophic events throughout world history – The Spanish Civil War, the Russian Revolution, World War Two, the dropping of the nuclear bomb, and more. Those images, seared into collective cultural memories across the globe – are stripped bare and represented as 3D armor made of 525 malleable lines, to reveal the thinking space of the cinema in its most honest form.  An active poetics in image and text is performed as Woody reshapes, repositions and reforms these exoskeleton into the shape of memory itself. 

Deeply saturated color is contrasted against black and white shapes and archival materials, drawing attention to the function of the media archive as artifact and tool.  In this piece, memory is a form of forgetting and forgetting is a form of remembering.

_________________________________________________________________________

Both video art works are also featured in BIFF’s Arthouse Centerpiece film – [The Vasulka Effect](https://www.buffalofilm.org/lineup/events/the-vasulka-effect/) by Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir. 

_________________________________________________________________________

__About the Artists:__

__Steina Vasulka__ and __Woody Vasulka__ are major figures in video history, technical pioneers who have contributed enormously to the evolution of the medium. The Vasulkas' technological investigations into analog and digital processes and their development of electronic imaging tools, which began in the early 1970s, place them among the primary architects of an expressive electronic vocabulary of image-making. Applying an informal, real-time spontaneity to their formalist, often didactic technical research, they chart the evolving formulation of a grammar and syntax of electronic imaging as they articulate a processual dialogue between artist and technology.

The Vasulkas' early collaborative efforts, produced from 1970 to 1974, include phenomenological explorations that deconstruct the materiality of the electronic signal and analyze the imaging capabilities of video tools. Central to these increasingly complex exercises are explorations of the malleability of the image, the manipulation of electronic energy, and the interrelation of sound and image.

In the mid-1970s, working with such engineer/designers as Eric Siegel, George Brown, Steve Rutt and Bill Etra, the Vasulkas developed electronic tools specifically for use by artists. With Jeffrey Schier they developed the Digital Image Articulator, a device that allows the digital processing of video imagery in real-time. Steina's training as a violinist, and Woody Vasulka's background as an engineer and filmmaker, informed their invention of electronic devices to transform sound, image, space and time — themes that they have pursued independently in their later works. Though the Vasulkas continue to collaborate, since 1975 they have produced much of their work individually.

The Vasulkas immigrated to the United States in 1965, and began their collaborative exploration of electronic media in 1969. In 1971, they co-founded The Kitchen, a major alternative exhibition and media arts center in New York. From 1973 to 1979, the Vasulkas lived and worked in Buffalo, New York, where they were faculty members at the Center for Media Study, State University of New York. The Vasulkas have received numerous awards for their work in the media arts, including grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 1989, they received a United States/Japan Exchange Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Vasulkas have broadcast and exhibited their collaborative works extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan, at institutions including The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, among many others. They had a retrospective at Berg Contemporary, Iceland in 2018.

– Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI)

_________________________________________________________________________

*Orbital Obsessions* and *The Art of Memory*, and promotional materials courtesy of Steina Vasulka.

Our deepest gratitude to Steina Vasulka, and thank you to Rebekkah Palov + Peer Bode + Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir + Don Metz + Luca Ceccarelli as well.

_________________________________________________________________________


 BIFF Offscreen: The Vasulkas – Orbital Obsessions + Art of Memory

Orbital Obsessions + Art of Memory on view sunset to sunrise Oct 8–12 on The Front Lawn @ Burchfield Penney Art Center.

Burchfield Penney Art Center

__The Sun Also Rises, The Sun Also Sets__

__Oct 8 @ 6:30am-8:00am__ + __Oct 12 @ 6:00pm-7:30pm__: live performance by Crossborder Collective streamed to social + website

Drawing from the visual language of the establishing shot and the closing shot and of opening and closing credits, *The Sun Also Rises, The Sun Also Sets* is a literal cross-border exchange of perspectives and performances.
____________

__Dates + Locations:__

__Oct 8, 2020 – Sunrise (7:22 AM):__ Waverly Beach, Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada / Buffalo’s Outer Harbor, Buffalo, New York, USA 

__Oct 12, 2020 – Sunset (6:37 PM)__: Buffalo’s Outer Harbor, Buffalo, New York, USA / Waverly Beach, Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada 

_________________________________________________________________________

__About the artists:__

The __Crossborder Collective__ is an anonymous group of media artists living in Western New York and Southern Ontario.

BIFF Offscreen: The Sun Also Rises, The Sun Also Sets

A literal cross-border exchange of perspectives and performances.

__BIFF Panels: The Vasulka Effect__

__Saturday, October 10, 2pm-3pm__ – live panel streamed to social + website

__[The Vasulka Effect](https://www.buffalofilm.org/lineup/events/the-vasulka-effect/)__ Panel focuses on the documentary and its production, and on the media artwork featured in the film. It explores the life and work of video art pioneers Steina and Woody Vasulka, and their extensive archive and storied legacy.

__________________________________________________________________________

__Panelists:__ Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir + Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan + Steina Vasulka

__Moderator:__ Anna Scime

__________________________________________________________________________

__About the Panelists:__

A native of Reykjavik, Iceland, filmmaker and activist __Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir__ received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1989. Since then she has worked extensively in documentary films and TV as a director/producer and director of photography. Hrafnhildur chaired the filmmakers association FK in Iceland from 2009-2017. She has also been the chairman of the board of Nordisk Panorama – a Nordic alliance of short and documentary filmmakers based in Copenhagen and Malmö. 

Hrafnhildur also has produced and directed several documentaries, most recently she completed her *magnum opus* 5 part series chronicling 40 year struggle for equal rights for homosexuals in Iceland titled *People Like That*. Currently she has just completed *The Vasulka Effect.* About Steina and Woody Vasulka, pioneers of video art. Both projects just won the Icelandic Cinema and Television Academy Edda Award 2020. Hrafnhildur produced *Kitchen Sink Revolution* which won the Icelandic Edda Academy Award in 2015. That year she also won the Edda Award for *Her Age* – 52 macro programs broadcast on RUV. 

__Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan__ is Assistant Curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, where her exhibitions have included Aria Dean and Kawita Vatanajyankur: Foul Play, both in the Gallery for New Media. Previously, she worked in the Modern and Contemporary Department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; she also has held internships at MoMA/PS1, the New Museum, and the ICA Boston. An art historian by training, she has taught courses on contemporary art at Columbia University, the Pratt Institute, and The Museum of Modern Art, as well as the Graduate Seminar in the MFA program at the University at Buffalo. Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, including Artforum and Art in America, and in academic journals and exhibition catalogs from museums including the Walker Art Center and Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan. A specialist in postwar and contemporary art, Ryan is particularly interested in artists working with time-based and new media technologies.

__Steina Vasulka__ (and __Woody Vasulka__) are major figures in video history, technical pioneers who have contributed enormously to the evolution of the medium. The Vasulkas' technological investigations into analog and digital processes and their development of electronic imaging tools, which began in the early 1970s, place them among the primary architects of an expressive electronic vocabulary of image-making. Applying an informal, real-time spontaneity to their formalist, often didactic technical research, they chart the evolving formulation of a grammar and syntax of electronic imaging as they articulate a processual dialogue between artist and technology.

The Vasulkas' early collaborative efforts, produced from 1970 to 1974, include phenomenological explorations that deconstruct the materiality of the electronic signal and analyze the imaging capabilities of video tools. Central to these increasingly complex exercises are explorations of the malleability of the image, the manipulation of electronic energy, and the interrelation of sound and image.

In the mid-1970s, working with such engineer/designers as Eric Siegel, George Brown, Steve Rutt and Bill Etra, the Vasulkas developed electronic tools specifically for use by artists. With Jeffrey Schier they developed the Digital Image Articulator, a device that allows the digital processing of video imagery in real-time. Steina's training as a violinist, and Woody Vasulka's background as an engineer and filmmaker, informed their invention of electronic devices to transform sound, image, space and time — themes that they have pursued independently in their later works. Though the Vasulkas continue to collaborate, since 1975 they have produced much of their work individually.

The Vasulkas immigrated to the United States in 1965, and began their collaborative exploration of electronic media in 1969. In 1971, they co-founded The Kitchen, a major alternative exhibition and media arts center in New York. From 1973 to 1979, the Vasulkas lived and worked in Buffalo, New York, where they were faculty members at the Center for Media Study, State University of New York. The Vasulkas have received numerous awards for their work in the media arts, including grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 1989, they received a United States/Japan Exchange Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Vasulkas have broadcast and exhibited their collaborative works extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan, at institutions including The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, among many others. They had a retrospective at Berg Contemporary, Iceland in 2018.

– Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI)

Panel

BIFF Panels: The Vasulka Effect

This panel explores the life and work of video art pioneers Steina and Woody Vasulka, and their extensive archive and storied legacy.

__Burst Elements – Carrier Band 2020__

__Oct 10 @ 3:00pm – 4:30pm__: live performance by multimedia collective Carrier Band 2020 streamed to social + website

__Carrier Band__ will perform a live concert utilizing both digital and analog electronics to disrupt and intra-modulate selected sounds and texts from the archive of electronic instrument music pioneer, Harald Bode. 

__Peer Bode__ - Vocoder and live video projection; __Rebekkah Palov__ - Live audio processing performance; __Andrew Deutsch__ – Live mixing of prerecorded "text burst compositions"

_________________________________________________________________________

__About the Artists:__

__Peer Bode__ is an internationally exhibiting electronic video and sound artist. His work is shown and collected worldwide and distributed by the Video Data Bank, Chicago, IL. He is Co-founder of the Institute for Electronic Arts, NYSCC, Alfred University, Alfred, NY. Bode challenges electronic media-arts spaces to become events for active thinking, serendipity and delight. His work posing the question, can we transform our sense-abilities, take hold of moments as they float on screen and in sound space.

__Andrew Deutsch__ is a sound and video artist who teaches at the School of Art and Design at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. He received his BFA from Alfred University and his MFA from Renssealer Polytechnic Institute. Favorite artists: Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Mara Martuschka, Paul DeMarinis, Roscoe Mitchell, and Yasunao Tone

__Rebekkah Palov__ is an experimental electronic-filmmaker and musician. Her time-based work has been exhibited at experimental international film festivals and sound-art exhibitions.  She is also writer/curator with recent projects “Earthen’ at Rochester Contemporary Art Center and “Double Real” at the BPAC, and historical research on Harald Bode (b.1909).

BIFF Offscreen: Burst Elements – Carrier Band 2020

Using digital + analog electronics, + Harold Bode's music archive as source material, Carrier Band will perform a live audiovisual concert.

__Oct 11 @ 3:00pm-4:30pm__ – live discussion streamed to social + website

This roundtable is comprised of filmmakers presenting work in Buffalo Int’l Film Festival’s new __[Racial Justice in View Shorts Block](https://www.buffalofilm.org/lineup/events/biff-shorts-racial-justice-in-view/)__ – a curated program of shorts that includes documentary, experimental, video essays, and everything in between – exploring racism, protest, police brutality and inequality in the United States, Canada and sovereign Indigenous lands.  Discussion will focus on the film selections and related topics.
______________

__Roundtable Participants:__  Maya Bastian + Léwuga Benson + Klementina Budnik + Akash Dewan + Jason "JaFLEU" Fleurant + Stacey Larkins + Dan Lior + Sydney Morgan + Classic Reinvention + Licmi (Dhwani) Sikri + Bradley Oliver Wilkinson-Vega 

__Moderators__:  Tammy McGovern + Renee Saracki + Paige Sarlin + Anna Scime

___________________________________________

__Topics for consideration include (but are not limited to):__

*The Fire This Time*; *Race at the Boiling Point*; *Witness Narratives*; *Intersectional Injustice*; *Cops: The Good, The Bad + The Ugly*; *Structures of Inequality*; *Protest + Other Forms of Dissent*; *Rights + Law in Postmodern Democracy*; *Tactical + Strategic Media*; *Engaging the Political Process (For Better +/or Worse)*; *Radical Love + Reform*
_____________

__The Buffalo Int’l Film Festival__ is committed to diversity, inclusion, and community collaboration programmatically and organizationally. Our mission is to amplify diverse voices by creating and maintaining open platforms with which to tell stories through cinema. Recent events in our nation, as well as those occurring locally in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and far too many others, have underscored the urgency of addressing racial injustice, and listening to the people that experience and witness these injustices first hand. We support and stand by the Black Lives Matter movement, and its efforts to educate, bring visibility, and spark discussions around the racism, systemic injustice and violence that has plagued this country since colonization. Through our festival platform, we hope to contribute to the work that BIPOC lead movements like BLM and many others are doing to transform these systems in order to fully enable equal rights, liberty and justice for all.

Roundtable

BIFF Roundtables: Racial Justice in View

 Discussion will focus on the film selections and related topics.

__BIFF Panels: Queer Genius__

__Oct 11 @ 7pm – 8:30pm__: live panel streamed to social + website

This panel focuses on __[Queer Genius](https://www.buffalofilm.org/lineup/events/queer-genius/)__ and explores what it means to commit to a lifetime of making artwork across mediums.  Panelists will discuss the film, their work, collaborative poiesis and exchange, the concept of genius, and more. Chet Catherine Pancake’s Queer Genius celebrates the remarkable lives and work of five critically acclaimed and notoriously radical artists: Barbara Hammer, Eileen Myles, Black Quantum Futurism, Moor Mother, and Dynasty Handbag / Jibz Cameron by creating affectionate and intimate portraits that resonate across generations. 

__Panelists:__ Chet Catherine Pancake, Florrie Burke, Eileen Myles, Jibz Cameron

__Moderator:__ Anna Scime

_________________________________________________________________________

__About the Panelists:__

__[Chet Catherine Pancake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Pancake)__ is an award-winning filmmaker, video, new media, and sound artist. They have exhibited at national and international venues such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA,) Royal Ontario Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art, Murray Art Museum Albury, Australia, Shanghai Conservatory – Shanghai PRC, and Academy of Fine Arts, Prague. Pancake’s narrative and experimental documentary work has been screened at over 150 venues nationally, as well as broadcast (entirely or as excerpts) in the US and UK on the Sundance Channel, PBS, FreeSpeech Television, and the CommunityChannelUK. Their films are nationally & internationally distributed by Bullfrog Films and Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre and are held in permanent collections in over 75 university and museum archives nationally. Pancake is an Assistant Professor in the Film and Media Arts Program at Temple University.

__[Eileen Myles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Myles)__ (they/them) came to New York from Boston in 1974 to be a poet, subsequently novelist, public talker and art journalist. A Sagittarius, their 22 books include For Now, evolution, Afterglow, I Must Be Living Twice/new & selected poems, and Chelsea Girls. In 2019 they wrote and directed an 18-minute super 8 film, The Trip, a puppet road film. See it on youtube. Eileen is the recipient of a Guggenheim, a Warhol/Creative Capital Arts Writers grant, 4 Lambda Book Awards, the Shelley Prize, and a poetry award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. In 2016, they received a Creative Capital grant and the Clark Prize for excellence in art writing. In 2019 Myles received a poetry award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. In 2020 they got the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Publishing Triangle. They live in New York and Marfa, TX.

__[Florrie Burke, M.Ed., MA.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Hammer)__ is a consultant on Human Trafficking to governmental and non-governmental agencies. With over two decades of specialized experience, she is a leading expert on the victim-centered approach in human trafficking cases and collaborative efforts of criminal justice actors and survivor care providers. She is a founder of the Freedom Network USA and has done extensive training, speaking and consultation on Human Trafficking issues, trauma, torture, gender violence and exploitation both in the U.S. and internationally as part of the UNODC Global Training Initiative, the Department of State, the Warnath Group and the Institute for Intergovernmental Research. Burke serves as an Expert Witness on cases of human trafficking and has developed materials and trainings for first responders, criminal justice actors and others around the globe. Ms. Burke was awarded the inaugural Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons in May 2013. The Award was granted in recognition of “her sustained dedication and unparalleled leadership in combating modern slavery through the development and delivery of comprehensive services, the empowerment of survivors to move from slavery to independence, and the transformation of policy to eradicate all forms of human trafficking.” 

Ms. Burke is the Executor and Arts Administrator of the Barbara Hammer Estate. Barbara was her spouse and partner for 31 years. Ms. Burke is actively involved in keeping the legacy of Hammer’s  extensive body of work front and center.

__[Jibz Cameron](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jibz_Cameron)__ is a performer, video artist and actor living in Los Angeles. Her multi-media performance work as alter ego Dynasty Handbag has spanned 15 years and been presented at MOCALA, PS1, Joe's Pub, The Kitchen, REDCAT, The Broad Museum, The Hammer Museum, New Museum of Contemporary Art New York, among others. She has been heralded by the New York Times as “the funniest and most pitch perfect performance seen in years” and “outrageously smart, grotesque and innovative” by The New Yorker. She has written and produced 7 evening length performance pieces, dozens of short works, 17,5897 video works and 2 albums of original music. In addition to her work as Dynasty Handbag, Jibz Cameron has acted in films, theater and television (internet web series no one has seen). She has worked as a professor of performance and comedy at NYU Tisch Performance Studies and Cal Arts as well as lecturing and teaching workshops at institutions such as Cornell University, UPENN, Wesleyan University and Yale University. Jibz Cameron also produces and hosts Weirdo Night!, a monthly comedy and performance event in Los Angeles.

BIFF Panels: Queer Genius

Panelists will discuss the film, their work, collaborative poiesis and exchange, the concept of genius, and more. 

__BIFF Panels: Decolonial Film Panel__

__October 12 @ 11am-12pm USA EST__

This panel focuses on __[BIFF + NFB's Shorts Block of Decolonial Spotlight films](https://www.buffalofilm.org/lineup/events/biff-shorts-postcolonial-spotlights/)__, and the programs and filmmakers that made it possible. We will take a deeper look at and discuss Woman Dress by Thirza Jean Cuthand and K'i Tah Amongst the Birch by Melaw Nakehk’o with the filmmakers.

__Panelists:__ Donna Cowan, Thirza Jean Cuthand, Melaw Nakehk’o, Coty Savard 

__Moderator:__ Anna Scime

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__About the Panelists:__

__Thirza Jean Cuthand__ makes short experimental videos and films about sexuality, madness, queer identity, love and Indigeneity, which have screened in festivals and galleries internationally. She completed her BFA with a major in Film/Video at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2005 and her MA in Media Production at Ryerson University in 2015. She has performed at Live at the End of the Century in Vancouver, Performatorium in Regina, and 7a*11d in Toronto. She is a Whitney Biennial 2019 artist. She is Plains Cree/Scots, a member of Little Pine First Nation, and resides in Toronto, Canada.

__Melaw Nakehk’o__ is a Dene/Dënesųłiné artist based out of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She’s had a distinguished career as an artist, community leader and actor, and is recognized for her exemplary work in reviving and teaching moosehide tanning techniques. This work has initiated a resurgence of the practice, shaping a broader community building movement within Canada (#revolutionmoosehide). She is a founding member of Dene Nahjo.

__Coty Savard__ is a Cree/Métis producer who’s been working with the National Film Board’s North West Studio since 2018. Her NFB credits include Lake, a short documentary directed by artist/filmmaker Alexandra Lazarowich that premiered at Hot Docs in 2019, and the re-release of Loon Lake, a lesser-known work of the NFB’s historic Indian Film Crew that’s now recognized as an important instance of early Indigenous cinema. Prior to joining the NFB, Savard worked as an associate producer for Mosaic Entertainment, where her credits included Delmer & Marta and Tiny Plastic Men. Other credits include Peace River Rising and The Things We Taught Our Daughters. Savard has directed and produced work for CBC Short Docs and CBC Arts, and has been a key contributor to The Amiskwaciy History Series, an initiative dedicated to telling the Indigenous histories of the Edmonton area.  

For 30 years, __Donna Cowan__’s work has focussed on festivals, film screenings, comedy theatres, filmmakers and actors. Her career in the Arts & Culture sector has brought her to the Second City in Chicago as the Vice-President of Operations alongside some of the funniest comedians in North America to ACTRA, where she worked hard to find common ground for productions, and work for actors.  In 2004, she joined the National Film Board of Canada’s marketing department, becoming integral in the launch and distribution of most of the top films the NFB has launched in the last decade. Now part of the Audience Development department as a Networking Agent, she develops strategic partnerships with community organizations across Canada, creating platforms to share thoughts, ideas and art. Donna is a proud community leader with French/Metis ancestry from Georgian Bay, Ontario as well as Scottish-Canadian ancestors dating back to the late 1800’s.

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__Buffalo Int'l Film Festival__ and the __National Film Board of Canada__ have partnered this year to present this shorts block of Decolonial Spotlights, free to anyone in the USA, Canada, neighboring Indigenous and beyond to enjoy during this year’s festival Oct 8-12. This presentation is made possible through the in kind support and generosity of The National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

NBF is Canada’s public producer of award-winning creative documentaries, auteur animation, interactive stories and participatory experiences. NFB producers are embedded in communities across the country, from St. John’s to Vancouver, working with talented creators on innovative and socially relevant projects. The NFB is a leader in gender equity in film and digital media production, and is working to strengthen Indigenous-led production, guided by the recommendations of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. NFB productions have won over 7,000 awards, including 24 Canadian Screen Awards, 21 Webbys, 12 Oscars and more than 100 Genies. To access this award-winning content and discover the work of NFB creators, visit NFB.ca, download its apps for mobile devices or visit NFB Pause.

The NFB is recognized as one of the world’s great creative laboratories and media collections. They produce and distribute distinctive, relevant and innovative audiovisual productions. NFB productions offer special insight into the diversity and vitality of Canadian culture, and are an essential part of Canada's national cultural heritage. The selections presented in this year's program were curated from the NFB's Indigenous Cinema Program collection.


BIFF Panels: Decolonial Film Panel

This panel takes deeper look at and discusses the films Woman Dress and K'i Tah Amongst the Birch.

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October 6-10

Buffalo, NY

Lineup

Buy Pass

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Oct 8-12 2020

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7:30 PM Friday Oct 9, 2020

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Givers of Death (G.O.D.)

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BIFF Shorts: WNY Stories

7:30 PM Saturday Oct 10, 2020

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Go/Don’t Go w/ Bodies

9:45 PM Saturday Oct 10, 2020

Dark Alley Drive-in

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Eleven Twenty Projects

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BIFF Panels: The Vasulka Effect

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BIFF Roundtables: Racial Justice in View

BIFF Panels: Queer Genius

BIFF Panels: Decolonial Film Panel

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