BIFF Shorts: Experimental (Program 0)

Cinematic poetry in pixels and on celluloid; and works that experiment with the form, function and structure of film and media ecosystems. 80 minutes.

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“The Lost Season”

Kelly Sears (Dir), 7 minutes, USA, Western New York Premiere

A streaming company hires all available camera operators to film the final weeks of this soon-to-be-lost season as the earth experiences its final winter. After seeing their footage as a form of ecological exploitation, the camera operators refuse to commodify further climate collapse with their labor.

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“Nkisi”

Joel Mulindwa (Dir), 9 minutes, USA, World Premiere

Director Joel Mulindwa in attendance.

Nkisi loosely translated from the Kongo tribe’s language means “a spirit” and the physical manifestation of these spirits comes in the form of masks, sculptures and other sacred substances that can be activated by supernatural phenomena to be present in the physical world. In some tribes like the Nande tribe in Eastern Congo, the word "Nkisi" means medicine or the practice of keeping one's body, spirit and mind sound. Joel Mulindwa’s captivating film depicts the relationships with Nkisi as spiritual objects with the capacity to heal.

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“40° 24.2983'N 79° 58.251'W”

Tony Buba (Dir), 6 minutes, USA, New York State Premiere

Director Tony Buba in attendance.

A hypnotic four-channel video that explores the front lines of a Rust Belt town as vital municipal infrastructure is dismantled in the wake of an industry in decline.

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“Deep Time of Latent Space”

Eric Souther (Dir), 10 minutes, USA, World Premiere

Director Eric Souther in attendance.

The strata of human activity within large language models are another layer of the Anthropocene in this short, which places AI into the realm of geological thinking that spirals into deep time and broadcasts into the future.

The AI narrator takes us through the most incomprehensible moments of our history starting with the big bang, creation of earth, and the start of life. It uses its generalized knowledge to resolve our grasp of these moments into data-visualized images. It does so with confidence and a little bit of attitude, however, it tends to hallucinate. These hallucinations shine a light on what is needed to create a more ethical and accurate AI.

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“I Dream of Things Forbidden”

Phil Hastings (Dir), 6 minutes, USA, World Premiere

Director Phil Hastings in attendance.

A descent into the unnamable and intangible. The desire for answers at the cost of understanding. An unconscious journey that provides no Direction.

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"A kind of Testament"

Stephen Vuillemin (Dir), France, New York State Premiere

A young woman comes across animations on the Internet that have clearly been created from her private selfies. An unknown female with the same name confesses to identity theft. But death is quicker than the answer to the question: “Why?”

A Manifest Pictures release.

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“Adidas Owns Reality”

Keil Orion Troisi + Igor Vamos (Dir), 22 minutes, USA, World Premiere

Directors Keil Orion Troisi and Igor Vamos in attendance.

BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM AWARD WINNER

Prankster activists (including The Yes Men’s Vamos + Troisi) perform an elaborate hoax to improve conditions for garment workers in the Adidas supply chain. Staging a shocking runway show at Berlin Fashion Week, they use humor and mischief to make the world pay attention to labor and environmental abuses that the massive sportswear brand is trying to hide.

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“Bleach”

Giuliano Joseph Gatti (Dir), 5 minutes, USA, World Premiere

Director Giuliano Joseph Gatti in attendance.

The murky history of the Vietnam War era, hypnosis and mind control, and the loss of innocence and life through war.

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“Distant Early Warning”

Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli (Dir), 9 minutes, USA, World Premiere

Director Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli in attendance.

A dissection of digitized 8mm films created by Thomas Little and his brother Woodrow as they worked in the Aleutian Islands from 1955-56 for Bell Telephone. Project 572 was operated in collaboration with the US and Canadian governments to build a system of antennae known as the Distant Early Warning Line (DEWLine) so that we might have a few hours to respond to incoming weapons of mass destruction from Russia during the Cold War. These personal documents from the edges of the earth on the frigid tundra were uncovered years after the lives of the men had passed, and the resulting film searches for presence beyond the surface of the image.

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