MONO XVIIII FESTIVAL OF CINEMA ARTS DEC 4th 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th

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 NYSCA, OUR PARTNERS AND SPONSORS LISTED BELOW

WED DEC 4TH "TRANSITIONAL OBJECT" by SHAYNA STRYPE WITH LIVE ACCOMPANIMENT BY JONNY CAMPOLO

THIS OPENING NIGHT OF OUR 18TH ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM ! JOIN US FOR A CELEBRATION OF COMMUNITY, CINEMA AND ANIMATION! FREE, ALL AGES, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, RSVP STRONGLY RECOMMENDED AS THERE IS LIMITED CAPACITY.

OPENING NIGHT is co-presented by GiF NYC and Hosted by The Annex DOORS AT 7:00 PM SCREENING BEGINS AT 8 PM SHARP AND IS ONLY 10 MINUTES LONG THE ANNEX IS LOCATED AT [[97 N 10th St Suite 1D, Brooklyn, NY 11249]][1]YOU MUSTRSVP HERE FOR LIMITED SEATINGALL AGES, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC & FREE TO ATTEND A commissioned traditional animation captured on 16mm film with support from MONO NO AWARE.

TRANSITIONAL OBJECT, 2024 / 16MM HAND DRAWN CEL, LIVE MORPHING AND STOP MOTION ANIMATION by SHAYNA STRYPE (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK) / LIVE SCORE by JONNY CAMPOLO (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK / UNITED STATES)

Transitional Object is an experimental 16mm animated film that blends 2D and 3D animation techniques to create a tactile journey into the imagination of a young girl. The film explores her deep bond with her cherished stuffed animal and how play serves as a bridge between her inner imaginative realms and the outside world. The passage of time unfolds through the parallel aging of both the girl and the object.

Shayna Strype is a director and multimedia artist working in animation, film, and puppetry performance. Since taking her first class at Mono No Aware in 2018, she has continued to engage with the organization as both a participant and an instructor, teaching Super 8 Film and Stop Motion Puppetry on 16mm Film. Her films have been screened at festivals nationally and internationally including Ann Arbor Film Festival and Palm Springs ShortFest and received awards from the Brooklyn Film Festival, Thomas Edison Film Festival, and Athens International Film and Video Festival, among others. Her multimedia play MINE, commissioned by Dixon Place Theater, was supported by a Jim Henson Workshop Grant, and two of her films are distributed by Heather Henson’s IBEX Puppetry. Shayna is a former resident of the School of Visual Arts’ Art Practice program and Mass MoCA's Assets for Artists program. She holds an MFA in Theater from Sarah Lawrence College. Shayna extends heartfelt gratitude to Steve Cossman and the MONO community for their generosity, guidance, and unwavering support.

Jonny Campolo (b. 1987, NH) lives and works in New York. Recent performances include “Stop Club 57,” Museum of Modern Art, New York; “The Summit,” Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY; “Phasmatodea,” Folly Tree Arboretum, East Hampton, NY; and “Send In The Clowns,” Freddy, Harris, NY. He has participated in exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles and Detroit, most recently with Marvin Gardens in New York, NY, Fredericks & Mae in New York, NY, JEFFs in Detroit, MI, Safe Gallery in East Hampton, NY and NADA House on Governors Island, New York. His work is held in private and public collections including the New York Public Library; Yale University Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, CT; Los Angeles Contemporary Archive; and Artforum International, NY.

TRANSITIONAL OBJECT was commissioned by and received full production support from MONO NO AWARE. The film was captured in part at the MONO NO AWARE learning lab by the artist using an Oxberry Anmation Stand and Bolex Rex5 Camera on 16mm color film supplied by the organization then scanned in house to 4K. Exhibition prints were struck by our partners at ColorLab, MD. and re-edited on our flatbed tables by Shayna. Scans and stills were made possible with the Xena scanner supplied by our partners CineLab.

GiF - Run by filmmakers / producers / directors Courtney Marquard, Chelsea Slayter and Charlotte Delon, Girls in Film NYC hosts of event around the city to promote and connect all gender-diverse filmmakers in New York area.

THURS DEC 5TH "LABOR" by JULIANA CERQUEIRA LEITE WITH ORIGINAL SCORE BY NIK COLK VOID

Hosted by ELM at The Boiler DOORS AT 7:00 PM SCREENING BEGINS AT 8 PM SHARP AND IS ONLY 10 MINUTES LONG
THE BOILER IS LOCATED AT 191 N 14th St, Brooklyn, NY 11249YOU MUSTRSVP FOR LIMITED SEATINGALL AGES, FREE TO ATTEND, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC A commissioned 16mm film made with support from MONO NO AWARE.

LABOR, 2024 16MM TIME LAPSE FILM BY JULIANA CERQUEIRA LEITE (NEW YORK, NEW YORK / UNITED STATES / BRAZIL) ORIGINAL SCORE BY NIK COLK VOID (LONDON / UNITED KINGDOM)

Labor continues sculptor Juliana Cerqueira Leite's research into the ways repetitive movements construct and deconstruct the built world. Four former assembly line workers perform, from memory, the movements that defined their work. Labor uses long exposure photography and techniques pioneered by Lilian and Frank Gilbreth in the early 1900's to draw parallels between the development of film and photography, and assembly-line based industrial manufacturing. The film and its original score by Nik Colk Void connect the material qualities of their mediums to memory and work, moving from animation to live action.

Juliana Cerqueira Leite is a Brazilian sculptor based in New York. She often works from the inside-out, producing indexes of movement. Her works in sculpture, drawing and video engage the complicated histories and possible futures of representing the human form. She has exhibited internationally since graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art (London) in 2006 as recipient of the Kenneth Armitage Sculpture Prize. Cerqueira Leite was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2019 in support of her solo exhibition Orogenesi at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Italy. In 2016 she was awarded the Furla Art Prize for her contribution to the 5th Moscow Young Art Biennale. She has exhibited her work in group shows in venues such as the Sculpture Center, (New York), Saatchi Gallery (London), the 2017 Venice Biennale Antarctic Pavilion, the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture and Ecology (MuBE, São Paulo), and Hordaland Kunstsenter for the 2019 Bergen Assembly (Norway). Recent solo shows include Instituto Tomie Ohtake (São Paulo), Nogueras Blanchard (Madrid), Alma Zevi (Venice), Galeria Casa Triângulo (São Paulo), and Proxyco Gallery (New York). Her work has been reviewed in publications such as Artforum and Frieze Magazines, The Brooklyn Rail and the MIT Drama Review.

Nik Colk Void is a UK-based electronic musician and artist recognised for her innovative work in experimental sound, genre-blending compositions, and collaborations. Her creative practice revolves around the unconventional use of analog and digital instruments—primarily voice, guitar, and modular Eurorack systems—where she explores new musical languages through extended techniques and cut-up self-made samples via synthesis. Her compositions span techno, club, electro-acoustic, experimental, and noise genres. Based in the UK, Void has produced eight acclaimed studio albums with her musical groups, released through labels such as Mute, DFA, Blast First, Editions Mego, and Industrial. With a background in visual arts, Nik has played a pivotal role as a producer and live performer with Factory Floor and Carter Tutti Void, groups known for their bold approach to electronic music and uncompromising live performances. She has also developed extensive work with the late Peter Rehberg, founder of Editions Mego, and collaborated with visual artists Haroon Mirza, Cosey Fanni Tutti, and Philippe Parreno. Her debut album, Bucked Up Space, released through Editions Mego in April 2022, merges her explorations of improvisation with beat-driven music, drawing on her experiences performing in galleries and clubs across the UK and Europe. The album reflects the adaptability of her setups—designed to resonate in varied spaces—and her commitment to challenging conventions and fostering new social dialogues through music. Marked by fearless improvisation and a collaborative spirit, Bucked Up Space is a testament to her ability to disrupt norms and introduce fresh perspectives within the electronic music landscape. Bucked Up Space highlights on Mary Anne Hobbs BBC 6 Music, Pitchfork and The Observer and news stories from the likes of Resident Advisor, Clash and The Quietus. Praise for ‘Interruption Is Good’“... a banging piece of sound art” - The Observer “...a fascinating piece of Brutalist techno that pivots between crisp machine-like minimalism and granulated noise.” - Clash "A piece of immediately engaging techno it reveals more of itself with each listen.” - CMU Daily. Nik has performed at international festivals such as Mutek, Sonar, Primavera, Coachella, Movement, Paris GRM, Unsound, and Dark Mofo, and has presented installations and residency work at venues including The Barbican Centre, Tate Modern, London ICA, and the Pompidou Centre.

LABOR was commissioned by and received production support from MONO NO AWARE. The film was captured by the artist using a Rex-5 Bolex Camera & Time lapse 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 and spliced with a CIRO Guillotine Splicer at our learning lab in downtown Brooklyn. Scans and stills were made possible with the Xena scanner supplied by our partners CineLab. This film was made with the support of Mono No Aware and a grant from the Yale School of Art.

Fellow Organizers & Venue Hosts

ELM Foundation Promotes the healing power of the arts as it's mission. ELM Foundation is a non-profit organization in North Brooklyn focused on free multidisciplinary art education programming, advocacy for kids arts therapy, and mentorship through community engagement. We envision a world where children, regardless of background or learning style, have access to art as a tool for healing and growth. In our community, artistic expression fosters belonging, empowerment, and understanding, and cultivates a lifelong love of self-expression and awareness.

"The Boiler” plays host to a variety of events. We selectively partner with local businesses, institutions, schools, musicians, and brands that share our values. All activities held in The Boiler, go to fund programming for the kids of ELM Foundation. The Boiler space, when activated by creative communities, gathers a special kind of steam, empowerment. Bringing together multiple communities through ELM programming and The Boiler events amplifies our unique opportunity to raise awareness and funding, and facilitate resources that allow us to continue offering free classes, events, and workshops.

FRI DEC 6TH MONO XVIII "LIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TUNNEL" : INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM ONE INSTALLATIONS & PERFORMANCES

GALLERY DOORS AT 6:00 PM PROGRAM BEGINS AT 7:00 PM SHARP - INSTALLATIONS ON VIEW * FRIDAY NIGHT ONLY BE:ELECTRIC STUDIOS 1298 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237 LIMTED SEATING, ALL AGES, FREE TO ATTEND AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

WELCOME HOME / 16MM TRIPLE-CHANNEL INSTALLATION AMINA GINGOLD (NEW YORK, NEW YORK / UNITED STATES)

"Welcome Home" is a three-channel 16mm installation projecting looping films onto a house-shaped sculpture. Emerging from my obsession with homes, I focus on their physical structures and symbolic meanings. I was on a late phone call with my former stepmother when I received the news. A story unfolded about abandoned, discarded, and broken furniture. It was dirty, and clothing was everywhere. A familiar man emerged from the shadows, who had left it all behind.

Amina Gingold is a photographer, filmmaker and bookmaker based in New York, NY. Her work focuses on gut instincts, misremembering and the complications of uncovering the truth. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in photography and video and recently completed the one-year Matte Institute Free School of Photography. Her work was shortlisted for the Palm Photo Prize (2022) and featured in Lenscratch. She has screened and exhibited at Bulegoa Z/B, Documenta Madrid, Mono No Aware, SoMad, Flat Earth Cinema, SVA Gramercy Gallery, and 10 14 Gallery. This past summer, she was a resident of the Brooklyn Darkroom for their Traveling Artist Residency. She is a photographer in residence of WORTHLESSSTUDIOS mobile darkroom Airstream Trailer for November.

YOU ARE THE SEASON, THE DAY, THE MINUTE / S8MM DUAL-PROJECTION INSTALLATION BRUNO DELGADO RAMO (BILBAO, SPAIN)

YOU ARE THE SEASON, THE DAY, THE MINUTE, “the Weather = the code spoken by the moment, the day, the hour, the individuation of existence” (Roland Barthes, ‘The Preparation of the Novel’). The Weather, the Time that goes by takes place. The sky is traversed by water drops, birds in flight, balls, light beams. And also by a cloud of expectation and augury, which is an agency shared by the observer and the sky. The landscape above has an abstract and elusive condition. It might be a frame that takes up the meanings and worries that I project onto it. I could write whatever makes sense within this frame and at the same time whatever I cast into the frame will make sense. Do things get a meaning as they occur or they occur with the single aim of meaning? “Dispersed receptors, enduring particular and unevenly oppressive conditions, our sense-impressions of the weather of course are specific to a location, much as a barometer reads an immediate, localised atmospheric pressure.” (Alison Scott, ‘We are the weather’). If I match the skyscape with the film frame, the word I inscribe inside becomes an augury, a foreshadow, the anticipation of a desire. This installation combines printing-press and Super-8mm projection on loop.

Bruno Delgado Ramo is a filmmaker and artist-researcher who trained as an architect. He conceives of his interdisciplinary work as investigations based on experimental and material practice involving cinematographic media, in which the ideas of specificity, process or spatial reading are important, with filming and projection conceived as light processes in specific localizations and contexts. His practice is concretized in films, settings for projection, actions and publications.

UNTITLED (UNSEEN MOTION PICTURE) / 35MM MOTION PICTURE FILM AS SLIDE INSTALLATION ERIN NEITZEL (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK / UNITED STATES )

UNTITLED (UNSEEN MOTION PICTURE) is a collection of forgotten frames from the heads and tails of films I have run over my years as a projectionist. These are the parts never meant to be seen by an audience, and also where I find the intimacy in a print: notes from old archives or theaters, different layers of reprinted and reused material, many languages and formats, in other words, all the residue of a life and travels. All the things that make these prints living, organic things are normally only seen by the projectionists that run them, except for now, when I get to share them with you.

Erin Neitzel is a filmmaker, producer, curator, and projectionist from Colorado, based in NYC. Her work combines many mediums of analog and digital filmmaking, and creating community spaces for independant artists and filmmakers. Erin’s work in film and video probes the new boundaries of the body as they are spread across infinite invisible space. The implications of these new boundaries are inexorably linked to the ways the dissolution of the physical body has a profound psychic effect on the individual and the culture. Her work in DIY arts and screening events works to reorient our consumption to corporeal settings where communities can grow organically.

DURATIONAL PROGRAM / PERFORMANCES

DEVOTION & THE INSATIABLE (NOTES ON HANDS ON EARTH) / 16MM PROJECTION WITH LIVE NARRATION RUDY GERSON (PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA / UNITED STATES)

DEVOTION & THE INSATIABLE (NOTES ON HANDS ON EARTH) A live performance reading accompanying the film Hands on Earth (Tuesday May 14 2024), which documents a day of collective demonstration in Philadelphia. The film offers hands, and the reading will extend a hand as a form of profane illumination.

Rudy Gerson (b. 1993, Las Vegas, NV, USA) is an artist and educator working across mediums of print, still and moving image, and performance in a practice that channels the force of erotics as expressed in memory culture, social life, and historical inquiry. In a grammar of printmaking, works intend to complicate expectations of testimony and legibility through a queer poetics of touch and a devotional questioning of desire under conditions of opacity and loss. In addition to a studio practice, Rudy has collaborated with artists and organizations on design, videos, and performances. Rudy is based in Philadelphia and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

MOONGLADE / 16MM PROJECTION AT SILENT FILM SPEED WITH AUDIO TAPE PERFORMANCE GRIFFIN CONNER (NEW YORK, NEW YORK / UNITED STATES)

Abstract visions of water give way to a glistening dance of light hidden beneath the river’s surface.

Griffin Conner is a video artist from New York City. Drawing from a wide variety of creative influences, he utilizes the mediums of 16mm and DV to create work that reflects his own interests and feelings. He enjoys spending time with his friends and frequently collaborating on projects with them.

ROTOPROJEKTOR 1 / 16MM KINETIC PROJECTION HRVOJE SPUDIĆ (ZAGREB, CROATIA)

Rotoprojektor 1 deals with transformation of a film projection into physical space, using mechanical means. It is an attempt to transform the planar space of movie screen into an endless cylinder of Grimoin-Sanson’s rotating Cinéorama. A short 1 second loop 16mm film is threaded into a prepared projector installed on a rotating platform. The performance begins with a dimm static projection at a slow framerate. As the time progresses, rotation begins, light swells, framerate rises and the projection tries to catch up to itself. The result is a violent play of frequency interference, superimposing waves of color, a ring of light containing all the images that could ever be filmed.

Hrvoje Spudić (1987.) graduated from Architecture school in Zagreb, Croatia in 2015., where he works as an assistant at the Cabinet for drawing and design. Through his work he explores the techniques and technologies of print, photography, film and light fenomena. He is a member of Klubvizija filmlab and a technical advisor / expanded cinema assistant at the 25fps festival. His work ranges from sound-on-film works (“Sound analysis”, “Experiment in reproduction of sound”), rotating camera/projector experiments (“Rotoprojector” series), camera obscura installations (“Translations” series with Sara Salamon) and light and performance/installation (“1m2 of light”, “1m2 of gold” with Sven Sorić).

BLUEBIRD / 16MM MULTI-PROJECTOR PERFORMANCE WITH LIVE NARRATION YUE HUA 华越 (BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS / WUHU, CHINA)

BLUEBIRD, an expanded cinema, multi-16mm-projection performance of the journey of a bird’s soul to find its body, holds deep personal significance. The subject shares the narrative of searching for belongings and identity, spirit-body relationships, and my personal journey from getting lost to finding myself. The project consists of text, poems, archive footage, shot footage from China and the USA, animation, and a voice-over of my personal story of growing up in a small conservative city in China. It utilizes analog techniques such as cameraless filmmaking, laser printing, hand process, direct animation, color separation, projector operation, loop, and optical printing. This project is fully analog, utilizing 16mm film materials. Blue Bird is not only a kind of bird, but also a symbol of a group of people, who migrate and explore their identity, history, and memory.

Yue Hua/华越 (she/her) is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist who uses film, expanded cinema, and digital media to explore cross-culture identity (Chinese-American), language, and female experience from a personal lens. Her work, often incorporating personal narratives and immersive installations, dismantles traditional roles and empowers women to find their voices. Her films and performances have been featured internationally at film festivals and galleries.Yue holds a BFA from the China Academy of Art majoring in film and television production and an MFA in Film and Media Arts at Emerson College. Yue is a recipient of the UFVA Carole Fielding Grant, Emerson Enhancement Fund, Patchwork: Film x Potery interdisciplinary arts Fellowship, and has served as a teaching fellow at Emerson College and Boston University.

MAONO MZIMI/UNBROKEN SPACES OF VISION / 16MM MULTI-PROJECTOR PERFORMANCE WITH LIVE NARRATION SONYA MWAMBU (TORONTO, CANADA) & SHELBY MWAMBU (TORONTO, CANADA)

“You’ll tell me of things, and things. Of that lost time, Of empty fields spanning away from deserted mountains, Of a thousand unbroken spaces of vision.”

How do I find space when I am lost to time? How shall I vision in the gaze of my ancestors? Why are you here? And so in front of our gods that have come to play; images, time and lost meaning perform in the hopes of finding these (un)broken spaces of vision. Maono Mzimi is a 30-minute 16mm and digital hybrid performance in which loss is explored through space and motion. A reiteration and continutation of work developed at the Independent Imaging Retreat-Film Farm, Maono Mzimi is meant to be experienced as a riddle, motioned together and breathed.

Sonya Mwambu is an experimental filmmaker and editor based in Toronto. Born in Kampala, they grew up in Canada and their work centres on the intersections of their identities through the exploration of race, gender, language and the connections they find through the experimentations of analogue film. Their films have shown at Nuit Blanche Toronto, the8fest, McMaster Museum of Art, Cinema Politica, Toronto Queer Film Festival, Queer City CInema and the Toronto History Museums. Their work has also been published in qumra journal, pitch magazine and The Archive of Forgetfulness supported by the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg. Their last project was a digital installation, +1-home, custom-made to InterAccess’s immersive projection environment as a two-player interactive experience, made in collaboration with Nada El-Omari. Mwambu holds a BFA in Film Production from York University and is currently pursuing an MFA in Film.

Shelby Mwambu is a queer black actor based in Toronto. They are a recent graduate from York University where they received a BFA in Theatre Acting.

SCATTERED LIGHT / 16MM DUAL-PROJECTION PERFORMANCE WITH HAND GILDED MIRRORS & LIVE SOUND NICOLAS CADENA (NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) & JOSHUA ALVAREZ MASTEL (NEW YORK, UNITED STATES)

Silver nitrate adheres to sensitized glass and produces a mirror in ways similar to the silver nitrate found in photo-chemical emulsion. This performance takes us through a process of image generation by showing the process of mirror gilding. Through sound composition, image production becomes elemental, and adheres in time.

Nicolas "Nico" Cadena is a Colombian-born, U.S.-based artist and educator. His work spans analog and digital forms and has been exhibited at venues including Millennium Film Workshop, The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Casa Nacional del Bicentenario, and more. Alongside his artistic practice, Nico is an educator, serving as an adjunct instructor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and at the Brooklyn-based cinema arts nonprofit Mono No Aware. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Moving Image at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College.

Joshua Alvarez Mastel writes instrumental and electronic music which has been performed internationally by Yarn/Wire, ekmeles, ensemble mosaik, Schallfeld Ensemble, and others. In addition to composing concert music, he makes sound pieces using field recordings, foley objects, motorized hardware, and digital sound, often for live performance. He currently lives in New York City, where he is a doctoral candidate in music composition at Columbia University.

**INTER-PROGRAM DJ ** SCUBA ROB (BROOKLYN, NY, US) Rob is a filmmaker most of the time, but when he’s not they are searching for music to share with the communities around him. They enjoy blending a wide range of genre’s depending on the occasion, so expect to hear a mix of experimental, folk, jazz, funk, RNB, house and techno.

SAT DEC 7TH MONO XVIII "LIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TUNNEL" : INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM TWO INSTALLATIONS & PERFORMANCES

GALLERY DOORS AT 6:00 PM PROGRAM BEGINS AT 7:00 PM SHARP - INSTALLATIONS ON VIEW * SATURDAY NIGHT ONLY BE:ELECTRIC STUDIOS 1298 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237 LIMTED SEATING, ALL AGES, FREE TO ATTEND AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

SEEDING / D8MM AND 16MM TRIPLE-CHANNEL INSTALLATION JIAYI CHEN (CHICAGO, ILLINOIS UNITED STATES / CHONGQING, CHINA)

This three channel installation explores the perception of a landscape, It tries to touch—the roughness of the bark, the tingling of dry grass, the teasing of gossamers, the blunt blow of tumbling water, the flow of wind—through the eyes.

Jiayi Chen works in moving images, projection performance, and installation. Her work draws on research into archives of visual and sonic ephemera, reflects on the interplay between the human body and the environment, and takes a labor intensive approach to working with various generations of analog technology.

WHERE ARE THE WILD THINGS? / 16MM LOOPING PROJECTION BEN CLEMENT (NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES)

WHERE ARE THE WILD THINGS? (2023) combines screenprinted 16mm film with footage of the Oslo Fjord and the Nordmarka wilderness, north of Oslo. Video elements depicting everyday interactions with modern technology and cyberspace are assembled from digital snippets captured on an iPhone, then screenprinted onto film. These screenprinted overlays are placed onto untouched forest and fjord landscapes, free from human presence. The title plays on Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, inspired by a childhood fascination with escaping into pure, unspoiled nature. The film seeks to depict an idyllic, romanticized landscape subtly disrupted by elements of modern life.

Ben Clement (b. 1994) is an New York based director and animator from Rhode Island. He works with a process of direct animation that uses the technique of screenprinting onto strips of 16mm film. His work specializes in film installation, visuals, and music videos.

INTERLACED / KINETIC SCULPTURE RAY CHANG (BURBANK, CALIFORNIA UNITED STATES)

INTERLACED - "Interlaced' is a building card project inspired by the histories of New England's former textile mills. Reflecting on its industrial foundations and their impact on manufacturing, craft, labor, and early American identity, this work delves into these narratives through play and experimentation. By connecting weaving concepts with barrier-grid animation, the sculptures are activated through movement and light, allowing viewers to observe the alternation of lines that create animated illusions. These illusions draw on motifs of water, steam, and textile patterns to evoke its factory setting. This work was developed and completed during the summer of 2024 while in residency at The Factory on Willow - Manchester, NH.

Ray Chang's work plays with the intersection of kinetic sculpture and animation, experimenting with proto-cinematic ideas and motorized movement that take on various forms including sculpture, mechanical design, and installation. He holds his MFA in Experimental Animation from CalArts.

DURATIONAL PROGRAM / PERFORMANCES

EVERYTIME YOU RECALL / 16MM SINGLE-PROJECTION WITH LIVE SCORE JO JOVEL (BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES)

This film was created in the spring of 2024, shot on 16mm reversal black and white film and hand-edited. The theme of the work centers around how memory often changes as you recall important moments of time over and over again. Is what you recalled once again true to life, or is it just a fragment of light sifting through your mind? Accompanied by a score created through real-time emotion and feeling on Ableton Live.

Jo Jovel is a Salvadoran-American filmmaker, photographer, and all-around light devotee. She combines analog image-making processes with digital post-production, utilizing VHS tape, film, and digital cameras. Her work often explores various influences within contemporary life that have reconstructed and distorted our relationships to gender presentations, intimate connections, and self-perceptions. Think of a light beam refracted off a broken mirror.

WHEN YOU WEREN’T LOOKING / 16MM PROJECTION WITH LIVE NARRATION PATRICIA DELSO LUCAS (BRUSSELS, BELGIUM) & FRANCE RREALLY (QUEENS, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES)

Film accompanied by a live reading of original writing by his author: “Two Dreams” by France Rreally.

Patricia Delso Lucas is a Spanish filmmaker and moving image artist based in Belgium. Beginning in 2007 with short personal documentary pieces, Patricia slowly turned to narrative filmmaking, the result of which is a number of short pieces ranging from genre films to more exploratory art-house works. For the past few years, she has been investigating film-poetry, experimental filmmaking and expanded cinema forms as means of expression. Her medium is currently analog film.

Her works have screened internationally in different festivals and as part of collective showcases in venues such as Anthology Film Archives in NY, Renoir Cinemas in Madrid or Baxton Gallery in Brussels, also online at Vimeo On Demand and Filmin (Spain). She's a BAFTA Scotland nominee. Patricia has attended residencies and training at different international Labs and analog film collectives, such as Mono No Aware in NY, Echo Park Film Center in LA, Casa do Xisto in Portugal, LAV in Madrid, and artist-run LaboBxl in Belgium.

She believes in building bridges to bring together the different film communities she's been in contact with thanks to her artistic practice. Patricia holds an MFA in Film Directing from Edinburgh College of Art.

Voice/Text: France Rreally is an artist and filmmaker who envisions and actualizes alternate realities using moving image, performance, installation, and multimedia sculpture. Through a queer surrealism, his work uncovers an expanded consciousness and explores infinity: of the self, reality, and possibility.

He has shown and performed his work around North America and Europe including at Anthology Film Archives, Dia Beacon, BRIC Arts Media, the Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art, and various film festivals such as Film Diary NYC, Fringe! Queer Film and Arts Fest, and Cactus Club Independent Film Festival. He has been an Artist in Residence at Arteles in Haukijärvi, Finland and Casa do Xisto in Maciera de Rates, Portugal. He lives and works in New York City, where he is always becoming and re-becoming himself.

GENOMIC MEMORY / 16MM PROJECTION WITH LIVE NARRATION SHAHKEEM EZR'OM WILLIAMS (NEW YORK, NEW YORK UNITED STATES) & TANIKA WILLIAMS (NEW YORK, NEW YORK UNITED STATES)

A meditation on the act of remembering, transference and maternity. Captured in the northeastern countryside of Jamaica, a mother returns to her native land seeking ancestral guidance for the arduous journey of pregnancy and delivery.

Shahkeem Williams is an artist and experimental documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. His work combines archival interviews, academic research, autobiographical expression, and performance–poetically exploring themes of trauma and healing, labor, and abolitionist activism across generations. His work has screened nationally and internationally in festivals and broadcast television, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Museum of the City of New York, New York University, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Rockaway Film Festival, Baxter Street Camera Club, Center for Afro-Futurism, BRIC Brooklyn, ARS NOVA, Millennium Film Workshop, and Alfreda Cinema.

Tanika I. Williams (b. 1981, St. Andrew, Jamaica; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is an award-winning filmmaker and performance artist. She investigates women’s use of movement, mothering and medicine to produce and pass on ancestral wisdoms of ecology, spirituality and liberation. Williams holds a BA from Eugene Lang College, New School and MDiv from Union Theological Seminary. Her films have been screened at festivals and broadcast on American television. Williams has been awarded residencies at New York Foundation for the Arts, MORE Arts, Cow House Studios, Hi-ARTS, and BRIC. Additionally, she has been featured on 99.5 WBAI; and in Art in Odd Places; Creative Time; Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Civic Art Lab, GreenspaceNYC; Let Us Eat Local, Just Food; and Performa.

THIS DISSONANCE / 16MM EXPANDED CINEMA PERFORMANCE CHRISTOPHE KATRIB ( RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES)

THIS DISSONANCE, Infinite "American" landscapes mesh with ominous music while Palestinian and Lebanese voices permeate through poetry, hope, and pain. This film is an homage to the precious souls lost and the beautiful voices speaking out around the world. It is a poetic, visceral, raw expression of the dissonance I feel in the U.S. as an Arab person - in a majestic Land, itself taken violently some hundreds of years ago - witnessing from afar as U.S-backed Israel commits genocide and ethnic cleansing on Palestine and my homeland of Lebanon.

From CHRISTOPHE KATRIB "I’m an artist/filmmaker and educator from Beirut, Lebanon living in the U.S since 2013. I initially came here on a Fulbright scholarship and received my MFA in Photographic and Electronic Media from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Through the years, my art has spanned video, photography, installation, 16mm film, sound, and music. Though I have been part of several group exhibitions, artist workshops, residencies, and film screenings in Lebanon, the U.S, and around the world, these past eight years have been mostly dedicated to guiding students through the process of honing their skills and expressing their voices and stories through art and filmmaking. I have taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art, George Washington University, and I’m currently part of the Theatre, Film, and Digital Production department at UC Riverside in Southern California. The one thing I’ve kept doing for myself during this whole time is shooting 16mm film. This latest project brings together footage from rolls I’ve shot over the last decade."

The work also includes contributions from fellow Lebanese and Palestinian artists:

Audio from "Stronger Hearts" instagram reel (Written and recorded by Areej Kaoud. Her instagram reel is copyrighted to her, used with her consent in this film) AREEJ KAOUD is a Palestinian visual artist raised in Gaza, Palestine and Montreal, Canada. Her practice draws on her research in diaspora psychology and creating narratives. Kaoud’s art practice includes text, sound, performance, painting and installation to comment on disastrous scenarios and survivalist mentalities. Kaoud’s art projects articulate the distance between anxiety, vigilance and even humour which are all a part of the preparations undertaken for non-immediate threats.

Computer drone instrument (crafted by Mohamed Choucair using the sounds of Israeli drones that constantly hover over Beirut - to be used live with his consent during the screening/performance) MOHAMED CHOUCAIR is a Lebanese multidisciplinary artist specialized in film and audio, well practiced as a performer and music industry professional. He is a member of the online Palestinian radio station, Radio Alhara.

Live violin by Layale Chaker. Composer and violinist LAYALE CHAKER was raised on the verge of multiple musical streams in her native Lebanon. Her complex sound universe, described by NPR as “beguiling” with “bright and beautiful strands… gorgeous, wine-dark swirls,” lies at the intersection of classical contemporary music, jazz, Arabic music, and improvisation. Her practice is committed to art as both sanctuary and crossroads—a place where ancestral narratives meet contemporary voices in a continuous reimagination of the world we inherit, live in and bequeath. Recent projects include a double album release on In a Circle Records, a world premiere at the Venice Biennale 2024, the premiere of her debut opera at Spoleto Festival and of a double concerto commissioned by the New York Philharmonic.

Live poetry by Ghinwa Jawhari. GHINWA JAWHARI is the author of the chapbook BINT (2021), which was selected by Aria Aber for Radix Media's inaugural Own Voices Chapbook Prize. A recipient of fellowships from Kundiman and the Asian American Writers' Workshop, she is the founding editor of Koukash Review. Her essays, fiction, and poetry appear in Al Rawiya, Catapult, Mizna, The Adroit Journal, Rusted Radishes, The Margins, Narrative, and elsewhere.

N.B. Thank you to Najla Said and Hind Shoufani for consulting and helping me connect with local NYC artists for this performance/screening.

FALSE EXPECTATIONS / 16MM MULTI CHANNEL-PROJECTION WITH LIVE NOISE PERFORMANCE ERICA SHEU 徐璐 (LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES) & SHRINE MAIDEN (LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES)

FALSE EXPECTATIONS is a 3-channel 16mm expanded cinema with a scored live noise performance. Finding and preserving memories of connections and tenderness in dead flowers, in between blinds, slants of shadows and hand processed film frames.

Erica Sheu, 徐璐, is a Los Angeles-based Taiwanese filmmaker who makes experimental short films exploring the synesthetic qualities of memory, guided by feelings and emotions. Her art practice centers on building sense of community and supportive network through self-sufficient, analog filmmaking skill-shares and artist self-organized screenings.

Shrine Maiden is heavy noise from Los Angeles.

H(xy)/V(z)=Ø / 16MM+ MULTI-PROJECTION PERFORMANCE WITH LIVE SOUND JIM HOBBS (UNITED KINGDOM / UNITED STATES ) & OJON (UNITED KINGDOM)

H(xy)/V(z)=Ø stems from an interest in grid systems, the "nocturnal", and the use of artificial lighting to create or enhance an augmented form of vision. The recollected experience of being blinded by headlights while driving at night sets loose a series of fragmented moving images, archival photographs and motion graphics which in turn create a type of hallucinatory experience. The original film was projected onto a monumental blackboard surface which was enhanced by a hand-drawn grid made with engineers’ chalk. The structure/screen relates to Hobbs’ father’s work at General Electric, where automotive lighting was tested out by projecting street scenes onto a gridded wall and then shining automotive head lamps on top of that – measuring the technical/numerical/visual range of the light while also destroying the superficially projected image. With H(xy)/V(z)=Ø, this destruction/dismantling of image through multiple projections onto a marked grid extends into a more performative act of expanded cinema. The audio for the work is composed of collected sounds using electromagnetic microphones to pick up invisible sonic currents from light sources including automotive lamps and handheld torches which are then run through a variety of analogue effects pedals and digital filters. For this performance, Hobbs and Ojon create these sounds live while intermixing other improvised sonic elements.

Jim Hobbs’ work utilizes a variety of media including 16mm film, video, installation, site-specific work, drawing, sculpture, sound and photography. His work and research investigate the personal and social implications of loss, oblivion, history, place, memory and the subsequent acts of remembrance/memorialisation. The work bears particular focus on how the use of architecture (space/place) and monuments (objects) become a type of physical manifestation of that which is absent, and how these “stand-ins” can be used, manipulated, and reformed. More recently, his work has moved into the realm of filmic installations and performances, utilizing film as a time based material and medium to investigate these concerns. He often collaborates with other artists/musicians to expand the work across disciplines and find new relationships between sound and image. Intrinsically interlinked with this is a constant questioning of the role of the analogue within the digital age – how it functions, if it can override associations with nostalgia, and notions of the quality of image and its relationship to memory. His work is shown internationally in museums, galleries, art spaces, and festivals. He is currently Programme Leader of the MA Digital Arts at the University of Greenwich where he is also a member of the Sound/Image Research Centre.

0jon aka Jono Crabbe studied Fine Art at Loughborough University School of Art and Design and Leeds University and Music and New Media Technology and Music Production at Leeds Beckett University (BA, MA). His work explores memory, space and the periphery through the reinterpretation and abstraction of existing artefacts including field recordings, existing recordings, printed material and found objects. The reworking or ‘re-telling’ of these gathered artefacts involves controlled and uncontrolled processes which in turn impart their own story and debris to produce new impressions and places of interest. The work is an exploration of the responsibility of the re-teller and their positioning from intermediary to go-between to agitator.

**INTER-PROGRAM DJ ** SCUBA ROB (BROOKLYN, NY, US) Rob is a filmmaker most of the time, but when he’s not they are searching for music to share with the communities around him. They enjoy blending a wide range of genre’s depending on the occasion, so expect to hear a mix of experimental, folk, jazz, funk, RNB, house and techno.

SUN DEC 8TH "SET INTO MOTION: SIX ARTISTS PRESENTED BY WESTLAB + GALLERY" Curated by SHREY MENDIRATTA

Presented in partnership with The Center For Performance Research" DOORS AT 7:00 PM SCREENING AT 7:30 PM SHARP PLEASE RSVP BELOW TO RESERVE A SEAT. CENTER FOR PERFORMANCE RESEARCH361 MANHATTAN AVENUE, GROUND FLOOR. LIMITED SEATING, ALL AGES, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND FREE TO ATTEND YOU MUST RSVP AT THIS LINK : HERE

The films in this program are the culmination of a year-long commission by Mono No Aware in collaboration with Westlab + Gallery. This commission invited six analog photographers who have previously exhibited work at Westlab + Gallery to extend their art practice into the realm of moving image, making films on 16mm for the first time.

Mono No Aware, in tandem with Westlab + Gallery, provided each commissioned artist with workshops introducing the Bolex Rex 5 Camera, support in developing film concepts, camera, film and equipment for shoot days, as well as a workshop on the 4-plate Steenbeck flatbed editing table for all of the artists to edit their projects by hand.

ROXY / NYASIA PETTWAY ROCHELLE (PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA) & CHRISTIANE NAHU (NEW YORK, NEW YORK)

“ROXY” features a woman, blonde haired and brown eyed, who doesn’t know she’s dreaming. Escapism is her reality, her mind is the only place she feels comfortable enough to scream and cry in. This particular night, she sees a dream that isn’t her’s. Familiar sights of trees and buildings that feel like lost memories; a life she didn’t live but can see somehow. In color, at that, but she dreams in black and white. She sees the world for what it is, but she is lost in her mind, far from reality. The film explores the pieces of her she loves and hates; disorganized thoughts and memories, but beautiful nonetheless.

Nyasia Pettway Rochelle (they/them) is a Black artist creating black and white film photography in Petersburg, Virginia. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Nyasia always had a love for creating art and taking pictures, but in the last two years or so, they would start to take self portraits and never look back. In this film, you’ll get to see their introduction to shooting on 16mm film, and how Nyasia took it as their chance to visually develop and beautify the story of a lost soul searching for spiritual connection.

Christiane Nahu is a budding actor, artist, and model based in New York and has been honing her acting skills at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute for the last two years. She is working on finding ways to blend her skills in acting, writing, photography, and performance art and bring about a perfect marriage of all her creative passions. Moving to the city has allowed her to challenge herself to grow in all these areas, and has provided her the means and connections to extend the range and reach of her talents. Her aim in all of her work is truth, individual and universal.

GOOD GRIEVE / KENZIE KING (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK)

Good Grieve weaves together a portrait of grief, obsession, and nostalgia through imagery and objects that permeate our everyday lives.The film provides a symbolic landscape where the past intrudes upon the present in a looping rhythm of indelible imagery. Grief and memory take shape within the fleeting ephemera, as the familiar objects inexplicably evoke moments of pain. By revisiting these memories as intrusive images on loop, the objects in the film slowly shed the layers of narrative, leaning into the cyclical nature of grief in order to break free from it.

Kenzie King is a Brooklyn-based photographer and artist whose work explores themes of obsession, identity, and connection through film photography. Her work was featured in a solo exhibition at Westlab + Gallery, coinciding with the release of her debut book, Colder Than Cobalt, in 2023. In addition to her fine art practice, Kenzie works as a freelance photographer, specializing in fashion and portraiture.

PRETTY GIRLS ALWAYS SMILE / ANNIE GREY (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK)

Annie Grey is a queer nonbinary multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Their work is community-based and an ongoing conversation involving nature, a sociological exploration of fear and trauma, and questioning societal norms.

CATARINA / GUSTAVO LOPES (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK)

A short film that offers an intimate glimpse into the life of a Brazilian transwoman living in Brooklyn, New York in 2024. Through a series of vivid vignettes, the film paints a poignant portrait of Catarina's life as she asserts her right to exist. "CATARINA" invites viewers to reflect on the universal desire to belong and challenges us to empathize with the experiences of those navigating the intersections of identity in an ever-evolving world. Brazil has a grim track record when it comes to violence against LGBTQ+ people, with the highest number of murdered transgender individuals in the world. As a transwoman, Catarina's journey is particularly fraught with danger and adversity. This film serves as a reminder of the urgent need for unity and allyship in the pursuit of a more inclusive society. Catarina's determination to live authentically underscores the importance of embracing our shared humanity and the inherent dignity within us all.

Beginning his career in the world of fashion photography, Gustavo has since transitioned to focus on film photography and capturing narratives that shed light on important social issues. As a Brazilian immigrant living in New York for the past eight years, Gustavo brings a multicultural perspective to his work, highlighting diversity and inclusivity in every frame. He is particularly dedicated to amplifying the stories of the LGBTQ+ community, creating powerful images that foster empathy. Through his evocative photography, Gustavo continues to make an impact on the lives of those he captures and those who view his work.

Catarina is a resilient and driven creative force within the film industry, having carved a unique niche as a filmmaker producing her own work. A Brazilian immigrant living in the United States for the past three years, she brings over 8 years of experience in film production and costume design, blending a distinct multicultural perspective with fresh, queer lenses.

I AM SWIMMING WITH ZAZA / COCO VILLA (NEW YORK, NEW YORK)

What can I do to honor you, now that it is too late? You, and the You that I come from, and the You that occasionally stands in for me. Coco Villa presents I Am Swimming With Zaza, an ongoing intimacy between fact and the fantastical, real and imagined.

Coco Villa is a Jamaican-Colombian American dancer, interdisciplinary artist, and educator. Tightly bound to identity, Villa leads an art-research practice investigating relations between body, object, and landscape. They utilize movement languages to tell autobiographical stories, explore human intimacy, and build familial archives through self-portraiture and choreography. Driven by historical and scientific discovery, Villa thrives in the ocean, in the woods, in the dance studio, darkroom, design lab, film set and library, playfully creating by hand.

DOVE STONE / RAINE ROBERTS (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK)

Dove Stone is an experimental documentary/dance film juxtaposing the erosive tendencies of human behavior and the erosive nature of our environment. Color portion shot on location at Fort Tilden beach; Black and White portion shot in studio.

Raine Roberts is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based, photographer, filmmaker, and multimedia artist. Raine earned her BFA in Film Productions and BA in Communications from the University of Colorado at Boulder (2019). After working in documentary filmmaking, Raine went on to study at the International Center of Photography (2023). She has exhibited her works locally and internationally, in solo exhibitions with Westlab+Gallery and APStudioBk; group exhibitions with WORTHLESS STUDIOS, Haus Am See in Switzerland, VisualAIDS, and Brooklyn Film Camera. Her work has been published locally and internationally in MuséeMagazine, Este País, Bushwick Daily, and BK Reader. She was the most recent Photographer in Residence for the FREE FILM PROJECT -- leading free community-based workshops and developing her ongoing project. Raine is a member of the photography group SmallTable Collective.

SHREY MENDIRATTA is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Ridgewood, Queens, born and [half-]raised in New Delhi, India. He is the owner and operator of Westlab + Gallery in Bushwick, and serves as the chief curator for their exhibition programming.

Shrey has received several awards for his work, including the Queens Art Fund New Work Grant in 2021, the Roselyn Schneider Eisner Prize in 2018, and has served as a panelist with the Queens Art Council. With the support of MONO NO AWARE he completed and exhibited the film जान की ओर (Jaan Ki Or) in 2022, and has been an instructor with the organization since taking his first class in 2020. His work has shown at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Museum of Moving Image, Anthology Film Archives, Worth Ryder Art Gallery, Mono No Aware, and many DIY/non-institutional spaces around New York City and beyond.

WESTLAB + GALLERY is a color film lab and art gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Their exhibition programming aims to support, promote, and exhibit works by local artists who work primarily on film, and have been historically underrepresented in the arts. Westlab has shown several group and solo exhibitions, featuring works in photography, sculpture, video, and painting.

MONO NO AWARE Each artist presenting in the WestLab program received full production support, private workshop, equipment access, film materials, lab services and editing facilities were all provided. The films was captured with the Bolex Rex5 Camera and prime lenses onto 16mm color film supplied by the organization. Exhibition prints were timed, printed and developed by our partners ColorLab, MD. The artists we're provided access to the space to edit. Scans and stills were made possible with the Xena scanner supplied by our partners CineLab.

Hosts:

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.

BABA (COOL)BABA is a bar à vin in the heart of Williamsburg with a focus on drinking, dining & dancing. A place to find flowing wine and small, tasty plates meant to be shared with old and new friends. We know you'll immediately feel the joie de vivre. What started as a café in Fort Greene, has grown into a space where you can kick back, drink killer wine, and grab unfussy feel-good food - no matter the occasion. Whether you’re here for brunch in the backyard or drinks under the disco ball, we're all about staying a while, catching up with friends, and always keeping it cool.

Please join us for a post festival community gathering from 10PM - 12 AM at BABA for light snacks and beverages.

MONO XVIII 2024 PROGRAM SUPPORTED BY:
YEAR ROUND PARTNERS OF THE ORG

MONO XVIIII 2024 FESTIVAL HOST VENUES

MONO XVIII 2024 EDUCATIONAL PARTNERS

MONO XVIII 2024 SPONSORS IN KIND

 
 
 

MONO NO AWARE is proud to promote a selection from a 16mm work in progress by Suneil Sanzgiri as our festival call for entries image this year. Suneil Sanzgiri is an Indian-American artist, researcher, and filmmaker. His work spans experimental video and film, essays, and installations, and contends with questions of identity, heritage, culture and diaspora in relation to structural violence.