OPEN AIR SCREENING SERIES PRESENTS:

MESSENGERS, 2026
by Yanbin Zhao

FREE Screening OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
PUBLIC RECEPTION AT THE MONO NO AWARE LEARNING LAB AT 7 PM
SCREENING WILL BEGIN AT 8 PM on FRIDAY MARCH 27TH until Dawn SAT MARCH 28TH ** OPENING NIGHT RECEPTION **
CLOSING NIGHT Dusk on SAT MARCH 28TH until Dawn SUN MARCH 29TH

OPEN AIR SCREENING SERIES presents 16MM films on LOOP visible from a distance from dusk until dawn.
72 ROCKWELL PLACE, Brooklyn, New York 11217 - Between BRIC Media Arts Center & BAM Rose Cinemas.
FULL DETAILS BELOW * Any & All donations to benefit FOOD NOT BOMBS Bed-STUY via suggested donations at a sliding scale.

PROGRAM INCLUDES

MESSENGERS, 2026 ( SINGLE CHANNEL 16MM B/W Film, Silent, 2.5 Min on loop)
In the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires, the destruction of municipal birth records enabled what later became known as the “paper son” phenomenon. Many Chinese migrants entered the United States by assuming purchased or inherited identities that asserted familial ties to U.S. citizens. In response, the federal government opened the Angel Island Immigration Station in 1910, intensifying surveillance and restriction of Chinese immigration. There, arrivals were subjected to prolonged and adversarial interrogations intended to expose discrepancies in their claimed identities. To survive these examinations, migrants were required to memorize meticulously constructed fictive biographies—lives written in advance and performed as truth. Circulating within Chinese migrant networks, coaching books became critical instruments for navigating this exclusionary regime. The film stages the moment of transmission, imagining coaching books—repositories of invented lives—being passed into the hands of migrants preparing to face interrogation.

Zhao Yanbin is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and curator whose practice engages labor, memory, language, and diaspora. Working with 16mm experimental film and installation, Zhao examines ruptures and entanglements among histories, geographies, and subjectivities, navigating the space between the visible and the ineffable, the translated and the untranslatable.

With this series we ask that each presenting artist identify a non-profit they wish to bring attention to and support through this screening. Yanbin has selected RETURN HOME x The Sameer Project. Read more about the initiative here. 

Please consider making a donation to support these efforts.

OPEN AIR SCREENING SERIES:
The OPEN AIR SCREENING SERIES allows for 16mm film projection viewing with social and physical distance guidelines in place. 16mm film prints are projected, on loop, from dusk until dawn. Each artist receives an honorarium to support their practice and a new print of the work struck at MONO LAB. Each artist is asked to select a non-profit for a portion of the proceeds to benefit, a donation will be made in their name. And, YOU the audience are invited to enjoy the work, take part in the conversation and we ask that you consider making a donation as it directly supports the artist and the organization with which they share concern. This screening series is supported by the New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA).