“Fireworks, low sky, open road: the subjects are indeed ‘old hat’, suggesting a filmmaker contemplating both his materials and his influences. Each image seems to offer a door into a different kind of film, but then of course this air of indecision is an illusion since we are after all watching a finished film. As if to mirror this recognition, Old Hat abruptly tips into a free-fall of emulsion, colour, and image-traces: whatever the difficulty of finding a way forward, film does nothing but.” – Max Goldberg

Zach Iannazzi (Boston MA, 1986). Studies at Hampshire College. Works in 16mm film since 2008; exhibitions and screenings at Austrian Film Museum (Vienna), EXiS (Seoul), Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), “Projections” at NYFF, Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley), San Francisco Cinematheque, etc. First appearance at Media City. Lives in Oakland, California.

A stark portrait of my father at daily morning prayers to which I respond, AMEN.

Light Licks are a series of films I began in 1999. The films are made frame by frame, often by flooding the camera with enough light to spill beyond the gate into the frame left unexposed. Light Licks are ecstatic flicker films inspired by jazz and mystic visionary practice, and extend my interest in the ways film can be a medium of visual improvisation.

Saul Levine (New Haven CT, 1943). 85+ films since 1964; screenings at numerous venues worldwide including recent retrospectives at (S8) Mostra de Cinema Perifério (A Coruña), L’Âge d’Or (Brussels), MoMA (New York), The Nightingale (Chicago), Harvard Film Archive (Cambridge), etc. Fourth appearance at Media City including retrospective screening (2013). Former editor of New Left Notes; programmer of MassArt Film society for 40+ years. Stan Brakhage Vision Award (2016). Lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

“The film welcomes us with an image of an ‘ideal place’: a toy world built by a child. This idyllic scene is a question of perspective. The city is lifeless, the figures frozen. Without animating human hands, everything is dead here…” – Judith Zdesar

will wither like grass . my foot and my hair and my silentest word
will wither like grass . your mouth your mouth
will wither like grass . how you gaze into me
will wither like grass . my cheek my cheek and the little flower
which you know is there will wither like grass
will wither like grass . your mouth your purple-coloured mouth
will wither like grass . but the night but the mist but the plenitude
will wither like grass will wither like grass – Friederike Mayröcker

Friedl vom Gröller (London, England 1946). Studies at Graphic Instruction and Research Institute Vienna. 40+ films since 1968; screenings and exhibitions at Austrian Filmmuseum (Vienna), Anthology Film Archives (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Frankfurter Kunstverein (Frankfurt am Main), etc. Founder of School for Artistic Photography and School for Independent Film (Vienna). Austrian State Prize for Photography (2005) and Film (2016). Sixth appearance at Media City including retrospective screening and exhibition in 2010. Lives in Vienna, Austria.

Adopted by the resistance during the war, La Corona is one of the longest volcanic tunnels in Europe, and the site of an unsettled political past. Burning Mountains That Spew Flame touches on scientific theories of Athanasius Kircher, and piracy in the Canary Islands while journeying the depths of volcanic caves in Lanzarote.

“We’ve taken the time to write with the hope that others would take the time to read.
Writing is a vanity, unless it’s for the friend. Including the friend one doesn’t know yet.
In the coming years, we’ll be wherever the fires are lit.” – The Invisible Committee

Samuel Delgado (Tenerife, Spain 1987). Helena Girón (Santiago de Compostela, Spain 1988). Studies at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Exhibitions and screenings at Curtas Vila do Conde, International Film Festival Rotterdam, TIFF, etc. Second appearance at Media City. Living in Madrid, Spain.

Saint Bathans Repetitions is a cinematic portrait of Jacques Larose shot in the former gold mining town of Saint Bathans, deep in the heart of New Zealand’s Maniototo Plain. By avoiding perfect synchronization of sequences, the capturing process produces imagery that gradually unfolds and disintegrates under temporal displacement. While this method makes visible traces of individual layers, the resulting footage also reveals alternate visions and narratives based on the accumulation and amplification of material, suggesting slippages in time and space.

Alexandre Larose (Lebel-sur-Quévillon QC, 1978). Studies at Concordia University. 10+ films since 2014; screenings and exhibitions at Centre Pompidou (Paris), 25FPS (Zagreb), Palacio de La Moneda (Santiago), Austrian Film Museum (Vienna), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), etc. Fourth appearance at Media City. Lives in Montréal, Québec.

The physical paths of light were first traced by Ibn Al-Haytham, born in Iraq a thousand years ago. Ever since his Book of Optics opened, the “eye emanating light” has been closed. Thomas Young first saw the energy of particles of light behave like waves. His “double slit experiment” revealed the interference of two beams of light producing a pattern of dark and bright. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin established that hydrogen is the overwhelming constituent of the stars and accordingly, the most abundant element in the universe. While watching hydrogen fuse into helium she saw light escape. Since light’s substance still remains unseen, it is fair to say that light flows freely in impermeable, measurable quanta: carriers of electromagnetic energy, endlessly mixing and splitting, mixing and splitting matter into countless composite combinations.

Els van Riel (Gierle, Belgium 1965). Studies at National Radio and Film Technical Institute (Brussels). 20+ films and installations since 2000; screenings at Courtisane (Ghent), Los Angeles Film Forum, Ann Arbor Film Festival, etc. Second appearance at Media City. Lives in Brussels, Belgium.