Tonight's experimental films and videos place personal experience amidst history in the making. By attempting to explain and understand their lives in relation to social concerns, some diarists also hope to instigate a critical perspective in their audience, whether through empathy or analysis. In his newest film, See for Yourself, Jerry Tartaglia chronicles the last days of a friend dying of AIDS, at the friend's request. This moving portrait, seemingly comprised entirely of film "rushes," is a loving gesture towards another, and an inquiry into the act of documenting suffering. Lynn Hershman's noted diary videos include the Chameleon series, which highlights the elusiveness of self, the fluidity with which we shed different personas. In First Person Plural Hershman confesses secret, painful experiences from her childhood, linking them to historical horrors. Joel Katz's Dear Carry is based on the travel films and reflections of Carry Wagner, a New York jewelry designer who spent her adult life traveling. It takes the form of a letter from the filmmaker to Wagner, and contemplates the different role of travel images in the 1930s and 1940s and now.-Kathy Geritz