• Paper Sister
  • The Grave’s Sky
  • Kicking the Clouds
  • Echolocation
  • T
  • Lesser Chances


What Was a Memory? What Was a Dream?: Experimental Films



In Person

  • Al Wong

    Al Wong, a native San Franciscan artist who studied and taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, has spent more than fifty years making art in a variety of mediums. We are delighted to announce that he was just awarded the California Arts Council Legacy Individual Artist Fellowship.

  • Nadia Shihab

    Nadia Shihab is a filmmaker and artist who teaches film at the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. Prior to that she lived and made films in the Bay Area and, for a decade, worked as a community practitioner and affordable housing advocate.

The films in this program include a diary film, portrayals and testimonies of family and friends, and recognition of those who have passed. Anna Kipervaser records her grandparents with some cherished objects. In Paper Sister, Al Wong cuts into a photo in a myriad of ways in a meditation on a family member he never met. Nadia Shihab’s Echolocation begins with overlapping photos of her grandmother’s living room in Baghdad and ends by revealing her own artistic process. Super 8 home movies accompany Courtney Stephens’s mother recounting her illegal abortion in 1969. Sky Hopinka listens to a fifty-year-old recording of his grandmother and interviews his mother in his tribute to his ancestors. During the COVID-19 lockdown, John Gianvito follows the unfolding pandemic online and nature’s cycles outside his back door. Keisha Rae Witherspoon documents three participants in Miami’s T Ball, who make T-shirts and outfits to honor their dead.

Films in this Screening

Paper Sister

Al Wong, United States, 2023

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • Digital
  • 5 mins
source
  • Canyon Cinema

Echolocation

Nadia Shihab, United States, 2021

FILM DETAILS 
Language
  • Turkmen
  • Arabic
  • English
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 9 mins
source
  • Nadia Shihab

Lesser Choices

Courtney Stephens, Mexico, United States, 2022

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 8 mins
source
  • Courtney Stephens

Бабушка Галя и Дедушка Аркадий / Grandma Galya and Grandpa Arkadiy

Anna Kipervaser, Ukraine, United States, 2023

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • Color
  • 16mm
  • 4 mins
source
  • Anna Kipervaser

Kicking the Clouds

Sky Hopinka, United States, 2021

FILM DETAILS 
Language
  • English
  • Pechanga
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 16 mins
source
  • Sky Hopinka

The Grave’s Sky

John Gianvito, United States, 2023

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 19 mins
source
  • John Gianvito

T

Keisha Rae Witherspoon, United States, 2019

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 14 mins
source
  • Keisha Rae Witherspoon

Event Accessibility

If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us at bampfa@berkeley.edu or call us at (510) 642-1412 (during open hours) with as much advance notice as possible. More information on accessibility services.