Alternative Visions 2023

September 6–November 15, 2023

Our annual showcase of historical and current experimental film includes presentations by filmmakers including Peggy Ahwesh, Ernie Gehr, Jacqueline Goss, and Lindsay McIntyre, plus an exciting array of short films and guest-curated programs.

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Charlotte Pryce: and so it came about (A Tale of Consequential Dormancy)
Ernie Gehr: Back in the Park
Paul Fillinger: Celebration of Life: Trees
Al Wong: Paper Sister
Peggy Ahwesh, Jacqueline Goss: OR119
Lindsay McIntyre: Her Silent Life

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Past Films

L’age d’or
Luis Buñuel
France, 1930
New Digital Restorations
Wednesday, September 6 7 PM
Luis Buñuel partnered with legendary artist Salvador Dalí for two incendiary Surrealist films that both scandalized audiences. Decades later, they still shock. With Un chien Andalou.
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Three Experimental Films by Jerome Hiler: Program One
Wednesday, September 13 7 PM
Jerome Hiler in Person
All three films in this program—Words of Mercury, Bagatelle II, and In the Stone House—represent a journey of sorts, and between them they include footage from throughout Jerome Hiler’s filmmaking life.
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Ernie’s Urban Delights
Cosponsored by Canyon Cinema
Wednesday, September 20 7 PM
Ernie Gehr in Person
Ernie Gehr has always filmed the urban spaces where he lives and visits, finding abstractions, reflections, and “digital delirium.” We present four of his recent city films, “profoundly cinematic experiences of place” (Haden Guest).
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A Place to Be: The Experiential Cinema of Paul Fillinger
Wednesday, September 27 7 PM
Paul Fillinger, Adrianne Finelli, and Jon Shibata in Conversation
Paul Fillinger’s magical educational films made with his children transform the genre into what he calls experiential cinema, celebrating curiosity and connection to nature.
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Forgotten Lives and Disappeared Worlds: Experimental Films
Wednesday, October 4 7 PM
Introduced by Emily Chao
The films in this program reflect on what is seen and unseen. Histories are suggested but not explicit. The contact between humans and nature is central. With works by Eve Heller, Emily Chao, Kevin Jerome Everson, Adam Piron, Heehyun Choi, and Rebecca Baron and Douglas Goodwin.
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Festival of (In)appropriation 2023
Wednesday, October 11 7 PM
Introduced by Jaimie Baron
A selection of recent experimental cinema from the Festival of (In)appropriation, using a wide array of found media and pushing the limits of collage, remix, and more.
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Breaking Ground: Queer Asian Experimental Video
Wednesday, October 18 7 PM
Introduced by Leeroy K. Y. Kang
Featuring works spanning 1984 to 2000, this program takes a historical and archival view of the experimental video practices of queer Asian filmmakers and visual artists.
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Nicaragua Hear-Say/See-Here
Jeffrey Skoller
United States, Nicaragua, 1986
Cosponsored by Canyon Cinema
Wednesday, October 25 7 PM
Jeffrey Skoller in Person
Celebrating Jeffrey Skoller’s many years cocurating Alternative Visions, we present his 1986 “image-sound tapestry” of Nicaragua and his recent portrait of his neighbor, two films reflecting on US involvement in wars.
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OR119
Peggy Ahwesh, Jacqueline Goss
United States, 2022
Wednesday, November 1 7 PM
Peggy Ahwesh in Person
A collaboratively made musical that places the work of scientist and social thinker Wilhelm Reich in conversation with feminist thinkers. With related shorts films by Peggy Ahwesh and Jacqueline Goss.
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What Was a Memory? What Was a Dream?: Experimental Films
Wednesday, November 8 7 PM
Al Wong and Nadia Shihab in Person
The films in this program include portrayals and testimonies of family and friends and recognition of those who have passed. Works by Al Wong, Anna Kipervaser, Nadia Shihab, Courtney Stephens, Sky Hopinka, John Gianvito, and Keisha Rae Witherspoon.
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Seeing Them: The Films of Lindsay McIntyre
Wednesday, November 15 7 PM
Lindsay McIntyre In-Theater Livestream
Canadian filmmaker and artist Lindsay McIntyre is of Inuit and settler descent. Her impressionistic films include portraits of people and the land and reflect on her complicated family history.
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Alternative Visions 2023

September 6–November 15, 2023

We open our annual showcase of historical and current experimental film with Luis Buñuel’s Surrealist classics, L’age d’or and Un chien Andalou. Further historical explorations include a guest-curated program of local ninety-year-old filmmaker Paul Fillinger’s one-of-a-kind educational films, which he refers to as experiential cinema. Leeroy K. Y. Kang presents a selection of queer Asian experimental video, from Bruce and Norman Yonemoto to Patty Chang. There are a number of opportunities to see and hear guest artists: Ernie Gehr travels from New York with four recent city films, Peggy Ahwesh and Jacqueline Goss screen their “theoretical musical about scientist and social thinker Wilhelm Reich,” Canadian Lindsay McIntyre discusses a selection of her films exploring her Inuit and settler ancestry, and local filmmaker Jerome Hiler presents four programs of his work. The series includes two programs of recent films drawing on varied sources, including Super 8mm, glass slides and negatives, photographs, audio recordings, ray-o-grams, and artificial intelligence, with guest artists in person. We also pay tribute to longtime cocurator of Alternative Visions Jeffrey Skoller, who has retired after teaching in the Film & Media Department at UC Berkeley since 2005; Jaimie Baron, this year’s cocurator, presents her annual Festival of (In)appropriation.

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Alternative Visions is cocurated by Kathy Geritz and Jaimie Baron and is presented in conjunction with Baron’s course Experimental and Alternative Media Art in UC Berkeley’s Film & Media Department. Ernie Gehr and Peggy Ahwesh’s visits are made possible with the support of the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Endowment. Jerome Hiler’s films are presented with support of the National Endowment for the Arts–funded Out of the Vault series. Lindsay McIntyre’s visit is made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. We are grateful to Canyon Cinema for cosponsoring the Ernie Gehr and Jeffrey Skoller programs. The Festival of (In)appropriation is sponsored by Los Angeles Filmforum. Thanks also to Light Cone.