(James Hollenbaugh, US, 8 min)

Brent Brown is a self-taught artist with lifelong mental health challenges. Intuitive and deeply talented, in recent years he has started building complex, highly fanciful “puppets” constructed from dozens of cardboard elements with fully moveable joints. The Sticklet Weaver explores Brent’s process and celebrates his unique artistic journey.

(Filip Markovinović, Serbia, 9 min)

A short experimental film created by combining personal archives and found footage. The film takes us through dreamy spaces of memory and forgotten moments from childhood.

(Yanbin Zhao, US, 4 min)

Surrounding a hidden monument honoring Chinese immigrant workers next to a railroad track located in Canyon Country, California, Train Song adopts reflective material to distort the image of the railroad, as an approach to conjure the unseen spirits from the seemingly tranquil landscape, calling for remembrance of Chinese American labors through a meditative audio-visual experience.

(Lisa Marr, Canada, 5 min)

“The energy over the next few days is going to be overwhelming.”

(Mary Trunk, US, 8 min)

History lives in the sea. Memory fragments it. A red ball, a man’s running torso, umbrellas vibrating like bugs, the blurry recollection of my mother and her friend talking. Brief moments that repeat and replay until they all flow back with the tide leaving a line where sea and sky meet.

(Dagie Brundert, Germany, # min)

Robert founded this insanely beautiful art center (Konstepidemin / Göteborg / Sweden) together with his friends. My studio for 4 weeks bears his name. I live here now. I open the door in the morning and look at a hill. Robert’s Hill. We slide slowly from winter to spring. No fresh leaves in sight. It is raining very often. The hill is alive, pulsating, chirping, splashing, smelling, freezing, greening, trembling – I love it every day! The hill is my pudding: soft and tasty. I climb up and slide down, the top is my personal whipped cream: a round place where nobody can see me! I can look directly into space!

(FEDERICA FOGLIA, Canada, 4 min)

This hybrid piece is a collage created assembling both analog and digital material. Several layers of 8mm films merge to create a cameraless self-portrait of the filmmaker. The first layer is an 8mm orphan film (found footage) from the 1970s of a woman dancing. The second layer is an 8mm found footage film that has been buried in earth for some months. While being covered in earth, the film emulsion has been eaten by the bacteria in the ground, plus some bacteria from yeast and sugar. This technique was originally used by the Schmelzdahin group in Germany.

After several weeks in soil, the film gets extracted, rinsed, and scanned via a 4K digital scanner.

The third layer is an 8mm home movie that has been first decayed in soil, using the aforementioned technique, then hand-painted with ink.

(Lindsay McIntyre, Canada, 1 min)

Leavings.

(Zazie Ray-Trapido, US, 6 min)

Eva is a holocaust survivor who fled the Nazis in former Yugoslavia with her mother and sister. They settled in New York City, where she proceeded to spend her formative years. Eva worked for NASA as a biochemist, retired in her late 50s, and became heavily involved in local politics. This portrait film of my grandmother weaves through past and present as she approaches 90, exploring the role that memory has on who she is today.

(Tetsuya Maruyama, Brazil, 2 min)

How can one go against the system when you are part of it?

(Serge Gregory, US, 5 min)

A found film shot on 8mm Kodachrome in 1957 depicts scenes from a long-ago summer in Finnish Lapland.

(Janis Crystal Lipzin, US, 20 min)

In Some Mistakes I Have Made, I ask the question, “How often do we get to see our mistakes in life graphically recorded? Do these recordings of past failure reveal any new meanings?” Using typewriter correction tapes that I saved over the years as the visual foundation, I construct densely hand-collaged images from my past films and details from life’s difficult moments.

“The resulting video is a contemplation on the inevitable presence of memory and the past, expanding from the personal to the universal in its implications.” – Steve Anker, Dean, Cal Arts

“Tasty little celluloid scratching sounds of material production are included throughout the film, calling attention to the ‘hand of the artist,’ and the constructed nature of representation.” – Karen Davis, Mill Valley Film Festival

The Engauge Experimental Film Festival, now in its 5th year, celebrates the art of analog experimental filmmaking. Only films that originate on celluloid film are eligible for the festival. In 2022, Engauge features 73 films from 15 countries, showcasing a wide variety of experimental techniques.

Most films will be presented as digital transfers, but the majority of film programs will also include 16mm and 35mm film prints. The festival closes with a solo show and expanded cinema performance by Kristin Reeves that will deploy nine 16mm projectors simultaneously in the NWFF lobby!

⚠️ Please note: NWFF patrons will be required to wear masks that cover both nose and mouth while in the building. We are not currently checking vaccination cards.