(Sarah Ballard | color + sound | 16mm to digital | 14:25 | USA)

In 19th century Paris at the Salpêtrière Hospital, patients were hypnotized on stage to reproduce the symptoms of hysteria for public audiences. Over a century later, high school cheerleaders are fainting en masse.

(Panu Johansson | b & w + sound | 16mm to digital | 8:49 | Finland)

This found footage film describes impersonal and fragmented memories that cannot be directly linked to the life of one particular individual, and documents the way these past realities – forgotten people in forgotten situations – blend together from the perspective of the present. Obviously not everything can be stored and passed on, but If we neglect the lessons of the past, are we also bound to repeat its mistakes?

(Kamila Kuc | color + sound I Super 8 to digital | 12:25 | Poland/UK)

A haunting exploration of familial bonds, intergenerational memory, and the enduring impact of shared narratives, “I Was There” and filmmaker Kamila Kuc step into the emotional stream of inherited family history, as the lines between documentary, testimony, and fiction blur. Kamila performs acts of bearing witness not just for herself but also on behalf of her grandmother. Together, they testify to their experiences and the reverberations these stories have over time. “I Was There” is a palimpsest – a layered tapestry where past and present intertwine in the intimate process of activating memory and vulnerability as forms of resistance, honouring the testimonial object inherited from ancestors and the living connection that binds generations in the shared pursuit of justice and healing.

(Cecilia Araneda | color + sound | 16mm to digital | 4:27 | Chile/Canada)

Shot on 16 mm film, eco-processed with olives and hand coloured on site in rural Chile, “lessons on flight” examines the flight patterns of the green-backed firecrown hummingbird.

(Philip Hoffman | b & w + sound, then silent | 16mm to digital | 15:00 | Canada)

Filmed over 2 years (2020-2022), at home and away, “Deep 1” is a diaristic meditation, flower/plant processed and decayed with hyacinth and lichen extract. Winged and four legged animals, both wild and domestic, traverse the frame marked by a hand-made practice. Filmed in Mount Forest, Ontario and Dawson City, Yukon.

(Xiao Zhang | color + sound | 16mm to digital | 19:12 | China)

Framed as a dialogue with my grandmother, this film explores an alternative form of personal writing by Chinese women in the context of major political events—one that is both absent and abundant. A calling inhabits the blank pages, unfolding a secret writing of hers. The unseen written traces seep from the murmuring land, pushing through fragmented voices to become new forms—beings made material. The ‘blank’ becomes an image, carrying a search for agency: of land transformed, of women unheard, of voids rewritten. By breaking down linguistic structures, the film opens a space for imagining, reading, and performing, allowing for emergence.

The 8th Engauge Experimental Film Festival celebrates sprocket-driven, artist-made experimental film, presenting seven programs of shorts and one feature over the course of four nights at NWFF’s cinema in Capitol Hill. All work featured in the festival originates on film stock.

The festival features a closing-night live performance from Lori Goldston of original compositions over six films.