Program 3 | an open hand
gathers the wind

5:00 PM | Saturday May 16th 2026 | Woodland Pattern
720 E Locust St | Milwaukee, WI, 53212

Warren King: King of Cardboard, Curtis Chin, 15min 45 sec

Synopsis |

Artist Warren King transforms cardboard into sculptural reflections of his Chinese American family's immigration and his paath from engineer to artist. Preparing for a Wisconsin homecoming show, King explores belonging through art. 

Artist Bio |

A co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City, Curtis Chin served as the non-profits’ first Executive Director. He went on to write comedy for network and cable television before transitioning to social justice documentaries. Chin has screened his films at over 600 venues in twenty countries. He has written for CNN, Bon Appetit, the Detroit Free Press, and the Boston Globe. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Chin has received awards from ABC/Disney Television, New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and more. His memoir, "Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant" was published by Little, Brown in Fall 2023. His essay in Bon Appetit was selected for Best Food Writing in America 2023. He just completed his latest film for American Masters on PBS.

echoes of a zephyr, Josh Weissbach, 3min 15sec

Synopsis |

a glimpse and a breath of antiquity. 

Artist Bio |

Josh Weissbach is an experimental filmmaker. His films have been shown worldwide in such venues as Ann Arbor Film Festival, Light Field, Courtisane Festival, European Media Art Festival, 25 FPS Festival, First Look at Museum of the Moving Image, Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Festival dei Popoli, and Festival des Cinémas Différents et Expérimentaux de Paris. He has won jury prizes at Ithaca Experimental, Montreal Underground, Videoex, ICDOCS, Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, and Berlin Revolution Film Festival. He is the recipient of a 2021 Artistic Excellence Award from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, a 2020 Moving Image Fund Early Development Grant from the LEF Foundation, a 2018 LightPress Grant from the Interbay Cinema Society, a 2015 LEF Fellowship from the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, a 2013 Mary L. Nohl Fellowship for Emerging Artists from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, and a 2008 Cary Grant Film Award from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA. A selection of Josh’s films is in distribution at Light Cone in Paris, France.

[sighing softly], Süheyla Noylan, 14min

Synopsis |

An albino bird and a human share a landscape of quiet solitude, inhabiting moments where language falters and silence lingers.

Artist Bio |

Süheyla Noyan is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker with a background in law. Working with hybrid forms, she traces overlooked narratives that may not seek to be seen but deserve attention. Her films have received international awards and have been screened at venues including MoMA and Anthology Film Archives. She holds an MFA in Cinema from Binghamton University and is currently teaching at Alfred State College (SUNY).

Objectionable Fruit, Hogan Seidel (in collaboration with filmmaker Gabby Follett), 15min

Synopsis |

Objectionable Fruit is an experimental documentary examining the Ginkgo tree—a living fossil celebrated for its resilience and unique capacity to change sexes, defying human-imposed binaries. Using the Ginkgo as a metaphor for fluidity and endurance, the film weaves together themes of gender identity, ecological interconnectedness, and the nuanced complexities of trans existence.

Artist Bio |

Hogan Seidel is a Boston-based artist working in the traditions of experimental film and photography. Their current artistic research, framed through poetic, political, and personal lenses, delves into contemporary queer discourse, queer history, and queer ecology. Hogan currently is an assistant teaching professor of photography at Simmons University.

Parallel, Rosanna Lee, 9min 30sec

Synopsis |

Parallel is a short film that explores how we use language – verbal and non-verbal – to define ourselves and strive for a sense of belonging with those around us. The film follows a family as they partake in a weekly ritual of going to their local Chinese restaurant for dim sum. With a focus on the relationship between a young, British Chinese woman and her Chinese po po (grandmother), the film observes the struggles and feelings of uncertainty that can arise from feeling distanced from one’s origins but highlights the way moments of humour can also arise from such misalignments. By drawing us into the subtle physical movements and gestures that are shared and exchanged throughout the event, the film illustrates how we express our real emotions through the choreography of everyday life and portrays the experience of those inhabiting that ambiguous position of belonging to multiple cultures, countries, heritages – while perhaps not feeling fully aligned to any – all at once.

Artist Bio |

Rosanna is an artist, filmmaker and researcher. Rosanna’s artwork has been exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; PADA Lisbon, David Roberts Art Foundation, London; Tramway, Glasgow; Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne. Her moving-image work has been longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Award. Rosanna’s first short film "Parallel" was screened at: Focal Point Gallery, Southend; REDEYE screening as part of South Parade at Feria, Marseille; Edinburgh International Film Festival; London Short Film Festival; San Diego Asian Film Festival; CHAI film festival Leipzig; the “Introducing” programme at ICO’s Screening Days; The British Library’s “Chinese and British” exhibition. Rosanna was a finalist in the Netflix Documentary Talent Fund programme and has completed a short documentary following a Chinese Lion Dance performer in London and Hong Kong. Rosanna continues to make sculptural work and is currently a participant in Conditions, an alternative art programme based in Croydon. She is currently working as a researcher and producer on a project exploring Hakka heritage for the V&A and Design Trust in Hong Kong.