Program 4 | history as heavy as light
7:00 PM | Saturday May 16th 2026 | Woodland Pattern
720 E Locust St | Milwaukee, WI, 53212
Palm Sunday, Nathan Swann, 3min 15 sec
Synopsis |
Palm Sunday drifts between presence and absence, in the corners, edges, and spaces behind our experience. Both haphazard and precise, its images layer upon each other like a tapestry winding and unwinding. Rhythms emerge through repetition, like a song finding its root note. In this way, the film echoes liturgical movement in gestures repeated, images revisited, a quiet ritual of seeing and remembering.
Artist Bio |
Nathan Swann is a filmmaker and visual artist based in East Tennessee. His work explores spirituality, place, and the textures of everyday life. He also runs CHROMA, a monthly screening series in Knoxville dedicated to experimental and arthouse cinema.
Excuse Me, Miss! Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu, 13min
Synopsis |
Excuse Me, Miss! looks at Los Angeles from the perspective of a recent immigrant, observing things that are quietly changing the face of the city. The film's title refers to the woman with a camera, whose filming is itself both an expression of presence and an intervention. The act of filming is entangled with the city landscape and interacts in the lives of those who pass by while recording.
Artist Bio |
Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu is an artist, filmmaker, and writer whose work is grounded in experimental literature, the conceptual avant-garde, and philosophy. Liu's works are concerned with materiality in different contexts and eras, as well as its transformation, symbolism, decay, and emotional resonance. Through film, poetry, painting, sculpture, and other media, she reflects the light and darkness of the world she lives in. Her films have been shown at international film festivals and museums, including the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Helsinki Festival, Festival des Cinémas Différents et Expérimentaux de Paris, Image Forum Festival at the Museum of Kyoto, CROSSROADS at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, M+ Museum, the Barbican Centre, among others.
A Thousand Waves Away, Helena Wittmann, 10min
Synopsis |
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Artist Bio |
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Tiger Lilly Mountain Pass, Nate King, 5min 15sec
Synopsis |
Tiger Lily Mountain Pass is a hand-drawn animation inspired by Nate King's time spent in the forests of Appalachia. The work explores nature as a space of queer erotic encounter in a region where queerness is often hidden or disguised. King animates with a combination of pencil, paper, and digital processes, weaving together a dreamlike poem that tells a story of ecstasy, longing, and heartache.
Artist Bio |
Nate King is an artist and educator living in Blacksburg, Virginia, and teaching animation at Virginia Tech. His work has screened nationally and internationally, including at Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival and Vancouver Queer Film Festival. King worked heavily on his film Tiger Lily Mountain Pass while attending Stove Works Artist Residency, Haystack Mountain School of Craft, and Cha North Artist Residency.
Recollections in three movements, Joa Heikkinen, 7min 45sec
Synopsis |
A short film set in a ruined archive follows an anonymous figure encountering three memories that have changed over time.
The screening room of swaying flashbacks is easy to enter and difficult to leave.
The stop motion animation is made by laser printing every second frame of the video material and scanning them into selected order.
The film is supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike). Sound produced by Aarno Kankaanpää.
Artist Bio |
Joa Heikkinen is a Finnish visual artist working with experimental moving image and photography. Their work stages scenes around the reliability of memory, alienation and the absolute absurdity of everything. Heikkinen alters digital imagery through analog processes, transforming high-definition footage into grainy, unpredictable layers. Their footage centres on rough surfaces, delicate remnants of nature and anonymous characters. Heikkinen is currently completingMFA at The University of the Arts Helsinki.
A Brave New World, Arnold Tam, 9min
