UWM Union Cinema

Peggy Ahwesh’s wildly heterogeneous body of work—across moving image formats (from Pixelvision to machinima to super-8 and everywhere between), in installation and as object and through the ephemeral—engages with the political, the social, genre and identity in fascinatingly idiosyncratic, oneiric, visceral and rigorous ways.

Curated by MFA candidates from the Department of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres, these programs feature a unique opportunity to see some of the incredible 16mm prints from the UWM Cinema Arts Archive. For each program, the curator is invited to program a selection of films around a theme of their choosing.

A collection of shorts that shift from abject to exalted in the black between frames. In each of these films, the mire of life is dissolved and re-made by humor. And don't we need it.

An evening of films, videos and conversation with the legendary filmmaker, artist, community activist and educator Ben Caldwell. Caldwell is widely known for his role in the L.A. Rebellion and for founding KAOS Network, a media arts hub dedicated to Black artistry, fellowship, and love for over four decades. 

Curated by MFA candidates from the Department of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres, these programs feature a unique opportunity to see some of the incredible 16mm prints from the UWM Cinema Arts Archive. For each program, the curator is invited to program a selection of films around a theme of their choosing.

Curated by MFA candidates from the Department of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres, these programs feature a unique opportunity to see some of the incredible 16mm prints from the UWM Cinema Arts Archive. For each program, the curator is invited to program a selection of films around a theme of their choosing.

The weather moves around as the clouds imagine their own nephology: wondering what these people see when they see what they see. Fluttering by, attention pulls focus from the movement of the cloud, to the movement of the wind, to the movement of the eye, to the movement of the mind, without ever moving an inch. All the while, we’re watching seeing, or observing looking, or something like that. A program of short works that explore place, space and the weather, in all its sublime, mundane and chaotic glory.

The weather moves around as the clouds imagine their own nephology: wondering what these people see when they see what they see. Fluttering by, attention pulls focus from the movement of the cloud, to the movement of the wind, to the movement of the eye, to the movement of the mind, without ever moving an inch. All the while, we’re watching seeing, or observing looking, or something like that. A program of short works that explore place, space and the weather, in all its sublime, mundane and chaotic glory.

Iva Radivojević was born in Belgrade and spent her early years in Yugoslavia, Cyprus and NYC. She is an artist and filmmaker who currently divides her time between Athens and Lesbos. Her work presents itself as a collection of fragments {observations, poetry, images, sounds, melodies, languages}  which collage together to connect into a ruminating whole. The work circles around dislocation, migration and belonging, seeking to connect to the metaphysical or the magical. 

Curated by MFA candidates from the Department of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres, these programs feature a unique opportunity to see some of the incredible 16mm prints from the UWM Cinema Arts Archive. For each program, the curator is invited to program a selection of films around a theme of their choosing.

In her debut feature, photographer and filmmaker Celeste Rojas Mugica confronts the political weight of images, revisiting her father’s photographic archive developed in exile in Latin America following activist involvement during the Pinochet dictatorship. 51 years later, this gentle, complex and visually resourceful account of densely traumatic history conjures an intimate family portrait from the dark room – opening spaces for reflection and resistance.

Ken Jacobs, one of the true radicals of American cinema and a lion of experimental film, passed October 5th, a mere season since his beloved wife and collaborator Flo preceded him. They lived long, full, beautiful lives. In addition to his inimitable work in film, video, painting, performance and all range of moving images, Ken started and was at the center of the film program at SUNY-Binghamton and co-founded The Millennium Film Workshop.

Adebukola Bodunrin is a Nigerian-Canadian film, & video artist who explores language, culture, and media. In her collage animations, she manipulates film using unorthodox manual and digital techniques to produce unexpected cinematic experiences. Bodunrin’s animation work has been featured on the television series Transparent, and in KCET’s “Lost LA” series, for which she also won an LA Area Emmy award for segment direction.

Dani and Sheilah Restack have embarked on an artistic relationship that is formally and emotionally adjacent to their domestic lives, a quotidian zone they share with their young daughter Rose. Both artists have established careers on their own. Neither Dani’ video work or Wilson’s multimedia performance and installation work could exactly prepare us for the force of the women’s collaborative efforts. – Michael Sicinski, Cinema Scope, 2017.

Conventionally hierarchical production practices offer a limited but culturally outsized sense of how we can make films together. This program glimpses generously at other approaches to collaborative filmmaking, pondering how the processes of production inform final forms. These ranging relational modes tease at the poetics, politics and possibilities group work magnetize and manifest.

In an age of intersecting political, man-made and ecological disasters, ‘Preemptive Listening’ is an ode to the sirens that are and those that could be. Siren compositions from over 20 contemporary musicians form a resonant voice to ask; Does an alarm have to be alarming? 

Curated by MFA candidates from the Department of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres, these programs feature a unique opportunity to see some of the incredible 16mm prints from the UWM Cinema Arts Archive. For each program, the curator is invited to program a selection of films around a theme of their choosing.