An aspiring screenwriter comes to Hollywood to make it in the movies… only to wind up as janitor of a fleabag apartment run by a greasy ex-boxer (George Kuchar). When the writer channels frustrations with his kooky neighbors into fodder for a new screenplay, the vivid murders he imagines start to happen for real, and the line between fiction and fantasy begins to smear. A singularly charming tribute to Old Hollywood and a marvel of low-budget, high-concept filmmaking.
In conjunction with her 2025 Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowship for Individual Artists, filmmaker and UWM lecturer Sarah Ballard presents a selection of her recent works in conversation with films by kindred artists.
From the Archives offers an opportunity for Cinematic Arts MFA candidates to select a program of films from the incredible collection of the Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres Department’s Cinema Arts Archive, constituting over 400 essential works on film from a range of historic and contemporary cinematic traditions, including giants of the avant-garde alongside lesser-known gems eager to ignite curious minds. The series maps the ever-expanding landscape of experimental film, representing an emergent commitment to the medium’s past, present, and yet-to-come.
The continual restaging and reformatting of the past is the theme of Suwichakornpong’s Come Here, which follows four young actors on an oneiric trip to the site of Thailand’s infamous Death Railway built by conscripted workers and Allied prisoners during the Second World War. Meanwhile, a woman alone in the jungle changes form, and history folds itself back on top of the present.
Scandal of Cannes 1973, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s flood of sacrilegious imagery and existential symbolism is a spiritual quest for enlightenment pitting illusion against truth. The Alchemist (Jodorowsky) recruits a group of people from all walks of life to divest themselves of their worldly baggage and embark on a journey to ascend the Holy Mountain and displace the gods who rule from its terrible shadow. Preceded each night by a surprise short by the Mexican experimental film collective, Colectivo los Ingrávidos.
Anocha Suwichakornpong’s latest shape-shifting excavation of Thai history examines the still-palpable events of the military crackdown that left ninety dead and thousands injured during Bangkok’s 2010 pro-democracy protests.
Join us for a showcase of exemplary student-made films born out of the various 16mm classes in the Department of Film, Video, Animation & New Genres: a celebration of the diverse creative approaches, from experimental photochemistry to sync-sound narrative, of the talented young filmmakers working to keep celluloid alive.
Born on the ancestral territory of Tongva peoples in what is now known as Southern California in 1981, Karthik Pandian is a conductor of energy, son of healers who landed in the Bronx region of Turtle Island in 1972, and grandson of Tamil Nadars who survived invasion, migration, and caste discrimination to see the end of British imperialism in India.
We would like, If we may, to tell you a story. Come join us for a Night out, you’ll never forget! Bring your costumes, callouts, and friends to a screening of the cult classic Rocky Horror Picture show! The night will kick off with a costume contest and learning some of the callouts before the screening begins.
UWM’s department of Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres is home to a faculty and staff who are not only exceptional educators but also accomplished artists, whose creative work spans disciplines, genres, and modes of production. Expect drama, documentary, comedy, experimentations, animations, appropriations, and, of course, the unexpected. Many of the artists (your teachers!) will be in attendance.
