For the majority of the last 100 years, independent film artists have usually deferred to making and screening films on small gauges like 16mm or super 8 rather than the standard theatrical gauge, 35mm. Small gauge stock and lab costs have generally been cheaper, the cameras are lighter, and the projectors are often portable, making it possible for screenings to happen outside of traditional commercial cinemas, where low-budget personal films are usually shunned as revenue-torching anomalies. Things look different in 2023. Filmmakers are collectively pooling resources to start their own artist-run film labs where they can manufacture DIY exhibition prints for the cost of materials. This has facilitated works like Alexandre Larose’s III., which through entirely photochemical means brings together super 8, 16mm, and 35mm footage in a series of precisely layered and indescribably beautiful compositions. Meanwhile, traditional film labs have begun offering to strike one-off 35mm exhibition prints direct from video files for less than half the price it would cost to do the same thing in 16mm, an innovation that has opened analog exhibition to a huge range of young upstarts. Nearly half the films in this program were printed using this method.

Despite this uptick in new, self-financed 35mm prints from independent artists, it remains difficult for most people, including the artists themselves, to actually see these films projected on 35mm. Case in point: at least a third of the films featured in this program will be screening publicly on 35mm for the first time ever. To make sure you get your fill of these deluxe-sized prints, we’re hosting a two-part, deluxe-sized screening. Featuring a cinematic drag pageant-cum-mystical ceremony, an experimental approach to CinemaScope spectacle, a minor-key comedy suffused with all the joy and torment of visiting a suburban multiplex with your adult friends, and at least two films made by former Gene Siskel Film Center staff projectionists.

>>>> The films in this program will be projected in 35mm. <<<<

Part 1:

Ruptures in the Reel (2022, Peter Miller, 13 min.)

In Littleness (2022, Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu, 8 min.)

Color Me (2022, Robert C. Banks, 9 min.)

Going Out (2015, Ted Fendt, 8 min.)

Engram of Returning (2015, Daïchi Saïto, 19 min.)

==== INTERMISSION ====

Part 2:

Transcript (2019, Erica Sheu, 3 min.)

The Orange Velvet Dream House (2022, Nolan Barry, 18 min.)
※ This print was commissioned by CFS expressly for Celluloid Now.

III. (2022, Alexandre Larose, 13 min.)

Digital Devil Saga (2023, Cameron Worden, 11 min.)

Runtime: Approx. 120 minutes plus an intermission

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Tags: Alexandre Larose, Cameron Worden, Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu, Chicago Film Society, Daïchi Saïto, Erica Sheu, Gene Siskel Film Center, Nolan Barry, Peter Miller, Robert C Banks, Ted Fendt