FACETS Film Trivia is back with our classic brand of infotainment quiz show fun, followed up by a very special after-trivia screening of a selection of shorts from Sweet Void Cinema’s monthly festival.

This shorts program is an abridged and handpicked selection of entries from Sweet Void Cinema’s monthly shorts festival. It is a hodgepodge of avant-garde and narrative work from that which is materially created to digitally reconstructed.

Sweet Void Cinema is a production company and microtheater located in Humboldt Park dedicated to making and screening locally made work. They have produced three features and a dozen shorts, and in the past year have screened over three hundred Chicago-made shorts. They also run different workshops ranging from screenwriting, avant-garde and film theory. Currently, the screenwriting workshop takes place in person and virtually on Wednesdays at 6pm and once a month two feature screenplays are given a table-read and critique session. To get in touch about screening requests/programming or for other inquiries, email contact@sweetvoidcinema.com or direct message them on Instagram @sweetvoidcinema.

THE FILMS

Content warnings: Drinking, flashing lights, swearing, near nude SIMs.

Portrait 001: Security Guard by Tanner Masseth (2023, 11 mins)

A security guard ruminates on his life, profession and its history.

Pravda 7 by Jack McCoy (2024, 8 mins)

Narrative formal experiment with a variety of constraints: 57fps, 7 camera pans to the right, 7 whip pans, 7 mid-shot ISO shifts, 7 grapes, 7 pans upward, 7 static shots

Benthos of Synthetic Suns by Kelly Xi (Ongoing, 20 mins)

Kelly Xi (MFA 2023) uses light and glass to cultivate community with life-supporting microorganisms, creating habitats for bacteria, fungi, and algae within her neon sculptures.

Window(s) by Craig Hard (2023, 9 mins)

Two window washers, on a long summer day off, have no obligations conversations. An open linen shirt, heat wave, kind of slog. Like a slow-moving cigarette on the stoop.

Green Lights by Jason Nimako (2018, 13 mins)

James, a driver, picks up two passengers. One is a crush from his past and the other is her boyfriend.

Dick Gregory Was Right About Everything by Raphael Jose Martinez (2024, 5 mins)

Juxtaposing photojournalistic images from the racially charged riots of the summer of 2020 with quotidian footage of those same locations now, Dick Gregory speaks from the grave reminding us that not enough has changed in the U.S. during the 50 year twilight of the long American Century. All images shot on Super 8mm and 35mm film.

Demodification by Angelica Texcahua (2023, 6 mins)

A film entirely shot in Sims 4 POV camera mode, observing how full “free-will” sims react on their own with mods activated.

Cerecloth by Sophie Chevako (2023, 11 mins)

When long-awaited rest is found amidst lonesome insomnia, our dreams visit us with those we wish to sleep beside again, unseen selves, the mourning dove, and birthday cake.

Hermit Film by Jay Casillas (2023, 4 mins)

A girl stays in her room watching videos she’s recorded before.

Blow Your Trumpets Angels and Arise! Arise! by Nicholas Swanton (11 mins)

‘Tis late to ask abundance of thy grace

When we are there; here on this lowly ground

Teach me how to repent; for that’s as good

As if thou’hadst seal’d my pardon with thy blood.

Where a Tear Meets the Sky by Jonathan Anderson (2023, 5 mins)

From the Sweet Void Cinema avant-garde workshop, the prompt led filmmakers to create a movie which obscured its creation process.

FILM TRIVIA – 4/25 @ 7pm (Doors at 6:30pm)

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Angelica Texcahua, Chicago, Craig Hard, Facets, Jack McCoy, Jason Nimako, Jay Casillas, Jonathan Anderson, Kelly Xi, Lincoln Park, Nicholas Swanton, Raphael Jose Martinez, Sophie Chevako, Sweet Void Delights, Tanner Masseth