Shorts Program 5: Sensing at the 28th annual Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival will include works by Scott Fitzpatrick, Inaya Graciana Yusuf, Carl Elsaesser, Zachary Hutchinson, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Steve Reinke, and Jaakko Pallasvuo.

Discussing the relationship between objects, people, and theory, these films examine several problems in an artists relationship with their work. They reflect an artists reaction to their surroundings personally and culturally.

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TRIGGER WARNING (Scott Fitzpatrick, 2017, 5 min, Canada)
An examination of everyday household objects based on a list published in the December, 2016 issue of Harper’s Magazine, shot on a camera shaped like a gun.

MURMUR (Inaya Graciana Yusuf, 2017, 3 min, US)
An experimental manipulation of memories, unraveling one’s mental health and behavior shaped by a childhood past.

SOUNDING (Carl Elsaesser, 2017, 5 min, US)
A film inspired by a period of time the filmmaker was spending in various doctors’ offices. Using one person’s account of Anesthesia Awareness, Sounding is an exercise in examining the boundaries of a body through mapping out its landscape the way an oceanographer would the sea floor.

RUMBLE BUMBLEâ„¢ (Zachary Hutchinson, 2016, 6 min, US)
Rumble Bumbleâ„¢ has become very fashionable, making them a necessity for youngsters, as well as adults. Animal lovers across the nation have developed a fondness for these adorable critters. Each design is uniquely poseable, bringing endless enjoyment to both young and old. We dominate in categories including collectables, craft, dolls, games and youth electronics and are consistently recognized as the most creative company in the industry.

MAHOGANY TOO (Akosua Adoma Owusu, 2018, 4 min, US)
Mahogany Too takes the 1975 cult classic Mahogany–a fashion-infused romantic drama–as its base. The film examines and revives Diana Ross’s iconic portrayal of Tracy Chambers. Analogue film provides vintage tones, which emphasizes the essence of the character, re-creating Tracy’s qualities through fashion, modeling, and styling.

WELCOME TO DAVID WOJNAROWICZ WEEK (Steve Reinke, 2016, 14 min, Canada/US)
Welcome to David Wojnarowicz Week is the follow up to A Boy Needs a Friend. Reinke proposes a new holiday with the motto MORE RAGE LESS DISGUST: David Wojnarowicz Week and takes us through his seven days of celebration. Plankton, Kafka, Bette Davis, Wednesday afternoon visits with friends, more plankton, burning villages, Hollis Frampton, Sammy Davis Jr. as a libidinal machine producing sadness, opera, disembowelment, and poetry.

FILTER (Jaakko Pallasvuo, 2017, 25 min, Finland/Canada/Germany/US)
“Mixing crude animation, 3D modeling, and faux filmic textures in a self-reflexive essay on digitally abetted nostalgia, this playful work of fair use pastiche refracts all manner of postmodern touchstones (David Foster Wallace, Talking Heads, Reality Bites) into an aesthetic interrogation of its own methodology, resulting in, to paraphrase one onscreen subject, a critique of a critique of a critique.” – Projections NYFF

TRT: 62 minutes; All Digital Projection

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PROGRAMMING:

Opening Night: Ouroboros
https://www.facebook.com/events/1597733373607736/

Program 1: Growing
https://www.facebook.com/events/406953959726051/

Shorts Program 2: Moving
https://www.facebook.com/events/2054621001481266/

Shorts Program 3: Touching
https://www.facebook.com/events/150012512476519/

Shorts Program 4: Thinking
https://www.facebook.com/events/151379545546358/

Incense, Sweaters & Ice
https://www.facebook.com/events/169321673704183/

Shorts Program 6: Listening
https://www.facebook.com/events/2140454019516086/

Shorts Program 7: Looking
https://www.facebook.com/events/412164299229013/

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A Production of Chicago Filmmakers:

Onion City is one of the premiere international festivals exclusively devoted to experimental film and video.

Onion City was founded in the 1980s by the Experimental Film Coalition and run by them for many years. Chicago Filmmakers assumed responsibility for the festival in 2001, and expanded the size and opened it up to video work as well as film. It is generally 8-10 programs over four days and features roughly 60-70 works from around the world. Aside from the competition programs, there are occasional special presentations of new or old films of note or guest presentations. Screenings take place at Chicago Filmmakers and other venues around mid-June.

The mission of Onion City is to provide local and regional audiences with an opportunity to view a wide variety of contemporary experimental works, focused on artistic excellence but also with an eye towards representing differing styles, forms, and nationalities.

Chicago Filmmakers is a not-for-profit media arts organization that fosters the creation, appreciation, and understanding of film and video as media for artistic and personal expression, as well as media of important social and community impact. Chicago Filmmakers’ twofold mission is to serve independent film and digital video artists by supporting the creation and dissemination of new media arts works and to serve Chicago audiences by screening artistically innovative, socially relevant, and diverse films and videos.

Chicago Filmmakers nurtures the development of aspiring filmmakers of all ages by offering classes, workshops, and summer camps; empowers artists to create new work through production grants, equipment access, fiscal sponsorship, and other services and resources; and encourages the professional advancement of media artists through seminars, panel discussions, lectures, rough-cut and open screenings, as well as networking events and other opportunities for artistic exchange. Chicago Filmmakers develops diverse audiences through its year-round weekly film and video exhibition programs and its two annual film festivals, Reeling the Chicago LGBTQ International Film Festival and The Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival.

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Tags: Akosua Adoma Owusu, Carl Elsaesser, Chicago, Chicago Filmmakers, Edgewater, Illinois, Inaya Graciana Yusuf, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Onion City Experimental Film & Video Festival, Onion City Shorts Program 5, Scott Fitzpatrick, Sensing, Steve Reinke, Zachary Hutchinson