The Cinematheque

Shards of Crystalism

Paying homage to a group of Sudanese conceptualists, who in 1976 published their visionary ​“Crystalist Manifesto” in Khartoum’s Al-Ayyam newspaper, this program strings together movies that contain ​“a crystal that extends endlessly within.” Lingering over surfaces—looking at and through the crystal—and alternating between semblance and essence, the films create a relay between the finite and the infinite. In the words of the Crystalist school, ​“We painted the crystal, we thought about the crystal, and so the Crystalist vision came to be.” —Radek Przedpełski

BLOOM
Netherlands 2019 | Simone Niquille | 1 min. | 189 KB

Portal
USA 2013 | Kevin Obsatz | 1 min. | 968 KB

Venus Play
Canada 2023 | Anastasia Shatska | 1 min. | 1.7 MB

A Crack So Big the Pillar Collapsed
Canada 2023 | B.G‑Osborne | 2 min. | 2.1 MB

memory of a green world
Kazakhstan 2016 | Nicole Baker Peterson | 3 min. | 4 MB

unreachable seven days
China 2023 | Qishuo其铄 Xiang向 | 8 min. | 11.2 MB

WOUND
China 2023 | Kailu Chen | 4 min. | 5.2 MB

Pigments of Earth Magic
Canada 2023 | Clementine Lesley | 8 min. | 9.9 MB

Total running time: 28 min.

—Intermission—

Silent Running

These small-file movies give a shout-out to their beloved ancestor, early cinema. Sallying forth into a new-old medium, they experiment as though for the first time with fantastical narratives, faux-naïf performance, the poetry of intertitles, and a dark glint of the gothic. —Laura U. Marks

Autumn in the City
Canada 2022 | Inanna Cusi | 3 min. | 4.2 MB

Ag Cónascadh
Ireland 2023 | Ella Garvey | 1 min. | 1.3 MB

Dissociative Blue
Canada 2023 | Tyler Nykilchyk | 2 min. | 2.1 MB

SHIP 2.2
Canada 2021 | June Yeo | 6 min. | 6.4 MB

Leonie
USA 1996 | Zoe Beloff | 2 min. | 2 MB

Cabbages
United Kingdom 2023 | Holly Isard | 4 min. | 4.1 MB

致忆_​Tracing Memories
China 2023 | Xinran Cao | 5 min. | 6.8 MB

dr vicious’ trip to the moon on the sunny afternoon of april 19th, bicycle day (and other businesses of his) – a small film
Canada 2023 | Tadeo Rios Davila | 3 min. | 2.1 MB

Paresthesia
Canada 2023 | Yousif Kairee | 5 min. | 3 MB

A Project for You
USA 2023 | Eric Butler | 24 min. | 25.5 MB

Total running time: 55 min.