Short Film Program

No Escape: Uncanny Mindbenders

The eternal return of our short film collection of eerie existential thrillers.

$16 online or at the door

Fri May 25 8:00 PM
It’s time for our annual program of bizarre and disquieting short films. Among these films you’ll find animated girls who lose things they can’t remember; documentaries about the steely gaze and distant reserve of drone pilots; and tragic fantasies about a pigeon from the father of alternating current. These films ask: Have you ever stepped on an anthill and not given it a second thought? If a foley artist falls in the forest, who will record it? Is it a nervous breakdown or the best set of your life?

The Films

Allen Anders - Live at the Comedy Castle (circa 1987)

Laura Moss, Tony Grayson | USA | 7

Allen Anders is either having a nervous breakdown or the best set of his life.‘Found footage’ of Allen Anders famed 1987 performance at New York City's Comedy Castle offers a revealing window into the troubled comedian's psyche.

Death of the Sound Man (Awasarn Sound Man)

Sorayos Prapapan | Thailand | 16

Two sound recordists are working on final mix of a short film. Will their sound be heard by someone? They remind us that the voices of the people are often neglected, same for sound in film.

Find Fix Finish

Sylvain Cruiziat, Mila Zhluktenko | Germany | 20

"Find Fix Finish" delves into the accounts of three military drone pilots as they tell the intimate story of the lives they observe on a day-to-day basis. The voyeuristic ocular perspective from a military drone can reduce people to pixels on a screen and a certain de-contextualization is almost necessary to deal with the fact that people can be killed on a push of a button. “Have you ever stepped on an anthill and not given it a second thought?”

Gokurōsama

Aurore Gal, Clémentine Frère, Yukiko Meignien, Anna Mertz, Robin Migliorelli, Romain Salvini | France | 7

Early in the morning in a Japanese shopping center, a shopkeeper bends down, gets a crick in her back and can't stand up again. In order to help, her young employee decides to carry her across the shopping center. What could go wrong?

Lance Lizardi

Xander Robin | USA | 8

A young man takes his love for lizards to the extreme.

LaZercism

Shaka King | USA | 5

Ask your doctor if LaZercism is right for you!

Mwah

Nina Buxton | Australia | 7

A teenager riding home on her bicycle late at night becomes the object of predatory attention.

Paco

CATALINA | USA | 12

He wants you to bounce on his lap.

Rabbit's Blood

Sarina Nihei | UK, Japan | 5

A girl who lost something important meets a rabbit.

The Tesla World Light (Tesla : lumière mondiale)

Matthew Rankin | Canada | 8

New York, 1905. Visionary inventor Nikola Tesla makes one last appeal to J.P. Morgan, his onetime benefactor. "The Tesla World Light" is a tragic fantasy about the father of alternating current, inspired by real events such as the inventor’s run of bad luck as a businessman and his affection for a pet bird, which he loves “like a man loves a woman.” Tesla’s words to the banker form the backdrop of this moving film about the man who blended science and art in his attempts to create the utopia of unlimited energy for all.

Welcome

Laura Stewart | Canada | 2

Welcome is a stop motion animation about a man who tries to befriend his new neighbor by baking her cookies. It doesn’t go as planned.

Performer

NOIA

Gisela Fullà-Silvestre formed the alias NOIA to create separation between her profession as a celebrated composer and mix engineer for film and TV, and her experimental pop productions. After graduating from Berklee, the Barcelona-bred artist relocated to Brooklyn and started writing music that channeled her early attachments to sound, which were formed osmotically as a child in the home of her activist parents. Shortly thereafter, she released her inaugural EP, Habits, which was a lush, romantic affair anchored by singles “Nostalgia Del Futuro” and “Itaca Tropical.” Her LP debut, gisela has been praised by Pitchfork, NPR, NY Times and Stereogum. Structured to unfold like a dream, it combines an array of languages—Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, English—and traditional sounds from her childhood in southwestern Europe to process her personal transformations over the past two years. Glitch and hyperpop productions and field recordings were also central to the creation process. Everywhere Gisela went, so did a recording device—dinners with friends, weekends in the park, voicemails, city sounds. The resulting body of work is deeply autobiographical, yet instantly recognizable. The context uniquely NOIA’s, but the stuff of life visits us all. Find her on Instagram and Spotify!

Event Details

8:00 PM
Doors Open
8:30 PM
Live Music by NOIA
9:00 PM
Films Begin
10:30 PM
Q&A
10:45 PM
After-Party sponsored by Corona Extra, Ketel One Family Made Vodka and Fever-Tree Tonic
Online ticket sales are now closed. You can purchase tickets for the courtyard screen at the box office starting at 7:00 PM. Roof seating is sold out. No refunds. In the event of rain show will be rescheduled. No outside alcohol is permitted.

Venue

The Old American Can Factory

232 Third St., Brooklyn, NY 11215

venue on Google Map

The show presented in partnership with