Friday, October 10, 6:00 p.m. | Film has proven such a remarkably durable medium for artists that in recent years it’s started to feel like “film is dead” is finally becoming a minority opinion again. We’ve only been able to get to this point through the efforts of artists who have demonstrated analog cinema’s viability by continuing to make work on film, and the growing network of analog exhibitors and community-driven skill sharing initiatives that have supported them. While the films in this program take a diverse set of artistic approaches, all of the artists behind them share a stubborn unwillingness to just let film go. Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu’s SEA 404 is perhaps the grainiest film we’ve ever seen, a shimmering procession of greyscale abstractions, with a howler of a punchline for the medium specificists. Known for his bombastic approach to found footage filmmaking, Peter Tscherkassky reengineers scraps of vintage pornography into a visceral, psychosexual nightmare mosaic in The Exquisite Corpus. One of two films in this program made by a filmmaker in their 70s, Saul Levine’s On Another Note is a pleasantly nagging, amicably confusing late entry in his career-long practice of scribing personal notes in celluloid. The other featured septuagenarian here is Rose Lowder with Jardin du sel, a technical one-off that counts as Lowder’s only film to date shot on reversal stock, as well as one of the very last films shot on commercially processed Kodachrome.
Program
SEA 404 (Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu, 2019, 3 min.) - 16mm
RUN! (Malic Amalya, 2019, 10 min.) - 16mm
On Another Note (Saul Levine, 2019, 5 min.) - 16mm
Jardin du sel (Rose Lowder, 2011, 16 min.) - 16mm
Obey Your Air Raid Warden (Robert Davis & Harry Hilfinger, 1942, 3 min.) - 16mm
La Grande Dame (étude) (Alexandre Larose, 2005/2011, 3 min.) - 35mm
Thread (Abigail Smith, 2023, 2 min.) - 35mm
June (Leopoldo Bloom, 2012, 6 min.) - 35mm
The Exquisite Corpus (Peter Tscherkassky, 2015, 19 min.) - 35mm
Celluloid Now | October 10–12, 2025
The Chicago Film Society (CFS) is proud to welcome you to the third edition of Celluloid Now: four days of screenings, workshops, and other events showcasing the work of analog filmmakers and artists, alongside archival rediscoveries and restorations. Join CFS at the Gene Siskel Film Center for a special, jumbo-sized program of 35mm shorts, featuring brand new prints and other surprises! Learn more at celluloidnow.org. Synopses courtesy of Chicago Film Society.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu