Astra

Ephemeris

January 2011 •English

"Ephemeris" (2011) is a conversation of image and sound, between filmmaker Paul Clipson and electronic musician Aki Onda, rendered as if from a fragmented journey of landscapes and memories. Clipson and Onda each investigate very personal, intuitive spaces, through their favored technologies of Super 8mm film and cassette Walkman. Both artists base a significant emphasis of their work on performance environments, where their visual and sonic field recordings interact to create sensory collages born out of the subjective impressions of the audience.

Aviary

January 1997 •English

Short experimental animation by Jules Engel

Radar

January 2006 •English

A compilation of light cones of electric torches.

Locked

August 2022 •English

A tormented man struggling with his inner demons, seeks desperately a way to be at peace with himself.

Orbit

January 2019 •

The sun’s energy circulates throughout the earth, feeding the cycle of life. Everything is connected in a natural loop, which repeats, like the circular discs of magical optical toys. This perfectly balanced rhythm is disrupted by human excess, throwing the cycle out of orbit and temporarily stopping the circulation of energy in nature.

Elements of Nothing

January 2007 •Japanese

For this film, Takashi Makino allowed himself to be inspired by the earth. In a never-ending stream of images, we recognize elements from the forest that he then reduces to an abstraction. The film came about as a classical composition in which the picture and the musical contribution of Jim O’Rourke link up seamlessly and lead the mood in turn. A sense of freedom is what predominates.

13 figures de Sarah Beauchesne au 71, rue Blanche

December 1993 •French

Luminare

May 1986 •English

Abstract video art by John Sanborn and Dean Winkler. Dedicated to Ed Emshwiller.

Ground Control

August 2022 •German

A journey to an unknown star, a children's theatre play, an untalented writer and the fear of becoming the worst version of oneself. A mixture of live-action footage and animated scenes. A stream of (un)conscious stereotypes.

Yo, Diablo

October 2021 •English

Joey works as a waiter for a hedonistic community of summer holiday makers in a small Mediterranean paradise. It is unclear if their exaggerated behaviors are due to the fact that the summer is coming to an end or if its just the last of their summers.

PXXXL

April 2012 •English

Using century old technology, PXXXL creates digital glitch from analog process. It was animated directly on the celluloid without a camera, in a darkroom, using lights, objects, and handmade lenses. There is no digital manipulation involved-- just light, celluloid, and processing.

Gemini

October 2024 •English

Sarah and her two cats go about their separate lives. The cats have strange dreams about their desires, and Sarah develops an unshakable paranoia that something is wrong with them. Sarah's paranoia bleeds into her social life, and her two cats have their dreams come true.

Wisborg

September 2022 •English

Here begins the land of phantoms.

Dandy

January 2006 •German

Follows experiments of fictional 19th century aristocrat Monsieur Lautréamont, a hypochondriac dandy committed to the pursuit of true aesthetic perfection which he calls “urge-ingeniousness”. The film focuses on the interplay between Lautréamont and Louise, his seductive servant, and switches back and forth between Bock as the master and his reliance on Louise who is all at once nurse, servant, inspiration and lover. The film crosses the boundaries of surreal fantasy and period drama, with Bock playing the tormented genius, an inventor attempting to achieve perfection in every creative aspect: poetry, perfume, and even nature. Filmed at Chateau du Bosc, the family home of the aristocratic dwarf Henri de Toulouse Lautrec. Toulouse Lautrec is clearly the inspiration for Bock’s character

Chimera

August 2023 •English

Lost in the woods, a panicked Griff desperately tries to find his way home, but as he moves deeper into the depths of the woods he faces more nauseating uncertainties. Bewildered and disoriented, he must leave the woods.

In Bloom | A Ghost Story

November 2024 •English

In Bloom is an abstract Gothic Romance short film by writer-director Christopher Rosica, blending experimental cinema with the timeless themes of love, loss, and memory. Crafted with a meticulous attention to atmosphere, the film offers a haunting exploration of the boundaries between the living and the dead. Shot in evocative black-and-white on a Fujifilm XT-30 by up-and-coming cinematographer, Xuepei Hou, In Bloom pays homage to the aesthetic traditions of visionary filmmakers such as Bergman, Tarkovsky, and Fellini, while drawing narrative inspiration from literary icons like Mary Shelley and Henry James.

The Masked Monster

November 2023 •Korean

A young woman, overcome with hunger, trades her brother for a sack of rice. The cost will be even higher than she bargained for.

Black Mask

October 2014 •English

A father must face his dark past when his gifted daughter has visions of a young girl reborn from her deceased mother. This award-winning metaphysical thriller combines elements of art house, avant-garde, surrealism, and experimental horror.

The Window

October 2013 •English

A drifter spends the night in an abandoned house and encounters a Window of Consciousness. This award-winning film combines elements of art house, avant-garde, surrealism, and experimental horror.

Invocation of the Memory of Mary Turner, lynched on May 19, 1918

October 2024 •English

A stasis work invoking the memory of the lynching of Mary Turner, a young, pregnant African American woman in South Georgia. Publicly demanding justice after the murder of her husband, Turner was kidnapped by a mob, hung up in a tree, set on fire, her child cut out and killed, and shot hundreds of times before being buried on-site in 1918. Returning to the origins of cinema, filmed on the exact date and time of Turner’s lynching 105-years earlier, # 3 uses form, time, light, shadow, and landscape as metaphor to not only invoke the memory of Mary Turner, but to also ponder perspective relating to racial violence, violence against women, our failure to acknowledge our past, and the racial divide that continues to exist today in the schizophrenia of America life.