This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Welcome to the Featured Film page for Bridge Video, now with more free access. Click here for our Fall 2024 program lineup. New all-original films, exclusively available on Bridge Video are posted here weekly on Fridays Sept-Dec & Feb-June. Click here to subscribe & view our entire collection of under-represented categories of film and video.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM PREMIERE: "White Noise” (March 22-28)
“White Noise” is an abstraction of the social and political concerns currently reverberating throughout the United States. A video that travels through an anonymous American landscape is juxtaposed with the increasingly chaotic sounds of newscasts and punditry. The banal time and space of everyday life take on an ominous atmosphere as the radio gives voice to a stream of issues pulling at our social fabric, while the image of the landscape fragments and falls out of sync with itself, transforming what was once familiar into a threatening experience.
THIS WEEK’S IMAGE UNION FEATURE: “Girl Talk” (March 22-28)
“Girltalk” by Kate Davis. Color film. An excerpt from a nonfiction film about young runaway girls.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM PREMIERE: "Giti Jan” (March 15-21)
A young girl who is fighting with her problems.
THIS WEEK’S IMAGE UNION FEATURE: “Silent Witness” (March 15-21)
“Silent Witness” by Nancy R. Stone. Black and white film about a lonely woman who breaks loose in her apartment and dances around with wild abandon.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM PREMIERE: "Lick Fire” (March 8-14)
Through intimate reflections, Lick Fire delves into the ecstasy and turmoil that spring forth from the limitless realm of imagination, while fearlessly contemplating the impending consequences of artificial intelligence in breathing life into these captivating and unreal realms.
THIS WEEK’S IMAGE UNION FEATURE: “Information Withheld” (March 8-14)
“Information Withheld” by Juan Downey. Color video. An experimental documentary that explores signs and symbols around the world. Different styles and art works from ancient paintings to cultural ceremonies are analyzed.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM PREMIERE: "Maria’s Silence” (March 1-7)
This film is based on documentary material but is not, strictly speaking, a documentary film. Nor it is a work of fiction. The film rather appeared to us like a dream, not a nocturnal dream, but one which unfolded day by day while shooting. A dream shared between the photographer-director and the actress (or, better, the woman portrayed in the feature), which nevertheless seemed to follow its own, enigmatic necessity through which the daily shots joined almost magnetically, interweaving in a pattern of superimposed layers that unceasingly merge and dissolve one in another, in the constant flux, crystallization and reshaping of psychic interior.
THIS WEEK’S IMAGE UNION FEATURE: “Language is a Virus” (March 1-7)
Video for “Language is a Virus,” performed by Laurie Anderson. Produced by Davidson Gigliotti.
LIMITED ENGAGEMENT (March ONLY): “The Alien & the Border Guard”
LIMITED ENGAGEMENT (MARCH ONLY)
Inspired by the U.S./Mexico border situation, this sci-fi short film is about struggle and transformation; it is about understanding and accepting the other. A non-traditional love story about discovering one’s authentic self. It is the story of how love can blossom within devastating apocalyptic times or our current times, when there is no longer THE OTHER, but unconditional love that is based in respect and acceptance of differences.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM (Dec. 31-February 29): "Danse!”
September 9, 2012: After months of preparation, 370 amateur dancers participated in the La Biennale de la Danse parade in the choreography "Pluie de Danses" directed by Bouba Landrille Tchouda.
9 years later, Danse! tell about this wonderful human adventure through the eyes of those who lived it.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM PREMIERE: "Unnamed” (Dec 22-28)
Zainab is a successful girl who supports her family financially, but considers herself a boy in spirit, and now she has decided to undergo gender transition, but in addition to her family's opposition and the society's inappropriate view of this issue, she has more difficulties There is something more important to come.
THIS WEEK’S IMAGE UNION FEATURE: “Modern Marriage” (Dec. 22-28)
“Modern Marriage” by Max Almy. Color video. An experimental video in which a static close up of a sun-bathing man’s face is shown while a woman narrates his personality traits. The traits begin well enough (intelligent, sophisticated, etc.) but devolve into a very negative portrait (self-centered, bossy, jealous, unfaithful, etc.).
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM PREMIERE: "Through the Rift” (Dec 15-21)
The relationship between the information we retain and its imagery we mentally re-envision and reassemble, helps us conceptualize imperceptible events such as the slow moving catastrophe of climate change. Recalling Robert Jay Lifton’s concept of fragmentary awareness, we form surreal sequences from these visual thoughts in order to create our own narratives of the real events that are difficult to comprehend.
THIS WEEK’S IMAGE UNION FEATURE: “Crossing With the Light” (Dec. 15-21)
“Crossing With the Light: A Poetry Video” by Marsha V. Morgan. Urban night images with poetry voice-over.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM PREMIERE: "Re-Record” (Dec 8-14)
A family celebrates the birthday of their son. After a warm greeting, their usual feast takes place.
THIS WEEK’S IMAGE UNION FEATURE: “The Cleansing” (Dec. 8-17)
“The Cleansing” by John Davies and John Petrakis. Color film starring James Belushi. A comedic short about a devout Catholic girl, Mary, who brings home her new boyfriend to her equally devout parents. After pronouncing that the boyfriend is the antiChrist, Mary’s parents decide to “cleanse” him.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM PREMIERE: "The Knife and the Heart” (Dec 1-7)
Tape of unknown origin, appearing to depict a dramatized sequence of "phases" in time and space that both tell the story of a woman's past and explore the end of our universe, intertwining the two with dark surrealist imagery. Not Recommended. Runtime: 11 minutes.
THIS WEEK’S IMAGE UNION FEATURE: “Alien Nation” (Dec. 1-7)
“Alien Nation” by Edward Rankus, John Manning, and Barbara Latham. B&W and Color video. An experimental video that features sound bites from various alien-themed science fiction films/TV shows over other imagery, most of which has been altered or enhanced with computer graphics.
LIMITED ENGAGEMENT (DEC ONLY): “Us In Octaves”
LIMITED ENGAGEMENT (DEC ONLY)
In a hyper color summer nightmare, two lovers are haunted by their last act of love: saying goodbye. Us In Octaves is an official two part narrative music video for veteran producer Caural and told through an all Womxn & Non-Binary cast.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM PREMIERE: "Bitter September” (Nov 24-30)
After the assassination of the Greek-American LGBTQ activist, Zak Kostopoulos, his childhood friend Sophia Farantatou, returns to Greece and finds herself stuck in a dead end. The video of the assassination shot from a passer by, plays on replay in all the national TV channels. Between the media storytelling and her own archive footage from her friend, Sophia has no choice but to isolate and reflect on the meaning of memory. Only time can give her the space to grief and face the absence of her friend.