PROGRAM

More than just a source of transcendent beauty, forests offer a space to think, play, and reconnect with ourselves. Face-offs with technology, explorations of identity, brilliant animations and image processing appear in this forest floor fantasia dedicated to nature’s most intangible resource. The films in THE IMMANENT GROVE treat the forest as a means to work through our digital anxieties and personal histories rather than escape them.

An Ambush in Suspense | Simon Quéheillard | France, 2021, 17 mins

Objects and a character enter in a row of brutals crashes generated by falling trees cut by a chainsaw.

AI and I | Cecelia Condit | United States, 2021, 7 mins

Within a backdrop of the natural world, a woman explores a personal relationship with the home artificial intelligence (AI) device, Alexa. AI AND I asks questions as to the nature of what it is to be alive and human, confronting our complex co-dependence with technology. 

Companion | Kara Ditte Hansen | Canada, 2021, 7 mins 

COMPANION follows a woman who dons a sculptural helmet with mechanical arms attached to mirrors and lenses. The helmet functions to ensure a sense of security, but unbeknownst to her, the helmet also heightens her awareness, which spirals her paranoia. 

 Personality Test | Justin Jinsoo Kim | South Korea/United States, 2021, 8 mins

A private memory is examined and explored through a simple personality test found on the internet. The photographs and sounds, recorded by the interviewee at the forest and other places, become distorted and transformed by the artist or the audience. In the reconstructed forest, the questioner, the interviewee, and the audience start to picture images of an animal, a house, a sound of water, and beyond.

Identity Karma | Olivia Ong Evans | United States, 2021, 11 mins

Footage filmed in Bogor, Indonesia and occupied Hodinöhsö:ni' land in Western New York interact throughout the video. IDENTITY KARMA asks us to honor who we have been and imagine who we may become.

Guided Meditation for Fantasies of Violence | Sid Branca | United States, 2022, 24 mins

GUIDED MEDITATION FOR FANTASIES OF VIOLENCE searches for ways to metabolize the fears that have taken up residence in the body. The audience is led through a series of guided visualizations and prompts for contemplation, evocative of late-night YouTube comforts and self-help cassettes, but without an avoidant optimism that turns away from the realities of embodied pain. Divided into sections, the work moves through the four elements – an invocation.

Possible World | Ezra Wube | Ethiopia, 2021, 3 mins

For this project, over 100 interviews were conducted in five destinations throughout Ethiopia; teachers, brokers, farmers, students, engineers, carpenters, soldiers, merchants, taxi drivers, cashiers, security guards, house wives, managers, nurses, designers, camera man, accountants, pharmacists, architects, mechanics, technicians, retirees, and more. Reflecting the interviewees' responses on the potential of a sustainable world, the project intends to instigate conversations and inspire action through imaginative discourse. 

Chicago Filmmakers Firehouse Cinema

In-person screenings are held at Chicago Filmmakers firehouse cinema located at 1326 W Hollywood Ave in the Edgewater neighborhood. Please be sure to arrive 15 minutes prior to showtime and be ready to present your order confirmation number for admission. Proof of full vaccination or a negative Covid-19 PCR test result is required to attend all screenings and events.