PROGRAM 

This program brings you an experience steeped in stroboscopic stimulation composed of dazzling psychedelia, mesmerizing soundscapes, and light psychological thrills.

Onion City Experimental Film Festival Streaming Online

Online programs will be made available for streaming the day following all In-Person competition programs. The link to view this program will be emailed to the email address used to purchase the streaming pass.

Into the Realm of the Night | Patrick Müller | Germany, 2022, 6 mins

The transition from day to night. It magically casts a spell over us, we glide into it like water and enjoy it: despite all its dangers, it is the night we love.

rift (HD) | HC Gilje | Norway, 2022, 7 mins (US Festival Premiere)

RIFT consists of over 10,000 microscope images of plastic wrappings from consumables. RIFT is a film about petrochemicals, the completely different durations involved in the process from plankton to oil to plastic to waste, and the relation between depth and time through the layers of the Earth. The film takes inspiration from the hand painted and colorful animation films that Len Lye made in the 1930s. With a soundtrack by Justin Bennett.

The Taking of Jordan (All American Boy) | Kalil Haddad | Canada, 2022, 8 mins (Chicago Festival Premiere)

Jordan, an amateur adult performer, recalls the horror of his many former lives.

Glitch Wall | Lindsey Arturo | United States, 2021, 1 min (World Festival Premiere)

a frame dances to the beat.

AbstrArt 23 | Luis Carlos Rodríguez | Spain, 2022, 6 mins (US Festival Premiere)

ABSTRART is part of an audiovisual artistic research project that tries to transfer expressive and emotional concepts to the screen with moving images and, therefore, intentionally lacks formal narrative and structural aspects. Any resemblance to reality is pure coincidence or a chance accident in the production process.

Retrodreaming | Alisa Berger | Germany, Japan, 2022, 18 mins (Chicago Festival Premiere)

Empty schools in deserted villages tell their own story. A voice from a tape recorder recalls the reality of a secret sleep-experiment during a pandemic. The film slowly reveals fragmentary glimpses of an entity inhabiting the dreams.

Pyrotechnics | Onyou Oh | Korea, United States, 2021, 11 mins (Chicago Festival Premiere)

When the theater puts up fireworks by itself, an imaginary cinema rises from a woman's eyes as a vision.

Content Warning: This program contains some fast edits and strobing imagery that may negatively impact those viewers with epilepsy and other light-sensitive disorders. This program also contains nudity, sexually explicit content, and scenes of a violent, disturbing nature.

Featured image from INTO THE REALM OF THE NIGHT by Patrick Müller.