The Dancing Years

Volviendo a casa During World War II, the Italian submarine Macalle was shipwrecked in the Red Sea, near the coast of Sudan. 45 crew members ended up on a deserted island. NCO Carlo Acefalo died on the island, being buried by his mates there. Nearly 80 years later, a team arrives at the site and rescues Carlo's remains, taking them back to his home village, Castiglione Falletto, for a funeral ceremony attended by almost the entire village.

Duck In stark opposition to the rest of the program’s surreality are the documentary-esque BINGO (6 min, silent) and DUCK (3 min, silent), the subjects of which are more or less aligned with their titles. -Karen Sachs

Bingo In stark opposition to the rest of the program’s surreality are the documentary-esque BINGO (6 min, silent) and DUCK (3 min, silent), the subjects of which are more or less aligned with their titles. -Karen Sachs

Cores Sonoras A man finds the colorful vitality of the world on music

Figure With 14 Trains One film, FIGURE WITH 14 TRAINS (7 min, sound), exists in a sort-of middle ground between documentary and experimentation. Around and superimposed through images of a man in bed are elegiac shots of Chicago trains, suggesting something almost erotic, much like SWIM, but it’s unequivocal in its depiction of the transit system as a wondrous framework. -Karen Sachs

Bed Desert My favorite of the program is BED DESERT (5 min, silent), which is something of an outlier. In this inventive little film, the ripples of bed sheets are juxtaposed with images of the desert (or are they?), the formal ruse playful and intriguing. -Karen Sachs

Swim SWIM (7 min, sound) features a Warhol-like focus on a single body; here it’s a man, who’s mimicking swimming, complete with goggles, to a vaguely sexual effect.

The Quarantine Concerts In the early and uncertain days of the Coronavirus lockdown, Chicago needed a beacon of creative unity. The Quarantine Concerts began streaming on March 20th, enabled by the Experimental Sound Studio and featuring envelope-pushing artists from around the globe.

Flight Logs Using reconsidered amateur footage and testimony from Chicago, FLIGHT LOGS unveils fear, profiteering, violence, community, and humanity experienced under racist systems during the "white flight" that shaped American neighborhoods -- from the perspective of families who lived it.

Beany and Cecil Volume 1... Volume 1: "Spots Off a Leopard," "Invasion of Earth by Robots," Cecil Meets the Singing Dinasor," "Little Ace from Outer Space," "Super Cecil," "Wildman of Wildsville." Volume 2: "Davey Crickett," "Strange Objects," "The Capture of Tear-Along, the Dotted Lion," "A Trip to the Schmoon," "Grime Doesn't Pay," "Beany's Buffalo Hunt." Volume 3: "The Monstrous Monster," "Tommy Hawk," "Yo Ho and a Bubble of Gum," "The Seventh Voyage of Singood," "Cecil Meets Cecilia," "The Capture of Thunderbolt the Wondercolt." Volume 4: "The Rat Race for Space," "Beany and the Boo Birds," "The Greatest Shmoe on Earth," "Beany and Cecil Meet Billy the Squid," "The Dreaded Three-Headed Threep."