Small File Media Festival 2023

October 20 – 21, 2023 | Three Series
The Cinematheque – 200–1131 Howe Street, Vancouver

The Small-File Media Festival returns for its fourth iteration! We are delighted to partner with The Cinematheque to present over sixty jewel-like works from across the globe. These movies are small in file size, but huge in impact: by embracing the aesthetics of compression and low resolution (glitchiness, noise, pixelation), they lay the groundwork for a new experimental film movement in the digital age. This year, six lovingly curated programs traverse brooding pixelated landscapes, textural paradises, and crystalline infinities.

Why small files? Because streaming media is killing the planet! Streaming comprises a significant chunk of the world’s digital carbon footprint. Information and communication technologies as a whole cause 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions—that’s the same as the airline industry—and are rising fast. Watching small-file media together on a big screen brings the democratic potential of cinema into the digital age by showcasing artworks made with eco-friendly practices, affordable equipment, and minimal processing time (all without sacrificing artistry or immersion).

How small is a small-file movie? No more than 1.44 megabytes per minute, the storage size of a floppy disk. (TikTok is positively bloated in comparison, at 70 megabytes per minute.) Small-file creators use ingenious techniques to make these tiny movies beautiful and effective. We invite you to lean in, open your eyes and attune your ears, and prepare to experience a new cinematic avant-garde.

Small-file ecomedia are not just good for the planet, but essential for people living with intermittent electricity and low bandwidth—so long to the 4K, 5G dystopia of bandwidth imperialism! This year we’re especially proud to collaborate with filmmaker and researcher Mehvish Rather, who will share her research on how small-file media can be utilized for political sustainability in the face of state suppression that takes the form of internet blockade and restriction.

Join us Friday, October 20 for the opening-night program followed by a drinks reception in the lobby and a dance party in the cinema, featuring music by Vancouver electronic artist SAN. We’ll announce the winner of the coveted Small-File Golden Mini Bear during Saturday’s award ceremony! As always, the festival will stream online at small​file​.ca after the live events.

We’re most grateful to our future-forward friends at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Canada Council for the Arts, and SFU Contemporary Arts. Thanks to VIVO Media Arts, Cairo Video Festival, and The Hmm for generous distribution and exhibition awards, and to UKRAïNATV, a partner in small-file activism.

Cosmically healthy, community-building, and punk AF, small-file ecomedia will heal the world, one pixel at a time.

As a prelude to the upcoming 2023 Small-File Media Festival, the Small-File Media Retrospective (September 18–October 19) explores the affective power of experimental ecomedia through a curated selection of green and artful small films. Programs will run 15 minutes before the first regular evening screening each night, admission is included.

SFMF Series 1
Friday, October 20, 2023 | 7:00 PM

TICKETS

Lo Rez Skylines / Solarpunk Futures

“Lo Rez Skylines / Solarpunk Futures” lives beyond the barriers of digital perfection. These works seep through blockchained spheres of surveillant media to drip neon pixels into the eye of the 4K panopticon.

The opening-night program will be followed by a drinks reception in the lobby and an in-cinema dance party featuring a performance by Vancouver electronic music artist SAN. SAN’s compositions, performances, and installations turn emergent artifacts of failing technology into aesthetic sonic objects, inspired by retro sci-fi, anime, and the glitches in the Matrix.

• Another World | Germany 2023 | Matthias Grotkopp | 3 min. | 3.1 MB
• until,I’mAllEars-eld | Egypt 2023 | Islam Allam | 1 min. | 913 KB
• program/​sleep/​stop/​cry/​shutdown | USA 2021 | Chelsea Coon | 1 min. | 1.5 MB
• Who? | USA 2023 | Frances Horwitz | 5 min. | 7 MB
• Just the Story | USA 2023 | Joseph Chaney | 16 min. | 23 MB
• the impossibility of doing nothing for a minute | Canada 2023 | Pierre Leichner | 1 min. | 944 KB
• I’m Watching You | Lebanon 2022 | Miled Antoine Morkos | 4 min. 5.7 MB
• Automatic Breakfast | USA 2023 | Nathaniel Hendrickson | 1 min. | 1.3 MB
• ARCMAPS | Canada 2023 | Stefan Nazerevich | 19 min. | 25 MB
• Glitter Loop | Canada 2023 | Inanna Cusi | 1 min. | 1.2 MB

SFMF Series 2
Saturday, October 21, 2023 | 10:00 AM

TICKETS

Tiger Tiger

A sense of foreboding arises across brooding landscapes, embracing you in a susurrating murmur and a seductive pixel caress. The ingenuity of small-file aesthetics glimmers darkly in these velvet-pawed, sharp-clawed experimental works. — Laura U. Marks

• CUNTST | Germany/​Canada 2023 | Kimberly Cleroux | 5 min. | 6.8 MB
• Sinking Under the River, a Family Is Waiting | Canada 2020 | Hue Nguyen | 2 min. | 2.34 MB
• the cost of the cloud | Ireland 2023 | Adrian O’Connell | 3 min. | 4.1 MB
• The Hollowed Stone | Canada 2023 | Ockert Greeff | 2 min. | 3.2 MB
• Nightfall | Croatia 2020 | Erik Loncar | 4 min. | 5.80 MB
• Night Tender | Canada 2023 | Dag Davidge, Bernice Chau | 12 min. | 17.2 MB

—Intermission—

Small-File Filmmaking Workshop Showcase 

In May 2023, The Cinematheque’s Learning & Outreach team hosted a two-day workshop on small-file filmmaking practices. All levels of experience were welcome, and participants went through the entire process, from storyboarding to shooting to editing to compressing, in one weekend. — Chelsea Birks

• City in Bloom | Canada 2023 | Anastasia Samkova, Sunoj Subhagan, Heller, Jay Parnell | 2 min. | 2.48 MB
• When Were We Going? | Canada 2023 | Samuel Albert, Winona Gillera, Ningzi Xu, Weijun Zhu, Mickey Semera | 3 min. | 2.57 MB
• Present Connections | Canada 2023 | Anker Vanderkuip, Chelsea McNamara, Maddie Wahl, Robb Cannon | 2 min. | 1.86 MB
• Standoff | Canada 2023 | Lucy Layton, Emilie Paco, Josiah Belchior | 4 min. | 3.85 MB

—Intermission—

Small-File Filmmaking, Political Sustainability, and ResistanceGuest talk by filmmaker and researcher Mehvish Rather

Governments and repressive regimes that wish to limit communication in their regions often restrict internet access. Rather than cutting the internet off entirely, they sometimes provide only 2G bandwidth internet access, which makes communication incredibly difficult, if not impossible. Low-resolution artwork has the potential to provide an outlet for expression and resistance in conflict zones where the state implements internet restriction as a form of political suppression. This talk by documentary filmmaker and researcher Mehvish Rather (Queen’s University) will outline her research and fieldwork to explore the viability of small-file filmmaking in internet-suppressed regions. The primary message of small-file media is environmental sustainability; however, as Rather’s efforts demonstrate, it also holds major potential for political sustainability and resistance.

SFMF Series 3
October 21, 2023 | 12:30 PM

TICKETS

A Certain Feeling for the Universe

A poetics of longing, this program comprises textural films that open our vision through dense abstraction and deep meditations on nostalgic objects, diffused by sojourns both meaningful and pointless. To grasp just one piece of the universe is to draw nearer to the infinite than if you were trying to hang on to the whole thing. — Yani Kong

• WORDS | Canada 2023 | Liz Oakley | 1 min. | 3.21 MB
• Abandoned Patterns | Iran 2022 | Golnaz Moghaddam | 1 min. | 1.24 MB
• Patient Object | USA 2022 | Terry Cole | 3 min. | 4.6 MB
• Twenty Seven | Canada 2023 | Niloufar Samedi | 4 min. | 6 MB
• Only for the First Time | USA 2023 | Amber Pjongluck | 3 min. | 15.8 MB
• YAN | USA 2020 | Vesper Guo | 12 min. | 19.7 MB
• Infinite | China 2023 | Yi Yang Gao | 3 min. | 3.6 MB
• Transitions_​machines of desire | Greece 2023 | Valentina Farantouri | 1 min. | 1.44 MB
• Villa d’Este | Canada 2023 | Wendy DesChene, Jeff Schmuki | 4 min. | 4.3 MB
• Eden | Canada 2023 | Rianna Richards | 5 min | 6.89 MB
• About Satin | France 2023 | Anabela Costa | 1 min. | 1.5 MB
• Circle Falls | Canada 2023 | Peggy Fussell | 3 min. | 3.6 MB

—Intermission—

Rings of Saturn

At the threshold between cosmic and commonplace, this playful selection wields speculation and spectacle to nudge the viewer toward new off-world imaginaries. — Joni Schinkel

• The Voyage That Came to Be | Canada 2023 | Kofi Oduro (Illestpreacha) | 3 min. | 4 MB
• Sunset Melt; melting mmeeelllttt. ing, fire inferno fourth ring. Demons in my.… | Canada 2023 | Dizzy Freehan | 1 min. | 952 KB
• Powers of Ten (at 16px x 16px) | USA 2022 | Chris Collins | 4 min. | 1 MB
• Jupiter’s Ghost | USA 2023 | Andrew Roach | 21 min. | 5.3 MB
• A Simple Machine for Living | Canada 2023 | Monique Motut-Firth | 5 min. | 5.1 MB
• The Process of Rotting | Canada 2023 | Sophia Biedka | 7 min. | 7.3 MB

SFMF Series 4
Saturday, October 21, 2023 | 2:30

TICKETS

Shards of Crystalism

Paying homage to a group of Sudanese conceptualists, who in 1976 published their visionary ​“Crystalist Manifesto” in Khartoum’s Al-Ayyam newspaper, this program strings together movies that contain ​“a crystal that extends endlessly within.” Lingering over surfaces—looking at and through the crystal—and alternating between semblance and essence, the films create a relay between the finite and the infinite. In the words of the Crystalist school, ​“We painted the crystal, we thought about the crystal, and so the Crystalist vision came to be.” — Radek Przedpełski

• BLOOM | Netherlands 2019 | Simone Niquille | 1 min. | 189 KB
• Portal | USA 2013 | Kevin Obsatz | 1 min. | 968 KB
• Venus Play | Canada 2023 | Anastasia Shatska | 1 min. | 1.7 MB
• A Crack So Big the Pillar Collapsed | Canada 2023 | B.G‑Osborne | 2 min. | 2.1 MB
• memory of a green world | Kazakhstan 2016 | Nicole Baker Peterson | 3 min. | 4 MB
• unreachable seven days | China 2023 | Qishuo其铄 Xiang向 | 8 min. | 11.2 MB
• WOUND | China 2023 | Kailu Chen | 4 min. | 5.2 MB
• Pigments of Earth Magic | Canada 2023 | Clementine Lesley | 8 min. | 9.9 MB

—Intermission—

Silent Running

These small-file movies give a shout-out to their beloved ancestor, early cinema. Sallying forth into a new-old medium, they experiment as though for the first time with fantastical narratives, faux-naïf performance, the poetry of intertitles, and a dark glint of the gothic. — Laura U. Marks

• Autumn in the City | Canada 2022 | Inanna Cusi | 3 min. | 4.2 MB
• Ag Cónascadh | Ireland 2023 | Ella Garvey | 1 min. | 1.3 MB
• Dissociative Blue | Canada 2023 | Tyler Nykilchyk | 2 min. | 2.1 MB
• SHIP 2.2 | Canada 2021 | June Yeo | 6 min. | 6.4 MB
• Leonie | USA 1996 | Zoe Beloff | 2 min. | 2 MB
• Cabbages | United Kingdom 2023 | Holly Isard | 4 min. | 4.1 MB
• 致忆_​Tracing Memories | China 2023 | Xinran Cao | 5 min. | 6.8 MB
• dr vicious’ trip to the moon on the sunny afternoon of april 19th, bicycle day (and other businesses of his) – a small film | Canada 2023 | Tadeo Rios Davila | 3 min. | 2.1 MB
• Paresthesia | Canada 2023 | Yousif Kairee | 5 min. | 3 MB
• A Project for You | USA 2023 | Eric Butler | 24 min. | 25.5 MB

Event

Small-File Media Festival Awards Ceremony
Saturday, October 21, 2023 | 4:15 PM

Free Admission

All attendees, filmmakers, and guests of the Small-File Media Festival are invited to our final celebration where we will award the coveted Small-File Golden Mini Bear and other bespoke prizes!