The International Experimental Cinema Exposition comes back to the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center for the fifth year this Thursday and Friday.
TIE screens modern and classic experimental films from around the globe. Each night the festival is broken into two halves: The first consists of several shorts, and the second screens 1965's "Vinyl" by Andy Warhol.
Curator Christopher May started the festival in 1999 when he was a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, taking classes from avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage.
"I was inspired by all the films I saw at the film salon every week," he said, "by all the work of these avant-garde filmmakers."
Brakhage would screen avant-garde or experimental films every Sunday on campus, many classics by Man Ray and Joseph Cornell.
May said the two main reasons for starting the festival were to support filmmakers using film and showcase international work.
"All I saw was American films for the most part. … I wanted to create a place where people could see work from many different countries," he said.
May said another unique thing about the festival is that all the films are screened on 35mm or 16mm – the way the films were made – and not digitally.
"Film festivals were getting rid of their 16mm projectors," he said, "and 16 mm is one of the formats that experimental filmmakers use. There was sort of a need for a place devoted exclusively to film in a digital age.
"I didn't know that both of those areas were going to be so incredibly important to preserve," he said. "I didn't know that digital technology would take off as much as it did in the past 10 years."
Ross director Danny Ladely is glad to have the festival back.
"It's really an honor to have (May) in Nebraska," he said. "I've been a big proponent for experimental films for the 36 years I've been running the Ross.
"When I started planning this place … I wanted to have an experimental film night," he said, "but that proved to be difficult. … The average filmgoer has trouble understanding what experimental films are about."
This year marks the tenth year of the festival, which has also had screenings in Uruguay, Buenos Aires, Austria and Montreal.
"We're really excited that we've had that kind of success," May said.
The festival will also play host to a couple "highly anticipated" North American premiers of work "by some of the most influential experimental filmmakers in the world," May said.
May will be on hand both nights of the festival to introduce and clarify the eclectic collection of films.
"They range from excruciatingly boring to stunningly beautiful, and he's there to explain them," Ladely said. "What's not to like?"
tomhelberg@dailynebraskan.com
If you go:
the international experimental cinema exposition
when: thursday and friday at 7 p.m.
where: mary riepma ross media arts center, 313 N. 13th St.
how much: $7.50 students, $9 general admission
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