INTO THE REALM OF THE NIGHT
is going to the 33rd Onion City Experimental Film Festival
Chicago, Illinois
Comfort Station | March 31 at 10:00 PM

The Onion City Experimental Film Festival is one of the premiere international festivals exclusively devoted to experimental film and video. Our mission is to provide local and regional audiences with an opportunity to view a wide variety of contemporary experimental works, focused on artistic excellence, but also with an eye towards representing differing styles, forms, and nationalities.

PROGRAM: ONION CITY: LATE NIGHT AT COMFORT STATION (FOR THE NIGHT OWLS)
Hosted by our partner organization, Comfort Station, located in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, this program brings you an experience steeped in stroboscopic stimulation composed of dazzling psychedelia, mesmerizing soundscapes, and light psychological thrills. Following the program, we invite you to join us for drinks and conversations at a nearby bar for fellow night owls.
Comfort Station
This special in-person screening will be held at Comfort Station located at 2579 N Milwaukee Ave in the Logan Square neighborhood. Please be sure to arrive 15 minutes prior to showtime and be ready to present your order confirmation number for admission. Masks are strongly recommended, but not required.
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.