The Wexner Center for the Arts houses a Film/Video Studio that supports artists and filmmakers through in-house production residencies. Since its inception in 1991, the Studio has facilitated over 500 moving image projects. The Studio's work will be showcased in Picture Lock, a weekend-long film festival taking place Thursday to Saturday, March 20-22, at the Wex. The festival will feature a curated selection of documentary and narrative films, both feature-length and short, united by a broad theme of media activism in its various forms. While most of the films were produced in recent years, a few programs will also highlight works from the archive.
Thursday, March 20
3:00pm – The Revolution, Televised: Not Channel Zero Black Planet Productions co-founder George Sosa in person
This archival program spotlights the community access programming of 1990s video collective Black Planet Productions, which examined contemporary issues of race, gender, politics, and culture through grassroots-inspired media activism.
6:00pm – The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire [An installation version of this film was included in the most recent Whitney Biennial!]
A dreamlike film set amid a lush Caribbean-inspired landscape, this experimental biopic highlights the life and legacy of the titular Afro-surrealist poet and anti-colonial activist.
Director Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich in person
Friday, March 21
4:30pm – Como Vivimos Director Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz in person
Following the complicated experiences of Mexican American farm workers, this film raises questions about labor, housing, education rights, and, ultimately, what it means to be an American citizen.
7:00pm – How to Have an American Baby Director Leslie Tai in person
This creative documentary intimately explores the underground birth tourism industry catering to expectant Chinese women who travel to the US to obtain birthright citizenship for their future children.
Saturday, March 22
12:00pm – From the Archive: Media Criticism and the Middle East
This program features two unconventional documentaries from the 1990s that address the Arab world and its diaspora, highlighting forms of resistance and critiquing modes of (mis-)representation.
2:00pm – Picture Lock Shorts Directors Angeline Gragasin, Zhou Hao, and Cherry Nin in person
Four short films explore narrative and documentary film conventions to embrace the rich gray area between the real and created, connected through themes of love, community, family, and memory.
4:00pm – The Dells Director Nellie Kluz in person
This fly-on-the-wall documentary observes the surreal and often precarious experiences of international students who spend their summers working under J-1 visas in Wisconsin Dells, WI, the self-described “Waterpark Capital of the World.”
7:00pm – Please Hold Director Alexandra Juhasz in person
A reflection on mourning and memory, this experimental documentary mixes archival and contemporary material—Zoom, VHS, cell phone videos—to honor a community of AIDS activists past, present and future.
