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Mothlight Microcinema
About —
  1. an artist-run, nomadic film series screening experimental and avant-garde, fiction, documentary, and animated film + video in Detroit, Michigan since 2012.
  2. screening schedules and program line-ups can be found here and on our Facebook page. 
  3. Stay connected by subscribing to our newsletter!


Upcoming Events
MMC 2024 ++
  • Short Films by Lisa Truttmann

    • Past Programs
    MMC 2024 ++
    1. 16mm filmmaking workshop (in partnership with Detroit Narrative Agency)
    2. 16mm filmmaking workshop with Shanna Maurizi (in partnership with Carpenter Creative Cooridor)
    3. Gaza Ghetto (1984), Speakers: Umayyah Cable and Hannah Fahoome

    MMC 2023 ++
    1. 16mm filmmaking workshop with the Detroit Narrative Agency
    2. 60th Ann Arbor Touring Program, Q&A with Jerrod Willis

    MMC 2022 ++
    1. 59th Ann Arbor Touring Program, Q&A with Ahya Simone 

    MMC 2021 ++
    1. Malni: towards the ocean towards the shore, Q&A with Sky Hopinka
    2. Film About a Father Who, Q&A with Lynne Sachs

    MMC 2020 ++
    1. The Wolf House (virtual, co-presented with The Film Lab and Cinema Lamont)
    2. Vitalina Varela (virtual, co-presented with The Film Lab)

    MMC 2019 ++
    1. Films in Space (Cosmos + shorts on 16mm)
      Curated by Raul Benitez
    2. Remember to Remember: New and Old Films from Niagara Custom Lab
      Curated by Derek Jenkins

    MMC 2018 ++
    1. Chicagoland Shorts, Vol 4 
      Curated by Full Spectrum Features
    2. Based in Havana: Documentary Shorts
      Curated by Mary Pena
    3. Clicks Inside My Dreams: Short Films by Margaret Rorison, Q&A with Rorison
    4. Image Bearings: New Video Work by Women in the Midwest
      Curated by Sally Lawton, Q&A with Bree Gant

    MMC 2017 ++
    1. The Maribor Uprisings, Q&A with Maple Raza
    2. Kairos Dirt and the Errant Vacuum, Q&A with Madsen Minax
    3. INAATE/SE/, Q&A with Adam Khalil
    4. ANTI-ETHNOGRAPHY, Q&A with Adam Khalil
    5. Untitled (Just Kidding), Q&A with Jesse Malmed

    MMC 2016 ++
    1. Chicagoland Shorts
      Curated by Full Spectrum Features
    2. Films by Mothlight Filmmaker-in-Residence Jayne Amara Ross, Q&A with Ross
    3. Films by Ephraim Asili, Q&A with Asili
    4. SÖFNUN: Mothlight Microcinema in Iceland
    5. Seeking: Missed Connections & Loose Associations, Q&A with Chris Collins & LJ Freeza
    6. Films for One to Eight Projectors: Multiple Projector Experiments by Roger Beebe, Q&A with Beebe

    MMC 2015 ++
    1. Itinerant Spaces: Films by Stephen Connolly, Q&A with Connolly
    2. Minority Report
      Curated by Nazli Dincel, Q&A with Sky Hopinka
    3. Frenkel Defects III
      Curated by Kevin Rice
    4. Handmade Emulsion workshop with Process Reversal (led by Kevin Rice)
    5. Cellular Cinema VI: Mothlight in Minneapolis
    6. Films by Filmmaker-in-Residence Dan Smeby, Q&A with Smeby
    7. Tale of Two Syrias: Films by Filmmaker-in-Residence Yasmin Fedda, Q&A with Fedda
    8. Paradise: Films by Filmmaker-in-Residence Lydia Moyer, Q&A with Moyer
    9. Failure: Experimental Animation by Kelly Sears, Q&A with Sears
    10. Projection Instructions: Selections from Filmmakers Coop Curated by Josh Guilford, performed by Mothlight

    MMC 2014 ++
    1. Synchronicity, Q&A with Jason Sudak
    2. Films by Julie Murray, Q&A with Murray
    3. Films by Fern Silva, Q&A with Silva
    4. Form/Fragment, Q&A with Jen Proctor
    5. 51st Ann Arbor Film Festival Touring Program

    MMC 2013 ++
    1. Moving: 16mm shorts
    2. On Holiday
      Curated by Brandon Walley
    3. Peninsulam, Q&A with Jack Cronin
    4. Handmade (Animation)
      Curated by Gary Schwartz, Q&A with Dustin Grella
    5. Portraits of America, Part II, Q&A with Katie Barkel & Oren Goldenberg
    6. Portraits of America, Part I, Q&A with Brandon Walley

    MMC 2012 ++
    1. Maximal Minimal (16mm)
    Mark

     




    MMC23 04022016 / Seeking: Missed Connections and Loose Associations
    with Chris Collinns and LJ Frezza

    “Seeking” is a two person video screening about obsession, connection, and community in the age of pervasive technology. Both LJ and Chris are fascinated in locating and recreating the human moments of longing in the never ending deluge of images and cultural symbols. Throughout their work, they position themselves both as amateurs and experts, host and audience, both community member and cultural anthropologist. They sincerely engage in familiar forms of production, but always with the disarming criticality of an artist. The results are absurd, deeply funny, but also poignant. Can an obsessive fan-made supercut say something about loneliness? Can cheesy corporate stock photos be used to tell a story of desperation and redemption? What can video games communicate about labor, or existential boredom?

    Chris Collins’ work is the collective awkward squirm of a networked digital culture. Through videos, games, participatory performances, and curatorial experiments, he highlights both the absurdity and the humanity in the technology that’s reshaping our experiences, our relationships, and our perception. Chris makes work about what the internet feels like. He’s shown extensively in the states and abroad, including the Museum of the Moving Image, The MusieumsQuartier in Vienna, The Nueberger Museum, The MCA, MDW, CAC, CS13, WFMU, WLPN, SFMOMA(’s blog), and other places both with and without acronyms. He lives in Chicago where he teaches at SAIC and UIC.

    LJ Frezza is an artist, curator, and human being whose work examines mass media’s role in the formation of personal subjectivities. He is the co-founder of the BASEMENT MediaFestival, and is currently pursuing his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.


    Program

    Blindsketch (2014) Chris Collins, 3m
    The Waiting Game (2013) Chris Collins Parts 1-6
    Golden Eye (2013) LJ Frezza, 6m
    I just wasn’t made for these times (2012) Chris Collins, 3.5m
    Level 1 (2015) LJ Frezza, 5m
    Pony (2010) Chris Collins, 4.5m
    Attempting to write my name with silly string in Zero Gravity (2013) Chris Collins, 1m
    me trying to play the intro part of “Nuthin But A G Thang” on a slide whistle (2009) Chris Collins 1m
    The LJ Frezza Talk Show, Episode 3 (2011) LJ Frezza, 11m
    Natasha (2013) Chris Collins, 3m
    Stress (2014) Chris Collins, 1m
    Boldly Going (2010) LJ Frezza, 4m
    Nothing (2014) LJ Frezza, 6.5m
    CONSENSUSCON (2014) Chris Collins, 11m
    Tyepilot (2015) Chris Collins, 15m
    The Neutral Zone (2015) LJ Frezza, 6.5m
    Secret Handshake (2015) Chris Collins, 4m
    Mark

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