Small File Media Festival 2023
We are proud 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).
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Lo Rez Skylines / Solarpunk Futures
Curated by Joey Malbon · 53 min.
"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.
This program is 70.4 MB.
- 3.1 MB
Another World
- 913 KB
until,I'mAllEars-eld
- 1.5 MB
program/sleep/stop/cry/shutdown
- 7 MB
Who?
- 23 MB
Just the Story
- 944 KB
the impossibility of doing nothing for a minute
- 853 KB
AFJ Headspace
- 5.7 MB
I'm Watching You
- 1.3 MB
Automatic Breakfast
- 25 MB
ARCMAPS
- 1.2 MB
Glitter Loop
Tiger Tiger
Curated by Laura U. Marks · 35 min.
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.
This program is 46.3 MB.
- 1.3 MB
No/Know
- 1.29 MB
Jealous
- 6.8 MB
CUNTST
- 2.34 MB
Sinking Under the River, a Family Is Waiting
- 4.1 MB
the cost of the cloud
- 3.2 MB
The Hollowed Stone
- 5.80 MB
Nightfall
- 4.3 MB
Aramidek ti Bagik
- 17.2 MB
Night Tender
Cinematheque Small File Showcase
Curated by Chelsea Birks · 12 min.
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.
This program is 12.6 MB.
- 2.48 MB
City in Bloom
- 2.57 MB
When Were We Going?
- 1.86 MB
Present Connections
- 3.85 MB
Standoff
- 1.8 MB
A Tale of Two Lives
A Certain Feeling for the Universe
Curated by Yani Kong · 41 min.
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.
This program is 71.9 MB.
- 3.21 MB
WORDS
- 1.24 MB
Abandoned Patterns
- 4.6 MB
Patient Object
- 6 MB
Twenty Seven
- 15.8 MB
Only for the First Time
- 19.7 MB
YAN
- 3.6 MB
Infinite
- 1.44 MB
Transitions_machines of desire
- 4.3 MB
Villa d'Este
- 6.89 MB
Eden
- 1.5 MB
About Satin
- 3.6 MB
Circle Falls
Rings of Saturn
Curated by Joni Schinkel · 42 min.
At the threshold between cosmic and commonplace, this playful selection wields speculation and spectacle to nudge the viewer toward new off-world imaginaries.
This program is 23.6 MB.
- 4 MB
The Voyage That Came to Be
- 952 KB
Sunset Melt; melting mmeeelllttt. ing, fire inferno fourth ring. Demons in my.…
- 1 MB
Powers of Ten (at 16px x 16px)
- 5.3 MB
Jupiter's Ghost
- 5.1 MB
A Simple Machine for Living
- 7.3 MB
The Process of Rotting
Shards of Crystalism
Curated by Radek Przedpełski · 28 min.
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
This program is 35.2 MB.
- 189 KB
BLOOM
- 968 KB
Portal
- 1.7 MB
Venus Play
- 2.1 MB
A Crack So Big the Pillar Collapsed
- 4 MB
memory of a green world
- 11.2 MB
unreachable seven days
- 5.2 MB
WOUND
- 9.9 MB
Pigments of Earth Magic
Silent Running
Curated by Mena El Shazly · 55 min.
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.
This program is 57.5 MB.
- 4.2 MB
Autumn in the City
- 1.3 MB
Ag Cónascadh
- 2.1 MB
Dissociative Blue
- 6.4 MB
SHIP 2.2
- 2 MB
Leonie
- 4.1 MB
Cabbages
- 6.8 MB
致忆_Tracing Memories
- 2.1 MB
dr vicious' trip to the moon on the sunny afternoon of april 19th, bicycle day (and other businesses of his) – a small film
- 3 MB
Paresthesia
- 25.5 MB
A Project for You
AFFILIATED EVENTS
- TACTICAL MEDIA? SMALL-FILE MEDIA IN STAGES OF SIEGE AND INFRASTRUCTURAL PRECARITY
October 23, 2023
The Cinematheque, Vancouver, BC - SMALL FILE MEDIA FESTIVAL MAKER’S FORUM 1
November 23
Online - SMALL FILE MEDIA FESTIVAL MAKER’S FORUM 2
November 25
Online - ON THE SMALL FILE IMAGE: INFRASTRUCTURAL INTIMACIES, CRYSTALS, AND DECOLONIAL WORLDS-TO-COME
October 18, 2023
The Cinematheque, Vancouver, BC - SMALL FILE FILMMAKING, POLITICAL SUSTAINABILITY, AND RESISTANCE
October 21
The Cinematheque, Vancouver, BC
PARTNERS
The Small File Media Festival grows out of the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, on unceded territory of the –Sḵwxw̱ ú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səlío lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations. We are grateful for support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The Small File Media Festival is forever grateful for its home at The Cinematheque.
