Dandelion Film Collective: The Botanical Turn

Saturday, November 2nd, 2024 at 7:00PM
Playhouse Cinema, Hamilton ON

Join us for a special FREE screening at Playhouse Cinema, co-presented by the Dandelion Film Collective and Factory Media Centre. Filmmaker Franci Duran will be showcasing her film compendium, along with a handpicked collection of experimental short films that have inspired or been inspired by her work.

The screening will feature films by Cecilia Arneda, Yuula Benivolski, Karel Doing, Franci Duran, Larissa Fan, Dawn George, Siyau Guo, Bea Haut, Derek Jenkins, Robin Riad, Cristal Buemi. You will also have a chance to view a communal film created by participants at the 2023 Phytogramming Workshop which was hosted at Factory Media Centre.

Known for her innovative use of phytography and hand-processing film techniques, Francisca Duran’s art practice intersects with a deep commitment to teaching, mentorship and community-building. For this special screening, the Dandelion Film Collective invites Duran to present her film “compendium” in the cinema alongside a selection of experimental plant-based films that influenced her path towards the recent exhibition Research Garden and its offshoots.

Direct engagement with film material has been a constant of artist filmmaking throughout the last century, but a significant strain of recent work bears the unmistakable mark of plant life on modes of production. Tried-and-true methodologies, notably hand-processing and direct animation, have proven fertile ground for experiments with plant material. This vibrant program demonstrates the ways analog film has become a medium through which artists are engaging directly with the nonhuman and from which they are considering the political, economic, and ecological conditions of late capitalism and the Anthropocene.

The screening takes place at Playhouse Cinema on Saturday, November 2 at 7:00PM! There will be a post-screening Q&A session led by Dandelion Film Collective member Derek Jenkins.

This event is part of Dandelion Film Collective’s LIGHT STUDY SERIES, made possible with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. 


About the Light Study Film Series

Light Study is a three-part collaborative series between independent filmmakers and Dandelion Film Collective, with a focus on experimental analogue film practices that offer poetic ways of understanding media art production and the environment. Named after the late Josephine Massarella’s film Light Study (2013), which explores the unique landscape of the Bruce Trail in Hamilton using 16mm single frame photography, this collaborative project is inspired by Massarella’s representations of the wetlands, forests, and ecosystems of the Niagara Escarpment. The project stems from our shared curiosity in the following question: in times of ecological crisis, what can analog filmmaking do? Over three programs, we will present experimental films and processes to local audiences and connect experimental filmmakers across Canada and the US, in order to strengthen the experimental film community in Hamilton, Ontario, and beyond.

About Dandelion Film Collective

Based in Hamilton, Ontario, Dandelion Film Collective is a loose consolidation of artists committed to working with analog film as a medium of expression and a format for exhibition.

About Factory Media Centre

Factory Media Centre is Hamilton’s not-for-profit artist-driven resource centre for film, video, new media, installation, sound art, and other multimedia art forms. Our mission is to develop and support a vibrant, sustainable, creative, and diverse community of Members and non-Members within Hamilton and its surrounding region.