\nDonte McFadden\, PhD\, is a leader\, educator and mentor. Donte previously served as the Director of the Distinguished Visiting Scholars from 2021-2024. Prior to joining UB\, he served as the Senior Associate Director for Undergraduate Research and High Impact Practices for the Educational Opportunity Program at Marquette University. In this role\, he served as the Director of the Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program. He has held other leadership roles with the Educational Opportunity Program at Marquette\, including serving as its Interim Director and Associate Director of Administration\, Curriculum and Evaluation. Donte received his PhD in English with an emphasis in Film Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He earned a master’s degree in English and a BFA/BA in Film/Film Studies also from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Donte is co-founder of Black Lens\, a showcase for African American filmmakers as part of the Milwaukee Film Festival. \nBorn in Accra\, Ghana\, in 1957\, to radical political activist parents\, John Akomfrah was widely recognized as one of the most influential figures of black British culture in the 1980s. An artist\, lecturer\, and writer as well as a filmmaker\, his twenty-year body of work is among the most distinctive in the contemporary British art world\, and his cultural influence continues today. As a teen\, Akomfrah was a Super 8 filmmaker and enthusiast. With several underground cine clubs in London\, he helped bring Asian and European arthouse cinema\, militant cinema from Africa and Latin America\, and American independent and avant-garde cinema to minority audiences. In 1982\, Akomfrah helped found the seminal\, cine-cultural workshop the Black Audio Film Collective. He directed a broad range of work for the group\, including fiction films\, tape slides\, single-screen gallery pieces\, experimental videos\, music videos\, and documentaries. Since 1987\, Akomfrah’s work has been shown in galleries including Documenta (Germany)\, the De Balie (Holland)\, Centre George Pompidou (France)\, the Serpentine and Whitechapel Galleries (UK); and The Museum of Modern Art (USA). A major new retrospective of Akomfrah’s gallery-based work with the Black Audio Film Collective premiered at the FACT and Arnolfini galleries (UK) and is now making a tour of galleries and museums throughout Europe. In 2000\, Akomfrah was awarded the Gold Digital Award at the Cheonju International Film Festival\, South Korea\, for his innovative use of digital technology. He has been an artist-in-residence at universities including\, most recently\, New York University\, and a jury member at festivals including\, most recently the BFI London Film Festival\, UK\, and the Tarifa International Film Festival\, Spain. He has lectured at institutions including CalArts\, the Art Institute of Chicago\, and the London Institute. He was a member of the Arts Council Film Committee\, and Governor of the British Film Institute from 2001 through 2007. John Akomfrah is currently a Governor of Film London\, a visiting professor of film at the University of Westminster (United Kingdom)\, and an officer of the Order of the British Empire. \nThe Justice for Geraldine and Martin campaign is an ongoing\, volunteer-led effort to exonerate Geraldine Pointer and Martin Sostre\, for their frame up and wrongful arrests at Buffalo\, New York’s Afro-Asian Book Shop July 15th\, 1967. Along with teaching the history of Geraldine and Martin’s struggle and sacrifice\, the campaign is raising funds to steward the site of the former Afro-Asian Book Shop at 1412 Jefferson Avenue\, a mural dedicated to Geraldine and Martin\, and forthcoming events. \nKevin Thurston is the Chef and General Manager of Tipico Coffee. Prior to that\, he co-owned Cafe Godot. In addition to his culinary work\, he wrote Color Me White (BlazeVox) which was illustrated by Mickey Harmon and has numerous publication credits. He has performed with the ensemble BuffFluxus for over 20 years. He lives with his wife and daughter in a Polish workman’s cottage on the outskirts of Buffalo. \n \n \nBanner image: A black and white still from Seven Songs for Malcolm X by John Akomfrah. URL:https://squeaky.org/event/bit-depth-episode-2-songs-and-justice/ LOCATION:Squeaky Wheel\, 2495 Main Street\, Suite 310\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14214\, United States CATEGORIES:BitDepth,Special Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image3.jpg GEO:42.8906261;-78.8721258 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Squeaky Wheel 2495 Main Street Suite 310 Buffalo NY 14214 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=2495 Main Street\, Suite 310:geo:-78.8721258,42.8906261 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251105T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251105T210000 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20251009T204436Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251016T173839Z UID:10001256-1762369200-1762376400@squeaky.org SUMMARY:Village of Widows: The Story of the Sahtu Dene and the Atomic Bomb DESCRIPTION:Wednesday\, November 5\, 7 pm\n$10 General / Free for Members\nPeter Blow’s documentary Village of Widows: The Story of the Sahtu Dene and the Atomic Bomb (53 minutes\, 1999) recounts the tragedy of the Sahtu Dene people used by the Canadian Government as “coolies” to transport the uranium ore that went into the bombs that shattered Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Eldorado mine (situated on the remote shores of Great Bear Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories) fueled the U.S. Military’s atomic bomb program from 1942 to 1960. Deadly radiation poisoning has left the Sahtu Dene village of Deline a community without grandfathers. 1.7 million tonnes of radioactive waste remains at the minesite and in their lake. The Sahtu Dene have travelled from the Stone Age to the Atomic Age in one generation. \nVillage Of Widows chronicles their struggle to come to terms with the legacy of the world’s first uranium mine on their traditional homeland. The film concludes with the remarkable spiritual journey taken by the group of Sahtu Dene who attended the Hiroshima Peace Ceremonies\, and the friendship that developed between the Dene and the Hiroshima hibakusha. \nVillage Of Widows was broadcast to much acclaim on Canada’s VISION TV in 1999. It premiered at the prestigious Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival in New York; it was the 2nd prize winner of the RigobertaMenchu Tum Foundation Award at the First Peoples of the Americas Festival in Montreal\, and won the VISION Humanitarian Award at the Hot Docs 2000 Festival in Toronto\, where it was also nominated for Best Political Documentary. \nShown as part of the public programs as part of our exhibition\, Radiation Borders\, Peter Blow’s award-winning film showcases the both a little-known and far-reaching consequences of the U.S.’ atomic bomb\, and how solidarities can form and be established across national and colonial borders. Special thank you to The Gem Theater in Bethel\, ME. This event is supported by Teiger Foundation. \nAttendees: Please note that you cannot enter Tri-Main Center after 7:30 pm. Squeaky Wheel is located in Suite 310 of Tri-Main Center. Take the elevator to the third floor\, and head left. Click here to see parking\, transportation\, and accessibility information. Vegetarian samosas will be available. Members can email office@squeaky.org with the subject “Village of Widows” and we’ll reserve their spot within 24 hours. Not a member? Annual rates start at just $30 – sign up here. \nBiography of the filmmaker\nPeter Blow is a veteran award winning documentary filmmaker\, who has worked on over 100 broadcast documentaries in England and Canada. \nHe graduated from the London International Film School and worked on two Oscar nominated specials\, Mysterious Castles Of Clay and Leopard That Changed Its Spots for Anglia Television’s World Of Survival environmental series.\nEmigrating to Canada in 1977\, career highlights include – working as writer/researcher and story consultant on the Oscar nominated doc Harvest Of Despair\, which chronicled the Stalin Engineered famine in Ukraine\, that aired on PBS. In the mid eighties he started writing\, producing and directing documentaries including Borrowed Time\, a TVO/BBC Scotland co-production on the collapse of family farms\, and The Barrens Quest\, an NFB/CBC co-production for Nature Of Things. Village Of Widows\, a doc he made in association with the Deline Band Council\, won the VISION 2000 Humanitarian Award at Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival; the Rigoberta Menchu Tum Foundation Award (2nd prize) at the First Peoples of the Americas Festival\, as well as the top documentary prize at the New York International Film Festival. \nIn the early 2000’s he began a long collaboration with Roman Kroitor\, one of the inventors of IMAX\, co-writing a 3D IMAX comedic animation fable entitled The Cosmic Junkyard with Roman. He is presently writing a semi-factual novel called Whack\, which tells the remarkable story of the Irish Canadian adventurer who fought to end slavery in 19th century Cuba\, and recently wrote and directed an affectionate portrait of his own small town Ontario community entitled\, Last Beer At The Pig’s Ear. \nImage: A black and white photograph from the production of Village of Widows. A number of people are standing around a train station in Japan with luggage around them. Two of them are holding a sign “Welcome Dene People” and underneath “Article 9 Society in Hiroshima”. Photograph courtesy of Peter Blow. URL:https://squeaky.org/event/village-of-widows-the-story-of-the-sahtu-dene-and-the-atomic-bomb/ LOCATION:Squeaky Wheel\, 2495 Main Street\, Suite 310\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14214\, United States CATEGORIES:Screenings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Peter-Blow-Large.jpeg GEO:42.8906261;-78.8721258 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Squeaky Wheel 2495 Main Street Suite 310 Buffalo NY 14214 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=2495 Main Street\, Suite 310:geo:-78.8721258,42.8906261 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251103T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251103T120000 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20251021T182041Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251021T182041Z UID:10001258-1762164000-1762171200@squeaky.org SUMMARY:Wave Farm & NYSCA: Media Arts Breakfast Zoom with Squeaky and BIFF DESCRIPTION:Monday\, November 3\, 2025\, 10:30 am – 12 pm\nOnline on zoom\nRegister here\nWaveFarm & NYSCA present their latest online convening in early November for the next Media Arts Breakfast with a focus on the media arts ecosystem in Buffalo\, NY\, along with updates from NYSCA’s Fabiana Chiu-Rinaldi and Wave Farm’s Galen Joseph-Hunter. Recent Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF) grantees Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center and the Buffalo International Film Festival will share updates from MAAF-funded projects and will highlight recent and upcoming programming. Finally\, we’ll go round the room to hear updates from attendees! \nMeeting Agenda: \n\nWelcome and introductions from Wave Farm’s Galen Joseph-Hunter\nNYSCA updates from Fabiana Chiu-Rinaldi\nMAAF for Organizations grantees share short presentations:\n\nAnna Scime\, Executive Director of the Buffalo International Film Festival\nEkrem Serdar\, Curator at Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center\n\n\nQ&A\nRound the Room updates from all of you!\n\nBanner image: Dense\, black and white television static. URL:https://squeaky.org/event/wave-farm-nysca-media-arts-breakfast-zoom-with-squeaky-and-biff/ LOCATION:Squeaky Wheel\, 2495 Main Street\, Suite 310\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14214\, United States CATEGORIES:Partners,Special Event,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/static-noise.jpg GEO:42.8906261;-78.8721258 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Squeaky Wheel 2495 Main Street Suite 310 Buffalo NY 14214 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=2495 Main Street\, Suite 310:geo:-78.8721258,42.8906261 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251024T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251024T210000 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20250930T202257Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251030T212243Z UID:10001252-1761332400-1761339600@squeaky.org SUMMARY:Bit Depth\, Episode 1: Nuclear Set DESCRIPTION:Friday\, October 24\, 7 pm\n$15 General / Free for Squeaky Wheel members\nSqueaky Wheel invites you to the first episode of Bit Depth\, a new critical Squeaky variety show and event series! In Episode 1\, Nuclear Set\, we will be featuring artist talks\, films\, and music focusing on nuclear harm and anxieties\, tying in to our current exhibition Radiation Borders. The event will feature exhibition artist Elizabeth Tannie Lewin in conversation with former resident Dana Murray Tyrrell (both former Workspace Residents in 2017)\, a performance by the luminous cellist Katie Weissmann\, a screening of Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah’s And still\, it remains (2023 Best Experimental Film\, Blackstar Film Festival)\, the short film sound of a million insects\, light of a thousand stars in memory of the recently deceased filmmaker Tomonari Nishikawa\, and the 1953 3D “documentary” Doom Town. All of this accompanied by a delicious Mediterranean spread (including vegan and gluten free options) by celebrated chef Kevin Thurston. Join us! \nBit Depth is Squeaky’s take on the Buffalo arts variety show. Each “episode” will feature a mix of films\, artists\, hackers\, magicians\, scientists\, performances\, mini-workshops\, scholars and more\, accompanied by a special spread of food by local celebrity chefs. Inspired in equal part by events such as Just Buffalo’s Big Night\, Hallwalls’ Art+Science Cabaret\, and Arika’s Episodes\, Bit Depth are one-of-a-kind evenings featuring luminaries and rarities from Buffalo and beyond in critical and joyous engagement with media art in all that it can entail. \nThis event is supported by Teiger Foundation. Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah’s And still\, it remains is courtesy of LUX (London\, UK). Tomonari Nishikawa’s sound of a million insects\, light of a thousand stars is courtesy of Canyon Cinema (San Francisco\, CA). Doom Town is courtesy of the 3D Film Archive. Special thank you to Flicker Alley. \nAttendees: Please note that you cannot enter Tri-Main Center after 7:30 pm. Squeaky Wheel is located in Suite 310 of Tri-Main Center. Take the elevator to the third floor\, and head left. Click here to see parking\, transportation\, and accessibility information. Food will feature vegetarian and gluten free options. The program will be in three parts\, with short breaks in between. Members can email office@squeaky.org with the subject “Bit Depth” and we’ll reserve their spot within 24 hours. Not a member? Annual rates start at just $30 – sign up here. \nFilms\n \nTomonari Nishikawa\, sound of a million insects\, light of a thousand stars\n2 minutes\, 35 mm on digital video\, Japan/USA\, 2014 \nI buried a 100-foot 35mm negative film under fallen leaves alongside a country road\, which was about 25 km away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station\, from the sunset of June 24\, 2014\, to the sunrise of the following day. The night was beautiful with a starry sky\, and numerous summer insects were singing loud. The area was once an evacuation zone\, but now people live there after the removal of the contaminated soil. – Tomonari Nishikawa \nThis project is made possible with funds from the Media Arts Assistance Fund\, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts\, Electronic Media and Film\, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; administered by Wave Farm. \n \nArwa Aburawa and Turab Shah\, And still\, it remains\n28 mins\, 4K Video\, Algeria/UK\, 2023 \nAnd still\, it remains is a new film by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah which carries forward their long-term dedication to exploring race and environmental legacies of colonialism. In this work\, they examine the ongoing impact of French toxic colonialism in Mertoutek\, a village nestled in the Hoggar Mountains of Algeria’s Southern Sahara and a home to the Escamaran community of Black Algerians. Used as a testing ground for nuclear bombs by the French between 1961 and 1966\, the area continues to suffer the consequences of radioactive fallout circulating in the water and soil. \nThe film examines Mertoutek’s encounter with French nuclear colonialism without restricting the region’s history to a narrow colonial temporality. Juxtaposed with slow meditative shots of the mountains\, Escamaran ways of life and ancient rock art\, experiences of French nuclear experiments\, faith and spirituality are narrated by the voices of multiple residents. Summoning the landscape as a witness and protagonist\, And still\, it remains reflects on the deep inscription of colonial violence into the landscape’s body and ecology. It also pushes against forms of visual capture that reproduce a colonial gaze while challenging visibility as the currency for political redress. Winds migrating across the Sahara have recently carried sand containing nuclear remains from the Algerian Sahara back to France\, serving as a reminder that the environmental afterlives of colonialism cannot be contained or forgotten. \nBy focussing on the experiences of Mertoutek residents\, Aburawa and Shah throw into sharp relief the racial oversight in the ‘end of the world’ discourse by asking what worlds have already ended and what does a life after the end of the world look like? What does intimacy with toxic colonialism afford its survivors and how does it shape their ideas around justice? How does one recover from ongoing violence and how\, ultimately\, do you carry on? \n \nDoom Town\n18 min\, Dunning 3D process presented on anaglyphic 3D\, USA\, 1953\nDirected by Allan Milner. Screenplay by Gerald Schnitzer. Produced by Lee Savin. 2003 recreation by Peter Kuran and Greg Kintz. \nThe first 3-D documentary\, Doom Town was made by independent producer Lee Savin\, who was intrigued by the atomic-bomb tests at Yucca Flats in Nevada. Filming began March 17\, 1953. Photographed with the Dunning Three-Dimensional Process\, it captured the devastating effects of an atomic blast. \nDoom Town was written by screenwriter-director-author Gerald Schnitzer\, whose credits included scripts for Bela Lugosi (The Corpse Vanishes\, Bowery at Midnight) and The Bowery Boys. Schnitzer also created several acclaimed TV commercials for Kodak (“Kodak Moment”)\, Chevrolet\, and Clairol. \nDoom Town was sneak-previewed on April 30 at the Paramount Theaterin Hollywood and opened ni Los Angeles on July 2 with The Maze and Lippert’s 3-D short\, College Capers. The next day it opened at the Telenews theaters ni San Francisco and Oakland. After these bookings\, it was mysteriously pulled from circulation. Although the project was approved by proper channels\, the anti-atomic testing stance was hardly a message the government wanted to promote. Was Doom Town suppressed? Nobody seems to know but the movie disappeared without a trace in July 1953. \nIt was lost for decades until the negatives\, slated to be junked\, were discovered and salvaged by the 3-D Film Archive in 1985. The separate reel with the color atomic bomb shots was missing; a recreation was done in 2003 by Peter Kuran\, using actual 3D- atomic bomb footage. The original “multi-sound” has been recreated by Greg Kintz. \nYears ahead of its time\, Doom Town is a prescient social statement and an excellent example of 3-D filmmaking. – Ted Okuda\, 3-D Rarities\, Blu-Ray published by Flicker Alley\, 2015 \nArtist talk with Elizabeth Tannie Lewin with Dana Murray Tyrrell\n \nVisiting artist Elizabeth Tannie Lewin will be speaking with Dana Murray Tyrrell about her work in our exhibition Radiation Borders\, and which names the first episode of Bit Depth: Nuclear Set. Nuclear Set interweaves Jorge Luis Borges’s Library of Babel\, poetry by Maquis\, Rene Char\, the journals of Italian Futurist\, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti\, historical footage of the United States’ nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands\, and a 3D video game landscape of Bikini Atoll to speculate a future that will survive our extinction. This artist talk reunites the two artists who were both part of Squeaky Wheel’s Workspace Residency program in 2018\, and both of whom have significantly investigated the legacies of nuclear toxicity and harm in their work. \nPerformance by Katie Weissman\n \nKatie Weissman began playing the cello at the age of three at Buffalo Suzuki Strings after seeing Yo-Yo Ma appear on Sesame Street and holds a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from Boston University. When at home in Buffalo\, Katie is a cellist and vocalist in the contemporary music ensemble Wooden Cities and is a substitute for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Shea’s Performing Arts Center. She also plays with the composition think-tank Evolution of the Arm\, free jazz group Root Cellar\, folk-rock bands Haunted Continents and Birddog\, and various other chamber music outfits in the Western New York area. She has toured at home and abroad and has lent her playing to many recording projects in the studio\, including multiple albums and stage performances by Buffalo’s own Goo Goo Dolls. She teaches privately in her own studio and currently lives in Williamsville with her dogs\, rabbits\, and birds. \nMenu by Kevin Thurston\n \nThe menu prepared and selected by artist and chef Kevin Thurston will include glutenfree and vegan options\, including: \n\nTurkey meatballs\, cinnamon scented tomato sauce\nMuhammara (vegan/gf) + pita\nCreamy cucumbers (gf)\nPickle tray from Barrel + Brine (vegan/gf)\nAssorted sweets from Arabic Sweets\nand more!\n\nBiographies of the artists\, filmmakers\, and chef\nArwa Aburawa and Turab Shah are a directing duo dedicated to exploring race\, migration\, the environment and other ongoing legacies of colonialism through film. Together they also co-founded Other Cinemas\, a project dedicated to supporting Black and non-white communities in London through free film screenings and a free\, year-long film school. \nDana Murray Tyrrell is an artist\, curator\, and writer from Niagara Falls\, New York. His artwork can be found in the permanent collections of the Castellani Art Museum\, Roger Tory Peterson Institute\, University at Buffalo Department of Art\, and the Pride Center of Western New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Love Canal at the Earl W. Brydges Library (2024-25)\, Floater at Kingfish Gallery (2021)\, and Blue at the Castellani Art Museum (2017). Select group exhibits include Black Rock Arts (2025)\, the Burchfield Penney Art Center (2023\, 2021)\, and ECHO Art Fair (2016). He currently works at the Burchfield Penney with past roles at Rivalry Projects\, the Niagara Arts & Cultural Center\, and former Albright-Knox Art Gallery. \nElizabeth (Betsy) Tannie Lewin is a digital media artist interested in: technology\, landscape\, identity\, disappearance\, history\, and utopia. \nKatie Weissman began playing the cello at the age of three at Buffalo Suzuki Strings after seeing Yo-Yo Ma appear on Sesame Street and holds a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from Boston University. When at home in Buffalo\, Katie is a cellist and vocalist in the contemporary music ensemble Wooden Cities and is a substitute for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Shea’s Performing Arts Center. She also plays with the composition think-tank Evolution of the Arm\, free jazz group Root Cellar\, folk-rock bands Haunted Continents and Birddog\, and various other chamber music outfits in the Western New York area. She has toured at home and abroad and has lent her playing to many recording projects in the studio\, including multiple albums and stage performances by Buffalo’s own Goo Goo Dolls. She teaches privately in her own studio and currently lives in Williamsville with her dogs\, rabbits\, and birds. \nKevin Thurston is the Chef and General Manager of Tipico Coffee. Prior to that\, he co-owned Cafe Godot. In addition to his culinary work\, he wrote Color Me White (BlazeVox) which was illustrated by Mickey Harmon and has numerous publication credits. He has performed with the ensemble BuffFluxus for over 20 years. He lives with his wife and daughter in a Polish workman’s cottage on the outskirts of Buffalo. \nTomonari Nishikawa’s (1969-2025) films explore the idea of documenting situations/phenomena through chosen medium and techniques\, often focusing on the process of art making. His films have been screened at numerous film festivals and art venues\, including Berlinale\, Edinburgh International Film Festival\, Hong Kong International Film Festival\, International Film Festival Rotterdam\, London Film Festival\, New York Film Festival\, Media City Film Festival\, Singapore International Film Festival\, and Toronto International Film Festival. In 2010\, he showed a series of 8mm and 16mm films at MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center\, and his film installation\, Building 945\, received the 2008 Grant from the Museum of Contemporary Cinema in Spain. He taught in the Cinema Department at Binghamton University. URL:https://squeaky.org/event/bit-depth-episode-1-nuclear-set/ LOCATION:Squeaky Wheel\, 2495 Main Street\, Suite 310\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14214\, United States CATEGORIES:BitDepth,Special Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/BITDEPTH-Dithered.png GEO:42.8906261;-78.8721258 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Squeaky Wheel 2495 Main Street Suite 310 Buffalo NY 14214 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=2495 Main Street\, Suite 310:geo:-78.8721258,42.8906261 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251015T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251015T210000 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20251014T195031Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251014T195337Z UID:10001257-1760554800-1760562000@squeaky.org SUMMARY:Beena Sarwar's Democracy in Debt: Sri Lanka – Beyond the Headlines DESCRIPTION:Wednesday\, October 15\, 7 pm\nFree or suggested donation\nSri Lanka made headlines in 2022 when a massive economic crisis catalyzed sustained\, peaceful protests and forced regime change. Colombo is where policy decisions are made\, but in a democracy\, it is villages like Dutuwewa that make their voices heard. How has the country coped? What lessons does Sri Lanka’s situation hold for the world. Juxtaposing residents of a remote village with the policy makers of the city\, Democracy in Debt: Sri Lanka – Beyond the Headlines (25 minutes\, 2024) combines the thoughts and feelings of villagers with the opinions of economists and politicians. The film will be followed with a Q&A with the filmmaker. Presented by the UB Asia Research Institute\, Department of Geography\, Journalism Program\, Department of English\, Department of Media Study\, Asian Studies Program\, and Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center. \nAttendees: Please note that you cannot enter Tri-Main Center after 7:30 pm. Squeaky Wheel is located in Suite 310 of Tri-Main Center. Take the elevator to the third floor\, and head left. Click here to see parking\, transportation\, and accessibility information. \n \nAbout the filmmaker\nBeena Sarwar is a multimedia journalist\, editor\, and documentary filmmaker from Pakistan who focuses on human rights\, gender\, media\, peace\, extremism\, violence\, and South Asia. She is chief editor of the Sapan News Network\, a syndicated features service she launched in 2021 with a small team of volunteers\, bringing together her decades of experience in journalism\, activism\, and academia. \nBanner image: A still from Democracy in Debt: Sri Lanka – Beyond the Headlines (2024). A blue and orange sunset of water and sky\, with hills in shadows in the Dutuwewa region of Sri Lanka. URL:https://squeaky.org/event/democracy-in-debt/ LOCATION:Squeaky Wheel\, 2495 Main Street\, Suite 310\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14214\, United States CATEGORIES:Screenings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Democracy-in-Debt.jpg GEO:42.8906261;-78.8721258 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Squeaky Wheel 2495 Main Street Suite 310 Buffalo NY 14214 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=2495 Main Street\, Suite 310:geo:-78.8721258,42.8906261 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251003T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251003T203000 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20250915T235112Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250923T173219Z UID:10001246-1759519800-1759523400@squeaky.org SUMMARY:Squeaky Wheel's 22nd Animation Fest! DESCRIPTION:Friday\, October 3\, 7:30 pm ET\nIn-person at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and online\nIn-person is free as part of M&T First Fridays. Online is free or $10 suggested donation\nSqueaky Wheel is excited to present the 22nd annual Animation Fest! Featuring eleven films from Buffalo and beyond\, this years edition provides a survey of gorgeous vistas and inventive joy\, with films made in a variety of techniques and media\, from charcoal drawings to 3D animation. \nThe films take on nature\, animals\, gender\, intimacy\, and much more. Featuring films by Aline Höchli\, Amanda Besl\, Chace Lobley\, Corinne Teed\, Emily Engel\, Grace LaPrade\, James John Gibbons\, Jelena Oroz\, Jennie Thwing\, Morgan Sears-Williams\, Stacey Sproule\, Tia Brown\, and Tony Nash. \nTo attend in-person: The screening will take place at 7:30 pm at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s auditorium. Just show up! \nTo attend online: Get your ticket below! Upon check-out\, you will receive an email titled “Your Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center order has been received!”. A private link will be included in that email; the event will be available at the link at the start date and time. You will have access to the event for 24 hours; Squeaky Wheel members receive 72 hour access. Not a member yet? Sign up here. \nAline Höchli’s Caries and Jelena Oroz’s No Room are courtesy of Bonobo Studios. Morgan Sears-Williams’s Through the Bushes and the Trees\, You’ll Find Me is courtesy of Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. Special thank you to Vanja Andrijevic\, Winsor Ytterock\, and Amina Boyd. This years edition of the Animation Fest was curated by Squeaky Wheel staff Carra Stratton\, Ekrem Serdar\, and Mark Longolucco. \n
\n\nProgram duration is approx. 55 minutes. Descriptions provided by the artists. \nTony Nash\, Fabric\nDigital video\, 1:47 min\, 2025\nA funny interpretation about some things that happened to me\, based on facts \nJames John Gibbons\, WIYMMEIN?\nDigital video\, 5:22 min\, 2025\nIn this short documentary\, it follows the narrative of three different interviews and the interviewee’s most memorable experiences involving nature. Interviewees are presented with the same question at the beginning of each interview and the results vary greatly. Leading into fun stories involving personal accounts with nature. Each story is presented using varying visual techniques\, such as 2D digital animation\, stop-motion animation\, live-action footage\, and more! Warning: Explicit Language \nAmanda Besl\, An Illustrated Guide to Flowering Houseplants\nDigital video\, 5:10 min\, 2024\nMy experimental film\, An Illustrated Guide to Flowering Houseplants\, began as a reaction to the questionable and frustrating advice to “Bloom where you are planted” and follows both a woman and a Venus Flytrap\, one of which blooms by the end of the film. In truth\, an unhappy plant is just as likely to die as it is to flower when trapped in an inappropriate environment. I was interested in applying ideas of ecofeminism to an indoor garden to suggest an outgrown intimate relationship. The aesthetic reflects that of a vintage gardening show from the early 1970’s evoking ideas of outdated instruction subverted by personal experience. The soundtrack includes found audio from a public domain marriage training film from 1950. The surreal nature of the life within the paisley curtain references the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I was also inspired by filmmaker Maya Deren and her disorienting 1943 film\, Meshes of the Afternoon. \nGrace LaPrade\, Rain\nDigital video\, 1:19 min\, 2022\nIn this charcoal animated short\, a dog is sent out into the rain\, which turns into a flood. \nEmily Engel\, Tired Old Dog\nDigital video\, 3:11 min\, 2025\nTired Old Dog is an original song written by local musician\, Tyler Westcott and animated by Emily Engel. This project was a part of a beautiful collaboration between us and the life we shared with our beloved companion\, Princess Buttercup. It explores interconnected themes of love\, grief\, and spirituality. Animations made using analog rotoscoping techniques. Created by printing out individual frames and drawing over them with paint markers and oil pastels. They are then scanned back in and edited with After Effects and Premier Pro. \nChace Lobley\, Lego Rex: The Movie\nDigital video\, 2:22 min\, 2025\nThe film is called Lego Rex. There is a lizard\, pterosaur\, T-rex\, and a triceratops. I was inspired by the dinosaurs and their behavior\, how they behave like no other animals in nature. I was inspired by the ways of the Mesozoic era. \nJennie Thwing\, The World Said No\nDigital video\, 8 minutes\, 2025\nThe World Said No is a short animation based on the question\, “What if nature decided to fight back?” It is an allegorical animation about ecological apathy and its consequences. It was animated using a combination of cell animation and stop motion. \nCorinne Teed\, Feral Utopias\nDigital video\, 7:20 min\, 2016\nFeral Utopias is a multi-channel animation that incorporates studio recordings of LGBTQ subjects and scans of 19th-century wood engravings carved by colonial naturalists. Digitally collaged together\, the animation presents a speculative\, other-worldly space. Audiences are immersed in multi-voiced narratives that reveal cross-species alliances in a time of ecological devastation. Participants attest to the ways they have survived homophobia\, settler colonialism\, patriarchy\, and alienation through identification with animal species. \nIn her essay Melancholy Natures\, Queer Ecology\, Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands writes “Recent queer scholarship on melancholia… is focused exactly on the condition of grieving the ungrievable: how does one mourn in the midst of a culture that finds it almost impossible to recognize the value of what has been lost?” Mortimer-Sandilands presents the embrace of melancholy as a political stance – preserving the beloved that society does not value. Relating the devastation of HIV/AIDS with that of climate change and extractive industries\, she offers a framework for queer ecology. From this stance of melancholy\, Feral Utopias documents voices and portraits of those on the margins. In the process\, we collaboratively define our existent\, ecocidal dystopia while articulating possibilities of alternative futures. \nMorgan Sears-Williams\, Through the Bushes and the Trees\, You’ll Find Me\n16mm on digital video\, 3:38 min\, 2024\nthrough the bushes and the trees\, you’ll find me intertwines the personal and political histories of Hanlan’s Point Beach\, the site of Canada’s first pride gathering in the early 1970s. A hole punch serves as a symbolic peephole\, reflecting the cruising areas on the beach that invite both spectatorship and participation. By situating the tender moments of queer affection amidst the vast body of water surrounding the Toronto islands\, the film celebrates and interrogates the histories and spaces of queer love and resistance. \nThis work was made by hole punching frame by frame using a cricut machine\, then manually taping together 10\,000+ frames. Digital scan and print made by Niagara Custom Lab. \nJelena Oroz (Director)\, No Room\nDigital video\, 6:22 min\, 2024\nThe cars are everywhere and they show no consideration for others. It’s time to get revenge! Produced and distributed by Vanja Andrijevic. \nStacey Sproule\, Sojourn\nDigital video\, 3:42 min\, 2025\nCentred on the South Shore of Ontario’s Prince Edward County\, a place of significant bio-diversity as well as a high density flight path for migratory songbirds\, Prince Edward County is also a popular tourist destination. This work was a meditation on access to nature\, land\, and temporary stays. The work is a way to grapple with rapid development\, loss of public access to nature and the ongoing destruction of habitat both in Prince Edward County and across the province. \nTia Brown\, re_set\nDigital video\, 1:23 min\, 2025\nHow do you reset in these challenging end times? \nAline Höchli\, Caries\nDigital video\, 9:41 min\, 2025 \n“Eager to create a monumental work of art\, a shaman remains blissfully unaware that she is painting her murals inside the mouth of a vain weather presenter. I like to tell stories that distort the world as we understand it. In my film Caries\, the disease that gives the story its title is not caused by acid-eroded tooth surfaces but by the inhabitants of the oral cavity smearing the teeth with wild murals. With this playful narrative style\, I want to encourage the audience to question the basic assumptions we hold about the world. Behind the absurd plotlines\, you can recognize connections to our reality. For example\, while brushing his teeth\, the weather presenter triggers a storm for the inhabitants of his oral cavity: so many of our everyday actions have a far bigger impact elsewhere in the world than we realize at first glance. Indeed\, the three cavepeople\, abruptly torn from their familiar surroundings because someone spits in another’s soup\, may prompt thoughts about immigration policy.” Distributor: Vanja Andrijevic \n
\n\nAline Höchli is an artist specializing in animated film and illustration. She studied film in the animation department at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts HSLU\, graduating in 2015. She founded KOLOSS Studio in 2016. Aline currently lives and works in Bern. Filmography: Caries (2025)\, Why Slugs Have No Legs (2019)\, Kuckuck (2017)\, He Sö Kherö (2016\, graduation film). \nAmanda Besl is an experimental filmmaker and painter living in Buffalo\, NY. Besl holds an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art\, Bloomfield Hills\, MI and a BFA from SUNY Oswego. She uses natural history as a platform to explore social issues. She was awarded a 2024 NYSCA grant for Temple of Hortus\, a botanically inspired installation of 2-d\, 3-d\, and video work questioning curated and commercial approaches to nature\, hybridization\, mutation and collection. Besl is represented by ArtResource and her 2022 solo exhibition Blue Mythologies at The Raft of Sanity gallery began her foray into experimental filmmaking. \nChace is currently a practicing artist in Starlight Art WOW program at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Chace began making dinosaurs around the age of 14 when he got “play clay” as a Christmas gift. When asked what he enjoys about dinosaurs he said he found an intensity about the creatures that inspired him to think about “their behavior and design – how they were made”. He enjoys sharing his creative output with his family and friends. \nCorinne Teed is a research-based artist working in printmaking\, book arts\, time-based media\, and social practice. Their work lives at the intersections of queer theory\, ecology\, and critical animal studies in the context of settler colonialism. Much of their creative practice centers on relationships\, through collaboration\, participation\, interview-based research\, and encounters with the more-than-human. Their work is supported by ongoing relationships with communities working toward social justice and ecosystem health. Teed currently works as an Assistant Professor in Printmaking at Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia\, PA. \nEmily Engel is a Buffalo\, NY-based artist and designer whose work reflects her unique perspective and personal experiences. Her artistic practice encompasses a range of mediums\, including chainstitch embroidery\, motion graphics\, and printmaking while blending both traditional and contemporary techniques in her work. \nGrace LaPrade is an artist from Buffalo\, New York. She works primarily as an illustrator for picture books\, but her roots go back to experimental animation\, having specialized in stop-motion matchbox NASCAR races at the age of 9. In books and animation\, she loves visualizing stories that explore what it means to be human in our world\, whether that be through small curiosities or grand imaginations. She uses analog processes to create tactile drawings that reflect the imperfect\, weird\, and awesome layers of being alive. \nMy name is James Gibbons. I am a 20 year old student who is currently attending SUNY Fredonia in New York. I major in Animation/Illustration at college and have loved drawing and animating for my entire life. I find my creative direction tends to lead in a more comedic direction\, I hope you like what I have to show! \nJennie Thwing is an artist\, animator\, and educator. She has received multiple awards\, including the 2014 Meyer Family Award for Contemporary Art\, an Environmental Art Project Grant at the Schuylkill Center\, a 2013 – 15 Center for Emerging Artists Fellowship; a 2014 SPARC Artist in Residence grant\, a 2014 & 2019 Queens Arts Fund Grant\, and Wyoming Council for the Arts 2024 Individual Artist Grant and a 2025 New York State Council on the Arts Support for Artists Grant.\n \nJelena Oroz (1987) graduated with a BA in Fine Arts Education from the Academy of Arts in Osijek. In 2014\, she obtained her MA degree in Animated Film and New Media from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb\, where she now works as a tenured professor. Jelena’s films have screened at numerous festivals around the world and won many awards. Filmography: No Room (2024)\, Letters From the Edge of the Forest (2022)\, Two for Two (2018)\, Wolf Games (2015\, graduation film)\, Fakofbolan: Forever or Never (2013\, music video)\, Comeback (2012\, student film)\, Waiting Room (2011\, student film) \nMorgan Sears-Williams (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and cultivator based in Toronto and Vancouver. Her practice reflects themes of feminist queer histories\, collective memory and exploring the materiality of moving images by using organic film developers. Investigating the use of analog film both as a form of projected image and as a sculptural material\, her current research focuses on how lived experiences inform queer aesthetics and articulations of memory and gender. Using plant-based film developers (also known as eco-processing) requires the artist to work directly with the film\, which results in an intimate collaboration among material\, concept\, and aesthetic. Bridging eco-processing\, experimental film and queer history (both personal and political) she aims to create intimate experiences for viewers to expand their ideas of queer space and time. She has exhibited her works across Turtle Island and internationally and was the recipient of the Roloff Beny Award in 2022\, Pandora Y. H. Ho Memorial Award and the Artscape Youngplace Career Launcher in 2017. In support of her artwork and research\, Morgan received the graduate scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in 2023\, and has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Morgan was a founding member of The Rude Collective\, a queer arts collective amplifying voices of marginalized queer folks in Toronto. \nStacey Sproule is a Picton-based multi-disciplinary artist working in hand-drawn animation. Using and subverting animation techniques and processes she explores the liminal\, the ephemeral\, and the magical. She holds a BFA from OCAD in Drawing and Painting. Her work has been supported by the OAC\, she has received a full fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center\, and has exhibited at Forest City Gallery\, FADO\, the Art Gallery of Mississauga\, and others. Her work has been featured in festivals including 7a*11d International Performance Art Festival\, Les Sommets du cinéma d’animation\, the Rhubarb Festival\, and the West Virginia Mountaineer Film Festival. \nTia Brown is a multidisciplinary creative. They are the former editor of Utterance and their work has been featured in One for One Thousand\, CivicScience\, truthout\, and Qween City. Projections is an audiovisual examination of grief\, emotional uncertainty\, nature\, and the human. \nTony Nash: I am an artist living in Buffalo. \n \nSponsors\n \nVilla Maria College is the Reel Sponsor of Squeaky Wheel’s Animation Fest. Thank you to our sponsors Buffalo Spree\, Rigidized Metals\, Locust Street Art\, PUSH Buffalo\, Delaware Council Member Joel Feroleto\, Rich Products\, TriMain Center\, Harlequin Pet Service\, Hodgson Russ LLP\, Lumpy Buttons\, Buffalo State College Communication Dept\, Evolve Fitness\, New York State Senator Sean Ryan\, and the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. \nBanner image: A still from Jelena Oroz’s No Room. Drawings of cars with cat like single eyes and legs on a street. A person is watching them from the window. URL:https://squeaky.org/event/squeaky-wheels-22nd-animation-fest/ LOCATION:Buffalo AKG Art Museum\, 1285 Elmwood Avenue\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14222\, United States CATEGORIES:Screenings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/NoRoom_07.jpg GEO:42.9324531;-78.87566 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Buffalo AKG Art Museum 1285 Elmwood Avenue Buffalo NY 14222 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=1285 Elmwood Avenue:geo:-78.87566,42.9324531 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250926 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251213 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20250915T201718Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251009T205629Z UID:10001249-1758844800-1765583999@squeaky.org SUMMARY:Radiation Borders DESCRIPTION:Opening Friday\, September 26\, 6–8pm\nOn view through December 12\, 2025\nSqueaky Wheel presents a group exhibition of work that traces the borders\, and lives inside and outside of nuclear toxicity. The four artists in the exhibition – through video essays\, 3D game environments\, illustration\, and more – investigate the violence\, responsibilities\, and destruction unleashed by nuclear technology\, and with it\, ruminates on the past\, present\, and futures of lives under threat of radiation. \nThe exhibition features work by Dion Smith-Dokkie (Treaty 8 territory in the Peace River region of BC and Alberta)\, Elizabeth Tannie Lewin (New York\, NY)\, Hanae Utamura (Troy\, NY and Berlin\, Germany)\, and Inas Halabi (Jerusalem\, Palestine and Amsterdam\, Netherlands); we are proud to bring back the work of two of our former Workspace Residents\, Hanae Utamura (2021) and Elizabeth Tannie Lewin (2018) for this exhibition. The exhibition is funded by Teiger Foundation. \nVisiting the exhibition\nThe exhibition features eight illustrated works and three video installations. Installations feature seating and room to navigate mobility devices. See Squeaky Wheel’s accessibility information here\, and see captioning and subtitle information for individual works below. The exhibition is on view\, Tuesday–Saturday\, 12–5 pm and by appointment. To make an appointment\, including fully masked visits\, email office@squeaky.org \nPublic programs\nFriday\, September 26\, 6–8 pm\nOpening of the exhibition\, with remarks by Curator Ekrem Serdar at 7 pm. \nWednesday\, October 15\, 6–8 pm This event is being rescheduled.\nCuratorial tour with Ekrem Serdar. \nFriday\, October 24\, 7 pm\nSpecial Event | Bit Depth\, Episode 1: Nuclear Set. With an artist talk with Elizabeth Tannie Lewin and Dana Tyrell\, a performance by Katie Weissman\, and films by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah\, Tomonari Nishikawa\, and the 1958 3D “documentary” Doom Town. \nWednesday\, November 6\, 7 pm\nScreening | Peter Blow’s Village of Widows: The Story of the Sahtu Dene and the Atomic Bomb \nFriday\, December 12\, 6–8 pm\nClosing and curatorial tour with Curator Ekrem Serdar. \nGallery\n\n\n
\n\nDescriptions provided by the artists \nDion Smith-Dokkie\, DECENTRALIZED TREATY 8 AUTHORITY\nVOLUME 3: UNCHAGA-ASINIYWACIYA CONFLUENCE APPENDIX A\, ENGLISH TRANSLATION 2207\, FEBRUARY\nText and digital illustrations printed on Duratrans and lightboxes\, 2018 \nI use Google Earth satellite images as source material for digital collages about land\, community and transformation. This image forms part of a series depicting northeastern British Columbia in the year 2207. The Nuclear and Oil Winters\, and the concurrent dissolution of the Canadian State\, triggered the development of the Decentralized Treaty 8 Authority (DT8A) as a sovereign\, Indigenous-led body in the region. Lingering environmental dangers necessitated the designation of large\, encompassing exclusion zones. This map and others illustrate how to safely navigate these saturated\, unnatural landscapes. One image in this work was commissioned by the Initiative for Indigenous Futures as part of the Illustrating the Future Imaginary series. \nInas Halabi\, We Have Always Known the Wind’s Direction\nSingle channel digital video with sound\, Arabic with English subtitles\, 11:59 min\, 2019 \nWe Have Always Known the Wind’s Direction has an outward subject and an inward one. Via a gear-shifting combination of conversation\, interview and expressive location footage\, it probes the possible burial of nuclear waste in the South of the West Bank. But as the footage cycles between fragmented conversations with a nuclear physicist and landscapes that are uneasily underscored by what we hear (and sometimes tinted an ill-omened red)\, another context emerges. In various ways\, the delivery of information is thwarted\, withheld\, or delayed \, and the film comes to turn on issues of representation and conveyance. The isotope Cesium 137\, invisible but deadly\, could be seen as a synecdoche for a more ungraspable invisibility – the systemic networks of power and control in the region – and this work as a meditation on how to account for the un-filmable but inexorable. \nElizabeth Tannie Lewin\, Nuclear Set (Rough draft)\nDigital video\, 10 min\, 2017–present \nThe invention of the internal combustion engine and broadcast radio marks a dramatic shift in our inherent understanding of time and space. It also marks a moment in history when the conventions of war begin to rapidly change. \nNuclear Set interweaves Jorge Luis Borges’s Library of Babel\, poetry by Maquis\, Rene Char\, the journals of Italian Futurist\, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti\, historical footage of the United States’ nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands\, and a 3D video game landscape of Bikini Atoll to speculate a future that will survive our extinction. \nHanae Utamura\, Spring Water\, Fault\, Body\nSingle channel digital video with sound\, Japanese with English subtitles\, 16:34 min\, 2021 \nThis work is based on performance workshops filmed during the fall 2019 residency at the Aomori Contemporary Art Center (ACAC)\, as well as footage shot at various locations in Aomori Prefecture and at the Horonobe Underground Research Center in Horonobe\, Hokkaido\, which conducts research and development on geological disposal technology for high-level radioactive waste. The structural video work Spring Water\, Faults\, and the Body is a performance piece. \nThis video consists of two parts. Superimposed onto the first part is the voice of the artist reading aloud the memoirs of her scientist father\, who used to be involved in the field of nuclear energy engineering. Utamura recounts how the “I” in the memoir grew up among animals and nature\, how he became fascinated with the phenomena of the natural world\, and how he chose nuclear energy as his specialty amid the turbulence of Japan’ s period of rapid economic growth. In contemporary society\, all issues are intricately intertwined with each other. Within this work\, representations of human beings\, nature\, and animals are equivalent substitutes for each other. “I\,” the father\, is represented as a tree\, while the family\, a unit connected by blood\, is linked to other species on this Earth. The temporal axis of human life is superimposed on the Earth’ s temporal axis\, which encompasses the 4.5 billion years since it came into being. \nThe scene of a goat giving birth that “I” saw as a child is superimposed onto the geological strata of the buried forest from the last glacial age in Dekijima\, Aomori Prefecture\, where coniferous trees from about 28\,000 years ago are preserved in the strata. The scene where the goat finishes giving birth and eats up the placenta is superimposed onto images of strata of reddish-brown cyanobacteria in a buried forest trickling with raindrops. Cyanobacteria were the first to photosynthesize and deliver oxygen to the Earth 3 to 2.5 billion years ago. \nThe tree as the “I” of the memoir is represented by silver ribbons flowing from the branches of the tree that represent light and invisible wind currents. In the memoir\, these silver ribbons might represent the trends of the times\, or instruments of experimentation. In the final scene in the sky overhead in the first part\, the artist walks on a mixture of ice and water that could break at any moment\, and encounters a tree with silver ribbons fluttering in her direction\, ending the first part. The scene of the spring water in Gudari Swamp in Tashirotai\, where melted snow from Hakkōda in Aomori gushes out\, represents an emission of the memories of life that have continued from our human ancestors\, a recurrence of the subject — circulating water released by tracing the path of a fault plane created by fluctuations in the Earth’ s crust. The work is recounted through the actions of the artist\, who became a mother during its creation\, as she reads aloud the childhood memoirs of her Father. The difference between the voice of the speaker and the subject of the story naturally raises the question of the history of gender differences. This reading aloud is an act of performance that imagines new subjects\, including non-humans\, in order to transcend the concept of the “individual” brought about by modernity. \nThe second part takes place underground\, where research is being conducted at the Horonobe Underground Research Center\, becoming a space-time where the past and future intersect\, with no humans as subjects. The subjects of the story are multiple “others\,” such as machines\, technology\, and geological formations. The only language involved is the English subtitles: the voices of the speakers disappear. The “fault” in the subtitle “Who is at fault?” is used with the double meaning of both a geological fault\, and responsibility. \nThe second part features vitrified nuclear waste to be disposed of in a geological formation. Glass is a material used in vitrification\, a technology for solidifying nuclear fission products (high-level radioactive liquid waste) together with glass materials. The glass materials of the future\, which store the energy waste that has sustained our civilization\, will be disposed of after passing through nuclear power plants and reprocessing plants\, hidden in deep geological strata. The fault planes of the strata distorted by human mining operations move with the howling of the Earth. They also provoke earthquakes caused by human activities that may occur in the future. \nFilming Location: Aomori Contemporary Art Centre (ACAC)\, Aomori Hotoke-ga-ura seashore\, The Submerged Forest in Dekijima seashore\, Spring Water of Gudari Swamp Higashi Hakkouda Tashiro Highlands\, Hokkaido Horonobe Underground Research Center\nCoorporation: Aomori Contemporary Art Centre(ACAC)\, istyle Art and Sports Foundation\, Squeaky Wheel’ s Workspace Residency.\nParticipants of Performance and Workshop: Satoko Kawamura\, Sonoko Shibata\, Daisuke Sugiura\, Miho Izumida\nWorkshop filmed by: Masanori Yokoyama\nSound for Chapter 1: ‘Echo Fantasy I’ (Composed by Eva-Maria Houben\, Performed by Ensemble Ordinary Affects)\nSound for Chapter 2: Aaron Michael Smith \n
\n\nDion Smith-Dokkie is a painter and visual artist who resides on Treaty 8 territory in the Peace River region of BC and Alberta. In broad strokes\, he is interested in location and place\, infrastructure\, and communication. Smith-Dokkie’s work has shown at a number of venues in Vancouver\, including the Polygon Gallery\, Gallery Gachet\, and Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery; he has also shown work at The Bows in Calgary and at the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie. Alongside art practice\, he enjoys writing about art\, having published in ReIssue\, Galleries West\, SAD Magazine\, and other venues. Dion is of mixed European-Indigenous (Dunne-za\, Cree\, Saulteaux) descent and is a member of West Moberly First Nations. \nElizabeth (Betsy) Tannie Lewin is a digital media artist interested in: technology\, landscape\, identity\, disappearance\, history\, and utopia. \nHanae Utamura is a Japanese interdisciplinary artist and an educator based in New York and Tokyo. Her work engages with historical memory\, questioning the notion of progress in modernity\, ecology and technology. Utamura’s media include video\, performance\, installation\, and sculpture. She connects human beings and earth\, using the physical human body as a conduit. She explores negotiations and conflicts between the human and the non-human\, and how all the varieties of the wills of life manifest such as in the field of science. By decentralizing the human perspective\, Utamura diversifies historical narratives\, and enters the imagination of nature. She received her Master of Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design\, and her Bachelor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths\, University of London. Utamura has received support through numerous international residencies and fellowships including International Studio & Curatorial Program (NY)\, Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart\, Germany)\, Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin)\, PACT Zollverein (Essen\, Germany)\, Art Omi (Hudson\, U.S.)\, Santa Fe Art Institute Residency\, Aomori Contemporary Art Center (Japan)\, National Museum of Contemporary Art\, Changdong Art Studio (Seoul\, S.Korea)\, Seoul Art Space_GEUMCHEON (Seoul\, S.Korea)\, Florence Trust (London\, U.K.) and more. She has been awarded NYSCA grant\, More Art Engaging Artist Fellowship\, NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program\, Shiseido Art Egg Award\, Grant program by the Japanese Ministry of Culture\, the Pola Art Foundation\, UNESCO-Aschberg Bursary Award\, and Axis/Florence Trust Award. She has been exhibited extensively in Asia\, Europe and U.S. She was a visiting scholar at New York University in 2019\, supported by Japanese Ministry of Culture\, Japanese government as a part of Japan – United States Exchange Friendship Program in the Art. \nInas Halabi (b.1988\, Palestine) is an Artist/Filmmaker. Her practice is concerned with how social and political forms of power are manifested and the impact that overlooked or suppressed histories have on contemporary life. Recent exhibitions and screenings include Luleå Biennial (2024)\, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (2023)\, de Appel Amsterdam (solo 2023)\, Showroom London (solo 2022)\, Europalia Festival\, Brussels (2021)\, Silent Green Betonhalle\, Berlin (2021); Stedelijk Museum\, Amsterdam (2020); and Film at Lincoln Center\, USA (2020). Her recent work has been supported by Amarte\, Amsterdam Fonds Voor de Kunst (AFK)\, Mondriaan Fund\, and Sharjah Art Foundation. She lives and works between Palestine and the Netherlands. \n \nBanner image: Still of Inas Halabi\, We Have Always Known the Wind’s Direction (2019). A red and pink tinted filtered image of a Palestinian landscape with white subtitles. The subtitles state “TO CAPTURE AN IMAGE OF THE AREA ACCORDING TO THE LEVELS OF CESIUM 137”. URL:https://squeaky.org/event/radiation-borders/ LOCATION:Squeaky Wheel\, 2495 Main Street\, Suite 310\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14214\, United States CATEGORIES:Exhibition ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/inas-halabi.jpg GEO:42.8906261;-78.8721258 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Squeaky Wheel 2495 Main Street Suite 310 Buffalo NY 14214 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=2495 Main Street\, Suite 310:geo:-78.8721258,42.8906261 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250918T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250918T213000 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20250916T153503Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T215919Z UID:10001250-1758222000-1758231000@squeaky.org SUMMARY:Latin American Film Festival: Sofía Gallisá Muriente DESCRIPTION:Thursday\, September 18\, 7 pm\nFree or suggested donation\nSqueaky Wheel is excited to host the Latin American Film Festival with artist and filmmaker Sofía Gallisá Muriente! Muriente\, a visual artist from San Juan\, Puerto Rico\, will showcase her films that have been shown at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art\, the Smithsonian Museum\, and the Whitney Museum. She will screen her film Celaje (2020) . Ms. Muriente will take part in a conversation and Q&A following the screening\, including clips from her other short films such as Foreign in a Domestic Sense (co-directed with Natalia Lassalle-Morillo\, 2021). You can watch a profile of Ms. Muriente here. The 2025 Latin American Film Festival is organized by the University at Buffalo Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and CAS Office for Diversity\, Equity\, and Belonging and is a three-night celebration of Latin American cinema! Each evening will feature powerful films that highlight the Latin American diaspora through people’s lives\, histories\, and cultures. For more information\, see the flyer here or contact Donte McFadden\, CAS Unit Diversity Officer at dontemcf@buffalo.edu. \nAttendees: Please note that you cannot enter Tri-Main Center after 7:30 pm. Squeaky Wheel is located in Suite 310 of Tri-Main Center. Take the elevator to the third floor\, and head left. Click here to see parking\, transportation\, and accessibility information. \nCelaje (Cloudscape)\n16mm and Super8 film with various treatments\, 41min\, 2020 \nCelaje (Cloudscape) oscillates between intimate chronicle\, dream and historical document. Combining images in Super 8 and 16mm\, hand development techniques and original music by José Iván Lebrón Moreira\, the piece weaves together en elegy to the death of the colonial project and the sedimentation of disasters in Puerto Rico. Memories move around like clouds\, images rot and age\, and the traces of the process are visible on the film and in the country\, like ghosts. \nIt is the third and final part of Assimilate & Destroy\, a series of works that examine the relationship between climate and memory in the tropics\, where nature imposes impermanence. \nBiography of the artist\nSofía Gallisá Muriente (b. 1986\, San Juan\, Puerto Rico) is a visual artist whose practice claims the freedom of historical agency\, proposing mechanisms for remembering and reimagining. Her works employ text\, image and archive as medium and subject\, exploring their poetics and politics. Sofía has been a fellow of the Cisneros Institute at MoMA\, Smithsonian Institute\, Puerto Rican Arts Initiative\, US LatinX Art Forum and others. Her work has been recently exhibited in Documenta Fifteen\, MoMA\, the Whitney Museum\, the Smithsonian Design Triennial\, MoCA TAipei\, Savvy Contemporary\, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico\, and galleries such as Proxyco\, El Kilómetro and Embajada. She has participated in artistic residencies with the Vieques Historical Archive (Puerto Rico)\, Alice Yard (Trinidad & Tobago)\, Headlands Center for the Arts (California)\, FAARA (Uruguay)\, and Fonderie Darling (Montreal)\, among others. From 2014 to 2020\, she co-directed the artist-run organization Beta-Local in San Juan. She was invited to curate the exhibition In Dispersion at VisArts Maryland in 2022\, featuring image-based works from Puerto Rican artists negotiating diasporic experiences throughout the world. In 2023\, she published the artist book Observatorio de lagunas: notas de campo with Editorial Educación Emergente. She lives and works in Puerto Rico and is currently a United States Artist Fellow (2024) and Trellis Art Fund Milestone grantee (2025). \nImage: Photograph of the artist by Erika Rodríguez. URL:https://squeaky.org/event/latin-american-film-festival-sofia-gallisa-muriente/ LOCATION:Squeaky Wheel\, 2495 Main Street\, Suite 310\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14214\, United States CATEGORIES:Screenings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/SOFIA-GALLISA.jpg GEO:42.8906261;-78.8721258 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Squeaky Wheel 2495 Main Street Suite 310 Buffalo NY 14214 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=2495 Main Street\, Suite 310:geo:-78.8721258,42.8906261 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250729T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250729T190000 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20251230T191648Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251230T191648Z UID:10001234-1753812000-1753815600@squeaky.org SUMMARY:Kayleigh Young's To Looking DESCRIPTION:Tuesday\, July 29\, 6 pm\nFree or suggested donation\nRSVP below\nTo Looking is a portrait of process and presence. Structured around a semester of hands-on assignments\, from tulip drawings to fingerprinting\, this short film explores the intersection of scientific inquiry and artistic expression. At the center of the story is the Coalesce Center for Biological Art at the University at Buffalo\, where such boundaries are intentionally blurred. Through conversation with the center’s founder and director\, Paul Vanouse\, and close observation of his Art and Life class\, To Looking offers a glimpse into a distinctive kind of learning environment where undergraduates from both the sciences and the humanities are confronted with new ways of seeing and making. Created as a Master of Science thesis project\, To Looking invites viewers to reconsider the divide between objectivity and subjectivity; between what we know and how we come to know it. \nAttendees: Squeaky Wheel is located in Suite 310 of Tri-Main Center. Take the elevator to the third floor\, and head left. Please note that you cannot enter Tri-Main Center after 7:30 pm. Click here to see parking\, transportation\, and accessibility information. \nBiography\nKayleigh Young is a first-generation American photographer and filmmaker working at the intersection of art and science. Born in New Jersey and raised on a steady stream of science-fiction films\, Kayleigh developed a fascination with the strange and uncanny. She has a BS in Integrative Informatics from Allegheny College and is a candidate for an MS in Media Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo. Kayleigh draws from her background in the critical study of natural sciences\, posthumanism\, and media theory to create emotionally resonant films that support public understanding of complex scientific topics. Kayleigh’s work is centered on the belief that documentary film is a powerful tool for scientific literacy and civic engagement. She uses filmmaking to not only tell stories\, but to investigate the systems and interfaces through which knowledge is shared. URL:https://squeaky.org/event/kayleigh-youngs-to-looking/ LOCATION:Squeaky Wheel\, 2495 Main Street\, Suite 310\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14214\, United States CATEGORIES:Thesis presentation ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Young-Film-Screening-Image.jpeg GEO:42.8906261;-78.8721258 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Squeaky Wheel 2495 Main Street Suite 310 Buffalo NY 14214 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=2495 Main Street\, Suite 310:geo:-78.8721258,42.8906261 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250522 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250628 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20251230T191647Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251230T191647Z UID:10001232-1747872000-1751068799@squeaky.org SUMMARY:Call for submissions: Squeaky Wheel's 22nd Animation Fest! DESCRIPTION:Deadline: June 27\, 2025\, 11:59 PM\nNotification Date: August 22\, 2025\nSqueaky Wheel announces the call for submissions for our annual Animation Fest! Celebrating its 22nd year\, we are proud to continue a festival showcasing short films and artworks made in a diverse variety of animation techniques\, including stop-motion\, claymation\, 3D animation\, hand-painted film\, motion graphics\, and more. All genres are welcome. Past festivals have showcased work from both rising artists as well as established artists. \nThe 22nd Animation Fest will be held online and in-person in Fall 2025. Films in the virtual program will be accessible for 24 hours thereafter for general audiences\, and 72 hours for Squeaky Wheel members. If selected\, you will be asked for a downloadable copy of your film and stills from your film. \n\nEach individual submission should not exceed ~10 minutes.\nThere is no submission fee.\nAll selected artists will receive a screening fee of $100 per selected film. (International applicants must have a Paypal account to receive their screening fee).\nAll selected artists will receive a one year membership to Squeaky Wheel.\nMultiple submissions per artist are accepted.\nFilms must have been completed within the past ~2 years.\n\nArtists who face systemic and structural barriers are encouraged to apply. Please direct any questions about the application process and your submissions to Ekrem Serdar at ekrem@squeaky.org \nClick here to submit your films\nImage description: Documentation from the 20th Animation Fest retrospective at North Park Theater. A projection in a darkened movie theater. On the screen is the word “Filmmakers!”\, which is from Helen Hill’s 2004 short film Madame Winger Makes a Film: A Survival Guide for the 21st Century. URL:https://squeaky.org/event/call-for-submissions-squeaky-wheels-22nd-animation-fest/ LOCATION:Squeaky Wheel\, 2495 Main Street\, Suite 310\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14214\, United States CATEGORIES:Open Call,Screenings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/North-Park-Helen-Hill.jpg GEO:42.8906261;-78.8721258 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Squeaky Wheel 2495 Main Street Suite 310 Buffalo NY 14214 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=2495 Main Street\, Suite 310:geo:-78.8721258,42.8906261 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250520T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250520T210000 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20251230T191646Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251230T191646Z UID:10001230-1747764000-1747774800@squeaky.org SUMMARY:Seed Songs for Palestine DESCRIPTION:Tuesday\, May 20. 6–9 pm; screening at 7 pm\nat Duende (85 Silo City Row\, Buffalo\, NY 14203)\nRSVP below. Free. Click here to learn more about the “Revive Gaza’s Farmland” programme at Arab Group for the Protection of Nature.\nSqueaky Wheel is excited to present an evening of short films to benefit the farmlands of Gaza. The screening\, curated by wave~form~projects and re:assemblage collective\, includes work by Alanis Obomsawin\, Cecilia Vicuña\, Nicolás Grandi and Lata Mani\, Marwa Arsanios\, Rana Nazzal Hamadeh\, and Ryley Williams. This event has taken place in locations across the world\, including in cities such as Cape Town\, Glasgow\, Jakarta\, Oaxaca\, Toronto\, and cities across the U.S; we are excited to present it in Buffalo. \nHow to get to Duende: The event will take place at Duende\, on the second floor. The address is 85 Silo City Row\, Buffalo\, NY 14203. Duende is located at 85 Silo City Row. Turn off of Ohio Street onto Silo City Row\, then drive through the gate into Silo City. You will be driving through an active construction site. Parking is just past the bar. Duende is a 2-story building on the right hand side just past the red caboose train car. Please note that the second floor is only accessible with stairs. \nThe Revive Gaza’s Farmlands Project was initiated by Golo Besmlah in collaboration with Arab Centre for the Protection of Nature. Curated by wave~form~projects and re:assemblage collective. The Buffalo iteration of this program is presented by Squeaky Wheel\, in collaboration with Silo City\, Jewish Voice for Peace – Buffalo\, the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Community Lab at the University at Buffalo (aka UB Food Lab). Special thank you to Dee Hartman\, Noura al Khasawneh\, Samina Raja\, Toleen Touq\, and all our partners. \nAbout the program\nThe event will begin at 7pm. Doors will open at 6pm. There will be brief introductions and talks by associates of UB Food Lab\, Jewish Voice for Peace\, and Squeaky Wheel ahead of the films. We will have samosas available from Ali Baba Kebab and some bottles of water. The bar of Duende will be open through the event. \n“The films in Seed Songs for Palestine engage themes of seed sovereignty and Indigenous resilience\, highlighting the intrinsic connections between land\, culture\, and self-determination. Delving into the symbolic and practical importance of seeds\, plant life\, and relations with land as forms of resistance and continuity for Indigenous communities\, the films interrogate the dynamics of freedom and survival in the face of environmental and colonial oppression\, while also offering poignant reflections on both the fragility and resilience of existence. Collectively\, they illuminate the vital role of seed sovereignty in asserting Indigenous rights and preserving cultural heritage. This collection of shorts presents a rich tapestry of voices and radical perspectives that have existed from time immemorial\, considering the intersections of ecological stewardship and self determination which continue to disperse across fertile lands.” – wave~form~projects and re:assemblage collective. \nFilm program\nDuration: 74 minutes \n\nCecilia Vicuña\, Semiya (Seed song) (2015\, Chile\, 8 mins)\nAlanis Obomsawin\, Farming (1975\, Canada\, 2 mins)\nRana Nazzal Hamadeh\, We Would Be Freer (2023\, Palestine/Canada\, 9 mins)\nMarwa Arsanios\, Who is Afraid of Ideology\, Part I & II (2017-2019\, Lebanon/Iraqi Kurdistan\, North and East Syria\, 39 mins)\nRyley Williams\, it’s amazing that you still exist (2021\, Canada\, 4 mins)\nNicolás Grandi and Lata Mani\, Nocturne I (2013\, India\, 5 mins)\n\nSupplemental material from the curators and our partners\nVideo: The Untold Revolution: Food Sovereignty in Palestine (26 mins)\, Ameen Nayfeh\, 2021 \nVideo: Seeds are meant to disperse (8.5 mins)\, Christina Battle\, 2022. More information. \nReading: Forgotten history: a vision for Palestinian refugees’ agricultural self-sufficiency\, Nadi Abu Saada\, 2023 \nReading: Planning and Food Sovereignty in Conflict Cities: Insights From Urban Growers in Srinagar\, Jammu and Kashmir by Raja\, S.\, Parvaiz\, A.\, Sanders\, L.\, Judelsohn\, A.\, Guru\, S.\, Bhan\, M.\, … Frimpong Boamah\, E. Journal of the American Planning Association\, 2022 \nReading: UB’s Food Lab partners with prominent Kashmiri poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef to celebrate an important Indigenous green called haak\, University at Buffalo\, 2024. Read more about UB Food Lab’s global work here. \n\nBanner image: A still from Rana Nazzal Hamadeh\, We Would Be Freer (2023\, Palestine/Canada\, 9 mins) URL:https://squeaky.org/event/seed-songs-for-palestine/ LOCATION:Duende\, 85 Silo City Row\, Buffalo\, 14203\, United States CATEGORIES:Screenings,Special Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Seed-Songs.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250510T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250510T213000 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20251230T191631Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251230T191631Z UID:10001229-1746903600-1746912600@squeaky.org SUMMARY:No Other Land DESCRIPTION:Saturday\, May 10\, 4 pm and 7 pm\nat Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center (map)\nDoors open at 6:45 pm. Registration highly recommended; click here to register.\nBoth screenings are now sold out.\nThis free screening (92 minutes) will be followed by a discussion lead by LOLA and Jewish Voice for Peace Buffalo. \nA collective of Palestinian and Israeli activist/filmmakers chronicle the Israeli military’s incremental expulsion of the West Bank community of Masafer Yatta — home to 20 ancient Palestinian villages — in this tightly focused\, urgent documentary. Over a period of five years (2019–23)\, Masafer Yatta resident and Palestinian journalist Basel Adra shoots video of home\, school\, water well\, and road demolitions (legalized by the area’s conversion to an IDF training zone) and their consequent protests by displaced residents. Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham — free to move about while Adra’s movements are constricted — takes this nonviolent fight to a wider platform. The two form a complicated friendship and hopeful partnership in their efforts to resist a government-sanctioned mass eviction. \nPresented in partnership with Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center\, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center\, LOLA\, Jewish Voice for Peace Buffalo\, and Buffalo Int’l Film Festival. \nFurther reading\nBasel Adra\, Our film is going to the Oscars. But here in Masafer Yatta\, we’re still being erased\, +972 Magazine\, February 10\, 2025 \nAnthony Kaufman\, No Other Distribution: How Film Industry Economics and Politics Are Suppressing Docs Sympathetic to Palestine and Critical of Israel\, Documentary Magazine\, January 15 2025 \nMary Turfah\, “No Other Land” for Whom?\, Mubi Notebook\, February 11 2025 \nBanner image: A man laying on a grassy and rocky knoll. A tractor is visible behind him. URL:https://squeaky.org/event/no-other-land/ LOCATION:Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center\, 341 Delaware Avenue\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14202\, United States CATEGORIES:Screenings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/no-other-land.jpg GEO:42.8937279;-78.8753531 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center 341 Delaware Avenue Buffalo NY 14202 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=341 Delaware Avenue:geo:-78.8753531,42.8937279 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250423T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250423T203000 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20251230T191631Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251230T191631Z UID:10001227-1745434800-1745440200@squeaky.org SUMMARY:Songs of Memory and Forgetting: Films by Assia Djebar\, Inas Halabi\, Onyeka Igwe\, Tiffany Sia DESCRIPTION:Wednesday\, April 23\, 7 pm\nFree or suggested donation\nGet tickets below\nSongs of Memory and Forgetting brings together three short films by Inas Halabi\, Onyeka Igwe\, and Tiffany Sia\, along with Assia Djebar’s essential 1982 anti-colonial classic\, The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting. The artists in this screening take on archives and collective memories: where we search for and see them\, their possibilities and limitations in crafting a collective future. Part of the public programs of The Image in its Absence\, the screening complements the works in the exhibition. Catering\, including vegetarian options\, will be provided by Ali Baba Kebab. \nAttendees: Squeaky Wheel is located in Suite 310 of Tri-Main Center. Take the elevator to the third floor\, and head left. Please note that you cannot enter Tri-Main Center after 7:30 pm. Click here to see parking\, transportation\, and accessibility information. \nThe screening is funded by Teiger Foundation. The films are courtesy of the artists and Video Data Bank (for Tiffany Sia)\, Lux (for Onyeka Igwe)\, and Arsenal (for Assia Djebar).’ \nStills\nA still from Onyeka Igwe’s No Archive Can Restore You. A blue bunch of 16mm film on a dusty floor.A still from Assia Djebar’s The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting. A French person shooting with a 16mm camera. An Algerian man wearing a burnous is to his right\, looking at him. The French mans gaze and lens is past the Algerian.A still from Inas Halabi’s MNEMOSYNE. A woman sitting on a couch outside. The subtitles state “they placed all the young men from the village on a truck and took them to the Lebanese border”A still from Tiffany Sia’s What Rules the Invisible. Five people looking at a landscape in an old home movie.\nProgram\nTotal duration ~90 minutes. Descriptions courtesy the filmmakers and distributors. \nInas Halabi\, Mnemosyne\nDigital video\, 14 minutes\, Arabic with English subtitles\, 2016-2017 \nThe title of the work is borrowed from the Titan goddess of memory and the ‘inventress of language and words.’ The starting point for the project is a scar on the forehead of the artist’s grandfather. The scar was a result of a bullet shot in his direction by an Israeli soldier in the late 1940’s. Focusing on the sagas of myth and the construction of memory\, members of the same family are filmed individually as they narrate their version of the same event. By scratching the surface of family history\, the project explores the scar as a foundational hinge that arranges reality. The project also considers how one can play the role of a historian when the primary source is no longer there. ‘We do not remember. We rewrite memory much as history is rewritten.’ As such\, recollection becomes an act of transformation rather than reproduction. \nTiffany Sia\, What Rules the Invisible\nDigital video\, 9:50 minutes\, English and Cantonese\, 2022 \nWhat Rules The Invisible is a short film that upends archival travelog footage shot in Hong Kong. Spanning reappropriated amateur footage across the 20th century\, the sojourner’s gaze—distanced\, distorted and even voyeuristic—shows tropes and patterns. The same shots repeat across decades\, from landscape to cityscape to street scenes. Sometimes the footage reveals more about the traveler himself\, such as a sequence where the camera curiously tracks the hips and bare legs of women wearing cheongsam crossing a busy intersection. Sia’s essay film studies these travelogs to find indignant subjects glaring back at the camera\, or figures on the edges of the frame who appear pixelated and phantasmic\, showing the patina of the footage’s circulation. Meanwhile\, intertitles intermittently puncture this footage with an oral history of Hong Kong\, as told by Sia’s mother who describes colonial police\, excrement and hauntings in Kowloon of the postwar era. The viewer is left to imagine these scenes there are no images for. \nOnyeka Igwe\, No Archive Can Restore You\nDigital video\, 5:54 minutes\, 2020 \nThe former Nigerian Film Unit building was one of the first self-directed outposts of the British visual propaganda engine\, the Colonial Film Unit\, stands empty on Ikoyi Road\, Lagos\, in the shadow of today’s Nigerian Film Corporation building. The rooms are full of dust\, cobwebs\, stopped clocks\, and rusty and rotting celluloid film cans. Amongst these cans\, a long-lost classic of Nigerian filmmaking\, Shehu Umar (1976) was found in 2015. The films housed in this building are hard to see because of their condition\, but also perhaps because people do not want to see them. They reveal a colonial residue\, that is echoed in walls of the building itself. Taking its title from the 2018 Juliette Singh book\, No Archive Can Restore You depicts the spatial configuration of this colonial archive\, which lies just out of view\, in the heart of the Lagosian cityscape. Despite its invisibility\, it contains purulent images that we cannot\, will not\, or choose not to see. The film imagines ‘lost’ films from the archive in distinctive soundscapes\, juxtaposed with images of the abandoned interior and exteriors of the building. This is an exploration into the ‘sonic shadows’ that colonial moving images continue to generate. \nAssia Djebar\, La zerda et les chants de l’oubli (The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting)\n16mm film on digital video\, 59 minutes\, Arabic with English subtitles\, 1982 \nFor La zerda et les chants de l’oubli\, Algerian writer Assia Djebar changed her field and recapitulated the colonization of the Maghreb using French newsreels. Through editing\, the film seeks in these “images of a killing gaze” the truth they precisely don’t reveal\, the “resistance behind the mask.” The soundtrack combines polyphonic chants and experimental music to create a furious elegy to colonial violence. Djebar creates a complex picture of Algeria’s colonial history\, focusing particularly on the role and portrayal of women during this period. Screenplay by Malek Alloula. \nBiographies of the filmmakers\nAlgerian-born\, Muslem raised\, Paris-educated\, Assia Djebar (1936- 2015) tackled all genres: poetry\, plays\, short-stories\, novels and essays. In her books Djebar explored the struggle for social emancipation and the Muslim woman’s world in its complexities. Several of her works deal with the impact of the war on women’s mind. She wrote\, directed\, and edited her own films\, winning the Biennale prize at the 1979 Venice Film Festival with her very first attempt\, La Nouba des Femmes du Mont Chenoua (The nouba or “ritual” festival of the Women of Mt. Chenoua). She staged her own plays and both translated and directed the plays of others (Amiri Baraka’s\, for example). In 2000\, she authored an operatic libretto\, Filles d’Ismaël dans le vent et la tempête (Daughters of Ishmael\, through wind and storm). Based on her 1991 narrative on the life of the Prophet\, Far from Medina\, this oratorio was performed to excellent reviews in Rome and at the Palermo Arts Festival. A second version\, in classical Arabic this time\, is commissioned for future performance in Holland. Djebar is one of North Africa’s most famous and influential writers\, and was elected to the Académie française on June 16\, 2005\, the first writer from the Maghreb to achieve such recognition. She won the following awards: Peace Prize of Frankfurt Book Fair (2000); International Prize of Palmi (Italy); Marguerite Yourcenar Prize for Literature (Boston\, MA); International Literary Neustadt Prize (1996); International Critics Prize\, Biennale of Venice\, for the film “La nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua.” (08/18) – Biography via Women Make Movies \nInas Halabi (b.1988\, Palestine) is an Artist/Filmmaker. Her practice is concerned with how social and political forms of power are manifested and the impact that overlooked or suppressed histories have on contemporary life. Recent exhibitions and screenings include Luleå Biennial (2024)\, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (2023)\, de Appel Amsterdam (solo 2023)\, Showroom London (solo 2022)\, Europalia Festival\, Brussels (2021)\, Silent Green Betonhalle\, Berlin (2021); Stedelijk Museum\, Amsterdam (2020); and Film at Lincoln Center\, USA (2020). Her recent work has been supported by Amarte\, Amsterdam Fonds Voor de Kunst (AFK)\, Mondriaan Fund\, and Sharjah Art Foundation. She lives and works between Palestine and the Netherlands. \nOnyeka Igwe is an artist and researcher working between cinema and installation. She is born and based in London\, UK. In her non-fiction video work Onyeka uses dance\, voice\, archives\, sound design and text to create structural ‘figure-of-eights’\, a format that exposes a multiplicity of narratives. The work comprises of untieable strands and threads\, anchored by a rhythmic editing style\, as well as close attention to the dissonance\, reflection and amplification that occurs between image and sound; in the work as much in life\, what is said and what we see are not always the same thing. www.onyekaigwe.com \nTiffany Sia (b. 1988) is an artist\, filmmaker\, and writer. Sia’s films have screened at TIFF Toronto International Film Festival\, New York Film Festival\, MoMA Doc Fortnight\, and elsewhere. She has had solo exhibitions at Artists Space\, New York; Maxwell Graham Gallery\, New York; and Felix Gaudlitz\, Vienna. Sia is the author of On and Off-Screen Imaginaries (Primary Information\, 2024)\, a compendium of essays that makes a case for fugitive\, exilic cinema\, moving beyond national identity and the politics of place as a critical lens. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art\, New York; Fondazione Prada\, Milan; Seoul Museum of Art\, Seoul and elsewhere. Her essays have appeared in Film Quarterly\, October\, and more. The recipient of the Baloise Art Prize in 2024\, Sia has given talks at Dia Art Foundation\, Stanford University\, and has taught at Cooper Union. The artist and filmmaker’s work at its core challenges genre. Working across mediums\, her multidisciplinary practice materializes across multiple forms from films\, video sculptures\, artist books\, scholarly essays\, and more. Sia’s work blends nonfiction with poetics and theoretical inquiry. Her formal explorations confront questions about the representation of memory and place\, relating especially the imaginaries of exceptional and irregular polities beyond the national (from Hong Kong to elsewhere). Throughout\, her conceptual focus remains in the struggle to represent historical time\, geography\, and the limits of official records. Sia currently lives and works in New York. \nBanner image: A still from Onyeka Igwe’s No Archive Can Restore You (2020). A blue and green bunch of 16mm film on an uneven\, dusty\, and mud encrusted floor. URL:https://squeaky.org/event/songs-of-memory-and-forgetting/ LOCATION:Squeaky Wheel\, 2495 Main Street\, Suite 310\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14214\, United States CATEGORIES:Screenings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-13-at-3.40.11-PM-scaled.jpg GEO:42.8906261;-78.8721258 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Squeaky Wheel 2495 Main Street Suite 310 Buffalo NY 14214 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=2495 Main Street\, Suite 310:geo:-78.8721258,42.8906261 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250416T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250416T200000 DTSTAMP:20260412T100509 CREATED:20251230T191632Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251230T191632Z UID:10001223-1744826400-1744833600@squeaky.org SUMMARY:Found-Footage and Archival Experimental Filmmaking with G. Anthony Svatek and Kaija Siirala DESCRIPTION:Wednesday\, April 16\, 6–8 pm\nFree or suggested donation. Limited capacity.\nRegister below\nIn this special workshop led by G. Anthony Svatek (Brooklyn\, NY) and Kaija Siirala (Hamilton\, ON)\, participants will learn about creative approaches and strategies for making experimental films using no-cost archival\, found\, and/or reappropriated materials. Resources for both image and sound archives will be explored\, as well as examples of historical and contemporary artists who work with such materials\, including work by Bruce Conner among others. Students will also gain basic knowledge of legal frameworks for re-appropriating images and sounds\, including acquiring material releases\, credit attribution\, and frameworks such as Creative Commons among others. Open to anyone new to making artist-driven and non- commercial found-footage filmmaking. \nAttendees: Squeaky Wheel is located in Suite 310 of Tri-Main Center. Take the elevator to the third floor\, and head left. Please note that you cannot enter Tri-Main Center after 7:30 pm. Click here to see parking\, transportation\, and accessibility information. \nThis event is part of the Spring session of Squeaky Wheel’s Workspace Residency\, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Visual Arts and Teiger Foundation. \nBiographies of the artists\nHaving grown up at the foot of the Austrian Alps\, G. Anthony Svatek is awed by the living world and how it is increasingly impacted by our techno-urban lives. Anthony’s work screened at NYFF\, Intl FF Rotterdam\, Ann Arbor\, Big Sky\, Prismatic Ground\, DOCNYC\, amongst others. Supporters include NYSCA\, Simons Foundation\, Austrian Cultural Forum NY. He is the recipient of the New Visions Golden Gate Award at SFFILM. Commissioned work includes projects for NYS Parks\, BBC\, Deutsche Welle\, and Pioneer Works. He has staffed seasonally at the Flaherty Film Seminar\, The Climate Museum\, and the American Museum of Natural History. \nKaija Siirala works in documentary media as a picture editor\, sound designer and educator. She has a keen interest in process-based collaboration and storytelling that pushes against the bounds of classical narrative structures. Films she has worked on have screened at the National Gallery of Canada\, True/False Film Festival\, Camden International Film Festival\, MoMI First Look\, Hot Docs\, DOC NYC\, Big Sky\, AFI fest\, IDFA\, DOK Leipzig\, Flaherty Seminar 2023\, Prismatic Ground and as a New York Times Op-Doc. Her audio work has appeared on the BBC\, On Air Fest and in installation contexts. She was a member-in-residence of the Meerkat Media Collective in Brooklyn\, NY from 2016-2018. In May 2018\, she completed her MFA in Integrated Media Arts at Hunter College (CUNY) and is now based in Hamilton\, ON. \nBanner image: Audience of seated men attending a petroleum conference in the 1950s overlaid with a waterfall in a National Park. Courtesy of G. Anthony Svatek URL:https://squeaky.org/event/found-footage-and-archival-experimental-filmmaking-with-g-anthony-svatek-and-kaija-siirala/ LOCATION:Squeaky Wheel\, 2495 Main Street\, Suite 310\, Buffalo\, NY\, 14214\, United States CATEGORIES:Residencies,Skill Share ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://squeaky.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Workshop-Still.jpg GEO:42.8906261;-78.8721258 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Squeaky Wheel 2495 Main Street Suite 310 Buffalo NY 14214 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=2495 Main Street\, Suite 310:geo:-78.8721258,42.8906261 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR