The Antimatter Film Festival is gearing up for another epic year — its 12th! — that will run Oct. 9-17 in Vancouver, Canada. And I don’t use the word “epic” lightly. This is a massive production of the best experimental films, documentaries and cinema performances in the world.

This year features two experimental docs that have been majorly making the festival rounds this year: Deborah Stratman‘s O’ver the Land and Lee Anne Schmitt’s California Company Town. The opening night event is entitled “Small World” and will include smoke machines, nostalgia, tinfoil, corporate iconography, pretty lights and performances by Natasha Enquist, Walrus, Rad Juli, Wes Borg and more.

The closing night event is a collection of short films adapting songs off of the Flaming Lips’ album Zaireeka. All the films are by Winnipeg avant-garde filmmakers such as perennial Underground Film Journal favorites Clint Enns and Leslie Supnet, plus Jaimz Asmundson, Hope Peterson and more.

Other Underground Film Journal favorites in the lineup are films produced out of Mike Plante’s Lunchfilm project, Martha Colburn‘s Myth Labs, Ben Russell‘s Trypps #6 (Malobi), and Naomi Uman & Lee Lynch’s The Tin Woodsman’s Home Movie #2. As well as new films by Tony Gault and Damon Packard. And this is the part where I start feeling guilty singling out certain films and filmmakers because there’s so much awesome stuff to be seen and experienced:

Oct. 9

9:00 p.m.: “Small World”
Performances by Natasha Enquist, Walrus, Rad Juli, Wes Borg, Chelsea Chenery, The Pine Family, Lindsay Coulton, Jody Franklin, Slut Revolver, Run Chico Run, Grayson Walker, J McLaughlin, plus Special Guests.

Oct. 10

7:00 p.m.: “Je suis une bombe”
Je suis une bombe, dir. Elodie Pong
My Lot, dir. Alyssa Timon
T-Shirt of Me, dir. Matt Meindl
ICE-9, dir. Evan Tapper
The Man Who Went Outside, dir. Jennet Thomas
Britney Scale Surgery, dir. Yoshie Sakai
Where Are You Going, Elena?, dir. Josephine Decker
28.IV.81 (Bedouin Spark), dir. Christopher Harris
Edible Spa, dir. John G. Boehme
My Tears Are Dry, dir. Laida Lertxundi (Read the review)
elfmädchen (elfgirls), dir. Mirka Morales

9:00 p.m.: “Chromosome XYZ”
Men Seeking Women, dir. Penny Lane
Chromosome XYZ, dir. Dominic Etienne Simard
Karleksbarn (Love Child), dir. Daniel Wirtberg
The Distance Between, dir. Terryll Loffler
It’s easier to pick sours than sweets, dir. Sara MacLean
Head, dir. Dean Rank

Oct. 11

7:00 p.m.: “Surface Kinetic”
Matter in Motion, dir. Semiconductor
Surface Kinetic, dir. David Ellsworth
A Fuller World, dir. Wago Kreider
12 Explosions, dir. Johann Lurf
New Atlantis, dir. Leigh (Jen) Fisher
Common Ground, dir. Vera Brunner-Sung
The Duellists, dir. MediaShed

9:00 p.m.: “Warming Trend”
The Commoners, dir. Jessica Bardsley & Penny Lane
Fossil Light, dir. Tony Gault
Warming Trend, dir. Cade Bursell
To Be Regained, dir. Zach Iannazzi (Read the review)
All Through the Night, dir. Michael Robinson
Tales of the Valley of the Wind, dir. Damon Packard

Oct. 12

7:00 p.m.: O’er the Land, dir. Deborah Stratman. An examination of national identity through the prism of militarism.
Screening with lay claim to an island, dir. Chris Kennedy; and Myth Labs, dir. Martha Colburn

9:00 p.m.: California Company Town, dir. Lee Anne Schmitt. An examination of California communities that have been devastated by the industries that first created then abandoned them.

Oct. 13

7:00 p.m.: “whisper my name”
whisper my name, dir. Azin Seraj
À L’est Des Vents, dir. Emilie Serri
Passing (short version), dir. Robert Todd
Street of Dreams, dir. Peter Sandmark
Set Stories, dir. Ron Resendes
Still Life: London, dir. Wyllie O Hagan
Post Card, dir. Bernie Roddy
Mama, dir. Bruno Vázquez
Kalendar, dir. Naomi Uman
You Can, dir. Lin de Mol
Object Loss, dir. A. Moon

7:00 p.m.: “Der Spiegel”
Get Into the Movies, dir. Kate Pelling
All This Way, dir. Robert Daniel Pytlyk
My Dog Doesn’t Have a Job, dir. Karl Tebbe
Paul and the Badger – Episode 7, dir. Paul Tarrago
Out of Print, dir. Danny Plotnick
Der Spiegel, dir. Keren Cytter
Ten for Grandpa, dir. Doug Karr
Snap Shot, dir. Kim Kielhofner
It’s Nick’s Birthday, dir. Graeme Cole

9:00 p.m.: “Soaring, Roaring, Diving”
Namesake, dir. Shirin Mozaffari
Revival, dir. Heidi Phillips
Soaring, Roaring, Diving, dir. Miriam Harris & Juliet Palmer
What Comes Between, dir. Cecilia Araneda
Paalaala/Remembrance, dir. Jo SiMalaya Alcampo
Best Wishes, dir. Ko Kaleng
Witchcraft, dir. Jason Britski
Isabell, dir. Kathleen Rugh
Song of the Suicide’s Daughter, dir. Rick Raxlen
La Luz del Perdon (The Light of Forgiveness), dir. Eileen Richardson

9:00 p.m.: Loki: Arnaldo Baptista, dir. Paulo Henrique Fontenelle. A documentary on the life of Arnaldo Baptista, the leader of the Brazilian pop band Os Mutantes, who were popular in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

Oct. 14

7:00 p.m.: “The Nightgardener”
I Remember That They Existed, But Not What They Were, dir. Kathleen Rugh
Quiver, dir. Robert Todd
Golden Room, dir. Michael Stecky
The Nightgardener, dir. Jennifer Hardacker
Double Thunder, dir. Potter-Belmar Labs (Leslie Raymond & Jason Jay Stevens)
Heron Pond: Boardwalk View, dir. Cade Bursell
Apart, dir. Richard Martin
Lossless #3, dir. Rebecca Baron & Douglass Goodwin
Highway Home, dir. Esther Johnson
Grain: Summer (I can’t see the forest through my dreams), dir. Gerald Saul

7:00 p.m.: “wandering through secret storms”
Tammy Teardrop, dir. Phil Caron
Great Man and Cinema, dir. Jim Finn
Dogs of Straw, dir. Yin-Ju Chen & James T. Hong
Ground Control, dir. Sigfried Fruhauf
Um Abdullah, dir. Sahar al-Sawaf
Loving the Bomb, dir. Alison Davis
wandering through secret storms, dir. Christina Battle
You Suck!, dir. Gregory Norman Joseph Ball
Breakdown, dir. Kasumi

9:00 p.m.: “John Wayne Hated Horses”
Dogs Run Loose Around Here, dir. Mike Hoath
John Wayne Hated Horses, dir. Andrew T. Betzer
j., dir. Solomon Nagler & Alexandre Larose
House of Hazards, dir. Patti Bruck
Hold Me Now, dir. Michael Robinson
Inkraktaren (The Intruder), dir. Daniel Wirtberg
Undisclosed Beauty, dir. Anders Weberg
Holding Pattern IV: Fight or Flight, dir. Kadet Kuhne
Obsession, dir. Elaine Frigon
Strip, dir. Yoshie Sakai
Paul and the Badger – Episode 6, dir. Paul Tarrago

9:00 p.m.: The Fall of Ned Kelly, dir. Sami Van Ingen. A recreation of the first feature film ever made, Ned Kelly and His Gang, produced in 1906. The film will be accompanied by a live musical score by Lee Hutzulak.

Oct. 15

7:00 p.m.: “Inside Passage”
Vancouver, dir. Bryan Konefsky
I Live Everywhere, dir. Tijman Hauer
Inside Passage, dir. Jeff Carter, Diarmuid Conway, Chris Gestrin
Bliss Out, dir. Maria Magnusson
Piensa En Mi, dir. Alexandra Cuesta
The Tin Woodsman’s Home Movie #2, dir. Naomi Uman & Lee Lynch (Read the review)
Destination Finale, dir. Philip Widmann (Read the review)

7:00 p.m.: “Soft Science: The Human Animal” (Curated by Rachel Mayeri)
Once Upon a Time, dir. Corinna Schnitt
Harmony, dir. Jim Trainor
Family Portrait, dir. Nicolas Primat with Patrick Munck
Night Spider & Mudeye, dir. Julia Oldham
Impersonator, dir. Alison Ruttan
Baboons as Friends, dir. Rachel Mayeri
Polar Bear God, dir. Deke Weaver
Nocturne, dir. Colin Ives
Stuffing, dir. Animal Charm
Safari, dir. Catherine Chalmers

9:00 p.m.: “These are not your old home movies!” (Curated by Julie Saragosa)
This Lane Is Our Lane, dir. Terry Haines
Robo Love: when Colonization meets Globalization, dir. Jesse Blanchard & Amanda Ruckus
Naoko San, dir. Rika Moorhouse
Planet Q, the Transformation, dir. Tyler Wheatcroft
SuPornNatural, dir. Sacha Fink
Tarantula, dir. Jillian Deri
Sparkleen, dir. Leigh Fisher
Cat Whisperer, dir. Aili Meutzner & Amy Kazymerchyk
My Cervix, dir. Terri Sudeyko
The Cindy Doll, dir. Julie Saragosa
What’s My Mother F***ing Name?, dir. Amber Dawn
Spendingyesterday, dir. Kathleen Gowman
Apartment 3, dir. Nancy Lizuck

9:00 p.m. Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman, dir. Eric Bricker. A portrait of Julius Shulman, one of the world’s most famous architectural photographers. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman.
Screening with John Lautner, The Desert Hot Springs Motel, dir. Sasha Pirker

Oct. 16

7:00 p.m.: “In the New World”
LoopLoop: Seen from a Train, dir. Patrick Bergeron
3SAI: A Rite of Passage, dir. Paul Emmanuel
Cotton Sugar, dir. Tsen-Chu Hsu
In the New World, dir. Rick Raxlen
Zwei Indianer Aus Winnipeg, dir. Darryl Nepinak
…white noise, dir. Jason Noel & Erick Thompson
Fuhrerbunker: Touristen, Neo-Nazis, Oder Anderen, dir. Yin-Ju Chen & James T. Hong
On This Day, dir. Naomi Uman
Ich bin ein junger Hupfer, dir. Anna Geyer
Trypps #6 (Malobi), dir. Ben Russell (Read the review)

9:00 p.m.: “The Sky Taped Together”
Shiny Things, dir. Salise Hughes
When Worlds Collude, dir. Fred Worden
The Sky Taped Together, dir. Michael Sirianni
Lezzieflick, dir. Nana Swiczinsky
Wound Footage, dir. Thorsten Fleisch
Freude (Delight), dir. Thomas Draschan
Speechless, dir. Scott Stark
Perceptual Subjectivity, dir. Philippe Leonard
Frottage/Dommage/Fromage 2 Vous, dir. Rick Raxlen
Stardust, dir. Gerda Cammaer & Gerstyn Hayward

Oct. 17

7:00 p.m.: “Open Space: Strange Particles”
Pinhole Flames, dir. Amy Schwartz
Clusters, dir. Peter Byrne & Jesse Spielman
Magnetic Movie, dir. Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman & Joe Gerhardt)
An Introduction to Degradation: R-10, dir. Pierre Luc Gouin
15 Experiments on Peripheral Vision, dir. Adele Horne & Paul VanDeCarr
Particules, dir. Patrick Pelletier
Shatterglit, dir. Robert Pasternak
Somatoform, dir. Diana Mihalache
Black Oval White, dir. Sabine Gruffat
Plastic Opera, dir. Matthew Perino
The Motions of Bodies, dir. Ann Steuernagel
The Production & Decay of Strange Particles, dir. Jon Behrens

9:00 p.m.: Fixed: View | Sky | Rail. This is a 16mm triptych performance by Alex MacKenzie that brings static images back to life.

Screening with “The Flaming Lips’ Zaireeka in Sound & Pictures.” The eighth album by the Flaming Lips will be played synchronized to a four-screen video projection of films by Winnipeg filmmakers. The directors paired with songs are:
Okay I’ll Admit That I Really Don’t Understand, dir. Clint Enns
Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (You’re Invisible Now), dir. Kier-La Janisse
Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair, dir. Neil Hoare
A Machine in India, dir. Cam Woykin
The Train Runs over the Camel but Is Derailed by the Gnat, dir. Damien Ferland
How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos), dir. Hope Peterson
March of the Rotten Vegetables, dir. Jaimz Asmundson
The Big Ol’ Bug Is the New Baby Now, dir. Leslie Supnet

For more info, please visit the official Antimatter website.