This year’s FLEX Fest, the Florida Experimental Film/Video Festival, is the fest’s third biennial invitational. On each of its four nights, Feb. 20-23, a different experimental filmmaker will screen first a selection of his or her own work, then a selection of films that have influenced them.

The four filmmakers selected to screen this year are: Jacqueline Goss, Helga Fanderl, Michael Gitlin and Johan Grimonprez. On each night, a filmmaker will screen his or her own films at 7:00 p.m. then screen their influences at 9:00 p.m.

The screenings will take place at different locations around Gainesville, FL. Listed below are the filmmakers on the night they are screening, the screening location and a brief description of each filmmakers’ style. Since I’m not personally familiar with any of these filmmakers — which would be a great reason to go! — the descriptions are copied directly from the FLEX website. Looks like a very interesting lineup and should be a fun event!

Feb. 20
The Top Secret Space (22 N. Main St.)
Jacqueline Goss
Jacqueline Goss makes movies and web-based works that explore how political, cultural, and scientific systems change the ways we think about ourselves. For the last few years she has used 2D digital animation techniques to work within the genre of the animated documentary. Her most recent videos are How to Fix the World — a look at Soviet-sponsored literacy programs in 1930s Central Asia — and Stranger Comes to Town — an animated documentary about the identity-tracking of immigrants and travelers coming into the United States.

Feb. 20
The Harn Museum of Art
Helga Fanderl
Working exclusively in the small-gauge super 8mm film format and editing entirely in camera, Helga Fanderl has directed more than 400 short films over the last several decades ranging from observational documentary portraits to more abstract, poetic works.

Feb. 22
The Hippodrome Theatre
Michael Gitlin
Michael Gitlin’s work has been screened at numerous venues, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Full Frame Documentary Festival, the New York Video Festival at Lincoln Center and the 1997 Whitney Biennial.

Feb. 23
The Harn Museum of Art
Johan Grimonprez
Johan Grimonprez studied at the School of Visual Arts and attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York. He achieved international acclaim with his film essay, Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, which premiered at the Centre Pompidou and Documenta X in Kassel in 1997. Grimonprez’s Looking for Alfred (2005) won the International Media Award (ZKM, Germany) in 2005 as well as the European Media Award in 2006.