Once again it’s time for the only festival dedicated solely to expanded cinema performance in the U.S. (That I know of anyway.) Brooklyn’s 4th annual Mono No Aware is set to run on Nov. 28, starting at 6:00 p.m. at the Lumenhouse studio and exhibition space.

For those unfamiliar with Mono No Aware’s mission, this is a one-night only collection of once-in-a-lifetime screening events, meaning that what the audience sees this night can never be recreated ever again.

I believe this year has the most performances in a single night than in previous Mono No Aware events. There will be 10 separate performances, each featuring some sort of film projection combined with either live music, image manipulation, audience interaction, electronic noise and/or spoken word.

With the truly unique nature of this event, there’s no way to adequately describe what each performance will exactly be like. The best I can do here is just reprint the descriptions of each one found on the Mono No Aware website, which are below.

For more info, particularly of the performers, please visit the official Mono No Aware website.

1. Arcane Project Presents: The Chinese Nightingale
Magic Lanterns, Super 8mm, 16mm film, 35mm film & slide multi-projection/hand manipulations, live sonic distortions & performance
Bradley Eros, Lary Seven, Joel Schlemowitz & Victoria Keddie

Focused on the mythic story of the Chinese Nightingale, mechanical invention and the gift of the automaton gone wild, the projection includes uncanny imagery from myriad sources, both original and found, from subterranean science, biomorphic transformations, mysterious travels, odd flora & fauna, bizarre creatures and industrial detritus, displayed through the translucent exotica of hand-tinted photographs, decayed surfaces & illustrations of the mundane made marvelous. We should mention insect electronics, volcanic erosions, arctic negations & the olfactory organ.

2. Youkali
16mm projection / Live musical accompaniment
Noe Kidder, Jessica Goldring & Mark Gallay

Tropicalismo visions give warmth to this beautiful travelog.

3. Errata.Cinema
16mm projection / Photo sensitive oscillators & performance
Thomas Dexter

Marking, drawing and painting on the surface of the film, Errata.Cinema is an ever-changing performance piece where clear film leader is manipulated until it is no more. As the image changes, the sound is altered by light sensitive pick-ups adhered to the screens surface. This film will be created and destroyed before your very eyes. Do not blink.

4. This Give Me Fever at Night, You Governmental / Corporational Piece of Shit!
16mm projection / Interactive performance & audience participation
Luis Arnia & Kim Ferero-Arnias

Demonstration footage uses the cameras point of view to thrust the audience into the heart of a street protest. Sandwiched between the police and other protesters audience members will be given props and asked to interact with the work. Feel free to B.Y.O.Riot gear, but please try to remember this is a peaceful protest.

5. UFO Evidence
16mm film projection / Live improvised sounds
Jason Martin

Here are real actual Unidentified Flying Objects captured on reversal film. The reversal process is one perfected by the Air Force in the late 1950’s to alter light waves in remote viewing situations so that they may be captured on film.

6. You Know They Want to Disappear Hell’s Kitchen as Clinton: Dear E.B. White: I Desire Your Queer NYC Prizes
Super 8mm film projection / Live spoken word
Stephanie Gray

In mysterious silent insistent shots, we see an inspired letter of sorts to writer E.B. White, author of the mid-century infamous little book Here is New York. She imagines some of the NYC images that Mr. White might have seen, and shoots a film essay of old and disappearing Hell’s Kitchen (which developers have been trying to rename Clinton). We see faded or forgotten signage and signs that don’t totally make sense. In between the voiceover are distorted snippets from a 60s surf song. Maybe it should all be Hell’s Clinton, or Clinton’s Hell.

7. Spalms
16mm double projections / Homemade analog audio electronics
Sarah Halpern & Matt Wellins

An external infrastructure changes in a resigned death. Beside us there is a cluttered stockade of usable objects. We know that disaster can occur after a dimensional process and this is our renewing lifestyle. But when will the mist leap? Why does the task occasionally decline? Why cant the container register an incompatible width? We harness these alarmed overtones in order to generate material change but next to the obscure paradox overflows a sneaking prose. The full lecturer completes the event, his finer outlook participating behind the objective. But…. an opposite swims! And we pray that the mountain will crack with an atomic handful of incoherent vocabulary.

8. Untitled
Super 8mm & 16mm film projections / Performance
Jeremiah Jones, Ann Meisinger, Zane Starr & Kerry Farias

A display of incredible, vulnerable films projected onto abstract sculptural performers. The film explores lines, points and planes of color and the relationship between these abstractions.

9. Grandflower
16mm film projection / Live spoken word with ceremonial incinerator
Joshua Lewis & Danica Pantic

Culled from a vast collection of abandoned 16mm student films from a now-defunct New York City film lab, the footage presented here has never been projected, never been seen by its makers, and prior to its rescue, was set to be wholly discarded. Wanting to preserve the film in this rare and pristine state, Joshua Lewis viewed the footage through a light table while splicing fragments together into a rhythmic, elegiac pattern. The resulting four-minute film will be screened in silence then promptly placed into a ceremonial vessel (created by Danica Pantic) where the film will be destroyed before the audience in a bath of concentrated bleach.

10. Catharsis
16mm film installation / Audience interaction
Tara Nelson

Enter a darkened room to the sound of gentle whirring. A screen glows with warm yellow light, while a moth-like silhouette dances in the light, flickering from side to side. There is a slight breeze. Breathe deeply. Be still in the light. Close your eyes. Come closer.
A Catharsis is the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art. This cinematic installation represents a personal breakthrough in the process of pursuing the location of the imagination. It is a filmless film with no set duration which can be viewed in 3 layers: while standing in front of the floating screen; while sitting behind the screen, facing it; and from a sitting position while facing the projector with eyes closed. The latter position gives the viewer the opportunity to experience a film made with their own mind, which only they can see. The audience is encouraged to engage with the light in any way they wish.
THIS IS AN INSTALLATION WHICH WILL BE IN THE SPACE FOR THE DURATION OF THE EVENING. *** “Please Close Your Eyes When Facing The Projector Light”!