The 8th annual Brakhage Center Symposium has been programmed by curator Kathy Geritz and will examine the concept of experimental narrative over three days of screenings and lectures on March 16-18 at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Geritz has pulled together a program in which experimental films explore notions of narrative through diverse means, whether combining with documentary or animated elements, or through nonlinear structure, or through the direct experience of time. As Geritz hopes: “In these different ways, the films presented will challenge and expand our expectations as they push the boundaries of storytelling conventions.”

Some of the filmmakers who will be present at the symposium are animators Stacey Steers and Chris Sullivan, experimental documentary filmmaker Amie Siegel and Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who will be screening his 1987 acclaimed feature film Syndromes and a Century and the more recent short film Emerald (2007).

Also, film critic and historian J. J. Murphy will present a special program of Andy Warhol‘s mid-’60s films Restaurant, Bufferin and four of the artist’s screen tests of his female “superstars”: Baby Jane Holzer, Ann Buchanan, Ivy Nicholson, and Sally Kirkland. Murphy is the author of the forthcoming book The Black Hole of the Camera: The Films of Andy Warhol, due out in April. Plus, several of Murphy’s own experimental narrative films from the ’70s will be screened.

Geritz herself was the co-editor of the recent book Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000 and has been a curator at the Pacific Film Archive, where she has worked since 1981.

For more info, please visit the official website for the Brakhage Center Symposium. The full lineup of films screening is below:

March 16

7:00 p.m.: “Multiple and Repeated Narratives” (Apichatpong Weerasethakul in person)
Syndromes and a Century, dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Love blossoms in a rural hospital and is repeated in an urban hospital.
Screening with: Dante Quartet, dir. Stan Brakhage (1987, 8 min., 35mm)

March 17

10:00 a.m.: “Narratives Remade, Reused, and Revisited” (Amie Siegel & Stacey Steers in person)
A group of shorts in which found footage is used in unexpected ways, movies are remade with new intents, actresses are dropped into new stories, directors jump into actresses’ scenes, and the purpose of narrative is debated.
I, an Actress, dir. George Kuchar (U.S., 1977, 9 min.)
My Dad Is 100 Years Old, dir. Guy Maddin (Canada, 2005, 16 min.)
Night Hunter, dir. Stacey Steers (U.S., 2011, 15.5 min.)
Poetry and Truth (Dichtung und Wahrheit), dir. Peter Kubelka (Austria, 2003, 13 min., Silent)
Black Moon / Mirrored Malle, dir. Amie Siegel (2010, 4 min.)
Black Moon, dir. Amie Siegel (2010, 20 min.)
Outer Space, dir. Peter Tscherkassky (Austria, 1999, 10 min.)

1:30 p.m.: “Andy Warhol and Narrative: Lecture by J. J. Murphy”
Filmmaker and critic J.J. Murphy will lecture on Warhol and narrative in between the following films. His is the author of the forthcoming The Black Hole of the Camera: The Films of Andy Warhol.
Four of Andy Warhol’s Most Beautiful Women (1964, 15 min., Silent @ 16fps, 16mm) (Screen tests of Baby Jane Holzer, Ann Buchanan, Ivy Nicholson, and Sally Kirkland)
Restaurant (1965, 33 min., 16mm)
Bufferin (1966, 33 min., 16mm)

5:00 p.m.: “Lumière Revisited: Documentary and Narrative Hybrids” (Amie Siegel, Apichatpong Weerasethakul & J. J. Murphy in person)
This program begins with some of the earliest films, made for the Lumière company, and moves forward to more recent films, to explore the intersection of documentary and narrative over time.
Opening the 19th Century: 1896, dir. Ken Jacobs (1990, 11 min., 16mm, 3D)
The Sleepers, dir. Amie Siegel (1999, 45 min., 16mm)
Emerald (Morakot), dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand, 2007, 12 min., digital video)
Sky Blue Water Light Sign, dir. J. J. Murphy (1972, 8 min., 16mm)
Bookstalls, dir. Joseph Cornell (late 1930s/1940s, 11 min., silent @16fps, 16mm)
Interview with the Earth (Entrevista con la tierra), dir. Nicolás Pereda (Mexico/Canada, 2009, 18 min., Digital Video)

March 18

10:30 a.m.: “Animation and Personal Journeys” (Stacey Steers & Chris Sullivan in person)
Phantom Canyon, dir. Stacey Steers (2006, 10 min., Digital Video)
Consuming Spirits, dir. Chris Sullivan (2011, 135 min., Digital Video)

3:00 p.m.: “Méliès Revisited: Dreams and Fantasies” (Special guest performance by BLOrk)
This program begins with a film by a magician, and includes a range of fanciful, dream-like narratives, some of which intersect with reality, some with fantasy.
A Trip to the Moon (Voyage dans la lune), dir. Georges Méliès (1902, 12 min., 16mm)
Secret Stories, dir. Janie Geiser (1996, 9 min., 16mm)
Pony Glass, dir. Lewis Klahr (1997, 15 min., 16mm)
The Bats, dir. Jim Trainor (8 min., B&W, 16mm)
Ain’t Misbehavin’, dir. Chris Sullivan (1981, 5 min., B&W, 16mm)
Science Fiction, dir. J. J. Murphy (1979, 5 min., 16mm)
La Jetée, dir. Chris Marker (1962, 28 min., 16mm or blu-ray)
Phantoms of Nabua, dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul (2009, 11 min., digital video)
Mothlight, dir. Stan Brakhage (1963, 5 min., 16mm)