Feminist Film Dialogues
Gravitational Lensing is a curated series dedicated to exploring the visions, voices, concerns and lineage of women, non-binary, genderqueer and trans filmmakers through public film screenings, workshops, conversations and presentations.
Inspired by and named after the scientific phenomenon in which the gravitational pull of celestial bodies clustered together causes a curvature of spacetime strong enough to magnify distant objects, Gravitational Lensing aims to highlight and amplify the work of women, non-binary, genderqueer and trans filmmakers by the sheer magnitude of their collective creative energy when gathered together in common dialogue.
This limited-run, monthly series, spear-headed by filmmaker and feminist film scholar Amy Reid and filmmaker and Director of Programming at Shapeshifters Cinema Kathleen Quillian, will pair films selected from open-call submissions, with known (and maybe not-as-well-known) films made by other women, non-binary, genderqueer and trans filmmakers from across the space-time continuum. These will be curated into programs focused on broader cultural, historical, political and personal topics of interest to women, non-binary, genderqueer and trans artists.
Submissions are now closed.
Update (3/14/24): Because of the high volume of submissions to our open call, we are still in the process of viewing films. Notifications will be sent to all artists by the end of April 2024.
Programming will begin May 2024.
About the Curators
Amy Reid is a filmmaker whose work examines the intersections between gender, national identities, and labor. By exploring observational approaches and expanding upon formal cinematic notions of time, structure, and narrative, Reid’s work questions how labor is constructed in the filmic form as seen in their film Long Haulers, a 16mm and video experimental feature documentary on female truckers. They have participated in selected screenings nationally and internationally including Los Angeles Filmforum, I See Video Film Festival, Shanghai, and the Workers United Film Festival in New York. Reid received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Cooper Union before graduating with an MFA in Visual Arts from UC San Diego and is now a PhD Candidate at UC Santa Cruz in Film and Digital Media. Residencies include the Whitney Independent Study Program, Snug Harbor Artist Residency, and Seniors Partnering with the Arts Citywide Queens. http://amyreidart.com/
Kathleen Quillian is the Director of Programming at Shapeshifters Cinema, an experimental microcinema in Oakland she helped to co-found in 2012. Prior to that, she spent a decade working as a volunteer staff member and board member with Artists’ Television Access and San Francisco Cinematheque, respectively. She is also an artist who works primarily with found imagery, collage and stop-motion animation to explore collective and individual ways humans engage with the unknown. She has exhibited in venues and festivals internationally including International Film Festival Rotterdam, San Francisco International Film Festival, Antimatter Film Festival, Animasivo, REDCAT, the Exploratorium and Pacific Film Archive, among others. http://www.kathleenquillian.com/
Advisory Board
Bill Basquin
Miriam Campos-Quinn
Adrianne Finelli
Kristy Guevara-Flanagan
Irene Lusztig
Rocio Olivares
Elena Pardo
Rosario Sotelo
Anjali Sundaram
Patricia Ledesma Villon
Leila Weefur
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Shapeshifters Cinema | 567 5th Street, Oakland, CA 94607