2005.09.28 > For Immediate Release
contact: Teresa Gleason - University Affairs
phone: 402.554.2762 - email: tmgleason@mail.unomaha.edu

UNO to Host Experimental Film and Media Series This Fall

Omaha - The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) will host an experimental film and media series this fall on campus.

The series, which kicks off Oct. 15, is sponsored by Echotrope, a local arts group dedicated to expanding the presence of experimental art and digital literacy in the metro area, and the UNO Art Gallery.

Echotrope was founded by the wife and husband team of Jody Boyer and Russ Nordman, both art and art history faculty members at UNO.  Boyer serves as the group's curator/organizer, and Nordman is Echotrope's technical director.

"With this new series, Echotrope hopes to offer Omaha and the UNO community more opportunities to engage with independent film and experimental video," Boyer said.  "Also, with the creation of a new digital cinema program in the UNO Department of Art and Art History, these screenings will also serve as a way for students to become more familiar with new media and independent film and video."

All screenings, which are free and open to the public, will be held at 7 p.m. in the UNO Art Gallery, located on the first floor of the Weber Fine Arts Building on the UNO campus.  
The schedule is listed below.

Saturday, Oct. 15
Caitlin Horsmon: Experimental Works
Caitlin Horsmon, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker whose works have been screened internationally.  Her films and videos exaggerate the vagaries of the every day until they transform.  A brief lecture and question-and-answer session with the filmmaker will follow the screening.

Saturday, Oct. 22
"Power from the People" by filmmaker John Schmidt
John Schmidt is an independent filmmaker who teaches film and video production at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich.  He creates nonfiction film and video primarily concerned with environmental and social issues.  This feature-length experimental documentary chronicles the efforts of a growing number of people who make their own power through sun and wind, the struggles they face, how they challenge and subvert utility resistance and why renewable energy distribution makes sense.

Saturday, Nov. 5
Dave Ellsworth: Super-8 Experimental Work
Dave Ellsworth teaches film and video production at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich.  He worked in video post-production at Broadway Video in New York City for 10 years.  Since then, Ellsworth has made award-winning short films that have appeared at festivals in the United States and around the world.  His work as a filmmaker and still photographer is an ongoing exploration of the ways people of different cultures and locales navigate their built environment and public space.

Saturday, Nov. 19
"Conditioned Love" by filmmaker River Branch
The work of River Branch often arises from the political and is predicated upon the belief that one's most powerful action is to open an audience to the individual, subject matter or issue.  This film is a feature-length experimental documentary.

For more information about the series, contact Boyer at activate@echotrope.org.  For more information about Echotrope, visit the Web at http://www.echotrope.org.  For more information about the UNO Art Gallery, call 402.554.2796.