Prismatic Ground 2025
Prismatic Ground, an annual festival centered on experimental documentary and avant-garde film and co-presented by Screen Slate, will hold its fifth edition Wednesday, April 30 through Sunday, May 4, 2025 in-person across five “waves” of screenings at Anthology Film Archives, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Light Industry and Metrograph, and online with wave ∞, a virtual selection free to watch at prismaticground.com; plus a free pre-festival event at Pratt Institute on Tuesday, April 30.
The festival’s opening night on April 30 will kick off at Anthology Film Archives with the New York premiere of Rajee Samarasinghe’s Your Touch Makes Others Invisible preceded by Palestine Will Win, a short film by Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan from 1969 that was newly rediscovered in the Third World Newsreel archives; a shorts program featuring Rhayne Vermette, Samy Benammar, Fernand Saldivia Yanez, Kyujae Park, Gio Lingao and Lawrence Lek will follow at Anthology on the same evening.
The full lineup features new work by Amit Dutta, Yehui Zhao, Adam Piron, Alexis McCrimmon, Kaori Oda, Kevin Jerome Everson, Tadhg O’Sullivan and more; a tribute to the late Indian “Parallel Cinema” filmmaker Kumar Shahani (1940-2024); a night of poetry and film guest curated by Courtney Stephens and Shiv Kotecha; and Some Strings, a multi-part homage by filmmakers around the world to martyred Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer. This year’s recipient of the Ground Glass Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Experimental Media is Indian filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak, who will be present May 3 for a screening of his short films on 16mm and 35mm prints imported from Light Cone in Paris.
Avikunthak will also participate in the festival’s four-film tribute to Shahani, who passed away last year at age 83. Shahani’s films Khayal Gatha (1988), Kasba (1990), Bhavantarana (1991) and Birah Bharyo Ghar Aangan Kone (2000) will screen on 35mm prints imported specially from the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in South Brisbane, Australia, with English subtitles timed and approved by the filmmaker at the time of acquisition.
Prismatic Ground 2025 will close out at Metrograph on the evening of May 4 with the New York premiere of Angelo Madsen’s A Body to Live In.
Visit prismaticground.com to browse the program, read film descriptions and purchase tickets.
Tuesday, April 29— Pre-festival Happening
Pratt Film/Video Building
7PM Prismatic Ground x Bridge Club w/ Jim Finn and the Pratt Bridge Club
*Participatory expanded cinema event. No Bridge experience necessary.
Wednesday, April 30— wave 1: your touch makes others invisible
Anthology Film Archives (Opening Night)
Still from Your Touch Makes Others Invisible (dir. Rajee Samarasinghe)
6:30PM Palestine Will Win (Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, 1969, 29min) + Your Touch Makes Others Invisible (Rajee Samarasinghe, 2025, 70min) + Q&A
9:15PM A Black Screen Too (Rhayne Vermette, 2024, 2min, 16mm) + Adieu Ugarit (Samy Benammar, 2024, 16min) + Winter Portrait (Fernando Saldivia Yanez, 2024, 9min) + Buseok (Kyujae Park, 2024, 18min) + How He Died is Not Controversial (Gio Lingao, 2025, 14min) + Empty Rider (Lawrence Lek, 2025, 15min) + Q&A
Thursday, May 1— wave 2: may the soil be everywhere
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Still from May the Soil Be Everywhere (dir. Yehui Zhao)
6:30PM May the Soil Be Everywhere (Yehui Zhao, 2025, 96min)* + Q&A
*Co-presented by UnionDocs
9PM Rhythm of a Flower (Amit Dutta, 2024, 83min)
Friday, May 2— wave 3: as a matter of fact
Light Industry
Tickets for Light Industry events can be purchased at the door a half hour before showtime.
Still from Remote Views (dir. Alexis McCrimmon)
7PM Thunderland, as a matter of fact (Y'a Matière au Pays des Éclairs) (Charles-André Coderre and Frédéric Boisclair, 2024, 45min)*
*16mm Expanded Cinema Performance
9PM The Early Sun, Red as a Hunter’s Moon (Adam Piron, 2025, 13min) + Half Halt (Sofia Theodore-Pierce, 2025, 11min) + All Said Done (Micah Weber, 2025, 22m) + Concrete Resources (Thank you for keeping me a company of images) (Emir West, 2025, 9min) + Remote Views (Alexis McCrimmon, 2025, 15min) + Q&A*
*Followed by a cocktail party for film attendees
Saturday, May 3— wave 4: make it white with a long tail
Anthology Film Archives
Still from Kalighat Athikatha (Kalighat Fetish) (dir. Ashish Avikunthak)
11:15AM Bhavantarana (Immanence) (Kumar Shahani, 1991, 65min, 35mm)**
*35mm Print from the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
**Screened with permission of the XPD Division, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.
12:30PM Center (Burak Çevik, 2025, 6min, 16mm) + endings (Isiah Medina, Philip Hoffman, 2024, 9min) + typhoon diary 风球日记 (Grace Zhang, 2024, 6min) + Adrift Potentials (Leonardo Pirondi, 2024, 12min) + The World Doesn’t End When You Do (marlow magdalene, 2024, 10min) + Go Between (Chris Kennedy, 2024, 6min, 16mm) + 受难日/Good Friday (Xiaolu Wang, 2025, 9min) + Las Animas (Matt Feldman, 2025, 14min, 16mm) + Q&A
12:45PM Some Strings Pts. I & II (Various Filmmakers, 96min)
Featuring: Khaled Abdulwahed, Wiame Haddad, Youssef Chebbi, Christophe Clavert, Sarah Beddington, Valentin Noujaïm, Yosr Gasmi, Mauro Mazzochi, Wendelien Van Oldenborgh & Cathleen Schuster & Marcel Dickhage, Julie Courel, M’hand Abadou Djezairi & Marcel Mrejen, Amie Barouh, Mohamed Bourouissa, Valerie Massadian, Ismaïl Bahri & Youssef Chebbi, Soumeya Ait Ahmed & Nadir Bouhmouch, Philippe Parreno, Claire Fontaine, Ismaël Bahri, Pierre Creton, Virgil Vernier, Yohei Yamakado, Saif Fradj & Mahshid Mahboubifar, Alexia Roux & Saad Chakali, Fernanda Pessoa, Jayce Salloum, Kaseu & Valerie Osouf, Idit Elia Nathan.
2:15PM Dancing Othello (Brihannala Ki Khelkaki) (Ashish Avikunthak, 2002, 18min, 16mm) + Vakratunda Swaha (Ashish Avikunthak, 2010, 22min, 35mm) + Antaral (End Note) (Ashish Avikunthak, 2005, 18min, 16mm) + Kalighat Athikatha (Kalighat Fetish) (Ashish Avikunthak, 1999, 22min, 16mm) + Q&A
3:00PM Tuktuit (Lindsay McIntyre, 2025, 15min) + To the Moon (Tadhg O’Sullivan, 2020, 80min) + Q&A
5PM Heart Shaped (Sofia Theodore-Pierce & Grace Mitchell, 2025, 13min) + Contact Lens (河马皮肤) (Ruiqi Lu, 2024, 78min)
5:15PM Birah Bharyo Ghar Aangan Kone (The Bamboo Flute)* (Kumar Shahani, 2000, 84 min, 35mm)** + Followed by a discussion with Ashish Avikunthak on the life and work of Kumar Shahani
*Screened with permission of the XPD Division, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.
**35mm Print from the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
7PM Necessary Trip (Kevin Jerome Everson, 2025, 5min)* + Underground (Kaori Oda, 2024, 83min)
*courtesy the artist & Picture Palace Pictures
7:30PM Courtney Stephens and Shiv Kotecha present Films and Poems from the Fifth Season (ft. Courtney Stephens, Shiv Kotecha, Jjjjjerome Ellis, Tiziana La Melia, Diana Hamilton, and Courtney Bush) Guest curated by Courtney Stephens and Shiv Kotecha.
9:30PM Kasba (Kumar Shahani, 1990, 115min, 35mm)*
*35mm Print from the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Sunday, May 4— wave 5: a body to live in
Anthology Film Archives
Still from Khayal Gatha (dir. Kumar Shahani)
11:00AM Some Strings Pts. III & IV (Various Filmmakers, 110min)
Featuring: Pablo Sigg, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Igniacio Agüero, Bani Khoshnoudi, Dora Garcia, Khristine Gillard, Mohammad Hammash & Filip Momikj,Axelle Poisson, Kyoshi Sugita, Michaël Andrianaly, Aude Fourel, Anne Penders, Jerónimo Atehortúa Arteaga, Idit Elia Nathan, Eva Giolo, Sepideh Farsi, Eric Baudelaire & Claire Atherton & Marius Atherton, Franssou Prenant, Ellie Ga, Francis Alÿs, Marielle Chabal, Ben Russell, Kiswensida Parfait, Kabore, Yannick Kergoat, Silvia Maglioni & Graeme Thomson, Taysir Batniji, Mitra Farahani.
11:15AM Khayal Gatha (The Khayal Saga)* (Kumar Shahani, 1988, 103min, 35mm)**
*Screened with the permission of Rewati Shahani, Uttara Shahani, and Rimli Bhattacharya.
**35mm Print from the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
1:15PM Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above (Ayanna Dozier, 2023, 6min) + It's Just Business, Baby (Ayanna Dozier, 2023, 6min) + Bounded Intimacy (Ayanna Dozier, 2024, 6min) + Q&A
1:30PM Hemel (Danielle Adobi Dean, 2024, 30min) + The Swallow (Tadhg O’Sullivan, 2024, 69min) + Q&A
2:30PM A Message From Humboldt (Matt Feldman, 2025, 7min, 16mm) + Translating one's own (or the symptom to be remembered) (Nicolás Onischuk, 2025, 60min) + Q&A
3:45PM Artist Spotlight: Cho Seoungho
Co-presented by Tone Glow
Featuring: Forward, Back, Side, Forward Again (1995, 11 min) + ws.3 (2003, 6 min) + Horizontal Intimacy (2010, 8 min) + I Left My Silent House (2007, 9 min) + Shifted Horizon (2009, 6 min) + Blue Desert (2011, 12 min) + Latency/Contemplation 1 (2016, 7 min) + Late August 1993 (2024, 10 min) + No Re (2024, 7 min)
Guest Curated by Joshua Minsoo Kim of Tone Glow
4:15PM Some Strings Pts. V & VI (Various Filmmakers, 84min)
Featuring: Newton Ifeanyi Aduaka, Sarah Wood, Ali Arkady, Alain Kassanda, Annik Leroy & Julie Morel, Monica Maurer & Milena Fiore, Philip Rizk, 2024, Douglas Gordon, Declan Clarke, Genesis Valenzuela, Vincent Guillibert, Dania Reymond-Boughenou, Wilmarc Val, Primo Mauridi, Ghassan Salhab, Ugo Rondinone.
Metrograph (Closing Night)
Still from A Body to Live In (dir. Angelo Madsen)
A Body To Live In (Angelo Madsen, 2025, 98min) + Q&A
In addition to the in-person program, a selection of short films will be available to watch online at prismatiground.com from April 30-May 4.