Prismatic Ground 2026
Prismatic Ground, an annual festival centered on experimental documentary and avant-garde film and co-presented by Screen Slate, will hold its sixth edition Wednesday, April 29 through Sunday, May 3, 2026 in-person across five “waves” of screenings at Brooklyn Academy of Music, DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema, Light Industry, Anthology Film Archives, and Metrograph, and online with wave ∞, a virtual selection free to watch at prismaticground.com.
The festival’s opening night on April 29 will kick off at BAM with the North American premiere of Ka Ki Wong’s I Heard That They Are Not Going to See Each Other Anymore; a screening of Nicolás Pereda’s Cobre co-presented by Cinema Tropical will follow at BAM on the same evening.
The full lineup features new films by Dane Komljen, Nolitha Refilwe Mkulisi, Rajee Samarasinghe, Dianna Barrie and Richard Tuohy, Onyeka Igwe, Adam and Zack Khalil, Lee Jangwook and more; three early works by Iraqi-Lebanese filmmaker Parine Jaddo; ‘Horror, or the Splendour of’, a second consecutive year’s night of poetry and film guest curated by Courtney Stephens and Shiv Kotecha; a tribute by Blair Barnes to the Sony AVC Vidicon line of tube cameras, featuring Computer Chess filmmaker Andrew Bujalski in person; a focus on Chinese avant-garde short films co-presented by Tone Glow; a tribute to June Givanni by Onyeka Igwe; and expanded performances and readings by Rhayne Vermette, Chae Yu, Félix Caraballo, Xiaolu Wang and Samy Benammar. This year’s recipient of the Ground Glass Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Experimental Media is Japanese filmmaker Kohei Ando, who will be present May 2 at Anthology Film Archives for a screening of his work.
Prismatic Ground 2025 will close out at Metrograph on the evening of May 3 with the New York premiere of Isiah Medina’s Gangsterism.
Full program details will be available in the coming days at prismaticground.com.
Opening Night
Brooklyn Academy of Music — Wednesday, April 29, 2026
7PM I Heard That They Are Not Going to See Each Other Anymore (Ka Ki Wong, 2026, 86 min.) + Q&A
wave 1: murder mystery of the mind
Brooklyn Academy of Music— Wednesday, April 29, 2026
9:15PM Cobre (Copper) (Nicolas Pereda, 2025, 79min)*
*Co-presented by Cinema Tropical
DCTV’s FIrehouse Cinema— Thursday, April 30, 2026
12:30PM Programming Censorship Workshop
3PM Goodbye, Crescent Moon (Xiaolu Wang, 2025, 17min, Expanded) + A Flower Falling Back Into the Earth (Rajee Samarasinghe, 2026, 8min) + A Bundle of Silences (Sofía Gallisá Muriente, 2026, 24min) + Penkelemes (Onyeka Igwe, 2025, 19min) + New World (Darryl Daley, 2026, 5min) + Q&A
5PM Afterlives (Kevin B. Lee, 2025, 88min) + Q&A
7:30PM The Creatures of Darkness (Lisa Malloy, Ray Whitaker, 2026, 15min)
+ Let Them Be Seen (Nolitha Refilwe Mkulisi, 2026, 75min) + Q&A
9:30PM Swing Swish Sway (TT Takemoto, 2026, 7min) + Uchronia (Fil Ieropoulos, 2026, 97min)+ Q&A
11:45PM Anna (Chae Yu, 2025, 15min, Expanded) + That sanity be kept (Michael Barwise, 2026, 10min) + A Shrimp’s Daily Rehearsal (Ka Ki Wong, 2026, 10min) + My Structuralist Film (Angelo Madsen, 2026, 6min) + Injured? (Eislow Johnson, 2026, 14min) + Twin Snakes (Lev Kalman, Whitney Horn, 2026, 15min) + Q&A
wave 2: cinema is
Light Industry— Friday, May 1, 2026
Tickets for Light Industry programs are available at the venue day-of.
6PM ouarda ouarda: yet another flower film (Samy Benammar, with live musical accompaniment by Nicholas Ray, 2026, 25min, Expanded) + Endless Ascent (Félix Caraballo, 2026, 25min, Expanded)
8PM From ‘Images and Sounds’ to ‘Frames and Cuts’ (Isiah Medina, 60min, Lecture)
10PM Leather Graves (Malic Amalya, 2025, 12min, 16mm) + Desire Lines (Dane Komljen, 2026, 107min)
wave 3: on the far side of twilight
Anthology Film Archives— Saturday, May 2, 2026
11AM We deh here (Maybelle Peters, 2025, 7min) + Joy Boy: A Tribute to Julius Eastman (Collective Faire-Part, 2026, 64min)
11:15AM Lightly Heeled (Kioto Aoki, 2024, 3min, 16mm) + Brumaire (Vincent Guilbert, 2026, 14min) + phototropes (Blanca García, James Devine, 2026, 3min, Super 8mm) + Nude Descending (Dianna Barrie, Richard Tuohy, 2026, 10min, 16mm) + Stitch the Ruin (Željka Blakšić, 2024, 8min, 16mm) + Flowers for an Old Shrine (Long Pham, 2025, 6min, 16mm) + Goodnight, My Dear (Vanij Choksi, 2026, 6min) + Rojo Žalia Blau (Viktoria Schmid, 2025, 10min, 35mm) + La Durete De Mental (Charles-Andre Coderre, 2025, 20 min, 35mm) + Q&A
12:30PM Another Birth (Isabelle Kalander, 2025, 70min) + Q&A
1:15PM Ground Glass Award 2026: Star Waars (Kohei Ando, 1978, 3min, 16mm) + Like a Passing Train 1 (Kohei Ando, 1978, 3min, 16mm) + Like a Passing Train 2 (Kohei Ando, 1979, 7min, 16mm) + Oh! My Mother (Kohei Ando, 1969, 10min) + The Sons (Kohei Ando, 1973, 25min, 16mm) + On the Far Side of Twilight (Kohei Ando, 1994, 39min) + Q&A
2:30PM June Givanni: The Making of a Pan-African Cinema Archive, with Onyeka Igwe: Perfect Image? (Maureen Blackwood, 1989, 30min) + Voodoo Dance: A Tribute to the People of Haiti (Elsie Haas, 1989, 52min) + Q&A
3:45PM Tamago Stories One (Kioto Aoki, 2026, 3min, 16mm) + Ceiling (Hu Didi, 2026, 8min, 16mm) + Testament (Mike Stoltz, 2026, 6min, 16mm) + Artificial Horizons Test (Mike Stoltz, 2026, 6min, 16mm) + Xtended Release (Joshua Gen Solondz, 2026, 15min, 16mm) + Chang Gyeong (Lee Jangwook, 2025, 18min, 16mm) + Night Swing (TT Takemoto, 2min, 2026, 16mm) + Tooborac (Richard Tuohy, Dianna Barrie, 2026, 9min, 16mm) + Q&A
5PM Levers (Rhayne Vermette, 20min, Poetry Reading) + Surrendur (Karthik Pandian, 2026, 87min)* + Q&A
*Co-presented by Triple Canopy
5:45PM Crunch (Invisible Scissors, 15min, Live Music) + Archura Leaves the City Forever (Yusuf Demirors, 2026, 12min) + To Summon a Seer (Alan Medina, 2026, 8min) + 逆立ち逆立ち : If pinholes were right side up, I would be doing handstands (Kioto Aoki, 2024, 3min, 16mm) + Landscape in the afternoon (Lee Jangwook, 2026, 14min, 16mm) + Mounds Above the Earth (Jiayi Chen, 2025, 5min, 16mm) + It Must Be Because I Decided to Leave (Zhouyun Chen, 2026, 19 min) + Q&A
7:30PM Horror, or the Splendour Of: An Evening of Film and Poetry Guest Curated by Shiv Kotecha and Courtney Stephens (Ft. Ed Steck, Joanne Kyger, charles theonia, Lily Jeu Sheng, Sato Stom, Benjamin Krusling, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha)
7:45PM Rotating Signals (Chae Yu, 2025, 10min) + The Goblin Play (Chae Yu, 2025, 47min) + Q&A
9:30PM Chronovisor (Kevin Walker, Jack Auen, 2026, 99min) + Q&A
9:45PM An Afternoon with a Gnawa (Meena Nanji, 2026, 12min) + Àwọ̀ ojú ọ̀run (The Colour of the Sky) (Judah Iyunade, 2026, 71min)
wave 4: before everything has a name
Anthology Film Archives— Sunday, May 3, 2026
10:45AM Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013, 92min, 35mm) + sitrep (Blair Barnes, 2026, 20min) + Q&A
11AM Concealed and Denied (Jordan Lord, 2026, 35min) + The Glass Booth (Jenny Brady, 2026, 33min) + Q&A
1PM Atash, Aisha, Teyh: Three Films by Parine Jaddo; Co-presented by Arte East: Atash (Thirst) (Parine Jaddo, 1995, 14min) + Aisha (Surviving) (Parine Jaddo, 1999, 32min) + Tayh (Astray) (Parine Jaddo, 2002, 21min) + Q&A
1:30PM My Friends in My Address Book (Kohei Ando, 1974, 3min, 16mm) + Every Contact Leaves a Trace (Lynne Sachs, 2025, 83min) + Q&A
3:15PM Anomalies in a Landscape (Félix Caraballo, 2025, 8min, 16mm) + In the Manner of Smoke (Armand Yervant Tufenkian, 2025, 91min) + Q&A
4:15PM WORLD ENTERPRISES (Anthony Banua-Simon, 2026, 14min) + Aanikoobijigan (Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil, 2026, 80min) + Q&A
5:45PM before everything has a name (An-li dīng, 2026, 17min) + Masayume (Nao Yoshigai, 2026, 110min)
6:45PM The Land Lies Heavy: The Contemporary Chinese Avant-Garde*; Article 4 (Hsin-Yu Chen, 2026, 4min) + Branches From Concrete (Zhou Zhenyu, 2026, 14min) + Words Fly Back to the Black Earth (Xiao Zhang, 2026, 19min) + Redland Hooves (Kaiwen Ren, 2026, 27min)
*Co-presented by Tone Glow
Closing Night
Metrograph— Sunday, May 3, 2026
9PM Gangsterism (Isiah Medina, 2025, 84min.) + Q&A