Indiana University Cinema Bloomington, IN
Russell Sheaffer
Experimental Filmmaker
Visualizing Experimental Science Short Film Program— Experimental Film
Program Description
The Underground Film Series, organized by Russell Sheaffer, Laura Ivins-Hulley, Eric Zobel, Jamie Hook, Christopher Miles, Brian Graney, and Joan Hawkins, explores the artistic and subversive possibilities of film through the unique vision of non-commercial filmmakers.
Presented At
Indiana University Cinema Bloomington, IN
Film Synopsis
This program pairs science-themed experimental cinema with scientific educational films from the Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive.
The films' dreamy, surreal, and sometimes startling responses to scientific progress and practices attempt to bridge a commonly perceived gap between the fields: can science be “art”? Films include Barbara Hammer's haunting X-ray film Sanctus (1990), Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt's sonically lush 20 Hz (2011), and educational films such as Microscopic Wonders in Water (1953) and The Science of Musical Sounds (1964).
About the Speaker
Russell Sheaffer is an experimental film and documentary maker who is working toward his PhD at Indiana University. Recently, a film he co-wrote and co-directed with James Franco, Masculinity & Me, was an official selection of the 2011 Torino LGBT Film Festival and was featured in Franco’s solo exhibition, The Dangerous Book Four Boys. His films have screened at venues such as the MoMA, Queer Lisboa, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the Anthology Film Archives.