Latest
current:
Since January 2022, in collaboration with the Locarno Film Festival, I hold the newly created position as Professor for the Future of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) where I teach at both the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels.
I am currently working on my feature desktop documentary Afterlives, which follows Bottled songs 1-4.
From 2024 to 2026 I am the project leader of "The Video Essay: Memories, Ecologies, Bodies" a research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), with Prof. Johannes Binotto and Dr. Evelyn Kreutzer. This research project aims to investigate the video essay as a digital media format for producing, advancing, and sharing knowledge in audiovisual forms that enable critical reflections on media processes.
2024
Aug. Publication with Silvia Cipelletti “Investigating Ecocinema through the Video Essay: Videographic Scholarship as an Environmental Media Studies Pedagogy” for academic quarter
Aug. The Cinema Futures Conference “Future of Survival” at Locarno77
Aug. Masterclass for the Documentary Summer School/ Masters Program at Locarno77
Jul. Interview for Kinoki on desktop pasts and cinema futures
May. Keynote “Navigational Approaches to Essay Cinema” at the Association of Moving Image Researchers [AIM] conference in Porto
May. Guest on The Film Comment Podcast: Cannes 2024 #5
May. Essay contribution “How to Reflect on a Desktop Tutorial” for “Counter Tutorials” by Corinne Mazzoli
Mar. Talk with Johannes Binotto “The Extended Play” at Ausstellungsraum Klingental
Feb. Moderating “Alternative Narratives: Art as Articulated by Tsai Ming-liang” for Berlinale Talents
Feb. Presenting the video essay “The Ecology of Science Fiction” at Woche der Kritik
Feb. Contributing a text about ecoconscious potential of video essays “The video essay as an emerging ecocinema practice” for Wdk magazine
Feb. The Video Essay Podcast “On Weirdness & Memory” with Evelyn Kreutzer
2023
Nov. Exhibition of Bottled Songs 1-2 at VOX, centre de l’image contemporaine (Nov. 23.2023 - Feb. 03.2024)
Nov. Presenting “Desktop Videography: Showing the labour of thought” at the annual congress ASLGC/SGAVL, Sull’Orlo del visibile, Literature comparate e visualità
Nov. Presenting video essays made by students of USI on ecocinema at “IN THE WORKS. Makings and unmaking of the Video Essay”, International conference at HSLU
Aug. Conversation with Andrea Rizzoli in The Film Comment Podcast: The Future of Intelligence with Kevin B. Lee
Aug. Curator, Tsai Ming-liang: Moving Portraits, Il Rivellino Gallery. Photos
Aug. Speaker for the Long Night of Dreaming about the Future of Intelligence, sponsored by Università della Svizzera italiana and Mercator.
Aug. Mentioned in “Locarno Film Festival: where dreams collide with artificial intelligence” by swissinfo.ch
Aug. Mentioned in “76º FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINE DE LOCARNO: SENTIMIENTOS ENCONTRADOS” by con los ojos abiertos
Aug. Convening of Scientific Advisory Board for Locarno Futures, planned for 2024
Aug. Presentation of works by USI Masters students from the seminars "Video Essays for Ecocinema" and "Video Essay for Communication Culture and Society", Scuola senza frontiere program, PalaCinema
Aug. Masterclass on Video Essay as Ecocriticism (with Silvia Cipelletti), USI Documentary Summer School, Swiss Study Foundation and Locarno Critics Academy
Aug. Masterclass with Hito Steyerl, Locarno Critics Academy and BaseCamp Academy
May. Desktop Documentary: From Artefact to Artist(ic) Emotions, co-written with Ariel Avissar. NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies, 12.1.
May. Video Essay "99 Attempts to Know EO" mentioned in "All the world’s a stage IFFR Critics’ Choice 9: PLAY" by Tara Judah, Senses of Cinema
May. Mentioned in "How Can One Be Farocki?" Rembert Hueser, New Perspectives on Academic Writing, ed. Bernd Herzogenrath. Bloomsbury. Pages 85-98
May. Guest on The Film Comment Podcast: Cannes 2023 #7
Mar. Presenting “Viewing with Care: Digital Afterlives of Extremist Violence” at the two-day symposium Violence & Visibility in Computational Regimes at the John Cabot University in Rome
Mar. “Meet the Media Guru”, a Keynote presentation at MEET Digital Culture Center in Milan
Mar. “Missing images: on festivals, essay films and untold histories”, a masterclass for L’immage e la parola in Locarno
Feb. “Future of Film Festivals”, a masterclass with Berlinale Talents in Berlin
Feb. “Landscape of Film Criticism”, a masterclass with Berlinale Talents in Berlin
Jan. Screening of “95 attempts to know EO”, my video essay introduction for “EO” at IFFR in Rotterdam
Jan. “The Spaces of the Video Essay,” Guest lecture at ZHdK, Zurich
2023-2024 “Questioning Images / Immagini in questione” Kickoff of the Progetto Culturale interdisciplinary research project with a Keynote presentation
2022
Dec. In conversation with host Gabby about the future of cinema, culture and society on the Futurespectives Podcast
Nov. Mentor at the Videography Conference for the University of Hannover
Oct. Presenter in ArteVisione22 Panel Beyond Data in Milan
Aug 30.- Sep 6. Exhibition of Bottled Songs 1-4 at ETC Galerie in Czech Republic
Aug. Masterclass at the Locarno Audience Academy
Aug. Conversation with Artist and Filmmaker Hito Steyerl “On the Future of Cinema” at the Locarno Film Festival
Aug. Introduction of the Locarno Film Festival’s first video installation work presented by Hito Steyerl at Rivellino Gallery
Aug. Conversation with Rene Vautier at BaseCamp, Locarno Film Festival
Aug. Participation in the “24h talk on the Future of Attention” curated by Raphael Dernbach at BaseCamp, Locarno Film Festival and Twitch
Aug. Screening of “Postcards from the Future: Piazza Futura” at Piazza Grande for the Locarno Film Festival
Aug. “AI and cinema”, talk at the Locarno Film Festival
Jun. Screening of “Harun Farocki: The Counter-Image” at Artists Film Festival in Tel-Aviv, Israel
Jun. “Video game aesthetics in Hollywood blockbusters”, a masterclass at Blue Cinema in Zurich
May. “Tik Tok’s relationship with film festivals”, a masterclass at Haus der Schweiz in Milan
May 13.-23. Screening of Bottled Songs 1-4 at One World Romania - International Human Rights & Documentary Film Festival
Apr 28. “The Spaces of the Video Essay”, a Keynote presentation at Accademia della architectura Mendrisio
Apr 20.- 24. Bottled Songs 1-4 wins an award in the category “Best Narrative Innovation” at Filmfest Bremen
Mar 25.-Apr 3. Screening of Bottled Songs 1-4 at Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival (Ukraine)
Mar. “Cinema in the Age of Netflix”, a masterclass for L’immagine e la parola in Locarno
2021
Jul 31. Bottled Songs 1-4 makes its New York premiere at the First Look Festival of the Museum of the Moving Image
Jun 24. Hosted talk with film editor Dylan Tichenor on his collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson for Cinergy Prague (online).
Jun 18. “Double Agency: Fraught positions in postcolonial film analysis” talk at Berlinale Forum Special program “Fiktionsbescheinigung” (online)
Jun 18. Workshop with University of Basel and Bildrausch Filmfest Basel
Jun 17. “Screen Tactics,” a conversation with artist Grayson Earle, published in Immerse
Jun 12 “Terror in Transition: Disrupting the Rhetorical Aesthetics of Jihadist Media” presentation in panel “Transitions in Videographic Criticism” at NECS 2021 Conference (online)
Jun 1.-4. Bottled Songs 1-4 screens at International Film Festival Rotterdam as part of its Critics Choice program, with responses by Foundland Collective, Tara Judah and Morehshin Allahyari
Jun 1. “Once Upon a Screen: Explosive Paradox” official selection, International Competition at Kurzfilm Hamburg International Short Film Festival
May 28. “Between Art and Film Online,” talk at Vienna Shorts Festival (online)
May 20. Black Lives Matter Video Essay Playlist live preview event at FilmFest Dresden (online)
May 10. “The Future of Videographic Criticism” talk at University of Groningen
May 7. Conversation with Chloé Galibert-Laîné and Matt Turner published in Public Parking
Apr 30.-May 8. Once Upon a Screen: Explosive Paradox screens at Oberhausen International Film Festival
Apr 24. Hosted conversation with Harry Yoon, editor of Minari, Williams College Asian and Asian American Alumni event (online)
Apr 24. Video Essay Workshop at Cineteca Madrid
Apr 23. Bottled Songs 1-4 screens at Story Bits conference (online)
Apr 22. “Life on Screen: Desktop Documentary and Digital Presence” workshop at Story Bits Conference, Universidade da Beira Interior (online)
Apr 19. “What Can A Video Essay Be?” Conversation with Catherine Grant, part of Atelier Video Essay project at the University of Venice (online)
Apr 14. “Mourning with Minari,” new video essay premieres on Hyperallergic.
Apr 13. Hosted Frontiers of Animation lecture series at Merz Akademie, featuring guest speakers Weijia Ma, Jeremy Clapin, Hefang Wei, Chris Sullivan, Snow Yunxue Fu and Aimee de Jong
Apr 2. Once Upon a Screen: Explosive Paradox screens at Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art alongside Monographs series of video essays produced by Asian Film Archive
Mar 31. Once Upon a Screen: Explosive Paradox named Best Work in Issue 2 of D-Normal / V-Essay
Mar 25.-Apr 3. Once Upon a Screen: Explosive Paradox screens at Essay Film Festival alongside Monographs series of video essays produced by Asian Film Archive
Mar 22. “How to Make Internet Comedy (without the Internet),” a review of How To with John Wilson published in Texte zur Kunst.
Mar 21. co-leader, Desktop Documentary Seminar, Society for Cinema and Media Studies (online)
Mar 20. Panelist, “deskt0p_cinema”, Greaves Seminar, BlackStar (online)
Mar 14. Panelist, “On Criticism” hosted by Distribution Advocates (Clubhouse event) reviewed by Tara Judah
Mar 11. Guest Lecture, Johns Hopkins University (online)
Mar 10. Lecture on Desktop Documentary, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (online)
Feb 27.-Mar 4. Mentor, Berlinale Talent Press (online)
Feb 27. Online exhibition “Resisting ISIS” at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum Cologne (Germany) + Panel with other artists
Feb 10. Masterclass, Documentary by Practice, University College London
Feb 5. Premiere of “Our Focus,” video essay accompaniment to Jia Zhangke’s first installation work Close-Up, at online preview for Vive le cinéma exhibition, Eye Museum Netherlands.
Feb 4. Guest lecture, Film in the Digital Age, Smith College
Jan 29. Bottled Songs 1-4 presented with panel at the “Desktop | Essay” symposium at the Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf Germany
Jan 27. Essay “New Audiovisual Vernaculars of Scholarship” published on Cine-Files Journal of Cinema Studies
Jan 26. “Bottled Songs: Progress” Live Desktop Performance at Opening night of Document Human Rights Film Festival, Glasgow
Jan 18. Conversation about the Masters Program in Artistic Research on the Video Essay Podcast
Jan 13. Desktop Documentary masterclass at Bertha Doc House, London
Jan 12. New video essay “Orders of Time and Motion” is in the new Blu-Ray DVD of Sátántangó distributed by Arbelos Films
Jan 13.-20. “Screen Stories,” works by students of my project seminar of the same name, screens at Stuttgarter Filmwinter
Jan 6.-13. Bottled Songs 1-4 screens at the Stuttgarter Filmwinter
Jan 6. Premiere of “Blob Power",” trailer produced with Lea Röwer for the 34. Stuttgarter Filmwinter
Jan 5.-6. Guest Workshop Leader, HEAD Genève
2020
Dec 26. “Once Upon a Screen: Explosive Paradox” receives the most mentions in the Best Video Essays of 2020 Survey by Sight & Sound.
Nov 30. In Cine-Files Journal, new video essay “Explosive Paradox” published as part of “Once Upon a Screen,” a series of video essays on cinephilia and childhood trauma, produced by Ariel Avissar and Evelyn Kreutzer. In the journal I will also publish a position paper on the question “What constitutes videographic scholarship”?
Fall 2020 I served as editorial consultant for “Monographs,” a series of video essays on Asian Cinema, created by artists, filmmakers and scholars for the Asian Film Archive in Singapore.
The video essays debuted at the Dharamshala International Film Festival on October 29, 2020.
They will screen at the Singapore International Film Festival December 1, 2020 and will circulate through other festivals into 2021.
On 11.21 I spoke amount the series at the 2020 Singapore International Film Festival Youth Jury & Critics Programme
Dec 18. Guest Lecture, Kent University
Dec 11. “Teaching Screen Storytelling in the Era of COVID-19” Presentation at Alternative Research Forum, Belgrade
Nov 16.-19. Bottled Songs 5: Progress (work-in-progress) previewed at the Center for Investigative Journalism Logan Symposium, University of London Goldsmiths
Nov 17. Panelist, “Investigating Islamism”, Center for Investigative Journalism Logan Symposium, University of Goldsmiths
Nov 15. Transformers: The Premake screened at Entrevues Belfort Festival International du Film program “Net Found Footage”
Nov 9. Guest Lecturer, King’s College London
Nov 2.-6. Re-Enacting the Future screened at the Dogmilk Film program “Crisis, Reality, Ordinary”
Oct 15. Guest Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University
Oct 2.-12. The four completed chapters of Bottled Songs screened at the Camden International Film Festival
Oct 1.-8. Reading // Binging // Benning screened at the Moscow International Film Festival program “Screenlife”
Jun-Sep 2020 I co-curated the Black Lives Matter Video Essay Playlist with Will DiGravio and Cydnii Wilde Harris. Press and screening information on the playlist can be found at The Video Essay Podcast.
On Oct 9. we presented selections from the Black Lives Matter Video Essay Playlist at the Camden International Film Festival. An archive video recording of the presentation is available here.
On Sep 12. we presented selections from the Black Lives Matter Video Essay Playlist at the London Open City Documentary Festival. An archive audio recording of the presentation is available at The Video Essay Podcast.
On Oct 31. we presented selections from the Black Lives Matter Video Essay Playlist at the Conference “Trump, Television and the Media” at London Metropolitan University.
Sep 19. Presented Bottled Songs at Videograms Days, Kaunas International Film Festival
Sep 9.-12. The four completed chapters of Bottled Songs screened together for the first time at the London Open City Documentary Festival.
Sep 15. Panelist, “The Language of the Essay Film,” London Open City Documentary Festival.
Aug. Essay on the film Purple Sea published in London Open City Documentary Festival catalog.
Aug 20. Panelist, “Nonfiction Vernacular and Collaboration,” BlackStar Film Festival, Philadelphia (online)
Aug 15. Guest mentor, Talent Press Sarajevo, Sarajevo International Film Festival
Jul. “Medienakteure. Parallele Fragmente” (“Media Agents, Parallel Fragments”) chapter published in Propaganda des ‘Islamischen Staats’: Formen und Formate (“The Islamic State: Forms and Formats”) ed. Bernd Zywietz, published by Verlag Springer VS. Related to the Bottled Songs project.
Jun 24. “Instrument of Reflection: A Study in Smartphone Filming” published in Performance Matters Vol. 6 No. 1, eds. Lynette Hunter, Alex Lichtenfels, Heather Nolan, John Zibell.
Jun 15. Interviewed about online teaching and screening experiences during the COVID pandemic in Filmszene Köln (German and English).
Jun 13. Addressed the Flaherty Film Seminar “The Unassembled” online event.
From March to May, during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, I gave virtual workshops and master classes at:
Lucerne University of Applied Arts and Sciences
Film Akademie Baden-Württemburg, Germany
Dutch Film Academy
California Institute of the Arts
Northwestern University
University of Minnesota
Apr 25. “Why Watch Essay Films Online?” Online panel. Docdays UA International Human Rights Documentary Festival.
Mar 7. Conversation with Ra’anan Alexandrowicz. Field Sessions, True/False Film Fest, Columbia Missouri.
Mar 5.-6. Guest Artist, PRISM Workshop, True/False Film Fest, Columbia Missouri
Mar. Bottled Songs 1+2 installed at True/False Film Fest. Presented by Memory.
Feb 26. “CTRL+ALT+DEL: Leaving the System” Berlin Talents, Berlinale Film Festival.
Jan 25. “Countering Images“, Critics Choice VI closing roundtable, International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Jan 24. “Learning Farocki” screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Jan 23. “To the Lighthouse: Dafoe vs. Pattinson” screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam Critics Choice VI.
Jan 17. “Media Crossings.” Screening of works from Merz Akademie Crossmedia Publishing program, Stuttgarter Filmwinter