Past Film/Video | Documentaries

The Universal Language and Other Shorts

(Sam Green, 2000–21)

Info & Tickets

A black-and-white image of a large group of young people facing toward the camera. In the center of this group shot, a person holds a handwritten sign that says "Esperanto."

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Oct 30, 2022 12:15 PM

Film/Video Theater

$7 members and seniors
$9 general public
$5 students

ACCESSIBILITY
We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. If you have questions about accessibility or require an accommodation such as CART captioning or ASL interpretation to participate in this event, please contact Accessibility Manager Helyn Marshall at accessibility@wexarts.org or via telephone at (614) 688-3890. Requests made by two weeks in advance will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the Wexner Center for the Arts will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.

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Enjoy filmmaker Sam Green’s deep sense of inquisitiveness and playful point of view with this afternoon program of short documentaries.

A finale to our month-long retrospective Sam Green: 25 Years in Film and highlight of this year’s Unorthodocs festival, this program gathers six of the director’s eclectic shorts. Pie Fight ’69, one of Green’s earliest films, follows a countercultural group of costumed pranksters who interrupted the opening night of the 1969 San Francisco Film Festival with an epic pie fight. The Universal Language examines the constructed language Esperanto, created with the utopian hope of ending racism and war—but whose biggest legacy might be the 1966 horror film Incubus starring William Shatner. Other shorts showcase the world’s largest—and largely deserted—shopping mall in China, the peculiarities of fog in San Francisco, and John Cage’s 1983 composition for the Kronos Quartet. (program approx. 77 mins., digital video)

See the complete Sam Green: 25 Years in Film lineup.

See the complete Unorthodocs 22 lineup.

Program lineup

Pie Fight ’69 (Sam Green and Christian Bruno, 2000, 8 mins.)
N-Judah 5:30 (Sam Green, 2004, 3 mins.)
Utopia, Part 3: The World’s Largest Shopping Mall (Sam Green and Carrie Lozano, 2009, 13 mins.)
The Universal Language (Sam Green, 2010, 28:27 mins.)
A Cinematic Study of Fog in San Francisco (Sam Green and Andy Black, 2013, 10:18 mins.)
Five Thoughts About Thirty Pieces (Sam Green, 2021, 13:22 mins.)

The Universal Language, image courtesy of the filmmaker.

A woman in a dark dress stands in the doorway of a kiosk on the street. Three men, all in hats, stand in line waiting to speak with her.

The Universal Language, image courtesy of the filmmaker.

A group photo of a large group of people seated and standing on a lawn in front of a thicket of trees. Above their heads are letters spelling out the word "Esperanto."

The Universal Language, image courtesy of the filmmaker.

A building towering in the sky in front of a mass of cloud cover starting to envelop it.

A Cinematic Study of Fog in San Francisco, image courtesy of the filmmaker.

A slightly blurry image of a train on the tracks in a city. Its headlights are on as it moves down the street.

N-Judah 5:30, image courtesy of the filmmaker.

Pie Fight ’69, image courtesy of the filmmaker.

Tag(s)

Unorthodocs 2022 is organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts and curated by Chris Stults, Associate Curator of Film/Video.

SUPPORT FOR UNORTHODOCS 22 PROVIDED BY
FotoFocus

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Cardinal Health

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
National Endowment for the Arts
Ohio Arts Council
L Brands Foundation
The Columbus Foundation
Nationwide Foundation
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Mike and Paige Crane
Axium Packaging
CampusParc
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
President Kristina M. Johnson and Mrs. Veronica Meinhard
Nancy Kramer
Larry and Donna James
Lisa Barton
Johanna DeStefano
Jones Day
Alex and Renée Shumate