Have any questions?
(614) 292-3535
Contact Us
Thu, Sep 07, 2023
Annual programs such as Unorthodocs and the free family event Zoom return alongside events including a Dreamworks Animation spotlight
In the months ahead, the Wexner Center for the Arts will present a wide variety of films from around the world and an assortment of opportunities to hear from the artists behind the scenes.
Highlights include popular annual events such as the Unorthodocs festival of creative nonfiction filmmaking and Zoom Family Book and Film Festival, and continuing collaborations with Art Possible Ohio and Cartoon Crossroads Columbus.
A current list of programs for 2023 is below, along with a preview of what’s coming in early 2024. Heirloom Café offers gourmet popcorn and adult beverages at most Thursday and Friday night screenings.
Many of the season’s screenings and events are free; these are noted and advance registration is recommended. Through the support of CampusParc, a discounted parking rate of $2 is also available for most Wex events at the Ohio State Union and Arps garages.
More details about each presentation and any additional screenings will be shared at wexarts.org.
Kung Fu Panda, courtesy of DreamWorks
In The Box: Illya Mousavijad, Between a Lost Home and a Losing Destination On view through Tue, Oct 31; Free for all audiences
The legendary tale of the magic carpet from 1001 Nights serves as inspiration for Mousavijad’s newest animation, a reflection on history, memory, and Iranian culture. (7 mins., HD video)
Visiting Filmmaker: Elaine McMillion Sheldon, King Coal (2023) Fri, Sept 8 | 7 PM Columbus Premiere
Award-winning filmmaker Sheldon returns to the Wex to present this entrancing look at Appalachia and discuss the film with Columbus musician Brian Harnetty. (78 mins., DCP)
Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt (Michal Goldman, 1996) Tues, Sept 12 | 12:30 PM; Free for all audiences
Singer Umm Kulthum was a national treasure in Egypt, with influence beyond the music world. Narrated by Omar Sharif, Goldman's documentary paints a compelling portrait of a 20th century icon. (67 mins, digital video)
The film is presented in conjunction with Sahar Khoury: Umm and launches a series of afternoon screenings tied to exhibitions on view in the Wex galleries this autumn.
Cinéseries: Purple Sea (Amel Alzakout & Khaled Abdulwahed, 2020) Tues, Sept 12 | 7 PM; Free for all audiences
The filmmakers pull audiences into the tumultuous waves of the Mediterranean, where Alzakout captured with a GoPro camera what happened when the boat carrying her and more than 300 migrants seeking passage from Turkey to Greece capsized. (67 mins., DCP)
All Cinéseries events are followed by a casual, facilitated conversation with light refreshments in Heirloom Café.
2023 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour Introduced by Sundance programmer and filmmaker Mike Plante Thu, Sept 14 | 4 & 7 PM; Free for all audiences
Returning as part of events offered during the Wex’s entirely free Open House, this annual audience favorite features seven shorts from the most recent Sundance. Complete program information is available on the Sundance website.
Getting Your Short Film Shown! A Workshop with Mike Plante Thu, Sept 14 | 5:30 PM; Free for all audiences
The Film/Video offerings at Wex Open House also include this workshop with Plante, who’ll share tips and strategies about getting your short film out into the world. A Q&A will follow.
Foragers (Jumana Manna, 2022) Sun, Sept 17 | 1 PM Tue, Oct 10; Thu, Oct 19; Thu, Nov 9; Tue, Nov 28 | 12:30 PM Free for all audiences
This quietly radical and wryly humorous documentary explores how the traditional Palestinian practice of foraging wild plants is criminalized by the Israeli government in the name of nature conservation. (65 mins., DCP)
The film is presented in conjunction with Jumana Manna: Break, Take, Erase, Tally, as part of a series of afternoon screenings tied to exhibitions on view in the Wex galleries this autumn.
Visiting Filmmakers: Gibson + Recoder, The Changeover System: A Projector Performance Installation (2019) Wed, Sept 20 | 7 PM
The New York-based artist duo visits the Wex for the first time for a live expanded cinema performance that redefines what cinematic projection can be. (approx. 70 mins., 35mm + assorted objects)
Co-presented with Denison University’s Department of Cinema
Secret Cinema Fri, Sept 22 | 7 PM | All tickets $3 each
By popular demand, a Wex program from the past returns at a discounted price. The catch: you won’t know what film you’ll be watching until it begins. But some generous hints will be provided on the Wex’s social channels.
Programs in Partnership with Cartoon Crossroads Columbus All events are free with ticket
The Prince of Egypt (1998) - 25th Anniversary Screening! Director Brenda Chapman In Person Thu, Sept 28 | 7 PM
A success upon its debut in 1998, The Prince of Egypt animates the life of the prophet Moses with an all-star voice cast. Codirector Chapman, the first woman to helm an animated feature for a Hollywood studio, visits to discuss its production. A Q&A follows. (99 mins, DCP)
DreamWorks Matinees All films presented in 35mm
Raina Telgemeier In Person Fri, Sept 29 | 5 PM Mershon Auditorium
The beloved all-ages cartoonist returns to CXC in conjunction with the exhibit of her original art currently on display at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Joining Telgemeier in conversation is the curator of that show, Anne Drozd.
Milisuthando, courtesy of Rob Pollock and Francis Burger
Cinéseries: Being in a Place – A Portrait of Margaret Tait (Luke Fowler, 2022) Tuesday, October 3 | 7 PM; Free for all audiences
Luke Fowler’s poetic film weaves together various sources to share insights into one of Scotland’s most enigmatic filmmakers, Margaret Tait.
Reading: The Channeled Image: Art and Media Politics After Television Wed, Oct 4 | 4:30 PM; Free for all audiences
Ohio State History of Art professor Levin offers a talk and video clips related to her 2022 book, which tracks how experimental artists in the 1960s began to incorporate and respond to television. A Q&A follows the conversation.
Visiting Filmmaker: Alison O’Daniel, The Tuba Thieves (2013-23) Tue, Oct 10 | 7 PM; Free for all audiences Columbus Premiere
A string of tuba thefts across Los Angeles high schools launches O’Daniel’s visually stunning and sonically surprising debut film, which includes recreations enacted by a mostly deaf cast and creative use of captioning. The film was supported in part by a Wexner Center Film/Video Studio residency. (78 mins., DCP)
Copresented with Art Possible Ohio and Ohio State’s Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme: Art, Technology, and Social Justice
DigiEYE 2023 Wed, Oct 18 | 7 PM; Free for all audiences
Presented in partnership with Ohio State’s Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts and curator Janet Parrott, DigiEYE debuts digital media works by students from art and film concentrations offered at the university. (approx. 90 mins., video)
Retrospective: Želimir Žilnik Thu–Sun, Oct 19–28
This retrospective is dedicated to the pioneering, radical and iconoclastic Yugoslav-Serbian filmmaker, a true elder statesman for an internationalist film practice. A broad selection of his works will be presented in October, culminating in an appearance by the filmmaker during Unorthodocs. The series is organized by Greg de Cuir Jr., cofounder and artistic director of Kinopravda Institute in Belgrade, Serbia.
The Old School of Capitalism, preceded by Throwing Off the Yolks of Bondage (2009; 1996) Thu, Oct 19 | 7 PM
Throwing Off the Yolks of Bondage was shot during the historic 1990s protests that toppled the nationalist government of Slobodan Milosevic. The Old School of Capitalism was recorded a decade later during the struggle against the industrial privatizations caused by the corrupt leaders of the post-socialist era. Both films contain radical visions of bodies on the streets agitating for social change. (134 mins., digital video)
Marble Ass, preceded by Little Pioneers (1995; 1968) Fri, Oct 20 | 7 PM
Marble Ass is one of the first films in post-socialist Europe to deal openly with the complexities of queer culture. It’s paired with Little Pioneers, Žilnik’s study of disadvantaged children living on the outskirts of society. (105 mins., digital video)
Additional films in the retrospective are listed as part of Unorthodocs.
Unorthodocs Preview: Occupied City (Steve McQueen, 2023) Sun, Oct 22 | 1 PM Ohio Premiere
Coming straight from the New York Film Festival, McQueen’s new documentary presents two interlocking portraits of Nazi occupation and pandemic-era protest to create a cinematic experience that’s both devastating and life-affirming. (262 mins., DCP)
Purchase an Unorthodocs festival pass in advance and you'll receive free admission to this screening. Other passholder benefits are listed below in the festival info.
Unorthodocs Thu–Sun, Oct 26–30
In response to the rise of formulaic documentaries, this year’s Unorthodocs festival presents a range of uniquely personal stories that are being discovered as they’re made. The event also stands out as an opportunity to meet the filmmakers behind these groundbreaking works.
In addition to single screening tickets, festival passes are available, which include access to all talks and screenings plus an exclusive passholder lounge.
Unorthodocs Shorts Christopher Harris and Želimir Žilnik In Person Thu, Oct 26 | 4:30 PM
This year’s festival kicks off with an introduction to several filmmakers whose work will be showing throughout the festival, including Cinétracts ‘20 contributors Harris, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, and Žilnik. (approx. 90 mins., DCP)
Milisuthando (Milisuthando Bongela, 2023) Milisuthando Bongela In Person Thu, Oct 26 | 7 PM Midwest Premiere
Bongela was raised in a segregated, solely Black community in South Africa, so even though she grew up under apartheid, she was unaware of it until after it ended. Milisuthando captures the history of her home and her family, as well as her relatively late exposure to integration. (128 mins., DCP, in Xhosa and English with English subtitles)
Diversities in Practice: Beatriz Santiago Muñoz Fri, Oct 27 | 4:30 PM; Free for all audiences
As part of an ongoing series of talks presented in a partnership between the Wex’s Learning & Public Practice Department and Ohio State’s Department of Art, Muñoz speaks to her moving image work, which draws from Boalian theater, expanded cinema, and feminist practices. A Q&A follows.
Q (Jude Chehab, 2023) Jude Chehab In Person Fri, Oct 27 | 7 PM Midwest Premiere
This debut feature offers an intimate look at how questions of spirituality, devotion, and loss are raised across generations of women in her family, who are part of a secretive matriarchal religious order in Lebanon. A Q&A follows. (91 mins, DCP, in Arabic and English with English subtitles)
Feet in Water, Head on Fire (Terra Long, 2023) Midwest Premiere Preceded by 28.IV.81 (Bedouin Spark) (Christopher Harris, 2009) Sat, Oct 28 | Noon
Long’s debut feature tracks how date trees came to the Coachella Valley from the Middle East and North Africa, and how the people who tend to them have been affected by generations of luxury real estate and border politics. (90 mins., DCP, in English, Cahuilla, and Spanish with English subtitles)
The program kicks off with a Harris short that was shot and edited in-camera on one roll of 16mm film, which discovers a galaxy in a child’s nightlight. (3 mins., 16mm)
still/here, preceded by Sunshine State (Extended Forecast) (Christopher Harris, 2001; 2007) Christopher Harris In Person Sat, Oct 28 | 1:45 PM New Restoration
Still/here has only recently gained recognition as one of first major American works of the 21st century. Presented in a 2K restoration, Harris’s documentary looks closely at the ruins and vacant lots that constitute the north side of St. Louis, an area populated almost exclusively by working class and working poor African Americans.
Harris’s short film Sunshine State (Extended Forecast) begins the program with “the last perfect sunny day,” as seen through a suburban Florida lens. A conversation with Harris follows the screening. (total program approx. 100 mins., DCP)
Logbook Serbistan, preceded by Inventory (Želimir Žilnik, 2015; 1975) Želimir Žilnik In Person Sat, Oct 28 | 4 PM
The rarely seen Logbook Serbistan is a pioneering film that addresses the European migrant crisis of the early 21st century in an honest and empathetic manner.
The program opens with Inventory, which analyzes labor, class and migration in West Germany, in one apartment building and one shot. (total program 103 mins., digital video)
Filmmaker reception Sat, Oct 28 | 6–7 PM; Free for all audiences
Mingle with fellow documentary fans and the filmmakers participating in this year’s Unorthodocs festival. The reception includes light snacks and a cash bar.
You Were My First Boyfriend (Cecilia Aldarondo & Sarah Enid Hagey, 2023) Cecilia Aldarondo In Person Sat, Oct 28 | 7 PM Midwest Premiere
This inventive emotional roller coaster sees Aldarondo re-examine her high school years through a variety of methods that range from playful to uncomfortable and visceral. The conversation with Aldarondo after the screening is sure to be a lively one. (91 mins., DCP)
If From Every Tongue It Drips (Sharlene Bamboat, 2021) Preceded by Halimuhfack (Christopher Harris, 2016) and El cuervo, la fosa y la yegua (Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, 2021) Sun, Oct 29 | 1 PM
Bamboat’s If From Every Tongue It Drips creates a deeply layered film using a kind of call-and-response method with her Sri Lanka-based subjects: Ponni, who writes a form of 19th century queer Urdu poetry, and Sarala, a cameraperson who shoots footage for the film. (68 mins., DCP, in English, Urdu, and Tamil with full captioning)
Muñoz’s short film El Cuervo, la fosa y la yegua talks about a genre of Sanskrit poetry that tells two stories in the same text at the same time and brings together various forms of non-linear thinking. (16 mins., digital video)
Halimuhfack sees Harris transforming an audio sample of Zora Neale Hurston documenting African American folk songs in Florida into an incantation. (4 mins, digital video)
Time Bomb Y2K (Brian Becker and Marley McDonald, 2023) Midwest Premiere Sun, Oct 29 | 3 PM
The turn-of-the-century hysteria over the Y2K computer bug is captured entirely through archival footage, featuring contemporaneous firsthand accounts from sources ranging from members of Congress and public access TV teenagers to doomsday survivalists and Matt Damon. (80 mins., DCP)
Wilmington 10 – USA 10000 (Haile Gerima, 1979) Preceded by Dreams Under Confinement (Christopher Harris, 2020) Mon, Oct 30 | 4 PM; Free for all audiences
The first documentary by a visionary artist from the L.A. Rebellion group of Black filmmakers, Gerima’s newly restored film uses the case of 10 wrongfully convicted civil rights activists to launch a kaleidoscopic portrait of the fight for justice. (120 mins., 4K DCP)
Dreams Under Confinement is a short film by Harris that was commissioned by the Wex as part of the Cinetracts ’20 project. (2 mins., digital video)
Deborah Stratman’s Last Things, courtesy of the artist. Stratman will visit for a Cinéseries program and present the work These Blazeing Stars! In The Box in November and December.
In The Box: Deborah Stratman, These Blazeing Starrs! Wed, Nov 1–Sun, Dec 31
These Blazeing Starrs! explores the history and nature of comets through a combination of imagery from the 15th through 18th centuries and footage from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Visiting Filmmaker: Matt Derksen on Digital Effects at Industrial Light & Magic Wed, Nov 1 | 7 PM
Columbus resident and Oscar winner Derksen, head of rigging for Industrial Light & Magic, discusses his work creating characters for Hulk (2003), Game of Thrones (2011-19), and more. A rigger designs the digital skeletons for a CGI character to allow for animation over it. Derksen will show examples of his work and participate in a Q&A.
Return to Aztlán aka Retorno a Aztlán, aka In Necuepaliztli in Aztlán (Juan Mora Catlett, 1990) Thu, Nov 2 | 12:30 PM & Sun, Nov 5 | 1 PM | Free for all audiences
This treasured Mexican film is one of the most detailed and compelling recreations of Aztec society ever put on film. Set in pre-Hispanic Mexico, it tells the story of the efforts of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma I to end a four-year drought by pleading to the goddess Cōātlīcue. (95 mins., DCP)
The film is presented in conjunction with Harold Mendez: one way to transform and two and three, as part of a series of afternoon screenings tied to the Wex’s autumn exhibitions.
Visiting Filmmaker: Gregg Araki’s Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy Wed, Nov 2–Thu, Nov 16 | All screenings at 7 PM New 4K Restorations
Simultaneously ahead of their time and time capsules of the 1990s, the films that make up Gregg Araki’s singular trilogy offers anarchistic odes to outcasts, queerness, rebellions, bisexuality, colors, music, and sexual fluidity. Araki will visit the Wex to introduce the second film in this mini-series.
Cinéseries Visiting Filmmaker: Deborah Stratman, Last Things Sat, Nov 12 | 2 PM
What if humans were not at the center of any earthly narrative? Drawing from work by thinkers, scientists, writers, and philosophers who decenter humans from questions around evolution and time, Stratman conjures one infinite unit of time that invites us to consider that humans might not be as permanent as we think we are. A Q&A follows the screening.
Wild Relatives (Jumana Manna, 2018) Tues, Nov 14 & Tues, Dec 5 | 12:30 PM | Free for all audiences
Manna’s essay film starts by documenting the Svalbard Global Seed Vault—the storage facility for backup copies of seeds for the world’s diversity of plant species—before spiraling off to raise subtle questions about larger political and ecological issues. (66 mins., DCP)
The film is presented in conjunction with Jumana Manna: Break, Take, Erase, Tally, as part of a series of afternoon screenings tied to the Wex’s autumn exhibitions.
Zoom Preview: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Director’s Cut) (Steven Spielberg, 1977) Fri, Nov 24 | 1 PM | All tickets $3 each | Suitable for ages 8 & up
Enjoy a classic blockbuster for a discounted price, along with a first look at what’s in store for the 2023 edition of Zoom Family Book and Film Festival, our popular annual event presenting family-friendly entertainment from around the world.
Rush to Judgement (Emile de Antonio, 1967) Wed, Nov 29 | 7 PM New 4K Restoration
Rush to Judgement examines the findings of the Warren Commission, which concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy. Based on Mark Lane’s book of the same name, the film and its source are widely credited with spawning the conspiracy theories around the killing that persist to this day. (122 mins., 4K DCP)
Innosanto Nagara, the visiting author for this year's Zoom Family Book and Film Festival; photo: Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group
Cinéseries: Everyone I Know is Sick Fri, Dec. 1 | 7 PM; Free for all audiences
For this year’s Day With(out) Art, the Wex continues its longstanding collaboration with Visual AIDS to present a program of shorts that examines how society excludes disabled and sick people by upholding a false dichotomy of health and sickness.
Zoom Family Book and Film Festival Fri–Sat, Dec 8–9 | Free for all audiences
An opening night screening of the beloved 1984 film The Neverending Story will be followed the next day by a live session of YogARTS with partners at replenish: the spa co-op, a morning of shorts from the New York International Children’s Film Festival, a reading and Q&A with My Night at the Planetarium author Innosanto Nagara; and family-friendly mini tours of the autumn exhibitions, along with art making activities and plenty of free snacks.
Heirloom Café will be open for the event with fresh baked goods and beverages available for purchase.
Coming in January: Tender Masculinity
This monthlong series of films pays tribute to depictions of men on screen as caretakers, by filmmakers who resist the call to perpetuate macho clichés.
Coming in February: Cinema Revival: A Festival of Film Restoration 10th Anniversary!
The Wex celebrates a decade of presenting newly restored classics and cult hits annually, along with visits from leading creatives in the field of film restoration.
Coming in March: Retrospective: Med Hondo
Experience the work of the founding father of African cinema in a series presented in conjunction with the winter 2024 exhibition Sarah Maldoror: Tricontinental Cinema.
Coming in Summer 2024: A series of musicals from around the world.
Support for Film/Vide programs provided by Rohauer Collection Foundation
