33rd Onion City Experimental Film Festival Announces Opening Night Film and Competition Programs

Chicago Filmmakers, the presenting organization of the Onion City Experimental Film Festival, is pleased to announce the full slate of programs for the 33rd edition, running March 30 – April 9. This year’s festival showcases the most visionary and radical in local and international cinema featuring 54 films from more than 15 countries, exploring themes of Love, Isolation, Simulation, Virtual Spaces, Ecologies, and Geologies.

Opening the festival is the hometown premiere of award-winning Chicago filmmaker Deborah Stratman’s latest critically-acclaimed film, LAST THINGS, presented in partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Conversations at the Edge series on Thursday, March 30 at the Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N State St). A meditation on our planet’s dramatic physical and biochemical evolution, Stratman weaves together sci-fi and sci-fact to imagine a time where life endures but humans have disappeared from the point of view of rocks.

Onion City’s competition programs will be screened in-person at Chicago Filmmakers’ Firehouse Cinema (1326 W Hollywood Ave) in Edgewater, and extend to Logan Square and Pilsen neighborhoods with screenings and events in partnership with Comfort Station (2579 N Milwaukee Ave) and the Monira Foundation at Mana Contemporary Chicago (2233 S Throop St). Competition programs will also be available to watch online through the festival’s website – www.onioncityfilmfest.org.

This year, Onion City will host ten world premieres; among them are works by Chicago-based artists Alice Avery, Oona Taper, and Kishino Takagishi, and a film by British artist Charlotte Pryce. Among the 13 US Premieres and 24 Chicago Premieres, are works by acclaimed filmmakers Martine Syms, Dani & Sheila ReStack, Erin Weisgerber, and Christopher Harris.

For a look at the announced films, and to reserve tickets, visit www.onioncityfilmfest.org.

Festival Programmer, Nicky Ni, remarks: “Having received a record number of extraordinary submissions, we’ve tried to show as many works as possible, culminating in nine deeply evocative and carefully-curated competition programs. Artists not only continue to experiment with analog formats but keenly tap into the online circulation of digital images. I’m seeing more works imbued with decolonizing efforts, critically addressing issues related to technocracy, censorship, climate change and socio-political realities. The ripple effect of the pandemic is not over, tangibly shifting the way we communicate with each other through moving images, generating poetic and introspective cinema, dealing with love, intimacy, loss, and displacement. Ultimately, this year’s festival centers on the emotional complexities that make us human.”

Onion City is a production of Chicago Filmmakers, a not-for-profit media arts organization now celebrating its 50th anniversary – providing film exhibition, educational programs, and resources for filmmakers and film lovers alike.

For information about the festival, and to reserve tickets, visit www.onioncityfilmfest.org.

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