Total Runtime: 1hr 16min 45s <a href="https://www.restfestfilmfestival.org/reverberation/held-film-festival-program" target="_blank">﻿Click here to learn about each film in this program</a><a href="https://www.restfestfilmfestival.org/shorts-block-breath" target="_blank">.</a>

Synopsis: You wake up alone in the forest. A fairy finds you and guides you underground - towards the ways of the ants, the roots, and the deep intelligence of the Earth. A poetic and enchanting offering for the frozen, dissociated and forgotten. Artist Bio: 𝓚𝖗𝖆𝓭𝖊 is a multidisciplinary artist from Belgium whose work navigates the liminal spaces between magic, mysticism, and myth. Through diverse mediums and a DIY attitude, they explore spirit worlds, ancestral wisdom and the alchemy of trauma and healing. Rooted in ritual and resistance, their practice weaves earth offerings, childhood memories and visual storytelling into sacred acts of transformation. Their work serves as both portal and invocation - an exploration of madness, mystery and misery; honouring the unseen forces that shape our existence. <a href="instagram.com/kradennaej" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@kradennaej</a>

English

Thawing Seeds: A Forest Fairy Guide from the Underground [AD] [CC]

For the ones who were left in the Frozen Forest.

Synopsis: Lemon Lime is a collaboration between sonic and visual loops, connecting inside the body. A collaboration between both a nonbinary musician and animator, we give shape to the feelings of mistaken identity and the overwhelming experience of being unknowable. Artist Bio: Mara Ramirez is an Ignatz nominated interdisciplinary artist and educator from San Francisco, California. They play with time, abstraction, and the action of mark making as a means of distorting &amp; clarifying their own experiences through the filter of emotion and memory. Employing both comics and animation, they ruminate on the body and its place in the natural world through metaphor, fantasy, and realism alike. Bending images of biological life, the stories they tell range in content; from poetic meditations on gender, to funny and sad character studies in cartoon formats.<a href="https://instagram.com/forever4pm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@forever4pm</a> / <a href="https://mara-ramirez.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mara-ramirez.com</a>

Lemon Lime [AD] [CC]

A collaboration between sonic and visual loops, connecting inside the body. A collaboration between both a nonbinary musician and animator, we give shape to the feelings of mistaken identity and the overwhelming experience of being unknowable.

Content Notes: Discussion of politics, religion, disability, homelessness and mental health; nude drawings. Synopsis: This film follows the journey of three transgender artists and their processes of creation: of both their art and their gender identity. About the filmmaker: Althea Eccles (they/them)I am a filmmaker, photographer and digital content creator. My work is where art, activism and Anthropology meet. My work aims to work with marginalised groups to tell their stories with them not for them.<a href="instagram.com/altheafilms_" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@altheafilms_</a> <a href="https://altheaeccles.wixsite.com/althea-films" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://altheaeccles.wixsite.com/althea-films</a> International Premiere

Discussion of politics, religion, disability, homelessness and mental health; nude drawings.

Transcend [AD] [OC]

This film follows the journey of three transgender artists and their processes of creation: of both their art and their gender identity.

Content Notes: brief nudity, loud sound About the film: The first movement of, "More Must Know the Wonder of my body in Pleasure", "of my body", is an exploration of grief and self through relationship and ritual with red burgundy okra. Film Synopsis: Okra is a plant many generations removed from the palates of my folks (on both sides). When I decided to start the nigga garden, I knew I wanted to include okra as a means of re-opening possibility in our generations-severed relationship. By harvest, I had learned so much about this new kin, her patterns, needs, beauty, abundance, flavors, textures and ecosystem. It felt important to find a way to honor the relationship we had built that continued to honor the deaths and transformations we had seen each other through. So, I learned how to make paper from the leaves, bast fibers, pods and seeds of the okra plant. In every step of the process, a call for ritualization of grief rang clearly and consistently: breaking the plant down to its constitutive parts (reminiscent of preparing green beans or collards over a large pot for Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years), cooking and blending the okra to bring forth the fibers, handcrafting the mould and deckle, preparing the vat with the pulps and okra fibers, adding to the mixture, flowers, envelopes and other artifacts from lovers past, the viscerally-embodied action of couching the paper with my feet supported by the generous weight of my fat body, gently releasing the dried paper from the fabric. And, even in the In "of my body", I weave together several interdependent elements of my art practice: distorted excerpts of several improvisationally-composed songs, an improvised narration recorded in a silent review of the film and footage from my time in residence at Hambidge making the paper and footage of my ritual processing practices. gratitude to Grounded Possibilities for prioritizing black folks and our relationships to the land in ways that FUND our work to reflect and create. Want to know more about the nigga garden? Here ya go: https://www.instagram.com/niggagarden Interested in supporting the acquisition of land and property in Charlotte, NC for a black queer and trans cooperative project? One of Play Church's current projects is a year-long pilot of The Nigga Garden Retreat, a 5 day retreat for black queer and trans artists. The retreat serves as one half of what we envision as a dual-site model: a home for land-based rest, creative retreat &amp; food justice and a gathering space (a church) to serve as a cultural altar and co-op stewarded space for ritual, performance, mutual aid and black queer and trans-led community infrastructure. foster weems is the steward and founder of Play Church, a community art and gathering space for black queer and trans folks in the south. Learn more about our work on Instagram at instagram.com/churchofplay or email us at playchurchllc@gmail.com. Artist Bio: foster JANAE weems is a fat black queer and trans interdependent-disciplinary artist whose life and work takes cues from the black baptist church, black queer kink community and an ever-expanding adoration of the audacity of black imaginative embodiment. foster is a dancer of the black improvisational dance tradition, a painter, musician and photographer who works to create care-driven spaces for ushering fat black queer and trans folks into experimentation that facilitats a deepened intimacy with- and trust of themselves, their desires and vision(s). foster is a 2024 Grounded Possibilities Fellow and 2024 BLK Transcendence SEEDS Writing Fellow. they are the facilitator of Black Intimacy Practice (a body laboratory for fat black queer and trans artists, healers and dancers) and the steward of Play Church (a community art space for black queer and trans folks in the south based in Charlotte, NC).

of my body [AD] [CC]

Synopsis: Carrying Breath Between Ancestors layers the Pine Barrens wetlands’ textures, decay, accumulations, and field recordings with a ceremonial hand dance in the sky to create ancestor time and tactile invitations. The word Papashèi, a Lenape word meaning the way breathing moves the body while sleeping/dreaming opens the video. The work speaks to moira’s tactile memory, ancestral land and legacies of familial refuge and disabilities connected to the wetlands. The installation version includes a touchscreen and VibraTech that vibrates with the field recordings. Artist Bio: moira williams (they/them) is a disabled artist, disability cultural activist, access doula, curator and dreamer of Lenni Lenape, Kickapoo, Wyndat, and Sami descent. They believe in and initiate embodied research, access as art and celebratory crip resistance and joy in their daily relationships.Their often co-creative work is transdisciplinary, weaving together IndigiTech, eco-somatics with participatory movement, gatherings and civic engagements. Most recently moira has received a Emily Hall Tremaine Innovators Grant, Movement Research Accessibility. Play. Movement. Residency + Fellowship, Disability + DANCE NYC Social Justice Fellowship, Landscape Research Group Fund with Naomi Ortiz and a United States Artists Disability Futures Fund. Their work has been at Tangled Arts + Disability Gallery, Toronto, Blackwood Gallery, Toronto, CUE Art Foundation NYC, MoMA PS1 NYC, Articulating Space Research Center, UK and ARoS Museum, Denmark. They recently co-wrote an open access and accessible digital essay with Aimi Hamraie called Remote Access: A Crip Nightlife Party 2023 CripPandemic Life: A Tapestry Issue 12.1 (Spring 2023). Their scores have been moira is honored to be featured in Eliza Chandler’s upcoming book, “Disability Arts Across Turtle Island,” Routledge Press. Online Premiere

Carrying Breath Between Ancestors [AD] [OC]

A video artwork, layering the Pine Barrens wetlands’ textures, decay, accumulations, and field recordings with a ceremonial hand dance in the sky to create ancestor time and tactile invitations.

Shorts Block: Reverberation / Held [AD] [CC]/[OC]

Sponsor a Community Member: Pay-what-you-want

Standard Price: Virtual Admission

Reduced Cost for Economic Justice: Sliding Scale

Scholarship Ticket: Tier 1

Scholarship Ticket: Tier 2

Donation to {{name}}

Donate

Gift Cards

None available

Memberships

These are all the memberships tied to your account. Now, use our online schedule to reserve tickets. You can access your tickets via {{my_tickets_link|"My Tickets"}} or via the PDFs attached to each ticket order confirmation email. {{buy_membership_link|Looking to buy more memberships?}}

These are all the passes tied to your account. Now, browse our virtual theater to reserve tickets. You can access your tickets via {{my_tickets_link|"My Tickets"}} or via the PDFs attached to each ticket order confirmation email. {{buy_pass_link|Looking to buy more passes?}}

These are all your purchased tickets. Open this page on your phone, and at the door tap the "Show Barcode" button and show your screen to the attendant. Prefer paper? Print the PDF attached to the order confirmation email, or click one of the gears below and select "Download tickets PDF". If purchasing multiple tickets, be sure to print or show each unique ticket barcode.

Festival Passes: stream every film

We are honored to present 27 films/video artworks from Disabled, Deaf, chronically ill, Neurodivergent, and/or Mad artists. Click on a program below to get started. And we hope to see you at our Festival Events!

A virtual short film & video art festival created by/for the Disabled, Deaf, chronically ill, Neurodivergent, and/or Mad community. Entirely accessible from bed.

Here's what's coming up soon. Can't make it? No sweat. Many live streams will be available for on-demand viewing as well.