About this Event
VAEFF Presents "On The Edge" Screening + Artist Q&A
“Are you a 1 or 0?” asks one of the films rejecting the rigidity of established binaries in “On the Edge,” a collection of films that push us to relish in the in-between space of what we readily accept in our society. Foundational silent cinema, uncovered film strips, and dystopian futures become fodder for the modern imagination in these films, grabbing from both the past and future to make sense of our present realities. Both abstract and hyper-focused, this program invites us to deconstruct our held beliefs, positing that the clearest way to see our world is to blur all of the lines.
For more information visit: https://videoart.net/on-the-edge-2026/
Program Lineup
Turning Away directed by Joaquim Bayle
Through the gesture of a man who, one morning, turns back before reaching his office, the film questions this movement we follow without thinking: moving forward, moving up, at all costs. It is the story of a slight rupture — an attempt to interrupt the flow and recover a space to think about the structures that shape our lives.
Un Pais Sin Imagen directed by Fabian Wolf
The ICAIC film archive in Havana preserves the country’s cultural heritage on film reels. A living work of art that may be – or may be not – synonymous with the country’s current development.
Transmutation directed by Charlie Jimenez
A story of creation: a blind god creates their eyes at the moment of a woman’s birth. The two undergo several transformations before transmutating into a chimera.
Beauty is the Terror We Can Bear directed by Derek Spencer
A controversial performance at a DIY art space divides a close-knit community. This film attempts to capture a conversation that is only possible in *this* space after *this* performance. It allows the viewer to form a judgement of an artwork, temporarily join a community full of people with their own strongly developed judgements, and then question the validity of their initial reaction.
Throne directed by Mark Chan and Omi Bahuguna
Follows a man through shifting spaces, where the ordinary slips into the surreal, absurd, and strangely intense.
EXIT directed by Lievan Vanhove
In a vast vertical maze of platforms and lifts, a man and a woman hesitate over which EXIT to take. Their love is tested: he reaches for the bright light above, but a painful growth pulls her toward nearer exits.
Entities directed by Marcin Pospiech
A cinematic descent into the architecture of a diseased mind. The film visualises the organic parasites – the entities – that inhabit the emptiness of mental collapse.
Binary directed by Padrick Ritch
Explores the audience’s relationship to opposing identity centric labels as a proxy to corporations and tech companies’ practice of curating our social media algorithms for engagement and advertisements.
META BITCH: Feathers and Blood directed by Rois Martin
A young woman is transported via a USB drive into a cabaret, where she becomes complicit in a M**der. After escaping with no answers, she will discover she is trapped in a dreamlike loop.
Agenda
🕑: 01:00 PM - 02:15 PM
"On The Edge" Screening of 9 short films
🕑: 02:15 PM - 03:00 PM
Q&A with Filmmakers
Event venue & nearby stays
Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, New York, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.