Séance Film Festival – Nature Intended the Abstract: Films by Célia Hay and others

Sunday, September 15, 2024 at 7:00pm
Theatre 514, Civic Theatre of Allentown
514 N 19th St, Allentown, PA 18104

Séance Film Festival – Nature Intended the Abstract: Films by Célia Hay and others

Lehigh Valley Cinema Club presents the first Séance Film Festival, a weekend film festival (Friday, July 5 – Sunday, July 7, 2024) celebrating cinema as séance and portal to the afterlife, and the parallels between film projection and reincarnation.

This program is a retrospective of French artist-filmmaker Célia Hay, whose body of work made over the last decade is comprised of a number of bold, uncompromising and unpredictable short and mid-length films. Often following actors who traverse urban and rural locations, Hay collaborates with composers like Frederikke Hoffmeier and Kali Malone in creating works that synthesize sound, image and time into emotional landscapes that the viewer travels along with. 

This screening, titled "Nature Intended the Abstract" (named after a song by Young Marble Giants) interweaves Hay's films with the work of other artists—Linnea Nugent, Craig Scheihing and Alex Tyson—who are also creating work that pushes at the boundaries of cinematic convention. Célia Hay is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Texas in Dallas, and will be present for a Q&A with curator Herb Shellenberger following the screening.

Tickets: $10 per night
Weekend pass: $18
Supporter pass: $40

Nature Intended the Abstract: Films by Célia Hay and others
–Poem-film for everything we’ve lost, dir. Célia Hay, 2024, US, digital, 2.5'
–in the fishtank, dir. Linnea Nugent, 2023, US, digital, 2.5'
–Does Spring Hide Its Joy, dir. Célia Hay in collaboration with Kali Malone, 2022, UK, digital, 10'
–may 10th, dir. Craig Scheihing, 2023, US, digital, 4'
–Wake for a Horse, dir. Célia Hay, 2023, UK, digital, 39'
–Cataboum, dir. Alex Tyson, 2023, US, digital, 2'

Total running time: 60'

Please note! Tickets include entry to this program and the following Séance Film Festival program—Closing Program—at 9:00pm in the same theater. 

Thanks to Francisco Aguilar & Haley Arnold (Civic Theatre of Allentown), Brian Belovarac (Janus Films), Bret Berg (American Genre Film Archive), Canyon Cinema Foundation, Rick Charnoski, Jesse Pires (Lightbox Film Center), Chris Regec & Steak (National Sokol's), Doug Roysdon (Ice House Performing Arts Collaborative), Drew Swedberg, the University of Texas at Dallas and all the filmmakers, performers and audience members who have supported this event.