Dream States Outdoor Screening & Closing Night Party: Animated Works by Don Hertzfeldt, Elyse Kelly, Geoff Marslett, Anna Samo and Lisa LaBracio, and Sofie Cofer and Ala Nunu

Curated by: Amy Bench and Erin Cunningham

Outdoor Screening Event & Closing Night Party: May 13

Doors: 7pm

Screening and Q&A: 8:15pm

Gallery on view: 7pm-10pm

Tickets: $25 (includes snacks and refreshments) are available on Eventbrite

Featured Films:

Letter to my Body, 2020, 1:48, Elyse Kelly  (US)

The Opposites Game, 2019, 4:45, Anna Samo and Lisa LaBracio  (Germany, US)

Phantom 52, 2019, 7:28, Geoff Marslett  (US)

Telshe, pre-premiere, 2023, 8:34, Sophie Colfer and Ala Nunu (Hong Kong/Portugal)

World of Tomorrow 2015, 16:33, Don Hertzfeldt (US)

Join ICOSA Collective for an outdoor screening featuring the works of international animation artists and filmmakers, coinciding with the closing night of the Exhibition “Dream States,” curated by Amy Bench and Erin Cunningham. 

This special night coincides with the Closing Night of “Dream States,” at ICOSA Gallery, and features a special screening of Telshe, ahead of its World Premiere at the Annecy International Festival of Animation this June.

Film Synopses:

Phantom 52 (Geoff Marslett)

Loneliness is a trucker who calls out on his CB radio waiting for a reply that never comes; A ghost that haunts the deserted highways; and a whale that sings at a frequency no other whale can even hear.

(Sundance Film Festival Official Selection, 2019)

World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt)

A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of her distant future.

(Academy Award Nominee, Sundance Grand Jury Award, 2015)

Indiewire called World of Tomorrow \”one of the best films of 2015,\” while The Dissolve named it \”one of the finest achievements in sci-fi in recent memory.\” The A.V. Club described the film as \”visionary\” and \”possibly the best film of 2015.\” Rolling Stone ranked World of Tomorrow #10 on its list of the \”Greatest Animated Movies Ever.\”

Letter to my Body (Elyse Kelly)

An intimate conversation between one\’s true self and the body they\’ve been given.

Written and narrated by Joy Ladin, who has become a nationally recognized speaker in trans issues since coming out in 2008.

Opposites Game (Anna Samo and Lisa LaBracio)

A classroom erupts into a war of words as students grapple with a seemingly simple prompt: what is the opposite of a gun?

(AnimaFest Zagreb, 2019)

Telsche (Sophie Colfer and Ala Nunu)

On the vast salt flats under dark clouds, a hole in the ground swallows the memory of a woman that Telsche longs to see again.

(to have its World Premiere at Annecy, 2023)

This screening is alongside the ICOSA Show \”Dream States, curated by Amy Bench and Erin Cunningham, featuring the works of five animation artists, Sumito Sakakibara (Japan), Shunsaku Hayashi (Japan), Moïa Jobin-Paré (Canada), Ala Nunu (Poland/Portugal), and Sofia El Khyari (Morocco/France).

About the curators:

Amy Bench is a filmmaker working across media drawn to stories of community and resilience. She was the cinematographer on \”Trans in America: Texas Strong\”, which won an Emmy for Best Original Short Documentary in 2019, and 2 Webby Awards. Amy’s animated documentary \”A Line Birds Cannot See\” won Special Jury Recognition at SXSW, and is now available on The New Yorker. Her latest film, \”More Than I Want to Remember,\” won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Short Form (Animation), Best Animated Short at Tribeca, was shortlisted for the 2023 Oscars, and is available on Paramount Plus. She received her MFA in Film at The University of Texas at Austin in 2010.

Erin Cunningham is an artist who works primarily in sculpture. She utilizes material combinations, such as cast metals, and the female figure to explore dualities of masculine/feminine, disposable/precious, and fragility/strength. She has shown internationally, including The Metropolitan Art Museum in Tokyo and at Mönchskirche Salzwedel in Germany. Artist residencies include BAER Art Center in Hofsos, Iceland as well as Atelierhaus Residency Hilmsen in Germany. Cunningham is one of the founding members of the ICOSA Collective and currently holds a position as an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Texas at Austin. She received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2003 and an MFA in studio art from UT Austin in 2007.

Thank you to film producers: Ithra and Pigeon and Animation Studio COLA for allowing us to pre-premiere the film Telsche.

Refreshments and snacks will be provided by our generous sponsors – Cornucopia, Texas Beer Company, and Topo Chico and individual donors.