EXquisite Corpse Cinema

EXquisite Corpse Cinema is a collaborative film project uniting film communities globally, and posing questions related to living in an increasingly shrinking world. The project is a celebration of community and collaboration of people from different backgrounds united by cinema.

What is an exquisite corpse?

Begun as a collaborative drawing exercise by the early surrealists, it quickly spread to other creative outlets including poetry, music, theater, dance and film. In film, the tradition is for one filmmaker to make a few minutes of film then send the last frame to the next filmmaker. That person continues the thread based how they interpreted the frame, then sends their last frame to the next filmmaker, and so on, till they decide the work is completed. We at EXcinema came up with a process where all the filmmakers can make their films at the same time, thus control the time it takes to complete a project.

How this works is films are connected by “prompts” comprised of images and sounds.  The project begins by our making a list of 20 paired prompts for 20 filmmakers, one to begin their film and one to end it. Each prompt has a match, and that decides the viewing order. For instance one filmmaker may be asked to start their film with a girl on a bike and end with a barking dog. Another filmmaker will be asked to begin their film with a barking dog, so those two films will be shown together. What these prompts do is create bridges between films that would otherwise appear random. The prompts are given out randomly so the filmmakers won't know who's films connects with theirs. They are as surprised as the audience how the project unfolds.

EXquisite Corpse Cinema is an annual project of EXcinema. The premiere takes place at Grand Illusion Cinema then tours. Past projects have screened at San Francisco's Other Cinema/ ATA, Los Angeles' Echo Park Film Center, Portland's Boathouse Microcinema & Northwest Film Center,  Chicago's Nightingale, Denver's Cinema Contra,  Berlin's Director's Lounge, Belgrade's Dom Kulture, Newcastle's Star and Shadow Cinema, and Nagoya's Aichi Triennale.

Starting in 2017 this project is funded by a grant from 4Culture.

Projects include:

EXquisite Corpse Cinema, 2014 
Kathleen Quillian, Reed O'Beirne, Salise Hughes, Dustin Zemel, Ben Popp, Gretchen Burger, Vorky Tim, Andy Spletzer, Robert Zverina, Kelly Sears, Eric Ostrowski, Caryn Cline, Arto Polus
EXquisite Corpse Cinema Trailer
 
The Spaces Between Cities, 2015
Pip Chodorov, Charles Chadwick, Kate Lain, Amy Bassin & Mark Bickley, Reed O'Beirne, Konstantinos-Antonios Goutos, Stephen Broomer, Salise Hughes, Douglas Katelus, Blanca Rego, Arto Polus, Robert Zverina, Margaret Rorison, Dustin Zemel, Ben Popp, Insa Langhorst, Anna Kipervaser, Pablo Molina Guerrero, Milan Milosavlijevic, and Jesse Malmed.
The Spaces Between Cities Trailer
 
A Tale of Two Cities, Portland & Seattle, 2017
Elijah Hasan, Salise Hughes, Matt McCormick, Hanna Piper Burns, Luke Sieczek, Andy Spletzer, Julie Perini, Brian Short, Stephanie Hough, Sean & Christof Whiteman, Linda Fenstermaker, Reed O'Beirne, Caryn Cline, Carl Diehl, Clair Buss, Eric Ostrowski, Ruth Hayes, Ron Mason Gassaway, Robert Zverina, Jon Behrens, Miles Sprietsma, Jodie Darby
A Tale of Two Cities, Portland & Seattle Trailer 

The Spaces Between Countries: Mexico & USA, 2018
Pedro Jiménez, Brenda Avila Hanna, Ivonne Fuentes, Sasha Water Freyer, Pam Minty, Eric Ostrowski, Bruno Varela, Artemio Narro, Elena Pardo, Chloe Reyes, Iván Avila Dueñas, Elijah Hasan, Salise Hughes, Robert Zverina, Dustin Zemel, Brenda Contreras, Rafael Balboa, Luke Seiczek, Anthony Buchanan, Dalia Huerta Cano
The Spaces Between Countries: Mexico & USA, Trailer