Communicating Vessels (2020) by Annie MacDonell
Sunday, April 5, 2026, 1:00 pm
Communicating Vessels
Psychedelia & Cinema
Filmmaker Annie MacDonell in person
Presented in association with Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Admission: $18 General / $12 Cinematheque Members
Event tickets here
Psychedelia & Cinema
March 1–May 10, 2026
Organized with the support of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, Psychedelia & Cinema presents a kaleidoscopic array of movies that explore expanded or enhanced consciousness, psychedelic experiences and numinous encounters. Realized through psychoactive substances, meditation, deprivation or other means, these experiences have been an important element of many cultures for millennia and have more recently become the object of scientific study, as well as being used for both therapy and recreation. Cinema, the “Seventh Art,” is uniquely suited to explore altered and non-ordinary states of consciousness. From cinema’s earliest flickers to the present day, filmmakers have used techniques from montage to multiple exposures, lens distortion to animation and CGI, to create mystical visions and ecstatic journeys into inner and outer space. (Kate MacKay, BAMPFA Film Curator) Full series details here.
Videos by Annie MacDonell and Maïder Fortuné bring a feminist perspective to the consideration of consciousness-expanding practices through drugs and/or art, work and life. MacDonell noted, “I spent about five years making many works around psychedelics, always using it as a metaphor for how we can escape the chokehold capitalism has on our sense of ourselves and what is possible in the world.” OUTHERE (For Lee Lozano) is an elliptical portrait of the Conceptual artist based around a lecture she gave in 1971. Communicating Vessels, among many things, explores the flow of ideas between a teacher and student. These films screen with Lillian Schwartz’ abstract Enigma, Ben Russell’s Trypps #7 (Badlands), and Gunvor Nelson’s My Name Is Oona.
SCREENING:
Enigma (1972) by Lillian Schwartz (US); 16mm, color, sound, 4 minutes, print from BAMPFA. OUTHERE (For Lee Lozano) (2021) by Annie MacDonell (Canada) & Maïder Fortuné (France); digital video, color, sound, 32 minutes, exhibition file from Maïder Fortuné. Trypps #7 (Badlands) (2010) by Ben Russell (US); digital video, color, sound, 10 minutes, exhibition file from Canyon Cinema. Communicating Vessels (2020) by Annie MacDonell (Canada) and Maïder Fortuné (France); digital video, color, sound, 31 minutes, exhibition file from Maïder Fortuné. My Name Is Oona (1969) by Gunvor Nelson (US); 16mm, b&w, sound, 10 minutes, print from BAMPFA.
TRT: 87 minutes