Against all Odds: Seattle

Curated by Karel Doing, the second edition of the programme series Against all Odds focuses on the American Northwest with a programme of short experimental films brought together in collaboration with Seattle based Interbay Cinema Society. The programme includes two works of the late Jon Behrens, who founded ICS, and a new work in progress by Caryn Cline and Ruth Hayes that will be scored live. The screening will be followed by Q&A with Kamila Kuc.

Programme:

$O$
Reed O'Beirne, 2001, 3 min

Though a debt of $206 million remained on the structure, the Seattle Kingdome was demolished by "implosion" on a cheery Sunday morning in March 2000. Over 50,000 tons of concrete and steel came crashing down causing the equivalent of a magnitude 2.3 earthquake. The decision to destroy the Kingdome and replace it with a $465 million football stadium was the result of Referendum 48, a ballot initiative backed by $5 million in advertising (the most expensive ballot initiative campaign in WA state history).

Anomalies of the Unconscious
Jon Behrens, 2003, 11 min

An entirely hand painted, manipulated and step printed film and the second instalment of the Anomalies Cycle when Jon Behrens began experimenting more with other colours and different textures.

Tiny Rituals
Ursula Brookbank, 2021, 8 min

A meditation on things considered sacred and divine; this moving picture transforms simple objects – clay figurines, flowers, metal scraps, and glass knickknacks, with light and shadow emitted from overhead projections to illuminate a serene experience.

Hemorrhage
Ruth Hayes, 2023, 4 min

Animation against the end of Roe and the evisceration of women's right to choose. An iterative process incorporating rubbings, images, text and voices from the New York Times and the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health arguments before the United States Supreme Court moves the film from formal experimentation to an expression of outrage about the effects of abortion bans on women's health.

Marsh Island
Luke Sieczek, 2021, 7 min

A portrait of an island on the edge of Union Bay in Seattle. Moments accrued over time: morning light; bird song; the pillars of highway 520; the clanging of Montlake bridge; swimmers and drifting canoers; the blossoming of waterlilies; the dark cover of entangled willow branches. An uneasy but ever evolving juxtaposition of the human and the natural; the hard thrum of the highway and swirling churn of the wetland.

Mask Movie
Devon Damonte, 2023, 4 min

“A hand built 16mm animation made by applying the fibres of surgical masks directly to film. What interested me most is how these now-globally-ubiquitous masks are made from plastics processed to look and feel like fabric. And of course, plastics are a big expansion area for the mass-global-petrochemical industry, as other fuel / energy sources 'threaten' them. The factories processing mask plastics use euphemisms like "melt-blown" and "spun bond – just like cotton candy!” – Devon Damonte

Passenger
Patrick Conelly, 2024, 3 min

Passenger is a 16mm scratch film about the experience of commuting by train.  Scratched around 2019, finished in 2024.

Hydro Graphy
Tina Jacobson, 2025, 4 min

Water light-writes perennial refrains of the PNW during an annual cycle at 47° 38' 54.8808'' N 122° 18' 37.638'' W.

I Was There
Kamila Kuc, 2025, 13 min

A haunting exploration of familial bonds, intergenerational memory, and the enduring impact of shared narratives. Filmmaker Kamila Kuc steps into the emotional stream of inherited family history as the lines between documentary, testimony, and fiction blur.

Garden Glimpses
Caryn Cline, 2022, 6 min

“Garden Glimpses, inspired by Marie Menken's Glimpse of the Garden, is the second in a series of films about artists of the everyday. In this film, I've used in-camera double exposures to capture the colours and textures of landscape architect Keith Geller's Seattle garden on a warm spring day.” – Caryn Cline

Phytodrama
Ruth Hayes & Caryn Cline, 2026, 4 min

A work in progress with a live improvised soundtrack.

Viaduct
Jon Behrens, 2020, 6min

“Kirsten McCory and I wanted to document the last days of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. We gathered images for about a year before they demolished it. The images were manipulated on and Optical Printer. and Kirsten told a story of her experiences.” – Jon Behrens