Expanded Cinema

In cinema, we’re accustomed to easily discernible narrative arcs and characters. But film can be so much more. Input/Output: Expanded Cinema, is Bruce Charlesworth’s answer to that situation. Charlesworth, a professor in UWM’s Film/Video/New Genres MFA program, co-curated the show with Bruce Knackert. It is open at the Inova Gallery, in the Kenilworth Building at Prospect and Kenilworth Avenues.

Work by 15 current or recent graduate students is on view. They are Ben Balcom, Tony Balko, Josh Baum, Kellie Bronikowski, Isaac Brooks, Lisa Danker, Ericka Frederick, Sean Kafer, Daniel Kelly, Brian McGuire, Giorgi Mrevlishvili, Ross Nugent, Michael Walsh, Josh Weissbach and Julie Wolterstorff. They work in a variety of genres and together draw an intriguing picture of the various ways that film can be art.

Charlesworth’s idea was to give students the opportunity to work in a specific site with the idea of making gallery, rather than theatrical, art. He felt a desire among MFA candidates in film to do more than construct linear narratives, no matter how beautiful or uncomfortable or moving those linear works might be. All the Expanded Cinema entries incorporate film in some way. But they also use elements of sculpture, technology, painting, and interactive performance. Some works do convey narratives; some have hazy, obscured narratives; at least two have no discernible narrative.

It’s not the movies. It’s art.

Input/Output: Expanded Cinema will be on view at Inova/Kenilworth until Sunday, Dec. 18. Admission is free. Visit the UWM Peck School of the Arts website for hours and further information.