everything loose will land
There's no time like the present.
‘’We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone.’‘ – Orson Welles
We are in Los Angeles seeing so many great films at Slamdance. More info soon…
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Monday, March 9: Be there for another 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐦 Screening & Salon at Nitehawk Prospect Park! Featuring an original lineup of worldwide short films, NY Premieres, and free zines. Make sure you GET TICKETS before it sells out! DO NOT MISS.
Tuesday, March 24: The 3rd Anniversary of DarkRoom is happening at our beloved Freddy’s Bar & Backroom. We honestly cannot believe how three years can happen so quickly, but we are honored and thrilled to host the BEST audiences month after month. If you have yet to attend a screening, consider coming through to help us continue to celebrate indie cinema’s finest. FREE + donations encouraged for the visiting artists.
Free limited edition zines will be available exclusively at each screening.
* If you are interested in screening a short film at DarkRoom, please use THIS FORM and send us your work. We cannot promise a response to every submission, but we do watch each film and will respond to you well in advance of the date to confirm your availability.
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• Here are some upcoming festival deadlines: Sidewalk Film Festival (Late: Mar. 15), Moviate Underground Film Festival (Reg: Mar. 21), Chicago Underground Film Festival (Early: March 25), Tallgrass Film Festival (Reg: April 13), Engauge Experimental Film Festival (June 1), Indie Memphis (upcoming)
• February 27-28: Join us at the 2026 Ithaca Experimental Film Festival! Three short film blocks with a mix of “weird and unorthodox world of DIY filmmaking” with many filmmakers in attendance. This is their best curation yet, and worth the weekend trip upstate! Check out the lineup and GET TICKETS.
• R.I.P. Tom Noonan. 🥀 He unfaltering legacy remains intact as an amazing character actor who stole every scene he was in, from his Sundance-winning, masterful directorial debut What Happened Was… to The Wife, his evil serial killer Francis Dolarhyde in Michael Mann’s Manhunter, to cameo roles in Heat, Synecdoche, New York, Mystery Train, Anomalisa, The House of the Devil, The Monster Squad, Robocop 2, and so many more. “The whole idea of ‘What Happened Was..’ is not about dating. It is more about people who are not committed to who they are or are indifferent about their life in general, which is how I felt about myself when I wrote it. I had turned 40 and I was unhappy and I wanted to write about that. Dating just became the framework. . . . I like all those fringy, weird, nonverbal, quiet, tiny little things, those powerful interchanges between people, things that go unsaid, that people know are happening all the time but nobody wants to talk about. That's what I want to make movies about.”
• This year marks the 15th Anniversary of The Turin Horse, the final feature film by the late Béla Tarr. A hypnotic masterpiece comprised of only 30 shots, this is the closest we’ve ever felt to experiencing the end of the world on film.
• Suggested reading: Screen Slate, Nothing Bogus, Split Tooth Media, To Each Their Own Cinema, The Locavore, Animation Obsessive, This Week in Experimental, The World of Tosh Berman, Hope for Film.
• Utopia has kindly uploaded one of our favorite films to YouTube: Ethan Eng’s 2022 Slamdance-winner Therapy Dogs. We’re not sure how long it will be available online for free, so watch now or get the majestic Blu-Ray from Vinegar Syndrome.
• “Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.” ―Frank Lloyd Wright
• Find us on Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook, Twitter, Threads…
• A few more recent favorites:
~ ~ FILM RECOMMENDATION ~ ~
The 2026 Oscar-nominated short film Two People Exchanging Saliva (dirs. Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata) is a “dystopian version of Paris where kissing is forbidden and purchases are made through small acts of violence.” The stark black-and-white cinematography lends it an air of sensuality and capricious malevolence.
xoxo
Non Films
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