The 15th Annual Family Film Project: Archive, Memory, Ethnography International Film Festival (2026) was a blast, combining the survey of a featured filmmaker (this year: Alan Berliner), the festival competition, talks, interviews, debates, master classes, a creative workshop for children and adults as well as gallery installations and works of performance art and expanded cinema. All this plus a delicious lunch for the artists and speakers as well as a cocktail hour every night for all to mingle and discuss film practices. Thanks go to festival co-directors Né Barros and Filipe Martins, the terrific festival staff, the multiple venues, participants, and audience. My installation exhibit «C[ODE +other stalled futurities» happened to open the festival on Monday evening with a brief artist talk and a reception at INSTITUTO, the presenting local art centre/gallery, followed by works of expanded cinema and performance art at Aro Estúdio. Alan Berliner’s installation «Translucence» was presented at the Rampa art space. The cinema works and most talks and interviews took place in the grand Batalha Centro de Cinema. It was a pleasure to serve as a jury member for the film competition alongside Sofia Sampaio and Isabel Gomes (a most contentious and enjoyable 4-hour exchange). My third invitation to participate in this festival in five years.
Left to right: Filipe Martins, Né Barros, Alan Berliner
Opening recpetion for my installation «C[ODE +other stalled futurities»
Left to right: INSTITUTO director Paulo Moreira and FFP co-director Filipe Martins, performance art by Agnieszka and Artur Janasik and expanded cinema by Tânia Dinis
Two of three competition winners, Noé Reutenauer and Evi Stamou and festival extraordinaire staff member
INSTITUTO entrance (by day)
INSTITUTO entrance (by night)
INSTITUTO lobby
Installing the installation room (in prograess)
Installation of vitrine table: Hexbooks (each roughly 600 pages of hexadecimal code)
Checking the wall text (in progress)
Wall text/diagram handout
Just arriving at the artist lunch (flanked by New Yorkers)