AvA focuses on current artists creating in the visual medium (filmmakers, video artists, animators, etc.) with emphasis on absurdism (as defined below).

Absurdist Video Art, absurdist cinema, purports to be one of the most relevant forms of film art today, based on the current times, culturally, politically, sociologically; all reflecting a level of absolute absurdist mentality which needs to be mirrored back and culture jammed for documentary purpose, as well as purposes of maintaining a sense of humor and a modicum of sanity.

The trend in the alternative cinema arts for the last several years has been for curators to ignore many current and new video creators, and instead rehash a plethora of retrospective material. This trend is in part the result of the digital environment and its overwhelming nature. Dwelling in nostalgia and propping up the established experimentalists has been a much easier route than searching for new absurdist talent, which has been sprouting heavily from the interweb cracks.

AvA has assorted a collection of video artists ranging from largely unknown to “art world established”.  By no means are these individuals representative of the entire absurdist cinema art movement, and in fact we are seeking others to come forward.

In 2010 the first ever ABSURDIST FILM FESTIVAL took place in the city of Boise, Idaho, and featured works by Collapse Productions, Ryan Trecartin, Shaye Saint John, Nick Zedd, Randy Prozac, Eli Elliott and others.

In January of 2015 the second Absurdist film festival went down again in Boise, Idaho, and will continue to screen throughout the year at various venues in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.

Contact below if interested in showing Absurdist films at your venue as part of a film festival, a film night, or an art gallery showing.

Ferguson Ulrich is an alternative cinema (experimental, avant garde, underground, etc.) documentarian, curator, and writer who now places emphasis on current cinematic creators as opposed to the rehashing of retrospective material, which has been the trend for the last several years in the alt cinema world.

Please use the contact form below if you know of absurdist related work and/or filmmakers to be mentioned/featured here.

absurdism (əb-sûr’dĭz-əm, -zûr’-)

• A philosophy, often translated into art forms, holding that humans exist in a meaningless, irrational universe and that any search for order by them will bring them into direct conflict with this universe: “True absurdism is not less but more real than reality” (John Simon).

• An act or instance of the ridiculous.

• Absurdism implies a tragic tone and feelings of frustration that arise out of the contradiction between the human quest for the meaning of life and its inaccessibility.

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