When the Walker founded its film department 33 years ago, curatorial decision-making revolved around expanding its new Edmond R. Ruben Film and Video Study Collection and programming a series of screenings that balanced contemporary movies with experimental films. Today, the job of Walker curators is decidedly more complex. A rich collection of experimental works is inherently tied to the classic…

During a visit to the Walker in 2003, artist Jem Cohen presented a three-screen video work, Chain X Three, which linked anonymous scenes of corporate architecture ranging from malls to fast-food restaurants to parking lots. With this month’s presentation of Chain, the feature-film version of that work, we revisit a conversation between Cohen and assistant film/video curator Dean Otto from September…

Spencer Nakasako, a Walker artist-in-residence in 2001 and 2002, has developed a unique style of filmmaking that is inextricably intermeshed with social consciousness and community engagement. In his home base of San Francisco—a city with a long history of Asian immigration and diverse ethnic groups—he has been working with largely Southeast Asian, at-risk teenagers in the disenfranchised…

Abigail Child is a New York-based artist whose work in montage and sound/image relationships pushes the envelope of film and video with its humor and ephemeral beauty. Child’s The Future Is Behind You will be screened during the Women with Vision festival as part of Experiments: A Series of Short Films. Her films Cake and Steak and Dark Dark are featured in the Walker’s Lecture Room throughout…