MM Serra is an experimental filmmaker, curator, author, professor at Parsons at the New School and the Executive Director of Film-Makers' Cooperative, the world's oldest and largest archive of independent media. Her first five films (NYC, 1985, Nightfall, 1984, Framed, 1984, PPI, 1986, Turner, 1987) were preserved and digitized by Anthology Film Archives Preservation series Re-Visions: American Experimental Film 1975-1990. Since 1982, MM Serra has created over 31 films.

This is our second episode in this deep dive with MM Serra.

MM Serra is an experimental filmmaker, curator, author, professor at Parsons at the New School and the Executive Director of Film-Makers' Cooperative, the world's oldest and largest archive of independent media. Her first five films (NYC, 1985, Nightfall, 1984, Framed, 1984, PPI, 1986, Turner, 1987) were preserved and digitized by Anthology Film Archives Preservation series Re-Visions: American Experimental Film 1975-1990. Since 1982, MM Serra has created over 31 films.

Erica Schreiner is an experimental video and performance artist based in New York City. She shoots on VHS while performing before the camera. Erica creates allegorical, ethereal video art that combines feminine and anarchistic themes, ritual, and sensuality. Manipulating existing objects or building sets to perform in and film, Erica creates surreal, intimate worlds on VHS video, employing her clearly defined style.

Erica received a Bachelor degree in Graphic Design from The Art Institute of Portland. Once in New York, she attended the School of Visual Arts Lens and Screen Art’s Residency Program with a full scholarship, and went on to study performance art under the direction of Marina Abramović at MoMA PS1.

Erica Schreiner has completed more than 100 performative video art pieces, including two feature films and several music videos. In 2021, Erica received a New York City Artist Corps Grant for her second feature film, The Special People.

Erica’s work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and film festivals, including The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA PS1, The Bill Hodges Gallery in NYC, Nick Knight's SHOWstudio, Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, The Portland Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and Performance Space New York.

Erica is a member of the New York Film-makers' Cooperative (est. 1961) and is on the curatorial committee at Millennium Film Workshop (est. 1967).

The Skye Project documentary: https://donate.uniondocs.org/campaigns/skye-4ever/
The MoMA curation I've been working on with MM Serra: https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5807

Jim Ford is an American film/television actor and stuntman. After receiving his BFA in drama from the Hartt School Conservatory and studying with the Royal Shakespeare Company in England, Jim landed an agent and has been a full-time actor in New York and Los Angeles ever since. He is best known for his work in the TV shows Gotham, Mysteries of Laura, The Following, Person of Interest, and Steven Soderberg's H.B.O. mini-series The Knick.

Jim developed a passion for filmmaking and short films at a very young age. Over the years, he has completed nearly a dozen short films that have been screened all over the world. He loves to travel and attends as many festivals as he can.

Andy Camou is a freelance motion designer based out of Long Beach, California. He combines his experience and knowledge of animation, 3D, video editing, and VFX to produce engaging videos and animations.​ He previously spent two and a half years at Run It Up, a production company focused on creating poker content on the streaming site Twitch.

As an animator and video editor, Andy produced motion graphics for broadcasts and short-form content for social media.​ His strengths lie in creative problem-solving and meticulous attention to detail. "I thrive on continuous learning, adaptability, and new challenges."

Feel free to reach out if you have a project in mind or want to say hi; he's always up for a chat. You can email Andy at andythetimid@gmail.com.

Ivan Miguel is a seasoned Art Director/Motion Designer with 10+ years of experience in advertising and motion graphics.

Originally from Spain, Ivan worked as an Art Director for 6 years at two of the most relevant Spanish advertising agencies, creating work for various international brands.

In 2015, he moved to the U.S. and has worked as a freelancer and in-house staff for several motion design studios in NYC and San Francisco for broadcast, technology, non-profit, and social good clients. You may reach Ivan by email at im@ivanmiguel.com.

Christopher Rakas is an award-winning director, producer, writer, and composer based in El Paso, Texas. His short film Dada Noise 2 has had a successful film festival run worldwide. He is currently co-writing and scoring several episodes for the TV series On Bloody Paths with Mary S. Applegate and Ingmar Koch. He is also a member of the Liquid Sky Artist Collective in Portugal. He is also currently producing a documentary film featuring his brother’s local El Paso-based metal punk band, Uglor. You can listen to songs by Uglor on YouTube.

Christopher and I met through this podcast and The Experimental Film Fest in 2022. His film Dada Noise 2 was screened at the festival. Since that time, he has judged films for The Experimental Film Fest. He is a thoughtful experimental film advocate who has dedicated hundreds of hours to the festival, and we appreciate him for his time and insights.

In this podcast, we pick up where we left off in 2022 from his first guest appearance on the show on Episode 6 of Season 3.

Nolan Stolz is a composer, scholar, drummer, and music professor living in Spartanburg, SC. Born in Milwaukee, WI, Stolz grew up in Las Vegas, NV, where he worked as a freelance jazz drummer for several years. Today, he is a Professor of Music at the University of South Carolina Upstate, where he teaches composition, music theory, and popular music studies.

Although firmly rooted in the contemporary classical tradition, his compositions are influenced by his performance background in jazz and rock. Fanfare Magazine called his Lincoln Highway Suite for orchestra a “brilliant piece of Americana. . .a piece of inspiration and skill,” saying that the “orchestration is brilliantly managed” and “Stolz has a fine repository of [melodies] in his back pocket.” The Brno Philharmonic’s recording of that work (on Orchestral Masters, Vol. 5) was awarded second place in the American Prize in 2020. Other studio recordings include Princess Ka‘iulani for flute on SCI’s Modes album, Catharsis II for piano quartet on Millennial Masters Vol. 3, Lullaby for Sam for guitar on Aaron Larget-Caplan’s New Lullaby, and several others.

Océane Buxton is a visual artist specializing in video, sound design, textiles, digital imaging, and performance art. She grew up in Québec City and has lived in Montréal since 2017. After studying at RMIT School of Art (Melbourne, Australia) in 2019, she received a bachelor’s degree in Intermedia/Cyberarts from Concordia University in 2021. She began the master’s program in visual arts at UQAM in 2023. She participated in the 6th edition of Artch, and her work has been exhibited by the Ada X Artist Center, La Bande Vidéo, Struts Gallery (Sackville, New Brunswick), and the web art platform Galerie Galerie. She is currently working as a freelance cultural mediator.