Quotidian Pleasures

As countercultural incubators of outsider cinema characterized by bold, DIY aesthetics, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative and Millennium Film Workshop are often known for supporting films of rebel-rousing transgression. Of equal importance to both organizations, however—and central to their shared mission of cultivating a democratic, decommercialized “people’s” cinema—is a simultaneous stream of films that, through their lyrical emphasis on the seeming quietude and minutiae of everyday existence, foreground substance over spectacle. Spanning the late 1960s through the 2020s, these ruminative, deeply personal works explore themes of domesticity, seasonality, nature, feminism, queerness, family, the body, and community. Basking in the revelatory beauty of the so-called “mundane,” this variegated selection illuminates the poetry—and capacity for liberation—that can be found in even the smallest, most fleeting moments of our daily lives and rituals. Peace O’Mind. 1983. USA. Directed by Mary Filippo. 16mm. 9 min. Still Life with Woman and Four Objects. 1984. USA. Directed by Lynne Sachs. 16mm. 4 min. Spent Moments. 1984. USA. Directed by Jean Sousa. 16mm. 10 min. Fragment. 1987. USA. Directed by Laura J. Padgett. 16mm. 2 min. Crystal Snow. 1973. USA. Directed by Jacob Burckhardt. 16mm. 5 min. Autumn Leaves. 1994. USA. Directed by Donna Cameron. 16mm. 4 min. Moon Collage #7. 2026. USA. Directed by Robert Mizaki. 16mm. 3 min. Phases of the Moon: The Parapsychology of Everyday Life. 1968. USA. Directed by Tom Chomont. 16mm. 5 min. The Dance. 1992. USA. Directed by Jim Hubbard. 16mm. 8 min. She-Va. 1973. USA. Directed by Marjorie Keller. Digital. 3 min. Embryonic Journey. 2025. USA. Directed by Matt McKinzie. Digital. 5 min. Rain Painting. 2019. USA. Directed by Ann Deborah Levy. Digital. 6 min. Inhale/Exhale. 2020. USA. Directed by Michèle Saint-Michel. Digital. 4 min. Lament Poems for Neptune Ave. 2023. USA. Directed by Sage Ó Tuama. Digital. 10 min. How to Disappear Completely. 2020. USA. Directed by Cameron Granger. Digital. 2 min. Becoming Bimbo. 2023. USA. Directed by Abygai Peña. 16mm. 1 min. Rituals. 2017. Brazil. Directed by Francis de Assis Abdullah. Digital. 4 min. Program approx. 85 min.