Work samples

  • BALTIMORE (4m excerpt)
    BALTIMORE (2021) is a 22m nonfiction film that catalogs the landscapes and architecture of the filmmaker’s hometown of Baltimore City. Personal and observational, this 16mm film, shot from 2016 to 2018, explores exterior spaces, material and psychic fragments of historic buildings, many of which have been demolished or renovated since the completion of the film. Sound compositions by electronic musician, Bonnie Jones. All footage was shot with a 16mm Bolex Camera from June 2016 - July 2018. This project was funded by a 2016 Rubys Artist Project Grant, The Maryland State Arts Council Creativity Grant, and an Interbay Cinema Society Lightpress Grant.
  • Memory of August (2m excerpt)
    Memory of August (2017) is a short 16mm film that was shot and edited in-camera with a hand-cranked 16mm Bolex camera. This film documents intimate spaces of time spent with my grandmother, Margaret, who had Alzheimer’s and was living temporarily in a rehabilitation center at the time. This was the first portrait film I made of her, which has led to a larger work in progress called, THREE RIVERS.
  • departure (excerpt)
    departure (2020) incorporates the alternative 19th C. cyanotype process with my passion for 16mm film and darkroom experimentation. For this short projection performance, I created handmade 16mm cyanotype film loops by coating clear leader with cyanotype iron based emulsion, then created a contact print using the original black and white negative and the coated film strips to create a final positive cyanotype image. This excerpt is a digitized version of a dual 16mm projection performance I created with the handmade cyanotype 16mm film loops. As the two projectors ran, I incorporated a live soundtrack and amplified the motors of the projectors using contact microphones. The cyanotype images are of my mother and sister. The audio is taken from a recorded conversation between my grandmother and myself during her final stages of Alzheimer's. This piece is an acknowledgment to the women in my family.
  • CUTS (2021)
    CUTS (2021)
    These particular 16mm film strips have been cut from a working edit of my film, BALTIMORE and repurposed into an object using two planes of plexiglass and mounting hardware. The work is meant to be hung on a wall and experienced as a 3 dimensional object. CUTS (2021) 40" x 33" in size.

About Margaret

Baltimore City
Margaret Rorison is filmmaker, projectionist, educator, and curator from Baltimore, MD.  Her work aims to support and preserve contemporary filmmakers and film culture.  Her current work focuses on portraiture, memory, and the precarity and beauty of nature. Her work has been exhibited at Anthology Film Archives, Miami PULSE Art Fair, Microscope Gallery, The Museum of The Moving Image, The National Gallery of Art, and The Walker Art Center. Her short films have shown at festivals including The … more

BALTIMORE

BALTIMORE
2022 | 16mm to digital projection | 22m | sound

BALTIMORE catalogs the landscapes and architecture of the filmmaker’s hometown of Baltimore City. Personal and observational, this 16mm film, shot from 2016 to 2018, explores exterior spaces, material and psychic fragments of historic buildings, many of which have been demolished or renovated since the completion of the film. 

Sound, Edit, Camera: Margaret Rorison  Composer: Bonnie Jones Re-Recording Mix: Tom Boram
All footage was shot with a 16mm Bolex Camera from June 2016 - July 2018.  
C
reation of this work was made possible in part by a Ruby artist project grant from the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.

Aside from film festival premieres and screenings, my film, BALTIMORE was exhibited in a two person show at Current Space Gallery from September 11 - October 2, 2021, curated by the gallery’s co-founders.  The film was exhibited with additional "visual footnotes": various maps of Baltimore City to provide a political and geographical context of the city, select still frames of filmed locations with accompanying unique histories of these locations, and two large “film objects” created from the edited 16mm workprint of the film. Documentation of this exhibit is included in this project. 

Select Screenings
Musuem of the Moving Image, Queens, NY
The Maryland Film Festival 
El Festival Internacional de Cine UNAM, Mexico City, MX
Open City Documentary Film Festival, London, UK 



  • BALTIMORE (4m excerpt)
    BALTIMORE (2021) is a 22m nonfiction film that catalogs the landscapes and architecture of the filmmaker’s hometown of Baltimore City. Personal and observational, this 16mm film, shot from 2016 to 2018, explores exterior spaces, material and psychic fragments of historic buildings, many of which have been demolished or renovated since the completion of the film. Sound compositions by electronic musician, Bonnie Jones. All footage was shot with a 16mm Bolex Camera from June 2016 - July 2018. This project was funded by a 2016 Rubys Artist Project Grant, The Maryland State Arts Council Creativity Grant, and an Interbay Cinema Society Lightpress Grant.
  • Current Space Gallery Exhibition (street view)
    Current Space Gallery Exhibition (street view)
    Hypogean (Two person exhibition with Monique Crabb & Margaret Rorison) September 11 – October 2, 2021 Working in a variety of mediums, both artists are concerned with personal histories, the mapping of experience onto surfaces, and the stains of memories through dyes and light. This exhibition focuses on stories cultivated to make sense of complex societal structures and the illusions, sadness, and beauty in the hidden subterranean landscape.
  • Gallery View
    Gallery View
    Visitors take a closer look at my 16mm film objects.
  • Visual Footnotes to the film, BALTIMORE
    Visual Footnotes to the film, BALTIMORE
    Various maps of Baltimore City and stills from the 16mm film accompany the film in the installation. Film stills are presented with accompanying addresses and unique histories of the highlighted locations to highlight the complex and rich history of Baltimore City. Various Maps of Baltimore City include: “Plan of the town of Baltimore and its environs,” 1792 map by Surveyor: A.P. Folie; Engraver: James Poupard. Library; Special Collections; BCLM; Maps & Atlases. Courtesy of the Maryland Center for History and Culture, Item ID #RS4004 “A Bird’s-Eye View of The Heart of Baltimore” 1912, Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. “Census Tracts and Blocks, Baltimore City, 1970” Courtesy of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Maryland’s State Library Resource Center.
  • Footnotes
    Footnotes
    "Scales of Light" (L) & "CUTS" (R) 16mm film, plexiglass, standoff bolts
  • Scales of Light (2021)
    Scales of Light (2021)
    "Scales of Light" 2021 20" x 26" 16mm film, plexiglass, standoff bolts
  • CUTS (2021)
    CUTS (2021)
    These particular 16mm film strips have been cut from a working edit of my film, BALTIMORE and repurposed into an object using two planes of plexiglass and mounting hardware. The work is meant to be hung on a wall and experienced as a 3 dimensional object. CUTS (2021) 40" x 33" in size.
  • Current Space Gallery (Street View)
    Current Space Gallery (Street View)
    Hypogean September 11 – October 2, 2021 Featuring Margaret Rorison Monique Crabb Working in a variety of mediums, both artists are concerned with personal histories, the mapping of experience onto surfaces, and the stains of memories through dyes and light. This exhibition focuses on stories cultivated to make sense of complex societal structures and the illusions, sadness, and beauty in the hidden subterranean landscape.
  • Installation view of gallery projection of BALTIMORE
    Installation view of gallery projection of BALTIMORE
    Installation view of gallery projection of BALTIMORE (2021) Current Space Gallery Baltimore, MD

SIGHT UNSEEN Screening Series

From 2012-20122, I directed Sight Unseen, a Baltimore based experimental film series. The series was launched in June of 2012 with support from a Launch Artists in Baltimore Award upon my graduation from The Maryland Institute College of Art Graduate Program in Photographic & Electronic Media.  The series began as a roaming project, collaborating with various venues in Baltimore City. 

The series brought notable filmmakers, curators, and artists to Baltimore to present their work including: Peter Burr, Nazli Dincel, Sky Hopkina, Mark Toscano (film preservationist for the Academy Film Archive), Ephraim Asili, Greg De Cuir Jr., Madsen Minax, Laura Parnes & David Dinnell to name a few. 

Sight Unseen formed partnerships with various Baltimore-based organizations including, Area 405, Current Space, Enoch Pratt Library, Johns Hopkins University, Maryland Institute College of Art, Metro Gallery, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Creative Alliance, The SNF Parkway Theatre, & The Red Room Collective. In additional to film screenings, Sight Unseen organized a series of affordable workshops on analog practices including handmade emulsion, film as performance, and experimental hand processing techniques. These workshops were held at notable organizations such as Current Space and Full Circle Fine Art in Baltimore City. 

The 2021/22 Season of Sight Unseen was made possible by a generous contribution from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and with operational support from the SNF Parkway Theater. 

My work with Sight Unseen has been internationally recognized throughout the years and received generous funding and support from The 2012 and 2014 MICA LAB Artist Award, Artists Public Domain, The 2015 Contemporary Grit Fund, the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, and The SNF Parkway Theatre. 
 
 
  • Margaret Rorison in conversation with director, Christopher Harris
    Margaret Rorison in conversation with director, Christopher Harris
    Sight Unseen founder and filmmaker, Margaret Rorison in conversation with director, Christopher Harris after their screening. June 2022. SNF Parkway Theatre.
  • Filmmaker, Sky Hopkina introduces his feature film, maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore
    Filmmaker, Sky Hopkina introduces his feature film, maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore
    maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore with director, Sky Hopkina in person Sunday, September 19th, 2021 SNF Parkway Theatre 5 West North Ave. Baltimore, MD 7PM
  • Curator Margaret Rorison holds a Q&A with preservationist, Mark Toscano
    Curator Margaret Rorison holds a Q&A with preservationist, Mark Toscano
    Cats, Cut-Outs, and Crab Legs: 35mm Experimental Animation from the Academy Film Archive Curated and presented by Mark Toscano from the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles. Saturday November 20, 2021 SNF Parkway Theatre 5 West North Ave. Baltimore, MD
  • Exploring Presence: African American Artists in the Upper South post discussion. April, 2022.
    Exploring Presence: African American Artists in the Upper South post discussion. April, 2022.
    Exploring Presence: African American Artists in the Upper South post screening portrait and discussion with (L to R) guest curator, Angela N. Carroll, Oletha DeVane, Joyce J. Scott, and Margaret Rorison. April 2022, SNF Parkway Theatre.
  • Baltimore School for The Arts Juniors shoot Super8mm in Mt. Vernon
    Baltimore School for The Arts Juniors shoot Super8mm in Mt. Vernon
    Film Students from The Baltimore School for The Arts film with a Super8mm camera in Mt. Vernon as part of a week long collaborative film project, The Sound We See: A Baltimore City Symphony which premiered at The SNF Parkway Theatre on May 26, 2022 with a live score by the BSFA Jazz Ensemble.
  • Post Screening Q&A with cast and crew of In the Jungle
    Post Screening Q&A with cast and crew of In the Jungle
    In The Jungle, 63m, 2017 Directed by Stephanie Barber Starring Cricket Arrison and M.C. Schmidt July 11, 2017 The Parkway, Theatre 1 5. West North Ave. Baltimore, MD 21201
  • Process Reversal Film Collective gives a workshop on the 16mm Bolex
    Process Reversal Film Collective gives a workshop on the 16mm Bolex
    Andrew Busti of Process Reversal gives instruction on how to shoot and operate the 16mm Bolex Camera outside of Current Space Gallery. July, 2014.
  • Analog filmmaking workshop with Australian Filmmakers, Richard Tuohy and Dianna Barrie
    Analog filmmaking workshop with Australian Filmmakers, Richard Tuohy and Dianna Barrie
    Australian filmmakers, Richard Tuohy and Dianna Barrie of Nano Lab make a stop in Baltimore on their North American tour, to host a one day filmmaking workshop on an alternative film processing technique known as Chromaflex.
  • Michael Morris sets up for his expanded cinema performance
    Michael Morris sets up for his expanded cinema performance
    Filmmaker, Michael Morris sets up for his expanded cinema performance inside the SNF Parkway Theatre. December 2017.
  • Portrait of Margaret Rorison inside The Parkway Theatre
    Portrait of Margaret Rorison inside The Parkway Theatre
    Portrait taken for an article on Sight Unseen and Margaret Rorison for Bmoreart's Print Issue 05: Beauty. May 2018. Photo: Rachel Rock

One Document for Hope

One Document for Hope
2016 | 16mm to digital | B/W | 8m | sound 

One Document for Hope is a short film shot during the 2015 Baltimore Uprising. It incorporates the sterile and procedural narrative of the Baltimore City Police Scanner recorded on Monday April 27 against precious moments of gathering, celebration and protest in Baltimore from April 28 – May 3, 2015. The film was shot with a 16mm Bolex and edited in camera during the week of the 2015 Baltimore Uprising. The footage was provided through The Ann Arbor Film Festival ORWO Award for Best Cinematography. 

Documentation: Margaret Rorison 
Thanks to Karl Ekdahl for providing the BCP scanner recordings. 
Baltimore, Maryland 2015

Select Screenings
Affinities, or The Weight of Cinema curated by Kevin Jerome Everson & Greg de Cuir Jr., The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival
Ann Arbor Film Festival 




  • One Document for Hope  (still frame)
    One Document for Hope (still frame)
    Baltimore citizens participate in a large celebration in the streets of North Ave after the announcement made by Baltimore City State's Attorney, Marilyn Mosby on May 1, 2015 that her office had filed charges against six police officers after the medical examiner's report ruled Freddie Gray's death a homicide.
  • One Document for Hope  (still frame)
    One Document for Hope (still frame)
    Protestors fill the streets to protest the death of Freddie Grey while armored Baltimore City Cops stand guard.
  • One Document for Hope (still frame)
    One Document for Hope (still frame)
    The National Guard officially leaves Baltimore City after a weeklong curfew and occupation during the 2015 Baltimore Uprising in response to the murder of Freddie Gray.
  • One Document for Hope
    2016 | 16mm to digital | B/W | sound | 8m The sterile and procedural narrative of the Baltimore City Police Scanner recorded on Monday April 27 against precious moments of gathering, celebration and protest in Baltimore from April 28 – May 3, 2015. Documentation: Margaret Rorison Thanks to Karl Ekdahl for providing the BCP scanner recordings. Baltimore, Maryland 2015

Memory of August

Memory of August 
2017 | 16mm | 6m | sound

A series of moments captured in room 139. Intimate spaces of time spent with my grandmother, Margaret during a month long recovery in a rehabilitation center in Baltimore, Maryland. 


Special Jury Award for Best Experimental Short, New Orleans Film Festival, 2017 
Edinburgh International Film Festival, International Premiere, 2017 
  • Memory of August  (still frame)
    Memory of August (still frame)
    My grandmother, Margaret looks out the window of her room in a recovery center.
  • Memory of August  (still frame)
    Memory of August (still frame)
    My grandmother, Margaret lost in thought.
  • Memory of August  (still frame)
    Memory of August (still frame)
    Margaret looks at an old family album my mother brought to help her with memory loss and recovery after a fall.
  • Memory of August (still frame)
    Memory of August (still frame)
    Margaret looks outside her window as I film her recovery process.
  • Memory of August
    Memory of August is a short 16mm film shot on two rolls of 100' film and edited in camera. The film documents a series of intimate moments spent with my grandmother, Margaret during the first of many hospital trips due to her Alzheimer's diagnosis.

PULL/DRIFT

PULL/DRIFT
2013 | 16mm to video | 10m | sound

PULL/DRIFT is a collaborative project that evolved into many parts. In 2013,  Clarissa Stowell Gregory and Joshua Wade Smith collaborated on dance & sculpture for a performance involving: water, woods and raft. Clarissa & Joshua created the site-specific performance PULL / DRIFT on September 8th at Patapsco Valley State Park, Daniels Area.

For six months, Baltimore photographers/filmmakers Liz Donadio, Carr Kizzier, and myself documented the evolution and execution of this site-specific performance, which finalized in a gallery exhibition, Pull / Drift: In the Slipstream at Gallery CA from December 6 2013 - January 10, 2014.

The documentation that I captured from the dance performance became a 16mm film with a live sound accompaniment by sound artist, Josh Millrod. This piece premiered at Mono No Aware Festival of Expanded Cinema in December of 2013. 

Throughout my documentation process of Pull/Drift, I focused on the flow of the human form and its relationship to its surrounding environments. I was interested in discovering a dialogue between limbs and hips, the curves of the land, the mechanics of flesh, the rhythmic channeling through water, grass and earth. I was captivated by how the development of motion sculptured a new sense of time and established a magical sense of ritualistic bliss.
  • PULL/DRIFT (excerpt)
    PULL/DRIFT (2014) documents a unique choreographed performance that took place one late summer afternoon in Patapsco State Park in Baltimore, Maryland. Choreographed by Clarissa Stowell Gregory and performed by The Effervescent Collective. Soundtrack composed by Josh Millrod.
  • PULL/DRIFT (still frame)
    PULL/DRIFT (still frame)
    The Effervescent Dance Collective performs "PULL/DRIFT" in the wooded area of Patapsco State Park in Baltimore County.
  • PULL/DRIFT (still frame)
    PULL/DRIFT (still frame)
    The Effervescent Dance Collective performs "PULL/DRIFT" in the wooded area of Patapsco State Park in Baltimore County.
  • PULL/DRIFT (still frame)
    PULL/DRIFT (still frame)
    The Effervescent Dance Collective performs "PULL/DRIFT" in the wooded area of Patapsco State Park in Baltimore County.
  • PULL/DRIFT (still frame)
    PULL/DRIFT (still frame)
    The Effervescent Dance Collective performs "PULL/DRIFT" in the wooded area of Patapsco State Park in Baltimore County.
  • PULL/DRIFT (still frame)
    PULL/DRIFT (still frame)
    The Effervescent Dance Collective performs "PULL/DRIFT" in the wooded area of Patapsco State Park in Baltimore County.
  • Spawn
    Spawn
    Archival pigment print from a 120 black and white negative film. I shot this image with a medium format camera that had a broken frame counter. I embraced the dysfunction and explored what the images would look like if I experimented with multiple exposures and random advancement of the film. This image is the result of this exploration.
  • Pull/Drift, 35mm
    Pull/Drift, 35mm
    Documentation of PULL/DRIFT live performance at MICA's Cohen Plaza July 2013
  • Exhibition view of PULL/DRIFT at Gallery CA (2013)
    Exhibition view of PULL/DRIFT at Gallery CA (2013)
    Entrance of the exhibition of PULL/DRIFT (2013) With support from Effervescent & friends, Clarissa Stowell Gregory and Joshua Wade Smith collaborated on dance & sculpture for a performance involving: water, woods and raft. Clarissa & Joshua created the site-specific performance PULL / DRIFT on September 8th 2013 at Patapsco Valley State Park, Daniels Area. For six months, Baltimore photographers/filmmakers Liz Donadio, Carr Kizzier, and Margaret Rorison documented the evolution and execution of this site-specific performance, and in this exhibition will share their personal visions of the Pull/Drift process, an immersive “experiment in movement, rhythm, and ritual.
  • Gallery CA installation view
    Gallery CA installation view
    Pull / Drift: In the Slipstream Gallery CA December 6th 2013 - January 10th, 2014 Pull / Drift: In the Slipstream is a collection of photographs, video, and film from the sculpture-dance performance Pull / Drift - a collaboration between choreographer Clarissa Gregory and sculptor Joshua Wade Smith. For six months, Baltimore artists Liz Donadio, Carr Kizzier, and Margaret Rorison documented the evolution and execution of this site-specific performance, that took place September 8th, 2013 at Patapsco Valley State Park's Daniels Area. This exhibition shares their personal visions of the Pull / Drift process, an immersive "experiment in movement, rhythm, and ritual."

Sympathetic Bodies

Sympathetic Bodies
2018 | 16mm to video | 5m | sound

This film was made for the track, "Sympathetic Bodies" by Byron Westbrook from his 2017 Body Consonance LP on Hands in the Dark Records. All footage was hand-processed and shot on 16mm B&W reversal film, incorporating rephotography with the JK Optical Printer. This work was made with the support from Crater Lab in Barcelona. 


"The body is an ever-compassing approach to empathy through the DIY philosophy, the hand-processing of material which allows the touch to be truly felt. The film’s rhythm corresponds to Byron Westbrook’s song of the same title -which the film was made for- but perfectly works as its own creation. Rorison’s tactile universe, in process and in the image itself, is always tangible, even in its out-of-context digital screening. Nature mirrors time, time is mirrored in our body, as the prescience of the imminent is expected with subtle calm."

- José Sarmiento Hinojosa, "CROSSROADS 202O.PROGRAM 4: ALL THOSE THINGS YOU USED TO FEEL", desistfilm , September 4, 2020
  • Sympathetic Bodies (still frame)
    Sympathetic Bodies (still frame)
    My mother grasps my grandmother's hands.
  • Sympathetic Bodies (still frame)
    Sympathetic Bodies (still frame)
    This film was made for the track, "Sympathetic Bodies" by Byron Westbrook from his 2017 Body Consonance LP on Hands in the Dark Records. All footage was hand-processed and shot on 16mm B&W reversal film, incorporating rephotography with the JK Optical Printer. This work was made with the support from Crater Lab in Barcelona.
  • Sympathetic Bodies (still frame)
    Sympathetic Bodies (still frame)
    An abstraction of my sister's hands.
  • Sympathetic Bodies (still frame)
    Sympathetic Bodies (still frame)
    My sister holds a mirror up to the woods where I grew up.
  • Sympathetic Bodies (still frame)
    Sympathetic Bodies (still frame)
    A glass object reflects the wooded landscape.
  • Sympathetic Bodies (still frame)
    Sympathetic Bodies (still frame)
    Winter reflections in a stream.
  • Sympathetic Bodies
    This film was made for the track, "Sympathetic Bodies" by sound artist, Byron Westbrook from his 2017 Body Consonance LP on Hands in the Dark Records. All footage was hand-processed and shot on 16mm B&W reversal film, incorporating rephotography techniques with the JK Optical Printer. This work was made with the support from Crater Lab in Barcelona.

16mm Performances + Expanded Cinema

This body of work reflects my practice in expanded cinema (cinema as a performance) while lies heavily on collaboration with improvisors and experimental sound artists.  All three works were made on 16mm film, intended to be projected with an analog projector and experienced with a live sound component. 

departure (2020) is a short piece that I made with my own discovered process of creating 16mm cyanotype loops. I created a live soundtrack while projected multiple loops of 16mm film. The soundtrack included a synthesizer, electromagnetic pickups, and recordings of my grandmother speaking, reciting lucid memories at a later stage in her live. This short work premiered at The Red Room in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Of Our Mothers (2018) is a collaborative one-hour durational performance peice that musician, Audrey Chen and I premiered in Berlin, Germany during an artist residency in 2017.  The work incorporates dual 16mm projection of  hand-processed 16mm film loops that depicted images of my grandmother, mother, and sister, while incorporating sounds from contact microphones and electronics from the projection booth. As I project, Chen utilizes her voice, cello and electronics in a completely improvised response. 
 
PULL/DRIFT (2014) is a short 16mm dance film that was edited in camera. The film documents a site-specific dance performance that took place on September 8th 2013 at Patapsco Valley State Park, Daniels Area. The 16mm film is accompanied by a live score created by musician, Josh Millrod and was selected to premiere at Mono No Aware an annual festival of expanded cinema that takes place annually in Brooklyn, NY.
  • 16mm cyanotype frame
    16mm cyanotype frame
    This still frame was scanned from a 16mm film that I had created by hand-coating clear leader with cyanotype emulsion, then creating a contact print using the original black and white negative and the coated film strips, to create a final positive cyanotype image. I am very interested in incorporating alternative photographic processes and 16mm filmmaking to experiment and create unique new forms of the moving image.
  • departure (excerpt)
    departure (2020) incorporates the alternative 19th C. cyanotype process with my passion for 16mm film and darkroom experimentation. For this short projection performance, I created handmade 16mm cyanotype film loops by coating clear leader with cyanotype iron based emulsion, then created a contact print using the original black and white negative and the coated film strips to create a final positive cyanotype image. This excerpt is a digitized version of a dual 16mm projection performance I created with the handmade cyanotype 16mm film loops. As the two projectors ran, I incorporated a live soundtrack and amplified the motors of the projectors using contact microphones. The cyanotype images are of my mother and sister. The audio is taken from a recorded conversation between my grandmother and myself during her final stages of Alzheimer's. This piece is an acknowledgment to the women in my family.
  • Of Our Mothers (still frame)
    Of Our Mothers (still frame)
    This image was created with an optical printer. I rephotographed some black and white 16mm negatives with an optical printer during a residency at Crater Lab in Barcelona, Spain. I worked to slow down my footage to create 16mm film loops for a durational performance that took place at ausland in Berlin, Germany. All footage is hand processed.
  • Of Our Mothers (still frame)
    Of Our Mothers (still frame)
    This image was created with an optical printer. I rephotographed some black and white 16mm negatives with an optical printer during a residency at Crater Lab in Barcelona, Spain. I worked to slow down my footage to create 16mm film loops for a durational performance that took place at ausland in Berlin, Germany. All footage is hand processed.
  • Of Our Mothers (still frame)
    Of Our Mothers (still frame)
    This image was created with an optical printer. I rephotographed some black and white 16mm negatives with an optical printer during a residency at Crater Lab in Barcelona, Spain. I worked to slow down my footage to create 16mm film loops for a durational performance that took place at ausland in Berlin, Germany. All footage is hand processed.
  • Of Our Mothers (performance at ausland in Berlin, Germany)
    Of Our Mothers (performance at ausland in Berlin, Germany)
    A collaborative work between Audrey Chen (cello, voice, electronics) that was developed and performed during an 2017 artist residency at ausland, in Berlin, Germany. In this project, I projected hand-processed 16mm film loops that depicted images of my grandmother, mother, and sister, while incorporating sounds from contact microphones and electronics from the projection booth. As I projected, Chen utilized her voice, cello and electronics in a completely improvised response. TRT: 60 minutes
  • Of Our Mothers (excerpt)
    Of Our Mothers is a collaborative work between Audrey Chen (cello, voice, electronics) and Margaret Rorison (16mm film projection, contact microphones) that was developed and performed during an 2017 artist residency at ausland, in Berlin, Germany. The collaboration between Audrey Chen and Margaret Rorison works inside the intimate worlds
of their maternal lines, as experienced through the myriad sounds of the human voice and 16mm
film projection. Images and sounds captured in spaces brought together by their individual
experiences of mother, daughter, granddaughter and how that affects their identities- and
channels towards decision making, touch, habit, memory and language. TRT: 60 minute performance
  • PULL/DRIFT (still frame)
    PULL/DRIFT (still frame)
    Dancers progress into the woods as part of their site-specific performance, PULL/DRIFT which I was hired to document.
  • Projecting PULL/DRIFT at Mono No Aware VII in Brooklyn, NY
    Projecting PULL/DRIFT at Mono No Aware VII in Brooklyn, NY
    Projecting PULL/DRIFT Mono No Aware VII Light Space Studios Brooklyn, NY 2013
  • MONO NO AWARE VII at Lightspace Studios in Brooklyn, NY
    MONO NO AWARE VII at Lightspace Studios in Brooklyn, NY
    Overhead view of the crowd during the Saturday night performance and set up of Mono No Aware VII, Festival of Cinema Arts where I premiered my performance piece, PULL/DRIFT with a live music component performed by sound artist, Josh Millrod.

DER SPAZIERGANG

DER SPAZIERGANG
2013 | 16mm | 3m | sound

The film is shot on one 100' roll of 16mm color film, all of which was composed and shot in-camera. The film is made of up single frames taken during extensive walks throughout the layered historical landscape of Berlin, Germany in April 2013. 

The title, DER SPAZIERGANG (The Walk)  comes from a story by German-Swiss writer, Robert Walser.

Select Screenings 
27th The Images Festival, Toronto, ON
52nd Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, MI
NEW YEAR, NEW WORKS, The Filmmakers Co-Op, NYC 

  • DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    View from the Tram in Berlin.
  • DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    View from a balcony in Berlin.
  • DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    A train pulls into the Hallesches Tor. stop of the S-bahn in Berlin.
  • DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
  • DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    Construction site near Checkpoint Charlie site in Berlin.
  • DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin Germany.
  • DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    DER SPAZIERGANG (still frame)
    Overcast afternoon in Kreuzberg, Berlin.
  • DER SPAZIERGANG
    The film was shot on one 100' roll of 16mm color film, all of which was composed and shot in-camera. The film is made of up single frames taken during extensive walks throughout the layered historical landscape of Berlin, Germany in April 2013. The title, DER SPAZIERGANG (The Walk) comes from a story by German-Swiss writer, Robert Walser.

understory

understory
 2019 | 16mm film to digital | 10m | sound 

This short film is a personal navigation through four seasons of loss.  A series of memory frames shot on expired and donated 16mm film. An ode to navigation, an adaptation to silences and deafening cries.  

All footage was shot during the years of 2012-2016 in Los Angeles, Gettysburg, and Baltimore. 
  • understory (still frame)
    understory (still frame)
    wild succulents in Echo Park Los Angeles
  • understory (still frame)
    understory (still frame)
    Looking up in Burbank, CA
  • understory (still frame)
    understory (still frame)
    A building captured on North Alvarado Blvd.
  • understory (still frame)
    understory (still frame)
    A building facade in Echo Park, Los Angeles
  • understory (still frame)
    understory (still frame)
    A plane flies overhead in Burbank, CA
  • understory (still frame)
    understory (still frame)
    Street view from a bike path in Burbank, CA
  • understory (still frame)
    understory (still frame)
    Ferns fill the hills in my mothers backyard.
  • understory (still frame)
    understory (still frame)
    My mother and Dave meander through an apple orchard.
  • understory (2m excerpt)
    This short film is a personal navigation through four seasons of loss. A series of memory frames shot on expired and donated 16mm film. An ode to navigation, an adaptation to silences and deafening cries. All footage was shot during the years of 2012-2016 in Los Angeles, Gettysburg, and Baltimore.

SCANSION

SCANSION
2012 | 16mm installation | color | sound 

SCANSION is a short 16mm film composed of extensive walks through various Baltimore landscapes. The film has been hand edited like a poem, where cuts function like line breaks, working to establish inherent rhythm and meter. 

The film was created for a gallery and is intended to run on a continuous loop with an accompanying surround sound speaker installation. The soundtrack has been compiled of field recordings taken on my walks through Baltimore City. Additional sound by musicians, C. Spencer Yeh and Lea Bertucci, voice by Kelly Laughlin.

“…in complete consciousness I understood what for me walking travel and cinema had in common. Sometimes I preferred walking, that is to say, talking with my legs over speaking, which is to say, walking with my mouth- but basically, it’s the same thing”
-Serge Daney

TRT of film: 8min
Soundtrack: 12min
Both run on a continuous loop.
  • Installation shot of SCANSION (2012)
    Installation shot of SCANSION (2012)
    Wide shot of my MFA thesis installation, SCANSION. Maryland Institute College of Art Baltimore, MD
  • Installation shot of SCANSION
    Installation shot of SCANSION
    SCANSION (2012) runs in a looper in the D-Center Gallery. Baltimore, MD May 2012
  • Installation shot of SCANSION
    Installation shot of SCANSION
    SCANSION (2012) runs in a looper in the D-Center Gallery. Baltimore, MD May 2012
  • Installation shot of SCANSION
    Installation shot of SCANSION
    SCANSION (2012) runs in a looper in the D-Center Gallery. Baltimore, MD May 2012
  • Installation shot of SCANSION
    Installation shot of SCANSION
    SCANSION (2012) runs in a looper in the D-Center Gallery. Baltimore, MD May 2012
  • Installation shot of SCANSION
    Installation shot of SCANSION
    Wide shot of SCANSION (2012) film installation. Baltimore, MD May 2012
  • Installation shot of SCANSION
    Installation shot of SCANSION
  • Installation shot of SCANSION
    Installation shot of SCANSION
    SCANSION (2012) runs in a looper in the D-Center Gallery. Baltimore, MD May 2012
  • SCANSION (excerpt)