There's no doubt about it, Julia sure does love her special dog, Sparky. But how Sparky feels about Julia might just be a different story entirely... 

Created by: Lilith Videt Weeks, Julia Cooke, and Isaac Lucy

The idea for this film was born when Sideworld core members Julia Cooke and Lilith Videt Weeks met up at a coffee shop in Mount Vernon and brainstormed a quick film idea for about an hour. A few days later, this movie was shot in about 12 hours on Halloween. We created every prop and costume piece in this movie, including Julia's giant stuffed animal jacket, as well as Sparky's mask, tail, ears, and clothing. All animation and effects were painstakingly edited by us. No AI was used in the making of this film.

For this completely free experiential art event, we tore apart our rowhome on Preston Street in Station North, removing all furniture and completely transforming the space into a highly experiential, interactive art gallery.  Using the limitations of this space as creative constraints, we were able to showcase over 30 local artists, including a piece from each of our core members. Using barriers and dividers, we created separate themed spaces within the house, and mindfully curated the pieces in each room based on these themes.  These pieces ranged from experimental audiovisual projections to traditional paintings, a large, metal, outdoor sculpture, unusual pottery, textiles, and performance.  The first main space had a dark gothic theme, where dark, more serious pieces were showcased. We also had experimental films projected onto the walls, and played music to fit the theme of the room. The second main space had a colorful, pop theme, where the less serious, fun pieces were displayed. We brightly lit the room using anything we could find, including headlamps and flashlights attached to the ceiling pointed at paintings to illuminate them.  In the other spaces in the house, we created interactive exhibits where the space itself acted as the piece. One of these spaces included a large ceramic hog submitted by a local artist named Gwen Cudek. In this space, the hog was a part of an immersive experience where experimental videos of barnyard animals were projected on each wall, where reverberating animal noises served as a sound curtain in the space. The hog itself was laid on tablecloths with a large picnic blanket hung behind it like a tapestry. Another immersive space featured a local performance artist and comedian dressed as Santa, who gave out fortunes that we created. Each attendee had to kneel before the Santa and sacrifice an object in order to receive a fortune.  The event was open to the public at no cost, eliminating a significant barrier to entry. Considering the event's turnout, one could deem its efforts to function as a gateway into the flourishing DIY culture endemic to Charm City, a veritable success!

Sideworld Video Festival is a DIY film festival showcasing a series underground films and video art, with the goal of connecting filmmakers to create a tight-knit film scene throughout the East Coast, USA. The festival includes a screening of over 20 films from local artists, almost all of whom attend the festival, as well as a Q&A and contest with a prize for the best film. A large part of  the festival is also an interactive performance art piece that we create and perform which ties into the theme of the films. 

This festival was created as a way for local filmmakers and artists to connect with one another, and for their films to be seen with NO BARRIERS, which is why we keep submissions completely free and keep the event itself free and open to the public – as accessible as possible. We want to give talented filmmakers and artists a space for their work to be shown, an audience that cares about them, and an opportunity to connect and work with other filmmakers and artists. Several people who have screened or met at our festival have ended up collaborating on a project with one another, and we’ve had a whole collaborative animation group emerge from filmmakers who met at a festival we threw. Without the space and the opportunity to screen work, these filmmakers never would have met - and their collaborative films would never have been made, and that entire animation group never would have been created. It's important to know that we've held five of these festivals spanning from 2024 to now (we just held one on January 15th in New York), but we've never ran one in Baltimore due to lack of funds, especially since we pritize keeping the event completely free. We've only been able to organize these video festivals in Philadelphia and NYC due to connections with venue owners in those cities, but we're planning one in Baltimore in April 2026!