Artist Roger Beebe brings multi-projector magic to Jengo’s Playhouse

Wilmington, NC- Cucalorus is excited to present Roger Beebe’s FILMS for ONE to EIGHT PROJECTORS, screening for one night only at Jengo’s Playhouse. In celebration of 25 years of touring with his art, Beebe will be in attendance, projecting 16mm film from multiple projectors, as well as creating live audio for the films. FILMS for ONE to EIGHT PROJECTORS takes place Tuesday, April 8 at 7:30pm at Jengo’s Playhouse, 815 Princess Street, in the Soda Pop District.

Cucalorus attendees from the early years of the festival will remember Beebe’s inventive, experimental short films. An official selection at the 3rd annual Cucalorus Film Festival which screened in one of many shorts blocks at the old River Club (now Rebellion) Pipeline Reconstruction was described in the festival program guide as a “noisy, skittish, aggressively paranoid pseudo-documentary about toilets and the people in their lives; an educational film somehow gone horribly wrong.”

This new tour showcases Beebe’s latest works, including un arbre (2024) and Lineage (for Norman McLaren) (2019), alongside signature multi-projector performances like the seven-projector Last Light of a Dying Star (2008/2011). He will also present live-narrated essayistic videos exploring themes from men’s hidden emotions (Historia Calamitatum) to the racial politics of fonts (The Comic Sans Video) and the real-world impact of the virtual economy (Amazonia).

Filmmaker Roger Beebe is known for his multi-projector performances and essayistic videos exploring found images and late capitalism’s landscapes. His work has screened worldwide, from the CBS Jumbotron in Times Square to Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, as well as major venues like Sundance and MoMA. He has presented solo shows at Anthology Film Archives, Mexico City’s Laboratorio Arte Alameda, and Los Angeles Filmforum. A dedicated film programmer, he founded FLEX (Florida Experimental Film Festival) and previously ran Flicker in Chapel Hill. Beebe is currently a professor at Ohio State University in Art and Theatre, Film, and Media Arts.

UNCW film studies professor Carlos Kase recently spoke with Beebe on the Cucalorus Conversations podcast, discussing his traveling roadshow of multiple-projector 16mm film performances. You can listen to the full interview on the Cucalorus channel on Spotify.

Tickets are only $10 and are on sale now at jengos.eventive.org/schedule.

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