aemi presents: The Said and the Unsaid

Cornell Cinema is pleased to partner with the Irish film collective aemi to present the 2025 touring program, "The Said and the Unsaid"

This eclectic programme of work shifts from an act of deliberate and playful obfuscation (Stephanie Barber’s 3 Peonies) to a process of attempted rediscovery as Jonathan O’Grady attempts to navigate a largely inaccessible heritage site (In Search of the Forenaughts Longstone). 

Elsewhere Maryam Tafakory’s video essay is an uncovering of media artefacts that speak to both deliberate and discrete forms of articulation in the face of censorship (Nazarbazi) while Frank Sweeney creates a compelling docudrama out of events surrounding the broadcasting ban (Few Can See). 

Collectively these works describe a variety of creative means of expression borne out of the necessity to speak, however indirectly.

Filmmakers Frank Sweeney and Jonathan O’Grady will take part in a Q&A after the screening.

The program includes:

3 Peonies
Dir. Stephanie Barber, 2017 , U.S. , 3 mins.

A brief, poetic 16mm film on a simple sculptural action. An experimental film in which the simplicity of the image is offset by the sonic implications. What becomes apparent is the humor possible in material interactions and the tender and sometimes melodramatic symbolism of cut flowers. What begins as a reverence for natural beauty ends up pointing towards the abstract expressionism and color field work of high modernism which, in many cases eschewed the banality of such ‘natural’ beauty. The collaged soundtrack suggests weightier concerns, gently insistent behind the flatness of the utilitarian sounds of ripping tape.

In Search of the Forenaughts Longstone
Dir. Jonathan O’Grady, 2021, Ireland, 12 mins.

O’Grady’s film records a pilgrimage of sorts, conducted in search of a hard-to-find menhir or standing stone within the area of Naas, County Kildare. One of three in the area, the Forenaughts Longstone is located within the grounds of a large private estate, inaccessible for visitation, or indeed, view from the nearby road. The works traces the artist’s attempt to try and reach the stone on his own accord, navigating the narrow lanes and looking for openings that might allow access to the monument. In the end the journey is a failure, leading to dead-ends and obstructed views of the land. The subsequent work becomes a way of speculating about movement through the landscape; its restrictions and potential new access points. Through the use of footage, graphic and colour interludes and text, the work mediates on the privatisation of land and heritage, inaccessibility as invisibility and trespassing as a necessary tactic for cultural reclamation.

Nazarbazi
Dir. Maryam Tafakory, 2022, Iran/UK, 19 mins.

Nazarbazi ("the play of glances") is a film about love and desire in Iranian cinema, where depictions of intimacy and touch between women and men are prohibited. The film focuses primarily on images of women whose bodies have been erased and victimised in post-revolutionary cinema, alluding to discreet forms of communication that operate within yet circumnavigate the censors. It attempts to touch the spaces we cannot touch, inner feelings/sensations, and untouchability beyond bodily experience, that of unspoken and unwritten prohibitions. The film uses poetry and silence as the only languages with which we can touch these spaces of socio-political ambiguities.

Few Can See
Dir. Frank Sweeney, 2023, Ireland, 42 mins.

Few Can See examines the legacy of broadcast censorship of the conflict in the north of Ireland and political movements during this era. The project attempts to recreate material absent from state archives due to censorship, based on contemporary oral history interviews. The film won the Tiger Short Award 2024 at International Film Festival Rotterdam and received a Special Mention from the jury at the FILMADRID Awards.

Total runtime: 76 mins

This screening is part of our newly revived "Experimental Lens" series, supported by a grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts. 

aemi is a Dublin-based initiative that supports and regularly exhibits moving image works by artists and experimental filmmakers. aemi's 2025 touring programme is supported by Culture Ireland and Arts Council Ireland.