The Children's Cinema
Saturday, October 25, 2025 at 2pm
361 Stagg Street, Suite 407, Brooklyn
Presented by R. Emmet Sweeney and Alice Janes-Sweeney
This program is co-curated by a kid! R. Emmet Sweeney asked his nine-year-old daughter Alice to select some of her favorite YouTube memes, the ones she endlessly quotes with her friends at school. They naturally broke down into three themes: Cats, Pop Music, and Horror. Rob then paired them with a selection of silent films and avant-garde works to prove that so-called “brainrot” has roots in early and experimental cinema, what former Light Industry guest Tom Gunning called “the cinema of attractions”. So you’ll see one of the first close-ups (1903’s The Sick Kitten) alongside an earworm meme of a headbobbing kitty (2024’s Chipi chipi chapa chapa cat), a mind-melting KPop Demon Hunters remix leading into abstract animation set to an Oscar Peterson beat (Begone Dull Care, 1949), and the unspeakable abyssal terror of dead-eyed CGI gummy bears (Ich Bin Dein Gummibar, 2017) followed by ghostly experiments from Segundo de Chomón and Buster Keaton…and more. Happy Halloween!
Cats
Chipi chipi chapa chapa cat, CatsMakeLifeGood, 2024, digital projection, 14 secs
The Sick Kitten, George Albert Smith, 1903, digital projection, 35 secs
A Little Hero, George Nichols, 1913, digital projection, 4 mins
How to Draw a Cat, Pola Chapelle, 1973, 16mm, 3 mins
Cat Listening to Music, Chris Marker, 1988, digital projection, 3 mins
Pop
I sped up “Takedown” every time those baddies said “Takedown”, Cheesecake’s Life, 2025, digital projection, 90 secs
Begone Dull Care, Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren, 1949, digital projection, 8 mins
APT x Lava Chicken, EM, 2025, digital projection, 41 secs
All My Life, Bruce Baillie, 1966, 16mm, 3 mins
Horror
Ich Bin Dein Gummibar, The Official Gummibär Channel, 2017, digital projection, 3 mins
An Interesting Story, James Williamson, 1904, digital projection, 4 mins
The House of Ghosts, Segundo de Chomón, 1906, digital projection, 6 mins
The Haunted House, Eddie Cline and Buster Keaton, digital projection, 1921, 20 mins
Live accompaniment for the silent films provided by Julia Kim.
Tickets - Pay what you can ($10 suggested donation), available at door. Advanced tickets are also available here.
Please note: seating is limited. Box office opens at 1:30pm. No entry 10 minutes after start of show.