Nine recent experimental films look at troubling facts and surprising moments with beauty and inventiveness Decaying ledgers, an ancient Turkish site, and a petrified giant are among the artifacts excavated to reflect on our present times. A conversation between a president and an astronaut is unearthed, a disturbing speech is recreated, traces of a vanished culture are presented… or invented. (Vanessa O'Neill & Kathy Geritz) SCREENING:The Name is not the Thing named (2012) by Deborah Stratman—a visual and sonic journey that suggests the otherness of familiar encounters; Artificial Persons by Katherin McInnis—moments are woven into a hypnotic exploration of truth and power; A Few Extra Copies by Bobby Abate—an obsessive reenactment of Budd Dwyer's final speech is a haunting meditation on life's pressures and constraints; Pipe Dreams by Ali Cherri—two moments in Syrian history twenty-five years apart speak to how authoritarian regimes protect their power—and their image; Life is an Opinion, Fire a Fact by Karen Yasinsky—Animation is used to explore ideas of faith and intentionality behind drastic actions; Verses by James Sansing—decomposing ledgers found in an abandoned juvenile hall create startling Rorschach patterns; The Indeserian Tablets by Peter Rose—the religion, stories, and practices of a vanished culture are annotated in an imaginary ethnography; View from the Acropolis by Lonnie von Brummelen—cultural appropriation is reexamined through a visit to an ancient site from which antiquities were taken; Bloom by Scott Stark—the arid Texas landscape of oil drilling yields a moment of beauty.