The Polysemy of FLEFF

By Claudia Costa Pederson, Associate Professor of Art History, Wichita State University; Author of Gaming Utopia: Ludic Worlds in Art, Design, and Media (Indiana, 2021); Co-curator of FLEFF’s new media exhibitions since 2017., March 1, 2022

Formative Experiences of a FLEFF Insider

First things first. Happy 25th anniversary team FLEFF!

I been involved with FLEFF since 2007. So, I have been part of the team for 15 out of the festival’s 25 years! Considering that my own involvement in FLEFF spans many roles, I can point to many formative experiences and projects.

I have been a discussant on panels speaking about gaming and new media arts. I have convened panels on topics ranging from hacker culture to environmental arts. I have moderated public presentations of cinematic and digital media projects.

I have instructed short courses, including collaborative classes on topics ranging from utopia to space to borders to film festivals. And, finally, with Dale Hudson, I have been co-curator of FLEFF’s new media exhibitions since 2017.

Of course, a recent highlight was the virtual launch of my book, Gaming Utopia, during FLEFF 2021. Launching my book at FLEFF was particularly meaningful because I was in the very early stages of thinking and writing about gaming culture when I first came to FLEFF as a Cornell graduate student.

Consider FLEFF’s title. It combines film or cinema, from the Greek κίνημα, kínēma, “movement,” with environment from the Middle French preposition environ “around.” Environment, in its most basic meaning, is “that which surrounds.” Festival, from the Latin festivalis, means “feast.” There is also, “Finger Lakes,” a white settlers’ name for an Iroquois environment.

This is all to say that FLEFF’s conceptions of film and of a film festival form are broad, complex, and dynamic. The cultural environment of FLEFF always has and will always continue to resonate with me.

FLEFF: A DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT