A wolf stands sentinel, listening intently, reading the subtle emotions of all things, moments of danger, moments of relaxation, moments of life and death. A gust of wind, chilling and warming, carries the occasional scent of a passing hunter. The sky glows a brilliant blue, afternoon showers arrive, and at night, eyes like stars await their opportunity. In the moment a camera is raised and aimed, people, things, and events live beneath the vast expanse of the sky.

This year, the film festival is honored to invite artist-filmmakers from Taiwan and the United States to showcase their films. These artists are committed to their artistic journeys, patiently forging ahead like lone wolves, carrying a camera and a tripod, hiking across mountains and rivers; crouching in a darkroom, mixing chemicals, waiting out the development process; creating collages, shooting frame by frame, and editing. All completed these remarkable pieces working with minimal resources.

I remember asking director Ting-Fu Huang about the creative process behind his short film 03:04. He told me that once he determined the position of the 16mm camera, he would not move it and would shoot in a single take until the film ran out. Experimentation is a way of life. Experimental films are the shimmering reflections of thought. Experimental filmmakers try to capture the flow of the world, yet often become objects captured by time. Their films are their other selves—the ones they accidentally leave behind as they pass by; they are both hunter and prey. This year's film festival spotlights a special selection from Ting-Fu's body of work, a rarely shown collection from his early years, spanning from 1991 to 2018.

Director Li-Ming Cheng, intently observing and exploring the history of Siraya and Taiwan's ethnic migration, will present a special screening of MATA － The Island's Gaze. "As a filmmaker, armed with a century-old binocular camera, I imagine what those MATA (eyes) saw back then. And how have images shaped the people of Formosa since then?" said Li-Ming. In this film, we'll embark on a century-long adventure through the story of Formosa.

This year marks the 15th edition of EX!T. A retrospective project, "Taiwan Experimenters (i) and (ii)" spans from 1995 to 2025, showcasing the creative practices of avant-garde and younger filmmakers, including Mi-Sen WU, Ting-Fu Huang, Ya-Li Huang, Shih-Chieh Lin, and Yen-Chao Lin. The first part of the series, "Dust on the Surface, Poetry Beneath," focuses on the "poetry" of life: poetry of thought, lost poetry, unreadable poetry, and evaporated poetry. The second part, “The Light Keepers," focuses on "events": events within history, events beyond history, oral events, and abandoned events. Each story here revolves around the artist's personal reflections on migration, memory, and the symbiosis between life and film.

To continue enriching the dialogue between Taiwanese and international artists, we are honored to invite renowned American filmmakers Lewis Klahr and Janie Geiser to Taiwan to share their films. We will also engage in in-depth discussions and exchange creative experiences through workshops and forums.

Lewis Klahr has been making films since 1977 and is known for his unique collage films, which manifest a distinctive narrative style and visual aesthetic. The ethereal worlds he creates are characterized by his unique cut-out novelistic style, using found (or recycled) objects, comics, photographs, and sounds to reconstruct his memories of the city and explore the intersection of human emotions.

Janie Geiser's work is known for recontextualizing discarded images and objects, exploring memory, power, and loss. A pioneer of the American avant-garde puppetry revival, Geiser creates innovative, hypnotic performances and installations that integrate performance objects, puppets, and projections. At this year's EX!T, Geiser will lead a Found Object Performance workshop open to anyone interested in theatre or puppetry.

The origins of experimental animation can be traced back to early studies of animal motion and the scientific discovery of persistence of vision, such as the Zoetrope and Eadweard J. Muybridge's Zoopraxiscope. It was also inspired by Futurism, the Cubist painting movement, the Cinéma Pur movement, the invention of film sound, and the influence of Surrealism. Cinéma Pur was an avant-garde film movement that emerged in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. It developed a film style that emphasized purely cinematic elements, such as form, movement, visual composition, color, light, and rhythm. The Cinéma Pur movement resonated with the work of many Dadaist artists, such as Man Ray, René Clair, Fernand Léger, and Marcel Duchamp. Some of these works indirectly influenced later styles such as absolute cinema, abstract film, visual music, and experimental animation. These works, mostly created independently by the artists themselves, can be considered the forerunners of individual cinema in Western art history.

Expanding on the film screenings and forums featuring two international directors, this year's festival also highlights two special programs showcasing classic American and European experimental films: "Experimental Animation (I): Surreal Alchemy" and "Experimental Animation (II): Freeing Process." These programs present works by American and European animation masters (from 1930 to the present), such as Len Lye, Stan VanDerBeek, Robert Breer, and Suzan Pitt. Furthermore, the selection also includes outstanding works by a new generation of animators, creating a rich and diverse dialogue and inspiration with past classics.

Finally, I would like to thank Artistic Director Chun-Hui Tony Wu, Director of Body Phase Studio - Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre, Lee-chun Yao, and Producer Kai-Ting Yang for the invitation and extensive support. I am grateful for the invaluable experience and knowledge gained throughout the year-long research process.

The title of the festival was inspired by the poetry collection with the same title by Abbas Kiarostami.

A wolf on watch. In the wilderness, in the city, on the big screen——

Curator, Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu