Special Effects in nonfiction have always been a way of thinking—not just a way of finishing. But in 2026, when AI can generate any effect on demand and the spectacular becomes benign, the question changes: what does it mean to slow down and work with effects that reveal the hand, the labor, and the ethics of representation itself? Led by artist and educator Carl Elsaesser, this three-day workshop explores effects not simply as spectacle, polish or illusion, but as documentary method shaping how reality is perceived and disguised.

Across three days, we’ll be studying and experimenting with both in-camera and post-produced interventions—rear projection, masking, blur/redaction, matte/compositing, reenactment, and “visible seams”—as nonfiction methods for exploring memory, portraiture, protection and political critique. The goal is not to resolve whether an image is “real,” but to understand what reality effects can make possible—and what it costs. Through screenings, discussion, demonstration and hands-on exercises, Carl, accompanied by a diverse lineup of wonderful guests, will guide participants through an examination of how these techniques have been used historically, their evolving use and how these effects continue to function politically and aesthetically today.

Rather than treating effects as in opposition to documentary truth, the workshop approaches them as tools to confront thorny relationships between visibility and concealment, evidence and speculation, memory and reconstruction. Across the weekend we’ll be probing questions like: what does a manipulated image allow a viewer to confront? What kind of history and experience becomes imaginable through compositing or reenactment? What does the line between the real and the manufactured image say about our relationship to the truth? What are the ethical, aesthetic and political stakes of image mediation?

Carl will lead participants through the practical, conceptual and experiential impacts of effects used in a non-fiction context. Guest speakers include James N. Kienitz Wilkins, who will explore the use of digital effect in his practice, as it interacts with unreality and the uncanny; Sharon Lockhart, who will discuss the production of perspective, and the affective impacts of durational and in-camera effects in her filmmaking; and Courtney Stephens, who will elaborate on the history and the erotics of the special effect in her cinema. Drawing from experimental nonfiction, essay film, political cinema, magic & illusionism, and hybrid documentary practices, participants will leave with a deeper understanding of effects as nonfiction strategies.

Special thanks to partner Rockaway Film Festival! Look out for a partner screening with the fest later this year.

10:00a

Warm up, inspiring references, case study, eye training.

10:30a

Presentation by guest speaker + individual work-in-progress critique

11:45a

Discussion

12:30p

Share / Discussion / Exercise

1:00p

Lunch (on your own)

2:00p

Presentation by guest speaker + individual work-in-progress critique

3:15p

Discussion

4:00p

Workshop Exercise + Critique

5:00p

Wrap Up

Carl Elsaesser is an experimental filmmaker whose work blends genres and materials to critically investigate the overarching presence of history without losing sight of individual experiences of human connection. He is interested in framing a film practice through ritualistic and slow processes—thinking with a project as something akin to skin or clothing, worn throughout his day as he teaches class, walks through the city or countryside late at night, or calls a friend across the world. His films have screened widely at festivals and institutions including the Berlinale, New York Film Festival, Cinema du Réel, European Media Art Festival, the National Gallery of Art, and the Criterion Channel. He has been honored with grants and residencies including a 2026 Creative Capital Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Minnesota State Arts Board grant, a MacDowell Fellowship, and residencies at the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Hewnoaks, and Squeaky Wheel Media Center. His work has been featured in publications such as LA Review of Books, Millennium Film Journal, and FilmExplorer.

Courtney Stephens is the director of four feature films. The American Sector (with Pacho Velez) documents slabs of the Berlin Wall installed around the US. Terra Femme, composed of amateur travel footage shot by women in the early 20th century, was a New York Times critic’s pick and has toured widely as a live performance. John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office (with Michael Almereyda) explores the life of neuroscientist and psychedelics pioneer John C. Lilly, and Invention is a hybrid fiction film about an esoteric healing device. Both The American Sector and Invention were named among The New Yorker’s best films of the year. Her work been exhibited at MoMA, The National Gallery of Art, The Barbican, Fondazione Prada, Jeu de Paume, ICA London, in film festivals including the Berlinale, Rotterdam, Locarno, Viennale, New Directors/New Films, IDFA, Visions Du Réel, and the New York Film Festival, and has been released theatrically in the US and France. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, three MacDowell Fellowships, and grants from the Sloan Foundation, California Humanities, and the Foundation for Contemporary Art. She has co-curated the miniature cinema Veggie Cloud since 2014, and organized film programs for The Getty, Museum of the Moving Image, Flaherty NYC, The Filmmaker’s Cooperative, and Human Resources. Her writing has appeared in Film Comment, BOMB, Filmmaker, The New Inquiry, and Cabinet.

James N. Kienitz Wilkins is a filmmaker and writer based in NYC. Feature-length work includes Public Hearing (2012), Common Carrier (2017), The Republic (2017), The Plagiarists (2019), Still Film (2023), and The Misconceived (2026) which premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam  and as the opening night selection of the Museum of Moving Image First Look festival.

Sharon Lockhart (b. 1964) is an American artist living and working in Los Angeles. Working with communities to make films, photographs, and installations that are both visually compelling and socially engaged, Lockhart’s practice involves collaborations that unfold over extended periods of time. Celebrated for her highly conceptual yet effortlessly elegant work, Lockhart’s practice often involves architectural elements, extensive periods of research, and long-term relationships with her subjects and collaborators.

Selected solo exhibitions of Lockhart’s work include Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2019); Fondazione Fotografia, Modena, IT (2018); Museu Berardo, Lisbon, PT (2017); the Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, US (2016); Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern, CH (2015); Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, SE (2014); CCA Warsaw – Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, PL (2013); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, US (2012); The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, IL (2011); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, US (2011); Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, DE (2008), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, US (2006); and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, US (2001).

She has been included in the biennials of Liverpool, UK (2014), Shanghai, CN (2014), Sydney, AU (2006), and at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US (2004, 2000, 1997) as well as the FRONT International Triennial, Cleveland, US (2018).  In 2019 she received the Grand Prix d’Honneur at the Marseille International Film Festival. She was selected to represent Poland at the 57th Venice Biennale.

“Cardone” is an award-winning professional magician and variety entertainer with over 3,000 performances for private, corporate, celebrity, and nightclub audiences. A published songwriter and musician, he was the bass player for the internationally touring rock band The Toilet Boys and is also known as a renowned escape artist — recognized as the first man in modern history to perform the deadly Milk Can Escape at Coney Island.

Featured in two international award-winning documentary films as both a magician and occult scholar, Cardone recently appeared in the Amazon Prime series Underground Magic. His latest project is the book “A Pox on Thee!”, an exploration of the ancient art of malediction, published by Underworld Amusements. He holds a BFA in Acting Performance from Carnegie Mellon University.