was formed in New York in 2002 by a group of immigrants from the former Soviet Bloc. Our goal was to organize events which would bring media artists from this area together. The first RED SHIFT FESTIVAL was held at Anthology Film Archives, NYC, in January, 2003. Here a diverse group of artists met, shared experiences, exchanged ideas, embarked on collaborations and collectively exhibited their work. Successive festivals in 2004 and 2005 showcased works made all over the East. Over this period, our programming sought to constellate local and foreign, native and immigrant media, in order to bring out contrasts and parallels.

In 2006 we embarked on a new mission- to gather and exhibit films and videos made "IN TRANSIT", by travelers, nomads, pioneers and migrants of all backgrounds. We realize that the outsider, the one who leaves home, who crosses borders or who speaks multiple languages, develops a special way of seeing and relating to the world- a perspective that transcends cultural boundary walls, or tunnels through them- a vision, penetrating and panoramic, which can yield images of unique insight and enduring meaning for everyone.

At this stage, we aim to unite the customary narrative, documentary, experimental, and animation divisions through the aforementioned trait in hope of collecting and  presenting a solid body of work: "TRANSIT CINEMA".

We will showcase such work at the Fifth Annual RED SHIFT FESTIVAL. RSF V opens on February 28th at Two Boots Pioneer Theater, and continues on March 1st and 2nd at Anthology Film Archives.

 

We also ask you to help us, by sharing your thoughts on the relation between cinema and travel. We’ve drafted a list of questions (below) inspired by the works we’ve shown to date. These are some of the questions we hope to address in our future programming. We hope they provide you with food for thought and invite you to send in responses (the shorter the better, so we might publish them on our website), or to add to the list with questions of your own. Thanks in advance!