for making the 2012 Strange Beauty Film Festival a rousing success. We’ll see you again in 2013.

Strange Beauty screens striking short fiction, documentary, animation, experimental, underground, and otherwise wholly unclassifiable works that lie somewhere between terrifying normality and sublime fever dreams.

And, for some reason, many of this year's selections came from Winnipeg.

Browse the list of films

Media coverage
Independent Weekly: Kudzu, moonshine, and more at Strange Beauty Film Festival
Herald-Sun: 'Strangely beautiful, beautifully strange'
News & Observer: Short films reign at Strange Beauty fest
Durham Magazine: A Whole New, Strange and Beautiful World
Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film: Strange Beauty 2012: Official lineup
Cineflyer Winnipeg: Winnipeg Invades Strange Beauty

Video preview

Friday, Feb 17
Durham Cinematheque presents FILMISTORY.2

Filmmaker and collector Tom Whiteside serves up a rambunctious three screen 16mm film program featuring a runaway horse, a review of American presidents (up to a certain point), the funeral of Queen Victoria, a famous rebellious act onboard a Russian battleship in 1905 as depicted by more than one filmmaker, and a dozen films more than 100 years old.                   

“FILMISTORY.2 is about history, it is about mystery, and it is about how time works. With a touch of spectacle and a big dose of distraction, it is, ultimately, about how we watch motion pictures.”   -Tom Whiteside

Friday, Feb 17
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend: The Pet
with live original score by Felix Obelix

Oh, a little melted cheese before bed never hurt anyone, right? This 1921 animated cautionary tale by legendary cartoonist Winsor McCay shows the fun that ensues when a cute widdle beastie clambers out of a dream.

Felix Obelix's Wendy Spitzer composed an original score for organ, xylophone, auxiliary percussion and glockenspiel in collaboration with Triangle music legend Billy Sugarfix. The score will be performed live, with aplomb, by both of them.

Saturday, Feb 18 (evening show)
The Strange Beauty Aural Fixation
Jennifer Deer is back to curate a second helping of audio documentary and art that is best experienced in a dark room with strangers.