Brigid Maher

What is “experimental film”? Now a mainstay at modern art museums, these non-commercial movies, typified by the work of Stan Brakhage and Jonas Mekas, were once so underground virtually no one knew of them. Enter Sally Dixon, who helped place these beautiful pieces of art into museum and university archives permanently. Dixon’s legacy is felt locally through her influential position at the media arts center, Film in the Cities and collaborations with Walker Art Center.

The short film follows Kim Johnson, a 50-year-old Army major, and her 13-year-old autistic, non-binary child, Ace, on a high-stakes journey to a prestigious music audition in Washington, D.C. What begins with a nervous pickup from school spirals into a frantic search through the music academy when miscommunications leave them scrambling to find the right audition room.