Bridge Video

Overview

An artist-run initiative of Bridge Art, Nfp, a registered Illinois 501 c 3 not for profit organization, Bridge Video works to promote and educate about its film and video art-makers year round. This includes through our micro-streaming service at bridge-video.org, launched on Aug 28, 2023 in the member's area of our archive and publication site at bridge-chicago.org, with an annual screening of select new work from the streamer. We also seek ongoing, off-streamer and opportunities beyond the festival for screening of works, including through an ongoing partnership with Side/Lot Curatorial, which produces the annual Evanston Experimental Showcase and cinepoetry micro-screenings with partners including Open Books Chicago. In addition, we also continuously seek program and presentation opportunities for our contributors through other museum, gallery, and other non-traditional art and screening spaces. Of course, we also produce and host the annual one-day Festival of Holes at SITE/less Chicago (siteless.org) every year. A unique alternative art space, SITE/less is a guerilla storefront located at 1250 W. Augusta Blvd. in Chicago, an edge site with ancillary relationships to a variety of urban crossroads and infrastructures. The building abuts the stonewall of the elevated Metra line and is further enclosed by the Kennedy Expressway, a service road, a crosswalk, an overpass, and two municipal maintenance and storage facilities. SITE/less anchors the edge of a small triangular residential enclave and is situated between the West Town and Noble Square communities. Based on the first iteration of Festival of Holes (bridge-chicago.org/events/festival-of-holes) presented at the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago, the annual Bridge Festival pairs film and video artists with literary fiction authors, poets, dance and performance artists to support underrepresented work in these fields across artistic disciplines, though anchored in film and language arts. For the festival, we produce (for those able to attend), an opening reception and screening night opening program, a series of environmental video installations and potential opportunities for panel discussions & other "behind the scenes" related talks and discussions produced to accompany at least headliner materials, as well as the production of a program booklet with extended information on the films, directors, actors and artists. Please note that all work submitted to the event is automatically entered into consideration for both the streaming services and festival. Submissions selected for the streaming service are asked to submit materials prior to the final festival deadline. Acceptance to the streaming service does not mean your film or video project is automatically accepted to be screened at the festival. A separate acceptance for the SITE/less screening will be sent out to everyone accepted for the program, which will be juried by editors of the Bridge artistic collective. Please also note that while the event date is currently listed for May 16, 2025, due to planning coordination with the venue, we may reschedule to yet to be determined date in fall 2025. Founded in 2003 with the release of the Short Film and Video Collection, Bridge Video was originally conceived as a special project release series included in Volume 2, Number 2 of the Bridge Journal. Subsequently, we have hosted numerous screenings, exhibitions, expositions and festivals over the years showcasing the work of artists such as Miranda July (we were the first to publish her fiction too!), David Cronenberg, Sterling Ruby, Tom Palazzolo, Jim Trainor, and numerous others. Since artist's film and video work, and especially in those categories known as "video art," and "art house" currently have no good streaming options, and remain categories of film and video largely preserved by archives rather than shown, our micro-streaming service focuses on the intersection between them. Likewise, much underground, experimental and other expanded media categories as we have listed, have similarly few options except being picked up by a private, third-party distributor who then handles the sale of the work to Netflix, Amazon, or elsewhere, usually neglecting most all of these categories. We hope to fill this void and work to continuously curate the finest selection of work in the expanded range of our focus, conceived of as "where video art meets art house." SPRING 2025 BRIDGE VIDEO "FESTIVAL OF HOLES" LINEUP HERE https://www.bridge-chicago.org/news/holes-fest2025-lineup FALL 2023 / SPRING 2024 BRIDGE FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL LINEUP HERE https://www.bridge-chicago.org/news/bridge-filmvideofest-lineup2023 FALL 2024 BRIDGE VIDEO STREAMING SERVICE LINEUP HERE https://www.bridge-chicago.org/news/featured-films-fall-2024 SPRING 2025 BRIDGE VIDEO STREAMING SERVICE LINEUP HERE https://www.bridge-chicago.org/news/featured-films-fall-2024-lhjj7 VIEW FALL 2023 / SPRING 2024 BRIDGE VIDEO STREAMING SERVICE LINEUP HERE https://www.bridge-chicago.org/news/featured-films-fall-2023 Cover image: From the archives: still from David Cronenberg’s “Camera,” made for the 2000 Toronto International Festival and licensed for the Bridge Video DVD in 2003.

Last updated Sep 27, 2026

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  This a well organized festival with a high level of quality to the programming. I was very pleased to have my video "Dissolve" selected. I recommend it.

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