My Films

Ephemera (2025) was produced and performed by Eliza Gelinas.

Scored (and recorded) with euphonium and max/msp sampler.

Filmed with a Bolex camera on 16mm Kodak Tri-X Reversal, Hi-Con, and 250D Vision3 film.

Premiered at Purdue University in The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States Conference on March 21st, 2025.

“Ephemera” is an audiovisual performance piece that combines filmmaking and electroacoustic music. The film is shot on 16mm with a consumer-grade Bolex camera and edited nonlinearly with hand drawn animation, and collage animation. The score is performed live on euphonium running through a Max/MSP sampler. Melodies are recorded and looped through the sampler, and manipulated further by effects such as timestretch, grain delay, pitch shift, etc., to create an evolving ambient score to accompany the film. “Ephemera”, by definition, are items which were not originally designed to be retained or preserved, but have been collected or retained. This work is an exploration of the things that hold memory, of our desire to capture memory on film and the inherent quirks in our memory preserving technologies. Throughout the piece, imagery of abandoned buildings and factories, mirrors, trees, mountains, water, cars and people are portrayed in many different forms to highlight their ephemeral, transitory nature even when captured immortally on film.

Your Silent World written, filmed, and performed by Eliza Gelinas.

Premiered at the event: "Living Room Music", SEAMUS at MARL, NYU, Brooklyn on April 5th, 2024.

“Your Silent World” is a mixed media short film scored by an ambient generative soundscape and improvised electro-acoustic performance. The film was shot on a consumer-grade Bolex 16mm film camera and features hand-drawn animation, found footage and home videos shot in the early 2000s. I decided to film strictly with analog equipment to comment on the rapidly improving entertainment technology of the 21st century. The generative soundscape, created in Max/MSP, selects samples from an archive of ambient field recordings to be played back at different intervals throughout the work. These recordings were captured in the kitchen while my partner cooked or while walking around my neighborhood. When creating the ideal high-fidelity listening environment, these sounds are unwelcome as they distract from the immersive fantasy of hyper-authentically reproduced sound. Achieving a soundproof hi-fi space without isolating the listener from all noise, including people who make noise, is impossible. By superimposing these typically intrusive sounds as the soundtrack to an otherwise silent film, “Your Silent World” creates an eerie representation of reality and highlights the absurd desire to replicate physical experiences. The euphonium is used for sound design, featuring real-time manipulation of effects that add an imaginative and interactive atmosphere to the performance.