"Picture Lock" brings the work of the Wexner Center Film/Video Studio to light

Allie Mickle’s professional path has taken her from China to Columbus and from small galleries to encyclopedic museums. She’s now moving toward a PhD from Ohio State’s History of Art Department with a focus on contemporary art and cinema. And her current stop toward this destination is the corner of the Wexner Center for the Arts that holds the Wexner Center Film/Video Studio.

Since 1991, the Film/Video Studio has offered residencies to independent filmmakers and artists, providing free postproduction support including the expertise of the studio’s two full-time editors. Each year, about 25 artists are supported by the program.

The Film/Video Studio has worked with internationally renowned artists including the choreographers Twyla Tharp and Bill T. Jones, and visual artists such as Barbara Kruger and Ohio State Emeritus Professor Ann Hamilton. It’s also supported emerging filmmakers who’ve gone on to acclaim and awards, including Todd Haynes, Miranda July, Kelly Reichardt, and Chinonye Chukwu. 

However, numerous artists and moving image works supported by the Film/Video Studio could fall under the radar of anyone who doesn’t closely follow international film festivals and art fairs. To bring attention to their work and the Wex’s role in it, the center created the Picture Lock festival to screen films produced with the studio’s help. Picture Lock debuted in 2015, returned in 2019, and is back with a new program March 20–22, as well as a 42-page publication covering the history of the Film/Video Studio with essays and input from a variety of studio alumni.

A Mellon Foundation grant has funded the graduate research associate position that Mickle fills, which supports efforts to create a comprehensive archive of the studio’s work for sharing with students, faculty, and researchers. This work of watching and cataloguing received initial support from a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences.

Mickle also assisted in curating the eight programs for Picture Lock 2025 with Film/Video Studio Director Jennifer Lange, who’s been with the Wex since 2001. Hinting at the wealth of films in the studio’s holdings, Lange notes, “Anyone spending time watching works and diving into the archive in a meaningful way was a voice that I wanted to bring into the Picture lock program, because I have not seen every single work that's in the archive. It’s so nice to have a partner thoughtfully engaging in this.”

As an example of her work, Mickle shared the story of a short film she found in the archive from 1993, about Lebanese resistance to Israeli occupation. In the end credits of that film, she spotted the name Afif Arabi, another filmmaker with a short in the archive, this one about Middle Eastern representation and stereotyping in Western media. Arabi earned their PhD at Ohio State in 1996 and interned in the Film/Video Studio in 1993, which is likely how the two artists met. Mickle’s research not only unearthed a connection between the studio and the broader university community, it resulted in a March 22 Picture Lock program that pairs those shorts. 

Other selections include Nellie Kluz’s The Dells, a feature that follows international students on J-1 visas through a summer working in the US at the “Waterpark Capital of the World,” and Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s critically acclaimed spin on the period biopic, The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire. The filmmakers will be on hand for each of these screenings. 

Also traveling to Columbus for Picture Lock is Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz for the Midwest premiere of her feature documentary Como Vivimos (How We Live) on March 21. The film focuses on a California state law that requires Mexican American farmworkers who receive subsidized housing to move at least 50 miles away at the end of every harvesting season to be eligible for the coveted housing the following season. 

It was through Chukwu that Bazaz first learned of the Film/Video Studio. “I was really struggling to keep the film going,” says Bazaz. “By the time I was introduced to Jennifer I had already been working on it for three years. I was just so exhausted. I pitched the film and Jennifer seemed interested, which was one of the best things that happened to that film, if not the best thing.”

In the Film/Video Studio, Bazaz was able to pore through the extensive footage she had shot and edit assemblies of her interview subjects, receiving guidance from Film/Video Studio Editor Alexis McCrimmon. “When I went to the studio, I was convinced I had a 10-minute short. I was so crestfallen. Then I showed Alexis some of those assemblies and she said, ‘You have a film.’ That affirmation was the most meaningful thing to me.”

Once the documentary was completed and started screening for the public, it caught the attention of a California state assembly member who wrote a bill with input from Bazaz and her team. That bill, which ends the 50-mile requirement for families with school-age children, was eventually signed into law. Bazaz notes that while it doesn’t fully address the housing challenges for migrant workers, “it’s a step forward.”

“The studio is an institution, but it's also just Jennifer [and a small staff] carrying this mighty mountain of work from these disparate artists from all around the world. Some of them have a lot of institutional support and will go to Sundance, and some of them won't. But the team treats every film equally and gives every film the same amount of care."