This course offers students the opportunity to explore the expansively creative possibilities of photochemical filmmaking using 16mm film. As a format that has largely been abandoned for commercial applications but with a rich tradition in non-fiction and experimental film practices, 16mm film is enjoying an ever- growing resurgence as an artist’s medium. Numerous artist-run film labs and DIY networks around the world are facilitating a rediscovery of artisanal celluloid practices and the expressive and hybrid possibilities for photochemical filmmaking in a digital era. Critical scholarly interest has also emerged around the complex of aesthetic, ecological, political, and economic sensibilities emergent in contemporary photochemical filmmaking and laboratory culture. Throughout the course we will draw on such critical context and examine both historical and contemporary examples of 16mm film practice to inform our own project-based experiments with the Bolex camera as well as hand-processing, stop-frame and direct-on-film animation, optical printing, and synchronous ARRI SR cameras. Our focus is on heterodox experiments with media that exceed industrial protocols. Students will cover costs for their own out-of-class use of film stock, developing, digitizing, and expendable supplies.