Flex Obscura Series & Festival celebrates the breadth of visual expression and innovation in film. We love things that live in the in-between spaces! Flex Obscura Series and Festival is structured to allow for expansive play across a season of visual, sonic and film exploration and community.

Our passion is to celebrate new voices and new vocabulary in visual and sonic forms that are expansive and experimental with a focus on fostering inclusivity and promoting emerging talent. Flex Obscura Series and Festival embraces a wide range of genres, styles, and perspectives. It acts as a catalyst for change, inspiring a new generation of filmmakers to challenge conventional norms and push the boundaries of storytelling.

Flex Obscura officially launched on April 19th, 2024 with an event held at Elastic Arts featuring an evening of networking, community, curated short films, filmmaker Q&As and the unveiling for our official call for submissions through FilmFreeway! Then in October of 2024 Flex Obscura held a film festival in collaboration with AfroFuturist Weekend Festival.

Flex Obscura was founded and is co-curated/co-directed by Jonathan Woods, Latoya Hunter & Katrina Brook Flores.

Welcome to The Flex Obscura!

You are welcome to browse below for more details on each part of our inaugural presenting year.

Industry Nights

Industry Nights delve into various film industry topics and areas of interest and is hosted by the Flex Obscura team in partnership with Elastic Arts.  Each evening is a focused exploration through the particular lens of one expert in their field(s) within the film industry. Through a storytelling and Q&A format, we invite audiences into the conversation in hopes of expanding it.

Flex Obscura @ AfroFuturist Weekend

Flex Obscura at AfroFuturist Weekend brought film into the fold through a 1-day micro film festival. Attending Filmmakers and Official Selections were celebrated and awarded. A power performance by Dark Matter Resident Nikki Patin with the incomparable Angel Bat Dawid elevated the night along with a Virtual conversation with Terrence Nance.

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We seek films that offer a unique perspective on the Black, African and African Diasporic experience. We seek films offering forward-looking work that envisions radically positive futures for Black, African and African Diasporic people. Deploying new technologies, drawing upon history, and subverting/inverting exploitative hierarchies, Afrofuturism puts Black people at the center of narratives about the future and we seek films that bring these visions and stories to life through cinema.

As part of our commitment to diverse voices, particular consideration for our festivals are given to projects directed, co-directed, produced and/or written by B&IPOC filmmakers and visual storytellers with a particular focus on Black, African Diasporic, Indigenous and/or LGBTQIA2S+ identifying voices.  We also highly encourage participation from the Chicagoland area. 

All Additional Inquiries: flexobscura@elasticarts.org