THE HOUSE OF ASTERION
Showing at NATIONALE
February 21 – March 29, 2026
Reading & reception Thursday, March 19, 7pm
roland dahwen
Screening - Portland Panorama /
Screening of PONYHOF at Portland Panorama
Cinema 21
16 April 2025
4pm
Information here and more about the festival here.
PONYHOF (6 minutes, 2024)
Directed by Roland Dahwen
Starring Halle Frost
Life is not a pony farm. One day, we visit a hospital. Another day, we sit in our kitchen and listen to recordings of birds that our friend sends us, or a poem they read aloud. The wars do not cease. We do not cease them. What else do the waters contain, what else is on the other side of our enclosures.
still courtesy of Patuá Films
Exhibition - Outer Voice: Trajectories /
March 28 - April 27, 2025
Oregon Contemporary
Group exhibition
Outer Voice: Trajectories
Julia Calabrese
Roland Dahwen
Marcus Fischer
Bridgette Hickey
Leslie Hickey
KT Kusmaul
Sarah Rushford
Ash Stone
•
About THE HOUSE OF ASTERION (ASTERION HOUSETOUR)
Roland Dahwen
5 minutes, color, 2025.
«I pretend that he comes to visit me and I show him my house.»
In the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, the hero Theseus kills the Minotaur (a beast with the body of a man and the head of a bull). The Minotaur lives in a labyrinth, which Theseus navigates with the help of a ball of thread, given to him by the princess Ariadne.
This film imagines the Minotaur (named Asterion), giving a tour of his house, where he passes his days in solitude, awaiting his Redeemer.
Based on the story «La casa de Asterión» by Jorge Luis Borges. Adapted and translated by Roland Dahwen. Camera by Halle Frost. Music by Shao Way Wu and Randy Porter.
Screening - Boathouse Microcinema /
Boathouse Microcinema - 12 March 2025
Assembly Cut: A Group Screening
Experimental video and film can take on many forms and mean different things to different people. For our first screening since 2019, we are surveying a wide range of experiments – from glitch art, to music video, to narrative short, to durational, and more. Perhaps the intertwining videos will contradict each other, perhaps they will inform each other. Tonight’s filmmakers are a disparate bunch, each with their own unique voice.
Program Includes:
Roland Dahwen – Las Vegas, Y La Bamba “Rios Sueltos” music video
Leslie Hickey – Phone / Memory
Lily King – November 20, 2024
Brandon Marcoux and Mariana Mora – Two Fernand Rudolph music videos
Matthew Nash – Leaving it Behind
Kai Nealis – Queen
Sarah Turner – But… You’re a Dolphin
MAY 35 in NYC at Microscope Gallery - September 24 /
As part of the Good Symptom showcase, my video work MAY 35 will screen at Microscope Gallery in NYC on September 24.
Information and tickets here.
Performance at PEBG /
As part of this upcoming event - Physical Education Basement Garage - I’ll be performing a short play.
2pm, Sator Projects
May 6, 2023
220 SE Market Ave, Portland
Video release for Ecotrust and the Kalispel Tribe /
We had the pleasure of helping Ecotrust produce this video, working with the Kalispel Tribe and the Kalispel Natural Resources Department in Northeastern Washington.
Read the blog post by Jessica Douglas and watch the video here.
Thanks to Ted Davee and Sam Hamilton from the production team, and to the kind folks at Ecotrust: Jessica Douglas, Stephanie Gutierrez, Megan Foucht, Heldáy de la Cruz, Sean Gutierrez.
MAY 35 in Good Symptom and Property of Opaqueness performance /
Two updates:
My video piece MAY 35 will be included in an anthology, Good Symptom (presented by The 3rd Thing). Thanks to Rana, M, and Chelsea. Official release date is TBD - more information forthcoming.
On February 26, I’ll participate in a performance at Hoffman Gallery, in Portland. Choreographed by Takahiro Yamamoto, with fellow performer Emily Squires. The performance will take place in the gallery, in the context of an exhibition by Dru Donovan and Cara Tomlinson. Info.
Borrufa – now distributed by Collective Eye Films /
Borrufa is now available through Collective Eye Films.
Colleges, Universities, Schools, and Libraries can find the film here.
Special thanks to Kanani Koster and James-Michael Boyer.
Still from BORRUFA (dir. Roland Dahwen, 2020)
Opacity of Performance /
NOTHINGBEING Symposium – April 16, 2022 /
Borrufa selected to the 16mm Harkat Film Festival in Mumbai /
Thank you to the 16mm Harkat Film Festival (Mumbai, India) for selecting Borrufa for their festival. A celluloid film-only festival, Harkat is virtual this year.
Borrufa is scheduled to screen online on December 19, 2020.
For information and tickets: https://16mm.harkat.in/
BORRUFA PREMIERE AT PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL /
After many years, Borrufa will premiere tomorrow at the Portland International Film Festival. One of eight films that are finalists for the Future/Future competition, Borrufa screens on March 7 and March 12, at the Whitsell Auditorium, inside the Portland Art Museum.
Thank you to the hundreds of people, near and far, who have given time, ideas, resources, houses, food, equipment, criticism, encouragement, and belief to make this film possible.
Thank you to Portland Monthly for selecting Borrufa as one of their five Top Picks for PIFF2020, as well as for profiling me in their April issue.
Poster design by Heldáy de la Cruz
Notes – Screening at Boathouse Microcinema /
On Sunday, April 14, THERE ARE NO BIRDS IN THE NESTS OF YESTERDAY is screening at Boathouse Microcinema, alongside work by Pam Minty and Julia Oldham.
Doors at 7.30pm, showing at 8pm. $8 at the door – no advance tickets.
Notes – Upcoming screenings and exhibitions /
UPCOMING SCREENINGS AND EXHIBITIONS
TRAVELER’S ODE
April 4, 2019
Performance video
Cadence Video Poetry Festival – Seattle, USA
THERE ARE NO BIRDS IN THE NESTS OF YESTERDAY
April 14, 2019
Documentary short
Boathouse Microcinema – Portland, USA
MAY 35 (short)
April 22 – 29, 2019
Video installation
Festival Internacional de Videoarte de Camagüey – Camagüey, Cuba
MAY 35 (expanded)
July 11 – September 29, 2019
Video installation
Cortona on the Move Festival (ARENA) – Cortona, Italy
Notes – Screening at White Noise Project /
Thanks to Jake and Ryan for inviting us to show our short film THREE MOONS (made with Stephanie Adams-Santos, Kazumi and Rikuku Heshiki, Alma García, and Amanda Consuelo García) at their White Noise Project reading series. The event was their two year anniversary of the reading series. Thanks to everyone who attended.
Notes – De-Canon photo exhibit closing reception /
We’re holding an informal closing reception for the De-Canon photography exhibit that has been installed in the library since May. The exhibit features photography by Intisar Abioto, Vi Son Trinh, Dao Strom, and myself.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
6.30pm
De-Canon Library @ Milepost 5
8155 NE Oregon St, Portland, OR
Notes – «Traveler's Ode» video in Poetry NW /
Poetry NW published Dao Strom’s video «Traveler’s Ode» this month.
Video credits:
Traveler's Ode
music & words: Dao Strom
director: Roland Dahwen
director of photography: Edward Pack Davee
sound recording & mixing: sidony o’neal, Dao Strom, Jim Han
mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering
with thanks to Kyle Macdonald
with project support from Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) & Creative Capital Foundation
filmed at Satsop Power Plant, Elma WA
video produced by Patuá Films
daostrom.com
patuafilms.com
Notes – Screening of «Traveler's Ode» «Three Moons» and «We are all the production line (part V)» /
Thank you to everyone who attended last night’s screening at the De-Canon Library at Milepost 5. Special thanks to Dao, Neil, Kyle, Lincoln, Ted, and everyone who made the event possible.
The «Traveler’s Ode» video will be released online soon by Poetry NW.
Notes – videos in Amsterdam /
The FIELD THEORIES videos that I worked on for Samiya Bashir (with keyon gaskin) were recently part of keyon’s NASHA festival in Amsterdam. These are very special artists and I am fortunate to have contributed a small part to this.
